So you’re learning Adobe Illustrator and
you wanna master the use of the Pen Tool. That’s great, the Pen Tool is one the most
fundamental tools of the software, no doubt. But lemme tell you a secret that most tutorials
won’t: you don’t wanna learn just the Pen Tool. I get it, the Pen Tool is a great tool, and
more than that it is a classic. But over the years Illustrator has evolved
and updated, and many new tools came up, not to replace the Pen Tool, but to enhance it. Knowing how and when to use these tools will
make working with Illustrator something that is much, much more instinctive, you have my
word on that. So, what if I told you that, instead of just
learning 1 tool, today you’ll learn 8 of them? That sounds good? So enough talking and let’s get down to
business! And of course, we’re gonna start with the
star of the show: the Pen Tool. To select the Pen Tool you can use the shortcut
P. The Pen Tool is pretty straightforward to
use - each click on the Artboard creates an anchor point which will be connected to the
previous one. So, to get started, just click once on the
Artboard. Notice that a blue line is connecting the
mouse cursor to the place where you first clicked - this line indicates the path that
will be created when you click again. Let’s make our next click and now we have
two anchor points connected by a straight line. And, of course, a new blue line appears to
indicate the next path. Straight lines alone can be used to create
many things in Illustrator, just like the shadows of these mountains on this illustration. Notice how a small circle appears on the mouse
cursor when I hover back over the first anchor point. This circle means we’re about to close the
path and finish the shape. You can also create open paths, and for that,
instead of clicking back on the first anchor point, you can just press Enter or Escape
whenever you’re finished drawing. And since we’re talking about straight lines,
I have to mention one of the most important keys in Illustrator: the Shift key. The Shift key is a modifier, and it’s called
like that because it modifies the way in which a tool works. The Shift modifier is used to lock or constrain
movement in Illustrator. For example, holding Shift while moving an
object will lock the movement horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Holding Shift while rotating an object will
lock the rotation to increments of 45 degrees. And this works with the Pen Tool as well! When you’re drawing with the Pen Tool, holding
Shift locks the Path direction to multiples of 45 degrees, making it easy to create perfect
horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines. That’s also perfect for making the fold
on this paper illustration in the next example - I’m just gonna hold Shift while using
the Pen Tool and move the mouse cursor until the blue line snaps in the direction that
I want it to go. “Hey Andy, by the way, where can I download
this exercise file to follow along with the tutorial?” Well, I am glad you asked, because this leads
us to a very special message: this video is sponsored by myself! The channel now has both a Discord server
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Tells Things for just two dollars a month and get access to exclusive content, including
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feedback from me on your projects as well as talk to other Patrons. If any of that sounds interesting, check the
links in the description below! Now back to the video. Ok, enough about straight lines, because we’re
about to get curvy. And making curves with the Pen Tool is pretty
easy. Instead of just clicking to create a new point,
try clicking and dragging. This will add handles to the anchor point,
which you can use to control the curvature of the path. Notice how the blue line is now showing us
a curve instead of a straight line. And the cool thing is that the Shift modifier
also works with handles, locking them to multiples of 45 degrees, and that’s perfect because
a very common practice when drawing with the Pen Tool is to always add the anchor points
to the peaks of the curves, to the point where the curves extend further outside or inside,
this way you can always keep handles vertical or horizontal, making it much easier to draw. If you make a circle with the Ellipse Tool
in Illustrator, you can see that even Illustrator itself creates anchor points and handles this
way. I’m going to use this technique to draw
this color palette, always placing handles on perfect verticals and horizontals. Do you see how easy it is to draw like that? You don’t have to guess where the next anchor
point will be, the drawing itself tells you that. Ok, making curves is easy enough, specially
when the shape we’re drawing is made out of curves only - but that’s not always the
