bob the builder

[Eric]

trying to do lofty's mouth but it ends up like a reject sausage...any tips for a symetrical gob?

[stlewis]

I'm useless at doing this sort of thing freehand, so I tend to have a stab freehand (rectangle, editable shapes, then bend the sides), and then slice in two. Choose the better half, clone, flip and then join the two.

For the mouth, a line with a bevel produces something like the photo but over-complex to match what you need.

Hope that makes sense!

www.bricksandbrass.co.uk

[Ross Macintosh]

The contour tool could help.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[Ross Macintosh]

I know what you mean about curves sometimes looking like sausage rejects. I think you are right that it has to do with symetry. "Smiles" probably compound the problem as reading even minor differences in facial expressions is hardwired into our brains.

One trick for drawing symetrical curves like a smile is: Turn on grid display and then use the shape editor tool set to 'make curve' to draw a line between two points. It will have two handles. Adjust those handles using the displayed grid to keep things symetrical. You can add additional smooth nodes if that suits the curve you are trying to achieve.

To make the smile you are trying to do, I'd then use the line gallery to give my curved line rounded ends. I'd play with line thicknesses to see how it looks. If fine tuning were required I might then convert the line (or rather a copy of it) to a shape and use the shape editor tool to adjust as needed.

Hope these suggestions help.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[Egg Bramhill]

Here's the method I use to get symetry: The bevels might give to much of a 3D effect but you could still use the lines with opposite linear fills.
Egg

[Eric]

i am going to make lofty out of wood for my nephew, ive just ordered a bandsaw and im gonna print it out and use as a template, xara is great for tech drawing, i was thinking of reverse printing onto t-shirt paper then ironing onto the wood..... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]