Adobe Pen Tool: Mastery

- Hi, I'm Deke McClelland. Welcome to my course Adobe Pen Tool: Mastery. This is the second of two courses about the foremost vector-based drawing tool in the history of mankind, the pen tool. My first course, Adobe Pen Tool: Fundamentals, tells you everything about the basics, not to mention the intermediate and a bunch of advanced stuff as well. If you haven't watched it so far, I very much recommend you check it out but not now, because now is our chance to master this practical and powerful feature.

Ever since it's introduction 30 years ago, the pen has been that one tool that lets you draw literally anything point by point, curve for curve with meticulous precision. You might think such an ancient tool would have been rendered obsolete by now but that's not remotely the case. Those lucky folks who are intimately familiar with the pen don't just like it, they swear by it. My job now is to teach you every last thing there is to know about the pen, as well as the mechanics and features that go along with it.

We'll start by examining the by-products of the pen tool, so-called Bezier curves, in anatomical detail, down to their anchor points, control handles, and segments. I'll show you the difference between constrained and unconstrained path dragging. We'll see the many ways to create smooth points which result in continuous arcs, and cusp points, which connect curved segments and corners. And then, I'll challenge your curiosity with a no-holds-barred demonstration of how four point Cubic Bezier curves really, truly work down to their mathematical underpinnings.

But knowing how things work isn't the same as knowing how to get great results. Which is why I'll also pass along a few time-tested rules to draw by. These include the straightforward zero or two rule, the more nuanced Two-Thirds Rule, and the downright enlightening oval and arc rule. Although the pen tool has worked its way into dozens of programs over the years, we'll focus our attention on how it works in three prominent design applications from Adobe, namely, Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.

The pen tool works slightly differently in each program, and it serves different purposes. In Photoshop, you typically use the pen to carefully mask an image away from its background. In InDesign, you might use it to draw a page ornament, or define a text wrap. In Illustrator, you use the pen for just about everything which is why I dedicate one chapter to each program, with special attention to Illustrator. Adobe Pen Tool: Fundamentals was the first time I recorded a course about a single tool.

Adobe Pen Tool: Mastery is the second time I do so. If this were any other tool, I'd say one course, let alone two, was overkill, but the pen tool more than deserves this level of attention. Join me and I'll show you why.