Vectordiary

Day 4: Drawing with Pencil Tool

By Tony Soh Posted on July 17th, 2008

We can quickly draw shapes and lines quickly using the Pencil Tool. This lesson will show you some of the tricks in drawing smooth and fluid lines.

Drawing a Line

Select the pencil tool and click and drag to draw a free hand line drawing.

Closing Paths with Pencil Tool

To close a path, hold Alt/Option as your Pencil Tool reaches the start point. A circle icon will appear next to the Pencil Tool to indicate path closure.

Smoothing Jaggy Lines

Normally when you draw with the Pencil Tool, the path looks jaggy. To smoothen the parts that are jaggy, simply hold Alt/Option to turn the Pencil Tool to Smooth Tool. Then draw over the the area of the lines which you would like to smoothen.

Reshaping Path

To reshape a path, make sure your path is selected and use the Pencil Tool to redraw the parts you would like to reshape. Note that the start and end path must be close to the original path to make it work.

Pencil Tool Preferences

You can turn on the Pencil Tool Preferences by double clicking on the Pencil Tool. You can change the fidelity and smoothness to find a combination that works for you.

Fidelity: Determines how close the path is drawn to your mouse movement. Set it at a higher fidelity if your not good at drawing with your mouse.

Smoothness: The higher you set for smoothness, the less anchor point it produces. Thus, producing a smoother line.

Next Lesson: Drawing With Pen Tool »
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About The Author: admin

Hi. I'm the founder of Vector Diary. Illustrator is my passion and I have written numerous tutorials on illustrator helping people learn illustrator. My most popular tutorial on learning illustrator in 30 days has been a hit. It makes learning illustrator so easy and has benefited more than 20,000 people worldwide. Also, I've revealed some of my secret techniques in the premium tutorials. So don't forget to check it out!

Read all articles writen by this author

• Day 5: Drawing with Pen Tool
• Day 3: Drawing Basic Shapes
• Illustrator Tutorial: Sketching a Boat with Graphics Tablet
• Illustrator Blend Tool Experiments
• Illustrator Tutorial: Surprise Gift

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+Add Comment17 Comments

1. 
   Webstandard-Team July 17th, 2008

   Simple, but very effective. Thx Tony!

2. 
   Nizam July 23rd, 2008

   Thanks very much for this tutorials. I learn much. thanks again. God bless you.

3. 
   Eli July 31st, 2008

   Both links lead to the table of contents at the end of this article.

4. 
   ArtConch August 6th, 2008

   Excellent lesson and very clear, I now feel lots more confident using the pencil, thank you so much

5. 
   G August 8th, 2008

   thanks x the tutorials, u r really helping me trying to figure out Ilustrator

6. 
   Fareed September 13th, 2008

   i never understood Reshaping Path, can any one explain it!

7. 
   gB September 15th, 2008

   Thank you so much for your tutorials, I been trying to find a good one for a loooooooong time. Im just getting started with Graphic Design, coming into it from another field, so needless to say im clueless!

   You wouldnt believe how many sites out there say they have tutorials, and then when you get to it, they dont TELL you how to find the tools, on a basic level.

   Your tutorials are awesome!

8. 
   Kevin October 8th, 2008

   As Fareed mentioned, the reshaping part wasn’t clear but once you go to the Pencil Tool Preferences menu and select the ‘Edit selected paths’ option it works.

   Excellent tutorial, thanks.

9. 
   gibori October 23rd, 2008

   Por fin alguien que puede explicar claramente como se utiliza el pencil tool.

10. 
    Dipika December 4th, 2008

    Simple but Excellent!!
    I requesting to you for others sorftwares tutorials (Flash, Dreamware, Photoshop) to post here.:)) Because your tutorial is very simple anyone can understand and lean lots.thank you somuch

11. 
    Vectordiary December 4th, 2008

    Hi Dipika, Yup sure.. New stuff will be coming out very soon.

12. 
    Dipika December 6th, 2008

    Really!!!! wow that’s great news. I’m so glad to know that.. let me know when you will be post new stuff. once again thak you so much may god bless you! ^_^

13. 
    Jothikumar March 28th, 2009

    Very much helpfull to learn illustrator

14. 
    sonda mvula May 7th, 2009

    Tony thanks for this tutorial, it is helping me to be more confident using illustrator now, concerning that am basically self tought. And now i can start on my on illustrations.
    THANKS AGAIN….My God richly bless you.
    p.s. is there any tutorials like this for photoshop?

15. 
    Zuana Vincent May 19th, 2009

    I will like to know about Kindergarten Books and even get a set to help Kindergarten Children

16. 
    rxdazn June 3rd, 2009

    Awesome tutorials. Thank you a lot.

17. 
    nadia December 28th, 2009

    very easy to learn tutorial…love it