Here’s a little “doodle” that I was working on honing my skills with the Pen Tool aka rockin’ the Bezier Curves:

This can be accomplished on the awesome open source software called Inkscape. Works on both Linux and Windows based computers. Don’t let the version number scare you away from this fine illustration tool, it’s pretty much professional quality already. And how can you not love a company who’s motto is “Draw Freely”.

Ok, I’m going to use screenshots from Inkscape to replicate Goldy, to show you how to use the Pen Tool, hands-down the most challenging tool to use in vector graphic illustration.

Once you have Inkscape successfully installed, open it up to the extensive main window. Click the image below if you want to see this image full size.

Next, you’ll want to download Goldy, so right click Goldy above and choose “Save as…” to save her to your desktop. We will use Goldy as a background to “trace” over as we use the pen tool.

Let’s open Goldy with File | Import, that way she will be automatically on the bottom layer.

Ok, it’s a bit small right. Easy enough to fix with the very handy “Zoom to Fit” button in the middle of the top toolbar:

Next we’ll set the Opacity of the Goldy layer to 60%, so we can just barely see the outline of the image. Click on the Opacity box, the [ O: ] in the bottom and type in 60, or whatever you want here. Also click on the Lock icon, to make this layer fixed. That way, as your working with the pen tool, you won’t accidentally edit the Goldy layer.

Cool thing here, to switch between layers, all you have to do is click the down arrow next to the layer name and select the layer you wish to work on.

Now we will Add a Layer, called Practice, on top of Goldy to use the Pen Tool on. Click on Layer | Add Layer from the top toolbar. See how the bottom layer is showing thru with the Opacity you set.

Alright, let’s get to work! First thing though, in Inkscape…it’s not called the Pen Tool. I don’t know why, it just not. It’s the Bezier Tool, so click on the Bezier Tool button on the left Toolbar:

The Bezier Tool

Click on this area of Goldy and then click somewhere on the arch of her back, see example below, and then release the mouse and press the Enter key on your keyboard to close this Bezier line.

Now, this is where it gets fun…and tricky! Press the Shift key and hold it. Click and drag on the second handle in the Bezier curve you created. See how you can adjust the arc of the curve now – sweet!

And that’s the basics – see the Pen / Bezier tool is not to be feared but conquored! Part 2 of this tutorial will be on how to add nodes to existing paths, which will give you the ability to create wave lines and multiple curves on one line.