case! What if we have a sharp corner next to a curve,
just like in this cloud, how do we go about that? Well, then we have to do something called
breaking the handles. Breaking a handle means that each side of
the handle will move independently, allowing you to create a sharp corner right next to
a curve. To break a handle you need to use the Anchor
Point Tool. But wait, I have good news for you: when you’re
using the Pen Tool, you can temporarily select the Anchor Point Tool by using another modifier:
the Alt key. By using the modifier, you don’t have to
stop drawing, switch tools and then go back to the Pen Tool. Just hold Alt and then click and drag the
handle you want to break, adjusting it to the next curve. After that, just release the Alt key and you’ll
be back to drawing with the Pen Tool, right back to where you stopped. If you’re getting a little confused about
modifiers, don’t worry. The easiest way to know what a modifier does
is to look at the Status Bar, located at the bottom of Illustrator. The Status Bar always shows which tool you
have selected. Notice how it changes from the Pen Tool to
the Anchor Point Tool when I press down the Alt key. Back to our illustration, I’ll do this process
of breaking handles for almost the entire path of this cloud, but when I reach the end
of the last curve, instead of breaking the Handle, I’m going to just delete it, since
the next Path is a straight line, and straight lines don’t need handles. To do this, you can simply click again on
the last Anchor Point and the Handle will be deleted. Then, I can finish the drawing by going back
to the first Anchor Point. If you want to break a handle after you’re
finished drawing, just select the anchor point with the Direct Selection Tool, shortcut “A”,
then select the Anchor Point Tool, shortcut “Shift+C” and move the handle, just like
before. Another very cool feature of the Anchor Point
Tool is the ability to add or remove handles from an anchor point. Let’s say you have a curve, but you need
a sharp corner instead, or vice-versa - just use the Anchor Point Tool. First, select the tool by using the shortcut
“Shift+C”. Then, to remove the handles from an anchor
point and turn it sharp, just click once over the anchor point and you’re done. To add handles and turn a sharp corner into
a curve, just click and drag over the anchor point, always keeping in mind that you can
use the Shift modifier to lock the position of the handles. I have a few examples here just to demonstrate
how easy it is to work with this tool. Notice that I’m also occasionally using
the Direct Selection Tool to move and adjust the position of the handles, because as we’ve
seen before, if we move the handle using the Anchor Point Tool, we will break it, making
each side of the handle to move independently, and I want these handles to move together. And talking about the Direct Selection Tool,
this is one of the most useful tools when working with paths, anchor points and handles. As we’ve just seen, it is perfect to edit
the handles of an anchor point after you’ve already finished your drawing. You can just press “A” to select the Direct
Selection Tool, then click on the anchor point you want to edit and just drag the handles
until you’re happy with the result. Just like before, you can also use the Shift
modifier to lock the position of the handles. The Direct Selection Tool can also be used
to move anchor points, and not only that, you can also do it while using the Pen Tool. Yeah, that’s right: it’s another modifier! You can access it by holding the Ctrl key. So let’s say you’re drawing with the Pen
Tool and you want to go back and change the position of a misplaced anchor point - all
you have to do is hold the Ctrl key to temporarily select the Direct Selection Tool, then select
and move the anchor points as you wish. When you’re done, just release the Ctrl
key, and just like using the Alt modifier, you’ll go right back to drawing from where
you’ve stopped. Now, I showed you before how to make curves
using the Pen Tool, adjusting handles and all that. But what if I told you there’s an easier
way? Well, this way is called Curvature Tool. With the Curvature Tool, shortcut “Shift
+ ~”, you can just start clicking on the artboard and, based on the position of each
anchor point, Illustrator will automatically create curves. This tool is perfect for creating smooth and
organic shapes, but you can also create sharp corners using the Alt modifier. The Curvature Tool is way more intuitive to
use than the Pen Tool, but it won’t work for everything. Since it lacks the possibility to adjust the
handles, some curves are just impossible to create using this tool. But don’t worry, you can always switch to
