junk comments

It was the moderating of a 'junk comment' that led me to think that maybe it was about time I updated my neglected blog.  I thought I would share some of the things I have been doing on my computer at work during my lunchtimes....

All these images have used photos as their basis, then I have coloured or re-composited them using Illustrator.  The Great Tit below is currently my desktop - as spring is here! The tree silhouettes were a bookcover I designed for my sister as a Christmas pressie: they were my winter desktop!

More experiments

This time last year, I was harping on about how I wanted to experiment more in different media, like pastel, acrylic etc... I seem to be gravitating towards the computer (I think this is helped by my new employer having furnished me with a gorgeous mac, wacom tablet and the Adobe Suite - which I'm always desperate to upskill in).

Here's a little experiment I carried out yesterday, inspired whilst flicking through my 'Computer Arts' magazine... Again, it's a cat based piece of work: I really must shake off the shackles of my pet related artistry and start to explore other stuff! I have made a resolution to myself to sketch more, as I'm so bad at that. I'm hoping that will also help provide me with fresh inspiration... you never know?!

I sketched all the composite parts of my cat, Rufus on paper, scanned it onto the computer and then cut out the shapes and put them on separate layers, so I could move them around and position them as I wanted. I then added a drop shadow to each layer and a background colour to the bottom layer. This gives quite a realistic effect of the shapes having been cut out and glued to the paper - especially when the image is printed!

Photoshop painting finished

So here is the final version of the black cat I was painting in Photoshop with my pen and wacom tablet. It took many hours - probabaly more than a normal pencil portrait would take me! However, I'm pleased with the final result. I think, though, that it might pay to not work as hard on the detail next time, as this could result in a more painterly feel, whereas this is more photorealistic - which can result in your artwork getting overlooked and brushed off as either a photo or something that someone has just applied an effect to! (Still I've had people say that about scans of some of my pencilwork, so nothing changes!).

Below you can see an altered version with a swathe of flowers in the background (simply added using a paintbrush in Photoshop). This is the final version that I gave to my mum for her Christmas present, as it is her cat "Tinker". She's well pleased with it, so I'm told.

return of the cavaliers

Here is the finished version of the 2 cavvies and big LabX girlies.

Taken from a photo at night, some of the darks are lost. I have upped the contrast quickly in photoshop, but the reflected light off the graphite on the biggest dog isn't true to life...

Here is the painting after another few hours' work. This is taking a long time, but I think this may be largely due to the detail in the face. Hopefully I can make faster progress on the body... Only one way to find out though!

So here he is after another hour or so's work. I've brought my Wacom tablet home from work, so I'm hoping to do some more this weekend. However, I also need to crack on with the spaniels! Too much to do and too little time!!!

Electronic painting WIP

This is what I am currently doing during my lunchtimes at work.... I am lucky enough to have a good wacom graphics tablet and photoshop, so I have set about painting this black cat. I started by tracing a black outline in a fresh layer on top of the source photograph (which was quite large format). I then started working on the eyes, painting in colour by colour and simply smudging where necessary to get a nice blend.
The next stage is a kind of underpainting to get me started. Now, this is experimental, so it may not work, but it feels right, so why try anything different at this stage? The plan is to colour patches of highligh and lowlights for structure, then I shall do a more careful coating of fur on the top. As to the level of detail of the fur, I'm not sure. I'm probably not going to go too detailed, as I feel this would defeat the object of painting the cat rather than just rendering the original photo with some special effect!
Also the benefit is that once I have finished the cat, I can have a cutout of him to use for a number of designs if I so wish!
So far, this has taken me about 1hr 15mins. The drawing will include the whole of the cat, but this just shows the part I've worked on.