Luis Royo - Urano's Drops

[Vallos]

Yamato is not playing around!

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1.0-9/1173622_708364129206617_2051740890_n.jpg

Sketch of the statue:

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1.0-9/923519_708364072539956_1002226021_n.jpg

[richardandtracy]

Now, the lower sketch is quite awesome in its beauty and clean lines. Not only has the original Royo painting been extended, it has been enhanced considerably.

If it can be realised, and in a scale that is not too large such that it coarsens the features (say similar to Touch of Ice's 1/8 scale, or the slightly bigger 1/6 used by Medusa & Ritual) then I would be early in the queue to get one - assuming of course, Yamato USA change their policy of not shipping outside the US.

Not sure I could cope with a 1/4 scale figure - have no display space for a sculpture that size, and the boss at home would have a fit.

Regards,

Richard

[iceprince_x]

Magnifique!

[Silas Loki]

It needs to be 1/4 scale to get me excited!!! Could this be a comeback for Yamato?

[3stun]

It needs to be 1/4 scale to get me excited!!! Could this be a comeback for Yamato?

+1 for 1/4 !!!
What do you mean by comeback? I didn't know they were going anywhere...

[Leeloo]

I have gotten two of the 1/4 scale Royo inspired so far and both are exceptional! Both sculpt and paint jobs are second to none. I hope this line continues in the 1/4 scale!

[Outhsider]

I hope they do both scales, 1/4 and 1/6 like they did with Ritual.
1/6 scale for me because I'm running out of space.

[Silas Loki]

+1 for 1/4 !!!
What do you mean by comeback? I didn't know they were going anywhere...

Its a figure of speech and entirely opinion based! I loved Luz and Ritual, but since those releases nothing has really grabbed me, so "comeback" really just indicates that this concept could be a product that gets me interested in Yamato again!

[Medusoid]

If this comes out even remotely close to the original illustration, I will definitely consider getting this one.

[charger30]

I asked and was told it will be 1/4 scale

[richardandtracy]

Oh sugar.
That news is a real disappointment.

Will have to think long and hard whether I have the space, and save up longer & harder if I have. 1:6 is a nice size to fit in the display cabinets we have.

Regards,

Richard

[charger30]

Any more new on Urano's Drop

[richardandtracy]

While waiting for this statue to be officially announced/produced I got inspired. I have a little hobby of sitting in front of the TV with the family doing cross stitch. Thought this image would be out of the general run of images, and asked permission to stitch it via one of the Luis Royo websites, finally obtaining permission from Pilar San Martin at www.royo-royo.com who had contacted Luis Royo. That was July.

Yesterday I finished the 10394 stitch picture:
http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx356/richardandtracy/Cross%20Stitch/Sdc13522a_zps439b879b.jpg

The stitched picture is 7.5" x 18.7"H (19 x 47.5cm) and will be about the size of the 1:4 scale statue.

It filled in some of the time while waiting for anything concrete on the statue... Would love some news on it.

Regards,

Richard.

[Vallos]

Can you inform me on the process of cross stitching? It sounds complicated, and from what I see looks good.

[richardandtracy]

Cross stitching is far from complicated.
A cross stitch picture is like building up a digital picture. At each pixel location you put a small cross of thread of the correct colour, then next to it you put another cross of a different colour and so on, following a chart.
Creating the chart is actually the hard bit, which is why most people doing cross stitch either buy a chart or ready made kit with the chart, thread and fabric included. Obviously, with the 'Uranos Drops' picture, no chart was available and I had to create it from scratch. Charts can be done either by hand, or with the aid of some software. If done by hand you draw the picture you want on graph paper and allocate thread colours (from the 448 shades available from DMC or lower number from other makers) to each square that represents a cross. If you use software, you can usually take any computer image, edit the image to remove information you don't want, then convert it to the size and colours you want to stitch. I used software.

