The Pen Tool is one of the most important tools in Illustrator and the one that you will be using the most. Click here and download the file. Open it in Illustrator.
- Select the Pen Tool (P)
- To zoom in, press ‘command +’ and to zoom out press ‘command -‘
- Set the Fill to transparent (it will be a white box with a red diagonal line going through it) and the Stoke to black
- Follow the instructions to complete the ‘Straight lines’ exercise
- When you are finished, move on to the ‘Curved lines’ exercise located to the right of the tree
- At the end of step 10, hold down your command key and click anywhere on the page. This will release the path you just created
- Move on to the next ‘Curved lines’ exercise that looks like a flower
- At the end of step 20, click and press the line to step 1, drag the line to step 2 and release it to close the shape
- Move on to the ‘Curves with corner points’
- At the end of step 9, press the command key and click on the page to release the path
- Move on to ‘Curved lines with corners’
- Press the command key at the end of step 16
- Move on to ‘Combing curves with straight lines
- At the end of step 19, press the command key to release the path
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- Begin ‘Curves with corner points’
- After step 19, there is a typo. Ignore the numbers and continue with the pattern. After step 26, press command and click on the page to release the path. Move on to step 28.
- Press command and click on the page after step 39
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- Move on to ‘Curves with corner points and tweaking handles’
- There is an error on step 13. Instead of holding down the alt/option key, just click to close the shape.
- When you have finished, go to File—>Export
- Change the formant to a PNG
- Upload it to your blog and write a brief description on the new process.
Click here to download this file (scroll down to step 9)
