July Challenge- The REVEAL: Limited Palette, Limited Content #3

Challenge Drawing Game - The REVEAL

Red-Orange, Purple, Pale Blue: Script

Digital drawing, 10240px x 768px

This month, I have joined several internet friends in a challenge - create three pieces with a mandatory limited palette of only three colors: red-orange, purple and pale blue, and three words: "energy", "life", and "passion." All these elements were independently selected by the players.

I am a painter, of landscapes mostly, so I am used to working with images. Even when I am doing things like web design or posters where words are part of the content, overall I am concerned the look of the text in the design, and not so much with the meaning of the words.

At first, in this challenge, I found the required words to be just-plain excess baggage. Somehow, I had to incorporate them into the design. So they became another item to be balanced, repeated, proportioned, or scaled appropriately.

Gradually I became aware of using the meaning of the word in the piece, and I experimented with how the visual design supported or enhanced or detracted from that meaning in the drawing.

Then I found myself at a crossroads. What is my intent in doing the design? Am I trying to communicate the literal meaning of the word or words? Am I making a statement or exhortation with or about these words? Or am I making a visual design that speaks to the viewer at a subconscious as well as a conscious level? What do I want these words to do? What do I want my design to do?

So, that is where I will continue this line of inquiry. This challenge has been a good couple of weeks of daily practice, I have learned a lot about the software package I wanted to try out, and I have learned a surprising amount about my own approach to my work.

This is the last REVEAL - the third of three pieces for this challenge - let me know what you think!

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July Challenge- The REVEAL: Limited Palette, Limited Content #2

Challenge Drawing Game - The REVEAL

Red-Orange, Purple, Pale Blue: Flower with Words

Digital drawing, 10240px x 768px

This month, I have joined several internet friends in a challenge - create three pieces with a mandatory limited palette of only three colors: red-orange, purple and pale blue, and three words: "energy", "life", and "passion." All these elements were independently selected by the players.

Over the years, I have developed a routine of writing daily journal entries - nothing grand, it's mostly a morning mind-dump and sometimes a planning-session. Over the years, I have also learned that when I keep my sketchbook active every day, my drawing warms up with the practice. I know that what I am putting onto paper like this is not "great art" and it doesn't have to be, it's a routine, like brushing my teeth or doing the dishes. And it's necessary to me in the same way. So I welcomed this challenge as something that I could include in my daily routine.

What have I gotten out of it? Well, the elements of the challenge were different enough from what I am used to, that I had find new ways, every day, of making my drawings. And because I set my own challenge of using different tools as well, I have had to find different problem-solving strategies to come up with appropriate solutions to the challenge. In other words - I had to stretch myself to play this game, to meet this challenge.

And that's the fun of it - being playful, being creative, and refreshing myself.

So, this is the REVEAL - the second of three pieces - let me know what you think!

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July Challenge- The REVEAL: Limited Palette, Limited Content #1

Challenge Drawing Game - The REVEAL

Red-Orange, Purple, Pale Blue: Stripes with Words

Digital drawing, 10240px x 768px

Playfulness is the foundation for creativity. One of the foundations of playfulness is "rules" - what you allow to happen, and also what you eliminate from consideration - the rules of the game.

This month, I have joined several internet friends in a challenge - playing with a mandatory limited palette of only three colors: red-orange, purple and pale blue (each color independently selected by a player) and three words: "energy", "life", and "passion" (also independently selected.) Making these arbitrary limitations work together is the creative challenge. How I do it is my own solution, how I play the game.

I have added my own personal challenge to this game - I am trying out a drawing package for the iPad - and this game has been a perfect test for the past couple of weeks to put the new software through its paces, one digital drawing at a time, one daily session at a time.

This has been a "secret challenge" in that none of us participants knows, until now, what the others are drawing, how they are playing the game.

So, this is the REVEAL - let me know what you think!

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Special Effects in Photoshop - American Toad

Special Effects in Photoshop - American Toad

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Post Process Digital Photograph, 800px x 600px
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Imagine finding this at the bottom of the garden!

As with yesterday's image, the post-processing for this picture involved cropping and reducing the resolution of the photo, setting up an edge mask and applying several filters, and placing the resulting image on a neutral background in another document.

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Special Effects in Photoshop - Twisted Stalk Flower

Special Effects in Photoshop - Twisted Stalk Flower

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Post-process digital photograph, 800px x 600px
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I've been exploring the capabilities of my new camera, which has incredible zoom and phenomenal macro features. Now to bring up some Photoshop tricks to match these wonders!

This is a photo of a "Twisted Stalk" wildflower, which grows in zig-zag segments, each segment with a tiny, exquisite flower, hanging bell-like under its own leaf.

The post-processing for this picture involved cropping and reducing the resolution of the photo, setting up an edge mask and applying several filters, and placing the resulting image on a neutral background in another document.

You can bet I'll be playing with more images like this!
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Contour Drawing - Touching the Surface with the Pencil

Contour Drawing - Touching the Surface with the Pencil

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Graphite on paper, 8.5" x 10"
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One of the challenges of learning how to draw is the exercise of "Contour Drawing."

When you make a blind contour drawing, your eye travels along the contours of an object and you convince yourself that the pencil in your hand drawing on the paper is actually touching the surface where your eye is tracking. You don't take your eye off the object, and therefore you don't get to see the drawing develop on the paper. That's what makes it a "blind" drawing.

This exercise is like practicing scales on the piano, it's not supposed to look good, it's just part of getting better as an artist.
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All Thumbs!