The software to make charts can be free or paid for, I started with a free piece of software called 'Ryijy Stitch Designer', which can be downloaded here: http://code.google.com/p/ryijy/
However, I have since written my own software to do the job and extend what can be done to enable the outlining to be defined too. That is available as a free download - the first download down on this page: http://www.chestnutpens.co.uk/misc/downloads.html

I can usually stitch at a rate of 100 crosses an hour, though on this image, due to the sheer number of colours close together in the figure's leggings and small size of stitches (approx. 1.6mm across), I probably averaged closer to 60 per hour. This puts a limit to the size of computer image that can be conveniently stitched up. A 300 x 240 image will take a year or so if you do 2 hours a day every day...

If you'd like to look at a progress thread for this cross stitch picture as I stitched it up on another forum, it's here: http://www.crossstitchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=25792
There are lots of other amazingly detailed pictures being stitched up on that forum, but unfortunately I've yet to see another Luis Royo.

Regards,

Richard.

[Vallos]

Thanks. This is all informative and interesting. Thanks for the links! Have you thought about doing his finished paintings?

[richardandtracy]

I have thought about doing some of his paintings, however until I wrote my own software colour conversion routine last month, I have not been comfortable with the conversion process. Most of the Luis Royo paintings have a low tonal range, and as a result this leads to a lot of wide visible contours in the colours. Now I have my own software that can handle dithering between the colours (and I was really surprised at how easy it was to implement), I can start seriously considering some of his paintings.

At the moment the Malefic Time March 2015 calendar image is one I really like ( http://malefictime.com/en/tag/malefic-time-2015/ ). However, my wife has been complaining about me stitching up too many 'Near Naked Women' recently, and as a concession to her, my next project is a 44000 stitch portrait of her I took on honeymoon 23 years ago. The portrait will take up most of 2015.

Regards,

Richard.

[ukshaun]

Yamato is not playing around!

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1.0-9/1173622_708364129206617_2051740890_n.jpg

Sketch of the statue:

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1.0-9/923519_708364072539956_1002226021_n.jpg

Can you re post the images, thanks

[Vallos]

Unfortunately, the links are broken.

[richardandtracy]

I kept a copy of the Luis Royo sketch (had permission to keep & modify the image for the cross stitch from Pilar San Martin):
http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx356/richardandtracy/Cross%20Stitch/UranosDropsreduced_zps1564b379.jpg
The full painting can be seen through Google Images : https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1608&bih=663&q=uranos+drops&oq=uranos+drops&gs_l=img.3...1543.10366.0.10699.12.12.0.0.0.0.113.980.10j2.12.0.ckpsrh...0...1.1.64.img..3.9.777.hCBis7LA9g0

Regards,

Richard

[Vallos]

Thanks, Richard.

[Medusoid]

Is this still being made?

[richardandtracy]

According to post #63 on this page: http://www.statueforum.com/showthread.php?t=149266&page=7 the answer is yes.

Which I regard as fantastic news.

Regards,

Richard

[nearmint]

Unfortunately, the links are broken.

Was this one of them?


http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j321/nearmint1/image_zpsacrit2hz.jpeg

[richardandtracy]

... This is all informative and interesting. ... Have you thought about doing his finished paintings?
Since Vallos asked that question about cross stitching a complete Luis Royo picture, I have upgraded my conversion program so it produces conversions that can stand alongside the best commercial programs. After two very successful pictures I obtained permission from Luis Royo (via Pilar San Martin) and have started to tackle this image of Luz.
http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx356/richardandtracy/Cross%20Stitch/Luis%20Royo%20Calendar%20March%202015_zpsf7aeks4r.png
(The numbers are the chart page divisions showing a map of up to 77 x 98 stitches)
Current progress is visible here: http://www.crossstitchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=28245&start=33
The picture contains 110,730 stitches using 117 discrete colours from 133 different thread colours (most stitches in the image use 2 different thread colours in the needle to create a blended colour to more accurately represent the colour on the image). I hope to finish in the year 2020, as I am swapping over monthly between it and another 98000 stitch picture. The stitches are on 28 count fabric, and each stitch covers an area 0.9x0.9mm. I started in January this year.
The picture will come out 10% darker than the original, and at the moment the colours look a bit strange, however experience with my previous pictures shows that as the rest of the picture emerges, the way you see existing parts changes quite significantly.

Regards,

Richard.