Tried the whirrled peas tut only . . . .

[cazza42]

it turned into a reel of thread!

Instead of attaching a label to the tin, I drew two straight lines and blended them. Then applied a mold to shape the lines to fit the reel to represent the cotton wound round it.

Next I tried to add the writing on the top of my cotton reel. What a headache!

Anyway I had fun, learnt a lot and may even be able to use the result for something one day. A satisfactory evening.

Carol Leather
Newbie

[cazza42]

it turned into a reel of thread!

Instead of attaching a label to the tin, I drew two straight lines and blended them. Then applied a mold to shape the lines to fit the reel to represent the cotton wound round it.

Next I tried to add the writing on the top of my cotton reel. What a headache!

Anyway I had fun, learnt a lot and may even be able to use the result for something one day. A satisfactory evening.

Carol Leather
Newbie

[Soquili]

Hi Carol,

That looks very good.

I've taken the liberty of making a mini-tutorial that may help you with the text.

Soquili

[cazza42]

Thanks Soquili,

Great technique and a lot easier than what I was trying to do. Works a treat. I also noticed you had done the shading different on the hole in the middle so I changed mine also.

Carol Leather
Newbie

[Soquili]

Hi Carol,

I'm glad the tip helped. Your text looks like it is lying on the top of the reel now. The shading for the hole also looks more real. I remember my junior high school arts teacher always telling me to visualize where the light is coming from so I would know where the shadows and highlights should be placed.

Soquili

[gwpriester]

That's terrific Carol. I love it when people find ways to apply what they have learned to something different.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person


<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


<a href="http://www.xaraxone.com">
The Xara Xone </a>

[xander11]

Here's my version. I've tried to add some of my favourite effects as "Burned" letters placed onto wooden texture...

[jens g.r. benthien]

to add text to your ellipse you can clone your main ellipse and modify the height by dragging the top handle so width and height are the same values - resulting in a circle. Then you type your text, flip it, fit text to curve and drag the top handle until the height matches the one of your original ellipse. To be on the safe side, you should scale the circle by 20% before you fit the text to curve, so the text will not touch the edges...

see sample below.

In addition you should watch your shadows. In your drawing the shadow in the hole is from left to right, but the overall shadow is from front left to back right - doesn't match.

Shadows are tricky. If you can try to avoid a 100% black shadow - nowhere in nature a shadow is really 100% black ;-}

Adding a tiny outline to add a highlight and a shadow to the edge of the hole will enhance the image a bit. Just copy the shape of the hole, set outline to 1 pixel, outline color black, convert lines to shapes, add a linear transparency with 100% at the center point, clone the shape, flip it, change fill color to 70% white.

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

[jens g.r. benthien]

.

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

[cazza42]

Hey you guys are great! Thanks for the help.

Jens, I will try the technique you show and see how I get on.

Xander, your wooden reel is fantastic. Can i ask how you got the thread to look like thread? I have to ask, also, how you do your burned in wood style? It looks so realistic.

I had to go and teach "my" thing this morning and the new fabric/stitch illustrations worked a treat. Had lovely comments on how easy they were to follow. Thanks again for all the help with that subject.

Carol Leather
Newbie