When you click and drag on a segment between two curved points the segment and the direction handles on the anchor points move. Notice how, as you drag the anchor point, the shape of the path changes.

When you click on a curve anchor point, you’ll see the direction handles which define the direction and size of the curve. Both anchor points on each end of the segment move too.Ħ. Notice that this time the segment you’ve selected moves, as does the segment which is attached to it. Click on the segment between the middle anchor point and the last anchor point (on the right hand side). The segments attached to the centre anchor point are affected.ĥ. Drag down and you’ll see how the anchor point you’ve selected moves while the anchors at each end of the line remain the same. When the anchor point is selected the anchor point appears as a filled box. Click once to select the anchor point in the middle of the line you’ve drawn.

Make sure no points are selected by clicking a blank area of the artboard to deselect all points.Ĥ. Select the Direct Selection tool (that’s the white arrow) on the Tools panel.ģ. Start by drawing out a straight line with the Pen tool. We can also change a curved segment by dragging the direction handles to change the size of the curve and the direction of the curve. When we move a curved segment, the curve changes, but the anchors connected to curve stay in the same spot. When we move a straight segment, the anchor points on the segment move with it. When we move an anchor point, the segments that are connected to it change. We can go back at any time to a path and add, delete and move anchor points and segments. It’s not unusual to have to edit a path you’ve drawn with the Pen tool, particularly when you’re starting out it can be difficult to draw a segment right the first time. In fact most of what we’re covering today can be applied even if you used a Shape tool or any other path-creation tool. In this post, we’ll take a look at how to edit those paths we’ve drawn with the Pen tool. In the second part, we saw how to create curves and circles and the slightly more tricky aspect of combining curves with straight lines. In Part 1 of this series, we looked at how to create straight lines using Illustrator’s Pen tool.

Pen tool illustrator