Flora and Fauna

[iagman]

Custom texture made to match Xara drawing.

[gwpriester]

Really nice. How did you create the custom texture? It looks like oil paint.

[wizard509]

Very effective use of the textures. I'm with Gary, it does look like oil paint. Did you use ArtRage to give it that look? I love the gold wires, they go very well.

[iagman]

The illustration began with existing CAD drawing that had been used to
produce a panel in a different medium.
The CAD drawing was traced in Xara using strokes designed to give a loose,
sketchy feel. That produced the BW drawing shown in step 1.
In step 2, the Xara sketch was then traced to get closed objects such as the
leaves, flower petals, and bird. All these objects including the background were
given texture using marble bitmaps. Marble automatically gives the variations
in color and shading seen in final piece. All objects were flat beveled. This produced
the shadows and interesting darks scattered throughout the scene. The top, center
illustration shows step 2 after it was completed.
The illustration at this point could be considered a finished piece and simulates
marble inlay work. However, to get the oil painted look a jpeg of step 2 was opened
in Art Rage. Corel Essentials works also.
In step 3, the graphic was painted over using oil medium to give the brush marks
seen in the paint. Details are obscured in this step leaving only basic shapes and
colors which becomes somewhat smeared and blended, just like the real thing.
Colors are picked up by the brush using the underlying Xara jpeg as the pallet.
That make the process fast. The finished texture bitmap for step 3 is shown in
upper, right corner.
While making textures is not a Xara process, I see no difference in using a
custom-made texture and in using texture bitmaps supplied in the Xara software;
they both modify Xara objects; one is made to fit the illustration, the other is
usually a compromise of one degree or another.
Step 4, the original Xara line tracing was given color and beveled. This
would become the outline that would better define all the individual parts
of the finished piece since they had been somewhat blurred in previous step.
Step 5, a frame was made for the piece using various tools in Xara.
Step 6, in Xara, all elements were aligned and stacked to produce the finished
piece seen in step 6.

[gray]

It would make a great looking print, iagman.

[Ron Duke]

Great texture.

[Boy]

Very nice work!

[iagman]

Thanks for the comments, gents.

[LogoMount]

Wow, some really nice style!!! Like it a lot

[A Wrigley]

That's nice very nice. Great work on the texture.