Alright, now the Pen tool inside of Illustrator is that Drawing tool that really defines the program. It's not always the most efficient approach to a given graphic, and I will be showing you all kinds of different ways to approach complex artwork inside of Illustrator, that doesn't necessarily hinge on using the Pen tool. However, there are times when the Pen tool is the only tool that's really going to work for you, and the Pen tool can draw anything, that's the great thing about it, plus, once you learn how to use the Pen tool inside of Illustrator, you will know how to use it inside of Photoshop, inside of InDesign and so on.
There are some slight differences between the various programs. However, Illustrator's Pen tool is where it all began. This tool is 23 years old now, and going on strong, quite frankly. So, here is what we are going to do. We are going to take this image, and I have opened currently inside of Photoshop, it's called Flint rain flower crocodile.jpg, found inside the 09_pen_tool folder. These are the first four day signs of the Tonalpohualli, that Aztec Spiritual Calendar. So, we have got Flint over here on the left, carrying this very interesting handbag, notice that.
And then we have got the strange looking Rain, followed by Flower and then finally Crocodile. Now, this arcane image here is sort of my attempt to the kind of Da Vinci Code. Notice, that we've got this strange little cubic icon in the middle of these orange circles, and then down here underneath the crocodile, we have this interesting cursor. It says, if the graphic is just begging us to trace it with the Pen tool, and so we shall. So you can trace anyone of these day signs that you like, including the very strange brain like Rain God here.
However, I am going to be tracing the crocodile, because I think he is the most fun. So, I am going to go ahead and switch over to Illustrator, and I have got open this illustration, it's called Ancient image.ai, also found inside the 09_pen_tool folder, and what I have done is I have gone ahead and set up a tracing template in advance. So I have just taken an image we saw a moment ago inside of Photoshop, I have slapped it inside of a new illustration file, converted it to a tracing template. Added a Drawing layer, make sure your drawing layer is active here inside the Layers panel, and let's go ahead and start using that Pen tool.
To select the Pen tool, you have to click on this fifth tool down in the Single Column tool Box or you press the P key, and then you start clicking away, that's the simplest way to use the Pen tool. So, if all you want to do is create freeform polygons, and you can actually get pretty far using that approach if you like. Then the tool is very easy to use, just click to set at Anchor Point, click again, and Illustrator joins the two Anchor Points with the straight segments, and you just keep moving through your illustration. It's when you need to create curving segments, that things get a little more complicated.
Anyway, I am going to go ahead and zoom in on my crocodile right here, and let's start things off by creating this row of spikes along the top of the creature's head. Now, it's oftentimes difficult to figure out how to approach a given graphic, even if it's a fairly simple cartoony graphic like this one here, and the question becomes what do you draw first. Do you draw for example, the animal's head first, do you need to draw this green area independently of the yellow area, or can the green area fall behind a yellow shape, that would represent the lips, and so on.
And what I typically like to do is start with the simple stuff and basically build up on top of it, so that's why I am starting with the spikes also. The spikes would theoretically appear at the bottom of the stack. So for layering objects on top of each other, which is the way things work inside of Illustrator, then the spikes would be at the very back and something like the lips for example would be at the front. Now, we can always suggest that stacking order later, but you typically do want to work from the larger objects to the smaller objects, when you are building up your graphics.
Anyway, here is how the Pen tool works. Notice, right now that it's a Pen Cursor with an X, and the X is Illustrator's way of showing you that there is currently no active path. So, if you start clicking or dragging with the tool, you will begin a new Path Outline. Notice as soon as I click, I am going to click right there, sort of in the center of the creature's nose, notice that I set an Anchor Point, this little blue square, and it's blue because I am working on a blue layer, that is blue is the color that's assigned to the drawing layer here. The fact that it's a square indicates that it's an Anchor Point, and notice that my cursor now appears as an un-adorn pen nib, thereby indicating that I have an active Path Outline.
