# Some graphics



## Mart44 (17 Oct 2019)

Creating graphics using various drawing programs can absorb me for hours. Also restoring and colouring old photos sometimes. Maybe not so much a hobby as a bit of a pastime on wet afternoons:


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## Mart44 (19 Oct 2019)

Just a splash of colour in a modern art sort of form.





I call this one' Ball in a box' (what ese? )


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## Mart44 (8 Nov 2019)




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## Mart44 (15 Nov 2019)

Made using RealDraw Pro




Made using Xara Designer


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## Mart44 (11 Dec 2019)




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## Mart44 (12 Dec 2019)

The 'marbles' drawing and how it's made:


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## r04DiE (18 Dec 2019)

Some nice stuff there, Mart - well done. I do like to dabble a bit myself, using open source software. What do you use?


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## Mart44 (19 Dec 2019)

Hello r04DiE - Thanks. The images aren't much compared to some seen around the Internet but doing them keeps me happy for a few hours. 

I mostly use Xara Designer for vector images but have a couple of other programs too. RealDraw Pro was used for the joined up rings and the shield. Corel PhotoPaint was used for the photo restoration and colouring.

When it comes to open source software, I know Gimp is good for all bitmap (photographic) work and Inkscape is a very good vector drawing program. I have turned out vector images using Inkscape but tend to go back to using Xara or Corel in the end.


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## r04DiE (19 Dec 2019)

OK, that's good - I think you have done well and the main thing is that you are enjoying yourself. I am a gimp and inkscape man myself but it is always good to hear of alternatives. Keep up the good work.


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## Mart44 (19 Dec 2019)

It took quite a bit of time to restore this WW1 photo..


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## r04DiE (20 Dec 2019)

Wow, that's amazing and you have made a wonderful job of that!


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## PeteXXX (20 Dec 2019)

I can't do this kind of thing at all! 
I occasionally visit deviantart.com to see similar talent to yours.


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## Mart44 (20 Dec 2019)

Thanks.  It isn't really a talent, more just a case of knowing the editing program and persisting with it until the photo is as good as possible.

There was a bit of guesswork involved, especially when it came to the area of the feet. So much was missing that I had to paint in new feet where I reckoned they would have been. 

_Edit:_ The man second from the left at the front is my wife's grandfather. I hope all those in the photo made it home and lived a long life like he did.


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## ColinJ (20 Dec 2019)

Mart44 said:


> Thanks.  It isn't really a talent, more just a case of knowing the editing program and persisting with it until the photo is as good as possible.
> 
> There was a bit of guesswork involved, especially when it came to the area of the feet. So much was missing that I had to paint in new feet where I reckoned they would have been.
> 
> _Edit:_ The man second from the left at the front is my wife's grandfather. I hope all those in the photo made it home and lived a long life like he did.


Good work! I did the same thing for some damaged WWII photos of my dad.

I use Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 10. I mainly use it for doing simple graphics for the puzzle games that I am writing.


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## Mart44 (23 Dec 2019)

Made using Xara Designer:


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## MrGrumpy (11 Jan 2020)

some impressive work here, what software do people use on iMAC


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## Mart44 (11 Jan 2020)

MrGrumpy said:


> some impressive work here, what software do people use on iMAC



Not having a Mac, I don't know all that much about the vector drawing software designed to run on them. I know of a couple of programs that have both Windows and Mac versions though. Affinity Designer by Serif is installed on my computer. This has a Mac version too. A pretty good vector drawing program.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/affinity-designer/id824171161?mt=12

Inkscape is another drawing program that has a Mac version. I have also tried this on my Windows computer. It has quite a learning curve to start with but a very capable and versatile program. It's free too (unless you want to donate),

https://inkscape.org/release/0.92.4/mac-os-x/


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## Mart44 (30 Jan 2020)




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## Mart44 (7 Jun 2020)

I drew this clock using a 'Xara Photo & Graphic Designer' tutorial. It took hours to do but I've had lots of hours to spare. The image is drawn with lines and shapes. Each little part is a separate shape that has to fit accurately to the others. There is no photographic content. It would take a lot of images to show all the stages of construction. The one below shows the finished image and the shapes that make it up ..but not the transparency and fill processes..


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## Mart44 (9 Jun 2020)

Drawn a pattern..






and made some boxes out of it..


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## Mart44 (12 Sep 2020)

I drew this compass. It is made up of 291 separate parts all put together to make one picture..






The bits..


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## Mart44 (15 Sep 2020)

I drew a speaker (duplicated to make 2). There is no photographic content but a bit more work with toning and reflections would make it look like one..


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## ColinJ (15 Sep 2020)

Not bad, but shouldn't the 'SAMSUNG' logos be curved?


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## Mart44 (15 Sep 2020)

I did have the logos curved. They did kind of look better for it but on scrutiny, I couldn't actually detect much curving, so straightened them up. Maybe I ought to put a very slight curve on them just because the base does have a curve, even though the logos don't look as if they follow the shape on the actual speakers.

_Edit:_ I have maybe done the logos a bit on the large size.


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## Mart44 (10 Apr 2021)

The sphere is a vector drawing exercise (from a tutorial), drawn line by line and fills used. I didn't draw the background,,


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## ColinJ (10 Apr 2021)

I had been looking at drawing seamless tiles. There is a trick to it...

Let's say that the tiles are to be 200 x 200 pixels. Draw a 200 x 200 background template. Anything that is to cross the left edge has to be replicated exactly 200 pixels to the right. Similarly, anything that crosses the top edge has to be replicated exactly 200 pixels lower. If an object crosses a corner, you would have to apply the offsets to copies in the other 3 corners.

You can draw what you like within the template area. You could draw a set of tiles with different content in their central areas as long as all edges obey the tiling rules. Crop out the 200 x 200 pixel area within the template to make your tile. You could tile an area with a random selection of the tiles and they would match up seamlessly but look a bit less repetitive. If you made the backgrounds transparent then the tiles could be overlaid on any background of your choice.

I was going to do this for some puzzle games that I am working on but I discovered that I can easily generate random 'noise'-based backgrounds like these which I will use instead of tiles...


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## Mart44 (10 Apr 2021)

It certainly works. I can't see any joins.


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## ColinJ (10 Apr 2021)

Mart44 said:


> It certainly works. I can't see any joins.


That is a random fill generated by the computer! 

I can tint it, change the size of the 'blobs', how random they are and so on...

I just got bored of looking at a flat coloured background or simple geometric patterns like stripes.

I'll see if I kept any of my experimental seamless tiles...


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## ColinJ (10 Apr 2021)

I quickly knocked up another tile. Here it is replicated another 3 times...






And here are a lot of them seamlessly tiled...


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## Mart44 (24 Apr 2021)

A band of gold..


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## mistyoptic (24 Apr 2021)

Mart44 said:


> A band of gold..
> View attachment 585545


Is that ”the one ring to rule them all”?


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