Interweaving vines with 3D text

[dcahall]

Attachment 95016


Here's another version of the simple Mexican-style house, attached.

I used a "speed drawing" style in the Official Guide's video promo, if you go to about 22 seconds in from the beginning:

on YouTube. I originally created a bitmap brush to "speed draw" the tumbleweeds, and then simplified it.

And, yeah, this probably should go back to Stygg's thread on fractal fills.

My Best,

Gary

In particular, I love those Yucca plants.

[Gare]

This is my final post of the Interweaving Vines. ... comments/suggestions are welcomed.

It looks a little "flat", Dave, as though the three dimensional properties are being fought by this 2D "sense". But you know, this is a primitive art style, very common until in the Old World, the concept of perspective was discovered and the style spread.

Problems you might learn from by addressing (or not, because this is getting real old, isn't it?):

• I believe that the reflecting pond would be at a much more severe angle than the one you depict. I realize that you want the reflection to be visible, and also realize you spend well-invested time in figuring this one out. But the reflecting pond needs to cant at a sharper angle, or the arch needs to be in a more forward-rotated perspective to make the two agree visually with one another. Again, and this is for everyone's benefit here: steal three building blocks from your kid's room or your grandkids' collection and build the arch. Then get a shallow dish and put water in it and build the darned scene so you can get a sense of the perspectives.

Now your horizon? Technically and artistically, because there really isn't distinct detail in either the sky or the grass to gather visual detail about where "vanishing points" are to then use these points against your foreground, and this probably makes no sense at the moment, so in PlainSpeak: worry about correcting the perspective shared in the scene by the pond and the arch, and don't care about the sky and grass because they are fine. Hint in the future: all objects in a scene share the same perspective, so if you have vanishing point references set up, a grid or lines, the objects HAVE TO share the same perspective you've defined.

• The shadow cast by the arch on the grass is unrealistic. A shadow HAS to be darker than the surface it casts upon. Suggestion? Make the grass lighter and less saturated.

• Because your shadow is casting as though there's a light at the viewer's point of view casting into the scene, you gotta be true to that setup point in other areas in the illustration. Therefore, the sides of the arches closest to the reflecting pond need to be slightly darker than the front face because they aren't being hit as directly by your light source as the front.

You've made Xara Xone a lovely place to enter! Thanks! Sorry to say the new forthcoming webpage design won't be as pretty!

My Best,

Gary

[dcahall]

Thanks for the feedback. These are excellent points for me to work on in the next "exercise" but in spite of all of that, I feel I did learn a lot about how to use the tool for the future.

In particular, the shadow was the most disappointing to me. I had a lot of trouble trying to create it because of the complexity of the arch, text and vines. I tried a lot of different approaches and was just not happy with the results of any of them. I turned it into a bitmap copy and tried to adjust the color but ran into additional problems.

At one point, I had done a better job of adding the perspective to the pool but in this final version did not do as well. I think I finally got a little tired and just said "that's if for this one, move on to the next challenge and be aware of the short comings for the next time". I think I have learned another valuable lesson as well and that is "KISS". I think I tried to go a little far and should have stayed with some basic things and get them done correctly.

IMHO - it is all part of the learning process.

[Gare]

Agreed: this is a learning room here, not an art gallery!

Don't ever sweat the shadows, Dave. I've discovered by audience feedback that it's important to have a shadow in a drawing where there should be one, but accuracy is of secondary concern. IOW, your audience might look at a wrong shadow in a funny way, but they are more likely to notice when a shadow is missing entirely.

Besides, a shadow on a coarse diffuse surface? The detail in real life is barely discernible.

-g

[dcahall]

Could not resist one last post in this thread............

Hope these 2 images show some progress. I have definitely learned some things along the way.

[Gare]

I like what you did A LOT with the Xara Xone arch, Dave. Would it ever be mistaken for a photo? Um, no, but hopefully that was not your intention, and it stands as a fine piece of illustration work.

I don't know why everyone here is hell-bent on interpreting my little shack as a dunny (also see: outhouse, privvy, and ___house)! I originally designed is with a Mexican motif to be a toolshed, a place to park the mower, rake, and other yard tools when your garage is too full of stuff that should go in the basement, which is full because (infinite loop here).

Your perspective is not consistent, Dave, or you used a very wide-angle lens in your drawing. You can barely see the roof, yet with "normal" perspective, you see the ground at nearly a 30 degree angle. I'd say the perspective is "forced" and make the drawing a little cartoonish. If that is your intention, it's fine. Me, I always am very serious about outhouses.

;)

-g

[dcahall]

Yes, I was just "playing" with the outhouse. You guys had done such a great job with the others, it just struck me as kind of a funny thing to do. In particular, I wanted to mess with kind of a "wood grain" filling and I also wanted to try to make the roof look a little like a tile roof. Then the silly idea of a door with a moon cut in it (outhouse "feature"). I was really using it as a way to continue to learn about that little trick you and Stygg came up with for putting a stained glass fill in an object while allow the fill to also be a linear fill. I struggled with that when you guys first showed it (was kind of dumb mistakes on my part - I just need to do something to apply it).

Glad you liked the updated Xara Xone image. I just had to go back and try to apply some of the things you pointed out. No, it sure is not a photo but was merely a "made up" graphic illustration. The important thing for me is to continue to grow and understand better about how to put some of my "vision" together more realistically.

[Gare]

No apologies, no defensive posture should go with the arch illustration, David.

It's an...illustration. And a sellable, professional one, at that.

-g