So if I click at a new location, such as a top of this spike right there, then the Illustrator automatically joins these two anchor points, known as Corner Points, because they represent corners of my path. The Illustrator goes and joins those two corner points with a straight segment, and it does so automatically and then I just sit there and click away, like so. Now notice as I am clicking of course Illustrator is automatically adding these segments, it's also attempting to fill my open path. So we have got a stroke along this Path Outline and we also have this White Fill that's working its way through the Path Outline.
And sometimes the Fill makes sense, like right now. And other times it's a little bit hard to figure out. But at all times, Illustrator is pretending that there is a straight segment between the two endpoints, that is those anchor points at either end of my path in progress. Anyway, this Fill is really getting in my face, right, it's blocking my view of the tracing template, as I work along. So what I will probably want to do is go up to the View menu, scroll my way up to the top and choose the Outline command or press Ctrl+Y, Command+Y on the Mac, so that I just see the Path Outline, I am not seeing the Fill or the Stroke.
And notice that I am still seeing the tracing template in the background, and as you may recall from a previous chapter, that's how tracing templates work inside of Illustrator. You can see them in either the Preview or the Outline mode, so you can always keep track of what you are doing. Then I will go ahead and click let's say, here. It's some arbitrary location inside of the crocodile's face, and bear in mind that this path is going to appear in back of a bunch of other paths so all of this garbage will be covered up. And then I am going to go ahead and close the path. Now, I don't necessarily need to close this path, I just typically do this to eliminate any straight points, when I am building up filled shapes like these.
Anyway, notice when I hover over that very first Anchor Point in the path, I get a Pen Nib with a little circle right next to it, and that circle shows me that I am going to close the Path Outline. So I will go ahead an click, the Path Outline is now closed, if I move my cursor, to an area where we can see it, notice it's a pen with an X once again, thereby showing me that there is no open active Path Outline at the current time, and where I'd click or drag with this tool, I would begin a new Path Outline. And that my friends is the most rudimentary approach to using the Pen tool in Illustrator.
In the next exercise, I am going to show how to move, add and delete anchor points.
Author
Released
5/28/2010- Creating great art using basic tools
- Brushing and building organic artwork
- Scaling and rotating path outlines
- Creating and formatting text
- Drawing articulated paths with the Pen tool
- Combining paths with Pathfinder operations
- Printing and exporting to the web
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
Views
Q: I was not able to locate my saved shortcuts and cannot locate the folder I created to place the preferences into. The Illustrator steps are clear and using the search function I should be able to find the folder, but it cannot be located. How can I find the shortcuts file on a Mac?
A: To search for the shortcuts file on a Mac, press Cmd+F. Then change the option that says "Kind" in the top-left corner to System Files by choosing "Other" and selecting "System Files" from the menu.



Q: The instructions for installing the dekeKeys don't work on my computer (which is running Mac OS X Lion). Is there an update to these?
A: The dekeKeys distributed with this course will still work for Lion. You just need to add them to a slightly different folder than in previous versions of OS X.
Open a new Finder window and choose Go > Go to Folder. Type the following file path exactly as written below. Copying and pasting may result in an error.
~/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator CS5 Settings/en_US
Move and/or copy/paste the dekeKeys to this folder and follow the rest of the instructions as outlined in the video, "Installing the dekeKeys keyboard shortcuts."