the Direct Selection after you’re finished and adjust the handles as you see fit. Think of the Curvature Tool as something you
use to create a basic shape, and then you use other tools to adjust the finer details. Ok, let’s quickly go over 2 tools that,
even though they have their use and importance, they are fairly simple to understand. It’s the Add Anchor Point and Delete Anchor
Point Tools - shortcuts “+” and “-”. These ones are pretty straightforward. With the Add Anchor Point Tool, click on any
part of a path to add a new anchor point. If it is a curve, Illustrator will automatically
add handles to it or adjust neighboring handles as necessary. With the Delete Anchor Point Tool, just click
over an existing anchor point to remove it from the path. Now, you might notice that removing an anchor
point changes the shape of the path. Duh, that’s obvious. But there is a trick to prevent this from
happening. The Delete Anchor Point Tool actually has
a modifier on the Shift key, and when you remove an anchor point using the modifier,
Illustrator will adjust the neighboring handles to maintain the curve as close as possible
to the original, which is pretty cool if you ask me. This trick is actually very useful when you
want to simplify a path and reduce the number of anchor points that it has. And while working with the Pen Tool and manually
creating your own designs is great, sometimes it’s best to know when to take a quicker
route - and we have 2 very quick routes in Illustrator: the Pathfinder and the Shape
Builder. Apart from a few differences, they both perform
virtually the same task: they combine shapes in all sorts of different ways in order to
create new shapes. First, let’s check out the Pathfinder, which
is actually a Panel and not a Tool. To open it, go to the Window Menu and select
the Pathfinder there. Inside the panel, we have a lot of different
commands that will combine shapes in different ways. For example, we can unite all shapes together
in a single object, divide tem into separate ones or make an intersection. I find the Pathfinder and the Shape Builder
to be exceptionally great to work with when you want to create an object that can be broken
down into geometric shapes. For example, you can see that this heart is
made out of two circles and one square. It’s way easier to draw two circles and
a square and join them together using the Unite function of the Pathfinder, than to
try to draw it manually using the Pen Tool. The same thing happens with this map pin icon,
were we can unite a circle and a square to make the base shape of the symbol, and then
use a second, smaller circle with the Exclude function of the Pathfinder to cut out a hole
in the center of the symbol. Similarly, this leaf can be created by using
2 circles, offsetted 45 degrees from one another, and combined using the Intersect function
of the Pathfinder. Ok, but what’s the difference from the Shape
Builder? Well, for starters, the Shape Builder is a
tool, which you can access through the Toolbar or by using the shortcut “Shift+M”. Secondly, and most importantly, the Shape
Build has a way more intuitive interface, and for some uses, it turns out to be easier
and faster than using the Pathfinder - but that’s something you’ll only be able to
identify by learning both tools very well. To use the Shape Builder, you first have to
select all the shapes you want to combine. In this example, I have a lot of different
shapes that we are going to use to create this cloud illustration. So I’ll just go ahead and select them all,
and then press “Shift+M” to select the Shape Builder. The first thing I want you to notice is that
the mouse cursor has a plus symbol on it. If we hold the Alt modifier, it turns into
a minus symbol - these are the two main functions of the Shape Builder, add and subtract. If we click and drag with the plus symbol,
it’ll unite the shapes together. You can see that, as I click and drag, the
shapes I’m selecting get highlighted. When I release the click, they turn into a
single shape. If we hold the Alt modifier, then click and
drag, the same thing happens, but this time it will delete the shapes. If we use the Shift modifier with the Shape
Builder, things can get even easier. Holding down Shift activates a box select
function, where you can quickly select all the shapes you want to unite, or, if you also
hold down Alt, all the shapes you want to delete. Just be careful not to select anything you
don’t want by mistake. Well, I hope you got some valuable information
with this video. If you liked it, then you might also enjoy
this one that’s on the screen right now. Don’t forget to like and subscribe and if
you have any doubts, let me know in the comment section! Thank you so much for watching and have a
great day. Bye!
