Photoshop adventures

I took the sketch that I did about ten days ago(http://flutterbliss.wordpress.com/2013/12/14/i-am-having-a-sketchy-friday-the-13th/) and colored it in Photoshop. It wasn't a complete sketch so I had to do quite a bit of coloring and fudging around the corners. Here it is:

 I learned a lot from this project. I learned how to make the closest thing to a pencil in Photoshop. And how to add a grainy overlay to add texture so that it doesn't look entirely airbrushed. I got that tip here: http://www.3dm3.com/forum/articles.php?action=viewarticle&artid=101. While the approach was more subtle in the tutorial, I like how it looks like it could have been colored on an art paper that has 'tooth'. I am not sure if my experiment was exactly successful (not crazy about my weird fuzzy border), but I feel like I got some education from it. I have never been a fan of filters in Photoshop for regular digital illustration, but now I may be a convert- At least for making a nice texture on an image. The original sketch can be found here: 

Oldies but goodies

I have been working on all the 'work' part today, so I do not have any new art to share today. I do, however, have some older art that I am glad to share. :)

This is a watercolor piece that I did about 2 years ago. 

This was my the first piece of art where I incorporated any digital anything. I did this one years ago. I drew it by hand and colored in in Photoshop.

I really like the dreamy feel of the latter. I think I might experiment like this with some of my new sketches. I have found that sometimes I make a great sketch or pencil drawing in a sketch book and no matter how I try, I can never replicate all the little details onto watercolor paper or canvas. I think this is a good reason to scan and color digitally. 

Feel free to comment or critique. :)

other pages that contain my art

https://www.facebook.com/HollyBroxson.Art

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FlutterblissArt

http://flutterbliss.deviantart.com/

http://flutterbliss.tumblr.com/

Digital Painting adventures

The past week has been a bit chaotic as it usually is the week before Christmas. I have been too busy for art or for blogging. It missed it!

I have spent most of my life doing some kind of art, but painting digitally is somewhat new to me. My education was in graphic design, so I understand the programs. It is this Wacom tablet that I am having to get used to. I used one a lot at one of my jobs back in the early 2000s, but I was just airbrushing and editing back then. Completing an entire painting is a whole new hand-eye coordination exercise. So, last night I worked on a painting. It isn't hyper-realistic, like so many amazing digital works out there, but it is in my style. That is something that I did not know if I could achieve digitally. What I have done so far is this: I am still not sure how much more I will do on this particular painting. I am ready to start on one that is not a practice piece.