stainedglass2.html

This is my effort at making stained glass images the way Dr. Jo Ann of "Visual Sonnets" does so strikingly well.

I didn't want to do an exact duplicate, so I tried a different shape for the glass frame and a different font for the cut-out. I really think the diamond works much better than a hexagon, though. She's also right about pure colours working better for the glass, but I had to try something different. ;-)

The hexagon is the letter "U" from the font CU Symbol and the cat-tail ding is the letter "g" by "Fontfreak". In making the glass bevel, stainedglass-a.q9q, I used the same colour in the lights as the basic glass R=89, G=130, B=101. I also adjusted the settings on stainedglass-b.q9q to accommodate the paler colour, more specifically I lowered the texture to 5.

In this instance I did use Dr. Jo Ann's butterfly GIF from Art Today,but filled in the holes in the main body and tried to clean up the edges a bit. I couldn't, for the life of me, though, figure out how she used the Satin technique on the frame. Instead, I used "Web Graphics On A Budget" gold_shiny.q9q, adjusting the colours beside the lights to a slightly paler shade of yellow/gold.

For the glass in the wings I made texture samples 100x100, flood-filled with colour, used stainedglass-a.q9q and then cut out the middle of the sample for a pattern fill for each separately selected section. The marble texture is from"Absolute Background Textures Archive".

My first real pattern...a cockatoo fashioned after an Aanraku pattern of a toucan, but still all mine! :-)

This pattern is a composite of a clip art sample from "Freebird Clipart at About.com (formerly the Mining Co.). Had to reduce the # of colours by changing some entries on the palette before increasing the colours to 16 million. Next came the eraser tool to clean up some of the shading inside the cockatoo and along the edge of the branch. I extended the branch with the paintbrush at size 2 black antialiased and then added leaves (one rotated) that were the letter "k" from the dingbat font Florals 2 by Fontfreak. Put it in an oval using the shapes tool with 2 pixel outline and then added the square frame the same way. Next came the bezier line tool, adjusting curves to extend from the drawing to the oval outline and then from the oval to the square outline.

If anyone would like a copy of the PSP pattern you can get it in a zip file here .

I would love to see other people's renditions, so feel free to e-mail me if you give it a try. :-)

For this rendition I followed a different route. First of all I created a mask/new from image/source luminance, saved the mask to the alpha channel and then deleted it saying no to the prompt to merge it with the original image. Then I added a new layer to the image and called it leading. I loaded the mask selection and flood filled it with white. I next applied Cherokee's pewter.q9q Blade Pro preset, adjusting the height slightly and reducing the glare a bit. I then turned the layer off.
To colour the sections with the Spectrum Glass samples, (please see my links page for URL), I selected each section and then expanded it by 1 pixel before using the pattern fill for each of the different areas. In some of the smaller areas I had to magnify first. Once I completed the colour fills, I turned the leading layer back on and then merged/flat. Next I added a symetrical border of 18 pixels, flood filled with a mahogany wood sample and used Web Graphics on a Budget's bevel_shiny.q9q preset. Lastly, I set my foreground to a dark grey and used image/effects/drop shadow at 4, -4 and then at -4, 4. Two weeks worth of work, but very satisfying once it's completed. :-)