Illustrator Pencil Tool: How to Fix the Default Settings for Better Drawing

If you have ever grabbed the Pencil tool in Adobe Illustrator, drawn something with great optimism, and then immediately thought, well, that looks awful, the good news is that it is probably not you.

The default Pencil tool settings are not doing you any favours. They are overly accurate when what most people actually want is a cleaner, smoother, more flattering line. Once you tweak a few options, the tool becomes far more useful for sketchy illustration, tracing over references, and building hand-drawn vector artwork that still looks polished.

Start with a simple document and a reference image

A good way to practise is to create a tall portrait document, such as a web-sized artboard, and bring in a photo to draw over. In the example here, the reference image is placed directly into the document rather than added as a template.

That matters because a template usually fades the image back. If you actually want to use the photo at full strength while drawing, placing it normally makes more sense.

When you place an image in Illustrator, you have two practical options:

• Click once to place it at its original size.

• Click and drag to scale it as you place it, which is much better when the image is massive.

If Smart Guides are enabled, dragging the image into position is even easier because Illustrator helps you line things up as you go.

Lock the background and draw on a new layer

Before drawing, lock the image layer so you do not accidentally move it around. Then create a fresh layer for the vector lines.

This keeps everything tidy and saves a lot of frustration later. Even if you are just sketching something quickly, separating the reference from the artwork is worth doing.

A simple layer setup works well:

• Background for the placed image

• Pencil Drawing for the paths you create

Find the Pencil tool and check your stroke settings

The Pencil tool usually lives under the Paintbrush tool in the toolbar. If you do not see it straight away, click and hold that tool group and choose Pencil Tool.

Before you draw anything, make sure you are applying a stroke. If there is no visible stroke, you can end up drawing paths that technically exist but seem invisible.

If that happens, switch to Outline view with Command + Y on Mac or Control + Y on Windows. That lets you confirm whether the path is really there. If it is, the issue is usually appearance, not the tool itself.

For tracing over a darker image, a white stroke is a handy choice because it stands out clearly.

Why the default Pencil tool feels bad

Out of the box, the Pencil tool tries to stick very closely to your hand movement. That sounds helpful, but in practice it means every small wobble and hesitation gets baked into the line.

The result is often:

• wobbly curves

• awkward corners

• more anchor points than you want

• drawings that look shakier than they need to

If you are freehand drawing something organic, like a pepper shape, the default line can feel clumsy very quickly.

Open the Pencil Tool Options

The fix lives inside the tool settings.

You can open them in one of two ways:

• Double-click the Pencil tool in the toolbar

• With the tool selected, use Tool Options in the Properties panel

Either route gets you to the same place. What matters is changing the behaviour of the tool so it helps you rather than exposing every tiny hand movement.

The one setting that makes the biggest difference: Fidelity

Inside the Pencil Tool Options, the most important control is the one that adjusts how accurate or smooth the line should be.

If it is set toward accuracy, Illustrator follows your path very literally. If you push it toward smoothness, Illustrator simplifies the motion and gives you cleaner curves.

For most people, especially when sketching shapes by hand, moving that setting toward Smooth gives a much better result straight away.

You are essentially letting Illustrator tidy up your line as you draw. And honestly, that is exactly the kind of help most of us want.

Once smoothing is increased, the same rough sketch suddenly looks much more deliberate. It may still not be a masterpiece, but the line quality improves a lot.

Turn off the weird path behaviour

There is another reason the Pencil tool feels strange to many people. By default, it often keeps the last path active and tries to continue editing or reconnecting it when you draw again.

That can lead to confusing behaviour such as:

• new strokes joining onto old ones

• existing paths being reshaped instead of creating a fresh line

• drawing that feels unpredictable from one stroke to the next

If that behaviour does not suit the way you work, go back into the Pencil Tool Options and disable the settings that keep the path selected or allow selected paths to be edited while drawing.

For a lot of people, turning both of those off makes the tool feel much more natural. You draw one line, then another, and Illustrator stops trying to be clever.

A practical setup that works well

If you want a simple setup that feels much nicer than the defaults, use this approach:

1. Set the Pencil tool toward Smooth.

2. Turn off Keep Selected if you do not want Illustrator to keep reusing the last path.

3. Turn off Edit Selected Paths if you want each new stroke to stay separate.

4. Use a visible stroke colour and increase stroke weight while practising.

That combination gives you smoother freehand lines and far fewer surprises.

Use the Pencil tool for the loose shape, then refine it

The Pencil tool is brilliant for getting down an organic first pass. You can draw the overall silhouette quickly, especially when you are aiming for a hand-drawn style.

But that does not mean the first line has to be perfect.

Once the shape exists, you can switch to other Illustrator tools to clean it up:

• Direct Selection tool to move anchor points

• Pen tool to remove unnecessary points

• Anchor point editing to refine handles and corners

• Curvature-style adjustments to improve the flow of the path

This is really the sweet spot. Draw freely first, then edit deliberately.

How to clean up a rough Pencil path

After drawing a line, click it with the Direct Selection tool and inspect the anchor points. You may notice that one area dips too low, bends too sharply, or contains more points than necessary.

At that stage you can:

• drag a point into a better position

• delete extra anchor points with the Pen tool

• adjust the curve until it better matches the intended shape

You do not need to choose between freehand drawing and precision. Illustrator lets you combine both.

The real lesson: bad defaults can make a good tool seem useless

This is one of those classic Illustrator moments where the software can feel harsher than it needs to. It is easy to assume the tool is bad, or that your drawing is bad, when really the defaults are just set in a way that does not flatter most users.

Once you increase smoothing, the Pencil tool becomes much more forgiving. It can help create clean sketch lines, quick traced shapes, and casual vector illustrations without needing perfect hand control.

So if your first attempt looks messy, do not take it personally. Nudge the settings, try again, and let Illustrator help a bit more.

FAQ

Where is the Pencil tool in Illustrator?

It is usually grouped under the Paintbrush tool in the toolbar. Click and hold that tool icon to reveal the Pencil tool.

How do I open Pencil Tool Options?

Double-click the Pencil tool in the toolbar, or select the tool and open its options from the Properties panel.

What Pencil tool setting should I change first?

Start by moving the fidelity setting toward smoothness. That single change usually makes the biggest improvement in line quality.

Why does the Pencil tool keep changing my previous path?

That usually happens because Illustrator is keeping the last path selected or allowing selected paths to be edited as you draw. Turn those options off if you want cleaner, separate strokes.

Can I edit Pencil tool lines after drawing them?

Yes. Use the Direct Selection tool to move points, and use the Pen tool or anchor point controls to remove or refine points and curves.