Fledgling Art

 
Dale Challener Roe
 
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Dale Challener Roe
Total Posts:  453
Joined  19-03-2008
 
 
 
11 June 2008 09:42
 

Now that I have completed and registered my arms (thanks, Michael) I’ve decided to turn my attention toward improving my artistic ability.

Improving won’t be all that difficult and my current artistic talent begins and ends with arranging elements comprised of existing clip art.  And while I highly doubt I’ll ever approach the skill or creativity demonstrated on this site by others, I am having quite a bit of fun.

 

I’ve decided to begin by teaching myself a kind of digital tracing.  Until I can get hold of something like Illustrator I’m cutting my teeth in PowerPoint, which can be used to create vector art.  So what I do is a find existing digital art that’s close to what I want and put that on the left of the screen, then on the right side I attempt to recreate the art, making changes to fit what I want.

 

 

#1 is my own crest.  I created the wreath, dog, and candle using this digital tracing technique.  I wasn’t yet up to tackling the flames so those were straight clipart.

 

#2 is my badge—I used the same candle I created for my crest, and created the wavy sword.

 

Then after my own arms were complete, my fiancée not-so-subtly asked for me to design something for her, #3 is the result.  In this rendition of her arms I created everything aside from the cat (which I’m still working on).

 

#4 her badge I recombined elements I had already created.

 

#1http://www.dcroe.com/images/heraldry/crestDR.png#2http://www.dcroe.com/images/heraldry/badgeDR.png#3http://www.dcroe.com/images/heraldry/armsJT.png#4http://www.dcroe.com/images/heraldry/badgeJT.png

 

At this point I’m mostly concerned with training myself to draw digitally (no, I can’t draw by hand), although on the candle and the scarab I did make some attempts at basic coloring and shading, using pre-existing art as a guide.

 
Terry
 
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Terry
Total Posts:  419
Joined  07-01-2008
 
 
 
11 June 2008 10:18
 

Hi Dale,

You are off to an excellent start Sir.  I am still learning also, but I would be glad to help if I can.  As a start, at least until you decide if you want to use Illustrator or Corel Draw, here is a free Vector drawing software that is Very good.  You may choose just to stick with this smile

 

Hope this helps some.

 
Dcgb7f
 
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Dcgb7f
Total Posts:  516
Joined  07-07-2007
 
 
 
11 June 2008 14:09
 

Quite honestly, looking at your samples above, your vector manipulation skills are already pretty good. I would really recommend you work on shading. It can make a huge difference and can make up for less than perfect figures. Regarding the flames, while they do sort of look a tad unrealistic, I don’t think it’d be so bad if their brightness was not so different from the rest of the figures. I mean, for example, the dog and torse are fairly dark, while the flames are bright. The difference in brightness more than anything is what gives it away as cut and paste.

I must admit, when you said the shield was what you designed for your fiancée, my first reaction was "you gave her a bug." Nothing wrong with bugs, but they’re not the most usual charge. If you don’t mind, what is the reasoning behind the beatle?

 
Dale Challener Roe
 
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Dale Challener Roe
Total Posts:  453
Joined  19-03-2008
 
 
 
11 June 2008 14:25
 

Daniel,

There are several reasons for the scarab beetle.  She’s a fanatic about ancient egypt—has been ever since I’ve known her.  Several years ago, during a rough time in her life, she began to have recurring dreams with a green scarab beetle as a kind of guide.  She got the idea that she would like the beetle as a tattoo, and as soon as she got the tattoo the dreams stopped and her life took an upswing.  So she’s come to see the scarab as a personal symbol of positive change.  In fact, the artwork I used to create this vector drawing was a photo of her tattoo.

 

So the scarab, and the pyramid seemed natural to me to put on her arms.  Also, she specifically asked for this shield shape when she learned it was called a cartouche.

 

I actually designed several different images, and though this wasn’t the only one with an Egyptian slant, it was the only one with the scarab and she went for it immediately.  In fact, for the final design, the only thing she changed from the first draft was to change the top section from semy of tea leaves to four tea leaves (for her four kids).

 

 

Daniel & Terry,

 

Thanks for the advice.  I will get to shading and lighting, but they scare me.  Ok…not scare, but I know from past experience that I’m frightfully bad at them.  wink

 
Dcgb7f
 
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Dcgb7f
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11 June 2008 16:28
 

Wow. Well, I think that definitely makes the design that much better… not only beautiful but also very meaningful and special.

 
Kyle MacLea
 
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Kyle MacLea
Total Posts:  269
Joined  27-04-2006
 
 
 
12 June 2008 08:39
 

Dale Challener Roe;59150 wrote:

#1 is my own crest.

#2 is my badge—

 

my fiancée not-so-subtly asked for me to design something for her, #3 is the result.

 

#4 her badge I recombined elements I had already created.


They’re all really good in my opinion, beautiful!  I like the arms you designed for your fiancee quite a bit…  I liked the scarab beetle as a charge too—neat, and easy to recognize.

 

Nice job!

 

Kyle=