Hokusai Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 This is my second Art Nouveau piece (and probably my last as I'm ready to move on to something else). I based my version on a Henri Privat-Livemore poster from around 1896 or so. As I mentioned in my previous piece, I normally don't use the "effects" in Designer because I normally work only in pure vectors but the effects worked so well with shading on the skin in my last piece that I decided to recreate this piece as well adding my own little touches along the way. I chose this poster because I liked the composition and it had a lot of shading on the skin tones and I wanted to see what I could do with it using Designer's effects. I was very happy with the results. I hope that you enjoy. Thanks for letting me share my picture. Hokusai Rick G, GarryP, Cinelli and 10 others 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gdenby Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 Splendid work. Do move on, but keep the skills you clearly have from emulating Art Nouveau. When you mention "effects," do you mean gradient fills, pixel painting, gaussian blur, etc? If you didn't use those, how would you approximate the same results from pure vector? PS, you can see from my user icon that I had a period of gradient intoxication, which now is a little embarrassing, but it was such fun. Quote iMac 27" Retina, c. 2015: OS X 10.11.5: 3.3 GHz I c-5: 32 Gb, AMD Radeon R9 M290 2048 Mb iPad 12.9" Retina, iOS 10, 512 Gb, Apple pencil Huion WH1409 tablet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MattP Posted January 26, 2018 Staff Share Posted January 26, 2018 Oh wow! Awesome!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted January 26, 2018 Author Share Posted January 26, 2018 25 minutes ago, gdenby said: When you mention "effects," do you mean gradient fills, pixel painting, gaussian blur, etc? If you didn't use those, how would you approximate the same results from pure vector? gdenby, Thanks for the kind words. Yes, those are the effects that I'm talking about. Gradients are okay and they can be used on purely vector pieces but if you use a gradient that goes from a colour to transparent, it normally rasterizes it so I usually just use only "regular" gradients but I didn't on this one. Normally I avoid anything that will cause my work to be rasterized but not with this piece. Some of the effects you simply can't reproduce (from my experience) using only vectors but you can do things that mimic the style and still keep everything purely vector. How well they work depends on technique and also on the piece itself. The gradients in your user icon are cool, nothing embarrassing about it! When I first got into graphics, I went through a gradient phase too. Hokusai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger C Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 Astonishing. This is graphic art! With your shading, the subject is no longer the earthy photo-realist artists' model of the original, but an ethereal nymph. It seems she hasn't tasted the product yet... Quote Affinity Designer & Photo : Win 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SrPx Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 Gorgeous. Very good work, and great choice. Quote AD, AP and APub V2.5.x. Windows 10 and Windows 11. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 Am I allowed to say 'Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder'? No?? I thought not!! Hokusai 1 Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrym Posted January 27, 2018 Share Posted January 27, 2018 Hehehe Have to say though I'm in awe of these AD artists Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartRc Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 Impressive piece of work!...'pure vectors' can have such stunning results.....like this one Quote Affinity Version 1 (10.6) Affinity Version 2.5.2 All (Designer | Photo | Publisher) Beta; 2.5 5.2613 OS:Windows 10 Pro 22H2 OS Build 19045.4412+ Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19056.1000.0 Rig:AMD FX 8350 and AMD Radeon (R9 380 Series) Settings Version 21.04.01 Radeon Settings Version 2020 20.1.03) + Wacom Intuous 4M with driver 6.3.41-1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted January 28, 2018 Author Share Posted January 28, 2018 Stuart_R, I'm glad that you liked my piece. It was completely drawn using vectors but I did have to use some of Designer's "Effects" to get the skin tones looking like that so I don't know if this one would qualify as being 'pure vectors' but it is close. I normally avoid using anything that will cause rasterization when I export it as PDF but there are occasions when it is unavoidable. Are you a vector purist too or do you like to mix vectors and rasters? Hokusai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted January 28, 2018 Author Share Posted January 28, 2018 18 hours ago, Alfred said: Am I allowed to say 'Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder'? No?? I thought not!! Alfred, Very funny! You're quite the punster. Hokusai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 1 minute ago, Hokusai said: Alfred, Very funny! You're quite the punster. Hokusai Thanks, @Hokusai. I'm afraid I can't claim the credit for that one, but I do confess to being more than averagely fond of a bit of wordplay. Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SrPx Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 1 hour ago, Alfred said: Thanks, @Hokusai. I'm afraid I can't claim the credit for that one, but I do confess to being more than averagely fond of a bit of wordplay. ...and euphemism. J/K ! This forum wouldn't be the same without that wordplay of yours... Alfred 1 Quote AD, AP and APub V2.5.x. Windows 10 and Windows 11. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartRc Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 45 minutes ago, Hokusai said: Stuart_R, I'm glad that you liked my piece. It was completely drawn using vectors but I did have to use some of Designer's "Effects" to get the skin tones looking like that so I don't know if this one would qualify as being 'pure vectors' but it is close. I normally avoid using anything that will cause rasterization when I export it as PDF but there are occasions when it is unavoidable. Are you a vector purist too or do you like to mix vectors and rasters? Hokusai It's an impressive drawing....like a lot of the artwork that has been posted in the forum....It's like watching something powerful evolve! over a relatively short period of time. I appreciate both and actually and like mixing raster and vector together. It can create some fantastic effects. You just need to look at Frankentoon, Agata, Monez, Robert Harris and Paolo for the that. I think the ability to combine vector/raster in the same software is a considerable advantage and adds to the versatility of AD/AP and superiority over it's rivals. The drawings I have been attempting for the past couple of months have however, been just vector. It's quite time consuming and I suppose in reality just been experimenting with vector textures and patterning. As I just can't leave those textures alone.... It can be difficult to mix complex colours like skin without mesh tools. Vectors alone can be limiting without resorting to effects. Initially (a year or more) I was using Gaussian blurs inside objects to mimic highlights and shadows but I have found..much to my annoyance that you can achieve better results using a combination of layered flat tints (opacity), the transparency tool, colour and subtle graduations. Creating grouped overlapping objects with varying opacity/colour worked well for me..but can be a slow process...but once you have the objects it can be fun to play around with. It is an advantage for me personally as consequence of creating raster brushes (Texture Painters) I have a lot of seamless vector patterns which have been used a lot recently (like Letracet!....if anyone remembers that!) Quote Affinity Version 1 (10.6) Affinity Version 2.5.2 All (Designer | Photo | Publisher) Beta; 2.5 5.2613 OS:Windows 10 Pro 22H2 OS Build 19045.4412+ Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19056.1000.0 Rig:AMD FX 8350 and AMD Radeon (R9 380 Series) Settings Version 21.04.01 Radeon Settings Version 2020 20.1.03) + Wacom Intuous 4M with driver 6.3.41-1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alfred Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 26 minutes ago, SrPx said: ...and euphemism. Nah, that wasn't euphemism, just understatement. SrPx 1 Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted January 28, 2018 Author Share Posted January 28, 2018 3 hours ago, Stuart_R said: It's an impressive drawing....like a lot of the artwork that has been posted in the forum....It's like watching something powerful evolve! over a relatively short period of time. I appreciate both and actually and like mixing raster and vector together. It can create some fantastic effects. You just need to look at Frankentoon, Agata, Monez, Robert Harris and Paolo for the that. I think the ability to combine vector/raster in the same software is a considerable advantage and adds to the versatility of AD/AP and superiority over it's rivals. The drawings I have been attempting for the past couple of months have however, been just vector. It's quite time consuming and I suppose in reality just been experimenting with vector textures and patterning. As I just can't leave those textures alone.... It can be