Over here in my head, there is always a debate over traditional vs. digital. Which is more appealing? Which is more fun to make? Which can get me more work? I switch back and forth all the time because my tastes change. My skills, however, differ in both methods. Sometimes I need them to influence each other.
Recently, I was approached to do a color sample in my sketch style and it turned my world around. It makes me ecstatic that this style may eventually be ready for publishing, but I still have a little ways to go. I wanted to show you a little bit of what my process looks like as I try to figure this out.
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| This sketch is what started me thinking about all of this again. |
I’ve been drawing like crazy in sketchbooks for a little over a year now, and most often my drawings turn out looking like the one above. Recently, I started incorporating Prismacolor colored pencil and Copic marker into my usual pencil and ink brush doodles. My eyes needed to see more color and finish in the sketches I had grown to love making.
But that Alligator and Armadillo tea party got me excited, so I took it to Photoshop to color it as fast as possible. Why? Because my skills in Photoshop currently surmount my Paper skills…it’s a crutch.
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| I liked this color, but it didn’t have the same energy, so I left it as is… |
In this particular case I was happy with the colors I chose, but it still wasn’t working for me. I went back to the drawing board…quite literally.
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| That’s better, but still not quite right. |
But, I was missing the vibrancy and saturation. I know that it’s possible to attain this with watercolor, but I haven’t figured out how to get there yet. Then, I remembered the gouache set I got for Christmas and started to play again with yet, another new medium.
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| I started with a gouache warm up. |
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| And this is where I landed. |
My goal for what I post on the Simply Messing About blog was always to document my journey back into traditional painting…that’s it. But with this particular project, I hit on an important fact, that it’s ok to jump back and forth always letting digital influence traditional and vice versa. And sometimes, they work really well – together.
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| I added a background color to this gouache painting…digitally. |
Until next time!~Renee
