Draw a Heart in Pages

Check out another great Valentine's idea in this article

Here is a quick way to draw a Valentine's heart with Pages tools. 

1. Rough shape, four points

1. Open a blank document, click on Shapes in the tool bar and choose the Draw Tool. You can also access Draw tool via the main menu: Insert>Shape>Draw a Shape. Draw a rough outline first by clicking five times with the little pen of the Draw tool, the fifth click is onto the first point – to close the shape. You now have a shape that looks something like in the first picture.

2. Next step – make the shape editable. Under Format menu slide down to Shape and choose Make Editable.

2. Curved, editable shape

3. Next, make the shape curve – Format>Shape>Smoothen Path. After that you have a shape that looks something like in the second picture.

4. Now, the heart shape should have a sharply outward cornered bottom and an inward cornered dip in the middle at the top. Here is the trick to achieve this. The red points (dots) of an editable shape allow you to edit it – change its contours. Click on the red point and when it turns white double click on it. The curves will turn into a corner. Next double click on the editing point in the top middle. 

Tip: if you accidentally go off the shape, make it editable again by clicking, pausing and clicking again – two clicks, not double-click.

3. Cornered bottom and middle top

After this you will have a shape that looks something like in the third picture. 

5. Next you need to give the heart the curves to give it a finished look. The editing points at top left and right will show 'propellers' when you click on them. Click on the white points at the tips of the propeller and drag. Drag propeller points out or in (extend or shorten them) to make the curve more rounded, drag propeller points up and down, left and right to change the flow of the curved shape. Move the editing points one by one to change the look of the shape. 

Tip: editing points will try to align themselves against each other if snap-to-grid function (or alignment guides) is on. To disable it temporarily while you work on the shape press Command key as you move the points. Alternatively, use keyboard key to move the points.

6. When you are satisfied with the look of the shape, play with the thickness and colour of the outer border (Stroke, in Graphic Inspector). To add volume to heart try giving it gradient (changing) colour fill, try changing the direction of the flow of colours by rotating the wheel in Graphic Inspector. In the example above the deeper red colour is a slightly adjusted Marascino and the pink at the bottom is a slightly modified Salmon.

See how to draw wrinkles, mouth and nose in this article and how to make droopy eyes here.

This is the finished image: