How to Make and Edit a Clipping Mask in Adobe Illustrator

Learn the basics of making and editing clipping masks in Adobe Illustrator! First, make sure your mask shape is on top of the image to be masked, select them both and Object / Clipping Mask / Make! I show you 3 ways to edit the contents or the masking shape inside a clip group.
From my beginner course, the Heart of Illustrator.
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By Laura Coyle

[@haco_00]

This is a great help! Thank you Laura :)

[@LauraCoyle]

So glad!

[@karencronin9852]

Perfect! Thanks, Laura.

[@LauraCoyle]

You're so welcome!

[@DreamDosage]

Super helpful as always!

[@LauraCoyle]

Happy to help!

[@jodyknight]

Thank you for another helpful tutorial with easy to understand instructions Laura. It amazes me when you seem to know what I need a bit of help with at times. I love the way you show multiple ways of getting the job done because at least one of them will stick with my poor old brain lol. Have a great day

[@LauraCoyle]

Thank you Jody!!

[@bolleidschenveenbol1592]

thank you

[@LauraCoyle]

You're welcome

[@CENTROCIADER]

thanki

[@LauraCoyle]

thanks!

[@jenniferparker752]

Hi Laura, wonderful and clear tutorial! Thank you! I may have missed it in the video, but once you are happy with the clipping mask shape and how the art/photo below is placed, is there a way to permanently combine them or permanently clip the image underneath so it is just now one object and no longer a clipping group?

[@LauraCoyle]

Thank you!! Not with images/pixels - that's a job for Photoshop. If you are just trying to crop a photo in Illustrator, you can select and click Crop Image on the top control bar and use the handles. The result is rectangular. For shapes or rounded corners and raster images like in the video, you can do that in Photoshop. For vector art, you can release the mask shape and use it to cut objects like with the Pathfinder or Shapebuilder tool.

[@jenniferparker752]

@@LauraCoyle Laura, thanks so much for that explanation!

[@rgbnights]

Love you

[@LauraCoyle]

Thanks!

[@peggytuttle4298]

I was hoping to learn how to replace the clipped image with a different photo while not altering the mask.

[@LauraCoyle]

You can select another photo and position it over the mask on the artboard, then in the Layers panel, turn down the arrow on the clip group to show the contents as I did in the video. In the Layers panel, drag the photo into the clip group, and delete the old photo using the layers panel too. Hope that helps!