Browsing articles tagged with " Art"
Sep
11

Copic Markers

By lauren  //  Art  //  No Comments

Today I found out about a new tool for designing. Copic Markers  allow you to make drawings that look like digital art! I watched some video on youtube of people drawing with copic markers and their drawings really looked like the coloring (and inking) was done in photoshop or something!

What are Copic Markers? Well they are alcohol based markers that don’t ruin your paper, as many markers tend to do. They come is 4 different types: Original, Sketch, Ciao, and Wide.

 

 

 

All of the different types come with two ends except for the Wide and they all come in a load of colors! The Original, Sketch, and Ciao come in over a hundred colors and the Wide comes in about 30. They are also refillable and recyclable. Who doesn’t like environmental friendly tools? lol

These markers look amazing! I haven’t used them but I really want them! They look fun to use and they make normal paper drawings look like they’ve been digitally colored! Check out this video I watched of someone drawing and using these markers. It’s amazing!

 

Artists on Youtube really don’t get that much exposure and they really should!  But anyway….this video is amazing and it wonderfully demonstrates what I mean about how they make drawings look very well colored and blended – almost like how they would look if they were done in Photoshop.

The only thing about copic markers that really suck is that they are kind of expensive. I looked on the AC Moore website and they sell for about $7 per marker! =/ I just wanted a small set of starter markers but the smallest one was about $40. I’d love to get it but I can’t afford it right now haha but maybe Micheals or other arts and crafts stores might sell them for cheaper. ;) Here’s hoping! haha If all else fails – there’s always ebay! lol

You can watch this video on what Copic Markers are . =)

 

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    Jun
    15

    Mystical Smoke Effect

    By lauren  //  Art, Art Tips, Photoshop  //  No Comments

    I’m so excited! Today I got a request from someone asking if I could turn their image into a cartoon and add in a space background and some sort of cool light, smoke effect that makes it look like it’s coming from the guy’s hand. Here’s the final image:

     

     

    The person who ordered this image wanted a colorful effect and absolutely loved this image! They said I was the best cartoonist on the Fiverr website they have seen! =) That really brought up my spirits and confidence in my work! But what else made me feel happy is that I finally pulled off a wonderful smoke effect without looking at a tutorial! I’ve see tutorial using the “Distort – Wave” filter but the settings they have don’t always work out the way I want.

    For this effect, I had my settings on the following:

    Number of Generators: 10

    Wavelength: 71 Min and 216 Max

    Amplitude: 5 Min and 178 Max

    Scale: 55% Horz. and 86% Vert.

    Type: Sine

    Undefined Areas: Repeat Edge Pixels

    To make the smoke effect, I used the wave filter about 4 times and after each, I went to “Edit – Fade Wave” and put it on 50%. I recommend playing with the wave settings to get the best effect.

    Other tutorials say the same thing, they list the setting they have and they tell you to use fade wave (or at least some do). What I find to be the most helpful is that when you start to make your smoke effect, you have to draw the basic outline. This means don’t just go in a draw a square then hope the wave effect will magically turn the square into smoke!

    I’ve read a tutorial where someone used the Polygon Lasso Tool to draw your smoke outline, which does work. You just have to draw a few points then connect them. But I find the Pen Tool to be the best because of the ability to make curved lines. I think the wave tool works best with curved lines rather then completely straight edges.

    For my smoke effect, I drew some spirals around the gentlemen’s hand in the image and then used the setting above in the wave filter then used the fade wave. I did the wave filter and fade method about four times to the same outline. Then I drew in a white line (pressure sensitivity on when I went to stroke the line) and added the bending option “outer glow” of white then played with the size and blending options.

    Finally, I used a clipping mask and used the rainbow gradient tool to make the overall rainbow look. I’m very happy with how this turned out. What do you think? I love colorful images like this and was very happy when I got this request! lol


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      Dec
      21

      Starting Art?

      By lauren  //  Art, Art Tips  //  No Comments

      Hi, so the other day I was on Yahoo Answers and I came across someone asking for some tips on starting to do art. This person wanted to know about color, how to make things realistic, ect. Well I told them, there are some fundamentals they should look over before starting.

      Of course, anyone can do art and no matter what, it’ll be a great piece of work because art is objective. However, there are fundamentals to design that my basic design teacher said “if in doubt, use the fundamentals”.

