workflow

January Updates

| Saskia

A new year, a new chance to try to keep regular updates going! Most of January I worked on a project that I can’t show until late summer, unfortunately. The little time that remained, I worked on another project that will be under the hood for even longer I’m afraid! So what can I actually write about?! Luckily I always try to make time for personal work, so that will be the focus.

Music Album Cover

methods of dreaming hawksmoor art
All participants of the workshop made artwork for the album Methods of Dreaming by HAWKSMOOR – and everyone had very different approaches and results!

Back in December I had the opportunity to join a workshop by Maarten Donders focusing on art for music albums. We worked in pencil and charcoal, creating different sketches of associations we had listening to the music. I liked the sketches I made so I continued working on them in Photoshop – trying more collage-like techniques to keep the traditional feel of the sketch intact.

I had been very inspired by an article by Rafael Sarmento in the issue 206 of ImagineFX. In his article, Rafael shows how he reuses old artwork and painted textures in new pieces, very interesting! I really liked the playful approach he had, just moving, resizing and distorting images until it fitted in the piece. Although he uses Procreate, I figured I could use Photoshop just fine.

process gif album cover

Using this new technique took much longer than I expected – it’s not only the extra time it takes going through folders finding nice textures. Still I liked the proces, it adds a layer of unpredictability I like and by using only images you made yourself, the result is guaranteed something you!

Trico Painting

trico the last guardian painting

Other news: I sold my painting of Trico (The Last Guardian) on Etsy! I didn’t really expect selling those originals, Etsy doesn’t seem to be the best marketplace for things like that, I think. I put the piece up in September as an experiment – I’m not too attached to them and just keep them in a drawer, while someone might want to adopt one! There is a market for fan art on Etsy, that must be why this piece eventually sold. Nevertheless I’m happy, hopefully this is the start for more! I’m much more happy knowing someone gives the piece space and attention than when it just gathers dust in my studio.

Global Game Jam

wtf dog game screen
A game about being a dog and then being it’s owner.

And of course January isn’t complete without the Global Game Jam! Just like last year, the jam was held completely online. I got actually quite some sleep this year, haha! The theme was duality, and after a short brainstorm we decided to make a game about a dog chasing chickens, and it’s owner clearing up the mess. We ranked 7th of all Dutch games made this year, which is quite nice!

Play our game here!

Digital Painting Workflows

| Saskia

I recently finished this illustration for DeviantART’s Cosmic Corsair Original Character Contest.

Not to talk my own work down, but I believe I could do better if I had planned more time for this. Nevertheless, I am happy with what I produced in the time given. Even more, I liked the workflow I discovered while working on this.

This illustration was the first finished piece that I tried to paint almost solely in Procreate. I bought my Ipad Pro a month ago, but I had only used it for study paintings and sketches so far. In the end I did switch to Photoshop, as I really missed some colour editing tools and layer modes. Switching between the programs was pretty easy though using Airdrop and I’ll definitely will create more illustrations this way!

Loish’s Workshop

I was lucky to attend the Intuitive Digital Workflow workshop by Loish in the beginning of October, as a part of the Playgrounds Festival. Loish showed how she approaches digital painting by creating a rough sketch, adding colour and effects with layer styles and finishes her illustrations by just adding details and corrections on top.

GlitchedPuppet

Loish’ workflow reminded me actually of another illustrator I followed for years: Melanie Herring, also known as GlitchedPuppet (Glip) or formerly PurpleKeckleon. Similarly, Melanie starts with a very rough sketch, and adds a rough colour blockout underneath. They then add colour variety using various layers modes. The full walkthrough can be read on her blog.

Both Glip and Loish work with what they have during the proces, building upon their sketch rather than figuring everything out at the start of the painting.

What does it say when two artists I look up to use similar approaches to digital painting? Something in their way of working resonates with me!

I have been following Glip’s work for more than ten years now and her approach has influenced my early digital works a lot. Learning that Loish works in a similar way makes me realize I should experiment with these techniques again. I never liked doing line-art and my sketches are usually quite rough too, which may be why my Inktober drawings tend to take so much time. I’m not the kind of person to make a detailed drawing before diving into colour, I want to sculpt and carve the painting toward a finished design.

The end result of Loish’ workshop: two portraits in different light conditions.

I hope the mobility of the Ipad helps me experiment more on the road with these techniques!