Have you ever looked at a professional design created with CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite and wondered how the design was created? Which of the many powerful tools did the designer use to create an impressive visual effect? Insights from the Experts, a series of tutorials included with CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3, gives you a chance to learn from experts in graphic design.

The international team of authors who contributed to Insights from the Experts come from different corners of the graphic design world, representing areas as diverse as engraving and cartooning. What they have in common is that they all use CorelDRAW Graphic Suite to create their designs. In their tutorials, the authors deconstruct their own designs to share with you their ideas, tips, methods, and techniques, showing you how you can benefit from the powerful tools and features of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite.

Accessing Insights from the Experts

Insights from the Experts is available as a printed publication and in PDF format. The printed publication, CorelDRAW Handbook: Insights from the Experts, is included in the boxed version of the product. It is an exquisite 80-page book with full-color illustrations. The PDF version of the tutorials can be accessed from CorelDRAW® and Corel® PHOTO-PAINT® by clicking Help > Insights from the Experts.

The printed publication

Taking a closer look at a tutorial

Let's take a closer look at one of the tutorials, "Producing a realistic drawing with CorelDRAW," to see how you can benefit from Insights from the Experts. In this tutorial, Hugo Hansen of Denmark, an educator, author, and graphic designer, shows you how to approach an illustration project and create realistic objects, three-dimensional forms, and metallic surfaces.

In his tutorial, Hugo Hansen discusses how
he used CorelDRAW to create this realistic drawing.

You will get ideas about how to prepare a sketch for an illustration project by combining elements of photos. You will also learn how to organize the elements of a complex illustration by using layers. Each element in Hugo Hansen's illustration is on a separate, logically named layer.

Hugo Hansen shows you how he used several tools from the CorelDRAW toolbox to create two parts of the drawing: the brake disk and the man's boot. You will learn how to use the Ellipse, Smart Fill, and Interactive Fill tools to create the effect of a metal surface.

The brake disk consists of many ellipses created with the Ellipse tool.
Rotated conical fills, created with the Interactive Fill tool, were used to add
a metallic, three-dimensional look. The holes were created with the Smart Fill tool.

The boot consists of many shapes, all of which were drawn with the Bézier tool. Hugo Hansen used the Interactive Blend tool to give the boot its realistic leather look. He shows you step by step how he used blends to create the highlights in the upper part of the boot.

Blends were used to create the effect of shining leather.

The tutorial offers other useful tips and techniques. You'll learn how to use the Interactive Extrude tool to create three-dimensional effects, and how to use the Interactive Transparency tool to create shadows.

Click here to view the tutorial.