The Pen Tool is the most powerful drawing tool - there is in Illustrator, and you may have heard of it, - you may have even used it before.

Well, you don't necessarily - need the Pen Tool for every project you create.

It can make your life easier when you get into drawing - and editing vector artwork.

Now, to get comfortable with it, - the Pen Tool is going to take practice.

But if you take it slow and practice - before you know it, you'll have it.

Let's begin with the Pen Tool basics so you can start - to feel comfortable using it.

We'll draw some of the parts - of this little alien.

To start, at least - when you're learning the Pen Tool, you want to turn off Smart Guides.

You can do that in the View menu.

That way, what you draw won't snap - and smart guides won't show, which could be really distracting.

Select the Pen Tool on the Toolbar and before you start drawing anything, you're going to set your Fill and Stroke.

Remove the Fill color - in the Properties panel and change the Stroke weight to 2 - just so it's a little thicker.

That can actually make it easier - to see the path as you're drawing it.

And make sure the Stroke color is black.

See the asterisk connects to the pointer?

That means you're about - to create a new path.

Come to an empty area and let's start.

Click and release to start a path - and make an anchor point.

Then move the pointer and you'll see this little rubber band or preview of what your path - would look like if you click.

Click and release.

To stop drawing, press the Escape key.

You've just created a straight line - with the Pen Tool.

Now let's practice making some lines - with the Pen Tool by drawing these teeth.

I'll zoom in a little bit.

Starting here on point one, - click and release to start a path.

Then click and release on point two.

Click three and release.

Keep clicking and releasing on each point and if you make a mistake, - you can always choose Edit, Undo Pen and then click - to make that one point again.

You'll also find the paths you draw - can be edited later using other tools.

So don't worry if the path - doesn't follow the template exactly for now.

Move the pointer - over the first point you made and when a circle shows next to it, click to close the path and stop drawing.

Now when you create paths - with the Pen or even the Curvature Tool, you'll make points where you want the path - to do something different, like with a straight line, - if you wanted to change direction, you're going to add points - where it does that.

You can also use the Pen Tool - to create curves, and this is where it can get really fun.

Let's go to this artboard - with the antenna on it In an empty area, click and release so you can start a new path.

Move your pointer, then press and drag to create a curve.

You'll find the more you drag, - the more curve the path has.

Release the mouse button.

These lines are called direction lines.

They're coming off - both sides from the point and they're for editing - the curve of the path.

They're like little magnets - pulling on the path.

Some people like to refer - to these as just lines or even handles.

To stop drawing, press Escape.

Now you'll draw the antenna - using what you learned.

So starting at point one, click and release to make a point.

Now to curve the path, press and drag on point two, but don't release the mouse button yet.

The further you drag - from the anchor point, the bigger the curve is.

Now, the line here controls the path - before the point, and the line up here controls the path - after the point.

Drag into the path before the point looks like the template path, then release.

Press and drag on point three - and drag until the path before the point looks - like the template again, then release.

Press and drag on point 4 and release.

Same thing with point five, - press and drag, and release.

When you gotten to point six, - simply click and release.

To stop drawing the path, go ahead and press the Escape key.

If you want to practice, you can actually pause the video - and try the antenna on the right.

Otherwise, let's keep going.

Go to the artboard down here, - the one with the mouth on it.

To draw the mouth, This time you're going to start - by drawing on a curve.

So from point one, - press and drag to the right, release when the direction lines - look something like this.

Move over to point two, press and drag, making sure the path - before the point looks good.

Then release.

Now if you move the pointer, the path preview shows - what the path would look like.

It would be a curve - because of this direction line.

We need the path - to completely change direction at this point so you can split direction lines, - so they go in different directions and create a corner.

Move the pointer - over the end of this direction line, press Option or Alt and drag to split the handles.

Now you want to drag - in the general direction of where the path is going to go next, down here.

And the longer - you make this direction line, the more curved it's going to be - in the next part of the path.

Release the mouse and then the key.

Knowing where to drag - these direction lines and how far to drag them out - is going to take practice.

Don't worry about that.

Now press and drag from point three - to make sure the path looks good before and release.

The next path needs to be straight.

To do that, - you can remove this direction line, so it doesn't curve the path.

Click back on the point - to remove the handle on this side of that point.

Then come to a point four, - click and release.

Now the next part of the path - needs to be curved, so you need a direction line to control that part of the path - to curve it.

To pull out or create a direction line, press and drag from the point - and drag it roughly up here.

Come to point five, press and drag - until the path looks right before and then release.

Now to make a corner, - you're going to split the direction lines.

So press Option or Alt and drag the end - of the direction line down.

Release the mouse and then the key.

To close this path and make the mouth, move the pointer - over the first point you made, and the pointer - will show a circle next to it, which means if you click, - the path will close.

Press and drag - from that point to the right until the path looks right, then release.

To turn the Smart Guides back on - for later lessons, Choose View, Smart Guides.

If you made it this far, you did it.

You know the basics of the Pen Tool.

Keep practicing these techniques - you've learned, you'll definitely be on your way - to mastering the basics of the Pen Tool.

Like I said earlier, if you want to, you can take an image, put it in your file, and actually trace the outline - or trace a simple part of it and see what happens. -