      The Fundamentals:

      • Color
      • Lines
      • Shapes
      • Texture
      • Time/Motion
      • Space
      • Form
      • Value

      Each of these can help you if you don’t know where to go with your piece of art. These are not rules! More like guidelines, so you can do whatever you want to make art. It’s important to know that art is a form of expression and that you should do art for you – it shouldn’t be seen as work.

      What if I want to do art for a living?

      Well if you want to go into design, or be a freelance artist, or just something that deals with art, the art you do should still be seen as fun. In this case, learning the basic fundamentals would be very beneficial.

      I always tell people that if they want to learn how to draw or paint to whatever, is to practice! Art is a process and you should always try to practice. Also, I think references are very important. How are you going to learn to draw something from memory if you don’t understand how something is in real life? Like if you want to draw a face, you have to understand the basic measurements and look of a face. If you want to draw someone, like a family member, if you’re drawing from memory then chances are you may just draw a stereotypical face – just eyes, a nose and mouth. But if you want to draw your family member, you need to know what makes that person look that way. Don’t just draw eyes but almond eyes, or full lips – draw them and not what you think they look like. In cases like these, references help loads! I always use references when I draw.

      Another thing I suggest to people that if they want to achieve a certain look when painting or in photography, is to look at other pieces of art work and try to recreate it. That way you can learn some techniques used to achieve the look and style you want and possibly come up with your own techniques.

      The most important thing when starting to do art work is to practice! Learning the fundamentals, having references and recreating works of art you like will help you along your journey of learning art.

      Oct
      17

      Information About Graphite Pencils

      By lauren  //  Art, Art Tips  //  2 Comments

      Recently I’ve been working on a drawing and I wanted more pencils so I can achieve the kind of realism that I want. I got a pack of Kimberly Graphite Pencils from Micheals arts and crafts store. In the package I got 10 different grades of pencils which gives me a good range of light and dark.

      What do you know about graphite pencils? Well this was my frist time using graphite pencils and all I knew was that there were pencils that could et really dark, almost black, and really light. I also knew that they were called hard and soft pencils but I didn’t know what were the hard pencils and which were the soft. The package on my pencils explained some stuff so I’ll tell you what I know about them.

      First off, a grade refers to how hard or soft a penicl is (which means how light or dark the graphite can get).

      The range of graded penicls in my package were:

      4H – considered the “hardest” ni the pack of pencils. It’s the lighest and it doesn’t erase or smduge well. (which can be good)
      2H
      F
      HB
      B
      2B
      3B
      4B
      6B
      8B – considered the “softest” pencils. It gets really dark and it smudges well. You can erase it fairly well but becuase it’s so dark, it leaves a bit of residue so you have to put some effort in getting it all gone.

      People usually use #2 pencils – which are HB pencils. This pencil is most commonly used because it’s a middle grade. I’ve noticed the HB smudges a decently – becuase I’m left handed, when I wrote in my notbook in school, my hand would drag across what I wrote and I would get the graphite onto the side of my hand haha. So whats important to have when drawing is having a piece of paper to lay ontop of your drawing so you don’t smudge it – espeically  if you’re working very hard on a detailed drawing.

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      Sep
      21

      Unusual Designing

      By lauren  //  Art, YouTube Videos  //  4 Comments

      Got any old t-shirts laying around? Boring? Doesn’t fit right? It was once your favorite shirt but now it would just better off a rag to clean with or a towel to use to dry your dog with right? WRONG!

      Get your t-shirts and a pair of sharp, fabric scissors and get to customizing!

      Stuck? Not sure what to do now you have your equipment? Well luckily there is a man who knows all about cutting up t-shirts to make your own, awesome design.

      Adam Saaks is an expert in the “cutting shirts field”. He cuts from simple and sweet to sexy and elaborate designs into Ed Hardy t-shirts. His designs include complicated weaves, quick stitches, tying pieces together and using pieces of fabric he cut from the original shirt and adding it to his new design to make it complete.

