Casual Artwork Thread

[think]

Very nice ... I especially like the subtle textures and colors in the sky.

I used Paper Towel to get the texture in the sky. Then I used Plastic Wrap in the water to get that texture.

very nice indeed I have used salt to absorb water in watercolor paintings that gives a unique texture as well

here are the ... wake up and do water color and pen works I did upon getting up today...

I hope this does not take up too much space although I did not include the fifty or more watercolors before on other days ...

 

[cooleddie74]

Those are all pretty great pieces you guys created! Thanks for sharing them with the rest of us!

 

[Melakon]

Melakon, what happened with your story world? Have you thought of continuing your efforts?

The concept originally developed around 1997 when I was without a machine for 2 years and needed something for a creative outlet to keep from going crazy. I knew I wanted the animation program mentioned earlier, and the initial idea was to do spaceship tests. I made hundreds of concept sketches on 3x5 index cards, still have a cardbox full of them.

Originally it was very Star Trek like, but then I hit on the idea of putting the military guys as background supporting characters who could meet gruesome deaths when needed, with the focus on a pair of civilians caught in the front lines of an interplanetary war. There are two or three recurring military characters and four alien races besides humans.

They're always in my head, mulling ideas, but I've not done any 3d work on them in a couple of years. I always intended it to be a long-term project. The universe and situation are relatively defined, but there still isn't a script.

ETA: Another angle of fighter leaving station, though not made at the same time as the other one.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

Oh yeah! I see that texture in the water now. Very cool!

Do you find yourself gravitating to any particular style or approach yet? Or are you still just exploring the possibilities?

I'm not a very accomplished painter, I do it mostly to get out of the house and express a little bit of creativity. So honestly I don't have an approach, just more of an idea of what I want to do.

For that painting, I wanted to do something a little more "graphic." So I knew basically what I wanted to paint. I decided on using the paper towel and plastic wrap after I put the paint down.

Here is the next piece I'm working on, a work in progress.

The background was done with a poured technique. Then overplayed with paper towel. It was suppose to be grayer, but thats okay. I masked out the umbrella, then after the background dried, I painted the umbrella. I have a little more work to do, I have something special I'm going to try. I really hope it works, I think it could be awesome.

 

[think]

The great thing with image work is that one can take a photo and digitally ,,, alter it to new things back and forth you know print it and paint on it then photo it and alter in digital worlds back and forth and back.. like mmm I did this last nite for a song to get made from the color schemes in the image.

starting here.

going to here...
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv295/h92o/A032sredgreens.jpg

Then with some color changes and such...

working into this with the squigle adjustment for the sound workings...

Now using this last image in the free program audiopaint I turn the image into a musical work that I then can 'mess' with If I want to.. acutally the orignial image I made a short musical work with here...
https://ia902606.us.archive.org/35/items/A032s/222.wav
the song from the second work is here.
https://ia902606.us.archive.org/35/items/A032s/ShipSideOne4.wav

this second one is much more interesting somehow.?

 

[Tora Ziyal]

^ That's really cool, think!

I've been doing some volunteer work a few hours a week at the American Visionary Art Museum, helping the artists who are creating the exterior mosaics. In between doing my usual grunt work in the studio, I've made my own little glass mosaic. I have a long ways to go, learning to cut curves!

 

[Mary Ann]

Ooh, that's lovely! Cutting curves must take a lot of practice. Would you be able to post some photos of the large mosaic?

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Thanks, macghoul. Yeah, cutting curves takes a lot more practice than I've had time for, given that I'm there primarily to help, not play.

Per your request, a small part of the museum wall. Each panel is five feet tall. My only contribution was to help grout and clean a few of them. The primary artist is Mari Gardner. Needless to say, this is not "casual artwork."

 

[Mary Ann]

Wow! That is beautiful.

 

[think]

^ That's really cool, think!

I've been doing some volunteer work a few hours a week at the American Visionary Art Museum, helping the artists who are creating the exterior mosaics. In between doing my usual grunt work in the studio, I've made my own little glass mosaic. I have a long ways to go, learning to cut curves!

execellent stuff there
I volunteer at the community wellness center.. I teach people how to pass that ged test to get a highschool deploma I can't do the english that good.. errr well but the math I live for and most people just don't get the math so that is my focus .. I work with other people and such soon to start tutoring computers ... again. but it is fun, and I enjoy it.

 

[cooleddie74]

That is very great and cool-looking, Ziyal! I've never made anything like that, nor anything close to it since my art classes back in school. Well done and congrats!

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Thanks, Eddie and think!

Think, I taught GED and literacy for a few years. I mostly taught writing skills (English), but also some math and life skills. I never liked math when I was a student, but, much to my surprise, I really enjoyed teaching it!

 

[AstroSmurf]

I have been painting on paper and canvas for years but about ten years ago I made the leap into digital painting. I use Photoshop exclusively and it has been a frustrating but lovely learning experience. Everything I knew about painting with pigment had to be thrown completely out the window.

When you paint in the real world the medium gives you happy accidents, textures, and depth just by the way you place the pigment. I know how to give the viewer the impression of something just by the way I move my brush. The digital canvas is a completely different animal. There are no accidents. If you want something, no matter how small, you have to place it in by hand. The medium is completely unforgiving sometimes and requires an extremely meticulous eye. On the other, I can create vast spaces with huge amounts of depth and scope in a matter of hours in the digital realm. It also allows me to edit anything and everything at any point in the process. Despite the difficulty and the unforgiving nature of it I rather enjoy painting this way.

Here is an example of my latest work.

My favorite things to paint digitally is space-scapes. I used to do them on paper or glass in acrylic but I find that Photoshop allows me to "wrap" my planet textures more cleanly than I ever could with a brush. I have also been introducing different ways of producing elements. Some are painted, while some are photographed elements that I have manipulated or painted onto to achieve the look I want. For example, the clouds of the gas giant at the bottom of the image are actually fiberfill. I sculpted them in three different layers on my dining room table then lit and shot them with my large Canon camera. The far background of the planet is fiberfill "strings" and powdered sugar on a piece of black foam-core. The moons have been textured using a heavily processed image of a rock that I snapped while hiking while the other is actually lichen on a tree branch. The nebula was created by combining a lot of hand painting over some textures I shot. Those textures were done by dropping white paint into a pan of water and swirling them into the shapes I wanted with the end of a chopstick. All in all this single image contains about twenty different elements, sixty-two layers, and two months worth of work. (For the art geeks out there, the original Photoshop file is 396MB and measures 30 inches high and 16 inches wide at 300dpi.) I call it "Companions". I liked it so much I had it printed at the local print shop and it hangs in my living room.

 

[cooleddie74]

Wow. That's extremely impressive to say the very least. I've seen matte paintings and even CGI backdrops in multimillion-dollar science fiction films that don't look that nice nor that realistic. Well done!

 

[Mary Ann]

That is amazing. There is so much depth in that picture.

 

[publiusr]

Right up there with Egge's work.

I've been looking for a painting of a Dyson Megasphere in an old OMNI or Science 82' type magazine--anyone here remember that?

 

[Amaris]

That is gorgeous, Astrosmurf!

I've been teaching myself digital painting, but have a long way to go. This was my most recent effort (click to view full size):

 

[Roshi]

I've finally finished it!

 

[cooleddie74]

Great new artwork, both you guys! Love the Hellboy drawing. And J.'s new project could possibly become some very cool wallpaper.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Astrosmurf, that's gorgeous!