In the last day, I’ve uploaded three more colouring sheets to my Etsy shop – Artwyrd.
For each, there’s either a fully coloured, or partly coloured, version of the line art to see. Yes, I’ve been using them to practice colouring in digitally.
I’ve also started work today on a new book for Dover, the theme for it being eerie.
I’ve started getting my head together around colouring templates for sale on my Etsy shop, Artwyrd, and this is my first design – Dragonfly Mandala.
It’s offered as a high resolution pdf file for instant download.
As always, I love to see how people colour my designs in, and hope that people will share their finished works with me via social media!
Over quite a few hours I’ve used this design to explore digital colour a bit more. Of course, it’s one of my own designs.
This is the first coloured version of the template. I’ve left the black lines in and added some more line patterns for interest. To colour the flower, I used a couple of pencil ‘brushes’ in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro along with two blender ‘brushes’. The colours come from the Copic colour palette.
I’m quite happy with this; it’s very much like what I’d do with traditional media. However, the digital environment means it’s far easier to correct mistakes.
As I’ve said before, you may think that digital colouring/art is faster and easier than traditional media; I have to tell you it’s not! It took me 2 hours or so to colour this simple flower – and that was just colouring one-eighth of the design and letting the symmetry tool copy it around the flower! With traditional media it would have taken me much less than 1 hour to achieve a similar effect.
I don’t think that the extra time is due to me not being familiar with the ‘brushes’ I’m using, but more to do with the way that you can use layers as well as intensifying the contrast after each blending session. It is quicker to lay colour down – it doesn’t have to be neat and smooth as the blending tools can help to smooth out the unevenness.
Now, this one really is something quite different from me. NO black lines. Not one. Just colour.
It took me a lot longer to do this one – 3 to 4 hours in total I think, and it’s only a small and simple design! Part of that time is because this is something very different for me – no black lines…
I also made good use of layers to keep the colours separate so they didn’t blend; one layer for blues/purples and another for the yellows/oranges. A third was added for the background.
Getting my head around the concept of working in layers after a long time only ever working on one sheet of paper, is a really challenge, but as I work in this way it becomes more familiar to me.
I’m also a bit ‘stubborn’ in terms of exploring and discovering what works and how to do things my own way rather than reading/watching tutorials.
Like any skill, it takes time to develop some level of competence with it, and a lot longer to achieve a mastery. The more I do with digital art, especially in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, the more I like working with it. I like Sketchbook, lots. It may not be as complex as Photoshop or Illustrator, but it does what I want it to do without struggling with a complicated interface. It allows me to draw/create a lot like I would with paper and pen, and then to explore more media than I’d ever use with traditional art media, and media that don’t even exist outside of the digital environment.
The more I work with it, the more I know I will need a Microsoft Surface Studio sooner rather than later; as much as I love my Surface Book, I do find it difficult to understand how things will look 1:1.
I’m in no great rush though, my Surface Book works just fine, and if the worst comes to the worst, I can sketch my ideas out and scan them in and work from that, using layers of course!
As you know, I’ve been spending quite a lot of time developing a good relationship with both my Microsoft Surface Book and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.
I’m fairly happy with drawing on the surface, though I’ve yet to get the texture of the ‘pen’ I use to be a little less perfect and a bit more ‘human’. There’s also the issue of not quite getting how big patterns will be when printed out, and then finding out that a powerful magnifying glass along with microscopically fine pointed pens/pencils will be needed to colour the patterns if not done digitally.
Now, I have mostly been printing my designs out and then colouring them with traditional media; particularly my Chameleon Color Tones and Color Tops marker pens. I do love doing this – it’s a very sensory experience.
However, I am aware I have a different tool for colouring viz. Sketchbook Pro and it’s suite of brushes and textures and so on.
Believe it or not, it takes me longer to colour an image in digitally than it does with traditional media, and I mean a LOT longer.
I love the way the colours are clean, almost glowing, when I use the marker pen ‘brush’ or one of the watercolour brushes. I’m getting to grips with which particular kind of blending or smudging ‘brush’ I like to use. I’m starting to get the idea of working with layers.
What is vexing me, is how ‘perfect’ the finish is, and how simple it looks. I wonder if it is way too simple a finish. It also frustrates me that I’m kind of trying to replicate the effects of traditional media but with digital tools, and failing as everything either works out almost perfectly blended with bright, clear colours, or ends up as a bit of a mess as I try to use different brushes or textures.
