When I make my own custom artistic media strokes and try to draw with them, the A.M. stroke is offset from its control line. (see screenshot below) I don't seem to notice this so much in the strokes that come with CorelDraw.
I try to make my shapes as straight as I can and with as few nodes as possible, but they still don't line up when turned into a brush. And when I fill the shapes, there are gaps between the end of the strokes and the filled areas, even though the control lines form a closed shape.
I want the ends of the artistic media stroke to line up with one another and for the stroke to be centered along the control line.
Are there any tricks to creating better strokes, or is this just a limitation of CorelDraw itself?
Thanks!
The horizontal axis that divides the brush's shape (objects) into two halves will be bent and fitted to match the Control Curve when using the brush. So any offset from that horizontal axis will result an offset from the Control Curve.
Ahmad, thanks so much for your answer! The second problem you described is the problem I was having.
Here's a screenshot of what I meant about there being a gap between the fill and stroke. I used the Smart Fill tool to fill this.
I did try to create the brush horizontally, but it is difficult to line it up just by eye. Do you have any advice about how to ensure the shape(s) are lined up perfectly on the horizontal axis before converting them to a brush shape?
EDIT: Well, I figured out how after I posted this... Create a horizontal guideline and set "snap to guideline". Duh!
Also, I figured out how to get the smart fill without any gaps...
1. After drawing the line with the Artistic Media Tool, break the Artistic Media Group apart. (Control + K) If you don't, it fills the artistic media stroke, and you get a solid shape, but it covers up the stroke.
2. Select the curve that doesn't have the artistic media stroke and use the smart fill tool to fill that.
3. Drag the filled curve underneath the stroke curve to place the fill behind the line.
Now, if I could just figure out a way to automate those steps...
Thanks again!