ok, this is my first time sharing, and also my first time using the mesh gradient. Still have a lot of learn, but overall happy with the grapes moreso than the leaves or stem etc, so may go back and touch up as I learn more about mesh.
yes, separate mesh for each grape!!! ugh. crashed Inkscape many, many times. Took up so much memory. I may have even said a few bad words, lol. (it crashed upon saving and didn't save ANYTHING), not even in autosave, thank goodness I know enough now to save a copy too, only lost a few minutes of work. I had to redo a few of the grapes to be a reg gradient, that helped with the crashes. I couldn't even move the grapes as a cluster, have about 13 layers. I hope the manual comes out with some info - soon, lol. I used Gimp to cut out a raster of some grape leaves, then finagled it (had to have help with GIMP too, lol). Had a time with those leaves. Just found a Nick tut that shows a great hint of how to do a vector texture. What I can't get right, oddly enough, is the stem at the top. Haven't yet figured out how many mesh rows and columns work best. The small stuff is hard to do. (Accepting all hints!). YouTube vids are great, but they do basic shapes. Oddly, the round mesh didn't come out as good as the square for some reason, or I haven't yet figured it out. Overall, for the time it took, I'm very happy. Now back to the pear...
Is that the actual size of the drawing? I'm assuming it's actually larger than that? I can hardly see the stem at the top, so it's hard to offer any comments. Oh wait, you mean the top of the image or the top of the grapes? I thought you meant the curly one at the top of the image, but now I'm thinking you mean the actual stem at the top of the grapes. It is hard to see it against the leaf.
For the round mesh, what I discovered is that the top vertical line of nodes (or whatever you call them....stops maybe?). Anyway, the top vertical row of nodes/stops is actually 2. You can only see it if you drag them apart. But then, if you drag them apart, it messes up the gradient. So you have to use some tricks to select those node/stops, to set their color. For that reason, at least for what I've done so far, I always use the rectangular mesh.
What I've learned, is that the fewer rows and columns, the smaller the file. So I always try to get by with as few as possible. Sometimes I start with the bare minimum, and then just add a few extra node/stops here and there, as needed. And of course move them around strategically.
This won't help much with the crashing, but I think some shadows could help with the illusion of depth. Of course that means more blurring, and an even bigger file.
Hey! I wonder if you took some of the grapes and cloned them, and substituted them for other custom meshes, if that would make the file smaller? You could maybe rotate them slightly, or use extra shadows, so that they don't look like clones. You know, some of those grapes, you only see such a small part of them, who would know if it was cloned? Well, I know how much work that must have taken already. But just a thought.
Thanks for your thoughts, all good ideas. This is a smaller version. Yes, talking about the straight stem at the top of the grapes, which sits on the leftmost part of the drawing, and on a leaf. I was just starting to add some highlights, thinking about shadows, but the crashes annoyed me so much that I stopped, lol. For some reason I hate clones, maybe I just need to learn to work with them... I really don't like the circle mesh, the way it separates, I wouldn't get them to come together correctly, so I used the rectangle one. I sort of threw in the towel at this point, called it done, but sometimes I just need a break, then will come back to it, esp since I tried using the toggle mesh/bezier button and now can't get it back, it's infuriating, lol.
Wow this is a beautiful drawing! That must have taken a lot of time too.
It makes me wonder.. Do you want it to be photographically realistic?
Because you say want more depth and shadows. I am still thinking about that, because you asked for tutorials about shadows. Let me try it with a short written tutorial with some pictures. It is a more painterly approach, because I am a painter. I always try to make an illusion, rather than a photorealistic copy of the reality, hence my question.
In this file I choose the light to come from the left side, in order to make thigns a bit simpler. So the shadows are mostly on the richts side of things.
Kirstie, thanks so much for your comments- you are always so thoughtful! I have learned a 'bunch' (pun intended) from you, lol.
Believe it or not, my drawing looked exactly like the reference pic of real grapes (there's a specific type of grape that has that skin). I did it about the same way you did too. Though the leaves were my doing and not in the reference pic, they need a little more' life' or movement. I have gone back and added a bit more shadows wince this posting, so it's getting there. I get sidetracked, start other projects, so haven't decided if I'm done or not, which is why i haven't updated that pic. And mesh can be so 'messy' to deal with on my very old, low memory computer, lol.
BTW, I'm a painter too, haven't been able to paint in several yrs due to health issues, but am a certified One Stroker (acrylics). May I ask what you do?
Forgot to add, I wasn't specifically going for photorealistic, but I didn't want to do my usual 2D more casual style. I don't really stick with one style only. This was more of a study to see if I could do more of an illustration style - this and my rose that is, and primarily to conquer my fear of the mesh gradient. (Even though I've been using Inkscape for about 10 yrs, I've been dealing with major health issues, so couldn't really dive into expanding my skills, finally starting to do better, so 'going for it'!!!
ps if you use it as a reference on a blog, please wait for me to post an updated png first.
