Masks Within Masks
Use the stacking technique of Paste in Front/Back to create a clipping mask within a clipping mask.
Create a Basic Mask
The goal of this project is to create a shirt that will be confined to the shape of a body using a clipping mask, and then create a pattern that is confined to the shirt using another clipping mask.
Create the basic figure shape, and then create an object in the shape of a shirt A. Use the Selection tool to select the shirt, and then cut the shirt object to the clipboard. Select the body object and paste the shirt object on the clipboard behind the body (Cmd [Ctrl]-B). Select both objects and create a clipping mask by pressing Cmd (Ctrl)-7 or choose Object > Clipping Mask > Make (or you can use the contextual menu and choose Make Clipping Mask) B.
Create the Shirt Mask
Select the shirt object by holding down the Option (Alt) key while clicking with the Direct Selection tool to select the entire shirt (remember, when a mask is made, it groups the objects together so you’ll need to direct select the shirt) and create an Offset Path of 2 pt (choose Object > Path > Offset Path). With the offset path object you just made still selected, Shift-click the original shirt object and create a clipping mask (Cmd [Ctrl]-7). You’ve just made a mask within a mask!
Create a Pattern
Create a simple checkerboard pattern by drawing a single stroke on top of the shirt. Option (Alt)-drag (creating a copy) the stroke to the other side of the shirt. Select both strokes and blend them (Cmd-Option [Ctrl-Alt]-B). Double-click the Blend tool in the Tools palette to bring up the Blend dialog box. In the Specified Steps option, modify the number of steps to 6, and then click OK. Select the strokes (which include the blend) and copy and paste in front. With the strokes you just pasted still selected, rotate them 90 degrees.
Put the Pattern into the Mask
Select the whole pattern and cut it to the clipboard. With the Direct Selection tool, select the shirt background object A (the offset path shirt object you made earlier) and paste the pattern in front (Cmd [Ctrl]-F) B.
Fill in the Rest of the Figure
We drew the pants, skin, hair, and belt shapes (shown here as if the shapes weren’t confined to the body clipping mask A) and then used Paste in Front/Back to drop them into the correct stacking order inside the body clipping mask. The other details B were placed on top of the body clipping mask.
Shadows were added to the shirt by creating shapes and pasting them in front of the shirt pattern. We then applied a Multiply blend mode and an Opacity of 80% to the shadow in the Transparency palette C.