Raster Image Fills In Illustrator (Ai) Tutorial

Short & Sweet:

1 Use the pathfinder to merge multiple shapes into one.

2 Expand the one new merged shape.

3 Object > Compound Path > Make.

4 Turn on draw inside mode. [It's under the fill/stroke squares]

5 File > Place Image

6 Readjust/scale Image where you like it to be.

Detailed and Illustrated:

File> New Document> OK.

Give your file a name.

Set the height and width.

File> Open> Choose Files

Drag and drop your svgs

objects from their individual files both into your newly renamed document.

Rescale your objects and place them where you would like them to be on your artboard.

See that icon in the little yellow circle? This is your Draw Inside Mode. It needs to be active. It is activated when only one object is selected, but we are going to be filling both. So, there are a few steps needed to make that happen.

My Pathfinder was already on my screen. If yours is not, choose window from the top menu and select it from the long list.

Click the icon "Merge".

With both objects selected choose,

Object > Compound Path> Make.

The Draw Inside Icon is no longer greyed out! Click it.

Select your compound path and choose

File> Place.

Choose the file you would like. For this image I just chose a background I had already designed.

Drop your image within the dashed corners, and then you will be able rescale, or rotate the image where you like it.

Save in the format you like. I've exported mine as a png file.

Ta da!