Learning the nuances of the Illustrator pen tool takes time and practice. I found an exercise created by Belgian-based web/graphic designer Veerle many years ago. I’ve often used her exercise as an in-class project for my beginner design students.
Practice with the Pen Tool in Adobe Illustrator
Veerle created this three-page Illustrator pen tool exercise in 2007; she writes about it on her design blog. She also provides a download link for this exercise from Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5gmjm3vw9jl8dfm/Pentool-exercise.ai.zip?dl=0
In the videos below, I’m sharing tips for beginner design students working on completing the assignment. Good luck!
Remember: Practice. Practice. Repeat. Practice. As Veerle writes, “Once you have done these exercises several times, I hope you’ll understand the Pen tool and its quirks a little better.”
Don’t forget to change your Fill Color to None. When you’re drawing lines, you only need a Stroke Color. If you have white as the fill it will cover your template and make this exercise very hard to complete.
Videos of How-Tos for Using the Illustrator Pen Tool – Practice Exercises
Straight Lines and Curved Lines – Illustrator (all of page 1 in exercise)
Curves with corner points – Illustrator (Bottom of page 1)
Combining Curves with Straight Lines – Illustrator (Bottom of page 2)
Curves with corner points and tweaking handles (all of page 3)
Adobe Illustrator Pen Tool Tips
These are frequently asked questions that students pose while working on this assignment.
