decorated eggs contest

[brynn]

Hi Friends,
We've been tossing around ideas for the next contest, and came up with....well, first it was Easter eggs.  But somewhere in the back of my mind, I seem to recall seeing decorated eggs that weren't necessarily associated with Easter (or religion).  I mean, there's Egg Bot which runs with Inkscape extensions (and now there's an Ostrich EggBot, lol -- seriously!).  So maybe in some ways, egg decorating can almost be thought of as an art form? 

Oh ok, some quick research finds Wikipedia drawing a distinction between decorated eggs and Easter eggs.  Interesting!  Cascarones in Latin America (decorated eggs filled with confetti or tiny toys).  Then there are the Russian Imperial Faberge eggs (which is what I was trying to remember a few minutes ago) (decorated with jewels and gemstone!).  Interesting read, and good place to start looking for ref photos and/or inspiration.

Anyway, let's draw decorated eggs with Inkscape!

[brynn]

Too bad Inkscape doesn't have something like the Perspective extension, except it distorts an image (to look like it fits) around a sphere, or any round, 3d thing!  I wonder if you could fake it with the Envelope LPE ?  Or even something like the 3d Box tool, except it draws elliptical, round, egg, or pear shaped 3D objects.

Well, I've got some ideas to play with....as usual, too many....well, more than I have time for, anyway 

Edit

PS -- for inspiration (from Lazur):  http://www.magyarvagyok.com/kultura/hungarikum/hagyomanyok-unnepek/husveti-nepszokasok/3463-Tojasfestes-technikak-300-mintak.html 

[Lazur]

Simply mapping can be done with blender the easiest way, while in inkscape the render 3D polyhedron could give a good start once the pattern is modelled in 3D, which needs way more advanced skills.


The page linked above shows alot of motifs, many of them has it's roots older than written history.


The reason why they are still being used is that these decorated eggs are part of the Eastern Monday tradition here, a magical way to provide good fertility.
Eastern Monday
That description is not exactly what's at the hungarian page for locsolkod?s nor could I give a better description, as I'm not taking part of it that much.
Though it is more common, than the bus?j?r?s.


Well here is a description, how it "cheapened" in the urban regions:

Locsolkod?s - Easter Monday in Hungary
Last night I conducted a cross-cultural survey (i.e., I was talking to random international strangers on omegle.com), and as far as I can tell, locsolkod?s (sprinkling) is a uniquely Hungarian tradition. Oh, how lucky for us. Basically, guys get together with their friends and go visit all the women in their lives. At each stop, they recite a short locsol?vers (sprinkling poem) and sprinkle perfume or scented water on the womens' heads, and the women give them kisses, or painted eggs, or p?linka, or all of the above.

The rest, with some poems can be read here.

Have to admit that there are some firefighters who take the old tradition seriously, so if you are a young woman and you know one of them, chances are big you will get wet that day.


So that is why these eggs are decorated by women, though there are some men who decorates eggs with horse-shoes, something like:



For the theme I was thinking of taking a geometric aproach.
Something similar to that realistic 3D object drawing competition.

Not that sure how exactly to go on, will try different things this time too.

To start off, here is the basic shape, all in proportion:


Thom's egg, oh the good old times...

[brynn]

I hand traced a photo, to achieve a more natural....not-quite-symmetric appearance, more like a real egg.

Although in my brief research, these egg decorating traditions aren't always using real eggs or egg shells.  I've seen some painted wooden eggs, as well, for example.

[Lazur]

Re-worked that svg quite a bit.
May not be big differences by first glance, but it's redrawn from scratch as the previous version turned out inaccurate.


(svg)

Added some texture to it in gimp -the svg's thumbnail also got some.
A quick spicing up:



Even though my first idea was to make a 3D model with blender and draw a nice shading to it, I'm just about to make a map grid on that shape, similar to stereographic projection's. http://geoengine.nga.mil/geospatial/SW_TOOLS/NIMAMUSE/webinter/geotrans2/help/stereogr.gif
Have to figure out the meridian's positions.

[brynn]

Love it!

Is there some standard definition of an egg shape, mathematically?  How did you decide how to draw them, and what was inaccurate about the first one?  I didn't think there was any such thing as egg geometry. 

[Lazur]

Don't know if there was one, it's just one kind of Thom's egg/basket handle/three point arch at the top, and a half circle at the bottom.

For the top arch, two 45? circle arches are used with the radius equal to the bottom circle's diameter, and a small 90? circle arch at the top to connect those.
I remember sawing this in a book of mathematic as an example for drawing shapes of tangent circles.
Probably a real egg shape has a smooth transition between curvatures/tangent circle radiuses along the path, so this constructed one may appear "sharp" next to a real egg.


