I have always been fascinated by guilloche patterns commonly seen on banknotes, share certifcates, stocks etc., in particular the ‘rosette’ type of guilloche structure. This led me to try and create some pseudo-guilloche patterns using CorelDRAW, and in doing so accidentally discovered a way to have an enormous amount of fun for very little effort using symmetrical polygons.
You simply begin by creating a shape using the Polygon tool (Y). Press Ctrl to constrain the shape then change the Number of Points on Polygon from the menu at top of screen -- 37 is a great number!
Click on Convert line to Curve, then make Node Symmetrical.
Then just select any node around the perimeter and drag it towards the centre of the shape. By using the Control Points on the node, drag a point to extend / contract the curves. Now grab a node from the centre of the shape and do the same until you get a polygon that you’re happy with.
To add some character, give the polygon a line weight, I chose a pen thickness of around 0.8mm and using the Calligraphy dialog box, entered 42% Stretch and –80deg. Angle. This is not critical at all, you can use any reasonable pen thickness to suit the size of polygon & you can ignore the Calligraphy element.
Now zoom right in to a curve on the perimeter, select the polygon and click on Arrange>Convert outline to object. Then, hold down the Alt key and click on the curve in order the select the original path; this is now a ‘ghost’ path and should be deleted. This now gives you a great shape, ready for the fnal step.
Select the shape & click Arrange>break Apart. This will turn the shape into what looks like a solid colour. Zoom right into the perimeter curve and select the outermost curve, then delete it. Hey
presto! You have now ‘exploded’ the guilloche. Select all the shapes left behind and apply a simple conical fll from the Fountain Fill Dialog, 2-color - black to white. I also attempted to use low Fibonacci numbers to create foral shapes!
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