First Digital Painting with Tips and Tricks

My first completed Digital Painting. It took a lot of work, especially since I'm a noob. But really, the main things needed here are keen observation, time and persistence. 

Now, since at this point I do have more control with pencil and paper, I made a quick sketch and scanned it; Opened it on Photoshop and proceeded to sketch and shade over it with my Graphics Tablet. It's a quick trick you can use if you feel more comfortable with pencil. 

I won't lie, this doesn't make the process any less time-consuming or somehow magically easy, but having an outline ready makes it seem much less daunting than having a blank white page on Photoshop, especially when you're starting out with Digital Painting.

With this finally completed, I will definitely try and venture into using colour. It might seem scary when you're starting out, but a few sketches by hand go a long way, even just to have a few ideas in front of you.  

An important thing to keep in mind is not to worry about getting it perfect the first time you're drawing a line or filling in a strand of hair. You'll get to go back, add detail and perfection everything as you go along, bit by bit.

The most important thing however, is to work in layers. Like - for example -  sectioning off different layers to the face: base colour, shading, highlight, freckles, etc. It will help immensely.

Poster Design: Chair

This is another part of my course work. We had one session in a lighting studio where we photographed two Chairs, The Panton Chair and this one below which I don't really know the name of...

But yeah, we had to take photos of the chairs and then create a poster using the photos and the word 'Chair'. I might tweak around with the title in the version below because I think it's too much to the left, but I have so many versions I'm getting a tad confused now. 

Update: I've decided to upload two slightly different versions. Really, the problems in my life. It's crazy.

Haha. Tina x

Digital Imaging II

Digital Imaging II is one of the electives I have this semester. I love it, in fact it's one of my favourites. The First Assignment we had was to take photos representing points, lines and planes. Now, the only reason I haven't posted this here is because whilst I have taken photos for this assignment I still haven't decided on which photos to actually present.

Today, however, I shall post a teensy bit about what I did for my second Assignment. The Assignment instructions were as follows:

"Use the same 12 images (4 point, 4 line and 4 plane). Open a new project in Photoshop, (A3, landscape 300dpi, RGB) and transfer your images to this canvas. Create a digital interpretation of your images by reworking the images without the aid of Photoshop filters."

So basically, we had to create a graphic rendering of our image. Below I have uploaded a 'before and after' of an image I reworked on Photoshop:

I might have included more detail than was necessary but I think it was important in translating the image well. And that's all for today. I now have to go sketch more designs for my Xylography project. We'll start carving in wood soon enough and I still haven't decided on what design to choose for print. Hoping that inspiration hits soon enough, hah. 

Hope you had a great Weekend, I know I did. You know, it's amazing how much fun you can have just sitting down with a few friends over a drink or two. Really.

Tina x

Helvetica

The god font or a cliche, boring and inanimate?

I found the documentary film 'Helvetica' about the font type Helvetica is good for various reasons. One is that apart from showing Helvetica's rise(s), it shows it's falls and faults. Some people don't like it, they think it's boring, and I should also mention that some of these people are famous top-notch designers who make money just because their name is in something. 

Personally, I think there are places for Helvetica, and there are other places for more creative approaches.

photo from here

Another thing that this film made me realise mostly, is how good it is to be aware of what's around you. Not what is happening, but simply how things look, the effect they have, the mood they give.