Learning how to use the Pen Tool
Hello all! Today, we’re going to be learning how to use the Pen Tool in photoshop! The pen tool can seem like tool from the devil to some, but it really is not! It just takes a little practice, and you’ll master it in no time!
We first must understand what all the pen tool can do for us. The pen tool is probably the most powerful tool in photoshop. If you just had the pen tool, you could probably do a large amount of work that you already do in photoshop with just the pen tool. The pen tool can be used for many things, such as logo design, image vectoring, rendering and much more! But today, we’re just going to learn the basics of the pen tool.
If you don’t already know where the pen tool is located, it’s just to the left of the auto-shapes tool, highlighted in blue.
When you select your pen tool, you’ll notice that you get a new menu at the top of the screen. You’ll probably have “Shape Layers” highlighted. Shape layers basically means that it will automatically create a filled outline of whatever you’re “Pen tooling”.
The one to the right of the “Shape Layers” is “Paths”. I use paths to do rendering, and logo creation. I think Paths is easiest to use, especially if you have a background image that you’re tracing or using for reference.
To the far right, you’ll see that the “Pen tool” icon is also highlighted. If you look to the right of it, you’ll see the “Freeform Pen Tool”. This is basically just what it sounds like. It makes a constant outline or render, without having to add multiple anchor points. The freeform pen tool is most useful if you have a graphic tablet.
Today, we’re going to be using “Paths”, since it’s probably the easiest for the beginner to get a good understanding of what the pen tool is all about. Let’s get started, shall we?
1. Open up a new document. Though it doesn’t matter what size, I’d use something some-what large so you have enough space to experiment and such. 800x600 should be just dandy. When you first click on your document with the pen tool, you’ll notice you get a little square. You’ve created an anchor point. - More about this later.
2. Holding the Shift key on your keyboard, click down below your original anchor point. This will get you a straight line.
3. Click in the middle of your line. You’ll notice that you get a new anchor point. Now if you hold control and click and hold on the newly formed anchor point, you can drag it. Dragging it will change your line (and potentially) your shape.
4. You’ll notice that you have control points above and below your anchor point. This is just like it sounds - they control your anchor points. Move them by holding control on your keyboard and dragging them.
5. With the pen tool, you’re able to make as many anchor points as you want. Looking to the image to the right, as you can see, I moved my first one down, and added another one and moved it to the left to create a contrapposto S-curve.
