I did use Photoshop to create the halftone dots, but I could have easily created the dots in Xara as a seamless tiling pattern, if I had the time to do something that takes longer to do with the 2nd best tool.
Beyond that, it's just the concept, paying attention to the style of late 1950s toys, and the layout. I see this as 2 of the size box flaps someone didn't throw away. In case there's an injury with the product and you want the address to throttle the CEO.
I like it, Gary. Those robot toys were very popular in the 50's. With lights, movement and sound effects.
26 July 2018, 09:25 PM
Gare
3 Attachment(s)
Re: Bouton's stuff, Volume 2
My childhood, too. I think this bad boy tool two D cells.
Oen question: does anyone prefer to see the finished art and a wireframe so you get a better idea how to reproduce effects. I listed them with Mr. Robot (that's an excellent TV series!) but much of the fun is education and provoking artists to riff on an idea
Here a created a cylindrical-kinda shape in Cinema 4D, rendered it in limited shading mode and then auto-traced it (with Vector Magic) to turn the bitmap into a series of vector paths, and then imported them to Xara. The crude, limited number of vectors was deliberate, to give me room for smooth shading, using gradients, transparencies, and blends. I don't think Auto-tracing by any measure is finished art.
I always like to see the wire frames, Gary.
Nice work on the jug "what cha ma thingy".It has a thick, substantive look to it (hard to describe).
27 July 2018, 07:37 PM
hseiken
Re: Bouton's stuff, Volume 2
Quote:
Originally Posted by gray
I always like to see the wire frames, Gary.
Nice work on the jug "what cha ma thingy".It has a thick, substantive look to it (hard to describe).
It looks like it's made of material and not CG! :) Kind of looks porcelain...
29 July 2018, 03:56 PM
Gare
1 Attachment(s)
Re: Bouton's stuff, Volume 2
Quote:
Originally Posted by hseiken
It looks like it's made of material and not CG! :) Kind of looks porcelain...
or plastic. Thanks for that! I have been using a modeling/rendering/animation package two years before Xara came around, and I discovered that working with vector shapes in Xara is not all that different than working with vector paths in a modeler. Once that's accomplish, both the art of doing, and understanding what you're doing, plastic has certain characteristics, as does shiny, metal,m so once again t's time to bitch about MAGIX torpedoing Xara Xone. I have a video tutorial on the Xara Xone page of YouTube:
If you'd like to compare a Xara shape in Preview mode to a medium difficult wireframe in a modeling/rendering software:Attachment 121728.
It isn't 100% intuitive to model, as it might be a lot simpler in Xara to experiment tracing over 3D extruded shapes for example. I needed 5 more sides, 5 more views to make this composition totally posable. I could also have extruded this composition to 0.0001 depth, and the wireframe would look identical to a Xara wireframe.
If you stretch your perception a little, a 3D object with no depth only has a front and a back side. A shape in Xara can be flipped—that's sort of like its back side.
My Best.
Gary
29 July 2018, 09:20 PM
Egg Bramhill
Re: Bouton's stuff, Volume 2
Great tutorial Gary :)
03 August 2018, 04:18 PM
gray
Re: Bouton's stuff, Volume 2
Gary, you do the best tutorials. Just excellent.
03 August 2018, 08:33 PM
wizard509
Re: Bouton's stuff, Volume 2
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gare
My childhood, too. I think this bad boy tool two D cells.
Oen question: does anyone prefer to see the finished art and a wireframe so you get a better idea how to reproduce effects. I listed them with Mr. Robot (that's an excellent TV series!) but much of the fun is education and provoking artists to riff on an idea
Here a created a cylindrical-kinda shape in Cinema 4D, rendered it in limited shading mode and then auto-traced it (with Vector Magic) to turn the bitmap into a series of vector paths, and then imported them to Xara. The crude, limited number of vectors was deliberate, to give me room for smooth shading, using gradients, transparencies, and blends. I don't think Auto-tracing by any measure is finished art.
For me personally I don't think everything needs a wireframe although they can be helpful Gare. Great rendering of the " cylindrical-kinda shape", but you know what the stopper makes me think of a water pipe. So there is an idea for you, Just a few minor alterations to your drawing and you have a water pipe.
03 August 2018, 09:01 PM
Gare
1 Attachment(s)
Re: Bouton's stuff, Volume 2
Quote:
Originally Posted by wizard509
For me personally I don't think everything needs a wireframe although they can be helpful Gare.
I agree. My intention was to take members "behind the scenes" to explain why Xara and vector art isn't totally dissimilar to modeling and vectors.
