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Pen Tool Tutorial
Published: 2010-04-07 22:50:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 188169; Favourites: 9443; Downloads: 6368
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Description
Pen Tool Video TutorialHair Coloring Tutorial
If you have any questions, leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer! :3 (And if you use my tutorial, I would be very happy if you could send me a link to your work so I can praise you!) XD
βNotes and Extras
Adobe Photoshop CS III
Please do not redistribute this tutorial.
Art Β© =Popo-Licious
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Comments: 2261
Hmm! Are you using a default brush? Open up the brush selector, hit "reset brushes" and pick the first one. Set it the size you want using the slider at the top. See if this helps~!
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Well , it still looks like a crap 
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I really can't figure out what the issue would be, unless it's how you're building you paths. Have you watched the video part of my tutorial? Maybe seeing that will help you.
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I watched your video but nothing changed :[link] .
I donΒ΄t know , maybe itΒ΄s because of my computer ? I was using Illustrator for few months and lines there were ok .
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Well, the link above looks okay. :3
I looked at the first picture again, and I'm really stumped. You're either making too many anchor points and not using the directional handles enough, which would make your lineart jerky, or your settings are not set as mine are. (First screenshot, circled in orange.) I wish I could help! D:
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I will try to make some linearts on this computer , that will show if iΒ΄am the stupid one or thereΒ΄s something wrong with photoshop or pc . Thanks for your time
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the 'stroke path' option is blanked out and i can't select in my photoshop 7. why is this so? T^T
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Make sure that you're layer isn't locked. :3
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no it isn't. but the stroke path is still blanked out. TT^TT
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Hmmm. The only other thing I can suggest is that you make sure that your settings look like mine from the very first screenshot. The correct options are circled in orange. :3 If this still doesn't help, send me a screenshot!
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oh!!!! now i get it! i lost my anchorpoints before i right click, that's why the stroke path option got blanked out~
thank you for your help~!
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Oh! Well, I'm glad you figured out the issue! Yay!
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in photoshop (i'm new at photoshop) how do you open pen tool
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Please look at the first screenshot. It's shows you what button to select on the toolbar and what options to select. :3
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Ugh, I just don't get it! I'm probably just stupid so XD but how to get the line like.... kind of bold in the middle but the beginning and the ending of the line is a bit thinner but not too much (like almost disappearing)? It looks really clean and good and I spend a day trying to get a perfect line like yours, but no! D: I'm desperate.
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I must not be clear enough in my tutorial because this is the #1 question I receive! >o< You need to set the minimum diameter to 0% for a full fading effect. If you only want slight fading, I recommend between 50-70%. ;3
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It still does't look good to me D: what minimum diameter did you use on hair? 0% looks absolutely ridiculous when i try it.
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As I said, if you only want partial fading, try between 50% and 70%. That's what I used for the hair in the examples at the bottom. :3 Most of the time, you'll need to change the minimum diameter to fit with whatever section of the picture your working on. The percentage you used for the hair might be too light and wispy for the torso, or the face. You need to change it up to fit what you're drawing.
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I'm glad! 
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You are amazing, everything makes so much more sense now.
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EXTREMELY HELPFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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can you make a tutorial for the eye??
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Coloring you mean? Drawing them is pretty simple, and I really don't have a set strategy. If you look around my gallery, it's a little different every time! XD
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ohh..i mean..how do you do the lineart in the eyes??actually i tried linearting one of my drawings...i'm already done with the hair...but it still doesn't have an eyes of i have difficulties in working them...
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Well, when I do the lineart, I usually use a combination of the pen tool and manual drawing for the eyes. If I need to make a big, sweeping line for the eyelids or eyelashes, I would use the pen tool, but for all the little details, I use the normal brush and drop in the lines manually. I shave down the hand-drawn lines with the eraser tool later to give that tapered look, so it might be a little tricky to see where I used which techniques. XD Eyes are complex, so make sure that you're using plenty of layers! (One or two isn't sufficient most of the time.) Also, make sure that you're using the zoom function to really get in there and capture all the details of your sketch. :3
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No way! It looks very, very nice so far! I hope you color it~! >w<
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yay!!!!thank you!!!!i'll practice on the coloring soon
!!!!<3
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This is great! Thanks for the tutorial!
I never really understood how to use the pen tool and lineart, but this just gave me some experience points after trying it out the first time. I still have a long way to go and a lot more practice to do.
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Thanks for looking! I'm happy I could help! >w<
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You're welcome! All I can say is that if you're using Photoshop on a Mac, it can be slightly more confusing when using it for the first time.
All I need now is one of my sketches uploaded using a scanner and I can practice making lineart. Until then, feel free to check out some of the sketches and photos in my gallery sometime.
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It was of great help!
Even though there are some problems with my line when I stroke the path...
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Thanks! Let me know what the problem is and I'll try to help!
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Hmm....
It's difficult to explain ^^"
My lines aren't what they're supposed to be even though I did everything you did. XD
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Are the linea jagged? Bumpy? Do they fade too much on the ends or look too thick? If you post a screenshot I can help. :3
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the lines are bumby and fade too much at the end, indeed XD
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Okay! You can try a few things. :3 First, make sure that you're viewing your canvas at 100%. When you use a big canvas, sometimes the default is 33.3% or something odd like that. Next, make sure that you're using one of the default brushes. Go to the brush selector, hit the "reset brushes" option, and pick on of the brushes in the top row. Finally, go to the brush palette (see FAQ) and set the line spacing to 1%. If the line is too faded for your taste, use the minimum diameter setting and set it to 50%.
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Where do I see when I'm viewing my canvas at 100% ? (I think that is one of my mistakes XD)
If I use one of the default brushes, the edges are rounded. Only when I take the rounded brush thingy the line is like in your example.... ^^"
I'm still pretty new to the drawing on photoshop so bare with me ^^"
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Assuming that you're running Microsoft-anything, at the top of the screen where the program name appears, you'll also see the name of the file you're working on and the percentage of the screen size. (It might be the same for Macs, but I'm not entirely sure.)
The edges are supposed to be rounded on the default brushes. :3 Are you still having issues with the lines? I didn't quite understand you comment. >w<
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Ooooh... I see it now ^^
Thank you.XD
I mean.... Hmm... Well... If I take one of the default brushes, the line doesn't look like the lines on your tutorial.
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If it doesn't look like the lines in my tutorial, than it's definitely an issue with the minimum diameter. The pink line in the main tutorial had the minimum diameter set to 0%. The two drawings at the end were done with the minimum diameter set to 40-70%, but for the last picture, I used the eraser to shave down the lines and make them look natural. :3
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I think it's all sorted out now.
Thanks a lot for your help ^^
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oh my gawd. It looks incredibly hard, but I'll try it. This was a very helpful tutorial, though the pen tool seems time consuming. How long would it take someone to outline, for example, the drawings above?
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The above drawings took between 3 and 5 hours, based on their differing levels of complexity. If I had done the lineart by hand, it would have taken me about 2 to 4 hours, but the results wouldn't have been nearly as nice. At the end of the day, it's better to take more time and get better results than do something quickly but not well. :3
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The LINEART took 3-5 hours, or the whole finished piece?
Oh, and I agree about taking more time to get nicer results
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