ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR: PEN TOOL EXERCISES

The Pen Tool is probably the hardest tool I've ever tried. Back in 2007 when I was introduced to Corel Draw, I kind of cursed it because I need to drag and release and delete that single line I spent some hundreds of era to make. So the only solution for me was to use loads of basic shapes and group them together.

Some years ago, I learned using the pen tool but I still had troubles using it then.

Goodbye Corel Draw X4, Hello Adobe Illustrator!
I fell in love with Adobe Illustrator the minute I made my first vector out of it. It was my school assignment and we traced Garfield. Ang kyut lang! It wasn't perfect but I was able to hide the rough edges by using thick outlines.

After months of practice and with the help of my pen tablet, I can work now using the Pen Tool easily.




Introducing the Pen Tool Exercise: How it Works

Thanks to Veerle's blog 3.0 for this!

You simply follow the numbers and the instructions to complete the exercise. The point you need to aim at in each step is the center of each numbered colored dot. Depending on the instructions, you either have to click, click and press, or click and press and then drag, while sometimes holding down the shift or alt/option key. The document is created in 2 layers. The bottom layer, called template contains the instructions, and is locked. The top layer is the "working layer". This layer is unlocked, and by default already selected. So this is the layer you'll be working on.

Veerle Pieters' Genius Exercise

Download Pen Tool Exercise for CS5 or higher
Download Pen Tool Exercise for CS4 or CS3

I was able to make this illustration with lots of practice and some skipping of dinner.. :)

Goodluck on your mastering your pen tool! :D