Saturday, April 16, 2016

Fake it 'till you make it



I've written before about how the media you use should look like the media it is. That makes digital a little bit of a sticky wicket. It certainly has its own look, but at the same time it's really good at mimicking other media.

So is it wrong to try and make digital look traditional? I think so, because on is missing a real opportunity. There are things digital can do that nothing else can, and one would be silly to not take advantage of it. Of course, what does that mean? Certainly the time saving and money saving benefits. But what about the look of the final product?

I think even if one wants a work to look traditional, they should let a little of the digital's nature shine through to give the work that extra umph.

The two illustrations above were drawn with a Japanese brush pen and then colored in Adobe Photoshop to look like watercolors. But if you look very closely, you'll notice they are digitally colored, and I think it adds.

But what do you think?

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Wandering Koala leaping thru the air


Here is my latest sketch of the Wandering Koala leaping thru the air. Drawn with a Japanese Brush Pen and colored in Adobe Photoshop.

Monday, April 4, 2016

Art Philosophy: Digital Watercolor



In the 80s, several beautifully crafted graphic novels were released that used watercolors for the coloring producing beautiful hardcover volumes. In the 90s DC released a line of comics called Milestone that again used watercolors to produce a unique look. Unfortunately they did not use high quality paper like the graphic novels of the 80s and the effect fell flat.

I've always loved the look of watercolor and the actual experience of producing watercolors. There is such a hand crafted quality to it. Which is why I find digital watercolors so ironic, and yet so beautiful.

The illustration above was produced in Adobe Photoshop using flat colors, one watercolor brush, and a few filters and photoshopping to give it a watercolor look even though the color is 100% pixels. I really like the end result, even if it is cheating.

What do you think?