Adobe Illustrator is a fantastic vector creation tool and you can create a lot of things without ever using the Pen Tool. However, if you want to use Illustrator at its full potential, I personally believe that you need to master and become proficient in working with the aforementioned Pen tool. The inner workings of it aren’t easily explained in text form so that’s why I resorted to Pen Tool exercises. Remember that it is a tool that needs patience, and a lot of practice until you really master it.

一个多贝插图是一个梦幻般的向量生成工具，你可以创建很多事情而没有使用钢笔工具 。 但是，如果您想充分利用Illustrator的潜力，我个人认为您需要精通并精通使用上述Pen工具。 它的内部工作原理不容易以文本形式解释，所以这就是我诉诸Pen工具练习的原因 。 请记住，这是一个需要耐心的工具，并且需要大量练习才能真正掌握它。

笔工具 (The Pen Tool)

When you have been using Adobe Illustrator as long as I do, you tend to forget how difficult and confusing it can be for beginners. Way back in 2007 I got inspired by a PDF document by the University of Massachusetts that is no longer available. They had one exercise that sparked the idea to create my own extended version.

当我一直使用Adobe Illustrator时 ，您往往会忘记它对初学者来说有多困难和令人困惑。 早在2007年，我就受到马萨诸塞大学(University of Massachusetts)不再提供的PDF文档的启发。 他们进行了一次练习，激发了创建我自己的扩展版本的想法。

这个怎么运作 (How it works)

You simply follow the numbers and the instructions to complete the exercise. The point you need to aim at in each step is the center of each numbered colored dot. Depending on the instructions, you either have to click, click and press, or click and press and then drag, while sometimes holding down the shift or alt/option key. The document is created in 2 layers. The bottom layer, called template contains the instructions, and is locked. The top layer is the ‘working layer’. This layer is unlocked, and by default already selected. So this is the layer you’ll be working on.

您只需按照数字和说明完成练习即可。 您在每个步骤中要瞄准的点是每个编号的彩色圆点的中心。 根据说明，您必须单击，单击并按下，或者单击并单击然后拖动，同时有时按住Shift或Alt / Option键。 该文档分为两层。 称为模板的底层包含指令，并被锁定。 顶层是“ 工作层 ” 。 该层已解锁，并且默认情况下已选择。 这就是您将要处理的层。

Once you have done these exercises several times I hope you’ll understand the Pen tool and its quirks a little better.

几次完成这些练习后，希望您能更好地理解Pen工具及其怪异之处。

I’ve used big colored dots for you to click in with the number inside. There are 3 different colors: BLUE, RED and GREEN. The BLUE ones don’t require any dragging, but involve clicking, and often clicking and pressing. The RED ones, involve dragging, and sometimes a key needs to be pressed as well. The GREEN ones also involve dragging, but this time dragging one of the handles of the anchor point you’ve just created, while holding down a key first (alt/option). The document is more extended as it now contains 3 pages, starting with the easiest exercises first, and ending with an actual drawing of a simple tree, and a random swoosh shape.

我用大色点让您点击里面的数字。 有3种不同的颜色： 蓝色 ， 红色和绿色 。 蓝色的不需要任何拖动，但需要单击，并且经常单击并按下。 红色的涉及拖动，有时还需要按下一个键。 绿色的也涉及到拖动，但是这次拖动您刚刚创建的锚点的手柄之一，同时先按住一个键(alt / option)。 该文档的内容有所扩展，因为它现在包含3页，首先是最简单的练习，然后是一棵简单的树的实际图形和一个随机的旋风形状。

Once you have done these exercises several times I hope you’ll understand the Pen tool and its quirks a little better. To be honest if you want to become proficient in Illustrator you can’t live without it. The Pen tool can be used for many purposes like re-tracing a bad logo that you got from a client or creating your own art or virtually anything else you can dream up.

几次完成这些练习后，希望您能更好地理解Pen工具及其怪异之处。 老实说，如果您想精通Illustrator，就离不开它。 笔工具可用于许多目的，例如重新查找从客户那里得到的不良徽标，创建自己的艺术品或几乎可以做的任何其他事情。

Photoshop的钢笔工具 (Photoshop’s Pen Tool)

When you become good at it you can use it in Adobe Photoshop too. One example could be to remove an image from its background. You draw a path around it. However, the Pen Tool doesn’t work in exactly the same way. For example, you need to hold down the option/alt key for combining curves with straight lines instead of just clicking in the anchor point. Adobe should make the Pen behavior the same in all their apps, that would make things easier. Unfortunately I said that in 2007 and now 13 years later its still not fixed, so don’t get your hopes up :)

当您精通它时，也可以在Adobe Photoshop中使用它。 一个示例可能是从背景中删除图像。 您围绕它绘制一条路径。 但是，钢笔工具不能以完全相同的方式工作。 例如，您需要按住option / alt键以将曲线与直线结合起来，而不是仅单击锚点。 Adobe应该在所有应用程序中使Pen行为相同，这将使事情变得更容易。 不幸的是，我说过，在2007年和现在的13年后，它仍然没有得到解决，所以不要指望了:)

下载 (Download)

• Download the Illustrator Pen tool exercise document for CS5 or higher

  下载CS5或更高版本的Illustrator笔工具练习文档

This document is just a starting point, but I hope it helps you to understand how the Pen tool works, and how you can get better and better in mastering this essential tool. Enjoy!

本文档只是一个起点，但我希望它可以帮助您了解Pen工具的工作原理，以及如何在掌握这一基本工具方面变得越来越好。 请享用！

This article first appeared on Veerle’s Blog 4.0

本文首次出现在 Veerle的Blog 4.0上