XaraCaster

OK, here it is - my latest XaraXtreme project.
After the Drifting Thunder 'Trueno' project I wanted to turn my attention to something else that has [played] a big part in my life in the past.

I chose to draw the (quote) "revolutionary new Fender VG Stratocaster which offers guitarists instant alternate tunings, a selection of dead-on electric guitar models, acoustic and 12-string guitar sounds, and more—all with the turn of a knob. No special outboard gear, cables, or accessories required."

Everything you see here was drawn using only XaraXtremePro. No raster bitmaps and no third party plugins used at all. The woodgrain look was created using the Fractal Clouds transparency live effect only. Everything else is a mixture of shapes/feathered fills/blends and transparencies.

The full image is pretty large, so if you want to view it in more detail, here's the link to a larger version
And for higher higher detail of the pots, pickups and bridge etc Look Here.

I've still a few small areas to work on, but for now I thought I'd show the results of about 9 hours work (broken up across many mornings before work)..

...and of course the 'Wire-Frame' view :D

A close-up of the wire-frame in more detail here

.. and a collection of plectrums :cool:

Brilliant ...... Brilliant ...... Brilliant ...... Brilliant ...... Brilliant ......

Sledger, absolutely breathtaking! You did an astounding job with an astounding tool (Xara!!!) to make your drawing take on a life of its own. Congratulations!

I agree a lovely job, the woodwork lifelike for the want of a better description. The control knobs as well.

Nice one Sledger. As Norman states the wood effect is superb!

Beautifully done sledger!
ron

Ooooooooooo :) My very favoritist!!!! Sledger... you just moved waaaaay up on my :cool:list :D I play a strat...... I printed out your picks and cut em out but, they dont work very well???:rolleyes: maybe a heavy guage would work better??:p
Beautiful work

Nice!!!

Simply amazing! I think you need to start making your own plectrums, like (I forget the name) did using Xara to create poker chips :)

That's a beautiful guitar... My father has an original 3 color sunburst Strat at home. They're beautiful guitars and your version is great. Did you use a wood image for the fill or is it one of the xara fills?

Very nice Guitar and Picks. Great work Sledger!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kmalsom

That's a beautiful guitar... My father has an original 3 color sunburst Strat at home. They're beautiful guitars and your version is great. Did you use a wood image for the fill or is it one of the xara fills?

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No bitmaps used at all - everything was created using the tools available in XaraXtreme.

I've attached a micro-tutorial to show my method for the woodgrain.

Sledger,

Seriously, that has to be one of the best "drawings" I have ever seen. Hope that Gary includes it in a Featured Artist spot sometime ...... If you would like to stretch that to 1280 x 1024, I would love to use it as a desktop - if you don't mind.

Thanks for all the good comments.. I'm pleased with the results :)
I've created a few different views and uploaded them to a small gallery.
Here

Some are quite large, you can resize or crop to suit your screen res' as desired.

Please feel free to share.
Of course please ask me if you wish to use for anything other than personal viewing or wallpaper :)

very nice indeed :)

I love the guitar, but the background fractal fill is a bit too sharp and distracting for my taste. I would prefer a slightly softer sky so viewer's focus stay on the guitar.

Waw Sledge .. you never stop to amaze me with your talent .. this is a greate peace of artwork, well done!! The wood job is by far the best I have ever seen in Xara :D

but I must also say that I think that the background might not be the best choice for this one .. it's a little bit too much for the eyes. I would love to see your guitar on a softer background. But apart from that, its a A+++ :D

Yes I think you're right about the Background. It was actually an after thought.

Have a look at the alternative images (also linked in my first post) most of which are on the default background colour I use for most of my work (easier on the eyes than a white sheet). Just click the thumbnails and see an enlarged version, then there's a link to the full sized (even larger) image enabling better view of the detail.

The original image was drawn at 700mm high, this gave me plenty of zoom depth for getting down to fine detail like the screw heads, pot knobs and chrome work.

Wonderful drawing. Like many others I’m impressed by the very lucky result with the use of fractal clouds to get that wood-like finish. Not to mention all the other superb work on this drawing.
BTW, Fender has also a low-priced series called Squier and I bought a bass from that a couple of years ago to pick up my bass playing from the youth when we used to play much of Shadovs music. Now at the age of 60+ I prefer to play jazz, one of few things that can compete on my spare time with Xara and all the stuff around the program TG, XaraXone etc. My bass has exactly the same colour as your drawing so I was the first one to download your mini-tutorial on wood-grain, might be useful in case I would draw my own bass. Thank you!
Sven-Ingvar

Sledger that is one beautiful guitar.
I bet it sounds as good as it looks.
I've done a bit of "Xarashopping" to
put in the hands of Mark Knopfler.
Do I have your permission to post it here?
Saludos,
Bob.

Very well done!

That's a really nice piece of work Sledger. Lots of good detail.