All Thumbs!
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Graphite on Paper, 9" x 11"
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When I was in school I used to doodle in my books. A lot of the time it was "thumbnail sketches," quick scribbles I made of my thumb. I liked the visual pun, I liked the escape of drawing in class, and I liked that I could erase the pencil sketch quickly before I was caught.

No longer - now I fill the pages of my sketchbooks with studies of hands, feet and anything else I am interested in observing.
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Linoblock Print: Pincherries 1

Linoblock Print: Pincherries - 1 - Planning

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Digital drawing, 800px x 532px
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Relief printing from a linoleum block is a technique that can be as simple or as complex as you choose to make it. I have a drawing of pincherry blossoms that I want to print in three colors - yellow, green and blue. I can print this from a series of three linoblocks, one for each color, or I can print it as a reduction print, cutting the same block down each time I change colors. The multi-block technique gives me additional colors, while the reduction print on one block is easier to register each time it goes to the press. I'm still trying to decide.

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Color Layers

Color Layers

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Digital drawing, 800px x 600px
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Colors put on separate layers in a digital drawing can be "mixed" differently, depending on the order in which the layers are stacked. When the colors are completely opaque, the one on top masks the one beneath, and so on to the bottom of the stack. When the opacity of the colors is adjusted, an artist can control the blending of the colors.

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Split Complementary Color Scheme - Tertiaries

Split Complementary Color Scheme - Tertiary Colors

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Digital drawing, 800px x 600px
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In nature, colors tend toward less intense and less saturated and away from stark primary and secondary colors. Nevertheless, when you find a natural scene that attracts your eye, you are likely to spot color harmonies within the dull and near-neutral colors.
In this image reddish-brown colors contrast with yellow-greens and dull middle and dark greens, demonstrating a split-complementary relationship.

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Split Complementary Color Scheme - Yellow

Split Complementary Color Scheme - Yellow

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Digital drawing 800 px x 600 px
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The colors in this image aren't fully saturated, which gives a gentle and peaceful sensation to the design.
The base color of this triad is yellow and it shows full contrast with the blue-violet and red-violet split complementaries. However, since the overall effect is high key or very light in tone, the line drawing is necessary to separate the flower from its background.
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Split-Complementary Color Scheme - Blue

Split-Complementary Color Scheme - Based on Blue

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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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In this design, the base color is blue, and the split-complementary colors are red-orange and yellow-orange. There is good contrast because these colors are fully saturated, and the effect is bold but more pleasing visually than a blue-orange contrast would be.
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Split-Complementary Color Scheme

Split-Complementary Color Scheme

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Complementary colors sit opposite to each other on the color wheel. To reduce visual tension while maintaining a good contrast in the design, artists can use the two colors adjacent to the complement of the base color. This is called the split-complement. In this design, the primary color red is the base color, and the split-complementary colors are yellow-green and blue-green.
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Monochrome Color Scheme - Green

Monochrome Color Scheme - Green

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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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The human eye can detect more tints and shades of green than any other color. I guess this is because we evolved in the trees needing to identify food plants and plants for other uses.

In this drawing, I used dark and middle dark shades of green, a saturated green and a pale green, plus a black line drawing to pull the design together.
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Monochrome Color Scheme - Red

Monochrome Color Scheme - Red

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Digital drawing, 800px x 600 px
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This is the final version of the monochrome image, with the four layers for pale pink, rose, saturated red and brown opened on top of each other. The black layer that you saw earlier is hidden.

All these colors are based on a hue (color) of red, with variations on their saturation (intensity) and their value (lightness or darkness.)
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Monochrome Color Scheme - Red [Level 2 - The Brown Layer]

Monochrome Color Scheme - Red [Level 2 - The Brown Layer]
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Digital Drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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I am working through the various color levels in this image, and placing each color on a separate layer. This makes it easier for me to see the effect of each color on the entire drawing, and yet make corrections, if I find it necessary.

This layer shows the brown tone in this design. Of its hue, saturation and value, the hue is red, the saturation is full, and the intensity is about half that of a brilliant red. That is the only difference between the colors brown and red, they're the same, but brown is darker.

Still more to come!

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Monochrome Color Scheme - Red [Level 1 - The Black Layer]

Monochrome Color Scheme - Red [Level 1 - The Black Layer]

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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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My working method for these digital drawings is to use layers to separate the colors I am using. I am finding that each layer has its own charm and individual beauty beyond its contribution to the finished drawing.

Although the basic hue in this monochrome image is Red, my starting point is usually a drawing in black to establish fundamentals of value and contrast, and to place the various shapes and areas of tone. So, from my work-in-progress, here is the black component.

There's more to come!
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Monochrome Color Scheme - Yellow

Monochrome Color Scheme - Yellow
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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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Monochrome means one color, and this monochrome color scheme is based on the single hue of yellow.
Other characteristics of color are saturation and value. There is only one saturated yellow in this design, all the other yellow tints and yellow shades are based on this one hue.

The background is a neutral gray, to provide contrast against the yellows.
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Analogous Colors: Violets

Analogous Colors: Violets

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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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Violet is a mixture of red and blue. Analogous relationships based on violet hues include red-violet, violet, blue-violet and blue. Combinations of tones of violets give a cool quiet sensation in a design.

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Analogous Colors: Oranges

Analogous Colors: Oranges
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Digital drawing, 800 px x 600 px
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The relationship between these analogous colors is with the hue orange, a secondary color made up of the primary colors red and yellow. These are all warm colors as well, and the red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, and yellow shine against a flat black background.
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