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The Pen tool is very versatile and can be used to draw straight lines, curves and shapes.
In this exercise, we'll be tracing a photographic image of a three leaf clover
using just the Pen tool and creating it into a vector graphic.
To get started, we have to open data file 'leaf.ai'.
To do that, let's go to the File menu, 'select Open'.
Then in the Open Dialog box, go to where the data files have been saved.
Once 'leaf.ai' has been located and selected, click Open.
Once the data file has been opened, double-click on the Layers Panel tab to open it.
Then, click on the Create New Layer button.
Let's rename our new layer by double-clicking directly on the layer's name.
Then, in the Layer Options dialog box, type 'leaf1' in the Name field.
When finished, click OK.
In the Tools panel, find and select the Pen tool.
On the leaf itself, click on the outline of one of the leaves to create your first anchor point.
Click and hold down the mouse on another point on the same leaf's outline.
Then drag your mouse outward to create a curved path to trace the outline of the leaf
in between the two anchor points.
These are direction handles and appear on both sides of an anchor point
They can be used to change the shape and size of the curve segment
What we're going to do next, is remove one of the direction handles by clicking on this anchor point
and removing any influence it has on our next anchor point.
Let's repeat the same steps along the remaining outline of the leaf.
Click to create our third anchor point.
Then, without releasing the mouse, drag it in order to create a curved path in between the two anchor points.
Then click on our third anchor point in order to remove one of the direction handles.
Anytime you make a mistake, you can always go to the edit menu and select undo.
Let's move on to trace the rest of the leaf.
Create an anchor point, then drag the mouse in order to create a curved segment outlining the leaf.
Click on the anchor point to remove the Direction Handle.
Then finish by clicking on our first anchor point.
Then dragging the mouse until it outlines the rest of the leaf.
To adjust the shape of a curved segment after it's been created,
select the Direct Selection in the Tools panel
click on the outline of the curved segment then edit using the curve's anchor points and Direction Handles.
Now we have to the same thing to the reamining two leaves.
Before we do that, let's return to the Layers panel and create another layer
by clicking on the Create New Layer button.
Double-click on the new layer's name and rename it 'leaf2'.
Then, click OK.
Make sure layer 'leaf2' is selected, then back on the artboard,
start tracing our second leaf beginning with creating our first anchor point.
Afterwards, click and drag on our second anchor point.
Then click back on the second anchor point before creating a third anchor point
and dragging on that to create a curved segment between the two anchor points.
Click again on the third anchor point before creating our fourth anchor point
and dragging that to create another curved segment.
Click on the fourth anchor point, then back to our first anchor point to finish tracing our second leaf.
Now back to the layer's panel to create a new layer, double-click on our new layer and rename it 'leaf3'.
Click OK and back to tracing our leaf.
After creating our first anchor point, click and drag on the second anchor point.
Click on the second anchor point, then click and drag our third anchor point
Then click back on the third anchor point. Then, click and drag our fourth anchor point.
Click on the fourth anchor point. Then, click and drag back on our first anchor point.
Next, we're going to use the same idea to trace the stem of the three leaf clover.
To get started, let's create a new layer.
Double-click on the new layer, and name it 'stem'.
Before we start tracing the stem, let's turn off the other leaf layers by clicking on each layer's visibility icon.
Back on the artboard, create our first anchor point somewhere along the outline of the stem.
Create our second anchor point somewhere along the other end of the stem and drag the mouse.
Then click back on the second anchor point. Then, click and drag our third anchor point.
Click back on the third anchor point, then click back on the first anchor point
and drag it until the curve segment outlines the stem.
Click and drag the 'stem' layer below 'leaf1'.
Then, turn the other layers back on.
To create the center of our four leaf clover, create a new layer.
Double-click on the layer and name it 'circle'.
When finished, click OK.
Let's use the Ellipse tool, hidden behind the rectangle tool,
to create a circle in the center of the clover.
Use the selection tool to select and drag the circle to the center of the clover.
Afterwards, drag the circle layer to the very top.
To color our graphic, go to the Colors panel. Double-click on the Fill box,
then in the red box, change it to '173'.
Then the green box to '209'.
Then the blue field to '54'.
When finished, click OK.
To color the leaves, click on a leaf. Then, while holding down the shift key,
click on the stem and the other two leaves.
Return to the Color panel, then in the flyout menu, select 'RGB'.
Then, in the red field, type '110'.
Then, in the green field, type '190'.
Then for the blue field, type '68'.
Click anywhere outside of the graphic in order to deslect it.