Quiet Time

Attachment 94177
Traced and edited in Xara. Heavy reliance
on Transparency Tool.

That's beautiful iagman. If I might make a suggestion though, I think you should distort and maybe offset what is seen through the glasses lenses.

You're obviously not reading, because, I can see the spectacles on the desk!

Beautifully drawn. =D>

I can too but that's not my point.

Thanks for the suggestion. When I modeled the glasses to get reflections/shadows, the lens had no noticeable
distortion perhaps because the candle holder was too close and the prescription isn't very strong. You are
right, distortion would have increased visual interest; not sure I could have faked it well enough to be convincing.

When I first saw it it looked very realistic.
I don't know how long it took but the result was more than worth it.

I like it, iagman.

A really nicely put together still life. The colours and lighting effects are spot on as far as the distortion of the lens goes I would make a bitmap copy of the candle holder and table cloth, draw two ovals to fit inside the lens and fill them with the bitmap copy and enlarge the fill to suit. The candle its’ self looks first rate but I would take another look at the perspective between the candle holder and the book. The brass name plate on the frame is a nice touch.

Best wishes Tabian

I must not have that discerning an eye because I thought it looked pretty good. The glasses seem to give enough light reflection to fool one into believing there is some lense distortion, but that's just me. Most of you folks see the details much better than I, mostly because you've been at this much longer than I have.......

At any rate, I love the drawing.....

Great work and composition, you said it was traced? traced from a drawing of yours or from a photo? I am looking at the shadow behind the candle on the wall, looks like a persons head in hand thinking maybe? Well thats what I see as the big part of the picture, not the glasses, very nice I like it but how does the shadow get there?

Attachment 94292
a4Hire,
CAD produces a vector drawing that is not compatible with Xara. Therefore, I make a screenshot of the CAD drawing and paste/size it in Xara where the necessary lines are then traced to form vector objects that can be edited into their final form.
The above drawing shows the original CAD drawing. It contains additional information because the original was rendered in another medium. But you can see the basis is there to be traced in Xara. Additional items such as the glasses were also added to produce the final picture.

Interesting, it seems to me like an unnecessary step, and double the work. If you can trace that with Xara it seems to me like you could eliminate the CAD step altogether, and go for it without using CAD. Granted there may be something I'm not quite understanding here.

I really like this type of work as it gets my imagination working. It has a very calming affect on me.
The effort in supplying the details of the objects is what really works for me.
Thanks so much for sharing.

Thanks for the comments.
Wizard509, when I say that an original line drawing was done in CAD and edited in Xara, I do not necessarily mean that the CAD drawing was done yesterday and then traced in Xara. The drawings posted here were made in the past for other purposes with no thought of Xara. Only recently have I begun to look through the CDs and imagine how Xara might give a few new life.

Thanks lagman. That sheds a new light on the situation. I'm glad you cleared it up, makes sense now.

Hi iagman
Thank you for your explanation, I was just curious and I know I understand that you traced it in xara from an old Cad drawing that you had. But I am still wondering about the shadow on the wall. It is great creative content for picture and makes the viewer think a bit if they notice that it looks like a person holding their head on their hand. Is this what it is ? But then I assume that the candle is the only light source in the room so how does that shadow get over there on the wall behind the candle ?

I think the shadow is someone looking for their glasses... or maybe crying because he has lost his glasses.
“Hey buddy, they are on the table near the candle.”
:D

Tabian, Or perhaps he is putting in contacts since he lost his glasses.
a4hire, art is sometimes like movies- it requires a willing suspension of disbelief. Two greats, Picasso and Dail could never had their best works lauded without this.
You wrote, “...makes the viewer think a bit if they notice that it looks like a person holding their head on their hand...”
Identifying the book is key to understanding the background action.
Could what you see as shadow be a silhouette instead? If so, how would that change your perception of a possible light source?

The more I look at this picture the less relevant the technicalities appear to be, saying that though the qualities of the candle are quite outstanding. Overall though this picture tells more of a story than you would assume at first sight.

Well done, beautiful piece of work.