This is just the basics (cuz thats about all i know for the pen tool, lol). Hopefully some of the other guys will add to this and teach me a few more things! Obviously you don’t want to use this for everything…but after reading sh!t on other tuts about how great the pen tool is I thought I’d give it a shot. So I substituted the pen tool for the lasso tool. I gotta admit, not to shabby.
First open an image and select the pen tool.
Now be sure you click this button (should say paths)
Use your cursor to start outlining what you want to extract. You will just leave “anchor points at each click. You can move your mouse freely and select anything else you need as well. If you screw up just go back to the pen tool. If you click and hold you will see “delete anchor point” I’ll give you three guesses what this does.
Anyway, so as you outline it will look something like this
When you have the whole thing outlined you will need to come full circle and click on the anchor point that you started on (the very first point you made). This will make a thin, solid outline. Its hard to see in my pic so I went outside the lines a little *snickers*.
Once you have the outline go to >window> paths. You should see your “paths” window now.
Select the broken circle in your paths window (load path as selection) as shown below
You should now see the “marching ants” to indicate that your selection is loaded. Now go to select>inverse and hit delete.
There you go.
Pen tool 101
