Gary Bouton's Xara Stuff

**Gare** · 22 May 2014, 07:32 PM

Hey Ho, David—

The biggest stumbling block, and I think I speak for several talented artists, is that vector graphics is unlike physical drawing, and it's unlike physical and digital painting.

The moment I started getting something out of a vector drawing program I felt was eye-pleasing was the day that:

1.) I stopped thinking about a mouse as a pencil. It's not. It's a point and click targeting device for the screen, and I'll tell you something—I'm left-handed and when I use a computer, I do so right-handed, holding the mouse in my right palm. But when I got back to a draughting board, I'm left-handed again. I think this is proof that there's a marked diffeence in approach between drawing and using a computer to design vector artwork.

2.) I stopped thinking of Pen and Pencil tools as their real world equivalents. They're not and if you try to design onscreen using the same approach as in the physical world, you're sunk. Vector art consists of a direction for a vector, how many segments it has to determine curve flatness, it can have a fill if it's a closed path, and the outline can have a width and color...and those are the basic parameters. All the other elegant tools in Xara—some of them draw bitmap effects to the screen, updating on the fly, while other tools are entirely bitmap in coding—Xara holds a bitmap copy of your work in memory or in a temp file, and then applies a bitmap Live Effect, and will update and change it based on your original art. Damned clever, but the more you know of the simplicity of vector design, the less Intimidation Factor, and ultimately, the more productivity and pleasure in designing cool stuff.

I'm glad you're using the forum as a defense against the Boredom Doldrums!

I can't afford to retire. Ever. And my greatest fear is I'll croak in the middle of writing a tutorial, and no one will be able to get to the final Step 7.

I'm kidding.

Cheers,

Gary

**David Strover** · 22 May 2014, 07:58 PM

Hi Gary,

Thanks for the reply. I'm left-handed too - but I massively left-handed if that makes sense? I cannot do anything with my right-hand, my brain might explode if I tried.

We need chaps and chapesses like you so never stop your tutorials and advice. With my 'normal' drawing and painting I have found YouTube an unbelievable source of really, really helpful advice so believe me it is always gratefully received.

I'm pleased to say that I have got past the stage of trying to 'draw' in any vector software with the mouse - I learned that the hard way, but when I look at other people's work I still marvel at the intricacy and it does make me realise even after 'X' amount of years I still have only scratched the surface.

I added my caricatures in a new thread so you can see what stage I'm at.

On retirement I can only do it because of my lovely wife, who gets three pensions, more or less insisted that I just give up work - she had been retired for eight years prior to this [she's 11 years older than me] and the novelty of being at home on her own had worn off. I'm not complaining.

Cheers
David

**Gare** · 22 May 2014, 08:37 PM

My advice based on your comment, David, is to try to get into the head of an architect, not necessarily an artist with a surface in front of you.

An architect plans from the ground up, works from the general details to the specific final embellishments, and everything they do is with whole, discreet pieces of things: a chair, a lamp...what I'm trying to get at is that all my life I worked "analog", soft watercolors that never come out the same way twice, random strokes I really like but cannot repeat, because "analog" is a medium of blending things together, not always distinct edges, and this is where Xara and vector design programs totally break the norm.

If you were to design an olive, for example, you begin at the foundation with a large greenish oval. Then you put the pimiento shape, another oval, on top and slightly asymmetrically to the olive object. Perhaps then a toothpick. Now this woulds go both on top where it penetrates the olive, and then a second piece more or less aligned with the top piece to suggest the toothpick has skewered the olive.

That's the hard architectural part; the creation and placement of shapes. The, you "paint" the "rooms". You might want to use an elliptical gradient on the olive to make it look more round, you might add a specular highlight shape (whitish) to suggest the olive is wet or highly reflective, having a smooth surface.

Then you add a shadow behind all the shapes to suggest the olive is resting on a surface.

David, do you see how, with words, I built this "drawing"? Procedurally, with objects, no smearing stuff, no erasing things. Vector art is indefinitely re-definable, sort of like the Colorforms set I had as a child. Little pre-made geometric shapes made out of thin vinyl you could put on a dark, slightly adhesive surface. You composed and moved object around until they became artistically meaningful to you.

Click image for larger version.

Name: Colorforms.jpg
Views: 434
Size: 50.5 KB
ID: 102082

You can't change the world, but you can change the way you think about things.

Perception is what keeps an artist going.

I'm going to have to post another drawing. This is getting to philosophical, and everyone knows I'm a pseudo-intellectual!

My Best,

Gary

**laser1** · 24 May 2014, 02:08 PM

From one left-hander to another, I hope that some of your greatness rubs off on me. Like David, I too am using the forum as a defense against the Boredom Doldrums! I guess that our next step will be in the old folks home - cutting out paper dolls. Thanks for sharing some of you knowledge with us.