Our next tools some of the most widely used tools across all forms of design. The PEN TOOL, ANCHOR POINT TOOL and BEZIER HANDLES can be found in all areas of Digital Arts as actual elements of design as well as controls for different settings such as graph editors in video and animation.
There are many approaches to using these tools. We will show you an approach that tends to work best with beginners.
Always use Shape Tools first if you can before resorting to the Pen Tool.
When using the Pen Tool try to use as few points as possible, this will make your curves smoother. You can always add points later if needed.
Start by drawing the whole shape loosely using straight lines, then use the Anchor Point tool to add curves.
We will practice with these tools together.
Right click to Copy and Paste the image below into an 11x17 inch Illustrator file...
