Creating portraits with Xara

[stygg2003]

Excellent image Gamerprinter, you could think that was a photograph it's so well done.

Stygg

[angelize]

I took a stab at doing someone famous. I'm not sure how I did but I figure If she is recognizable I got some measure of success. so can you tell who it is?

[stygg2003]

I'll take a stab Francis, she looks like Lucille Ball? Excellent drawing even if I'm wrong.

Stygg

[Gare]

I took a stab at doing someone famous. I'm not sure how I did but I figure If she is recognizable I got some measure of success. so can you tell who it is?

I didn't even have to click the thumbnail to enlarge the file, Frances; it immediately reads as Lucille Ball.

You did absolutely everything right, polished, expertly, precisely, and so on!

This one should go in your gallery, for sure!

My Best,

Gary

[Manoj]

Thanks Gare and Gray, getting those tones is quite difficult for me and I keep trying out various ways to get a 'cutout' effect on the photo so I can use it to do the vector portrait.
Gare, do you have any tutorials to do the eyes well?

[Manoj]

Gamerprinter, that's awesome, just photorealistic!
Frances - very nicely done and easily recognizable!

[Gare]

Thanks Gare and Gray, getting those tones is quite difficult for me and I keep trying out various ways to get a 'cutout' effect on the photo so I can use it to do the vector portrait.
Gare, do you have any tutorials to do the eyes well?

I do not have a specific tutorial, however, photorealistic eyes you just want to fall nito follow a certain foruula, if you will, not unlike creating glass, except of course there is no transparency. There are liquid-like reflections—let me see if I can do this in Xara...else-wise I'll physically draw it and scan it, okay?

Give me a while, okay?

My Best,

Gary

[gray]

Gameprinter, that's very photo like. Lots of detail.

Frances, definitely Lucille. That looks just great.

[wizard509]

Excellent work you guys. I love Patrick Nagels style.

[Gare]

I have two different approaches, one like Patrick Nagel's and one more like a pencil drawing, but both obey certain conventions: the pupil is shaded on the top, and mostly eclipses the pupil. There is a lighter arc on the top of the eyeball to suggest roundness. There is a highlight mostly on the pupil, extending into the iris.

This thing is easier to share as a Xara file than to try to explain in words. Words for once fail me:



My work is crude, admittedly, because I have no time today, if there is to be an august Xara Xone! But the principles are here, I think.

My Best,

Gary