ahoy

original doodles / a good excuse to show off mah nails

I've been having quite a lot of fun with Part B of Make Art That Sells! Last week we started off with doing doodling a lot of pirates and then were assigned to create some artwork for baby products using the the pirate theme. Recently I've had a couple people asking what my process is, and I figured this would be a good time to do a little walkthrough!

I almost always start out my sketches outside the computer with pencil and paper. It's not that I don't like doodling in photoshop with my tablet, I just seem to get a looser and more interesting composition in the real world. This one was pretty simple, obviously! Then I scan it in (normally at 150 dpi or something low, as the sketch won't be in the final piece) and start thinking about color palettes. 

Once I nail down a color palette I turn my sketch layer to a low opacity multiply and set to making simple shapes using the my intended colors. You can see that I also use this opportunity to make edits to the sketch - I moved our little feline buccaneer's paw up in a friendly wave, it seemed to fit the composition better. Each shape has its own layer - this makes for a pretty big file but it's also the way that works for my process down the line. Name your layers guys! It's fun AND time saving.

So here's what my illustration looks like without the sketch. I used the lasso tool to make my shapes, so everything looks clean and super digital, which isn't what I want for my final product at all! My next step is to go over every shape and clean it up with a combination of brushes and erasing. 

Also I added white spots to the cat WAY to early, you'll see those disappear as I rework the piece.

Working with a variety of brushes and the Brush Preset palette is my favorite way to get rid of that digital look. I keep my eyes open for good natural photoshop brushes and add them to my palette whenever I find them. The one you see selected on the left (the ciruclar 13 px brush) is my favorite for cleaner linework, and the 30 px brush below it on the left is good for a more paint-y look. 

When you work with a tablet and you want a realistic line you HAVE to get used to playing around with the Brush Presets palette. A lot of this I learned through trial and error, so I don't have the perfect formula for you. However the one thing I ALWAYS do is turn the Minimum Diameter down. This is what makes the line weight change with the pressure of your pen - look at that nice sample line! I'm not a master at describing these steps so if this interests you I'd definitely google around for more tutorials on using this palette.

Here's an example of the difference between the lasso tool shapes (the cat's face & ears) and a shape I've fixed up with my brushes (the bandanna). It seems like a negligible difference but this is what gives everything the look that it's been hand painted rather than just filled in with the paint bucket.

  

After I clean up all my shapes it's time for texture. On the left you can see my layer set up - I select the layer I want to work on and click the Lock Pixels button, which you can see in the upper left. This little guy is a LIFESAVER and is also the main reason for my crazy layers set up! Essentially it makes it so that you can only make marks INSIDE the pixels already on that layer. If that doesn't make any sense go try it out! You'll totally get it, I promise. 

Once my pixels are locked I select one of my five million watercolor brushes, select a color slightly off of the one in my shape, turn the opacity down on the brush and it's off to the races! I use these brushes like stamps, one click and you're done. I like to use a variety of different shapes as I'm creating my texture so that it's not super obvious what I've done.

Here's the piece with all the textures. Sometimes I'll set my brush to multiply for a shadow effect, OR I'll pick a dark or light grey and set the brush to overlay for a dramatic effect (you can see it in the bottom left section of the flag)

Once I've created texture on a shape I go into my linework layer, which is above alll the other layers. I like to use a darker color and a lighter color for all my linework and use it for very basic details as opposed to outlining everything, but that's just my style!

After I've done my linework I sometimes will apply a scanned paper texture over the entire piece on overlay at a very low opacity. I didn't do it for this one but it can be effective - lightly textured paper or a watercolor wash work the best for me.

And here's the final piece! For some reason blogger saturated the colors a little bit when I uploaded it, which is mildly annoying. No matter though, you made it through this rambly process post. You deserve a cupcake, bring me one while you're at it too! If you have any questions just let me know, I'll do my best to answer them.

If you're looking for more process posts, here are some of my favorite artists:

Sam Bosma 

Kali Ciesemier

Alyssa Nassner (bonus: repeat pattern how to!)

class act

When I signed up to take Lila Roger's Make Art That Sells class I was still working from home every day and wanted a little something to challenge myself. I'd seen a lot of amazing work practically pouring out of my peers taking the class and thought to myself "heck, sounds like it's time I took a crack at it".

And then I started that contract job in downtown Minneapolis that sees me leaving the apartment at 7:30 AM and not coming home till about 6:45 PM... the very same week that Lilla's class started. I'm not going to lie guys, a lot of my assignments (and by a lot I mean all of them) have been completed the day before they were due. I really really want to take all that I can from the class but unfortunately I also have a few small freelance gigs that also require my attention.

But I'm still mostly happy with what I've been creating, so I thought I'd give my blog a little looksee. Above is the very first assignment, bolt fabric with a vintage kitchenware and berry theme! It was so much fun, I'm thinking about making prints or cards of it!

 

The second assignment was to make art for fancy plates using bromeliads as our inspiration. I wound up liking my sketches a LOT better for this one - part of the problem being that I hardly ever like plates with actual art on them... but it was a learning experience nonetheless!

Last week's assignment, a spread for a children's book based on a Russian fairytale. I tried keeping some of my sketch in the final piece at Bryan's suggestion and was really surprised with the outcome. Guess I'll have to play around with that technique some more!

As per usual I'm running VERY behind on this week's assignment... guess I should spend less time blogging and more time working on that, huh? WHOOOOOPSSSS.

post haste

I'm back! My holiday adventures were a blast - lots and lots of activities and festivities all around. While I gather up all the holiday photos, though, I thought I'd show you a fun project I completed recently!

After my feature on Pikaland, the super lovely Amy contacted me about working on a "Thank You" postcard that she could send out with purchases from the Pikaland shop. Obviously I said yes yes yes, and off we started.

Here's my original sketch (on the left) and the revised sketch after Amy's feedback (right). This was a pretty quick project so I provided a few concepts, but maybe not as detailed as I normally do. Luckily Amy had a great idea for my cat thumbnail, and we went with it! (p.s. thanks to my buddy Chance and his lovely meowzer Aoife for being my feline model!)

Unfortunately I didn't document my entire process... I've been meaning to do a process post, perhaps someday soon! Here, though, are the items I created outside of the computer! Lately I've been experimenting with graphite shapes and selective linework. Then I scan them and play around with them in photoshop!

Voila! The final product. I'm super happy with it - simple and cute with a little hand lettering thrown in for good measure! Now I highly recommend you go check out the Pikaland store! The holidays might almost be over, but that doesn't mean you can't buy yourself a present... like the AMAZING wall calendar! I have one hanging in my kitchen, it's full of amazing illustrations and a great bonus booklet of interviews. Buy, buy, buy~!

void

After Illustration Bootcamp one of the biggest things I had written down (and underlined many times) was to totally rehaul my website and update my blog on a weekly basis.

Yep. That's going pretty well.

I'm hoping to start getting better though, and soon I'm going to start posting some new work and process pieces for a ton of stuff I have waiting in the wings. Speaking of, I'm going to be in not one but TWO upcoming shows at Light Grey Art Lab: the Exquisite Corpse show and the Tarot show! I'm super excited about both - especially since I'm really enjoying my foray into the dark and mysterious.

To make this blog post worth something (it's really not, sorry!), here are two photos of my ideal summer life, which I am currently living: beach trips and froyo! BEACH TRIPS AND FROYO FOREVER.

Also here's a little sneak peek at what I'm working on now. It's very secretive, but now you know it's going to be greyscale, which I am LOVING. Why didn't I know how great greyscale was before?