A dear friend of mine pointed out to me that I’m trying to compare apples and oranges, that perhaps I should treat digital colouring as an art medium all of it’s own instead of trying to make it like traditional media.
It was also pointed out that I do have a tendency to give myself a hard time when things seem too easy to me, or end up too perfect.
All of the images in this post have been coloured digitally, and the colours have shading/gradation in colours, but there’s no texture in them. But then, there’s little texture in the colouring when I use marker pens, such as my Chameleons or Copics, unless I deliberately add it, which I’m always disappointed with. I much prefer to add texture with black lines, which I need to bear in mind now as I work with digital colour.
I also recognise that I need to do a bit more to make more ‘contrast’ between the paler and darker shades of colours, as well as making sure there’s good deep shadows to add that illusion of 3D to the drawings.
I will continue to experiment and explore the other digital media and brushes, as well as special effects, and in time I may work out how it can all work for me in a way that I’m happy with.
Last night I bit the marker pen and uploaded two sets of small greetings cards to my Etsy shop, Artwyrd.
Each set has ten cards featuring a coloured flower/mandala design stored in a small, custom made box along with matching envelopes.
The flower/mandala designs I drew myself in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro on my Microsoft Surface book. I printed out multiple copies of the designs and then used my Chameleon Markers and Copic Markers to colour them. Distress Ink was used to add colour around the designs.
The next step was to create colour mats for the designs; I used my marker pens to colour some Centaura Pearl card.
Before mounting them on the 3″ x 3″ (7.5cm x 7.5cm) card blanks, I embellished the designs with dots of metallic and pearlescent acrylic paint, as well as adding coloured gems.
Of course the cards sparkle!
The boxes are made from cardstock with the lids decorated with designer series paper; the colour ways chosen are complementary to the colours of the cards. I also used Distress Inks to distress the edges and corners of the boxes. I’ve yet to embellish the boxes.
These are my fifth and sixth attempts at making the boxes. I had to purchasing a new paper cutter that’s more accurate than the one I had been using. I had used a template for a box that would take ten 3″ x 3″ cards, but wasn’t big enough for the envelopes. So, I also had to work out and adjust the measurements needed for the base and lid so that the envelopes would fit in the box! Frustrating, especially as maths isn’t my strong point …but I got there in the end.
I do have a couple of jobs to do to the cards/boxes; the boxes need some embellishment, and I need to add makers labels to them too.
The boxes will be nice for other things once the cards are used up – the lids are a snug fit.
All of the designs I have stored and may, in the fullness of time, put them together as a pack of digi-stamps so people can use them to create their own cards!
I received these cards in the post today from Crane&Co! I think you can tell I designed the artwork.
The design is Letterpressed onto cotton rag paper using a grey ink; this means the lines of the design are slightly impressed into the paper.
I’m really chuffed with how it’s come out!
Over the last couple of days, my focus has been on designing mandalas. I also have been learning a little more about Autodesk Sketchbook Pro and how I can import images, cut them and have them as an opaque image that ‘floats’ on top of other layers or designs. The image above is an example of the work I’ve done.
My only issue with it is that I’ve used too thick a pen for the mandala. Now I know how to do this, I can always re-do the mandala part, or the dragonfly!
I also spent a fair part of yesterday doing some mixed media work. A friend of mine asked if I’d do something with her wedding speech for one of her family so it’d become a keepsake for them.
I’d been puzzling about how to do it, when inspiration struck with the colours I needed to use, and off I went! I’ll post a photo of it once the wedding is all done!
Seeing as I’ve focused on butterflies over the past few days, I didn’t want to have dragonflies feeling they’ve been overlooked. So, I have a few templates done and saved, and so far I’ve added patterns and shading to one.
Oh, I’ve also worked out how to add a watermark to my art to try to protect its copyright…just have to remember to add a watermark to every image of my art I upload now…
Of course, I’ve been drawing on my Surface book in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro…no better way to get to work out how the software works for me and with me!
Another four patterned butterflies, drawn using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro on a Microsoft Surface Pen with the Microsoft Surface Pen as the input device.
I used Autodesk Sketchbook Pro on my Microsoft Surface Book along with my Surface Pen to add patterns and shading to two of the butterfly outline designs I drew yesterday. I’m happy with the results.
Today I’ve also created two more dot mandalas, each around 5″ in diameter. I added some gems to those, as well as to the small dot mandalas I created over the last couple of days. The sparkle really adds something special to them, and helps to emphasise the circularity of mandala designs.
Art is the Adventure 