Clematis and redbubble

Hi all.
I've finished the clematis image and very pleased with it I am too.

No you may be looking at this image and be thinking that it isn't very realistic and you be partly right. The thing is, it wasn't meant to be realistic, it was meant to be a pleasing to the eye and, just as importantly, to be able to be used as a design.

It isn't for hanging on a wall like you would expect, but to be used as a design on various products via print on demand. I have come across this company on line called Redbubble and they take independent artist images and print them onto products like, tee shirts, mugs, phone cases and cushions etc.

All I have to do is upload my images and they do the rest. I can even set the percentage of markup that I want from each sale. They take care of the shipping etc, so no trips to the post office like you would with a normal on line shop.

It sound almost to good to be true. The only downside is that it is very popular with artists and other people who are just trying to make money, so the competition is intense. I am lucky that it is only a hobby for me and it gives me an outlet for my work which would otherwise just go into a folder or languish on my hard drive.  Seeing one's artwork printed on so many products gives me quite a buzz and even if I make no sales I can still buy products with my own designs to give as gifts, how cool is that.

Anyway, I haven't got much in my shop yet but if you want to see what it's all about please click on the shop link on the right hand side of the page. I called the shop The Armchair Artist to keep it in line with my youtube channel of the same name.

I have uploaded a video of me painting the above image and you can access that by clicking on this
link.
I am trying to make each video more informative and I hope you you enjoy watching it. If you do please consider subscribing and you can follow me on the rest of my journey.

In my next video I hope to show how I paint each leaf in details, the process and the brushes.

Stamp Brushes

Hi all,
I have managed to find a few hours this week to start another digital painting on my ipad. I am still enjoying the process and I am more convinced than ever that I won't be going back to traditional art. I have found the benefits of digital art and the results to be amazing.

Anyway, I'm not trying to convince anybody to take up digital art because it is very expensive to get started. The purpose of this blog and the videos that accompany it are to show what can be done by a novice, and thus, giving anybody who is on the fence about taking up digital art, information that may allow them to make a well informed decision. To buy new, the investment required for a 10.5 inch ipad and pencil, plus software is almost £700.

I sold my airbrush and all the stuff that goes with it last week for a nice price so that has helped with my investment.

Right, let's get on with some art. Some of you will remember this pencil drawing I did of a clematis.

It turned out well. Quite realistic in fact and showed me what can be done with just a pencil and paper. However, it lacks colour, so I thought it would be a perfect candidate to see what I could do with the same image on my ipad. I also wanted to make it larger to test out the difficult of creating a bigger image on a small screen. The pencil sketch is 5 inches square and digital one I'm doing is 8 inches square.

The first thing I did was paint the trellis.

Now all I had to do was paint some leaves and the clematis flowers on it. The app I use for my art is called Procreate, which for £10 is incredibly powerful. It allows the artist to make their own brushes and I took full advantage of this by creating some stamp brushes. I used these to help me position, the leaves, flowers and buds in the best places on the painting. Sketching each one in by hand would have taken ages and there would have been discrepencies in size and shape.

I love being abole to create these brushes and use them to make a great image. I am only halfway through the painting but if you watch the video below, it will give you a taste of what can be achieved.

I've only had the ipad about 10 weeks but it has exceeded my expectations. If you have any question of comments please let me know. And, if you enjoyed the video please consider subscribing so that you don't miss the second part. Thanks for watching.

Iris Painting

Hi all,
Time is flying this February, it only seems like a couple of weeks ago that I was carving the turkey and now its nearly March. At least the weather is nice, I can't remember a better end to winter.

On the painting front, I am still learning my way with the digital art on the ipad. I can't see me ever going back to any sort of traditional art and to that end today I sold all my airbrush kit. The thing is I didn't use it that much because I didn't have enough space to leave it set up. Therefore, there was never enough time to get it all out and when I'd finished I'd have to clean the brushes out etc. When you add to that the fact that you had to wear a protective mask when airbrushing, the whole thing became too much of a faff.

Anyway, it has gone now and I'll stick to the ipad. Here is the latest digital paint that I have done of a couple of irises. I enjoyed doing it and I think it looks pretty good.

If you would like to see how I did this digital painting please go to my youtube channel The Armchair Artist

The programme I use is called Procreate and it can be downloaded for just £9.99 from the app store.
If you like the video please consider subscribing and you will get notification when I upload a new video. I aim to do one every 7 or 8 days and you will be able to see how I get on with this new technology.  If you have any questions or comments please let me know.

Roses are Pink

Hi all,
 In my last post I showed you my first attempt at painting a rose digitally on my newly acquired ipad. It turned out perhaps better than expected but the background was a complete mess. See what I mean.

Anyway, I wasn't very happy to leave it at that so I drew in some leaves and a bud to finish it off more to my liking. Doing this using traditional art methods would be almost impossible, I know it is possible to lift out a certain amount of watercolour paint, be let's be honest, the paper never looks the same again.

Anyway, I erased some of the background and drew in some leaves and a bud which I then painted digitally. Here is the same rose with the new background.

I think this is a great improvement and it has convinced me that the possibilities of digital art are massive. Like I said before, I pondered over trying digital art properly for a couple of years and in that time I wasted a whole lot of money on more and more art materials whilst trying to find the thing that would help me make the images I desired. I think I have found it digitally.

I know that some traditionalist frown at digital art and if that is how they feel, fair enough, but I doubt I will ever go back to real brushes. How many amateur artists have been led down the path of buying better and better quality brushes to improve their art. I was convinced. I finished up buying brushes made from the hair of a squirrel that had been hand fed hazel nuts from the only tree left in a Bolivian swamp. I also purchased the best paper, 100% cotton that was so strong and archivable that my painting would still be here a million years after the last pyramid had been returned to sand.

Don't get me started on artist's quality paint because if you've got plenty of money to chuck about the sky's the limit. One is always left thinking, that if one had used paint with a higher percentage of pigment and less binder, one's paintings would look much better. Thankfully, I didn't go too far down this route.

To put it in a nutshell. Yes, over the years my paintings did improve slightly each time I improved the quality of my materials but that was still tiny when compared with the increase in the costs.

On the other side of the coin, digital art has cost me a huge amount of money up front. However, it has provided the biggest improvement in my art and now that5 I have made in initial investment my running cost are almost zero. No more expensive paints, papers, inks, brushes and other accessories like the dreaded masking fluid

I don't have a mission to convert anybody to digital art, all I'm doing is recording my observations and reporting how I'm getting on and at the moment I'm very pleased. If you would like to see how I got on sorting out the rose above here is the link to my channel, The Armchair Artist .Any comments and questions are welcome

In my next post I will be doing another rose hopefully a a bit better.

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.