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- Illustrator's pencil and painting tools

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are all very well and good.

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In fact, if you ask me,
they're very well and great.

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But from Illustrator's perspective,

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they amount to an attempt to
understand a foreign language.

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Think of it this way,

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when you drag, particularly with a mouse,

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you draw a rough, irregular line.

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In previous versions of Illustrator,

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the program tried to smooth that line

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using an averaging algorithm.

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The result was a glumpy version
of what you originally drew,

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only it looked like wiggly, garbagey junk.

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Nowadays both the pencil
and the blob brush

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are so smart, they try to
predict your intentions.

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Illustrator may interpret one
gesture as a straight segment,

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the next as a smooth arc.

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In fact, if you take a close look

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at the stuff we created
in the last two chapters,

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just about everything can be construed

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as a combination of lines
and variously scaled arcs.

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In other words,

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Illustrator is translating your gestures

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to the points and segments that it thinks

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you are meaning to create.

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Which is great.

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But if you're serious about
mastering Illustrator,

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you have to at least
occasionally express yourself

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in the program's native language.

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That is by drawing a path outline

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one anchor point at a time.

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See, each anchor point
anchors the path outline

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to a specific location.

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And then that anchor point

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pitches a straight or curving segment

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to the next anchor point that you draw.

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It's like a game of baseball,

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except the basemen are the anchor points.

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In this chapter the coach,

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the guy who's directing
the basemen/anchor points,

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is the new curvature tool.

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In the next chapter we'll
meet the other coach,

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the revamped pen tool.

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In both cases, it's a whole new ballgame,

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as you're about to see.