This image is OK, the perspective adequate. If I were doing it I would change the lighting a little so the shade side would be darker and the eve would cast a shadow on the sun side, this would give it more depth, separate the planes, and help describe the structure. You might need to force the sun side sunnier while keeping the colors you have, change the cast ground shadow to reflect the change in sun angle. the value you used on the soffit appears more or less correct but it's hard to tell just yet. Certainly the cast shadow on the building should be the darkest, and shade side value somewhere in between the valuer of the cast shadow and the sun side with the soffit being lighter than either. If I have time tomorrow I'll do a put some transparencies over your image and make any other modifications I deem necessary for you. Hope I'm not being too critical. Mostly what I see is a value problem.
04 August 2018, 09:32 AM
Boy
Re: Monotony
Quote:
Originally Posted by wizard509
This image is OK, the perspective adequate. If I were doing it I would change the lighting a little so the shade side would be darker and the eve would cast a shadow on the sun side, this would give it more depth, separate the planes, and help describe the structure. You might need to force the sun side sunnier while keeping the colors you have, change the cast ground shadow to reflect the change in sun angle. the value you used on the soffit appears more or less correct but it's hard to tell just yet. Certainly the cast shadow on the building should be the darkest, and shade side value somewhere in between the valuer of the cast shadow and the sun side with the soffit being lighter than either. If I have time tomorrow I'll do a put some transparencies over your image and make any other modifications I deem necessary for you. Hope I'm not being too critical. Mostly what I see is a value problem.
Huh? Larry, you sound like a disgruntled teacher with a big, red pen who will show the pupil how such architectural art impressions ought to be done! :)
To me it's yet another show of Gare's creative genius that seems to be able to, seemingly effortless, produce all these 'little' works of art in an endless flow of styles and techniques. Humbling but also deeply inspirational. =D>
04 August 2018, 11:53 AM
stygg2003
Re: Monotony
Be honest Larry, would you off the top of your head have come up with a image as Gare as shown. I know I for one would never have dreamed of it and what is shown is why Gary is a walking art, vector and so on Master. He's just a genius and we should be thankful he shares it with all at Tg.
Not getting at you Larry but just reflect on what so many learnt from G.B. over the years and I suspect you will have been one amongst the many. I have the utmost respect for G.B. as I do for G.P. and I don't think I would be telling them how it should be done! it's called respect.
Stygg
04 August 2018, 12:04 PM
handrawn
Re: Monotony
the piece in question is generic
make a basic image and swirl it around in artrage [or program of choice] - this is what students do in art school...
now don't get me wrong - when Gare does the 3D stuff he is a master... but this particular piece is different
Gare is quite entitled to do exactly what he wants, but lets not lose our sense of perspective [pun intentional] here...
judge the piece for what it it is, not who made it...
04 August 2018, 01:58 PM
Gare
3 Attachment(s)
Re: Monotony
Hi stygg, Larry,, all—
Thanks for the feedback and please let me say I accomplished something I’d hoped for: group participation on tg. Yes, I did think enough of the Monopoly hotel and house pseudo painting to post it here, but fool disclosure is that I’m weak with perspective using drawing software and this was a chance to tighten up some of my skill. So it’s as personal piece and I probably should have typed “C&C welcome”, so Larry’s post didn’t come out of nowhere.
In any event, Larry was being a good and useful member as a critic, as was stygg for “moderating” my little gallery here. I appreciate the thought and am very pleased we have a dialog going on here.
Because tg is so underpopulated, I saw a tumbleweed rolling down Main Street.
My Monotony study eventually lead to an attempt to create an entire scene, in a photorealistic style, and my viewpoint deliberately low to suggest a larger scale then you usually see if you’re over 3’ 7”.
Here’s something was primarily to experiment with a Wacom Intuos Pro Paper Edition I had on loan. I’ve almost never used a tablet and stylus my entire time with a computer. I don’t know how I’d have drawn all the shading on the toast with the Pen tool. With the Wacom, it’s “daub, daub, daub” and before I knew it, I had a piece that really liked. The waft of steam is out of Flame Painter, something like $50 US and although All it does is stylize smoke, it’s save my Keative Kiester enough times that it’s a “keeper”.
Thank you for your honesty/insight, handrawn. I did do it as a personal, fairly trivial piece, but as I mentioned, I just pulled it out of a folder to draw (pun there) out some new and existing members to get the circulation going a little on tg.
BTW, Larry, thanks for sending the music video. Loved it, very sensitive!
