Copyright (c) Nelson Chu. All rights reserverd. |
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How I made it: Doggie & Mistress
using Expression 2
Last update: 27.10.2001
The other day, I browsed through a magazine and saw a picture of a little dog with its mistress. I thought that could make a good piece of computer graphic so I started to skectch them in Expression. I like using stroke S02 for this because of its tapered ends.
This time I wanted to have a flat look, so I was using some simple fills only.
I continued to refine the strokes and add more fills.
Sometimes, maybe it's good to break some of the outline strokes up to give some subtlety. For example, I broke the outline strokes for the girl's left hand at the red-circled point you see on the right. The S02 stroke tapers at its ends and this is just what I want.
And in fact, in this example, I selected (using the node lasso tool) the stroke nodes forming the thumb and duplicate it to a seperate object. This thumb duplicate lets me put the leash right in her hand i.e. above her palm but below her thumb.
The scarf was done using the "tint" stroke under the "Design" folder. In addition to applying variable pressure using my tablet, I used the "set stroke twist" function to enhance the shaping effect (maybe it's more convenient than using the Variable Width window). Setting a twist for a stroke would bring a width of zero at those turns, so I also added an untwisted stroke on the right to make the whole thing looks like a real scarf (the part around her neck should have been done better).
Here is a close-up of the little dog. Wearing the "towel-texture" piece of clothes, it's as fashionable as anybody in <city-you-name-it> ;-). The golden rim of its clothes was done with two strokes. It might have been done better by first defining a skeletal stroke.
To represent its furry body, I used soft fills, together with some simple S02 strokes.
The leash stroke is in ribbon mode.
Added some text and background. I have a friend named Maggie, and one day the name "Maggie Doggie" came into my mind ;-P. Okay, now in this picture, I have a Maggie and a Doggie. :-D
So, this is pretty much what I got finally. Actually, it could be done better, but I was eager to submit this to Annie's showcase, and that my Exp2 trial period was ending (I just managed to grab a copy of Computer Arts Magazine #61 last night, and quickly upgraded to the full Exp2 ;-).
Here is a larger version.
Nel 19.10.2001
Copyright (c) Nelson Chu. All rights reserverd.
