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View Full Version : Rastered Marquetry Shading not feathered



Ted Owen
01-23-2012, 10:12 PM
I've been experimenting with shading marquetry pieces using an Epilog EXT rather than traditional dipping in hot sand. The shading is created in CorelDRAW on a marquetry piece, with no fill and hairline outline, by:

1. drawing a shading outline over the marquetry piece with the polygon tool and filling it with a shade of gray
2. changing that object to bitmap
3. using Gaussian blur to feather the fill, and
4. powerclipping it into the hairline marquetry piece.

Looks nice onscreen. When I print to laser, the hairline cuts correctly, but the rastered shading does not have nearly the contrast of the piece as it appears on monitor. Differences between darkly and lightly shaded areas are lessened greatly, regardless of the many laser speed and power settings I've tried. And the edge of the shading is sharply defined. As a result the shading does not look natural.

I'd attach a jpg, but I'm just changing over to an iMac and can't yet find my jpg's exported from CDR. Hahaha!

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Powerclipping flattens, right? Thanks for any thoughts.

Best, Ted

Mike Null
01-24-2012, 6:23 AM
Ted

The picture is all important. I prefer the sand method as you have much more control and don't do any damage to the surface.

Ted Owen
01-24-2012, 11:00 AM
Ted

The picture is all important. I prefer the sand method as you have much more control and don't do any damage to the surface.

Yes, Mike, but the sand method shrinks the piece, and it must be swelled with water. The laser method doesn't seem to do that. Additionally, you can shade interior areas. That's why I'd like to get this worked out.

I started with the Mesh Fill tool, but it was so much work I gave up. This bitmap method is a lot of work, too, but keyboard shortcuts are available to shorten the procedure.

Thanks for the reply, Mike.

Best, Ted

Ted Owen
01-24-2012, 12:46 PM
OK, I think I got it. And of course it was my own fault. : )

My open palettes included ten shades of gray: 0% (white), 10%, 20%...100% (black). So I was telling CDR to use only those shades. By adding 3% and 7% shades, the result looks much better. Only the 1 test so far, but encouraging.

The Holly is so white that even low percentages of black show up distinctly.

Best, Ted

Mike Null
01-24-2012, 1:50 PM
Let's see it.

Ted Owen
02-01-2012, 9:32 AM
The oil seemed to obscure some of the shading on the darker leaves (Sycamore). But I think the general laser shading idea described above is going to work.​Best, Ted222151

Mike Null
02-01-2012, 9:45 AM
My compliments! Very impressive work. Is that a lacewood background?

Ted Owen
02-01-2012, 10:19 AM
Thanks, Mike. It's a ribboned Mahogany, similar to Lacewood. This piece will be cut into 4 drawer fronts for a workshop cabinet, and the drawer fronts throughout the rest of the shop are Mahogany. Wanted to try out the laser shading idea on an unimportant piece. Didn't have to use water on the pieces after shading. Also used Application Tape rather than veneer tape, so no water there, either. Sure is nice to bid water farewell in veneering.

Best, Ted

Chuck Stone
02-01-2012, 11:43 AM
very nice..

Mike Null
02-01-2012, 12:32 PM
I know this gets water back into the picture but did you consider brushing tea for shading?

Just curious--I like your result.

Ted Owen
02-01-2012, 1:52 PM
I know this gets water back into the picture but did you consider brushing tea for shading?....


No, never heard of that one, Mike. Cool.

I should have added that next time I'll add one step to the process: raster the shading first, then apply app tape and vector the outlines. I started to apply app tape in the normal way until I realized the shading would simply come off with the tape. Duh! : ) So I rastered and vectored without the tape. But as one might expect, the vectored edges were singed due to absence of protective tape, and as a result the individual pieces are markedly visible in the finished piece. Next time I'll remember to apply app tape before vectoring. Another lesson learned...