How to use the pen tool in Illustrator

Today I have a video tutorial for you on how to use the pen tool, one of the most essential tools for digital illustration within Adobe Illustrator. Enjoy!

EDIT:

After making this video and learning more about the pen tool, I realized that I was doing something wrong in this video. You see me clicking on points as I make them to delete one of their anchor points. I never explained why I was doing this, but it was so that Illustrator would allow me to make larger, more flexible curves.

DON'T DO THIS!

While deleting anchor points does give you more flexibility, it also limits the smoothness of your curves, and creates "kinks".

This is an example of an illustration I made - can you see the kink? One side of the flame is very smooth; the other side has a jagged angle.

You don't want your illustrations to look like this!! :-)

Only delete anchor points if you want a jagged angle like that, if you're making a sharp corner or point. (For example, the tips of the flames in the above illustration.) If you're trying to make smooth arcs, practice making more points and smaller curves. This will eliminate the problems that come with making curves that are too large.

A word of caution: Don't use too many points. You want enough that you can make your shapes look natural, but you don't want any more than you need. The more points, the larger the file size. Just something to keep in mind.

Well, now you know how to do it correctly... so, happy pen-tooling!