Adobe Illustrator Tutorial using Pen Tool
This Adobe Illustrator Tutorial will be a part of our Resource and Beginner Guides to help assist you in creating a workflow for your own artwork. This Tutorial is our Pen Tool Beginner Guide and Workflow. LEARNING TARGET (1): Select a Primary Building Tool that best matches your own artwork or is the easiest to use (Pen, Pencil, or Shape Tools). LEARNING TARGET (2): If you are new, pay attention to the order and sequence of events that I apply to my artwork. I will be adding Brushes to my Line Work before doing Expanded Editing. LEARNING TARGET (3): Download and Save (Updated) Brush Libraries to your “User-Defined” for Quick Access.
GATHERING PHOTOS: Start with your own photography or a properly licensed stock photo — never a random image pulled from a search engine, since you won't actually know its usage rights. A single, clearly-lit subject with a simple background gives the AI the cleanest signal to work from; a busy, cluttered photo forces it to guess at what in the frame actually matters. Higher-resolution source photos consistently produce better results than anything compressed or blurry, since detail that isn't in your original photo can't be recovered afterward. → PHOTO TO STYLE PROMPTS
PREPPING YOUR SKETCH: For anything using our Sketch to Brush Prompt Packs, a clean scan or photo of your sketch matters more than a perfect drawing. Even lighting, with no shadows or glare across the paper, and real contrast between your pencil lines and the paper make a genuine difference in how accurately the AI reads your linework. Photographing with your phone instead of scanning is fine — just shoot straight-on rather than at an angle, and crop out everything except the actual drawing before you attach it. A rough, loose sketch works fine, since the AI is built to clean it up, not judge your draftsmanship—but a sketch it can't see clearly will produce a result that drifts from what you actually drew. → SKETCH TO BRUSHES
"BUILDING" ARTBOARD: I will recommend a (1080px by 1080px, 300PPI, RGB) as your Initial Artboard Size. The Initial Artboard Size can be changed at any point without ruining your own artwork. Use the Properties Panel to Scale Artwork and Artboards. LEARNING TARGET (1): Create a "Building Template" that includes Artboard Size, Resource Type, and Template Layers. LEARNING TARGET (2): Pick a "Building" Artboard Size you can use for your own Artwork and Social Media Postings. → ARTBOARD SIZE FINDER
ARTBOARD SIZE FINDER: Not sure what size to set up your artboard before you start designing? Tap a card below to see the exact pixel dimensions, color mode, and resolution for logos, brand marks, profile icons, and common digital canvas sizes — so you're set up correctly in Adobe Illustrator before you draw a single line.
→ ARTBOARD SIZE FINDER
FILE - PLACE: File -Place in your own Drawing, Sketch, or Traced Stock Photo. I recommend starting from a Clean Line Drawing or a simple Traced Stock Photo for your artwork and designs.
SCALE TO FIT: You can modify the size of the artwork using the Bounding Box or Scale Tool. Scale to Fit Artbaord. Align the your Artwork to the center of the Artbaord using the Align Panel.
TEMPLATE LAYER: In the Layers Panel, drop down in the menu for Template (50%) or double click on the layer for properties (Dim 10-30%). Lock Layer. Create a New Layer above for Building.
ANCHOR POINT GUIDES: Select your workflow, type in your subject, and this tool assembles a detailed AI image generation prompt designed specifically for Adobe Illustrator practice exercises — Choose from anchor point guides, tablet sketch construction diagrams, and shape-based Pathfinder breakdowns, across three difficulty levels. → PRACTICE EXERCISE PROMPT BUILDER
GENERAL PREFERENCES: All of our initial preferences are designed to gain more control over what you are clicking on. The more you can zoom in and see your anchors and handles the better. You can adjust the size of your Anchors and Handles under Selection and Anchor Display. Under your General Settings, make sure that Disable Auto Add/Delete is Selected.
SELECTION TOOLS: The Direct Selection Tool can grab and adjust the Anchors, Handles, and Paths. It is worth having your Smart Guides Path Labels Turned On so you know what the tool is selecting before dragging. The Selection Tool will move and select objects. I like using the Bounding Box for my Transform Tools, Turn On under View. I recommend this for Quick Scaling.
PEN TOOL: If you are frustrated with the Pen Tool, a simple tip is to break down the process into 2 Steps. The first step is to just apply Anchor Points to the start-curve-end of a line or path. The second step is to adjust the Curves with the Anchor Point Tool or Smooth Curve Button in the Control Panel.
ELLIPSE TOOL: A good place to start if you are new to Adobe Illustrator is our Beginner Guide (Shapes). We will be going through Building with Shapes, Align Panel, Pathfinder, and Basic Color Fills. There are Beginner Guides for the Pen Tool and Tablet if you are new to the website or Adobe Illustrator.
PENCIL TOOL: Many of you are looking to use your Tablet with Adobe Illustrator. I am going to recommend breaking down your current tablet workflow into multiple steps. I do see a lot of mistakes when people try to combine too many steps all at once with their new tablets.
