Drawing & Coloring with Xara
Step 1 - First I make my rough
sketch with pencil and paper. The
sketch starts out pretty rough and
scribbly just to get down the basic
characters, background and
composition. I like to draw pretty
loose so that the picture has a
feeling of spontaneity and fun to it.
Step 2 - Once I have this rough
sketch done, I refine it. I tape a new
piece of paper on top of it, place it on
the light table and draw over the
lines. You can also use tracing paper
for this step, but I prefer normal
paper as it's cheaper and less
smudgy.
Step 3 - Scan your drawing as
grayscale and save as a JPEG.
Step 4 - Open up Xara and import
the JPEG file. In order to draw over
this rough I change the value of the
dark contone by opening the Color
Editor and setting the Dark contone
to 5fcaff or any light blue color will
do.
Step 5 - Add a new layer in the Page
& Layer Gallery by selecting New
Layer. Name this layer "Drawing."
This is where you will draw your
lines. I also like to lock the position of
the rough sketch layer to prevent
accidentally moving it. To do this,
click on the little lock icon.
Step 6 - Next, you'll want to set your
default line properties. I like to select
a sort of all-purpose line that I can
use to draw with and after I finish all
or a few lines, I go back and adjust
them. The settings I generally use
are: line weight - 2 pt., stroke shape -
cigar, fill - none, freehand smoothing
slider - 25%.
Step 7 - Begin going over your lines
one by one adjusting as you go along
or waiting to do that after you’re
done.
Step 8 - Once you've got all the lines
how you want them—including
changing the thickness and stroke
shape of the lines—you're done, at
least with the linework. You'll
probably want to color in your picture
too.
Step 9 - To color your illustration
you'll need to create at least one
more layer. Add a new layer and
name it "Color." On the Page & Layer
Gallery select this layer and drag it
below the Drawing layer. You may
wish to make the Drawing layer
uneditable so you don't move around
the lines by mistake—up to you.
Step 10 - The method I prefer to do
coloring is to use the Pen Tool
(Shift+F5). I can simply click points
around an area for a certain color
until I close the shape by clicking on
the first point. Then I adjust the
shape with the same tool by
dragging/pushing the outer edge of
the shape so that it fills the area
outlined by the lines in the Drawing
layer. This works well although you
may wish to also use the Shape
Editor Tool for even better
adjustments and adding new control
points. Be sure your colors have no
outline.
Step 11 - Once you have all your
coloring done you can add gradients
and transparencies, fills and bevels,
and other effects to add interest to
your pic.
Step 12 - When the drawing and
color are complete, save your
original Xara file and then export it in
whatever format you want. And that's
it!