Photoshop Pen Tool Tutorial
Continued from page 1
Creating Bézier Curves with the Photoshop Pen tool
Using Photoshop's Pen tool to create a straight line is as easy as clicking from point A to point B (Fig. 7). To constrain the line to a horizantal, vertical, or 45º diagonal line you would hold the shift key while you click point B. You will notice that the active anchor point is a solid box (point B) and the inactive anchor point (A) is an empty box.
Drawing Paths with the Pen Tool
To create the arc shown in (Fig. 8) you would click and drag point A upward while holding the shift key to constrain the motion vertically. This will create a "Control Line" with a Control Handle". Next you will click point B dragging the Control Handle to the left. Holding the shift key will constrain the dragging motion in a horizontal plane.
Now we will distort the arc's shape (Fig. 9) by clicking on one of the Control Handles and dragging it toward the upper-right. The active anchor point (B) is solid and the inactive anchor point (A) is an empty box. When you release your dragging motion the new shape will appear.
Technical Note: If the stoke is not active you can re-activate it while in the Pen tool mode by holding the Command key while clicking anywhere along the stroke.
We will now add a third anchor point (C) to our diagonal line in Fig. 10. By clicking this cursor along the path you will create a new anchor point. When we add a third anchor point to Fig. 11 you will see Control Lines and Handles appear (D). These new Control Lines and Handles assume the correct positioning to follow our arc as it was before this addition. Now we will drag Control Handle D downward and to the left Fig. 12. The Control Handle acts like a magnet, pulling the arc in the same direction as your dragging motion.
Technical Note: When you position the cursor over an active path while in the Pen mode a "plus" sign will appear next to the cursor. When you position the cursor over an existing anchor point while in the Pen mode, a "minus" sign will appear next to the cursor. If you click on the existing anchor point it will remove it from the path.
When you position the cursor over the last anchor point in an open path while in the Pen mode a "0" will appear next to the cursor (Fig. 13). This indicates that the path will be closed after clicking on anchor point B from anchor point A. Once the Path is closed you can make a "Selection" out of the it (Fig. 14) by "Command>Clicking on the Path in the "Paths" pallet shown in Fig. 4 above. With the path selection made you would stroke the selection using the "Stroke" pallet found in the menu bar. Fig. 15 shows a 1 pixel (1 px) stroke weight with 100% black.
Technical Note: Remember that the line thickness is controlled by the "Stroke" pallet shown in Fig. 3 above. To stroke the line directly under the path you would use the "Center" setting under the "Location" setting.
Conclusion
Although this is a very basic lesson in the use of the Photoshop's Pen tool and its ability to create shapes and curves, by using the techniques discussed in this tutorial there is no limit to the complexity of the shapes you can create.
The Acura NSX line art (below) was created entirely within Photoshop using only the "Stroke Selection" feature to stroke each path after it was created. This line art took approximately 210 hours to complete using the techniques described in this tutorial. To see how this line art was painted go to: Cutaway "Ghosting" Technique.
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