This is good for when a nice even line looks too artificial. Here is an example:

I find I use this most often when redrawing white lines on black areas.

1. Select the Brush Tool.
2. Click on the tab at the top that says Brushes.
3. Click on Shape Dynamics to bring up the options.
4. Change Minimum Diameter to something around 30-35%
   • This controls how tapered the line will be. As you move the Minimum Diameter slider around, you’ll see the wavy line at the bottom change to reflect your selection.
5. Close the tab.
6. Choose the Pen Tool and make your path like normal.
7. When you go to Stroke the path, make sure Simulate Pressure is checked.
8. The stroke should now taper at the beginning and the end of the path.

We’ll start with this panel:

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First, if you’re doing HQ cleaning that requires redoing the gray areas, you’ll have to create a layer of gray that covers the gray area.

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Next, reduce the opacity of the gray layer so you can see the original line art.

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We’re going to start with the jaw line. Just like in the Intro to the Pen Tool, click the pen on one side of the line you want to trace. Then click on the other side, and a path will appear connecting the two anchors.

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Click on the path in between the two anchor points to create a new point. Now hold down CTRL (CMD for Macs) and drag the new anchor point. Place the new anchor point so that the path overlays the line you want to trace.

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Now right click and stroke the path (don’t forget to set the Brush Tool to whichever width you want to make the line).

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And now we have a smoothly curving line! While the Pen Tool is great for curves, sometimes you’ll want to use the Line Tool (shadow lines on the neck) or Brush Tool (eyes).

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But what if the line first curves up and then down? You’ll need more than one anchor point, and you may need to tweak the handles. Here is a series of screenshots of where I placed my anchors for this curve. I circled the anchors added in each step. (Sorry for the big pic, but I wanted to zoom in enough that you could see the path).

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Alternately, instead of starting with anchors at the beginning and the end of the line you’re redrawing, you can place anchors as you go along.

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Remember, the Pen Tool isn’t just for redrawing line art in gray panels. It can also be used to trace over broken lines or to create an artificially clean image to be colored.

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Once you feel comfortable making paths and using the Pen Tool, check out the next section!

This guide will explain the fundamentals of the Pen Tool and the types of shapes you can make with it.
First, select the Pen Tool. This is what my Pen Toolbar at the top looks like:

Now, click once on your page, and you’ll see a dot appear. Move the Pen to a new location and click again. Now you have a line with a dot at either end. The dots are called “anchors”‘ and the line is called your “path.”

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The reason we use the Pen Tool is to make nice, beautiful curves that you simply can’t do by hand. So far, though, our path is a line. To change that, first click in the middle of the path. That creates a new anchor. Hold down the CTR key (CMD key for Macs) and drag the new anchor point around. The line becomes a curve!!
Please note the line that extends from your new anchor point and the dots at the ends of that line. Photoshop calls these direction points and direction lines, but for my purposes here, I’m going to call them handles.

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These handles control the roundness and direction of your curve, so play around a little and see what they can do! To move the handles, hold down the CTR key (CMD key for Macs) and drag the point at the end of the handle.

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But what if you don’t want a curve? What if you want a sharp point? Glad you asked! After making a curve like before, hold down the ALT key (Option on Macs) and click on the middle anchor point. Note that the handles disappear because there is no longer any curve to control.

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But wait! What if we didn’t want to convert that path into a point?! What if we want our curve back? No worries. Just hold down ALT again (Option for Macs), click on the anchor point, and drag in any direction. Voila, your handles have appeared again!

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Okay, so we have our path, but now what? If you saved your page as a png right now, the path wouldn’t show up. That’s because you need to do something TO the path. For our purposes here and now, we’ll just worry about “Stroke” and “Fill.”

Stroke means you draw a line along your path.

Fill means you color in the area inside your path. If your path does not connect at one end, Photoshop will automatically finish the shape.

Once you have the path you want, right click to bring up the menu. From here, you can choose to “Stroke path” or “Fill path.” If you stroke the path, you can choose which tool will trace your line. I recommend the Brush Tool because it is anti-aliased. Make sure you have your Brush Tool setting at the width you want to stroke the path with. You might have to select the Brush, change the width, and then go back to the Pen to stroke.

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So to sum this section up:

1. Clicking with the mouse creates anchors.
2. Holding down CTR while clicking lets you drag things around. (CMD for Macs)
3. Holding down ALT while clicking on an anchor converts it from a curve to a point or back again. (Option for Macs)
4. Right click and choose “Stroke” or “Fill”

Once you feel comfortable with making these basic curves, let’s move on and see how we actually use the Pen Tool for cleaning.