Related Courses
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Deke's Techniques
with Deke McClelland155h 55m Intermediate
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Introduction
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Remapping OS shortcuts6m 56s
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1. Making a Document
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Managing artboards1m 20s
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The Welcome screen3m 49s
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Creating a new document7m 13s
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Advanced document controls6m 52s
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Auto-arranging artboards3m 42s
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Rulers and artboards6m 40s
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Saving a native AI document7m 25s
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Closing all open documents2m 45s
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2. Navigation and the Workspace
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Using tools to zoom and pan5m 56s
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Scroll wheel tricks2m 13s
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The tabbed-window interface6m 17s
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Closing all but one document3m 30s
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Saving a custom workspace4m 57s
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Hiding the bounding box4m 27s
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Keyboard increments7m 15s
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Cycling between screen modes5m 21s
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3. Opening Documents and Getting Organized
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Opening a document5m 2s
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Introducing Adobe Bridge6m 6s
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File-type associations4m 3s
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Previewing and collecting8m 17s
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4. Basic Line Art
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Everything is anything1m 14s
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Meet the line tools3m 30s
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Saving large layer previews5m 50s
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Creating custom guides5m 31s
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Creating a heart using arcs3m 51s
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Adjusting control handles4m 13s
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Drawing a line segment4m 51s
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Rotate, Fill, and Stack4m 37s
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Drawing a looping spiral4m 41s
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Tracing a template layer5m 1s
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Selecting similar objects3m 32s
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5. Geometric Shapes
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The anatomy of a path1m 41s
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Meet the shape tools3m 32s
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Creating a compound path4m 29s
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Drawing rounded rectangles3m 28s
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Aligning to a key object3m 47s
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The constraint axes4m 11s
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Using the Flare tool5m 32s
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6. Paint, Build, and Transform
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Painting artwork from life1m 21s
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Tracing a photograph2m 41s
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Draw, Move, and Duplicate5m 27s
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Rotating and duplicating6m 1s
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Pressure-sensitive input4m 24s
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Using the Shape Builder tool4m 57s
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Establishing design groups5m 54s
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When to rotate vs. reflect4m 55s
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Simulating beveled edges6m 46s
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7. Swatch, Stroke, and Stacking Order
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The Document Color mode6m 20s
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Introducing the Stroke panel4m 46s
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Cap, Join, and Miter Limit6m 42s
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Managing color swatches4m 55s
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Filling paths inside groups6m 24s
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Adjusting the stacking order7m 44s
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Combining multiple fills5m 29s
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Creating a tile pattern9m 2s
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The new CS5 arrowheads5m 44s
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Creating a callout line7m 1s
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Width tool tips and tricks8m 47s
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8. Working with Type
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Next-generation text1m 19s
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Making a margin guide5m 7s
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Offsetting flush-left text4m 47s
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Placing and threading text6m 18s
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Working with point text7m 10s
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Redefining paragraph styles6m 42s
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Using the Glyphs panel6m 41s
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Spell-checking text4m 24s
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Updating a graphic style5m 43s
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Creating type on a path7m 26s
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Adjusting baseline shift4m 18s
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9. Using the Pen Tool
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Moving and deleting points7m 46s
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Editing a path as you go7m 5s
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Faking a spline curve5m 54s
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Adding corners to a spline7m 15s
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How control handles work10m 17s
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Aligning open paths5m 38s
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Splitting and joining paths8m 51s
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Cusp points and miter limits6m 45s
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Using the Convert Point tool4m 42s
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Stacking clipped paths4m 28s
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10. Pathfinder Operations
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Unite closed, join open4m 46s
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Switching shape modes4m 43s
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Adding to a compound shape5m 32s
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Outline Stroke and Unite3m 37s
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Painting in the foliage5m 23s
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Filling in and erasing away6m 31s
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Painting more precise holes5m 17s
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Adding in rough edges7m 53s
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Contouring roots and limbs8m 56s
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Filling in the limbs4m 19s
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Using the Divide operation5m 46s
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11. Printing a Document
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Converting type to outlines8m 55s
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Setting trim size and bleed6m 22s
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Stroking a placed image4m 54s
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Filling in your bleeds5m 34s
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Troubleshooting weak blacks6m 36s
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The General Print options5m 20s
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Placement, scale, and tiling6m 39s
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Trim and printer marks6m 23s
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Warnings and document raster5m 21s
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12. Exporting to the Web (and Elsewhere)
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Saving a high-contrast GIF7m 18s
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The versatile PNG format6m 33s
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Saving a full-color PNG4m 47s
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Placing an AI Smart Object7m 38s
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Conclusion
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Until next time1m 33s
-
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Video: Drawing a straight-sided path