It was inaccurate as the paths didn't share their nodes as they should. Can be seen when zoomed in in outline display mode.
Not a big one, but for a geometric kind of drawing it wasn't the best.

Edit:
Just found this, with the name Moss Egg.
http://www.takayaiwamoto.com/Egg_Draw/moss_egg_anim.gif
Other mathematical constructed egg shapes -from circle arches- can be found here:
http://www.takayaiwamoto.com/Egg_Draw/Real_Chicken_Egg.html

[brynn]

"5 Euclidean Eggs"  So there IS...well actually, ARE mathematical definitions for different egg shapes (assuming Euclidean refers to geometry, or at least math, as I seem to recall).  Interesting. 

[Lazur]

Constructing a stereographic grid was too much for me with inkscape, maybe if I knew how to plot such in python it wouldn't.
But, with the help of blender, an inaccurate grid can be made much easier.
These were made by rendering 3D models and auto-tracing the result, before some further editing in inkscape.


Made a few images:





These curves are ellipses. Now they are made with the auto-trace, the actual svg is not so accurate.




A bit of mixing in gimp:

[brynn]

sort of psychedelic!

[brynn]

Not for this contest, but Lazur's last drawings reminded me of this fractal image I....can't remember if I created it (by unique formula) or just isolated from someone else's (or pre-existing) formula.

I tried to get a sharper image, by using Trace Bitmap on it (quite a while ago).  But I couldn't manage to configure it properly.  I could get the noise cleaned up, but  then I lost certain other details that I wanted to keep.  And I never have gotten up the courage to try manually tracing it

[Lazur]

Somekind of mandelbrot fractal is available in gimp too.

[brynn]

Somekind of mandelbrot fractal is available in gimp too.

Oh really, I had no idea.  I probably need to upgrade my GIMP.  It's been a while.  But I love fractals, and definitely want to look into that!

[brynn]

Ok, I'm working on an image with several eggs in it.  But just as a start, here's the 1st egg -- 1 with a filter (left), 1 without (right).  (attached)

I'm not real happy with the coloring  on the filtered one.  But I didn't make the filter from scratch.  I modified the one called Marbled Ink.  I was trying to capture partly the texture of the egg surface, and partly how the egg dye interacts with it.  I think it works pretty well.  But it uses the Color Matrix primitive, which I just can't make any sense out of (and I've spent several hours, over a few years, trying to).  So I don't know how to tweak it.  But if I use the filter on either all the eggs, or none, it probably won't make much difference.

I'm not sure how I will display the eggs yet -- they won't all be hovering in mid-air      Maybe just a handful on a flat surface.  Maybe with a few jelly beans tossed in as well?  I'm not a good enough artist to draw a basket, at least not in a short amount of time.  Although, I'm thinking wicker basket.  I guess there could be different kinds of baskets.  .....Hhmmm....well there IS a wicker basket right beside me here.  Maybe I could do it with a model?  Maybe I could arrange it so that I only need to draw part of the basket?

Well anyway, comments, questions, suggestions welcome 

[Lazur]

Looks nice!

On the displaying -in this case, they CAN hover in mid-air. Sort-of. Hanging from a branch.


Or from a tree, perhaps?



Never really noticed before how that symbol can be used exactly as the christmas tree decoration.


On the image, some small notes:
the white-green stripes of the helix at the edge of the shape are tangent to the edge geometrically.
Even if it's not noticable on a photograph, there may be some cube-heads thinking it looks a bit off there like me .

The second note is more of a technical one. The anti-aliasing is not at the top even with clipping.
Somehow both shapes appear at the edge when a group is clipped, so it may produce a better-looking edge if the original shape was larger, and the "cut object" wasn't applied, rather combined with a rectangle -to produce the "background" in the front, with a hole.
That would make the egg's edge standing alone perfect, however with cast shadows?
That's a different story.
The best solution that came to my mind right now is exporting an unclipped egg as a png, saving the clipping object of it as an svg,
opening the png in gimp, applying a layer mask on it made from that clip svg, then exporting it as a png with alpha channel.
Then in inkscape you could position that above the blurred shadow.
That would look best, if all pixel sizes/positions are fixed, so that solution may not work from the start.

[brynn]

the white-green stripes of the helix at the edge of the shape are tangent to the edge geometrically.

You mean tangent line would be in the z direction?  .....Oh, no, no....  Yes I understand what you mean!  That's very obvious in the way I made the curly ribbon.  I tried to apply the same technique to this, although it was trickier because of the shape of the egg.  The only way I could think of to make it appear tangent, was simply by visual estimation.  I just don't have the math/geometry/trig skills to make that part precise.  And truly, in the fattest part of the egg, and maybe not even on the ends, I don't think a human eye can see that part.  Maybe if you were far enough away from the egg, you could see it.  But by then it would be too small to see.

