Garden Visitors

[Su Lawrence]

Thought it was about time I posted something ...

This originally started out as just an experiment (ages ago actually) in creating textures (the squirrel fur and stone etc) ... to see how effective / easy it would be to do in Xara.

Wasn't going to do all of it ... but then I thought I'd try some of the other textures and eventually ended up doing the whole thing.

Regards

Su

PS : Apologies to Risto for the main subject :-o

[Soquili]

Wonderful drawing Su. Great to see you posting again.

[steve.ledger]

What? Are you telling me that's not a photograph??
Incredible Su.

[Su Lawrence]

Thanks for your nice comments Soquili and Sledger ... yeah it's been a fair while since I posted any images.

It was done in XaraX, I started it a long time ago and just did bits as and when. It's mostly freehand shapes with various fractal transparencies and feathers, to build up textures/colours/shading etc.

Regards

Su

[zaphodeist]

I thought it was a photo too! Amazing work

[ngairoti]

Add me to that list of those who thought that it was a photo on first sight! Excellent!! Nothing less.

[jvila]

WOW I also think it is a photo.
Is there a repeating texture you created or you have to draw every little part?.
Congratulations!!!!

[Su Lawrence]

Thanks very much John, Ngairoti and Jvila your comments are appreciated.

Jvila: As far as I can remember, it varied, the squirrel for example was a lot of basic squirrel shaped objects with different colours and fractal plasma transparencies overlaid. Then once I had a furry sort of look happening, I added some detail, such as the highlights/fluffy edges on the tail. The wooden trellis was the same kind of thing ... rectangles with various fractal fills/transparencies etc; plus some additional details added afterwards.

Then the stone birdbath I pretty much drew every highlight/shadow, so that was quite intensive in terms of observation of the original photo and trying to reproduce it, so I only did shortish stints of that at a time. I drew a lot of 'redundant' shapes that just got completely overlaid but instead of deleting/editing I just kept adding and quite quickly building up texture and shading ... so I ended up with about 4-5,000 objects.

When I get a mo I'll post a wireframe and a closeup so you can see all the 'warts'.

Regards

Su

[jvila]

if before it was great now it is even better.
What a patience!!!!

[Rhanna]

Su, brilliant graphic. Great use of textures.
The sky is the limit with Xara.
Rupert