Pen tool basics

This tutorial is written by Rahul Das for Hoolite.be

Recently, while making the balloons wallpaper pack, I had to use a lot of the pen tools. As I learnt PS off the internet, I had no idea how to use these things. But I somehow learnt these from many places around the ‘net. And here it is for you, all in one place!

First, we are (kind of) going to learn about the pen tool

The pen tool is used for making curved lines, stroked line (lines whose ends fade out), custom shapes,..

Let’s make a curved line!

Step 1:

Select the Pen Tool

Pen tool basics: select pen tool

(note= Please read the steps given below before doing them)

Step 2:

Click anywhere on the workspace
A black square will appear

Step 3:

Click and Hold where you want the line to end. Do Not leave the mouse. Now drag opposite to the direction you want your curve. A Curve will appear. Move the mouse away from the place you clicked to center the curve. You will notice two lines emerging from the point.

Pen tool basics: handle

YAY! A Curve!
If you try to save this, the curve will become invisible. Bummer.
But there is a way to make this invisible line into a visible one.
How? Here’s how

Step 1:

Select the brush tool (or press B)

Step 2:

Right click on your workspace and see the following image and change your brush settings.
428px is probably to much so set it to a number that you want as thickness of your curve. For example: 10px

Pen tool basics: select brush tool

Step 3:

Select Pen Tool

Step 4:

Right click on your curve and select ‘Stroke Path’.

Select the following options In Tool: ‘Brush’

Select ‘simulate pressure’ if you want to get the faded ends and press OK.

Now your curve is a VISIBLE CURVE!!

but the path still appears. To get rid of it, press delete twice.

Now we know the basics. In the next tutorial I’ll show how I created the shape I used for the balloons wallpaper pack.

Find more tutorials.

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