Also, fyi, this is copyrighted as I sell many of my drawings.
You said that the grapes on the reference picture looked exactly like that and I believe you. That picture confuses me though, as I cannot locate one source of light. There are at least to sources, which makes such a drawing complex. One light at right side above & behind the grapes and one at the left, probably from the front.
I really liked making that tutorial and was talking about putting the tutorial on my Inkscape blog. It needs tweaking, because it relies heavily on blurring which is a filter. And that slows Inkscape down. But you gave the kick off by starting this thread with your picture and questions.
It would not come to my mind to use your work without asking for permission, very politely too of course.. 😆 Very nice that you sell your work! So if I make a blogpost, I might ask your permission. And link to whatever website you like me to.
Somehow we have many things in common, possibly being on different sides of the world? The love of Inkscape to start with. And I also stopped painting some years back because of health issues. The computer is easier. But It will return, maybe in a different way and in my head I still paint a lot. May I send you an personal message with my website?
Kirstie - oh sorry, I misunderstood. That tut will be great on your website.
The skin of that particular species of grapes has that wierd 'highlighty' appearance that is natural, it's a stange looking grape, but I've eaten them in the past and love their appearance. Too bad my reference didn't have it's name, I prob should try to find the name. I really need to study shadow directions better.
Yes, by all means, pls send me a PM. ps I have the hardest time on here even trying to find someone's profile, which is the only way we can send a PM. So pls PM me and if feasible, also send an alternate way to comunicate. I'm from the US, east coast, near the nation's capital (washington, dc). It'll be so nice when the PM is up and running here!
Kirstie. fyi. I didn't see a way to translate the language (into english). Not sure if that's something you can add (or even if it can be added), or if that's done automatically or what. It'd be nice to have for us english speaking folks...
Wow Floamingolady, That is some idea! I added a Google tranlate link in my profile here. If I have some time I might add English posts to the blog. Thank you for making this suggestion.
Share Finished Artwork grapes using mesh
Inkscape.org
ok, this is my first time sharing, and also my first time using the mesh gradient. Still have a lot of learn, but overall happy with the grapes moreso than the leaves or stem etc, so may go back and touch up as I learn more about mesh.
Wow! Is there a separate mesh for each grape?
yes, separate mesh for each grape!!! ugh. crashed Inkscape many, many times. Took up so much memory. I may have even said a few bad words, lol. (it crashed upon saving and didn't save ANYTHING), not even in autosave, thank goodness I know enough now to save a copy too, only lost a few minutes of work. I had to redo a few of the grapes to be a reg gradient, that helped with the crashes. I couldn't even move the grapes as a cluster, have about 13 layers. I hope the manual comes out with some info - soon, lol. I used Gimp to cut out a raster of some grape leaves, then finagled it (had to have help with GIMP too, lol). Had a time with those leaves. Just found a Nick tut that shows a great hint of how to do a vector texture. What I can't get right, oddly enough, is the stem at the top. Haven't yet figured out how many mesh rows and columns work best. The small stuff is hard to do. (Accepting all hints!). YouTube vids are great, but they do basic shapes. Oddly, the round mesh didn't come out as good as the square for some reason, or I haven't yet figured it out. Overall, for the time it took, I'm very happy. Now back to the pear...
Is that the actual size of the drawing? I'm assuming it's actually larger than that? I can hardly see the stem at the top, so it's hard to offer any comments. Oh wait, you mean the top of the image or the top of the grapes? I thought you meant the curly one at the top of the image, but now I'm thinking you mean the actual stem at the top of the grapes. It is hard to see it against the leaf.
For the round mesh, what I discovered is that the top vertical line of nodes (or whatever you call them....stops maybe?). Anyway, the top vertical row of nodes/stops is actually 2. You can only see it if you drag them apart. But then, if you drag them apart, it messes up the gradient. So you have to use some tricks to select those node/stops, to set their color. For that reason, at least for what I've done so far, I always use the rectangular mesh.
What I've learned, is that the fewer rows and columns, the smaller the file. So I always try to get by with as few as possible. Sometimes I start with the bare minimum, and then just add a few extra node/stops here and there, as needed. And of course move them around strategically.
This won't help much with the crashing, but I think some shadows could help with the illusion of depth. Of course that means more blurring, and an even bigger file.
Hey! I wonder if you took some of the grapes and cloned them, and substituted them for other custom meshes, if that would make the file smaller? You could maybe rotate them slightly, or use extra shadows, so that they don't look like clones. You know, some of those grapes, you only see such a small part of them, who would know if it was cloned? Well, I know how much work that must have taken already. But just a thought.
