Hi Friends,
For my next project, I've decided to try and reproduce a photograph. Whenever I've attempted realistic images in the past, I've either had a subject, or the actual thing, to which to refer while working. But this time I want to get experience reproducing a photo. Thus far, I have realized that there are some different kinds of challenges with a photo. For example, an area which might have had 3 layers of blur, to accurately depict a shadow or depth on a realistic subject, might easily be done with a simple gradient for the photo. On the other hand, I've sometimes used a filter to simulate texture on a realistic subject, and imo have been fairly successful. But with a photo, unless I happen to find a filter for my exact project, I'm gonna have to draw all the details of a texture.

So anyway, I thought I'd post some WIPs as the image develops. Below is the photo I've chosen. Credit National Geographic U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Digital Library which is an excellent source of wildlife photos (any image posted on a .gov website is public domain). I really tried to avoid fur, feathers or hair, and had a nice dophin photo picked out. But in the end, I don't think I have good enough skills for water, and went with this bald eagle's head shot. I think I might be able to use the LPE cross hatch to depict some the feathers, in this case.


And here's my 1st work-in-progress, where I've roughed out the darker areas, shading and shadows of the beak, at 200% zoom. Of course these areas will not be stroked in the finished version.



Comments and contructive criticism welcomed

Are you using Autotrace at all, or is that not allowed for your project?

I'm not familiar with Autotrace. I'm definitely not using Trace Bitmap. But Autotrace....where can I find it?

Edit -- Oh ok, never mind, I found it. The info on inkscape.org says it doesn't do well with photos. Plus it looks like you have to "compile", which I don't know how to do. I need the simple installer. Oh wait, ok I found an online version here: http://www.roitsystems.com/cgi-bin/autotrace/tracer.pl

Well, I guess I can say it's better than Trace Bitmap, for sure. I might use it for some other stuff, though. Here's my result, and you can draw your own conclusions. I just used their default settings.



I think it is interesting what or how it "sees". For example, in the original, I see the background as solid dark gray. But the trace shows....I guess it's sort of a gradient. I can definitely see how it could be useful though.

But for my purposes, no, this isn't "allowed". I want to gain experience using Inkscape only.

You are very patient to use and get results from roitsystems ...!
Inkscape uses potrace in 'tracebitmap' which is a nice starting point for vectorizing a photograph. Technically it is 'in' Inkscape. You can disallow scan stacking and just pull out sections that look correct so you can focus on the parts that need manual attention.

The GIMP has a very good tracing engine built in that hardly anyone uses - or at least talks about . the options it offers for fine tuning your path are very thorough. It only does one colour at a time though, - actually only one bit-depth images. And it saves into svg. Of course it's not Inkscape, but it's worth a look..

The image you picked is very challenging - perhaps it would be fun to experiment with...

Yes, I realize it's very challenging. As far as I can see, any photo is challenging. But challenge is the whole idea. Like I said before, I had a dolphin photo chosen too, but water seems seriously out of my skill set right now. I know I'll never be able to reproduce this photo exactly or accurately. But I expect I will learn a lot by trying, and that's my goal!

I didn't realize GIMP has a tracing engine! I'll have to look at it, right after I post this.

So here I have all the areas traced out, that I have a pretty good idea how to handle. Red is the darker areas and shading. Blue is all those white areas excluding feathers, and green is for the yellows. I expect they''ll be mostly blurs and gradients, with a lot of simple transparency. All paths of each color are in sublayers of a parent layer called "sketch". And I plan to keep them intact throughout the process, and I'll put the actual colors on other layers. I suppose I'll eventually hide the sketch layer.

I also have a pretty good idea how to handle the eye. But I'm saving the eye to do separately....well, not separately, but all at once -- some day when I'm feeling really inspired, lol.

For me, the feathers will be the biggest challenge. That part in front of the eye, that's part feathers and part....I don't know, bird skin, I guess, will also be a big challenge. At the moment, I only have a vague idea how I will do these. But to learn is what I want, and learn is exactly what I will do!

This screen shot is at 200% zoom:


Comments and constructive criticism welcomed

Here's kind of the 1st draft of the darker areas of the front part of the beak. I do expect I will be tweaking all along the way, who know how many drafts?! I haven't done any clipping yet. But the clipping path of the whole outline is overlaying it, because it was bugging me to see the blurs fading over the outline, and making it hard to see. So I just hid them temporarily.

There is some of that where the front or outermost part of the beak meets the inner part of the beak (where the nose is). I'm undecided whether to clip as I go, or wait til I'm done and then clip everything. I think, for the sake of clarity, I will clip in chunks -- for example, I think I'll clip all these dark areas on this section of beak, altogether, rather than clip each one. Especially because of that sharp division on the beak. It actually looks like there a bit of a crease there....and I just noticed a shadow there, that I had missed before

Anyway, here's the next screen shot

OK!
Here's the current state of affairs, lol. The outer part of the beak (the darker gold or orange part) is finished, except the the white areas. The inner parts of the beak (lighter gold or yellow) is very close to also being finished, also less the white areas.

As I expected, the part of the beak that has feathers has been troublesome. In general, throughout, I get frustrated because I need to zoom in some to get certain details. But then I see things, and draw things while zoomed in that aren't really evident at 100% zoom. So there's been as much revision as there has been original drawing

Anyway, comments, questions welcomed

Well this is becoming more and more of an ambitious project, as I work along.
I thought I might be able to use an LPE for some of the feather areas. And probably I could. But to faithfully reproduce the image, now I've made the decision to try and draw, at least the feathers in the lower half -- like under the neck and where you see all the short black strokes below. On top of the head, the feathers are blurred and should be fairly easy to depict.

Yes, this is very tedious work, and a very ambitious project. But I really enjoy it as a challenge. I'm quite pleased with how the area under the neck has turned out, the part that lies in shadow. There will probably be some tweaking here and there, but for the most part, that area is finished. Note that I have not completed the background, and just have a black-filled path to simulate clipping, while I work. Eventually I'll clip everything all at once.

Including the original again, to save scrolling. Comments appreciated