| Practicing wet into wet 20070928 |
[Sep. 29th, 2007|02:56 pm] |
Last night I was bored and wide awake and so I grabbed my paints. I spent some time practicing wet-into-wet and blotting/lifting/spreading colour.
I need to practice a lot more!
I am still trying to work out how to do something like this - I have no idea how they make the dark lines and blended colours look like that...
Can anyone help me out? ;-p
Moleskine pocket watercolour ('NOT' w.c. paper), Windsor & Newton Cotman watercolours.
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| Banner/logo |
[Sep. 19th, 2007|05:00 pm] |
The other day I made this logo in Photoshop (this is smaller than the full size):
It is for my Greeting Card Universe shop (only one card there so far). I will be adding some more cards/photos/artwork slowly but surely but I just thought that I would show off my shiny logo and '1337 PS CS skilz' (that is geek for 'elite photoshop CS skills') here now! |
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| I think I got carried away... |
[Jun. 18th, 2007|04:56 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | icons | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | creative | ] |
The other day I created 100 icons using RoflBot using some of my LJ icons. It was great fun and I have finally got around to uploading them to my flickr in a new set. Beware, RoflBot is hours of fun and totally addictive! |
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| Some more art scans posted |
[Jun. 16th, 2007|01:04 pm] |
I have posted scans of some more of my older artwork on flickr as well as some newer sketches and doodles as well.
My flickr stream.
'2006+ artwork' set.
One of the new 2006+ scans:
Bathrobe
'Older artwork' set.
One of the new 'older' scans:
Negative spaces
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| I think that I have cracked the scanning problems! |
[Jun. 15th, 2007|02:35 pm] |
I noticed that one of the settings, "Auto Tone", was ON and so I switched it to OFF and eureka! It looks like I may be rescanning a lot of my artwork in the next few days, but I am starting by scanning some of the stuff that I have not scanned yet and will post them later. |
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| Blank page/canvas/paper |
[Jun. 11th, 2007|01:43 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | quote | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
"Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile. You don't know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas is, which says to the painter, You can't do a thing. The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerises some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves. Many painters are afraid in front of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the real, passionate painter who dares and who has broken the spell of 'you can't' once and for all."
-Vincent van Gogh |
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| Cool online painting app! |
[Jun. 5th, 2007|02:47 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | art | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  impressed | ] |
Someone on EDM (Anita) just pointed us at a cool flash web app for painting - for those times when running photoshop is not ideal. It works great with my wacom pen/tablet - and might be a way for me to play with that and so practice using it!
Speaking of my wacom tablet, it seems to have a patch in the centre of the tablet surface that is worn/scratched. I need to come up with a way of mending it or working around it because the pen catches on it as does the wacom mouse which I use all day every day.
ETA: Putting a piece of paper over it works! |
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| I need some help with scanning (edited post) |
[Jun. 2nd, 2007|04:13 pm] |
Sometimes when I scan a page the white paper gets a pink or grey tinge. Sometimes it is as white as it should be. I use the same settings in my scanner software and in photoshop. It is the same paper. Sometimes the paper is correctly white for colour content and monochrome content. Sometimes it is pink or grey or yellow for monochrome/greyscale or color content. I am so confused...
I will try to link to some examples later but I may have thrown away all of the tinged scans. This userpic was a scan of a graphite (grey) drawing on cheaper white sketch paper - not how it scanned at all.
crossposted to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) natalief
More info:
I am scanning from the same sketchbook but different pages, one after the other on the same day and so in the same weather conditions.
I do press it down lightly but if I press too hard the scan is totally distorted.
Some light is bound to get in the sides of the sketchbook.
From one page to the next the color cast will change from grey to pink to none.
The colour cast is always graduated diagonally or from one side/edge of the paper. i.e. it is not constant across the whole page/scan. This means that PS levels won't help much (I have tried that)
Maybe I just need a more expensive scanner... |
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| Amazing drawing (not mine) |
[May. 27th, 2007|07:19 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | art | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | impressed | ] |
Make sure you look at the largest size of this picture!
This illustration is for my book The Southern Swamp Explorer. This is actually how a mother alligator helps her young hatch. It is one of the most difficult computer illustrations I've done, using more than a hundred reference photos plus web queries (as in: Dear sir: Do hatchling alligators have emerged teeth?). It took me about a week and a half of steady work, starting with doing the design on tracing paper, scanning it into the computer, then finishing in Photoshop with a graphic pen and pad. I'm really happy with this one.
source via the botanicalart yahoo group.
I hope that she does not mind me posting this here (if you do, Irene, just let me know and I will take it down) but it is so inspiring!
This an amazing idea. I have a Wacom tablet and pen (and mouse - it is the mouse that I use day-to-day, actually!). I just need to practice drawing with the tablet/pen. So far my hand/eye coordination is much worse with the tablet than with a pen on paper because you are not looking at the drawing and pen at the same time... |
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| [meme] I was tagged! |
[May. 14th, 2007|09:55 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | meme | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
I am doing this in the artwork blog because I was tagged by one of the EDM artist group. I know that I usually try to keep all of the more personal / private stuff in the protected and more private natalief blog rather than this public blog, but I am sure that I can come up with 7 things about myself that are not too personal / private! Readers of natalief, however, will already know most of this!
Here is the meme:
1. List 7 random facts/habits about yourself.
2. Choose another 7 bloggers to tag and list their names in your blog.
3. Leave your 7 tagged bloggers comments to notify them of their tagging and to direct them to your blog for tag instructions.
