This is a competition entry I did for a forum few days back. It was done from scratch and was created using the Open Source graphics software GIMP.

Mermaid On The Sea Rocks
Copyright © 2006 Mahesh ‘Vyoma’ Bhat

Yes, I know - the wordings are a bit sloppy. I was reaching the deadline and I had to submit it. So, I just did something and did a composite and submitted it.

Comments and critiques are welcome.

I have already put up a post on that particular forum that details the process and steps I went through to create this piece of work. If anyone is interested, (and if it is ok with the moderators), I will post it here too. Please let me know.

Embded picture in the solid model.
Here is one try I made to use real picture with solid models to create a combination.
The solid model work takes time to generate. This is only a startup idea for my personal practice. Let me know what you think
Thanks

A really good attempt there, talktime. May be you should have posted it in a seperate thread, but anyway - here is what I think.

May be you should work on the luminance of the car, the person in the car (is that Homer Simpson?) and the bridge also. The issue is, the sun being behind the subject and co-subjects, it might appear more as a silhoutte - of course you can add some detailed variance as I did for my picture - the mermaid has some details due to ambient light - but in your case - the luminance is more stark. That way, you would have to make the bridge, the car and the person in it much more darker with faint detailing. Especially the car has a bold highlight facing the view point - which is very odd, and makes the picture look un-natural.

I do not have much experience with real photograph - drawn object - composites but this is my opinion.

Not bad better what I could do, I can't not free hand like that, just that text is somewhat of a let down. I would have gone with a simple black brush and wrote my name within the picture itself.

Good work Vyoma

For the drawing, did you use a mouse or graphics tablet?
and why did you use gimp? part of the competition rules to use open source software?
Why did you not use paint.net, its also open source ?
(and no its not from M$)
Or do you just hate M$ with its .net framework?

Anyway good work, you can really catch the atmosphere.
But I don't really like the hair, they look "bulky" like in the '70s
I know it's very hard to do correct hair (be it in a 2d or 3d program) so I appreciate your work
Was it your idea to let look it like a water painting?

Thank you saint-michael. Yes, the text is somewhat a let down. I thought of all sorts of things - but now that you mention about a simple black brush - I guess that was a good thing. It just never crossed my mind at that particular time.




Thank you tommydanger.
Wow! Lot many questions. I will try to answer them all.
I used mouse for drawing it all - I do not own a tablet.
Why did I use GIMP? Well, it was not at all part of the competition rules. Heck! I had all sorts of people using all sorts of advanced software like PhotoShop pitted against me. I just do not own Photoshop and I had to go for a Open Source Software.
Why did I not use Paint.net? Well, I am not sure - I did try it before - but I preferred the User Interface of GIMP better - just a matter of personal preference.
Yes, I do hate M$. Period. I prefer not to indulge in .NET framework too.

You pointed that right about the hair - yes, it does look a bit bulky. Some of my friend too pointed it out. I wanted to get a flowy look, but it just ended up sor of bulky - - I need to work a lot on hair and fabric dynamics.

Making the work look like water painting - that is actually a by product of the process I used to develop it from 'Concept Sketch' to this point. It would have ended up with a bit more realiastic - if not photo-realastic look if I had a lot more time and a lot more vizualization skills. I need to work on that too.

Basically, the process I used to create this work, was to go from broad brush strokes in concept sketch layer, to more details with smaller brushes in seperate layers. As a matter of fact, I can actually get back the work from my archives, seperate all the layers, remove and rework on that hair part now. I might do it some time in future - but I am working on other personal projects now.

Thanks again, all you guys for your reviews.