Is there an easy way to draw Victorian stained glass in Corel Draw?

[Tom Bull]

victorian-lattice&leaves.jpgIs there an easy way to generate shapes like the green ones in this design? In the past I would draw a line and manipulate it with the shape tool and then draw another line and manipulate it to form one of the shapes.
Artistic media can make similar shapes, is there a way to choose one of the media tools and have the brush stroke follow a predetermined course? (I am not steady enough with the mouse to "free hand" a certain shape). Perhaps a better way to ask this question is to say can you turn a line you have drawn already into an Artistic Media curve?

I have a big job pending with 14 new windows and if there is a time saving way of making this type of shapes it would really pay off now.
Thanks for any ideas!

[Mike Null]

Tom

I would look for art on the internet or check your various versions of CorelDraw clipart files.

[Tom Bull]

Thanks Mike, but I am working within set size and design idea guidelines that make stock art not usable for this job.
How did you make the lines on the interlocking hearts Valentine reply you posted recently?

[Walt Langhans]

You probably already know this but just in case not, worse case scenario you only have half of it. If you draw a vertical line down the middle of it you can see that the image is mirrored and corel has a mirror button.

As far as getting the curves go, I too suck at free hand but I have found to most things like that can be done by a series of interlocking circles and ellipsis. You need to look at each part of the design and break it down into it's individual elements and from there it's not too bad. For example:

Untitled-1.jpg

All I did was draw the ellipsis, combine them, added a vertical line across both of them at the ends, and then cut away the lines I didn't need.

Hope that helps.

[Tom Bull]

Once again thanks.
What I am really challenged by are the tapering, undulating, sort of organic shapes.
My old ways work, but was hoping for something in CD that I had totally overlooked.

[Mike Null]

Tom

I made one heart from the toolbar flyout, stretched it a bit, copied it, shrunk the copy a little, centered them, combined and filled them making one heart then copied and rotated it and made them look to be interlocking.

[Steve Clarkson]

Tom......have you tried the B-spline tool? I use it constantly.....and if you are tracing a bitmap image, you just go dot, dot, dot, dot, dot all the way around the image. Even I can do it!!!

[George M. Perzel]

Tom;
The 3 point curve tool will do virtually anything you want interms of curves.
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[Joe Hillmann]

I would do a google search for videos of how to use the bezier tool. Before I watched a few videos on how it worked I found it to be a worthless tool, now that I know how it works it is about the only drawing tool I use other than the square and circle tool.

One huge help in using the bezier tool is, you can change the curve midway through by hitting C but not releasing the left mouse button.

Edit: Also when using the bezier tool when you are drawing the guidelines before drawing the curve only draw it about 1/3 the length of the curve. If you go much more than that your curves get bumpy.

[Steve Clarkson]

Joe,

Not sure what version of Corel you have.......the the B-Spline tool (I think it came out in X5) is just like the bezier, except it draws curves.

[David Fairfield]

Something you can try is the wingding / dingbat selection from free Font websites like DaFont.com. Look for floral type stuff, dowload it to your fonts files. You can easily covert these to vector graphics and select bits and pieces you want. That's actually my go-to source for quick scrolly flowery things. HTH Dave

[Tom Bull]

Thanks to all who have helped.
The B-Spline and 3 point curve may be my new best Corel friends!
The B-Spline is a bit tricky, but very good for long undulating curves, and 3 point is perfect for the semi-parallel lines I need.

[Martin Boekers]

Have you tried googling "Stain Glass Designing Software?" May fields have their own specialized software.