A Rose

Hi all,
The digital art is going pretty well. I'm still desperately trying to get to grips with the app that I'm using called Procreate, but I think it is just a matter of practise.

This week I managed to do a rose. The background is pathetic but the flower ain't too bad.

I tried several brushes in this painting. Sketching, inking, airbrush and textured brushes in an attempt to get the effect I was looking for. I am very pleased seeing as it is my first rose using a digital medium.

In my last post I said I'd tell you why I am having ago at digital as apposed to traditional art. Well there are many reasons and, one of the most important for me is the result.

I know there are some people who say it is enjoying the process that is more important than the result, but I'm afraid I need a good result too. Like many other amateur artists I believe that I have the knowledge to be able to paint, however, once I add some water to some paint and put it on the canvas it goes down hill from there and I end up with something mediocre. I understand about colour, contrast, shadows and composition, but the execution lets me down.

I have put it down to the lack of control. One needs to be very adept at mixing the right amount of water with the paint and dampen the paper just enough. To be honest, most of the time I was waiting for happy accidents which might have happened in one small area of the image but overall the painting was below expectations.

Have you ever been to one of those paint club exhibitions that are held in village halls all over the country. You look at all the paintings, nit picking and thinking you could do better. There are usually a couple of standout paintings but the rest look, let's be truthful about this, blinking washed out.


Well thats how I felt about my own attempts especially at watercolour. You may have seen these two images before but for me it sums it up when it comes to results.

Of course it is a matter of taste, but for me the digital picture is far superior and that is one of the reasons why I want to master the art of painting digitally. I will explore another reason in my next post. Meanwhile, if you would like to see a short video of me creating the rose picture above, here is a link to my Youtube channel and the painting. The Armchair Artist

Digital Art

Hi all,
I am pleased to report that I am still enjoying my venture into digital art; it has opened up new possibilities for me. It is great for doodling and even better for attempting something decent. It is still early days for me yet because I'm still feeling my way around the software.

Here is a loose painting of some birch trees in the snow. I wasn't trying to be proper realistic, I just wanted to see how one could create depth in a digital painting.

 It's only a small painting but it proved to me that a sense of depth was easy to achieve in a digital way by using a different layer for each depth of the painting. It is possible to reduce the opacity of the whole layer or just when using a brush so it is very easy. I also like the fact that any mistakes can be undone easily.

I recorded the painting of the birches and posted to my new Youtube channel called "The Armchair Artist." If you would like to see how the painting was created here is a link to the short video
Please have a look and let me know what you think.

The purpose of creating the channel is two fold. Firstly it will record my progress during my journey with this new media. Secondly, there may be other traditional artists out there who are, like me, disillusioned with normal art and fancy giving the digital a try. Giving most new art forms a go isn't difficult. If you fancy having a go at pastels for instance, like I did, you can just buy a small set and some paper and have a go relatively cheaply. (Then, if you have as much success as I did you can shove them to the back of the cupboard, never likley to be used again.) The point is, having a go digitally is an expensive business, so perhaps by seeing how I'm getting on others might or might not risk their money and have a go.

So far it is all going to plan and I'm more than pleased with what Ive managed to do. In my next post I will try to explain why I am going digital and what I didn't like about traditional art.

The dark side

Hi all,
So, Christmas and the new year have passed us by again. I'd like to say I had a great time but I didn't. Still, I won't go into that. The new year is well a truly here so there is a lot to look forward to now that the false expectations of Christmas are behind us.

I am going to carry on with my pencil work, but this year I'm determined to give digital painting a decent try. There are several reasons for this which I will go into in future posts but for now I'm  excited to show you how I'm getting on.

I treated myself to an ipad pro 10.5 inch for Christmas and my mother in law got me an apple pencil to go with it. After a lot of research I also purchased a app called Procreate which is about as good as painting apps get, in fact it is marvellous. I can't believe what you get for a tenner.

This was my first step in digital art, so I started off with something I could do easily with a pencil or paint. I had a quick go at doing a clematis flower.

This was a very quick sketch and I was pleasantly impressed by the ipad and the app. So, I thought I'd do another, this time a cherry.

Now considering I hadn't got much idea about what I was doing regarding the app, I was again very pleased with the result.

During my research about digital painting I came across an artist on youtube who had here reference photo on the same screen that she was painting on, so I thought I'd give that a quick try. I popped into the garden and picked a cyclamen leaf and photographed it. I then imported the photo into procreate to see if I could copy it.
The leaf on the top left is the photo and you can see my attempt at a quick copy.

Again this was just a quick sketch to see what could be done. If I had taken longer I'm sure I could have got a very close likeness.

So, obviously my first impressions of doing digital art are very good. I am hoping that I can give anybody who is thinking of taking the plunge into this media, a  flavour of what they can expect.

The cost of entry into digital is very high, for me it was almost £700. However, the ongoing costs associated with digital art are very low. Brushes, canvases, paper and paints etc will be no longere be required or will any of the other mirade of accessories we artist think we need.

There are lots of other benefits that go along with digital art and I'll tell you about some of them in a future post.

For now, please take a look at this picture. I did one last year in watercolour and the other a few days ago. Which do you prefer?

                                                             

 The one at the top is digital and the other is watercolour.

I have also started a youtube channel so that I can record my progress. Here is a link to my introductory video. I hope you enjoy it, any questions or comments please let me know.