      The shirts I’ve seen him cut, the weave designs in the front and/or back  remind me of corsets. But not only does he cut shirts to make new designs out of them, he sometimes put two or more shirts together to make dresses or bathing suits. Crazy huh? Check out some of his designs:

      That’s Mr. Saaks himself in that last photo! haha He said in an interview that none of this designs take more then 15 minuets! Isn’t that insane? Even the more complicated designs like in photo 2 and 3 doesn’t take him more then 15 minuets to complete! That’s some wicked awesome talent! And I bet a lot of men out there would just love to get so up close and personal with the ladies Adam works with…

      Adam worked with Mariah Carey, Pink, Paris, and he’s even going to be in an upcoming video for Katy Perry! So keep an eye out for this master designer. Meanwhile, here’s a demonstration of his talent:


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      Sep
      20

      Lacey Mosley Missing

      By lauren  //  Art, paintings, YouTube Videos  //  No Comments

      “Somethings missing in me, I felt it deep within me. Past lovers left me to bleed alone.”

      This is the chorus of Missing by Flyleaf, a song I’ve recently found and am now in love with! Flyleaf is so inspirational and moving; their songs are beautiful! And Lacey Mosley, the lead singer, is gorgeous! You could probably guess what I just had to do…and I did it!

      Personally, I think hits picture could look a lot more like Lacey if I worked at it but I like it just the way it is now. It’s not exactly photo realistic, like what I’m always working towards, but it’s still pretty good haha.

      The reason I chose this picture to draw is because of the lighting. It’s dark, which intrigued me but also the light across her face and chest thats just peeking through her hair. It’s lovely and I wanted to try drawing this interesting light.

      I hope you like this drawing. And I was thinking of maybe choosing one of the videos I’ve already made or making another and doing a commentary of like how I draw it and my thought process when I draw and stuff…but what do you think? Well take your time, mull it over and mean while, enjoy the video!

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      Aug
      17

      Learn to Digitally Render Cars!

      By lauren  //  Art, paintings  //  No Comments

      So lately I’ve been reading and sampling this product to teach you how to Render Cars in Photoshop – or any program like it. It’s called “How To Render Cars In Photoshop: Fast and Easy”.

      I don’t know about anyone else, but sometimes written tutorials confuse me – even with pictures they seem to jump from one step to an another…I’ve read some bad tutorials that couldn’t explain how to do anything right! I did, however, find some I did like and am quite fond of. But I’d have to say video tutorials are best because you can see what the person is doing. This program has 4.5 hours of video content to teach you how to render cars – hallelujah!

      I love photo realism but it can be quite difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing. And with cars…I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING! Check out this photo:

      Yeeah this could be way better! I’ve always had a problem with drawing cars and rendering them in photoshop wasn’t any easier for me. But with a good teacher and plenty of detailed instruction I think anyone can learn how to render cars in photoshop.

      If you’d like to learn more about this product, follow these links:

      Render Cars In Photoshop

      Draw Cars In Photoshop

      Render Cars Fast and Easy


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      Jul
      28

      Psychology in Colors

      By lauren  //  Art  //  No Comments

      I’ve been in my basic design class for a couple of weeks and recently my teacher handed out our options on what we can do for our final project. We have a lot of creative freedom to use any media we want and with any idea we have – as long as we include some deign aspects we’ve learned in class. The options that interested me most was to design a CD cover, a movie poster, advertisement for a newspaper or magazine or a stamp….ok maybe not a stamp but the others seemed interesting!

      Last night I was thinking about what I could do for some design ideas – What colors should I use?  How can I add in things I’ve learned about lines, movement, colors and other elements? Then I remembered how psychology was used in design.

      I took a psychology class and a communications class. Both talked about how colors are used to influence how people see things. For example in restaurants - sit down restaurants, I don’t think this concept works the same in fast food – you usually see warm and earthy tones. So you would see greens, yellows, reds, oranges, ect, ect. Also the lights are usually dimmed. These techniques are used to relax you and make you want to stay longer – and hopefully add to your bill.

      Hollister is similar. Once in my Business class we started talking about how loud and dark Hollister was – I don’t remember if this had anything to do with what we were talking about but eh oh well. We were talking about how we didn’t really like going to that store – not my style and everyone else were mostly adult males, not the type to shop there – and someone chimed in and said it was made for teens, of course.

      If you never been to Hollister it’s a teen clothing store with very loud music and the lights are almost completely turned out – it’s pretty dark. The person in my class who spoke out said that the store was design like that so it would feel more like a party rather then a clothing store. That same person said that maybe it was so loud and dark so that you can’t see the price and you can’t hear a sale associate tell you the price. Clothing here is very expensive.

