Creating an arc with the same gradient as the arc of an inner ring

[d__]

Hi,

I'm trying to create a swirl type shape which consists of two arcs (lines with uniform gradient change) which are joined together at one point, and then by a line at the other two.
However the Upper arc, needs to have the same gradient as inside of a ring I created earlier. I'm having trouble creating the swirls, and I was wondering if there were a way of doing, this or even just general advice on the subject at hand.

I understand that what i've asked sounds incredibly complex so I've attached a few images to help illustrate my problem.
The shape I want to create is shaded in red, and uses a an arc I drew using the arc tool, and hopefully the inner arc of the purple ring.

Thank you for any help or advice,
-Dan

[Albacore]

The basic tool that you must learn to use is the Pen Tool and that is that you must use here. I hope I am not missing a point here to what you are trying to and I am sorry if this doesn't help you and your far more experienced than I take from your question. In a very short time using your screen I constructed from your shapes as you can see using the pen tool. To use the Pen tool just press "P" on your keyboard don't worry about what your shape looks like just get 3 anchor points down where you want to place your red curve. Once done just use the direct selection tool "A" on the to finesse your shape. You may need to use Convert Anchor Points (Shift+C) if you have straight lines and you want a curve. I have also put up a Pen Tool Exercise to help you learn this tool as if you want to use Illy you will need to master this tool as it is the mainstay of drawing in Illustrator.

[Albacore]

Sorry I just looked at the Pen tool exercise sheet and it is un-usable, as a help, to hard to read so here is a vid. which will help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc7vltfseag
It's a bit slow but she has a nice voice!

[d__]

Thank you, Albacore for the quick reply.

You understood perfectly, thanks. The problem I had when trying to use the pen, and convert anchor point tool, was that I could never get the curve to follow the curve of the inner ring (purple) perfectly. What you've produce is exactly what I wanted, so hopefully the tutorial you kindly provided will help me with that. It just seems to me a lot of it would be based on eye, rather than, say, the line itself snapping when the gradient is close to the other inner ring's curve so I know the gradient is technically accurate- If you follow.

Thanks again for all your help
-Dan

[Albacore]

Glad to help and if you find, like me, you don't like vid's. here are a few pages to look at to give you a hand: http://veerle.duoh.com/design/articl...tool_exercises
Download a zipped file so that you can try it yourself it is a multipage doc. so that is why there're 2 versions as it was from CS5 that you could have multi page docs.