Drawing on Photos

I'm new to Designer Pro 9 and while I am sure this has been addressed I'm hoping someone can give me a shortcut and advice based on their experiences. I'm a fine artist but I spend more time painting faux marble & wood grain as well as gilding. I've been consulted on some gilding I did on pilasters in an apt. building lobby recently and they would like me to provide images of what an archway would look like if wrought iron railings were added to protect them. They've already been damaged). I have a few ideas about drawing directing on photos of the gilded archways but I would like to know what some of you would do to get the best results keeping in mind that I'm more comfortable with a paint brush than a drawing tablet (which I have). I've looked at all the videos and read as many relevant topics in the Help section as I could find and can see that there are many options. So I would appreciate any advice as you can give me. Thanks. Michael

Well, I sometimes create faux-painted illustrations based on photos (if you look towards the center of my thread "Creating Fantasy Maps using Xara Xtreme", I have some samples of that), but use the photos for reference only and not as part of the final illlustration (I delete the photo when I'm done.) However, I could see a project such as yours that combine the two together. If you're able to illustrate marbling, for example, and maintain the depth and angle of the surface in the photo that's one skill you'll need - I can't teach that. But often I will apply a Transparency/Stained-Glass on whatever shape I create in order to use the shading in the photo to show through and maintain the proper light and shadow.

I use this technique to create top-down views of buildings in my maps. In my case, I'm not using photos rather beveled light gray shapes to denote roof lines. Then I place a photo cut to the shape of a particular roof line on a building, with a photo of roof shingles, then I apply Transparency/Stained-Glass, and the shadows of the angle show through the photo and give proper attention to light and shadow. Does that make any sense?

Sorry I wasn't clear enough. I've already gilded the archways. My work is not done on the computer. I am only hoping to incorporate the computer more is the early stages of presentations. In this case the building Board just wants to see what the railings might look like before they approve them so I thought using one of the photos I had already taken of the project and drawing the railing on it might be helpful. It can be an obvious drawing because the photo is not the job. Its only a representation of one possibility. I could just as easily print out a copy and draw on it but I wanted to do the work on my computer screen to become more proficient at it so I can do these types of presentations for other projects. All of my painting and gilding samples are done using the actual materials I will be using for the project. I'm not sure I would use it for complex marbling or wood graining examples because it would only confuse the clients. After 20 years in this biz I've found that even when showing large samples of the actual finishes there is often confusion that results in many changes before the actual work is started and sometimes even after. I thought this might be a useful addition in simple cases like this to presentations before we reach the sample stage. I know that it is possible to draw using various tools on digital images. I was just interested in what others more proficient in computer use would go to for this type of thing in hopes of saving a little time experimenting. What you are doing sounds very interesting, however. Light and shadow are a big factor in quite a bit of my fine art work. Thanks for the quick reply. Michael

I know lots of companies like what you do, use 3D architectural programs to add elements to existing decor/structures - to show what things are intended to look. Of course that's not something that you can do in Xara. Sorry, I couldn't help.

I have a very basic program that I could use but in this case its overkill. I just like the idea of drawing elements on photos because I think it would give me a leeway in presentations for quick & easy adjustments. I'm afraid that if I give them highly realistic views of possibilities at this stage I will be expected to do it more often and that doesn't pay. Even though I spend a great deal of time on the painted samples they don't really pay for themselves. Its only the actual work that does. I'm just hoping to provide a tiny bit more evidence to influence them that the possibilities are far more than a simple paint job. And in this case the repairs I am going to have to do will take a long time so protecting the surface would be better all around. BTW, I do use a couple of architectural programs to show what different colors and basic wall glazes might look like in hopes that they will take the next step. Thanks for the reply. Michael

PS I do know of a number of muralists who often layout their initial thoughts on the computer using paint programs.

what attracted you to xara designer? - a painting program it is not

so are you looking to 'paint' over the photos using and manipulating shapes to create the 'railings' or whatever ?

the xara program is very good at building up from shapes once you get the hang of it...

Another thought, is doing this like how I create maps in Xara. I use premade map objects that I also create in Xara (furniture, trees, etc.) I also use textures (photo images) of marble, wood grain, dirt, etc. to fill the shapes I create.

So for your project, start with a scanned photo placed in Xara, then draw shapes for your railings, added wall pieces for marbling. Instead of photo textures, create your own hand-done marbling and other detailing specific to your project as its own art piece. Then use that drawn art piece as the texture image fill for your shape. That way you don't have to draw new marbling for every image you alter, you simply draw in the shapes of added structural content, and use you art to fill those shapes.

sounds like a good approach - build up a library of shapes [assets] that be can mixed and matched, change textures on the fly etc - but still not 100% sure what the object is - saving time was mentioned, and the program has to be learned to get the best out of it, fine as an investment for future work...

and you can sketch reasonably well in designer with the shape builder tool [if you don't mind being limited to screen pixels regardless of zoom] - and the freehand tool is ok for simple sketches once you get the hang of the way vector lines behave..

I think I know what you want to do and Xara Photo&Graphic Designer 9 would do the job wonderfully. Just take a photo of the doorway, upload the jpg into Xara P&GD9, and then add layers of drawing on top of the photo. Digital art programs like Xara let you work in layers, so you don't have to worry about messing up the photo underneath. You can work on the background and foreground separately. Wrought iron could be drawn freehand with shades of grey and lines of varying widths. If you mess up you can undo drawing steps or reshape the lines later. If the client wants changes to the wrought iron design, you can tweak it without starting over. You can then combine (add) the lines togehter to shade as one unit or create a shadow from the wrought iron to cast on the doorway.