Now comes the fun part. The part where you get to hone your vector
tracing skills. We will now trace all of the organic shapes.
I like to trace with the Shape Tool (F4) formerly known as the Shape
Editor Tool and changed for reasons unknown. And I prefer to draw
with straight line segments. The green outline shown above is my
preliminary drawing in which my control points are placed at the key
places where the curves start and end (the red outline is the the edited
outline). Then using the former Shape Editor Tool, I drag the straight
lines into graceful curves. To fine tune a curve, click on a control point
and adjust the Bezier control handles.
Tracing continues with Shape Editor (F4). I selected a green color for
tracing the organic parts... After saving my changes, it gives me a
Christmas feeling.
At this point, you should have a complete tracing of the portion of the
design that is inside of the cyan triangle as shown above.
TIP: To achieve a smooth curve, select the control point where
two curves come together and press the S key on your keyboard to
change the default Cusp Join to a Smooth Join. This flattens out
the two Bezier control handles into a straight line and forces the
two control handles to operate in symmetry. You may need to
reconfigure the curve but it will be perfectly smooth.
You can delete the bitmap. (If you locked it, unlock it first).
Select all of the organic leaf shapes and Add Shapes (Ctrl 1) to make
them into one object. Select the border objects and Add Shapes to
make them one object (or Arrange > Combines Shapes > Add Shapes).
Using the Fill Tool (g), apply Circular fills to each centering the fill
over the purple circles and extending in each case to the farthest end
of the the object. I used a pale green to deep green fill for the leaf
shapes and a light orange to deep orange for the border shapes. Apply a
solid purple fill to the center circles and a purple and pale purple
Circular fill to the circle in the upper right.
Select the cyan triangle
and send it to the back.
Select all of the elements
and Arrange > Apply Clip View.
You should still be in the Edit Inside
window.
Select the triangle, turn off Lock Aspect
Ratio (the padlock icon on the Infobar, and
make sure the width and height are exactly the
same value by checking the W and H settings on the
Infobar.
This next step is what I call the “Flip-Flop-Fly” and it goes like this.
Select the ClipView triangle and clone it (Ctrl k). Clone creates a
duplicate copy in exactly the same position. With the cloe selected,
press the Flip Vertically icon on the Infobar.
Enter 90 in the Angle of Selection text entry box and press Enter.
Align the flopped rotated clone under the original. Select both versions
and set the outline to none.
Press the Save icon to close the Edit Inside window.
[Lock Aspect
Ratio disabled]
Here is the final decorative border. Duplicate the two top designs and
flip them vertically if you have not already done this.
The process can be a bit tedious so be happy you only need to trace
1/8th of the frame. Think of it as a Zen Meditation Exercise. :-)
TIP: Look for objects you can duplicate instead of tracing again.
Many of the leaves can be copied and reused with small tweaks.
When you have placed all parts into a complete frame it easier to see if
there is need for corrections. Simply double-click on any corner to
tweak your design.
Here’s the Outlines view.
