Once I was delivering a very complicated lesson about logo designing in my CorelDraw class and the principal of our institution was standing behind me, observing my way of teaching. When I finished the lesson, his assistant came to me and told me that he was expecting me in his office. When I reached there,I found him discussing something with the head of the department. He gestured me to sit down and after five minutes or so, all teachers were there in his office. He revealed in front of us that he had observed our way of teaching and he was not at all satisfied with it. Simply because in his regard, it was so complicated and there seemed a very little or no chance for the beginners to understand any lesson delivered by us thoroughly. He insisted on easy but meaningful lessons so that our students could have a neat hand with all the tools. He believed that everyone with a neat hand in CorelDraw tools could be able to design complicated logos with little effort of his or her own. By the time we left his office, we were all convinced that he was right. Next day we discussed the matter all over again and decided to plan some easy but meaningful lessons to make our students familiar with CorelDraw tools. The first few lessons we planned and delivered after all that episode were about the illustration of the flags of different countries with the help of CorelDraw tools and our first and foremost lesson was about the illustration of the flag of our own country and that is Pakistan.
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| Image of Pakistani flag made by the use of CorelDraw tools |
That was, of course, one of the simplest and easiest lessons I had ever delivered as a graphics instructor, but I admit at the same time that it was proved highly useful for our students and they understood a few basic but highly important uses of CorelDraw tools and options without making any deliberate effort.
How to illustrate Pakistani flag using CorelDraw X6?
First of all create a new document by getting inside the file menu and clicking the option New or by hitting CTRL + N.
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| Options and sub-options of File Menu |
As soon as you will click that option or hit CTRL + N, a window or dialogue box will be appeared named Create a New Document.In that dialogue box there will be seen a box called Name and a few drop-downs. Type the name of your document in the Name box and select CorelDraw default as Preset Destination. As soon as you will select CorelDraw default as Preset Destination, there will be left not need to touch the rest of the options given in the window called Create a New Document, so just click OK to have a new CorelDraw document to work on.
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| Dialogue box referred as Create a New Document |
Having created a new document, select Rectangle Tool out of the Tool Box (that can be seen on the left side of CorelDraw window) by clicking on it or by hitting F6.
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| Rectangle Tool in the Tool Box |
As soon as you will select that tool or hit F6, the pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign and there will be appeared a small rectangular shape at the bottom right of it. After that, put that plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse at any place on the page, keep the left button of your mouse pressed and drag it to draw a rectangular shape on the page.
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| Rectangle on the page |
After that, select Pick Tool (that is used for selection, re-positioning and transformation of different shapes and objects in CorelDraw) out of the Tool Box by clicking on it.
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| Pick Tool in the Tool Box |
As soon as you will select that tool, the pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a black arrow. Put that black arrow shaped pointer of your mouse at any place inside the newly made rectangular shape and click the left button of your mouse once. As soon as you will do so, the rectangular shape will be selected and a few black square shaped dots will be appeared around that shape.
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| Selected rectangular shape surrounded by black dots |
As green color is supposed to be filled inside the shape and in it's outline, so put the pointer of your mouse on your required green shade in the color palette (that can be seen usually on the right side of CorelDraw window) and click the left button of your mouse once. As soon as you will perform that action, your required green shade will be filled inside the shape but it’s outline will remain black.
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| Shape with black outlines |
In order to fill the same green shade in the shape’s outline, once again put the pointer of your mouse at the same green shade in the color palette and hit the right button of your mouse once. As soon as you will do so, the same green shade will be filled in the outline of the shape too.
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| Shape with green outlines |
Then, create a duplicate of that green rectangular shape by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the optionDuplicate or by hitting CTRL + D.
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| Option referred as Duplicate, in the Edit Menu |
As soon as you will select the option Duplicate out of the Edit Menu or hit CTRL +D, a duplicate shape will be appeared on the page.
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| Rectangular shape along with it's duplicate |
After that, select the Pick Tool again out of the Tool Box by clicking on it and then select the duplicate shape with the help of it.Then put the black arrow shaped pointer of your mouse on the thumbnail that represent white color in the Color Palette and click the left button of your mouse once. As soon as you will select that thumbnail by hitting the left button of your mouse ,white color will be filled inside the duplicate shape, but it’s outlines will remain green.
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| Two shapes: No longer identical |
In order to fill white color in the duplicate shape’s outlines, select the same thumbnail by hitting the right button of your mouse. As soon as you will do so, the outline of the duplicate shape will turn white.
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| Two entirely different colored shapes on the page |
After that select the white shape with the help of Pick tool and put the pointer of your mouse on the square shaped black dot that will be seen at the right end of the selected shape. As soon as you will put the pointer of your mouse on that black dot, it’s shape will be changed and it will assume the shape of a black double sided arrow.
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| Mouse pointer with altered shape |
Then, keep the left button of your mouse pressed and drag it inside the white shape to decrease it’s width.
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| width of white shape is being reduced |
Having decreased the shape’s width, put the pointer of your mouse anywhere inside the duplicate shape. As soon as you will do so, it will change its shape again and assume the shape of a four sided black arrow.
