Gary Bouton's Xara Stuff

[csehz]

I've attached part of the original so you can see how the Moulds were accomplished.

Gare thanks for the file I checked that, three blends and three moulds, also very interesting how they stands in the composition after.


Good old Xone times when had the chance to speak about techniques more..

[wizard509]

Thanks Gare, I need to get on my computer so I can view your file.

[Gare]

Not a problem, Larry. Learn from this stuff. :)


A while ago, I'd submitted an icon design that was supposed to be of a castle, because the older Xara icon was in only 16 colours with massive dithering as I recall (probably incorrectly).

So I submitted a rook (a "castle" in chess) with a very stylized "X" behind it and boy, was I way off the beaten path for icon needs!

But I think it's still a nice drawing. See how few objects there are? You can do that when you place your highlights very carefully, and shiny plastic has sharp, mostly opaque highlights (when the plastic in non-transparent).



My Best,

Gary

[buckobeck]

I can't believe you created that with so few objects. I need to learn from this, mine are usually object overload.

[Mike Bailey]

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[Gare]

@Mike, thanks!

@Mark,

Here is a copy of the Xara file, attached. I hope there's something in it that's useful to you!

Here's another crack at a castle icon. I'm not good at designing icons...too much detail!



My Best,

Gary

[Ron Duke]

Not a problem, Larry. Learn from this stuff.


A while ago, I'd submitted an icon design that was supposed to be of a castle, because the older Xara icon was in only 16 colours with massive dithering as I recall (probably incorrectly).

So I submitted a rook (a "castle" in chess) with a very stylized "X" behind it and boy, was I way off the beaten path for icon needs!

But I think it's still a nice drawing. See how few objects there are? You can do that when you place your highlights very carefully, and shiny plastic has sharp, mostly opaque highlights (when the plastic in non-transparent).



My Best,

Gary

Nice plastic look.

[Gare]

Thanks Ron & All—

My cousin, bless her heart, is part of a church initiative to help feed the hungry in her neck of the woods, but simply asking people to grow stuff and share it.

I created a poster for her to increase local awareness. It's fascinating what you can do with the Bevel tool and high values of the Rounded preset.



I think it's incredible that people in America who have back yards and plant fruit-bearing trees just leave the fruit in Autumn on the tree only to let it rot. These trees are there for the visuals?!

Barbara and I planted, and harvest two dwarf miniature apple trees, have been since they matured a year ago. They take 3 years here in Central NY to mature from a stick in the ground to fruit-bearing 7 foot tall trees.

My Best,

Gary

[wizard509]

Very nice poster Gare, direct and to the point, I like it very much,

[Gare]

Like Igor (and I'm flattering myself because Igor is a true Master), I get hooked on themes and continue doing a series until I get bored, or when my audience gets bored.

He's number 2 in a series of I-Don't-Know-Yet: the Water Pistol. I'm very happy that here in America, life-like water pistols have to have as bright orange stripe across the top side of the barrel so it's easily identified as a toy.

I'm happier still with the fair laws governing the appearance of water pistols, that distributors here in the States have encouraged foreign manufacturers to go Steampunk and Retro with the Water Weaponry.

I love to collect and illustrate toys or all sorts. I did a series of yo-yos last year, and I'm bound and determined to illustrate at least two more of what Graham calls my Buck Rogers blasters. It really makes no difference what medium I use: I'm happy modeling this sort of thing, but it requires a lot of time bewcause the geometry is quite complex. I chose Xara Designer for this pistol because I wanted to play with both the bright and subdued colors.



I'm very pleased with and was inspired by having an actual model to reference because do you see the handle in the shadows? Now, wouldn't you think that, logically, the handle would fall into a deeper green when shaded? Nope, it's mud brown actually, because physical light is based on the subtractive color model. I'd never have considered it, if it weren't for my photography as a reference image.

My Best,

Gary