Basic Pen

page four
Try the fish, next. Repeat the process I used for the moon.

  1. Drag the shape
  2. Save the path
  3. Load the path as a selection
  4. Make a new layer in the Layers palette
  5. Stroke the selection (Edit > Stroke), and then deselect the outline
  6. Turn off the visibility of the stroked shape
  7. Go back to the Paths palette and select the shape with the black arrow
  8. Use the convert point tool to change all points to corner points by clicking once on each of them
  9. In the Layers palette, restore the visibility of the stroked shape
  10. With the convert anchor point tool, try and recreate the shape
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Above, fish shape with points colored red so you can
see them


Above, fish outline, stroked, and path with all points
changed to corner points

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Displacing Textures 		To reshape the fish, I started by clicking with the convert anchor point tool on the point at the intersection of the top of its back, and tail, and dragging downward. When the curve matched the back’s curve, I pressed Alt (with the mouse button still pressed down), and retracted the bottom handle into the point, see below.

I next clicked once on the top corner of the tail; this segment was a straight line. Then I worked on making the cusp points in the back of the tail. I dragged a handle from each point until the trailing curve was correct, then pressed Alt, and dragged to rotate and fit the next curve.

If you need more help, you can draw a duplicate fish below the one you’re working on. Whenever you get stuck, select it with the black arrow, then click on the point you need help on with the white, direct selection arrow to have a look at how the handles should be drawn. See an example below.
     If you really want to master the pen tool, I would recommend doing this exercise with increasingly difficult shapes. I’ve created five more shapes with their anchor points colored in red on the next page. If you print out that page, you can use it for reference while you do the exercises. It helps to have the anchor points colored so you can sort them out from the handles.
Continue on page five		  
 

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Copyright © 2004 by Jay Arraich.
All rights reserved.
All photographs copyright ©2004 by Jay Arraich
jay@arraich.com
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