A little help/advice if possible.

[Franco B]

I'm currently getting some components and tooling together for one of my 360 CPs and I would like a little help/advice with the artwork for it if possible.

This is a forum friendly image that I would like to use for my 1st CP:



What I would like to do is extend the suns rays so that the image is something more like a 3:2 ratio (12"x8" - ~305x302mm).

This is a rough idea of what it would look like (paint skillz ahoy!):



Whilst I would love it if someone could do this for me I would also like to know exactly how it would be done. I have no art program knowledge at all and I guess this would be as good a time as any to start to learn.

What program(s) would you use and what would be the process that you would follow?

I have a slightly higher resolution of the image that I will attach to this post. Would this image be high enough resolution or would it look a little grainy? I guess (and I'm only guessing here) that it would be a better idea to vectorise the image? I had a play with vector magic but it didn't quite give an accurate result.

Is there a free program that I could use to vectorise the image by 'hand'? I realise you can use illustrator for this but I seem to remember there is a free program that does a similar job. Saying that I may be thinking about a program that is similar to Photoshop rather than Illustrator.

Would it be best to vectorise it and then extend the rays or vice versa?

Thanks in advance for any help 

[Edit: I've just been having a search and I think Inkscape may have been the program I was thinking of, would it be up to the job?]

[thatitalian]

If it were me, I would vectorise it then extend them depending on quality - probably it will be fine.

The colours are limited and there is much gradient so vectorisation will be straight forward.

I could try and do it for you if you want mate!? It would have to be at the weekend though as I am on this project, but should be straight forward enough!

[Franco B]

Thanks for the help bud.   

I didn't want to ask you as I know you are busy and you have already helped me loads.

I thought this would be a fairly simple job to cut my teeth on and I want to have a go myself, I've got to start at some point.

I'm going to DL Inkscape when I get home and have a play