How To Use The Pen Tool In Illustrator

Being able to use the pen tool in Illustrator is a very useful skill. You may hear it is a long way of using the Image Trace tool, but it produces a different effect. The Image trace feature does not always pick up the detail. You could combine the two using anchors.. but thats a different story...

Open up a photo, If this is your first time using the pen tool, then keep it simple. I am using a photo I took of some pencils at my desk.

I'm going to start with the green pencil. Click on the pen tool, (the one that looks like a calligraphy pen)
and click wherever you want to start outlining the object/subject. A small dot should appear. This is called an Anchor. Wherever you click again, will create a line between the two anchors.

So I start by making two anchors- creating a line, down the side of the green pencil.

The pink line is the new outline. Now, as I am outlining only the Green section, I will have to curve the line. This is done by clicking the other end of where the curve will be, but instead of letting go of the click, hold it down and drag it in the opposite direction of the curve. When dragging, a second 'dragging' line will appear. Do not worry, this is only to help you move the curve, it disappears after plotting a new anchor.

Before plotting a new anchor, and just after you have finished the curve, click on the same anchor, otherwise, this creates a new curve in the direction of that blue line... and you most probably don't want that. Here I have done the curve and now I need a straight line, so I click for a new anchor. And its simple as that.

Remember, to finish the outline, you must join the first anchor to the last. Like so:

-Heres one I made earlier-

So now I have made an outline of the pencil, I'm going to change the stroke and the fill to the same colour as what the pencil was. If you want to do this , make the fill transparent so you can see just the outline, then click on the eye drop tool (looks like a pipet) and click on the colour.

Once you have this, make the stroke transparent and you have a cool cartoon version of the pencil. This  is just a segment of the picture. The more shapes you go over, like shadows and different lines, the better it will look.

Using the Healing Brush Tool (Photoshop)

Looking to erase some clouds from your photo? I for one get annoying plane streams in sunset photos, and I think they divert your attention from the purpose of the photo.

Open up your image in Photoshop, and click and hold on the 'Spot Healing Brush Tool' until you get a menu of more healing tools. Choose 'Healing brush tool, or alternatively press J.

Once you have this, hold down the alt key so that you have a little circle with a cross when hovering over your photo. Click a part of the image where it is plain and will match the surroundings of where the replacement is going to go. Think of it as a paint pallet, and the part you are clicking on is the colour you will have on your paintbrush.

Let go of the alt key so that you have a plain circle again, and paint over the part you want gone. Photoshop does the rest.

As you can see, the tool has gotten rid of part of the aeroplane stream. Every so often, hold down alt again and select a new part of the photo. This means your photo wont have any repetitive markings.

Final Result

Cool Cartoon Eye In Illustrator

Want to make this cool eye in illustrator?

Level: Begginer/Moderate

Skills needed: Pen Tool, Pathfinder Tool

Heres how:

Make a circle:

Then, using the centre of the circle as an anchor, make a triangle in the top left hand of the circle, at a 45° angle.

Use the pathfinder tool to cut a hole into the circle.

Draw another circle.

Change the circle you have just drawn to whatever colour you want the eye to be, and the 'pac-man' shape to black. 

The blue circle is on top of the black circle so if you right click > Arrange > Send to back

Alternatively, you can move the circle onto a new layer and drag that new layer to the bottom.

then move the black shape onto the blue circle.

Open a new document and make a circle, then copy and paste it so you have two identical circles.

Move them on top one another so they look like a venn diagram.

Their edges should touch the centre anchor of each other.

Then use the pathfinder tool > intersect. this makes a shape that is made from the overlap.

Take this new shape and turn it exactly 90°. You can do this by holding shift and rotating it with corner 

'rotate' icon. this appears when you put your mouse on the corner of the shape object box.

Now make it white and use the selection outline to see where you are putting it, (you wont be able to see the actual shape)

Then once you have positioned it, Add a cartoon skin tone, I opted for pink but you can match it to your comic book character.

The pink box will be in front of the eye, so again, right click > Arrange > Send to back.

with the pen tool, Draw a curved, skinny triangle in the left top corner. Make it the same colour as your eye, but a tiny bit lighter.

