1. Pen Tool

2. Introduction
The Pen Tool allows you to draw a smooth continuous path with multiple curves
You will click to place a point, or click+drag to expose “control handles” that allow you to change the direction and intensity of the current curve
Each click places a control point that can be modified after you have finished your basic path – don’t worry about getting it right the first time!
The path can be closed by clicking on the first point you placed. A closed path supports a fill.
It can be tricky to master – we’ll practice by doing a “connect the dots” exercise

3. Foreward
Not trying for a wonderful design here, we are trying to learn to use the Pen tool and manipulate anchor points
This example may be silly

4. Preparation
To prepare, we’re going to use something called Place Image, which allows you to take a raster image and place it in the background for tracing or reference
We’ll do a connect the dots exercise
I’ve gathered a few “connect the dots” image in the associated download file. Download it, extract, and pick one – I’m going with black_cat
If this course is being taught in spring, it might seem weird
Fine – It’s the Easter Cat, draw him pink
Create a new Illustrator document – set to landscape mode in the dialog

5. Place Image
Go to the File menu, and find Place… - this allows you to choose the image
A thumbnail appears on the artboard – left click and drag (resizing the blue box) to size the image
When you release, your image with a bounding box appears – you can still resize by dragging the handles on the corners
Drag the center (x) to move the image around. If you get to the center of the artboard, a small tooltip will tell you so
Suggest you make a new layer and work in that layer

6. Find the pen tool
Find the pen tool – looks like an old-fashioned “inkwell” pen
Note that it has sub-tools for working with Anchor points
Select it, and prepare to draw by selecting your stroke color, stroke size, and brush if desired
Highly recommended to choose no fill, otherwise your shape will start to obscure the background you're tracing

7. Start Drawing In our connect the dots, we’ll start drawing on point 2
Why do these numbers only go up by 2? That’s quite odd… or perhaps it isn’t
Left-click point 2, click point 4, then 6. If you do this WITHOUT clicking and dragging, you’re drawing straight line segments
Don’t worry about the stoke, focus on the path

8. Start Using Curves
As you go from point 6 to 8, I’ll left-click and hold, dragging slightly
You’ll see control handles appear
If you move the cursor around while holding, the handles will change oriention (directon of the curve) and length (intensity of the curve)
Start going through the dots, trying to provide natural curves to the shape as appropriate
You can control-z to undo your last anchor point, or edit them later

9. Closing the Path
When you get to the end, hover over the first anchor point you placed
When the tool-tip word “anchor” appears, you know you’re about to close your path (which will then support a fill

10. Needs some work
First issue – the first couple of clicks (where we didn’t drag) are actually line segments, not curves
If you want to curve them, you need to find the Anchor Point Tool (the upside-down v)
Select it, then select one of the anchor points you did as straight lines
Clicking and dragging on a straight segment anchor point will convert it to a curve with the control handles
Clicking a curve anchor point reverts it back to a straight line segment

11. Needs some MORE work Next – my tail looks bad
I can add or delete anchor points with appropriately named tools
Add Anchor Point tool – Pen tool has a + symbol. Hover over the path – when a tooltip of path appears, clicking adds the point
Delete Anchor Point tool – click an anchor point to remove it, and the path will join the anchor points on either side
You can also go back to the Direct Select (white cursor) to move anchor points and change the curve with the handles
You may want to now apply a fill – make sure you have the path selected with the selection tool

12. Paintbrush for the head
Now, I’ll try to do the head
Switch to the Paintbrush tool
Try to trace the outline of the head –don’t worry about being too accurate
I did terribly! It’s ok – using the Add Anchor/Delete Anchor and Direct Selection tools, we can nudge those curves back where they’re supposed to be
But read the next slide before you proceed….

13. Too many anchor points
My hand was a little shaky when I drew with the paintbrush – it led to too many anchor points being drawn
You can see on the left cheek, I tried to move one to change that curve… I’ll have to delete a lot of points to get that path under control
I could use the Delete Anchor point tool to remove some, OR…

14. Simplify Shape
With the Path selected, go to the menu, and choose Obect->Path->Simplify
In the menu that appears, you can play with the sliders
Reducing the Curve precision will generate softer lines with fewer control points to manipulate – and give you a more fluid image
No right or wrong here
In my last image, I over-simplified to get the point across

15. Simplify Shape
Go ahead and finish the head with either the Pen tool or the Paintbrush
Pay attention to what Strke and Brush you’re using – it’s likely

16. Finish the head
With the Path selected, go to the menu, and choose Obect->Path->Simplify
In the menu that appears, you can play with the sliders
Reducing the Curve precision will generate softer lines with fewer control points to manipulate – and give you a more fluid image
No right or wrong here
In my last image, I over-simplified to get the point across

17. Result Here’s my completed face Note I’ve turned the background off
Can now continue to play! Or save and be done.