      So with these examples in mind, how can I design a movie poster or a CD cover? Personally, I think designing a CD cover would be more interesting to do. I was thinking about some band CDs I’ve seen – Korn has some strange art, kind of animated and creepy. Disturbed uses their symbol and mascot a lot and some of Metallica’s covers has something to do with death or violence. None of this is surprise coming from heavy metal bands haha. The main colors used in album covers are black and red. Black is the universal color for rock but it also gives off death, remorse, evil, fear, sexuality and mystery – all of which are strong emotions which rock music tends to focus on. Red is powerful, energy warmth, strength, anger, desire and anger. Also these two colors contrast each other in a pleasing sort of way.

      Each color says something and you can control what they say by how you present it.

      Dark blue - sadness and cold

      Light blue - peace and calm

      Dark red – violence and blood

      Light red - energy and strength

      Yellow – Happiness and innovation (I don’t think there’s usually dark and light yellow hahaha)

      Dark green – envy and environment

      Light green - nature and luck

      Purple - wisdom, mystery, nobility, and spiritually (To me, these things would mean the same whether this color was dark or light)

      Black – evil, death, anger

      White – purity, peace, innocence

      Dark colors tend to give off negative emotions and light colors give off positive ones. Colors can often influence the way someone think and feel. I’ll have to really think about how I’m going to design my CD cover!

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      Jun
      29

      Basic Design

      By lauren  //  Art, Rant  //  No Comments

      So for the summer I’m taking a basic design class. I’m in my 3rd week and today our sketch books were due. Now this is a college class but the sort of things I come home and tell my parents what I’ve been doing, my dad refers to the stuff as kindergarten stuff! haha

      This class just focuses on the fundamentals of design and my instructor teaches it in a way anyone can understand. For example, the one thing my dad really thought was kiddy was when I told him my teacher had us cut out shapes in black construction paper and glue them on a page in our sketch book. Even though it does sound childish to do, my teach actually had a purpose for it What he was trying to show us was how to get shape domination. So I cut out a big square, a little square, a big circle, a star, a triangle and a rhombus. I had to arrange the and rearrange them until I had one shape of my choice to stick out amongst the rest. Not necessarily a kindergarten concept if you ask me.

      We went over 3 elements in my class so far: lines, shapes and texture. This stuff is pretty easy and I don’t think I would be into this class very much if it wasn’t my ticket in to taking a graphic design class, which is where photoshop comes in to play and then html! My dad now is actually very interested in my art classes after I told him about the html class. haha

      The first day of class my teacher handed out copies of famous works of art. I didn’t know the one I got but it was a painting of a women outside holding a baby with people and donkeys in the background. My teacher then gave us all a sheet of tracing paper and what we had to do was trace the painting using basic shapes. So, for example, I drew a circle for the women’s head and a a large triangle for her body. In the end it looked like a pretty cool abstract drawing; Too bad I ruined it with my coloring haha my teacher liked it though. Anyway, that was my teacher’s way of introducing us to the class. This class isn’t suppose to teach you how to draw but how to use design skills for when creativity fails. I think it’s pretty fun; my teacher tells us not to think when we work and I find it pretty freeing/relaxing. This is a very enjoyable class!

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      May
      29

      Realistic Eye

      By lauren  //  Art, Art Tips, Tutorial  //  No Comments

      I did it again! Yay! I have another tutorial for you all! I worked on it for 3 days and stayed up really late to finish it but now its done! I hope you all like it! Here’s what you’ll be drawing if you read the tutorial.

      This is the first time I drew and eyebrow like that, like in individual strands. I usually draw the entire thing in one color then smudge it. What do you think of it?

      I’m pretty proud of this drawing and of the tutorial. I hope you read it and I hope you like it…more importantly I hope it actually helps! haha I’ll be posting is on Deviantart too if you prefer to view it there. Basically for this tutorial I took what I learned by watching Stephanie Valenin’s tutorial on how to draw an eye and added some stuff.

      Anyway, it’s 3 am and I”m really tired so I have to go now. Be well and I hope you enjoy my tutorial! For now it’s only on Deviantart until I figure out how to upload it to this site like I did the other tutorial haha.

      Realistic Eye Tutorial

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