PRIMARY BUILDING: Many of you will be using Shape, Pencil, and Pen Tools as your Primary Building Tools. Focus on the most obvious solution first. If it appears as a line, use the pencil or pen tools to trace it. If it resembles a shape, utilize the shape or ellipse tool. Do not overcomplicate the initial building step. ACTION STEP: Go through the Building Tools Workflow Guides on Teachable (Shape, Pen, Tablet, and Text Tools - account required). Remember to "Print" the Checklists (Account Required). → WORKFLOW GUIDES → LINEAR WORKFLOW
PRIMARY BUILDING TOOLS: Many of you will be bouncing from the Ellipse Tool for Shapes and the Pen or Pencil Tool for your Linework. Once you know the Primary Building Tools you can start prepping your sketches and drawings directly for Adobe Illustrator. CHECKLIST: For your own artwork, use the most obvious Primary Building Tool to lay down your initial paths and objects.
BRUSH LIBRARIES: Many of you are jumping over from YouTube looking to download our Adobe Illustrator Brush Libraries. Once you have downloaded and extracted the folders, Brushes are ready to be used in Adobe Illustrator. BEGINNER: Start with our Resource Guides to understand how to download, save, and open Brush Libraries in Adobe Illustrator. ADVANCED: As I create my artwork, pay attention to the Building Tools, Brush Application, and Editing Options as it relates to building a "Workflow." → DOWNLOAD BRUSHES → BRUSHES GUIDE
CARTOON BRUSHES: Most people get stuck at one of two spots — they have a sketch, but can't build and ink it cleanly in Adobe Illustrator. This combo fixes both ends: sixteen AI prompts turn your rough sketch into clean, professional cartoon linework, formatted for Midjourney, Gemini, ChatGPT Images, Kittl, and Canva — then the actual 70-brush library lets you finish and edit it by hand in Illustrator.
COMIC STRIP BRUSHES: Real comic art has that bold-outline-to-fine-detail depth, and it takes forever to learn by hand. This pack gets you there faster: sixteen AI prompts built around that exact classic hierarchy, formatted for Midjourney, Gemini, ChatGPT Images, Kittl, and Canva, plus the 100-brush download to polish the final linework in Illustrator yourself. AI gets you 90% there, your hand gets you the last 10.
MASCOT BRUSHES: Mascot work has to hit hard on a T-shirt, not just look good on a screen. Sixteen AI prompts give you that bold, hand-inked mascot energy straight from a rough sketch, formatted for Midjourney, Gemini, ChatGPT Images, Kittl, and Canva, and the matching 50-brush download lets you finish it by hand in Illustrator so it's print-ready. Sketch rough, finish with real brushes.
Downloads and Prompts live inside full course format resource guides through Teachable.
Copy the ready-made prompt - One click — no prompt-writing needed.
Paste into your AI tool - Generate the result in seconds.
Subscription Model -Updates Included - 365-day access includes every update to the pack.
PRIMARY PROMPTING: Instead of manually aligning Building Tools to your sketch's Shapes, Lines, and Curves, let AI generate your starting point. Attach your rough sketch, copy the prompt for your style, and the AI handles the inking — clean, professional linework aligned to your original drawing, ready to bring into Illustrator for tracing and finishing.
PATH SIMPLIFY: Whichever AI Prompt Pack or Concept to Vector option you used, the vector conversion likely placed more anchor points than you actually need — this is normal, not a mistake on your end. Before you move into coloring, select your paths and run Object > Path > Simplify. This reduces the anchor point count while preserving the shape of your line, using the Curve Precision and Angle Threshold sliders to control how aggressive the cleanup is.
COLOR SWATCHES: Use Color Swatches from your Library or save them from Adobe Color as an .ASE File. Open Swatch Library from the “Other Library” Option. Most Color Themes will use Hues as the Base Color. We will be using Live Paint to create our Basic Fills or Flat Color Layer.
LIVE PAINT: Coloring will be extremely easy using Live Paint Bucket. The goal of Live Paint is to create Shapes that we can color using Fills. Once you have completed the Live Paint Group, it is important to Expand and Upgroup. We will leverage these shapes for our Values and Gradients.
KNIFE TOOL: After using Live Paint, Expand and Ungroup. Use a Duplicated Flat Color Layer for your Value Layers. The Knife Tool will cut Shapes. I recommend cutting out all of the shapes first before deleting them. You can use this technique for Highlights, Shadows, or Cast Shadows.
COLOR SWATCHES + THEMES: Download or Save Color Swatches (Adobe Color) for your own artwork and designs. I recommend gathering and organizing resources within the same project folder (Stock Photos / Sketches / Thumbnails / Color Swatches).
SAVE OR DOWNLOAD SWATCHES. You can save Color Themes for your own artwork and designs. If you have CC, click add to Library. You can also download Color Swatches as an .ASE File to open through "Other Library" in the Swatches Panel Menu.
FILE PREP: An exported PNG looks blurry when the document is saved at a low resolution or when the anti-aliasing drops processing frames. To fix blurry PNG exports, verify that your export resolution is set to 300 PPI. Additionally, change the anti-aliasing option from "Type Optimized" to Art Optimized. This instructs Adobe Illustrator to prioritize smooth line work and vector curves rather than prioritizing text rendering.
EXPORTING: The best export settings for a high-quality PNG are found by navigating to File > Export > Export for Screens. Set the format to PNG, choose a scale multiplier of 2x or 300 ppi for high-resolution displays, and ensure the anti-aliasing setting is explicitly set to Art Optimized (Supersampling). This combination guarantees that crisp vector outlines remain perfectly smooth when converted into a raster image file.
