Get it?
Alright, so. The background gradient is the only primitive shape on the stage- as most of the shapes involved were irregular, that was the easiest way to go about it. The outline of the primitive shape also has the gradient, in a large sized stiple stroke. I get really cranky if my creations aren't neatly finished off, and that gave it a nice effect.
The leaves you can just barely see were done using the merged object setting and a combination of square and oval tool shapes. I drew rectangles with a custom gradient, then drew ovals right over them, deleted the ovals to create a curve on the underside of the leaf, and finally copied and pasted the leftover shape on top of itself to create the topside curve. I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with that one!
The petals of the iris are hand-drawn with the paint tool in the object setting, because I wanted to be able to move the petals around as needed to get a nice look. I filled in the petals with a custom gradient, and adjusted it using the Gradient Transform Tool. It ended up working really well for the varied colours seen on iris petals.
Finally I finished off the flower with the pencil tool in goldenrod with a large size stiple effect applied, to create an abstract stamen type shape. It also covered up a bit of the gradient paint areas that I didn't like as much!
The quote about irises was stolen from Hano No Monogatari's book The Stories Of Flowers and just happens to relate to one of my favourite cultures, that of ancient Greece. It's the same font Lazarus used on his piece, but I liked it so much I decided to use it on mine as well. :P
It was really fun learning to use the tools and I look forward to our next project!
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