looks like your getting the shading thing sorted...
Although this is the reason i'm toying with xara...
Their ability to do gradated transparent shading ETC is reason enough for me to jump ship...
and probably why you will (from a xara background) not be able to stomach corel.

When doing any photo realistic work like allot of artists like to aspire to... this makes a world of difference.
As matching up gradations was a big part of my work in corel.
In xara this problem is eliminated