Last Sunday, it was a ‘Creative Sunday’. It turned so that I’ve spent almost the whole day, drawing in Fireworks and Flash.
It has all started like this…
The Rabbit and the Sewing Machine
First, my wonderful wife Ani found a blog with a nice header and mentioned that it is probably very difficult to make such a drawing or vector composition.
That was a reason strong enough for me to fire up Fireworks and start re-drawing this header image right away. It was a challenge! :-)
3 or 4 hours later, my imitation #1 was ready:
(click for larger size)
Compare it with the original that I was trying to reproduce:
(click for larger size)
You can see that the two images are almost identical, with the exception of a few details — for example, I’ve drawn a rabbit with long ears instead of a doll with no face expression (I like the rabbit more, actually). Also, you can notice that some other small details are not re-created in exactly the same manner, but this is intentional — I wanted to make a very similar image in Fireworks, not a 100% exact copy.
Everything you see is just vectors and a few effects added here and there.
I do not know how was the original created (I tried to contact the author of the blog, but did not receive a reply to my e-mail) — maybe it’s Illustrator or Photoshop — but I think I have demonstrated that Fireworks is powerful enough to make quite complicated vector imitations. That’s the reason why I love Fireworks so much — it is powerful enough to do 90% of my graphic design work, and yet, very easy and intuitive to use! :-)
The City of Darkness
Next, I switched to Flash, and tried to recreate a nice drawing, made by Ani on paper, a few days ago.
Here’s my first try with a tablet (this is imitation #2):
(click for larger size)
I used a Wacom tablet and Adobe Flash; when the drawing was ready, I exported the image and then used Fireworks again, for the final version you see.
It took me maybe 2 hours to make the drawing — I think the results are OK for a first try with a tablet and Flash:)
Here’s the original image that I was trying to re-draw:
(click for larger size)
Again, there are some differences between the two images, but they are minor…
The solar eclipse & the statue of Mahatma Ghandi
The same day, I also had the idea to re-create a real photograph, taken during the last solar eclipse (on it, you could see the sun against the statue of Mahatma Ghandi, on a very dark sky).
Unfortunately, the day was too short for this purpose, but after two days, I went back to this idea of mine, and so my third imitation was born.
Here’s imitation #3 — what you see is Adobe Fireworks again, only vectors and a couple of live effects:
(click for larger size)
And here’s the original, so that you can make the comparison:
(click for larger size)
This was quite a quick job, maybe less than an hour. I was not trying to make a 100% perfect copy, but rather check if I can quickly make a vector re-drawing of this photo. The results look quite OK to me;-)
Adobe Fireworks
I love using Fireworks.
“Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal.”
Good artists copy, great artists use Fireworks.
—Pablo Picasso
—Michel
Am I a great artist? Sure no! :-)
But it’s fun for me to try to imitate some other people’s work, especially using Fireworks, my favourite graphic design editor of all time! :-)
And what still continues to amaze me is how good Fireworks can be, both with vectors and bitmap editing… and how underrated it continues to be, for Adobe and for many design professionals… (I hope this will change some day!)
…Meanwhile, I’ll continue to copy imitate in Fireworks, just like I did last Sunday, when the mood comes. It’s just too much fun! :)))
