Gare's non-Xara Art

[wizard509]

Would that be "The War of the Worlds"? That sure stirred up a few people.

[GiddyupGilbert]

Gosharoonie Mr. Science..er Art I want to be like you when I grow up. However I don't think I'll live long enough. Dynomitah! How long do you spend on a piece, average?
Giddyup

[GiddyupGilbert]

Great! I laughed my magizmo off

[Gare]

How long do you spend on a piece, average?
Giddyup

There is no average amount of time I give to a piece, to be serious for a moment, Gilbert. It really depends on the idea, which then dictates how ambitious I need to be to visually explain the idea to the viewer.

Consider this: two highly successful Broadway musicals: A Chorus Line and The Wiz. A Chorus Line's set design was minimal—as dictated by the script. The acting and the dialog made it what it is, and it works. On the other extreme end, The Wiz depended on heavy production values, both costumes and set design. In both cases, it's the concept that drives the realization of the musicals, and the amount of time, effort, and materials needed to support the creative idea.

Usually, I leave the background out of a composition that I model, both to make the focus the foreground object, and because making additional elements to create an original background takes a lot of time. Also, for example here, I wanted to come very close to a photograph, and my subject—the guitar—needed to have roughly 210 objects (many are duplicates) out of the 235 that make up this make and model, according to Rickenbacker's CEO, who thinks this is pretty close to a catalog photo.



On the other hand, if all I need is a decent geometry to explain an idea, and forget small pieces and complex backgrounds, something like this took 1/2 hour from concept to render:



So the protracted answer to your question might be: it took about 25 hours to create the guitar, and 30 minutes to create the notes composition. If I only did two pieces of art in my life, the average would be 12.5 hours.

I'm kidding and it's really not a question that can be answered in a meaningful way, Gilbert.

I'm just happy you dig some of my work.

My Best,

Gary

[Gare]

I modeled a few images this month, expressly to give away as tutorial files I want members to practice tracing on, with the Shape tool.

I'd just like to mention here that although I own the rights to the artwork itself—the original concept and method of executing the idea is mine—these copies you can get >>>here on the October tutorial page<<< can be used just about any way you like.

It would be nice if you traced over them—because education was the point in building them—but I guess they'd make good desktop wallpaper, too, you know?




I used The Foundry's modo for rendering, the kid is from Poser, and the cloud is a bitmap brush i used in Creature House Expression.

Oh, and it's a complete coincidence that angelize offers French curve Xara files this month, and I did a piece of art featuring French curves. I'm pretty sure that our sources for the geometry came from different places: my is from the Deitz foundry in Germany, about 3 million years ago.

My Best,

Gary

[Gare]

This isn't a model or anything. It's also not Xara artwork. I took the photo on our back deck—it seemed very visually representative of Autumn—and then selectively bleached a lot of areas, and then passed it through DFT's 55mm filter suite in Photoshop.



Oh, and I didn't rearrange the leaves at all.

-g

[mwenz]

Ooh, I like the effect on the image, Gary. Something very real and unreal at the same time. I like it a lot.

Take care, Mike

[Gare]

Thanks, Mike.

I can't tell you exactly what I did, because it was trial and error as i went along, but if you can find photo filters that:

1.) Can add contrast while bleaching highlights, somewhat like traditional Bleach Bypass in the darkroom,

2. Can "smear" dark, clearly defined edges in the image...

then you get some of the starkness I was able to add. The overall piece balances because the monotone "creepiness" is balanced by the brilliant hues of Autumn.

I don't think you can take a bad picture this time of year. And just about all i use these days is a $130 Canon P&S 12megpixel I keep in my pocket when I go out.

My Best,

Gary

[Gare]

[wizard509]

Mmmmm. I love cookies.