BrainSTORMing

I took a print making course at Sheridan College. I decided I would revisit a zinc etching I did and add some digital elements to make it a little more interesting. The original was about ideas and brainstorming and how creativity can come from anything. This is the original etching...

Original Etching

Applied a colour gradient 

Applied Gradient as overlay and began to colour in objects 

Drew in hard black outlines to foreground objects

Kraken Laptop Skin

Out of all the creatures of the deep the octopus has always been the most interesting and mysterious to me. Their ability to change texture shape and colour astounds me. I decided to base a laptop skin cover on one of the deeps larger than life animals, the octopus or the mythological version "Kraken".

These are the steps that I took to achieve my final design...

Radial Gradient to create some depth in my scene.

Adding a jellyfish background to add a little texture and interest

Played around with some spot colours in watery hues

Added a "target" shape to draw the eye to the center

Added wind effect to outer circle and applied a glow effect over top

Radial splash applied at 40% opacity with a blue outer glow

Enlarged and rotated splash at 100% opacity 

Started some under painting and placement

Added underpainting detail in green and purple

Overlaid octopus drawing with an inner glow and placed final Die line 

Wild Paint

Recently I've done a couple paintings that required a lot of detail and fine lines. The amount of control needed made me feel like taking more breaks than I thought. For this painting "Wild" I decided I wouldn't just paint a wild subject but go wild with paint. Something that looks like there was no control required and colours were unlimited. I decided to go with a Lion face and this is what I came out with...

Wild Thing

This is the process I went through to arrive at my final Painting...

super loose guide of face

Random colour layout

shaping the face with colour, warm and light foreground... cool and dark background.

Going a little more uncontrolled with medium

Scanned image and fixed eye proportion on photoshop

Wings

I had gone for a walk with my dog and boyfriend through La Salle park. There was plenty of wildlife and we fed little Chickadees in the palms of our hands. They are as light as a feather and their wings seem so small. They are flying little spheres in the air. I decided to do a digital design based on the chickadee. This is what I came out with...

Chickadee

This is the process I went through to arrive at my final design in photoshop...

Found Textured background I liked

Added some gradients and changed exposure to burn corners

Started testing some colours and brushes

Added masked images of ferns

Added some glowing circles with wind effect on the large one

Placed an image of a chickadee

using a photolens layer I adjusted the image to warm up the colours

Ocean Design

Driftwood is wood that has been washed up onto a beach or shore line from the ocean. I thought what better texture to use as my background in my designs... 

Here are some inspirations I will be using for colour and textural qualities.

Also both Ryden and Kawasaki have a beautiful way of depicting woman, their enlarged heads and eyes give them a sense of innocence and creepiness that I am looking for. I have chosen a Gorgon as my Ocean Piece.

Ryden- Enlarged head and Texture Inspiration

James Jean Colour Inspiration

Here is a rough sketch of what I want my Gorgon to look like, I haven't added any details to the snakes as I plan to do that digitally. This is a rough guide for general proportion and overall look.

Gorgon Sketch 1

I also wanted to post my canvas set up. I don't do a lot of digital painting and so I thought the best way to start would be by "mixing" some colours I intend on using and laying them out, as I would with real paint. Also I set up my surf template on my wood texture.

Digital Painting Set up

It Begins...

Here is some work in progress...!!

Work in Progress 1

Work in Progress 2

Added Texture