Creating a Simplified Paint stroke

Let me show you the use of the paintbrush and how you can make the strokes combine into a simplified format.
Open Artistic Calligraphic Brushes.
Choose the 10 pt. brush.

Double-click on the brush. Change the Fidelity to 0.5 pixels. Then go to Options>Within and enter 2 pixels.

Create a work or drawing that will overlap. Here, I have used a word.

Select the word. Choose Expand Appearance.

Now select Path>Clean Up.

Open the Pathfinder Panel. Choose Add to Shape Area. Then click Expand.

Now apply various effects to the word and you are done!

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