Creating Paths with Corel® Painter™ IX

With Corel® Painter™ IX, you can create shapes to use as paths while painting. Open or closed, shapes are vector-based objects that you can draw, modify, and fill. They can be simple lines, curves, or text outlines. While Corel Painter offers you several ways to create shapes, this tip will focus on the Pen tool and the Shape tools. As you create shapes, Corel Painter gives them default attributes for stroke and fill. You can easily adjust these attributes by using the property bar.

Using the Pen tool
The Pen tool lets you use Bézier lines to create shapes. You can use the Pen tool to draw straight lines or smooth, flowing curves, and you can create shapes containing any combination of straight and curved lines. For this tip, we'll create a closed shape by combining straight and curved line segments.

To draw straight line segment

1. Choose the Pen tool in the toolbox.

2. On the property bar, adjust the Stroke color if desired.
   

3. In the document window, click to begin and then click where you want to end the segment.
   Corel Painter draws a straight line between the two anchor points.
   

To draw a curved line segment

1. Choose the Pen tool in the toolbox.

2. On the right side of the existing straight line segment, click to begin and then drag to create a new anchor point and wing.
   
   
   
   The angle and length of the wing determine the curvature of the path. The farther you drag, the longer the wing and the deeper the curve.

3. On the left side of the straight line segment, position your cursor over the anchor point and click to close the shape.
   
   

Using the Shape tools
Corel Painter also provides the Oval and Rectangular shape tools for creating shapes. To create a rectangle or oval

1. Choose either the Rectangular Shape tool or the Oval Shape tool in the toolbox.
   
   

2. On the property bar, set any of the following attributes:
   
   
   

   • the Stroke check box, when enabled, lets you create a shape with a stroke, or an outline.
   • the Stroke Color pop-up menu lets you choose a stroke color if the Stroke check box is enabled.
   • the Fill check box, when enabled, lets you create a shape with a fill.
   • the Fill Color pop-up menu lets you choose a color for the fill if the Fill check box is enabled.

3. Drag in the document window.
   If you want to create a perfect square or circle, hold down Shift while you drag.