Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

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USING THE PEN TOOL

WHILE LINES AND SHAPES are the building blocks

of any illustration, the line and shape tools we saw in the last lesson

aren’t by any means the only way to create them. The pen tool ( ) is

Illustrator’s most powerful drawing tool and perhaps the most dif-

ficult to master. It allows you to draw open and closed paths of any

shape you can imagine; you aren’t limited to simple, regular shapes.

You can also manipulate and edit paths with infinite variety, from

the most basic to the very complex (see Figure 3-1). Even the letters

you are reading now began as paths drawn by a pen tool, crafted

and shaped by the skilled hands of a type designer.

The pen tool may seem a bit daunting at first, and it does take some

practice to use skillfully. Throughout this lesson I will guide you

through the basics of bending the pen tool to your will, but it is a

two-way street. If you’re willing to have patience, the pen tool in

turn will give you control. One very sound piece of advice: Don’t be

afraid to experiment. (Heck, that’s what Undo is for.) Play around

drawing different shapes, using different techniques. See how mov-

ing points this way or that changes the shape. While I cover the

“how’s” of using the pen tool,

mastering it requires a mix

of experience and experi-

mentation.

Figure 3-1.

FLORIST

M I D D L E S E X

Shapes drawn with

the pen tool can be

fairly simple…

…or maddeningly

complex.

Hibiscus by pringletta; floral border by Julio

E. Chandia. Both from iStockPhoto.com.

ABOUT THIS LESSON

you’ve downloaded the lesson fi les from

www.oreilly.com/go/Deke-IllustratorCS5,

as directed in Step 2 on page xiv of the

Preface. This should result in a folder called

Lesson Files-AIcs5 1on1 on your desktop.

We’ll be working with the fi les inside the

Lesson 03 subfolder.

It’s time to take advantage of Illustrator’s basic drawing functions,

including the ubiquitous pen tool—a tool that is simple to learn,

yet requires patience and practice to master. In this lesson, you’ll

learn how to:

• Make a tracing template from a

photographic image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 88

• Draw free-form polygons and curves using

the pen tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 90

• Create fl uid Bézier curves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 96

• Learn Illustrator’s three types of anchor points

used to create paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 98

• Separate, open, and join paths . . . . . . . . . . . . page 101

Video Lesson 3: The Pen Tool

Operation Windows shortcut Macintosh shortcut

Select the pen tool Press the P key Press the P key

Expand (or “twirl open”) a layer Click the  before the layer name Click the  before the layer name

Select the black or white arrow Press the V or A key Press the V or A key

Target (or “meatball”) an object

Click the

in the Layers panel Click the in the Layers panel

Hide all panels or just those on the right Press the Tab key or Shift+Tab Press the Tab key or Shift-Tab

Toggle between the view modes Ctrl+Y -Y

Cut or redirect a control handle Alt-click or -drag the point Option-click or -drag the point

Nudge a selected object Press



,



, , or  Press



,



, , or 

Clone a path outline Ctrl+C, Ctrl+F -C, -F

Join two open paths to form a closed one Ctrl+J -J

With the powerful pen tool, you can create any freeform

shape you want. Although indisputably useful and fl ex-

ible, this tool also has a reputation for being hard to un-

derstand, let alone master. In this video, I’ll show you the

basics of working with the pen tool, so that with a little

practice you can draw any path outline you need.

To see the pen tool at work, visit www.oreilly.com/go/

deke-IllustratorCS5. Click the Watch button to view the

lesson online or the Download button to save it to your

computer. During the video, you’ll learn these shortcuts:

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Lesson 3: Using the Pen Tool