Mayan Blood

**lau3** · 15 August 2006, 03:24 AM

Hi All,

I am stumped...I have been trying to reproduce W.B. Johnston's "Mayan Blood" image in Xara for weeks to no avail (http://www.wbjohnston.com/mexico/mayanblood.html). I just cannot seem to get the shadows right, both in the crack lines in the stone or the "sculpted lines". The blood is similar to other effect seen here, but the stone is really the nugget IMHO.

W.B. has used airbrushes on Crescent board to give a very realistic looking stone. If you have ever visited a Mayan ruin (Copan), you would appreciate the work W.B. has done in capturing the nuance of a Mayan stone.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks,

Milton

**jamesmc** · 15 August 2006, 11:37 AM

Hi,

What I've found that is what you think you are looking at, is really not what you see.

For instance the shadowy effects in the stone lines appear to be black feathered lines. But, are they really? A magnified look at the lines reveals several colors, red, black, green...all faded and feather.

**gwpriester** · 15 August 2006, 12:41 PM

Hey Milt - Long Time

Apparently Mr. Johnson got too many hits and took the page down. Least I could not load it.

Have you tried any of the stone fills in the Fill Gallery and maybe apply a bevel?

I know these are phone symbols and not Mayan graphics but I could not find any Mayan art this morning.

Gary

**jamesmc** · 15 August 2006, 12:45 PM

The website is still up. You probably did the same thing I did. That is when I clicked on the link, a right parenthesis was added, causing a page 404.

http://www.wbjohnston.com/mexico/mayanblood.html) was what came up

it should be:

http://www.wbjohnston.com/mexico/mayanblood.html

**Egg Bramhill** · 16 August 2006, 03:10 AM

Milton,

I like that image, it has great depth. It reminds me of Celtic Knot images, where the shadow supplies the depth to the image.

Here's my attempt. I'm still not happy with the depth, but that's what the whole exercise is about.

(I attach the xar file for anyone who's interested. It has many layers and can be confusing.)

**lau3** · 16 August 2006, 02:43 PM

Egg,

Amazing...I could not get this far, in fact, I was approaching it the wrong way. I will study your image and try to get the depth thing figured out.

Thanks a ton for the insight.

milt

**remi** · 16 August 2006, 02:49 PM

Some good techniques in your drawing, Egg. ****

**juergen** · 16 August 2006, 07:54 PM

I rarely post after looking at an image, but that one for some reason impresses me more than most ones I have seen in a while...

Astounding, Egg.

**parahandy** · 16 August 2006, 09:20 PM

You have me hooked Egg, lovely picture. here is my attempt not quite Mayan more kerplunken,using some of your technique.and thanks to lau3 for starting the thread.