Ode to Einstein

[morphonius_821]

Just one of my projects I thought I would buckle down and complete...
100% Xara Extreme.
I have a few more in the pipe line... Anyway I hope everyone likes it...

[kinetica]

Excellent!

[jvila]

outstanding!!!!!

[iamtheblues]

Yes, I like this a lot (correct grammar ).
Saludos,
Bob.

[zaphodeist]

Neat!

[morphonius_821]

Thanks David, Javier, Bob & John for your kind words.

Bob: Your English is fine
(Remember, even though you hate inappropriate apostrophes there is still the case of the legitimate apostrophe of possession....
i.e "Bob's comment on David's drawing." ... anyway at least you know i remember your posts LOL)

I started this as an experiment to see if i could do a quick one day vector.
FYI in the same style as http://monsteroftheid.deviantart.com/
But it started off slow with one or 2 objects then it snowballed and I could not resist feathering everything.
So it was more like a "Wet week" vector.

And before long it was starting to look a bit too blurred so i worked back into it with overlays to sharpen up edges etc...
Also i actually worked the graphic a bit before beginning and had 2 different source images that i liked and ended up using both which made it 5 times more complex then it need have been and i had to spend many many extra hours getting it to work but i guess its a character trait of mine that I am unable to make anything easy for myself...

Anyway im proud of my results... i just couldn't have standed spending one more second on it anyway...

[Albacore]

Like your subject and your drawing. How did you start this drawing? If I was doing this drawing I would start with increasing the Threshold by using a plugin in the Live Effects Tool and working from there David. Anyway how ever you did it it it works for me.

[wizard509]

Looks really good!

[morphonius_821]

Like your subject and your drawing. How did you start this drawing? If I was doing this drawing I would start with increasing the Threshold by using a plugin in the Live Effects Tool and working from there David. Anyway how ever you did it it it works for me.

(P.s thanks wizard)

I was really wanting to do a quick vector like the guy who's link i put up in the second post anyway...(it ended up being anything but)...

I was browsing the famous people pics on google and I was also looking for a picture with some decent contrast and side lighting if possible and stumbled across the great man with the wild hair and thought yeah... definitely a worthy subject. The image was a bit lower res than i was comfortable with but it was all i had... if im digitizing a raster image i'm quite fond of palette reducing it first in a raster app...
Which is really the answer to your question...

I ended up keeping 2 separate reductions and worked off both..but anyway i am still finding my "sea legs" with vectorization etc and have not really found my groove so this design was very manual and literal...
But so heavily worked that it eventually came into its own artistically i feel,
It is a little bit of a short cut/crutch that i have been leaning on a little while i develop in other areas but not one that i plan to rely on permanently.

I'm doing a semi nude piece now which is about 60/40 (Mostly off the raw un-altered image with only highlights done more manually so i'm weening myself off this palette reduction stage and trying to develop a bit more there.

But ultimately once i have done 5 or 6 really photo realistic works i want to start trying to be allot less literal which is my aim anyway but I am actually a digitizer by trade so its a habit that i'm having to work a bit at killing.
I.E putting too much detail into my art etc...

But i have been reading a few art books lately and doing some soul searching and i think my problem is that i start slamming into allot of detail before my design is completely planned/felt out.... which I suppose suits a style where maximum detail is the aim (i.e in this case balance and artistic license with detail levels etc is not a concern as the detail level is always the maximum possible).

So i am probably going to plan the vector more first and try a more minimalist approach also utilizing more gradient fills and about 10 times less objects....
I rather admire this guys vectoring...
http://graphicdream.deviantart.com/
My stuff is going to be nothing like his but i was inspired by his approach...
ie see the line work he posted up...showing how he plans out his vectors...http://graphicdream.deviantart.com/a...orks-121713271
This is what im going to try next... instead of plowing in and maximizing my detail...
He has a nice feel and with allot less work too....
P.S one thing worth noting is that he uses multi-stage linear gradiation fills extensively which can't be done in this version of xara...So impossible for now but i believe the next version will support this (thinking back to a comment i saw from Charles somewhere.)

Anyway thanks for the interest in my work.

[handrawn]

.. he uses multi-stage linear gradiation fills extensively which can't be done in this version of xara...So impossible for now but i believe the next version will support this (thinking back to a comment i saw from Charles somewhere.)
.

that would be multiple stop transparency - multi stage fill gradients xtreme can do already...