Stop & Post May 2012

Hello everyone,

Let's kick off once more! Are you creating something for MoMA? Maybe a cartoon for your kids? or a scrapbook for your grandmother?
It really doesn´t matter. If you did it in Xara, we want to see it!

Happy posting!

Something different this time. No hidden images.

The yuccas are blossoming here in the desert so I took this photo yesterday. I brought the photo into Designer Pro, cloned the photo, added an Elliptical > Stained Glass transparency and reversed the starting and ending settings to highlight the blossom and make everything else darker. I did the same thing with the photo of the Fox Glove blossoms. The background behind the Fox Glove was dark but not as dark as I wanted it. The Elliptical, Stained Glass transparency added the depth I was looking for.

Xara is great for this kind of image enhancement.

I agree Gary. Great images.

Is anybody doing anything?

Remember this forum is for members to share (at any stage) what they are currently working on.

So, give it up as they like to say on the TV.

I'm trying out new ideas for cards - they have to be in black and white. A lot more work is needed.......

ok Gary keep yer hair on - 'playing' with the xdpx is what I am doing

quick on the uptake bunnies will have noticed that the new shape builder tool enables you to draw shapes in the shape of lines with outlines already on them [an example attached]

I've beem playing with the shapebuilder too :D I used the the shapebuilder to do the lettering in an Italic calligraphy style and then I used transparent soft strokes with a large nib to airbrush the back ground colours behind the lettering.

Attachment 89628

Very cool, Frances !

Is it just shapebuilder or did you extrude afterwards ?

Thanks guy it's all shape builder but I took the letters and grouped them, right clicked and dragged to create a copy, cloned that copy, gave the clone a different colour (any colour will do just so you can see what you are doing) and offset it to the bottom right and selected both of the copies and ctrl+2 to subtract shapes this will leave a group of shapes just perfect for highlights. then I just gave it a bright yellow colour and some feathering and aligned on top of my original group of letters. I added a drop shadow which helped add to the effect.

I like that Penny, perhaps you could make use of this image I've had for years, can't remember where I got it from but you might get some inspiration from it :D

Stygg

Hi Stygg, thanks, that's really nice!

Penny

Voltaire watches the solar eclipse.

:)
although a 'candid' opinion might say the hat was perhaps a mistake in this instance :D

Voltaire always wears his hat. This is the southwest, you know.

well as hatstands go it has class .....

Gary, I like it myself.

M. V also has an identity badge to help identify himself.

The image in the glasses was taken last night during the solar eclipse. And the badge was created in Designer Pro, except the photo of the painting of Voltaire which came from Wikipedia I think.

BTW Penny, I love your drawing. It is so classy and elegant.

I've just been experimenting with the shape builder tool. This was all painted with the Shapebuilder. I'm not satisfied with how the lightning looks so I may play around with that some more.

Attachment 89828

I recently was asked to do some caricatures. Here are some of them.

Attachment 89848Attachment 89849Attachment 89850

Here's one of a series of illustrations I recently did for a children's story featuring the famous Hare and the Tortoise.

Attachment 89851

Those caricatures are absolutely wonderful. They really look like the photographs and you managed to capture each boy's spirit!

Thanks, Boy!

I like those caricatures too, they brought a smile to my face.

I've been experimenting with a technique for creating masks for fancy photo edges, like you often see on the internet. All done in DPX

Attachment 89874