difficult to mix complex colours like skin without mesh tools. Vectors alone can be limiting without resorting to effects. Initially (a year or more) I was using Gaussian blurs inside objects to mimic highlights and shadows but I have found..much to my annoyance that you can achieve better results using a combination of layered flat tints (opacity), the transparency tool, colour and subtle graduations. Creating grouped overlapping objects with varying opacity/colour worked well for me..but can be a slow process...but once you have the objects it can be fun to play around with. It is an advantage for me personally as consequence of creating raster brushes (Texture Painters) I have a lot of seamless vector patterns which have been used a lot recently (like Letracet!....if anyone remembers that!) Stuart_R, I agree with you, there are some amazing arts posting some incredible pieces of art here. I've seen most of the ones that you listed and they are fantastic, and there are two very talented users that you didn't list that I recommend you check out if you haven't already, IsabelAracama and Retrograde. Very nice stuff. You're completely right about the gradient mesh, especially if you are working with skin tones. I hope that when the Affinity team adds a gradient mesh it works better than Illustrator's. Illustrator's gradient mesh is okay and I know a lot of people like it but I never could get it to work the way I wanted it to. Maybe I wasn't using it correctly but whatever the reason, I felt it had the potential to be greatly improved upon and I hope that the developers here can offer something better and easier to use. Pure vector pieces do take longer for me to make too but most of the time when I make a piece I prefer to spend a little extra time and keep it all vector if I can. Hokusai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartRc Posted January 28, 2018 Share Posted January 28, 2018 1 minute ago, Hokusai said: Stuart_R, I agree with you, there are some amazing arts posting some incredible pieces of art here. I've seen most of the ones that you listed and they are fantastic, and there are two very talented users that you didn't list that I recommend you check out if you haven't already, IsabelAracama and Retrograde. Very nice stuff. You're completely right about the gradient mesh, especially if you are working with skin tones. I hope that when the Affinity team adds a gradient mesh it works better than Illustrator's. Illustrator's gradient mesh is okay and I know a lot of people like it but I never could get it to work the way I wanted it to. Maybe I wasn't using it correctly but whatever the reason, I felt it had the potential to be greatly improved upon and I hope that the developers here can offer something better and easier to use. Pure vector pieces do take longer for me to make too but most of the time when I make a piece I prefer to spend a little extra time and keep it all vector if I can. Hokusai Absolutely!...There are so many it would be a long list...one that I think is going to grow significantly...I have watched some of Isabel's tutorials..the dragonfly on Behance is amazing! and Retrograde's isometrics are outstanding..and the giant blue rabbit!. I completely agree with you Yeah! the gradient mesh was never my favourite tool. It is too 'sensitive' if that's the right word..requiring a lot of patience...and easy to break/destroy your efforts. But it does have some neat tricks of being able to extract the mesh shapes from the parent mesh...and if you keep it simple can be quite useful. AD is evolving into something quite special and looking forward to getting my paws on 1.7. I am sort of pleased your vector pieces take a long time.. makes me feel better having just spent 5 days working on one drawing. Hokusai 1 Quote Affinity Version 1 (10.6) Affinity Version 2.5.2 All (Designer | Photo | Publisher) Beta; 2.5 5.2613 OS:Windows 10 Pro 22H2 OS Build 19045.4412+ Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19056.1000.0 Rig:AMD FX 8350 and AMD Radeon (R9 380 Series) Settings Version 21.04.01 Radeon Settings Version 2020 20.1.03) + Wacom Intuous 4M with driver 6.3.41-1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hokusai Posted January 29, 2018 Author Share Posted January 29, 2018 Stuart_R, I too am very pleased and excited about how nicely Designer has been evolving and I can't wait to see what they'll add with 1.7 too! With each update it keeps getting better and better. Normally I take a couple weeks to a month to work on a single piece. This piece (Absinthe) took me only a week but that is a little fast for me (but I do them in my spare time so I'm not working on them full time). My longest is 6 months or so. StuartRc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.