Paths or shapes, as mentioned, will often have a stroke or fill that is applied when the selected path is being drawn with the Pen Tool. You can see the current colors in the Toolbars panel. Refer to Figure 7-36.
Figure 7-36. Swapping the fill and stroke for an open path using the Toolbars panel while the path is selected
While drawing, you can switch or swap the stroke and fill colors by pressing Shift+ X. In other situations, while you are using the Pen Tool or before you start, you may want to set your fill to none. I find this is best when you are tracing over a placed graphic image on a locked layer or a template layer as you will see locked layers later in the project in Chapter 8 as we talk about layer order. Refer to Figure 7-36 and Figure 7-37.
Figure 7-37. Creating a template layer to trace over for practice
While using the Pen Tool, you can easily click your Toolbars panel and switch the fill to none. Do so by clicking the square with the red slash through it while the fill is in front of the stroke. Refer to Figure 7-38.
Figure 7-38. Setting the fill to none while using the pen tool for tracing
This will make it easier to trace over the template or underlying graphic.
Note Besides having a path with no fill, you can also have no stroke while tracing over another path though doing so does make it difficult to locate the path afterward. Paths with no fill or stroke are used for the purpose of text on a path, clipping masks or envelope meshes to partly cover a path or shape. I will mention clipping masks briefly in the section “Combining Shapes with the Pathfinder Panel” and the section on “Clipping Masks and Compound Paths.”