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desmo100 — Flowering Quince and Chickadee
Published: 2008-03-29 00:00:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 1562; Favourites: 42; Downloads: 0
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Description
All vector work, all Illustrator 13. Chickadee is from one reference photo and the quince blossoms from another. Used lots of different techniques and tools: pen tool, gradient mesh, regular gradients, shapes, and solid colors to name a few. Took a long time (lost track of how many hours/days), but it was a worthwhile learning experience. I love doing birds!Related content
Comments: 54
Thanks, Zoo. THe mesh gradient is quite a challenge because of the number of points and the direction of lines....that has yet to be learned. But oh, it's interesting and enjoyable!
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Yes, I agree.... I struggle with it too.... 
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Would you believe? There is a warp tool in Illustrator, too! And you can actually change the shape with it and alter the vector points! I was amazed when I saw that. There are also other neat tools: pucker, twirl, bloat, scallop, wrinkle and crystallize. I love the twirl tool--you can force a straight line into a spiral. Eash "brush" can be adjusted for amount of effect and other variables. That's pretty neat!
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I think thats called the mesh warp tool..... (forgot about that.... haven't used it for a while..)
NOt sure if holding down oprion/Alt reverses the direction of the effect - That's very handy in Photoshop if you use liquify. Given that a lot of these tools in Photoshop originated in Strator it might very well be the case. The one thing though that continues to annoy me is that the default shortcuts for adobe common options are not consistent across the suite
There are a lot or really nice tools in illustrator and it is improving... A few years ago you had to key in values for transforms on all tools.... Nowadays though a lot can be done visually with interactive tools
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No, using the the Alt key to reverse the direction of the twirl tool doesn't work. It's something that one would not guess, and I only discovered this yesterday (looked it up under the help section): when you double click on the twirl tool icon, you select the "twirl rate" option. A minus value turns the twirl in one direction, a plus value turns it in the opposite direction. Larger plus and minus values induces faster rates of twirl, as well, so that option it serves a dual function! Who knew?
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Yes - double clicking on a lot of tools bring up the options..... That's the traditional way of doing things... Try the Scale, reflect and Rotate tools too (just as a few). The scale tool is now interactive to and you can drag outside the selected paths to enlarge or reduce
The Text Tool also is finally akin to that in Corel......
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I've been using the scale tool to create a "blend" situation in certain instances, and it is great! I've got to admit I've not used the reflect or rotate tools, yet. I will, though! I've messed around with text, so that's not too new to me. There's still so much to learn in the text department, though.
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I have to admit I still have a lot of tools to investigate vis a vis versatility in certain situations.....
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Excellent work Jean. The flower look like made from wax and the little bird is very sweet.
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Thank you very much! This was tough to make (all vector works seem difficult), but it was my first serious attempt at using the gradient mesh tool. I am very happy with how the little chickadee came out, though. Wish I had similar luck with the other birds I've done.
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It turned out delightful. Very beautiful!
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how do youi get such a nice work ....it's..relly beautifull...it is in photoshop!?
. ..
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Thank you very much! No, I don't use Photoshop (although they do have vector capabilities). I use Adobe Illustrator CS3 13.0. It's a very expensive program ($600!), but I got it as a Christmas present, so that helps a bit.
It's a wonderful, versatile program, but not an easy one to learn. It helps to read the online help things and work with the tutorial disks they send you. And just doing things over and over again helps make the process go more quickly and easier over time. I would love to take a course in it, but my local community college teaches it using a Mac platform. I've got Windows, so there's no point in pursuing that.
Teaching oneself is not easy, but if one is determined to learn, it's possible!
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Thank you, Anna. I really did work hard on this one. Experimenting with the mesh gradient paid off!
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hi there
your cool piece is featured in my latest news article. you can find it here:
[link]
if you love the news, please click the heart for me
have a good week! greetz, katja
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Thank you very, very much. You have some super choices there! I have looked at a few and written notes; I'll do some more tomorrow!
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Thank you, Corina. I love these little flowers and they were fun to do with Illustrator (hard, though). I had almost no trouble doing the chickadee, though. I'm glad you like!
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Thank you very much. I'm finally beginning to "get" this process!
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Thank you so much, Anna. I kinda like this one, too. 
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Thank you! I'm glad you like it.
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My goodness you're getting good at this! Lovely piece.
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Thanks, Inge. I sure am trying hard. I've noticed that I'm getting better with birds, but there's still so much to learn. The main thing I'm working on now is simply line drawing (using Illustrator's pen, pencil and brush tools). And that can take endless hours of practice!
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You did a great job Jean...look at the details in the feathers!
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Thank you! I just sat down and studied the settings for the pencil tool, made some important adjustments, and drew them in by hand. They aren't as smooth as I'd like, but it's a start!
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I think it's great and that you don't give yourself enough credit!
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Well, I'm giving myself credit for trying hard, but then I see some really, really fabulous work that others have done with both digital and vector art, and I feel like I'm back in kindergarten!
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Well we can't be the best now can we? 
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I'm mad at myself for not sticking to ONE thing and getting good at it. That's what I should be doing, and that requires more discipline than I can muster!
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But doing one thing can get boring and uninspirational at times, this gives you a variety
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That it can! And I'm sure that's why I havent' stuck to any one thing. I'm going to try this time, though! We'll see.....
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Thank you, Peggy. I do believe I'm making progress here, picking up little ideas here and there all the time. Birds are fun to do!
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So beautiful ! very pretty flowers & small bird. Very cool!!!
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Thank you very much! I took a picture of a quince blossom, but it was a little damaged by the frost. I decided to post a vector image of that photo, because it looks a little better!
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Our Jean, the flowers are so well done that pass the impression that we can touch them... 
And the bird is so cute!
I always wanted to make a vector of a bird, but I can't... 
You did a great work, as always, congratulations!!! 
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Thank you so much for that lovely compliment, Sandra. I used to have a hard, hard time with birds, but I've figured out a few tricks to make them look better (use the pencil tool to define the feathers and the "blend" technique to make their chests look rounded, e.g.). It helps to have a good, clean reference pic, too.
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I think that one of the most difficult things in vectors is to do animals in a realistic way, because of the plumes, feathers, textures...
And you did a great job!!!
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Thanks again, Sandra. I'll keep trying new things to see if I get better results. I have a couple of birds in my "symbol" collection now: cardinal, parrot, chickadee, and a robin. The robin was really hard to do, and I'm not really too pleased with it, so I might do it over. But the symbol thing is an easy way to store objects and not take up too much HD space.
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I'm waiting to see more of your great work!!!
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As long as it takes me to cobble something together, it might be another week or two.
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