Add a small white circle on top of the black shape.

Go to the toolbar at the top and find Effect > Stylize > Feather. this will bring up a small box. Set the radius to 7px. Press Ok then draw a similar shape to the light blue one, or you can copy and paste this, then mirror it, but that is more difficult. Make it black.

Huzzah.

Using The Pathfinder Tool (Illustrator)

One thing I have learned to love in illustrator is the 'Pathfinder' tool. I use it all the time and it can become extremely useful.

In this demo, I am going to make a simple example logo, using just basic shapes in Illustrator.

First, I started with a circle.

 Then I made another circle, In another colour. (this helps to see the placement)

 Then I selected both shapes by pressing cmd + A or ctrl + A (for windows users). Opening the pathfinder tool by pressing shift + cmd/ctrl + F9. Alternatively you can go to window > pathfinder.

 After getting this toolbox up, I clicked on 'Minus Front'.

 Now, I got a nice 'moon' shape, then I copied and pasted it, reversed it and made it intersect with its mirror shape. Take a look:

 Then I used the pen tool to make a simple triangle, using the two bottom points as anchors... An easier way is to select the polygon tool from the shape menu and click, bringing up a menu, asking you to specify how many points you want the polygon to have. Type three and a triangle will appear, then stretch this to fit over the two bottom points. Like this:

Then I merge the three shapes together, again with the pathfinder toolbox, this time using the 'merge' tool.

It will become one shape. This makes it easy to change the colour all at once and move as one shape.

In a new document, I made this arrangement:

I did this because I wanted to make a cartoon representation of some waves. I did this by using the 'minus front' pathfinder tool again.

Then I cut this into the other document I was working on, added some colour, made the stroke transparent and added some text. The font is 'Source Sans Pro Light', a personal favourite.

Huzzah.

Using the Image Trace tool in Illustrator

CS6 has a new tool in town, and I am going to show you how to use it.

Grab a photo that you want to trace, and open it up in illustrator. 

Tip: the higher the photo quality, the better the results.

Heres a picture of my new macbook pro box. cool.

Click the 'Image Trace' button, found in the top toolbar. 

(Circled below)

This should produce something similar to this. If not, your image is either not eligible- this could mean its too low quality, or too many similar colours in the image.

In the same location where the 'Image Trace' button was, there should be a button that says 'Expand'. Click this so that you see all the main shapes surrounded with coloured selection lines.

Once you have done this, right click or (ctrl + click for mac users). You will see a drop down menu. Press 'Ungroup'. This is also found in the 'Edit' toolbar. Do this once, and try clicking on individual objects. If you cannot, try 'Ungroup' again.

Huzzah.

Adding a Glossy Look to Your Logo (Illustrator)

Making your logo look that tiny bit more classy. 

Level: Beginner

Making a program or an app icon in Illustrator? Want to know how apps have that 'sheen' look? look no further.
first things first, open up your vector logo in Illustrator. Here I have a basic shape, commonly used for mac icons. I have added a gradient, and made the lines invisible, of course this is just an example...

Next, press cmd + A (Mac) or ctrl + A (Windows) to select all and every object in your logo. I only have one, so I can just click on it. A coloured line should surround the image with a box. (the box did not show up in the screenshot).
.

Once you have done this, click shape tool and select the tool which matches the shape of the outer line of your logo. In this case, I would select the circle tool.
Tip: Click and hold the mouse for the shape tool menu.

Create and equal sided shape by holding shift before you make the shape. I have made the circle roughly 30% smaller than the logo shape.

Now I have the circle, I am going to add a gradient. Open the gradient tool box by clicking the 'gradient' tab. Once you have done this, click the small box in the left top hand corner to make the shape have a gradient. These two buttons are circled in pink.
(If you don't have this toolbar, go to the help section and type in 'Gradients')

Once again you have to have the logo selected (cmd/ctrl + A). Once you have done this, click on the gradient bar so that two little 'house' shaped arrows come up on the left and right.

Set the angle above this to 90°.

Click the left 'house' arrow and set the opacity to 0%, then click the right one and set the opacity to 50%. 
(50% is my preference, but you can try out some different opacity levels).

Huzzah.