Make a Cartoony Pencil in Illustrator--tutorial.jcwcn.com

Draw a Pencil

Set your Fill to none, and your Stroke to black.
Select the Pen tool (Press P on your keyboard).

Pen Tool, Fill and Stroke

Draw a basic pencil shape.

Basic Pencil Shape

Add a few details.

Add Details

Select all: Ctrl+A (Mac: Cmd+A).
Open the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke).
Increase the stroke weight. I chose 7pt.

7pt Stroke

Change the strokes into outlines: Object > Path > Outline Stroke.

Outline Stroke

Let’s make the pencil all one piece. Open the Pathfinder panel (Window > Pathfinder ).
Alt+Click on the “Add to shape area” icon.

Expand Shape

Now rotate the pencil a bit to add some movement. Double-click on the Rotate tool in the Tools panel.
Enter a degree of rotation. I chose 30.
Press V to select your Move tool, and click somewhere outside of your drawing.

Rotate the Pencil

So there’s our basic clip art pencil. We’ll make it cartoony on the next page. Save your file.

You’ve already changed the strokes into shapes with their own outlines. What was once stroked in black is now filled with black. This means that the outlines can be pull apart from each other, or moved closer, at various places. You can also create some curvy junctures. Hey, you can even put strokes on your new outlines if you want to go crazy.

Select the Direct Selection tool (press A on your keyboard). This tool allows us to manipulate individual points and path segments on a path.

Direct Selection tool

Click on the very outer edge of the long side of the pencil. If you click right at the edge, and away from any points, you should see all the points on the path for the outer line show up.

Select the Outer Path

Zoom in all around using the Zoom tool (Z).
Use the Delete Anchor Point tool (-) to delete any unnecessary points (represented by white squares with blue outlines).

Too Many Points

Extra Points Deleted

Using the Direct Selection tool again, click on one of the interior outlines.
Repeat the process of deleting extra points if necessary.
Zoom back out and click on a line segment anywhere.
Click on one of the points and drag the point out a bit.

Click and Drag a Point

Repeat for various points on this outline and the interior outlines. We want unevenness.
You may need to readjust the handlebars for points that create curves. Click and drag on the blue circle at the tip of the handlebar.

Adjust Point HandleBars

Zoom in to work with details, but zoom out every so often to check the overall effect. Are some things too exaggerated, and others not enough?

Check the Overall Image

We’ll attend to one last detail on the next page. Save your file.

The pencil point is too sharp and scary for a cartoon effect. Let’s soften it.

Use the Direct Selection tool (A) to select the path point at the very tip.

Select the Path Point

Select the Add Anchor Point tool (+) and click to add two points on either side of the tip, a little ways up.

Add Two Points

Select the Convert Anchor Point tool which is in the flyout menu for the Pen tool (or press Shift+C).

Convert Anchor Point tool

Click and drag on the tip point to convert the point to a curvy line. If you drag one way and the path seems to overlap itself, swing your direction around the other way.