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| Four sided arrow shaped pointer |
Then keeping the left button of your mouse pressed, put the white shape on the left side of the green shape by dragging your mouse in the required direction.
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| White shape on the left no longer visible |
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| Ellipse Tool in the Tool Box |
As soon as you will select that tool, the pointer of your mouse will again assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with small elliptical shape at the bottom-right of it. The next thing which is supposed to be done right after that is the drawing of a perfect circle. In order to draw a perfect circle, just put the plus sign shaped pointer of your mouse anywhere on the page, keep the CTRL key and the left button of your mouse pressed at the same time and drag your mouse in any direction, and you will have a perfectly drawn circle on the page.
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| Perfect circle |
Having drawn a perfect circle, create a duplicate of it by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Duplicate or by hitting CTRL + D ( as it has been explained earlier). As soon as you will select the option duplicate or hit CTRL + D , a duplicate circle will be appeared a bit diagonally on the initial circular shape.
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| Duplicate circle is placed diagonally on the first circle |
Then, make the selection of both circles simultaneously by holding SHIFT key and clicking on both circles one by one. As soon as you will make the selection of both the circles, shaping options( including Weld, Trim, Intersect, Simplify, Front minus back, Back minus front and Create boundary ) will be appeared in the Property Bar right beneath the Standard Tool bar.
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| Menu Bar, Standard Tool Bar and Property Bar |
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| Shaping options |
As soon as you will select that option , the part of the first circle hidden behind the duplicate circle will be trimmed off and disappeared.
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| Circular shapes after trimming |
Then delete the duplicate circle by hitting the key Delete . As soon as you will hit Delete key, duplicate circle will be disappeared leaving a nice looking crescent behind. Then using Pick tool, put that crescent on the green rectangular shape.
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| Crescent on the right place |
Then, fill white color inside the crescent and in it’s outline by selecting the thumbnail representing white color in the color palette twice by hitting left and right buttons of your mouse respectively.
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| White fill in the crescent |
After that put the pointer of your mouse at the small bottom-right arrow that can be seen beneath the Polygon Tool in the Tool Box and hit the left button of your mouse once. As soon as you will do so, a menu containing five options will be appeared.
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| Five options in the Polygon Tool Menu |
Out of those options , select Star Tool. As soon as you will select that tool, the pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of a plus ( + ) sign with a small star shape at the bottom right of it. Then put that pointer anywhere on the page, keep the left button of your mouse and CTRL key pressed together, and drag your mouse to draw a perfect star.
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| Perfect star made by the use of Star Tool |
Then using Pick Tool , put that star in the crescent and fill white color inside it and in it’s outline, by following the method I have explained earlier in this post.
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| Flag of Pakistan almost done |
After that select all shapes by getting inside the Edit Menu and selecting the option Select All. As soon as you will select that option another menu will be appeared containing four more options ( including Objects, Text, Guidelines and Nodes). Out of those, select the top most option called Objects.
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| Side Menu of the option Select All in the Edit Menu |
As soon as you will select that option, all shapes on the page will be selected simultaneously.
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| Selected objects ready to be grouped |
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| Option referred as Group in the Arrange Menu |
As soon as you will select that option, all shapes on the page will be grouped together and freely be moveable together with the help of Pick Tool every where on the page. In order to make the white part of the flag prominent, there will be needed a darker background. For that purpose, select the Rectangle Tool again out of the Tool Box by clicking on it or by hitting F6. Then, by following the method I have explained earlier draw a large rectangle covering the entire page.
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| Large rectangle still transparent |
Then, select that page sized rectangle with the help of Pick Tool and fill any color in it by following the method I have explained earlier. As soon as you will fill any color in the rectangle, the flag's image will be hidden behind that rectangle and will no longer remain visible
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| Large rectangle no longer transparent |
. In order to bring flag’s image forward, get inside the Arrange Menu and select the option Order. As soon as you will select that option another menu will be appeared. Out of that menu select the option To Back Of Layer or hit SHIFT + Pg Dn.
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| To Back Of Layer in the side menu of Order |
As soon as you will select that option or hit SHIFT + Pg Dn, page sized rectangle will be shifted behind the flag’s image and all parts of the flag will clearly be visible with darker background.
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| Flag's image clearly visible with darker backgroound |
Then, your image will be ready to be saved in CDR format but in case you want to save that image in any format other than CDR you are supposed to export that image on that format by getting inside the File Menu and selecting the option Export or by hitting CTRL + E.
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| Option referred as Export given in the File Menu |
As soon as your will select that option, a large window will be appeared called Export. In that window, first of all select the location for your file to be saved and out of the drop-down menu called Save as Type, select your required format and hit the button called Export that can be seen at the bottom of the window.
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| Drop-down called Save as Type contains a host of format choices |
As soon as you will hit that button, another window will be appeared showing export setting.
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| Flag's image about to be exported on JPEG format |
Click OK to save your image in the selected format.After exporting that image in your required format, you can make it suitable for use anywhere by editing it using Adobe Photoshop.
I am certain this post will be helpful for most of the CorelDraw learners. If you like this post or if you have any suggestion for further improvement or any complain regarding this post kindly don’t forget to subscribe your comments.
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