Day 14 - Texture

See the original image of cork board down there.

It's really interesting, up close. Like 500 trees that grew together, the 'cores' all grow their individual 'rings', that bump into one another and overlap....

Anyway, I decided to see if I could halfway replicate that, but at better contrast. Cork board is pretty much beige on beige on beige.

Started with some 'playdoh' shapes, and worked up a procedural script so each of them to 'grow' rings outward, connecting, combining. Some color tweaks, a bit of randomness, and we have a "texture' image in five colors.

My 'cores' aren't as rough as genuine cork board, but if I beige-on-beiged the pattern, it would probably look pretty close

14 days in wacom heaven - image 1 - student project

14 days in wacom heaven - image 2 - student project

Day 13 - Take Two

I went with :flatten it out" and "slow", and added in what has been a recurring theme for me (at least recently), the macabre, to create this fun little piece--Jason Gets Flattened.

I like it. Not a piece for posterity, but "fun" and I had fun doing it.

14 days in wacom heaven - image 3 - student project Day 12- Structure

Ok, I'll admit this was another topic that I didn't find particularly inspiring.

I really hate flailing around in search of a decent idea. I swear it's where I spend the vast majority of my time, lost in indecision of just what to "do" before getting started.

Not feeling fearless, just lost :/

14 days in wacom heaven - image 4 - student project Day 11 - Transform Me

The project I was least happy with, to this point, was Clouds, way back on Day 2.

So I scrapped crabby and started over again from the original "cloud" shape, which appears twice in this piece...once as a cloud, and once as the bluebird's um...little present.

"I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" just celebrated it's centennial year in 2017.

The project? Well, I chose cartoon style again, so the result's nothing amazing, but I'm happier than I was with Crabby, at least.

14 days in wacom heaven - image 5 - student project Day 10 Thread

I decided to do this one as a classic art school exercise, a continuous-line drawing. The spider and her line are one continuous "thread" line (actually two, I cheated a tiny bit to fudge in one line I missed).

Arachnidae are the subject that made the most sense to me for "thread." My only other option would have been a vintage Singer treadle sewing machine...probably much too complex to attempt as continuous-line, unless you want your hand to cramp up permanently.

The text is a cheat, I just used a font. Hand-lettering is an entirely different discipline.

14 days in wacom heaven - image 6 - student project Day 9 Flatten it out

Okay, I admit I had a lot of fun doing this one. Researching "flat art style," I noticed how similar the style looks to vintage Japanese paintings and to Russian poster art. Both of which I adore.

So anyway, a classic Japanese landscape painting, intentionally even more flattened, and with several landscape-painter tropes tossed in. Fuji-san is there, Torii, Pagoda, River, and even our pal Godzilla. The only trope I left out was the cherry blossoms...another piece, maybe.

And it was just made for Illustrator, which I always love!

Complexity low, texture and lighting non-existent. But I adore it anyway. :wry grin:

14 days in wacom heaven - image 7 - student project Day 8 Colors Colors and more Colors (study)

Today I pitted my airbrushing skills (lol) against...another carnival mask! In honor of Fat Tuesday, naturally. This one features large leaves rather than feathers.

Three blues, two "golds", some black and some white.

Color studies are supposed to be quick and rough and use larger-than-normal brushes. Just testing your color scheme before committing to it on the (final?) art piece.

I like air brushing, I should find a class for that an get in some practice at it.

14 days in wacom heaven - image 8 - student project Day 7 Creatures

Struggled with concept for several days, just wasn't feeling this one. Finally settled on a goof of Wile E. and the Roadrunner...and well, it turned out pretty hideous. No experience working with fur (at all, zero) and it definitely shows.

Should have left this one uncolored. Sigh.

14 days in wacom heaven - image 9 - student project Day 6 Metamorphosis 2

Dipped into Illustrator a bit for this particular image, since I wanted to produce a somewhat worn-looking Tarot card. Dark like the last one, sans hatching it's got some dust and scratches textures for aging.

The Wacom and I seem to be getting along much better, so there's hope I might be able to produce some good work with it, some day.

14 days in wacom heaven - image 10 - student project Day 5 Metamorphosis

I've been looking for projects where I can macabre things up and add some Edward Gorey into the mix. Changelings, were-creatures, several other fantasy staples work for "metamorphosis," but I ran across the plague-doctor mask while looking at my Day 4 inspirations (venetian carnival masks) and it "bit" me.

Gorey-style india ink pen hatching--well, I need more practice at it, but it didn't turn out too bad for a first stab.

14 days in wacom heaven - image 11 - student project Day 4 Shake It Up

Chaotic, hmm? All right, 5 minute timer, and my brain coughed up a patchwork kitty cat.

It's not really that "chaotic", I guess, But it is pretty rough. The blending brush was a mistake, wasted time and only detracted from what was going on. And then bzzzt. Time to stop.

I like the randomness, but I feel like it's a "safe" approach to intentionally limited time.

14 days in wacom heaven - image 12 - student project

Day 3 Slow

Set up the background and a couple of layers, and started fooling around with "feeling" Slow.

Digitally, I think I found the best settings; max 100% stabilization cleans up my shaky hands, it also forces me to work very, very slowly. So I set up the background and a working layer, set the timer for 30 minutes and started a new drawing (at the "inking" stage!)

It's intended to be a fancy carnivale mask, with lace edging, seed pearls and big, big feathers, but brush-swapping and ultra-stabilize...I was just beginning shading when the buzzer went off.

Like it so far, may pick it up again and finish it after day 14.

14 days in wacom heaven - image 13 - student project Day 2 Cloud

Not sure Why I saw a crab in that shape, but there we are. He wanted to play drums (he's a bass drum, I guess) and he wanted a mohawk. I'll probably be struggling with the wacom for this entire 14 days, tho.

14 days in wacom heaven - image 14 - student project

Day 1 Journey

Much more “painterly” than my normal stuff. Still breaking in the wacom, so there are a lot of digital painting techniques I definitely need to learn. This one stalled and restarted several times, while I flailed around.

Illustrator, Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint.

I went over the top on this one, obviously. Early on, I loved the project. Toward the end, not so much. All I see is the unfinished and the flaws.

Guess I just need to two steps back and work on *much* more simple-fun projects for a while.

14 days in wacom heaven - image 15 - student project

David Park

Possessed by Illustrator.

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