Now trying too decipher your 2nd comment      Hhmmm, not sure if I understand what you're saying.  Are you referring to the "bug" where anti-aliasing isn't smooth on broad, gentle curves which approach horizontal or vertical?  So that the edge of the egg near top and bottom appear sort of pixelated?  If that's not it, I might need an illustration.

Uummm...there is a 0.05 px blackish stroke on the main egg object (white).  Maybe that's what you see?  I can't remember for sure....and I'm not sure if it matters.....  In one place, I might have used a stroked path with no fill for the clipping path.  Usually I like to use a filled path with no stroke.  So I'm not sure if that would cause a slight discrepancy??  I don't think the stroke is considered in clipping.  But I could be wrong   

[ragstian]

Hi.

brynn quote: I mean, there's Egg Bot which runs with Inkscape extensions (and now there's an Ostrich EggBot, lol -- seriously!)

Well, the eggbot is serious! I have had the eggbot for some years and use it a lot, Here are some of my "production";
(Some might recall the two first images from a post on "the other inkscape forum")




Last image is a copy of "Zentangle art" by Stoshi - see her blog page here: Stoshi's Blog
( I wish I had a fraction of the artistic skill displayed in her blog!!
I got her permission to post the image as long as she got the credit she deserves.  )
She called the image "La Bella", a great work of art! I hand-traced the image in Inkscape to get a SVG file.
(brynn; I know you like node editing - this one had a lot of that!)
Link to original image; "La Bella"

More egg-images to come.

RGDS
Ragnar

[brynn]

Oh, those are awesome, Ragnar!  I didn't know you had an EggBot...."machine"?

Yes, those first 2 designs do look familiar.  (You're welcome to name and even link to IF  )  Is that glitter, or some kind of sparkly paint, or marker?  The one with the 2 little birds looking at an egg in a nest looks almost like it was drawn with felt tip pen, or fine point sharpie.  I don't know how EggBot works actually, well not in detail.  But I didn't think you could change the pen.

Wow, some of those look like they're mounted on something, like to be displayed on a shelf!

Oh, I really like that zentangle stuff.  I wouldn't want to pay $50 for a kit.  But it does look interesting.  And I'd LOVE to trace some of those, like you did, and add color with inkscape.  And love even more, to learn how to draw them.  But I'm not paying that much.  Maybe you don't need any instructions though.  Maybe I'll do some searching on it....

Btw, of course you're welcome to upload to our gallery.  You wouldn't necessarily have to post in the contest album, if you're not interested in the contest.  But you could start your own personal album.  Just fyi 

[Lazur]

Hi Ragnar,

those look great, the technic really has a great potential!

Uummm...there is a 0.05 px blackish stroke on the main egg object (white).  Maybe that's what you see?

Oh so it was intentional to even enhance the edge more, I see now.
In my opinion it doesn't help making the egg look more realistic.
Is that thin line supposed to represent reflection?


On the shape: finally unwrapped the model based on your work right so now it's just a few clicks to render an egg with any kind of decoration.
The texture used is 3600/2100 pixel sized, and projected equirectangularly.

Used for a helix shape:




You can see the squiggly line is continous, it has no sharp edges, so it is tangent with the outer contour of the surface mostly.

The original .blend file if anyone wants to try it with different textures is available
here.

[ragstian]

Hi.

Brynn;

Is that glitter, or some kind of sparkly paint, or marker?  The one with the 2 little birds looking at an egg in a nest looks almost like it was drawn with felt tip pen, or fine point sharpie.  I don't know how EggBot works actually, well not in detail.  But I didn't think you could change the pen.

Wow, some of those look like they're mounted on something, like to be displayed on a shelf!

You are correct again as always!
The pens used on the first of the plots is indeed using 'metallic' ink. The brand is 'Pentel' - type is 'Slicci' - Size is 0.8mm. They are actually ball point pens. The 'La Bella' was made using a 0.25mm pen of the same brand, the tip of this pen 'catches' on the irregularities of the egg shell surface causing the 'old man handwriting' look (Which I sort of like).
You are also correct on the '2 birds' egg - a regular 'sharpie' pen - fine tip. The 'mounting' of the egg was just a small plastic container I used to prevent the eggs from rolling while taking the photo. On my last images I just use my cell phone camera, I reckon the quality is 'adequate'. Might try to get some better images for the competition.