My answers to #1:
1. My college education/training was BSC Biochemistry and then MSc Information Technology. I dropped any art or creative subjects at school when we had to chose our O level subjects (showing my age!). I did carry on with Music but that had as heavy a workload as History!
2. I was always creative as a child, though, writing poetry and 'stories' from a young age and dabbling with drawing. I could always draw pretty well but would get so upset every time I was made to paint my drawing - I would feel that I had ruined it.
3. I have multiple sclerosis. Mine is mild and relapsing/remitting. I am mostly affected in the cognitive areas of my CNS (central nervous system), i.e. problem solving, concentration, fatigue, reasoning, memory and so on. Since I was a computer programmer, I had to stop that and so am medically retired (but without a pension - merely benefits). I do have a few other symptoms (the most frustrating with regards to artwork being reduced hand-eye coordination) but I won't go into them here.
4. I am an avid photographer when I can get out and about with the cameras. Apparently I have a good eye for composition and that helps with the drawing as well.
(see natphotoblog and my gallery)
5. I am married to an amazing man and have two gorgeous cats, Pixel and Smudge, all of whom keep me sane and look after me.
6. I started to train as a copyeditor/proofreader once I 'retired' (I am a grammar nazi and language pedant) but decided that there was no real point because I could never guarantee my health from one day to the next enough to meet deadlines and/or find clients. It is for exactly the same reason that I have nor pursued a career in photography.
7. I have been 'retired' for 7 years now and it still feels like a week. I am still not used to not earning money. I still find it hard to give myself permission to sleep when the MS fatigue hits. I am definitely my own worst critic.
(I have just realised that, at some point today, I emailed someone or commented on a blog and said I had been retired for 17 years. D'oh!)
My responses to #2 and #3:
Due to my 'allergy' to tagging memes, I am not going to tag anyone explicitly. If, however, you read this and are inspired to do the meme, do let me know in a comment here and do feel free to link back to this entry! |
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| From an email |
[May. 14th, 2007|08:16 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | art, email | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
I had a look at your feet….great drawing, yes, the scan doesn’t do a great job on pencil. But they still look wonderful…they were done a couple of years ago!! You should do them again, you’ll be amazed how different your approach will be now, even technique, and then you post them both for us to see.
( my reply... ) |
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| The last few days of EDiM |
[May. 8th, 2007|05:30 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | edim | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | calm | ] |
During the last few days of EDiM I have:
- Done a sampler for my W&N Artists Watercolours over an indian ink band to see which were transparent. I need to do it again and one for the Cotman paints as well because it seemed pretty inconclusive to me. I may have used washes that were too dense/dark.
- Learned how to use my watercolour pencils (12 pencil sets for each of Derwent Watercolour, Graphitint and Aquatone) with my waterbrushes and done samplers of those to see what colours they come out with various application methods.
- Taken a few photographs of the cats and the views from our windows.
- Done a few partial sketches of the cats - they always move before I can get anything drawn! I think that I am going to have to start to draw them from photographs.
- Mulled over and over the various EDM challenge titles - what to do for them all!
- Read more in the library books that I have out on drawing and painting. I need to try to find one on pen, ink and colour (markers, watercolour or pencils) so that I can learn a little more about what is possible.
- Dabbled and noodled with trying out various media and media mixes. I have discovered, for example, that the ink from my back Waterman rollerball pen is not waterproof and that using a waterbrush on or into a line or solid area drawn with it allows me to make a pleasant grey wash / shading.
- Read too many EDM emails and blogs - I need to do more and read less!
ETA: Overnight I have fashioned a pen loop for my pocket Molekine sketchbook. I will post a photo at some point! |
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| Crossposted from the EDiM flickr group |
[May. 6th, 2007|02:08 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | edim | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sad | ] |
"I think that it is safe to say that, yet again, I have bitten off more than I can chew with this. My confidence is in shatters and I am asleep all the time. It is, as I am sure you can tell, a vicious cycle. The more I (need to) sleep, the less time that I have to be creative. etc.
Anyway - I may take a break and just do EDiM when I can. The first few days of may just happened to coincide with days when I was well and feeling happy and so I was able to be creative.
I don't know what I am really trying to say here. I guess that I am doing the age-old 'making excuses for myself' when it is only myself that I need to apologise to. I feel that I am letting *myself* down again. Again.
Sorry to burden you all with this." |
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| EDiM #1 and EDM #116 'Green' (edited) |
[May. 1st, 2007|05:10 am] |
(edited to use my photograph of the drawing rather than the dodgy scan)
I have been up all night as usual but I took the time to draw this from a picture that I found on Google images:
It counts as my Everyday Matters challenge #116, 'Green' (it *is* of a green tree frog, even if I have not coloured or painted it - I may do later) and my Every Day in May entry for today!
(old: It did not take me long to draw in H Croquis graphite pencil and I finished at 03:33 but it took longer to clean up the scan in photoshop afterwards, not finishing until 04:45. For some reason my scans always come out with a grey cast towards one edge/corner of the paper (however well I make sure the paper is weighted down) when I scan something still in a sketchbook. The best scans always seem to be from single sheets of paper. |
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| My first scrapblog |
[Apr. 30th, 2007|03:52 am] |
I actually made this ages ago but they have just implemented posting to flickr from scrapblog and so I did!
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