I just have admired the design of a really good water pistol, and occasionally organize controlled mayhem situations in the back yard with the neighborhood kids. WE do not have helicopter parents in our neck of the woods!
This is the first time I've drawn one, and the first time I used an existing product as a reference. My "model" for this session set me back $1.69 + NYS tax.
I've modeled two others over the years—I'll put them on my Non-Xara art soon.
I just have admired the design of a really good water pistol, and occasionally organize controlled mayhem situations in the back yard with the neighborhood kids. WE do not have helicopter parents in our neck of the woods!
This is the first time I've drawn one, and the first time I used an existing product as a reference. My "model" for this session set me back $1.69 + NYS tax.
I've modeled two others over the years—I'll put them on my Non-Xara art soon.
MAN!
I wish I had your eye for shading and lighting!!!
04 August 2018, 07:18 PM
Gare
2 Attachment(s)
Anxious pumpkin
Hi, Ron—
I discovered after playing with what is now an entry-level modeling program that I had no problem navigating the representation of 3D space on (or in) the modeling window. Maybe being left-handed, or just plain weird helped.
Now that a significant portion of working in a modeling program tucked away, I had almost a year for nothing else to do but work with CorelDRAW v2, and a modeling program. I had to have bilateral hip replacements and once I learned how to approach the P{C side-saddle style, I practiced and practiced.
By creating scenes that have lighting, reflections on objects, and shadows, I saw how a simulation of real-world stuff should look, Imitation, imitation, imitation in CorelDRAW, and then in Xara. and more than 20 years later, the "extras" in a drawn scene are more easy for me to approximate.
THe best feedback device ever taught to me was from the book, Drawing ion the Right side of the Brain.
"Draw what you see, not what you think you see."
{People draw smilies to represent a human face because they're not looking, examining a human face. These people presume an eye looks like a dot, a smile is totally contorted to go from ear to ear.
A good teacher of physical art would tell you to draw a still life, and a critique of it is simple. If the fruit or whatever don't look like the source, you're not looking at it correctly.
This is a cartoon, drawn out of my mind (I'm frequently out of my mind) with no reference. Once I had a pencil sketch of it the living room real world, I scanned it and then put the bitmap in Xara, locked on a bottle layer.
Then the textures and colors. You'll see an awful lot of shapes in the wireframe version. Look at the close-up. All those different shapes have slightly different shades of orange. I think I showed, a long time ago, how to make clouds by adding alter after layer with different gradients and transparency values.
This is how I achieved a mottled surface, suggesting bumps, on the pumpkin skin.
Thanks for the feedback and please let me say I accomplished something I’d hoped for: group participation on tg. Yes, I did think enough of the Monopoly hotel and house pseudo painting to post it here, but fool disclosure is that I’m weak with perspective using drawing software and this was a chance to tighten up some of my skill. So it’s as personal piece and I probably should have typed “C&C welcome”, so Larry’s post didn’t come out of nowhere.
In any event, Larry was being a good and useful member as a critic, as was stygg for “moderating” my little gallery here. I appreciate the thought and am very pleased we have a dialog going on here.
Because tg is so underpopulated, I saw a tumbleweed rolling down Main Street.
My Monotony study eventually lead to an attempt to create an entire scene, in a photorealistic style, and my viewpoint deliberately low to suggest a larger scale then you usually see if you’re over 3’ 7”.
Here’s something was primarily to experiment with a Wacom Intuos Pro Paper Edition I had on loan. I’ve almost never used a tablet and stylus my entire time with a computer. I don’t know how I’d have drawn all the shading on the toast with the Pen tool. With the Wacom, it’s “daub, daub, daub” and before I knew it, I had a piece that really liked. The waft of steam is out of Flame Painter, something like $50 US and although All it does is stylize smoke, it’s save my Keative Kiester enough times that it’s a “keeper”.
Thank you for your honesty/insight, handrawn. I did do it as a personal, fairly trivial piece, but as I mentioned, I just pulled it out of a folder to draw (pun there) out some new and existing members to get the circulation going a little on tg.
BTW, Larry, thanks for sending the music video. Loved it, very sensitive!
Thanks for your kind remarks Gare, love the toast image. It was not my intention to offend anyone but to honestly offer some helpful criticism, not to make your image look like an Architectural Delineation.
I know you are sensitive, like me that must be in an artists makeup and I applaud and respect your creative genius.
I liked your comment" I saw a tumbleweed rolling down Main Street." and I too am concerned about that.
Glad you liked the song Gare.
@all I sort of feel like I stepped on some toes here. I don't post much of my work because I usually can"t find the cursor, at least it is extremely difficult, but I do the best I can on that front.