Happy easter - the egg-hunt is coming up!
RGDS
Ragnar 

[brynn]

Ragnar, do you use "blown out" eggs?  Or hard boiled?  About how long did it take for the La Bella egg to be drawn?  On the ballerina, did it draw the outline, and then it was colored in later?  If not, I'm wondering how it achieved the tapered ends of the ribbon swirl.  You can't mount a paint brush to the EggBot, can you?  You'd have to keep reloading it with paint, somehow.  And (last question, I promise) do you do anything to them when they're finished, like to protect them, or prevent from being cracked?  I'm thinking spray with some kind of acrylic, or something like that?  I've done some work with pastels, in the past, and there was some special acrylic-like stuff that I strayed on it, when I was finisihed, so it wouldn't get smudged accidentally.

Lazur, I've been puzzling over your blender images, that you said you took from my drawing.  Something seems off about them.

See attached, 3d-egg-shading.png.  If you start at the top, and logically assume the front part of the spiral is lighter, because the back is farther away and possibly in shadow; then it goes along following front is lighter, back is darker routine.  But around halfway down, it reverses itself, and then suddenly the front is darker than the back.

And the other, 3d-egg-shade.png, is even more confusing (to me).  I took the wider strip as the front, because it's closer.  So I started in the middle, and counted front-back-front, etc.  Like the other one, the front part is lighter and the back part is darker, at the top, and it's reversed in the bottom half.

But there's something else.  Start in the middle, the wide part is the front, and follow the swirl around, front to back to front, etc. going down, when you get to where "front" is colored red, the strip is so thin you can hardly see it, but that's because it's starting to disappear underneath the bottom part of the egg.  I guess the egg itself is transparent, because then you can see the strip going all the way to the bottom of the egg, in the back.  That seems right to me.

But start in the middle and go up.  When you get to where the word "front" is red, it doesn't make sense that it should be thin there.  It really should be thickest there, at least from the angle I drew the egg (traced from an image).  Unless the person viewing the egg, is holding it with the vertical center at eye level, and at the tip of their nose.  (Although in that case, they'd probably be seeing in double-vision, lol.)  Or course I'm not lolling at you -- just the thought of someone holding an egg like that 

[Lazur]

The shading wasn't much set, the texture had a 70% opacity in inkscape, making "intersections" darker.
It was all just for showing how the helix's image is made up from a continuous path, being tangent to the overall shape.

The ortographic image is not telling anything from the depth, it's like that spinning dancer gif -where you cannot decide the direction of the rotation.

The other image in perspective has it's camera set facing the geometric origin of the egg, with an axis perpendicular to the egg's axis.
That way, the overall shape could come the closest to the ortographic image -which depicts the generatrix in it's true scale, traced from your egg.

That camera position however was also set too close to the egg in that matter, so it's what making it look unreal.

Made some coloured variants with that spectrum svg:







In a bit more realistic angle.

[brynn]

Oh yes, the colors make them much better, for realism!

[ragstian]

Hi.

I have used blown out eggs but have 'switched' to another much better option; ceramic eggs from Hobby-Lobby. Eggs
They are 1.67us$ each - main advantage on using these is I don't have to eat a lot of omelettes!

"La Bella' takes a long time to plot - around half an hour - as there are many lines where the pen has to be lifted going from one to the other.

You can not use paint brush in the eggbot, but the "evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - which developed and sells the eggbot - have a Water-Color-Bot based on the same electronics as the eggbot.
On the eggbot you can mount a diamond tip engraver Diamond engraver or a how wax accessory Hot Wax Acc. to make 'kistka' eggs.
The "ballerina" is split into two, I normally let the Eggbot draw the hatching first and then the outlines. I keep these on different layers.
I normally 'optimize' my plots by trying to avoid pen lift/pen down operation which takes a lot of time.
To get the hatching to be efficient most hatching is one single line inside the object.
To create the hatching I select the (closed) path - then duplicate and apply Inset twice,
(This way I avoid the hatching to 'ruin' the outlines). I then add path effects - hatching (rough).
After this I run the Inkscape extension Eggbot - preset hatch.
(This extension is useful even if you have not got the eggbot - there are a nice "swirl" extension as well - worth trying! ) 

Here is what part of the ballerina looks like;


Up until now I have not treated the eggs after they are plotted but that's one of the topics on my agenda.
That's one of the things I like about the eggbot - you always have options trying something new, as I am a 'techie'
type rather than 'artistic' I really like the technical part of the eggbot.
Just made an addon for my eggbot - a "coil winder" Coil-Winder.
 
Would I recommend you get an eggbot? You bet! Tons of fun!


RGDS
Ragnar

[brynn]

Oh gosh, it's not evident at all in the ballerina, that it was close hatching like that.  I guess the ink/paint kind of ran together?  But I did notice the hatching on a couple of  others.

I did experiment with the hatching lpe.  Mostly to try out a technique that was covered in my jr. high school art class.  I made this (attached).  Not an egg though