Photoshop - CS2 - CS3

Lesson 62: Vector-based shapes (6)

62/85 Lessons 

Make your own custom shape (Pen Tool 1)

As an example, I draw my own shape with the “Pen” tool, but you can obviously do this with every tool in Photoshop.
We let go our friend here with her shorts.
That they also may come among men, but not true.

To make things easier for me, I placed a number of guides in the picture.
I zoom in on the image, so I can see what I’m doing.
Select the “Pen” tool in the Tool Box.
les62_image01_en

One more thing.
When we work with the “Pen” tool, we also frequently use the “Direct Selection” Tool, the white arrow in the toolbox, do you remember?
To quickly switch from the “Pen” Tool to the “Direct Selection” Tool, hold Alt key on your keyboard pressed.

OK, let’s begin.
Click (called an anchor point), with the “Pen” Tool selected, the picture where you want to start and drag in the direction that you want to draw the line.
This drag determines the direction of the line.
les62_image02_en

Release the mouse button.
Click (this is the second anchor point) and hold the mouse button, at the point where you want the line to end.
Drag the mouse pointer left, right, top or bottom, until the line has the correct shape.
Each line you draw with the pentool has two handles. At least when you click and drag the anchor point that you have defined.
You can use each of these levers to correct the shape of your line.
For our second line we have to change direction (first line went upwards and the second line should be to the right).
With the Alt key pressed, click on the second anchor point and drag out in the direction you want.
This is by no means the entire size of the drawn line. If Photoshop knows where you want to go, that is enough.
Release the mouse button.
OK, now we determine the direction of our second line.
les62_image03_en

We click on the next anchor point and drag the handle until the second line has the right shape.
One more thing, set the “opacity” (transparency) in the shape layer to 45% or something, then you can still look through your shape and you know where you are in the picture.
les62_image04_en

Ok, now the third line.
First, we determine the direction (Alt key pressed, remember?)
And only after that we click the place where the third anchor point needs to be.
Click and drag the handles to determine the correct shape of the line.
les62_image05_en

We continue in the next lesson.

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You've completed Lesson 62
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