WEBSITE AND WEBSITE GRAPHICS CREATED WITH XARA DESIGNER 6 PRO Now we are ready to bring everything together and complete the image. Start with the stem and the cherry, give the stem a very small Linear, Mix transparency at bottom where it meets the cherry. Select the stem and right click and drag to make a duplicate. Flip the duplicate horizontally (press the Flip Horizontally  icon). Align the tops of the stems together. Duplicate the cherry and align it to the new stem. For this next step zoom in to the tops of the stems. Draw a shape around the tops as shown.  Apply a Dark Brown fill with no outline. Clone the new shape (Ctrl + K) and change the fill to 30% Black. Apply a Fractal Clouds, Mix transparency to the clone. Hold down the Shift key and adjust the fill handles as shown to skew the fill. Select both shapes and group them. Apply an emboss effect to the group. Click the Live Effects Tool plug icon on the tool bar, then click New > on the info bar. From the drop down list choose Stylization Filter > Emboss. Set the direction to about 320° You can play with the other settings but basically I just increased the depth and decreased the smoothing. Increase the Resolution of Effect  setting to 300dpi. Draw a small ellipse over the top of the stem, and give it an Elliptical fill, with Repeating Fill Tiling option. Use Brown and Pale Orange. Apply a small amount of feathering to the ellipse to blend it into the top of the stems. Duplicate the leaf and attach both leaves to stem. Apply a tiny Linear, Mix transparency to the end of the leaf stem to blend it into the cherry stem. Select all and group. This is looking very tasty! To complete the illustration, let’s add a background and a Floor Shadow. My background is a rectangle with a diagonal Linear fill and uses these colours: Start: H-42  S-62.7%  V-55.4% End:  H-47.6  S21.4%  V-88.8% And there you have it! I hope you have enoyed this tutorial. And I hope I have been able to show you some of the methods I use when I create realistic illustrations. I welcome your feedback. Click the send e-mail link below to send me your comments and questions. Frances Proctor Guest Tutor Send e-mail H    1    2    3    4    5    Download Zipped Tutorial