Because Adobe Photoshop is such a large program, it’s easy to just stick with what you know and avoid some of the tools that appear more challenging. (I knew one guy who seemed to use the Rubber Stamp tool for everything.) The Pen tool is one of those tools people often ignore. It does take a little getting used to, but being able to draw shapes and curves really expands your horizons. Unlike most tools in image editing programs, the Pen tool lets you draw vector shapes. That means you can resize your shape with no loss of quality.
To draw a polygon, you use the Pen tool to click and create “points” on your page. Each time you click, Photoshop creates a line segment. For example, to create a triangle, you click once for one corner point, then again for a second point. A line appears between them forming a side of the triangle. Now click again, and you see Photoshop is forming a polygon. To close the path, hover your mouse over the first point. When you are over the right place, the cursor changes to show a little circle next to the pen. Now click to close the shape. Another way to close the path is to press the Enter key.
Clicking to create straight lines is easy, but drawing curves is a little trickier. Instead of just clicking to create a point, you click and hold down the mouse button while you drag. When you do, two lines appear, which are called Bezier control handles. Drag your mouse in the direction you want the curve to go. Then click to add a second point. Bezier curves in Photoshop work much like they do in vector drawing programs such as Illustrator or Corel Draw. Unfortunately, explaining how to create Bezier curves is one of those things that is hard to describe in writing. You kind of have to do it and experiment with dragging the handles so you can see visually how the change in the handle position affects the shape of the curve. To edit the curve you use the Direct Selection tool (the white arrow). When you click a point, the Bezier handles appear again so you can change the angles.