Master the Pen Tool in Adobe Illustrator

Are you a master of the pen tool or does the pen tool master you? Want to learn how to draw letterforms with as few points as possible? The first step of mastering Adobe Illustrator is learning to use the pen tool. Watch and learn the pen tool best practices from master designer Chris Do.

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Credits:
Executive Producer– Chris Do
Host– Chris Do
Director– Erica Pead
Cinematography– Aaron Szekely, Mark Contreras
Editor– Stewart Schuster, Erica Pead
Annotations & SEO – Isaiah Nwukor
Typefaces: Futura, Din, Helvetica
Futur theme song— Adam Sanborne

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*By making a purchase through any of our affiliate links, we receive a very small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps us on our mission to provide quality education to you. Thank you.

[fraicheness]

This is literally the best explanation of the pen tool and I'm coming here after years of struggle, a Skillshare course and several other YT tutorials. Thank you, guys!

[gidkideon]

In the illustrator class I had way back in the day, our final test had us tracing several things, including a "pen tool maze". We were graded on not just how accurate we were with the lines, but how few nodes/points it took us to complete them. Was really hard but a good test. Watching this video totally reminded me of that test! Good stuff.

[pixelandbracket]

Great explanation, didn't know about option-clicking! Would love to see more tutorials on the channel 😉

OH SNAP... CMD+Option+J

[Leo.Peccini]

Cheers from Manaus, Amazonas, Brasil! Awesome tutorial! Very clarifying.

[breppbrepp]

Thanks guys, great again. CMD-Option-J is a gem.

[ApocalypseKIDONE]

Just found this channel! As an illustrator I don't tend to use adobe illustrator that much, I usually hand draw all of my work on my tablet in photoshop. Something about Illustrator always turned me off, it seemed too technical, a bit less "illustrator" friendly ironically! But your video's have been helping me out a lot!

[steper]

Thank you for uploading this, I was just about to comment on wanting to see more tutorials on the channel. I enjoy the wealth of info but sometimes following along is awesome.

[Sabrilintu]

Thanks!!! I have been using Illustrator for so long but I still suck using the pentool, this seems really helpful, Ill practice!!

[thomaskee]

Useful AF. Working a project right now that is really exposing some of my weaknesses in Illustrator to me; this helped a lot.

[mostafaa.]

Can you please make an episode about managing colors and typography for ui design?
colors combinations and themes, and font styles choices.
Many thanks!

GREAT Info...This whole video was awesome...!!!

[amritamatharu]

Excellent tutorial, really helpful! thank you

[fishface]

Cool thanks. Can you explain more of the hot keys you are doing? And translate them to us Windows folks? Thanks for this.

[punterash]

Respect+ for sharing a beautiful training technique. But the closing credit reel seals the deal.

[inglesfacilito]

Thank you very much!!! I really needed this! ;)

[mashable]

MAN I JUST LOVE THE FUTUR AND CHRIS AND THE WHOLE TEAM <3

[GursimranSingh]

Awesome video, can you please tell me Which Software Are you using to record your desktop videos ?

[ChunkyChest]

@2:45 It's actually called an *anchor* type to be more specific.
<3 you Chris, Keep up the great work!!!

[neji]

Great video! Super helpful. But how do you enter "Preview" mode?

[abcrxj]

Is there something to keep in mind to know how much do you have to stretch the curve controler in order to get a desired result or it's a trial and error process?