Cut it out !!!

**Ross Macintosh** · 03 August 2001, 05:54 PM

In the Xara Gallery there have been some great threads featuring drawing things with a minimum of lines. It struck me that some of those same designs would also look good as cutouts. I've prepared this basic example to express the idea.

I drew the boy on the left first. I grouped his lines. It uses fairly heavyweight stroked lines. To make the right version I copied the group, and then from the arrange menu applied 'convert line to shape'. The group was retained. That group was then subtracted from a white-filled rectangle that had no line colour, using the 'combine shapes>subtract shapes' command from the arrange menu. A drop shadow was added to the resulting shape. I rather like the effect...

Regards, Ross

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

**Ross Macintosh** · 03 August 2001, 05:54 PM

In the Xara Gallery there have been some great threads featuring drawing things with a minimum of lines. It struck me that some of those same designs would also look good as cutouts. I've prepared this basic example to express the idea.

I drew the boy on the left first. I grouped his lines. It uses fairly heavyweight stroked lines. To make the right version I copied the group, and then from the arrange menu applied 'convert line to shape'. The group was retained. That group was then subtracted from a white-filled rectangle that had no line colour, using the 'combine shapes>subtract shapes' command from the arrange menu. A drop shadow was added to the resulting shape. I rather like the effect...

Regards, Ross

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

**Ross Macintosh** · 03 August 2001, 07:51 PM

Here's something I did a few years ago with CorelXara. Xara X's shadow tool sure makes creating soft shadows easier!

Regards, Ross

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

**gwpriester** · 04 August 2001, 05:23 AM

OK Ross. I'll play :-)

Here's a way to create a cutout shape with a soft glow under it, instead of a shape cut through as Ross has done.

Create your shape, following Ross's lead I created a line drawing of a face.

I added stroke shapes to the lines, converted the lines to shapes, and combined shapes > added shapes to make one object.

I added a Glow shadow. Selected just the shadow (Ctrl click) changed the fill to Conical, red to red with the Alt Rainbow option.

I converted the whole thing to editable shapes. Selected just the top shape (the original drawing) and changed the fill to white.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
beehive us rob melt </a>

**Ross Macintosh** · 04 August 2001, 05:31 AM

Nice effects Mr. Preister. Is yours a self portrait too?

Regards, Ross

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

**Ross Macintosh** · 04 August 2001, 07:17 AM

Some more quick playing. This one features the same techniques as the faces but uses a clock face adapted from xara's online clipart. I dedicate this to Eric - it is inspired by his recent 'same as it ever was...' design he posted in the gallery.

Regards, Ross

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

**Steve Newport** · 04 August 2001, 09:21 AM

Hey Ross, neat idea! There's and easier way to do this I found (With the help of John Clements) If you make the lines, convert them to shapes, then make a clone, turn it white, and put a little feathering on it and bring the feathered part downleft, it has the same effect. Hope this helps!

Steve Newport