Advanced training on the Pen tool and anchor point editing
So far, we have been focused on creating paths with tools that follow the movement of your mouse, a gesture on the touchpad, or a swipe of a pencil on a tablet.
The Pen tool gives additional control by placing anchor points and direction handles along the path, which you can use to adjust it. The following steps can be used as an introduction if you are somewhat new to this tool:
- Select Pen tool (P).
- Drop an initial anchor point by clicking anywhere on the artboard.
- Move the tool, and then click again to create a straight line.
- Hold Shift while clicking to constrain the straight line to a multiple of 45˚.
- Click and drag the Pen tool to create the direction handles of the anchor point.
- click and drag again to choose the angle and scale of the curve segment, and then release.
As noted in steps 3 and 4, holding down the Shift key while drawing allows you to draw straight lines at controlled...