but also as specific as possible.

 Where appropriate,

I'll include pictures that illustrate the steps.

 

under view select customize
on commands  scrolldown to all commands
select  greyscale drag the button up to top work area
select negative image
under commands also
choose select none and drag to top of work area
choose adjust brightness contrast
and black pencil
once you have dragged all these to your work area

 select file then workspace then save this will be your

work area when working on patterns
these are the primary controls you will use when

making patterns

 ready to tackle making patterns

Choose a picture you wish to work with

 (if it isnt already saved as a jpg) do so now.

this will take a few trials and starts but the

 end result will be a workable pattern

Remember to fiddle with additional buttons

as you progress

I use the lasso tool located on the left side of the

screen for doing patterns a little bit at a time

This is useful on those patterns that give you a

hard time down the road

 

 

 

OK lets begin

 

Open your picture choose the button we saved on the

 top work area labeled greyscale hover your mouse

 over it if you arent sure

 

I usually save the picture at this point and rename it

 its useful when working with a harder picture this way

you can open it up and use it as a reference should you have troubles

 

 

Ok we have a greyscale picture

 I now choose brightness/contrast and set contrast to 100%

and fiddle with brightness to see if i have a workable pattern or not

If not we get to learn using the lasso tool really quick

 

look at the picture to see the buttons so we are together so far

back up all your files at least once a week that way you`ll only

 be a week behind not three months

LIVE AND LEARN.

 

ok back to our tutorial

 

 

when using the lasso tool you can select areas that had too

much white when you first tweaked the contrast settings

For a few days you will have to invisualize what i mean

find the controls that let you use and set tool preferences

drag and drop the tools you will use the most one of these

 is de-select which i use when using the lasso tool

I generally try to adjust the contrast and brightness

first to see which areas are going to cause me grief.

 

now you tweak certain areas one at a time to get just

the detail you where looking for.

once you have a viable pattern you can save it as a jpg

then continue to clean up the floaters and attach what

needs to be attached dont forget you are the artist and

 cutter so if you are sadistic like some we know !!!!!  lol

keep it simple for now .

As you progress in pattern making you can get more detail

 and become as sadistic as the best of us.

Always remember when designing you are going to be the

 first guinea pig to cut this out so clean up as many of the

 tiny areas as you can till it looks good.

 

I cut my patterns and i will change them on the fly when

cutting then go back to my pattern and change it so the

 next scroller doesnt cry my name in vain when he or she

 hits a hard spot and sees thier hard work end up on the

cutting room floor.

 

I know i have a few on my wall of shame to attest to that.

 

But when you are finished the actual hard work will payoff
when looking at the finished work and someone asks wow

 where did you get that pattern and you can say heck its

 

 

 do not hesitate to email me as I use this program

 and Corel Draw 11

(Corel Draw 11 Tutorials suspended for now)

I lost my system and cant find my CD

to reload the program