This weekend, I traded in my traditional paint brush for a digital one and started a new project. I wanted to play around with some different brushes I came across in Photoshop. I have not had any time to create any personal digital art since the summer, so I thought this weekend would be a perfect opportunity.
What I had originally intended to be a quick painting with some interesting lighting turned into a longer project and something completely different. Art is funny like that. You can have the perfect, complete idea in your head, backed up by multiple sketches and drafts, only for it to change once you actually work on it. Sometimes it looks better in your head and sometimes it comes out better when you go with the changes.
Art is funny like that. You can have the perfect, complete idea in your head, backed up by multiple sketches and drafts, only for it to change once you actually work on it.
Halfway through the project, I took a break because staring at the same thing for hours at a time can make you frustrated. Sometimes, you really just need to take a walk, read, or do something else besides art. I took a moment to scroll through my art Instagram for inspiration to continue. At the moment, I was having difficulties with the piece and getting no where with it. I came across some of Nick Thornborrow‘s older work. Nick is an Illustrator from Canada and he creates a lot of digital paintings. I particularly liked some of his character pieces. His characters themselves were beautifully done and realistic; however, his backgrounds were different geometric shapes, solid colors, and patterns. It created a really nice contrast.
Going forward, I was partly inspired by his work as I continued my own. I didn’t have to create the realistic, believable background in my head. I can use patterns, shapes, lines, whatever I wanted. This new thinking gave me the opportunity to play with different texture brushes and use shapes to move the eye around the composition. I also found a great ink brush which I absolutely love (and I may or may not have gone overboard with it). Even though it started out as a simple figure, this new dynamic background started to give it life.
While I’m going to take a break from it for now, I still want to change and add a lot of things. I need to clean up some lines and add some more interesting patterns and details. Going forward, it will be interesting to see the final piece and what other kinds of inspirations pop up in it.
Until next week!
~Jordan
