Thanks Dave. Yeah those are some pretty nice styles , not surprised you use them too ! I think Sketcher is similar to
Fotosketcher. Use it because they have a mac version, Fotosketcher doesn't.

Forgot to mention the grain in the wood is mostly from the texture. It's out of Rich's npr woodgrain pac and the
seat cushion texture is from Rich's npr fabric pac. Thanks Rich !

HornOxx , Here's a rundown of how I got the final image....
Save my render. Back in SU turn off shadows and switch to a line style. I used one of Dave R's styles
( available in the store ). Save that image at 2x the render size.Close out SU. Open render image in
Sketcher and give it a water color effect. Save that image. Get into Gimp. Size down the line image
And give it transparent background. Load original render image and the water color below that.
Reduce the opacity of the original render until I like how things are looking. I'll go in and touch up
the line drawing if it needs it. And there you have it... Really it's just a modified of the technique that
Allan Casa does ( see his book also in the store ).

Rich, Been about 3 years since I looked at Photoshop prices. Guess I need to go look again....

Davidheim!, Really like the "Wizard of Oz" analogy. Most days I feel like the scarecrow running around looking for
my brain !

Thanks for the compliment. Coming from you it means a lot as you are one of the resident wizards when it comes to furniture modeling. How do I like Gimp ? I guess it's best said I've sort of gotten use to it's quirks over the last couple of years. I can usually get it to do what I want. Would love to take Photoshop for a spin, just can't get past the price..

Dave, Your making good progress. Keep at it and don't get discouraged. If you haven't done so already, spend some time on Twilight's forums also. They have a lot of good info available and the guy's over there are real helpful if you post images with questions.

NPR render of a Kennedy Chair model I did recently. SU 2015, Twilight Render, post pro in Gimp.

great news ! will wait patiently in line with paypal in hand .

Another idea.... As you build your model work out the various sub structures as components. Example - wings, nose section, main fuselage, tail section etc. Assign each sub structure to it's own layer. When you want to work on a particular assembly , turn off layers for the other parts.

Nikola, sorry I wasn't more helpful. I do use thru paint for a lot of texturing. Tried sketchuv when I was having trouble with some particular objects. I'm sure any trouble I have with either plugin is my inexperience. Hopefully one of the more savy members will chime in with better advice.

with out a pic of your cave I'm just taking a guess at what might help. I do a lot of rock and rock faces in models and have started using the plugin SketchUV to map the texture . Usually works pretty well for me. One comment though I sure don't consider myself an expert at the whole uv mapping thing.

driven, slbaumgartner, you guys have my curiosity up.Running SU 15 on an iMac w/ mavericks and a Mac Pro w/ yosemite. Like pbacot says I can't get SU to do a classic fullscreen i.e. SU window covers the dock and the top mac toolbar. the green radio button will max the window but not take it to a classic full screen ???????

Haven't tried it with SU but the green button upper left SU window should take it fullscreen? Well I can see why you posted, green button doesn't work . It shrinks my window instead. Clicking "window" and clicking zoom does the same thing.Never tried full screen before seeing your post. Hope a mac guru has an answer for you. Wonder if it's a glitch in SU?

Let everyone know exactly what is frustrating you . Folks with experience running big models can better offer suggestions then.

what Dave R said. logic m325 on a mac works great. multi button mouse not worth hoot for a lefty....

I'll let the architects give critiques on your model itself, but I do agree with their comments about ramping up the landscape. My tips for you are concerning setting up your scenes. From my own struggles with learning to render I've found it very important to spend extra time with the set up. Experiment with your field of view. Going wider allows you to get closer but not lose the sides of your model offscreen. Play with eye height also. Average is about 5'6" but going a little lower can make the render more dramatic. Really play with your shadow settings. The shadows can really enhance or detract from the look of the render and it just takes time fooling with the settings until you get what you feel is right. Move your camera position around,sometimes a little left or a little right can make a big difference. Having a tree or two positioned behind the camera really will add to your render. It creates natural shadows and reflections on your model that just raises the realism bar higher. Lastly set up multiple scenes with minor variations in camera position, shadow settings etc. and do quick test renders to decide if you need to adjust anything and which scenes are best for a long cook. Your doing good work just keep plugging at the renders and you'll get were you want to be.

nice job! Curious , were's it located ? Not sure I'd want to spend time on something like that....

Just saw it, pretty cool. Need to give it some textures and animate it !

Daniel, Agree with your comments about the textures. Still struggling with the u.v. mapping stuff. Thankfully all presentations are n.p.r. and I don't have to hit 100% accuracy in the textures. The assets are mainly about working out relationships in space. Also timelines can be tight. As for organics out of you league, I've seen enough of your posted models, you do excellent work. If you needed to do the organic stuff I'm sure you would figure it out.

As always great model and love the style !

Paul, Just love seeing your home npr's. Your work is excellent. Even if the home style is not quite my cup of tea ( hard core Eichler fan ) your work is always amazing !