Gare's non-Xara Art

[Gare]

I'm not certain which "stuff" you like, David, because I'm presenting a mash-up of programs other than Xara. I created the greyscale scene of the ant with Cinema 4D, a modeling/rendering/animation program.

Where to learn? Gosh...um... there are books on modeling, there's an entire forum on tg devoted to modeling; Mike Bailey and gidget are the moderators.

Bear in mind this, though. Technical proficiency in any design program is a matter of time. With enough time, you will certainly know the tools and be able to create things. I feel I'm more proficient using some programs than others, but this proficiency thing has absolutely nothing to do with what you like in my imagery.

What makes a flower look photorealistic is skill, and that can be taught. What leads an artist to imagine a unique, personal aspect of a flower, and then to execute it so that what's on screen or on a piece of paper faithfully represents what's in the artist's eye, and mind, and heart...I think that's about as close as one can get to explaining "talent", or "success", or "I'm happy with what I did" in 90 words or less.

I try very hard to teach "concept" in the Xara Xone tutorials, because familiarity with the tools and what they do are learnable without me. That's what owner's manuals are supposed to do, but not guides, not per se.

If you don't have a song in your heart, so to speak, you'll be able to mechanically reproduce a photo of an object with enough skill with a program, but who on Earth would want to do artwork that appeals to the head and not the heart all day long?

That's why I'd recommend "Drawing on the Right Side of The Brain" which is in its zillionth edition, I think. It teaches you to draw what you see, and not what you think you see, and that's a good starting place to get your skills trained up. And once you have skills, it's a short jump to letting your inner vision drive your skills, and producing what I'd call "Successful Art" over and over again.

That's not the answer you wanted, was it? :)

-g

[Gare]

I saw a really nicely designed lowercase "g" in the font called "Traffic" from ICG, and wondered how it could be expressed as a dimensional object. It might make a good logo, I thought.

Well, the image at left is what I was able to design in Xara, and the image at right I did after drawing the "g", not before. I learned how to estimate and fake reflections back when I was using physical media and airbrush chrome artwork was a trend in the mid-1970s.

I have a point to make here, for a change. I like the Xara drawing much better than the modeled one. First, it took me forever and a day to try to replicate the Xara design in a modeler, and the Xara work is just cleaner and more to the point, I felt, than my usual resource for making 3D stuff look dimensional. The model looks flawless and cold and clinical. I was able in Xara to add the warmth I felt the simple desgin needed by faking a lot of the perspective and stuff, and this is probably why the 3D render looks not as inviting, less humanity.



—gary

[angelize]

That's quite interesting. First how you were inspired by the font and how the Xara drawing turned out. I like the reflections in the Xara drawing. Hey maybe some thing like this would make a good Xara Xone tutorial! I could certainly use some practice and learning when it comes to drawing realistic reflections.

[dcahall]

That's why I'd recommend "Drawing on the Right Side of The Brain" which is in its zillionth edition, I think. It teaches you to draw what you see, and not what you think you see, and that's a good starting place to get your skills trained up. And once you have skills, it's a short jump to letting your inner vision drive your skills, and producing what I'd call "Successful Art" over and over again.

That's not the answer you wanted, was it?

Yes, it is an answer I can live with :-)

I have my second (updated version of the book). In some cases, I was surprised at how well I could do the drawings they suggested (their exercises) but then when I tried to do some things from scratch, it seemed like I did not "see" the right things or could not translate what I saw to the paper. I think a lot more practive would certainly help.

I have not really tried to draw in Xara the way I have tried in ArtRage (primarily pencil drawings). Somehow the pencil tool in Xara does not seem the same to me as it does in ArtRage but I might not be using it correctly. Thinks I should also take more time to go through the entire Official Guide. The things I did do showed me some great capabilites that I have not exploited accept when going through the book. Seems like I get distracted easily :-)

[dcahall]

That's quite interesting. First how you were inspired by the font and how the Xara drawing turned out. I like the reflections in the Xara drawing. Hey maybe some thing like this would make a good Xara Xone tutorial! I could certainly use some practice and learning when it comes to drawing realistic reflections.

Could not agree more. I think the Xara version is FAR more appealing. I have done some simple reflections when I created some graphics in Xara for a DVD slide show. Sometimes it is both challenging and exciting when you get it to come out right (OK - acceptable in my mind when I saw the results).

[Gare]

Just a happy image on a dreary Friday:



-g

[angelize]

Very nice! One of these days I have to spend some time practising with Blender again.

[Gare]

I tried very hard to make this look like a catalog page. The folds in the cloth can be created in Cinema 4D with a cloth collider object (a chair in this instance), and the cloth object. Much time after the render with Photoshop.



-g

[angelize]

I like the texture of the cloth it reminds me of hand woven fabric.

[Gare]

I was thinking about Orson Welles' Mercury Theater prank the other day...



My Best,

Gary