Hey guys, today I figured I'd take the
time to teach you some of the basics of one of the
most important tools in photoshop, the pen-tool.

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For this tutorial I will be using Photoshop Cs5

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You can find the pen-tool icon in your
"Tools" window. You'll want to click on that.

If you right click the icon, many other options
will pop up, we will save those for another time..

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Once you have the pen-tool selected,
go to your blank canvas, or image.
For this demonstration, I will be using the Apple logo.

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Now you would want to choose a starting point.
Left click the mouse to make your first point.

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Once you have made your first point,
you will (obviously) want to add other points
to create the "object".

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Simply click at the area in which
you want your second point to be.

Here you may run into a problem if you
have or want a curve in the image.

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This is a very easy fix however.
What you want to do is, when you left
click to make your second point, DO NOT
release your finger. Hold it there and move your mouse
around.

You will notice your path will start to curve.
From here you can adjust it to where you would like.

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Now I will show you another common problem
that can easily be fixed. You'll notice that sometimes
whenever you go to make another anchor point, the
path may go beyond the point in which you want it.



In order to fix this problem, you will want to
(while still using the pen-tool) hold the "alt" for windows,
or "option" key for mac users.

You will want to do this while hovering your cursor over the
point in which is causing the problem.

This will make the pen-tool look different
than it has before. It will cause it to have an
upside down "V" under it.

Once you see this happen, click on that point.
It will cause this to occur:



You'll notice one end of the line has disappeared
from your anchor point. This is good, it will take away
that already set curve from the anchor point.

Next you can just click where you want your next point
and curve it however you would like to.



Now you should be able to
complete your path with no trouble.

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Now, you would like more than
just a path wouldn't you.

For these next steps I will be teaching you how to:

-Stroke
-Make a selection out of that path
-Fill in the path

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There are many ways to preform
these options, but I will teach you one
of the most time-conserving ways..

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Simply right click (with the pen-tool selected)
and you will see the options listed.

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Make Selection

In order to make the selection,
you will right click (as I explained) then
click the "make selection" option.

This box will pop-up along with
many selections.



Again, we will save these for another
tutorial.

Once you have the path selected, you
may do with it as you please.

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Stroke

In order to make the selection,
you will right click (as I explained) then
click the "stroke" option.

This box will pop up along with many
other options.



Again, I won't go into details with it
in this tutorial, but feel free to go ahead
and experiment with it.

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Fill Path

In order to make the selection,
you will right click (as I explained) then
click the "stroke" option.

Yet again, this box will pop
up along with many other options.



Again, I won't go into details
with it until my next tutorial, but
feel free to experiment around with
the options.

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And with that, I would like to
conclude my first pen-tool tutorial.

I really do hope that you learned at least
something from this tutorial.

Any other questions, feel free to PM me.

Thanks and I'll see you in the
Graphics sections!

-Chi