Sketchtember days 4 and 5

Continuing with DeadlyDots’ prompt list for Sketchtember. Thyme was day 4’s prompt, and Basil is today’s. I’ve got the title for tomorrow done (Bay leaf).

Plenty of pen drawing and some coloring with Chameleon color tones markers. A little bit of messing around with patterns on the thyme page.

It’s an enjoyable process, though today I think I’ll take a little break from it and turn my attention to projects that need some work done on them, and maybe new drawings to be done.

Wednesday Morning

A little abstract art, the pattern inspired by a Romanesque sculpture. Monochrome, high contrast. Just having fun, no other reason, before I turn to inking in some drawings for Entangled Starry Skies.

Digital art.

Abstract Strata

This morning’s warm-up art is another abstract digital painting inspired by patterns in rocks and strata.

It’s a very soothing process for me to create art like this, even though it lacks the intricacy and detail of my more usual ‘entangled’ style. Simplifying and stylisation is a feature of my entangled art; this artwork takes those processes a few steps further along.

I started the day sketching some simplified patterns taken from geology in general. I scanned them in and chose one to turn into a painting.

Layer by layer, I added colour and texture, choosing earthy colours. I paid attention to shadow and highlight making sure that there’s an illusion of dimesion in the painting.

I’m still experimenting with this style of digital painting. In this one, I think I’ve chosen one or two colours too many, and a couple of them are a bit brighter than the others which makes them stand out more.

I also need to work with different color palettes, limiting the colours to produce a cohesive design.

The ragged edges created by the brush texture I used make the layers look a bit like torn paper. However, I would like to try a smoother edge in future experiments.

It’s been a nice way to spend three or so hours this morning. It’s now time for me to breakfast!