Feeding Baby Birds

[joscari]

Sally,
My English is to poor to express properly how much I like this drawing. In one word: Outstanding!
Sven-Ingvar

[sallybode]

And they said it couldn't be done.

Excellent job Sally.

Gary

I think we need to throw out in our minds "Xara can't do that! No vector program can do that." But Xara is off the page in comparison to any other vector program, in rendering speed and in zoom and in what it is able to do. Xara is simple to use, but it can offer significant challenges to whoever wants use it. And it is truly affordable to any artist who wants to own their software. In regards to that, there are companies out there who turn a deaf ear to your problems, so what you have bugs. Xara is not that way, it is doing business with a friend in all ways.

Besides TG and Xaraxone are free indespensible resources for getting the most out of the program. The graphics artist cannot go wrong.

I really think at this point the skies the limit. Because I used plugins to do clouds, don't have to do that now. It is easier to draw my own, then I get the composition I see in my head.

Thank you everyone.

Now it is a case of finding more difficult challenges to see where else this will lead.

[TwidderBird]

Sally,after seeing someone else (Intbel I think) make a comment about your birds, had to come looking.....can't make any nice new comment so I'll ask...would you be interested in posting (if you have them) the baby birds as they became--baby birds. they look so incredibly realistic I'd love to see some of the process. sometimes more helpful than 'hearing'
super job
nance

[sallybode]

Replicating textures such as found on the baby birds, is not something that one can easily pick apart nor make a tutorial of. The closest thing that Xara has is a tutorial on how to draw a petal of a tulip. The baby birds are made in a similar manner but more complex because there are many odd textures going on here. In parts of the birds, there are up to a dozen different intersecting fills, three color repeating and four color repeating fills with transparency types varing from fractal clouds and plasma grouped and then with eliptical transparency going the other direction. There are blend, individually drawn feather spouting from pin feathers. It is an advanced piece. It would take a long time to explain it. The best way is to attempt it, as necessity is the mother of invention. But where does one start if such a work is the goal, it would be discouraging for all but an avid Xara user. But it is in attempting the impossible that we grow.

"Two roads diverged in a woods, and I took the one less traveled on and it has made all the difference." Robert Frost.

If you want to draw baby birds, your family won't see you for a couple of weeks. I drew the parents first and the lorikeet first before I even attempted it. It is like asking for a tutorial of the Grand Canyon. A lovely thought, but so many tutorials posted, and I wonder who even does them or if these new techniques are even employed as if they were you'd be expecting tremendous improvement in all drawings in the forum. The main thing in drawing anything difficult is to really look at what you are drawing until you can find a shape you can recognize and a texture you can do, and then go from there.

The closest thing to the texture of birds is drawing landscapes. I did a landscape with token animal and no one commented on it but it employed what you need to do birds.

There is much you can do when using fractals, over lay one on top of another and see what you get, when you like something you begin to see how these textures can build up to be useful. It is a lot like watercolor painting in which layer upon layer of light washes builds up to become a total experience.

The same sort of thing is used in drawing most things which are subtle. We take too much of what we see for granted. You have to looks at what you are drawing and just because another hasn't does something, don't let it stop you. The first thing one has to do is to believe it can be done and secondly to believe the product can do it.

I started drawing birds because I was told it was impossible.

Nothing is impossible, it just takes more work than most people will devote to it.

[Ron Duke]

"I started drawing birds because I was told it was impossible."

I don't think anything in art is impossible, it just may be very difficult and time consuming.
You've definitely drawn on what you've learned, Sally, as many others are working at doing.
Keep up your efforts.
ron

[TwidderBird]

Sally, thanks for the brief glimpse into the G Canyon; I wasn't so sure you'd be able to show anything, but what you've said here is very helpful. there are two phrases that I don't get, and wondered if you'd be willing to clarify: "then ellipitical transparencies going the other direction" , and "token animal" in a lanscape.
you quoted one of my favorite phrases from Robert Frotst
it never occured to me that drawing bird with xara was impossible and I do agree with RonDuke. but your right in that experimenting is the best way to come up with new technique.
thanks for sharing
nance

[sallybode]

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=25177

Here's the link.

You create a fractal fill. The ends of the edit handle you can color and the middle node also. You can give this a transparency with another fractal. So you have two fractals intersecting if you will. Additionally you can group this transparency and apply a second transparency type to this. Say eliptical as it works best in blending edges in I found. Also useful with linear fill. Of course as with any thing in Xara, you can feather the edge.

Experiment with all the different kinds of textures you can create. You could also check out the car windows on one some of the cars I've done as those I've put a landscape background where done this way.

The Landscape with token animal was done this way. There is about no texture you couldn't figure out how to do with this method. Remember you have many differnt kinds of fills to experiment with.

Mostly it is a case of looking and just limiting what you are looking at to just one area. Then you can figure that part out, then the next, this is how a complex work grows of its own accord it seems.