An advanced lesson in computer drawing.
Hi all. Today we are going to draw a computer image of a strawberry, just like this one.
Using vector shapes is a little tricky at first, but the results speak for themselves. Do check your software manual (or send me an email) if there is anything you don't understand.
By the end of this lesson you will be able to create a strawberry just like the one above.
So, how do we do it? Well here goes..
Firstly you need a graphics program such as Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, theGimp or any other decent painting program. on a new document (600 x 600 pixels is a good size) create a vector layer (name it 'big red' and draw a circle and fill it with a radial gradient running from red to black with the centre offset by about 30% right and 30% high.
Once you have managed to learn how to do that, everything else is pretty easy.
You need to deform the circle using its handles (click on the image and then in photoshop click on the arrow outline)
Drag the four points until you are happy with a roughly strawberry shaped circle.
Ok, now we need to add a pip. To do this add a new vector layer first. Name this layer 'pips'
My pips are just an orange circle (radius 5 pixels) with a darker outline (about 2 pixels wide). I reshaped this too to be slightly longer than it is wide. I also turned it 15 degrees to the left.
Now on the same layer copy the pip and paste it many times across the strawberry
Around the edge, some of the pips should creep over the edge of the background circle so the final image looks more natural.
Now for the leaves. Once more add a new vector layer named 'leaves' but move it below the big red layer
The leaves are simple vector circles filled with a dark green to light green gradient. These have been stretched into leaf like shapes.
Add a few more and we are almost done
The highlights are drawn on a new raster layer. For the strawberry body i just splodged some white paint around the fruit, avoiding the pips
For the leaves I added drew a more mottled set of highlights in light green.
Then it was simply a matter of reducing the transparency of the raster layer to about 40% to blend in the highlights.
If you have a paint program on you computer give this technique a try for yourself. Good luck and keep drawing.
