Painterly Effects

[gdavidson]

I think you are quite right about the effect being specific to the picture at hand. I often experiment until I get something that looks right, which Xara excels at doing quickly. I tried a few bitmaps, stretching and rotating the fill before getting something acceptable. Xara makes it much more fun than photoshop when trying things out

[Rhanna]

Great photos Graeme.
Rupert

[gdavidson]

Thank you Rupert - I'm glad you liked them!

[gdavidson]

I woke up to a pleasant surprise today... the image at the start of the thread won the competition! This is in no small part testiment to Xara's ease of use that allowed me to experiment freely and quickly!

http://www.dpreview.com/challenges/C...e.aspx?ID=2183

[steve.ledger]

Very well done..
You were up against some stiff competition too, a lot of lovely submissions there.

[gdavidson]

Thank you sledger! Indeed there was some lovely work in there, many of which I liked more than my own entry.

I wish I were an artist so that I could create scenes like these from scratch but I can't draw for toffee!

[Soquili]

Graeme have you ever heard of Jon Gnagy? He believed that everyone could draw. If you have time, review some of his TV drawing lessons http://tseymour.com/gnagy.html

[gdavidson]

Soquili - those videos look fascinating and inspirational! Thanks for the link.

My trouble seems to be that of hand-eye coordination. Although quite skilled with my hands for mechanical purposes, I don't seem to be able to translate that into line drawing for reasons that escape me!

I maybe need to try my hand in Xara again but this time avoiding my previous tendency towards photorealism! Perhaps a synergy of photography and vector art would be the way to go, if I can find the time

[zaphodeist]

Congratulations Graeme - well deserved!

[gdavidson]

Thank you John!