Posts made by Adrian K

@dgal thank you. I currently don’t have any tutorials upload to YouTube yet. They are in process, but are currently a low priority.

@Susan-Marks I've found Brad Colbow's tutorials very useful to me. he has a class up on Udemy.com that I got last year that I found really useful. I currently don't use Photoshop, and found his instruction very understandable. here is one of his youtube videos - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaiduP_HmIQ&t=31s
in the description there is a link to his course, it's about $10 but I found it worth it, and he's been updating it as new versions of procreate have been coming out.

Welcome welcome, great to have you here.

@CLCanadyArts welcome welcome, great to have you here. I absolutely love your work, watercolor is a joy to work, with and the way you use it is just breathtaking.

Welcome welcome, great to have you here

Pretty much done at this point, and I’m happy with how it turned out. Feel free to critique as you wish. Feedback is always useful.

I’ve got to say, working digital is a weird thing. Sometimes I feel like a kid in a candy store, there are so many directions, styles, colors, little cheats and workarounds you can do, it can get a little overwhelming. One thing I’ve found that I miss (surprisingly) are the limitations inherent in traditional media. Limitations force you to be creative, so that you can get the results you want or hope for, despite the added time or hassle it takes. And often those creative efforts lead to something unexpected, organic or new that you can use latter. But having too many options can lead to a creative traffic jam in your head, or at least in my head. Sometimes these little cheats are a little too good and the picture is left looking stale or just not quite right some how.

I’ve been working digitally for a little over a year now, and I’ve gotten comfortable working in several different styles, but I think I’ve finally found the one that sings to me the most (yay!!) To an extent I’ve limited my approach to a traditional one. Using brushes and colors that replicate a traditional style. And I’m avoiding those brushes and techniques that leave a more digital look.

I always get lost in the smallest details of a picture, and have no issue spending way too much time there. However, in this pic and the last couple I’ve done. I’ve kept the base sketch somewhat loose. As apposed to getting clean crisp edges with even and precise crosshatching, rather I chose a messy scribble that tried to capture the feel of organic shapes fallowed up by only a little cleanup afterwards. This was then followed by color under the sketch, and then white pencil over the sketch. So far I like the results.

I’ve always liked the look of white pencil on toned paper, it brings a sense of realism that graphite on white seems to be missing. I tried to keep that in mind as I worked on the areas with limited color. I particularly like how the bridge and water turned out.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this.

Alternate version.

A little more completed. Thinking of keeping the background image in a limited pallet to avoid competition with the outside characters.

Welcome welcome, glad to have you here.

@Laurasketches love the imagery you have going here. Question, is the mermaid bioluminescent? If so I might suggest a little more reflected light on some of their faces considering how bright the mermaid is, wouldn’t have to be much. Just a thought.

As this relates to his image, I thought this might be of interest. One way I’ve been creating the stained backgrounds is with this image. A little bit ago I saw a whimsical picture where the character was on a parchment background, and I decided to make my own. Modern day parchment is typically just paper that’s been treated with dies to give an old or uneven appearance. I wanted to make something a little more. Originally parchment was made from sheep or goat skins that were prepared so that they could receive inks an pigments for illuminations and manuscripts. If you ever have the chance to see one you’ll notice that there is a grain to it, stretch marks and pores. These marking get more apparent as time passes.
So here’s one of several images I made using a watercolor brush on my iPad. I did my best to mimic the characteristics of real parchment. Made at a high DPI and deeper saturation; just playing with its hue, saturation, and brightness, I’ve found these backgrounds very useful in creating textures.

After playing around with different positions, I really can’t beat the silhouette this guy gives off. Also, I think having the boarder redirects the eye From falling off the pic.

Welcome welcome, great to have you here

A bit closer on the overall look. Decided to keep the straight border with the winding branches.
@chrisaakins I tilted the bird in the second pic as per your suggestion, also did a version of him looking down to bring the line of sight back into the pic. Not sure which I’ll do yet, I’ll digest it for a bit. Also I do like the idea of adding another character, but given the story only has two characters, I think I’m limited on what I can do, maybe a small critter in the boarder.

So here’s my current project (for those who may be interested).

Back when the the monthly challenge was designing a book cover, I had wanted to do Aesop’s Fables, alas I just had too much going on to participate. Well afterwards I found that I still wanted to illustrate a fable when I remembered a little sketch I had done some years ago. Now while not actually designing a cover here, I did want to illustrate an image that could be found in Aesop’s book.

So for this piece, I’m thinking of splitting the actions between the Fox beguiling the crow (larger kitty corner characters) and the aftermath of the fox leaving the crow frustrated (center image). The grey border is a place marker for a winding branch border.

Anyways, never really been big on showing WIP, not because I dislike critiques (on the contrary), but typically because I get too forgetful to post while I’m in my process. I am open to thoughts or critiques as anyone wishes.

Original sketch.

@Elena-Marengoni very nice, but I gotta say that the second one really draws me in more, there’s more emotion to connect to. I can see that the girl is sad, but what I connect to is the empathy being displayed by the mermaid. I agree with @theprairiefox that reframing it a bit so the girls head isn’t too close to the edge would be better. Also I’d suggest allowing the bear to be whole rather than missing an arm. You have a character that’s comforting another with a teddy bear; for me, the missing (jagged) arm breaks up the smooth/round lines and slightly undercuts the feeling it gives. Great work you have going on here.

I’ve been using Squarespace. They’ve got tons of templates that are designed for quality pictures.

Thank you very much @chrisaakins , I appreciate your thoughts on this piece. One of the reasons I avoided digital until about a year ago now was because all I saw was so obviously digital, that there was literally no appeal in it for me. I love the look of traditional media, and trying to enjoy the benefits of digital while retaining a traditional look has been one of my main goals/struggles. All in all, my approach to working has been one of simplicity or a traditional mind set. There are a lot of cool tricks that can be used for digital, but for me, I have to limit those features. When I deviate from that I run into issues like you mentioned with the original border being too clean - (fake).

I may come back to this later to add the secondary character to break the border, but for now it needs to breathe.

I think I may have concluded this (design/color wise), a little more blending to do. I decided to go for a coffee or tea stained look, while dark, I kinda like for the mood. Also decided not to include any secondary characters as they all seemed to feel a bit shoehorned. All thoughts, opinions, critiques welcome.

Edit - lighter version

So here’s an update with the direction I’m going. I still have a bit more on this one in adding colors/characters, and playing with warm and cool tones.
@Kevin-Longueil thanks for the suggestion, it actually reminded me of one of my favorite artists Alan Lee, I had forgotten he does a lot of framing in his images. @Amber-Lynn-Benton thanks for the direction in Illustrators for me to follow, it’s helped.

@demotlj thank you very much. I’m currently doing a series of these. As for a story, just visual for right now though that may change. I do agree with your statement of the mouse looking in. Currently I’m not happy with that mouse, I’ll be making him younger as well as him having a friend going to meet the owl, thus bringing the action from the outside into the picture. At least that was the plan.