Thanks for your thoughts, all good ideas. This is a smaller version. Yes, talking about the straight stem at the top of the grapes, which sits on the leftmost part of the drawing, and on a leaf. I was just starting to add some highlights, thinking about shadows, but the crashes annoyed me so much that I stopped, lol. For some reason I hate clones, maybe I just need to learn to work with them... I really don't like the circle mesh, the way it separates, I wouldn't get them to come together correctly, so I used the rectangle one. I sort of threw in the towel at this point, called it done, but sometimes I just need a break, then will come back to it, esp since I tried using the toggle mesh/bezier button and now can't get it back, it's infuriating, lol.
Wow this is a beautiful drawing! That must have taken a lot of time too.
It makes me wonder.. Do you want it to be photographically realistic?
Because you say want more depth and shadows. I am still thinking about that, because you asked for tutorials about shadows.
Let me try it with a short written tutorial with some pictures.
It is a more painterly approach, because I am a painter.
I always try to make an illusion, rather than a photorealistic copy of the reality, hence my question.
In this file I choose the light to come from the left side, in order to make thigns a bit simpler.
So the shadows are mostly on the richts side of things.
Here is how I would paint grapes.
There are no leaves and no stems, but that is how I would use the gradients and blurs.
Thank you for the inspiration. I might put it on my blog one day.
The svg file does not render the same here on the forum as on my pc.
So I added a little screenshot.
Kirstie, thanks so much for your comments- you are always so thoughtful! I have learned a 'bunch' (pun intended) from you, lol.
Believe it or not, my drawing looked exactly like the reference pic of real grapes (there's a specific type of grape that has that skin). I did it about the same way you did too. Though the leaves were my doing and not in the reference pic, they need a little more' life' or movement. I have gone back and added a bit more shadows wince this posting, so it's getting there. I get sidetracked, start other projects, so haven't decided if I'm done or not, which is why i haven't updated that pic. And mesh can be so 'messy' to deal with on my very old, low memory computer, lol.
BTW, I'm a painter too, haven't been able to paint in several yrs due to health issues, but am a certified One Stroker (acrylics). May I ask what you do?
Forgot to add, I wasn't specifically going for photorealistic, but I didn't want to do my usual 2D more casual style. I don't really stick with one style only. This was more of a study to see if I could do more of an illustration style - this and my rose that is, and primarily to conquer my fear of the mesh gradient. (Even though I've been using Inkscape for about 10 yrs, I've been dealing with major health issues, so couldn't really dive into expanding my skills, finally starting to do better, so 'going for it'!!!
ps if you use it as a reference on a blog, please wait for me to post an updated png first.
Also, fyi, this is copyrighted as I sell many of my drawings.
Hi FlamingoLady,
Thanks for the nice reaction.
You said that the grapes on the reference picture looked exactly like that and I believe you.
That picture confuses me though, as I cannot locate one source of light. There are at least to sources, which makes such a drawing complex.
One light at right side above & behind the grapes and one at the left, probably from the front.
I really liked making that tutorial and was talking about putting the tutorial on my Inkscape blog.
It needs tweaking, because it relies heavily on blurring which is a filter. And that slows Inkscape down.
But you gave the kick off by starting this thread with your picture and questions.
It would not come to my mind to use your work without asking for permission, very politely too of course.. 😆
Very nice that you sell your work! So if I make a blogpost, I might ask your permission. And link to whatever website you like me to.
Somehow we have many things in common, possibly being on different sides of the world?
The love of Inkscape to start with. And I also stopped painting some years back because of health issues.
The computer is easier. But It will return, maybe in a different way and in my head I still paint a lot.
May I send you an personal message with my website?
Kirstie - oh sorry, I misunderstood. That tut will be great on your website.
The skin of that particular species of grapes has that wierd 'highlighty' appearance that is natural, it's a stange looking grape, but I've eaten them in the past and love their appearance. Too bad my reference didn't have it's name, I prob should try to find the name. I really need to study shadow directions better.
Yes, by all means, pls send me a PM. ps I have the hardest time on here even trying to find someone's profile, which is the only way we can send a PM. So pls PM me and if feasible, also send an alternate way to comunicate. I'm from the US, east coast, near the nation's capital (washington, dc). It'll be so nice when the PM is up and running here!
Click on the person's name above their post to get to their profile, Dee.
Where's your blog, Kirstie? I don't see an address in your profile.
Hi Brynn,
That's a very good idea Brynn! I will put my blog's address there. 👍
Kirstie. fyi. I didn't see a way to translate the language (into english). Not sure if that's something you can add (or even if it can be added), or if that's done automatically or what. It'd be nice to have for us english speaking folks...
Wow Floamingolady,
That is some idea! I added a Google tranlate link in my profile here.
If I have some time I might add English posts to the blog. Thank you for making this suggestion.
Kirstie. I wasn't sure how that worked, so glad you could add it. When I get some more time I can't wait to check it out!