Corel: Artist of the month - Ray Rubio

Brief description about the artist:

Full name: Ray Rubio
Birth Place / Date: Davao City, September 20, 1979
Hobbies: Watching short animation CG films
Talent: Sketching, Painting
Current occupation: Creative Director for Cubepixels Design Studio
Profession: Graphics Designer
Corel User ( yes / no ): Absolutely Yes
Aspiration: To be better known in the wider graphics community through my own style of design.
Current location: Davao City

Did you really choose to be a Graphic artist as a profession / occupation?
I have passion with graphics design during the early stage of my high school years but graphic arts never came into my mind or desired to be a profession until opportunity came in during college days.

What makes you choose Corel as a tool for your designs?
CorelDRAW’s learning curve and intuitive features are simply tailored to fit my every design requirement. Unlike other design tools, I can easily draw irregular shapes more quickly and edit seamlessly without complications. More than that, CorelDRAW’s versatility in handling different file types makes me more productive and flexible by exporting and importing them to other design softwares when needed.

More about the Artist:

Projects handled:

Name: Wine Glass
Memorable moments: Few years ago when my first-hand work was featured and posted in an international gallery of CorelDRAW Artists through its Corel gallery website. It was a very unforgettable feeling to see my name written on it together with the other designers whom I look up to for some time.
Comments: Believe in every piece is a masterpiece.

Name: Bull’s Eye
Memorable moments: When I was working on with this project, this client of mine is a bit funny yet arrogant with his plan – from designer’s point of view – it’s something you can only find under the rocks! I can’t imagine working on a project that cannot even satisfy myself in the first place, and put your creativity on hold. A real brain freeze.
Comments: n/a

Current project handled:

Name: 2009 Calendar
Memorable moments: One of the fastest growing petroleum company in the Southern Philippines hired me to develop their calendar template for the next year. It’s quite big project considering the scope which took us more than 2 weeks to implement the photo shoot and develop the layout. With CorelDRAW’s built-in camera RAW – I was able to view RAW files and import them directly to CorelDRAW window without having to use another software. Fine-tuning and editing took a while to capture the desired color correctly with the use of some paint programs. Corel’s build-in calendar generator completes the project as hero in the final stage.
Comments: n/a

Dream projects
For some time now, I was dreaming to develop a short-film or even part of it wherein my work is on highlight. It’s always been a fascination to me when I see animated characters done in CG. Having to see my character artworks move is like giving it a life to live.

Advice for budding future artists:
Stay in focus and believe in your own style. Be your own design teacher. Practice a lot - a real hard! Don’t be satisfied with your first creation – imagine you can do better more. Trust your work – that’s an output of your creativity. Collaborate with others.

Why choose Corel as a (alternative) Graphic solution?
In this world of creative advertising, you just need a right partner to put your ideas come into shape! CorelDRAW has been a favorite tool for me in the business of producing creative works like logo design, technical drawing, and all page-oriented tasks such as brochures, poster and flyers. It’s not just a tool but I’d rather call it solution in many ways. Corel has a complete line of softwares I need for my design business. Its versatility and compatibility with other graphics programs has made it to my number one vector software of all time!

CorelDRAW Tips and Tricks

Using Eyedropper tool to copy effects

One of the unsung heroes of CorelDRAW is the Eyedropper tool. You probably tried using this in some graphics programs as a tool to pick color sample, nevertheless in Corel it has special function you may love to discover.

For example, applying drop shadow to an object is very easy. You need very straight forward command like draw an object – select Drop Shadow from the Interactive tools – apply by dragging through the shape of an object. Let’s say you have 10 different objects to apply the same effect. It may be too time consuming if you repeat the same procedure to each object one after the other.

Now, using Eyedropper tool – all you need to do is to prepare one effect to serve as point of reference. Select another object and choose Eyedropper tool from the toolbox. From the Property bar, select Object Attributes in the drop-down menu, tick all Properties, tick the Effect you want to copy from the source object (in this example is Drop shadow).


Click the object with the drop shadow effect, hold and press Shift key and then click another shape to apply the same effect.

Eyedropper tool saves time in copying effects!


Organizing Project with Layers

Layers are best way to organize your drawing files in CorelDRAW. If you want to keep each layer content editable after exporting to a bitmap file or in PDF form, it’s time for you to look up to Layers and start understanding how it works!

Layer window is found under Tools » Object Manager. Technically by default, all objects created are placed upon a single layer called Layer 1. The stacking position of each shape can be manipulated in the drawing page by using Object order options.

To create separate layer for your other objects, click New Layer button from the Object Manager panel. A new layer will be added on top of the current layer. Each layer can hold as many objects as you may need them and you may also change the order of objects through the panel by dragging over to another layer name.

Save your file to PDF and see that layers are kept intact upon viewing in Acrobat software. This method is extremely helpful when sending files to the printing press to give them the chance to manipulate the objects when necessary.


One-liner Tips and Tricks

• Double click the shadow of the page document to bring-up the dialog window containing more page options like paper orientation, layout, and background.


• You can select an object by just touching with the marquee selection to any part of the object while pressing ALT key.


• You can rapidly select ALL objects in the drawing area by double clicking the Pick tool.


• You can long-press each color in the palette to display hidden color shades.