Gare, I am about to see what I can do with your image. Aside from the values it just needs sharpening up a bit.
04 August 2018, 07:46 PM
handrawn
Re: Anxious pumpkin
Gare - yes you need to be able to see what you want to draw yes...
myself I went through all that and came out the other side.. now what I draw [for myself] is far more interpretive as here [done by frettle aka handrawn in another place]:
Well done, handrawn! I’m envious; the freedom you obviously enjoy in your work—that’s the way painting should be—no constrains of stroke and fill. I failed oil painting at University. I never quite sussed an area of expression foreign to me. I began with pen and ink at age 6, and I stuck with what worked for me.
Lay-Zeeeeee!
About this retouched piece:
1.) It took about 4 hours using Xara. I spent 2 hours getting nowhere with P’shop and decided to cut my losses. I needed often to get between the pixels so and area would resolve up smooth.
2.) My choice of Charlez was a deliberate one; I wanted to choose an image I liked to look at for a few hours, and it’s also the best example I could quickly find where the text was intrusive, laid out poorly and just ugly.
3.) Absolutely no sexism was intended, okay? If I’d found an outstandingly ugly magazine cover with a guy or an infant, I’d have used it. I’m very sensitive (I think) to exploitation.
4.) The Administrator is cool with this.
At right, the finished cover. In the middle, where the multitude of shapes are that cover the text and in a lot of areas to replace areas of the dress, arms, and so on.
At right, the finished cover. In the middle, where the multitude of shapes are that cover the text and in a lot of areas to replace areas of the dress, arms, and so on.
Retouching with Xara feels quite natural to me, even though I usually use the Paintbrush tool and other tools in Photoshop. I’ve only done one other retouching session in Xara; a pristine 1958 Cadillac that had a guarding fence around it to keep kids off the spectacular set of wheels.
I do not know what a hookah is. When I was very young I saw what was called a water pipe, maybe that is the same I don't know.
05 August 2018, 07:40 PM
wizard509
Re: Monotony
Quote:
Originally Posted by stygg2003
Be honest Larry, would you off the top of your head have come up with a image as Gare as shown. I know I for one would never have dreamed of it and what is shown is why Gary is a walking art, vector and so on Master. He's just a genius and we should be thankful he shares it with all at Tg.
Not getting at you Larry but just reflect on what so many learnt from G.B. over the years and I suspect you will have been one amongst the many. I have the utmost respect for G.B. as I do for G.P. and I don't think I would be telling them how it should be done! it's called respect.
Stygg
To be honest Stygg, no I wouldn't have thought of that.
I too have learned much from Gare, and Egg too for that matter. Both have been my heroes for a long time.
05 August 2018, 07:46 PM
Gare
1 Attachment(s)
Re: Bouton's stuff, Volume 2
Well, I believe that a hookah has a modern stepchild called e-sigs. Vaping, you know?
My comment was not well thought-out. Yes, a hookah can be used as a water pipe, but also as an opium device. The caterpillar in Alice through the Looking Glass, sitting a toadstool, wasn't packing water in his pipe.
Ah, how would I never know this stuff? I've never used recreational substances stronger than menthol cough drips.
Your retouch looks marvelous Gare. I can't really tell what you did. I assume the left side is the image with all the gunk removed, while the right shows the text you added. Is that correct?
05 August 2018, 08:49 PM
wizard509
Re: Bouton's stuff, Volume 2
OK Thanks Gare. I still think maybe you could modify that image by adding a hose, mouthpiece, and some smoke to draw one, but then maybe that would not be appropriate here.
05 August 2018, 11:47 PM
ss-kalm
2 Attachment(s)
Re: Bouton's stuff, Volume 2
Nice cover retouch Gary. You had already done some retouching when you took the screenshot (and so well I didn't notice until I saw the original) ... This is the original cover Larry.
Let me try to explain visually, with a different example, Larry. The text was both in front of and behind her. It took 93 shapes, with different gradients and transparencies.
Re: Continuing Ron and Gary's discusssion. All are welcome!
Is that a Boucasso? Really cool!
16 August 2018, 03:04 PM
Gare
2 Attachment(s)
Re: Continuing Ron and Gary's discusssion. All are welcome!
Hey, Ron—
It's just an abstract thought, drawn out.
The little piece of art was an icon I " upgraded" to become a piece of art in its own right. Simple stuff can benefit immensely as a statement just by filling in some "missing pieces".
If anyone would like to, attached here is a simple vector drawing of a lime slice. The screen snag below shows it and a couple of minor variations.