airbrush with XARA X

[jens g.r. benthien]

Panfer,

it took me to finish this one? As I wrote earlier: about 3 hours, 2 liters or half gallon coffee and 21 layers :-)

Ross,

yup, very phallic, but this is the subliminal seduction the cosmetic corps are working with

My signature: I can't help, that's the one I have for decades now. Kind of unique and my banks told me it's one of the few that can't be copied for fraud :-))

I simply scanned my sig, and vectorized it in XARA 2.0 long time ago - or was it XARA 1.5 or 1.2? I really don't remember, since time is passing by faster every year...

But who is John Hancock? I know I've heard that name before, but I can't allocate it...(being a German I am not too familiar with US celebrities, since I don't watch any TV, just one or two movies a year...)

Thanks a lot for your encouragement - I think I should leave the coding, web etc area and return to my roots, but this will rise the question: how to survive? Coding pours much more money into the pockets these days. However, I believe my CAD, 3D and my illustration know how fit well together. I wish I could spend all my time on illustrations and design, without any coding and project management and all the hassle...


The next project is already in the pipeline - I will post it as soon as it is available in bits and bytes!

jens

[jens g.r. benthien]

Really, X is absolutely fantastic, especially the layers...

Without layers, even the slightest modification would be a hassle, but with layers the modification of colors is a snap

I made this alternative in less than 30 minutes - adding and modifying some highlights to suit the black surface included.

Have fun!

[jens g.r. benthien]

ok, you thought it's not possible to top this one? Since I didn't want to bother you with long loading times, click here to see the final version...I grabbed their top model from their web site and told her to sit on the cap for a while :-)

lipstick final version

[Ross Macintosh]

Jens - This lipstick thing just gets better and better. The final version is the best yet. Very classy illustration.

Re: John Hancock. The name has come to represent a signature. For example, a cop who is booking you might ask for your "John Hancock" on the form. John Hancock was one of the original signers of the American Declaration of Independence. I quess they went looking for his signature or something. I believe he went on to become a President. (Maybe an American forum user will correct me if I'm wrong - I've already said too much. In my country's history, that declaration of independance was considered a traitorous document).

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[ivca]

Jens,

I love it! They're all great, I like the first one best.

Jens,.. (You know someone wants something when your name precedes the question : ) ... If you have the time, I would really (i'm mean REALLY)like to see you recreate this in a tutorial and submit it to the "visitor" section of the Xone. It doesn't have to cover minute details necessarily, but perhaps touch on your use of layers (as you've mentioned)and/or named colors.

Hey Ross, been reading too much Pierre Burton? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] (there's supposed to be a "wink wink" icon here, but I can't seem to put it where I want)

Wayne

[Soquili]

Hi Jens and Ross,

John Hancock did sign the declaration of independance, his was the largest and most obvious signature. He didn't become president. I guess his 15 minutes of fame were his oversized letters taking up so much space.

Jens, I think the final version is fantastic!!

Soquili [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[jens g.r. benthien]

Ross & Soquili,

thanks for the info about John Hancock - I will never forget who is was, because I will remember him with the lipstick! (this is one of the advantages of being a member of this forum). If the INS will ask me next time if I know who John Hancock was, I will tell them: The guy with the lipstick and a girl riding his cap :-))) And they will reply: Wow, you've passed the exam, here is your green card...

Wayne,

well, tutorial sounds good, but I don't have too much time. What about screen shots with a step by step layer activation? Would this be sufficient? Pls let me know...I would make it a zip version with all the pic in it, with file name 01, 02...etc.

But pls give me some days...

And a sideline: just imagine you would have seen this piece of art somewhere else - be honest - wouldn't you have thought: wow, developed in a big ad agency on a Mac with Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand plus Photoshop? And next thought: I wish I could do this with XARA X?

Don't dream any longer, we've got the ultimate tool. The original is 10 x 10 inches and results in a 300 dpi TIF ready for printing without having to sacrifice for quality. I think this is good news.

Anybody out there who still believes X is only for the web? Wrong, X is the killer tool for serious designers. But don't spread the message.

One question to the XARA team: since Microsoft plans kinky registration procedures, I plan to switch to LINUX - do you think it would make sense to port this application to that OS? I would even pay for another copy!

jens

[JZiehlke]

Jens,

What a wonderful example of what Xara is capable of. I loved all your illustrations.

Joan

[Egg Bramhill]

Jens
I would like to add my congratulations to those already given.
One interesting point re the tutorial:
Artworks which was Xara's forunner used to save the undo information with any file if you wished. I have always missed this feature in Xara. It was a great feature if you wished to see how an illustration was created as you just unwound and rewound the original artists work.
Maybe Xara can reintroduce this feature in a later version.
Did you create the gold texture in Xara as well or was that from elsewhere?
Egg

[jens g.r. benthien]

Egg,

> Did you create the gold texture in Xara as well or
> was that from elsewhere?

I'm creating most of the textures myself, but primarily not for use in XARA. I need them for CAD and 3D textures. This gold texture is a so called 'environment reflection' texture or map.

The original size is 1500 x 1000 if I remember it correctly.

I made it with Corel Photopaint v 7 with the airbrush tool, extremely soft edge, with a frew strokes. Then I modified it by playing with the values for the tone curve and ended up with kind of a solarize effect, the gamma values, inverting, highlighting some points etc.

I've made approximately 50 different versions for gold and the same amount for chrome. Took me almost a week until I was satisfied.

First I thought this would be simpler than to develop seamless textures, but after that experience I knew better. This is a tough cookie.

I downsampled the bitmap, imported it into XARA and used it - like in 3D - as an environment texture. And it worked out fine after some tweaking.

Artworks & Acorn: my first exposure to this great software was years (or alredy decades?) ago on an ACORN machine - wonderful machines, and I think it's sad that they disappeared. From that very day on - I couldn't decide if I would invest into an Acorn - I started searching for a similar software on a PC, until Corel announced Corel Xara 1.x. I immediately placed an order and started working with XARA, converted my Corel Draw files and imported them into XARA, and the serious illustration, ad development etc. followed.

Among others, I'm using XARA to develop shapes for my CAD and 3D area, since there is no CAD software on the market capable of handling vectors the way as XARA does.

Joan,

this is just one sample of what you can do with XARA. I have developed a long list of logos, screen & interface designs, ads, folders, brochures etc with it, that I don't even remember all of them.

All in all, I believe this is a great example that demonstrates that you don't need bevels or shadows at all - as long as you know how to develop it manually. Using your 'brain and hand' will end up with more realistic or 'better' results, because no illustration software is able to produce exactly what you have in your mind.

Thanks again for all your encouragements and comments!

jens