Bezier curves are an essential part of most computer art. It is with these that we are able to make smooth curved shapes on our drawings and art work.
Adobe Fireworks "Pen Tool" is a great beginner's Bezier curves maker, and is a good launch pad into Adobe Illustrator and other graphic art applications.
I start my junior high school students off using the Pen Tool in Fireworks to create straight lines and angles. They are given a glass with an olive like this:
It is then their task to add straight lines with the Pen Tool to create a city background for an imaginary James Bond movie poster. The fun comes when the CS3 Fireworks styling effects are applied to create some amazing final results like this image:
Once students are confident with dot to dot straight lines with the Pen Tool, we progress to holding down the mouse button at the end of a line segment, and then moving the mouse to create smooth Bezier curves.
The brief to students this time is to create an umbrella using Bezier curves, import some clip art, and stylize the image to create a final result like this one:
The following set of instructions explain how to use Fireworks Pen Tool Bezier curves to draw a basic umbrella.
If you would like to have your own full size copy of this PDF, then simply click the save disk icon button on the PDF viewer, and you should be able to save it to your own hard disk.
Alternatively, you can view or save the full size PDF by clicking the link below:
Students are also shown how the Pen Tool combined with stylizing can be used to create "Grafitti" style tag names like this one:
Students make straight lines, curved lines, and also apply styling effects.
They also import other graphic items, and some even use layers in their work.
Shown below are some of the creations from my Year 7 and 8 students.
The following Wondershare slideshow gives examples of student's work that was made using the Abobe CS3 Fireworks Bezier Pen Tool.
If you would like to see the above slideshow full size, then click on this link: http://www.passyworld.com/passyHTMLs/BezierShow.html
It's as easy as putting pen to paper; so get started in Adobe Fireworks with the Bezier Pen tool. You will soon see all the fun you can have making some really classy art work.
Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi
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