About Harmony Essential’s drawing tools

This article is about tools that create artwork in Harmony Essentials. If you would like to read about tools that can edit artwork in Harmony, see About Harmony Essential’s artwork editing tools.

Drawing tools in Harmony Essentials can only be used to create vector artwork.

Brush tool

Icon:	Properties:
	Pros: Versatile with a more intuitive feeling to the strokes when drawing.
	Restrictions: Can only change the colour after drawing, not the brush preset or overall line size.
	Can be edited with these tools:

Brush Strokes:

A vector brush line is characterised by an envelope with points surrounding the stroke. Points on this envelope can be edited and manipulated to create changes in the shape. Colours can also easily be changed after the line is drawn.

Pencil tool

Icon:	Properties:
	Pros: Change the size and preset of the line after drawing. Lines are controlled and good for clean-up.
	Restrictions: Does not feel as natural as brush strokes.
	Can be edited with these tools:

Pencil Strokes:

A pencil line is characterised by a centreline or spine when it is selected. Points on this spine can be edited and manipulated to create changes in the shape. 

After drawing a pencil line, you can apply presets directly to the line, change its overall stroke size, or change its colour.

Shape tools

The Shape tools include the Rectangle tool, the Ellipse tool, the Line tool and the Polyline tool.

Shape tool:		Description:
	Rectangle tool	Creates rectangle or square shapes with 4 points.
	Ellipse tool	Creates oval or circular shapes.
	Line tool	Creates straight or curved lines with 2 points.
	Polyline tool	Creates freeform shapes using a series of joined lines that are curved and/or straight.

Shape Tool Properties:

Shape Strokes:

All strokes created by Shape tools are pencil lines, and can be edited with the exact same editing tools and techniques.

This means they have a centreline or spine when selected, and settings like presets, thickness and colours can easily be updated after creation.

Stroke tool

Icon:	Properties:
	Pros: Create invisible strokes that you can fill without having lineart.
	Restrictions: Need to have strokes activated to see unfilled shapes.
	Can be edited with these tools on vector layers:

Strokes:

Stroke tool strokes are represented by a blue vector line when activated. When drawing strokes, it is very similar to drawing with the Pencil tool as strokes are defined by a centerline with points.