Going into digital painting, I did not think I would like it. I have always preferred tactile methods of creating art. However, I had a wonderful experience this semester, and have decided digital painting is now a favorite medium of mine.
Our class worked with Photoshop CC to create the pieces below. Each project would start with a sketch phase, getting the general idea down. After the sketch was refined, we would create a value study, painting the subject in grey scale in very simple shapes. Once we saw that the values opposed each other well, we could colorize the value study. The product of that step is similar to what you see in the Summer Scene. Then we would render- my favorite part for sure!
I love digital painting because of the wonderful edit-ability of it. Using Photoshop we were able to create detailed paintings in many layers, which allows each layer to be edited separately. There are infinite options, which can be overwhelming. However, it offers such freedom for creativity to run wild. I simply cannot list all of the details about why I love it.
Enjoy the finished products!
Summer Scene
For this assignment we were asked to create a summer scene by using flat colors and clearly defined shapes. I tried to include bright, summery colors in a image recognizable as summertime. I included some textures as well; watercolor spatters on the ocean, a cork texture on the sand, a scan of a towel for the beach towel, and some kind of cardboard texture for the book cover.
You can buy prints by going to the new works page or the notecards and prints page!
Character Portrait
For this project, we were asked to re-imagine a recognizable character from a book, movie, or legend. I chose Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye. Among other things, Holden is known to be a symbol of teenage rebellion. In the book he is always wearing this red hat and often calling others, especially those in the adult world, "phonies." I decided to re-imagine him later in life, working in the adult world, as the phony he never wanted to be. He is at work, depressed with who he has become. Yet, he still wears his red hat.
I followed the same process as outlined earlier. However, I didn't add any textures, instead focusing on color contrast, rendering, and evoking emotion.
You can buy prints by going to the new works page or the notecards and prints page!
Passion Project
For the passion project, we were asked to create a series of three images that depict something you are passionate about. I decided to show my passion for painting, writing, and how those things bring people together. I also just love the challenge of painting hands. I wanted to depict separate hands painting and writing, as realistically as I could, loosely mirroring each other. I then join the two hands together, as well as the colors from each piece. The hillside the hand is painting on the left is a close-up of the scene in the middle. The yellow and orange pops of colors from the journal and sticky notes in the right painting are repeated in the middle painting, by the use of poppies blooming on the hillsides.
You can buy prints by going to the new works page or the notecards and prints page!
Hand Painting
My brother was my hand model for this piece. I simply had him pretend to paint on a blank canvas. For the hills and lake, shown in both the left and middle painting, I used a photo I took on a hike in the Bay Area. I had to create a more vibrant scene than the photo, due to the silver, foggy day. I tried to depict the early stages of creating an oil painting, the paintbrush trailing thick pigment behind it, catching light in shiny glints. I used a canvas texture, letting it peak through more in places with less paint. As with all of the pieces of this series, I loved rendering the details on the hands.
Hands Holding- Poppies
Creating the photo reference for this piece took almost as much time as painting it. The hand reference was easy enough, using my brother and my sister-in-law as my hand-models. However, the background was a bit of a bear. In the way of Frankenstein, I cut and pasted several different photos into a readable scene with all the elements I wanted. The background hills were from the aforementioned photo. However, in that photo, there were no flowers of any kind. I scoured my photo libraries to find pictures I had taken of poppies. It was a strange patchwork of images that took time to create, but it was worth having a cohesive reference.
I enjoyed playing with different kinds of brushes in this piece, using my typical standard oil brush for the hands, and delving into some spatter brushes for other portions.
Hand Writing
I enjoyed including the details of this piece, probably more than the other paintings. Some of the most fun parts to render were the simple shadows, reflected light from the pen on the forefinger, and the transparency of the lined paper. This was a fairly simple photo reference, the journal and papers completely devoid of any writing. It was such a joy to include all of the writing in the painting process.
This painting is the most personal of the series. I have always enjoyed writing, but only started sharing it last year. I had a professor freshman year of college that encouraged me to pursue my writing and to share it with others. However slowly, I have been taking his advice. Although I am not majoring in English as he would like, I am planning on minoring. Sophomore year I decided to write poetry more often, one poem a week as a goal. I decided to shift my college plans toward Art and English, instead of Art and Biology. My roommate commented that my decision made sense, saying that I spent my free time writing poetry instead of balancing chemical equations. I started reading more poetry as well.
In this painting I included references to the two poets I started reading regularly. On the sticky note, partially obscured, though slightly legible through the transparent paper, is the name of my professor Teddy Macker's poetry book, This World, and the title of one of my favorite poems of his, The Mosquito Among the Raindrops. There is also, in the lower, left-hand corner, mostly hidden by the journal, a note about one of Emily Dickinson's poems. All of the other writing in the painting is my own. The writing on the papers in the background are some of my poems, showing the scratchy writing I scrawl in the brainstorming process, on any paper I have on hand. The poem the hand is in the middle of writing is Passion, describing my feelings about changing my path to pursue English as well as Art.
