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and Students Since 1994
Corel Draw Portraits
Submitted by: Sue Galos
Retired from St. Clair Secondary School, Ontario, Canada
Lesson: Computer Literacy using Corel Draw
Grade Level: Sophomore (10th grade)
Objectives:
Have students become fluid in the use of Corel Draw.
Students familiarize themselves with a variety of graphic art programs.
Procedures:
Using the tool bar located on the left side of the screen, select the ellipse tool and use it to make a basic face shape. Change the selection to the pick tool and move it to the center of the page. Resize it by clicking on it and dragging the corners as needed.
Fill the oval face shape by using the paint bucket in the Interactive fill tool. Select the radial fill from the menu and fill the interior of the oval. You may notice that the fill tones can be changed as well as the location of the highlights.
Using the outline tool, click on the X to remove the outline on your ellipse, making it more three-dimensional in appearance.
Outside of your page, you can now create more ellipses and change their sizes and shapes by going to the arrange option across the top menu bar and choosing convert to curves. This puts four nodes on your ellipse which you can then drag to create a new shape. Additional nodes can be added by double-clicking on the edge of your ellipse while the shape tool is selected. This allows you to make fine adjustments to the shapes you create. You can now pick up this new shape and place it on top of the face. Several shapes can be grouped together and moved or copied together. Remember that you can easily undo steps by selecting edit/undo from the task bar.
Continue to build up shapes by making ellipses and converting them. You can create all the features by repeating and layering shapes. Hair can be made in the same way. Use the copy and paste option under Edit to save time making shapes. To change how things overlap, go to arrange and then order to send items one back or behind something. To create mirror images for eyebrows, etc., go to arrange and pick transform, then scale and mirror. When working with the features, it's easier to start much larger than you need and then scale it to the right size after.
Once done, use the pick tool and draw a box around the object and then to go arrange and group. This will keep all the parts together so that you can move and/or copy them. The more layers you can create, the more life-like the final result. Remember to include a background; neck, shoulders, and hair.
Corel Draw Tips
Get to know the toolbar at the left of the Corel Draw window.
The pick tool at the top allows you to click on objects and manipulate them.
The shape tool allows you to create nodes on the shapes you draw. These allow you to stretch and otherwise alter the shape.
The zoom tool allows you to enlarge or shrink your view.
The freehand tool allows you to draw a variety of lines. There are other choices in the pull-out tab.
The rectangle tool draws boxes.
The ellipse tool draws circles and ovals.
The polygon tool makes polygons, spirals and checkerboards.
The text tool allows you to add text.
The interactive fill tool allows you to create gradient fills.
The interactive transparency tool allows you to create transparent layers.
The interactive blend tool allows you to blend one shape into another, create 3D shapes, distort shapes, and to add drop-shadows to shapes.
The outline tool creates or removes outlines.
The fill tool allows you to create a variety of color or gray scale fills.
Materials:
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