Thursday, May 29, 2008

Monday, February 25, 2008

Photoshop (Industry Standard - Making girls feel like shit)

This is a project in draft stages that I am working on.

(Rollover images - point mouse at images to see original unedited picture)







Saturday, February 23, 2008

Siren


This is basically a big experiment of using normal gradients and then using gradient mesh with opacity masks of the top of them.. It's actually pretty cool.

So here's the deal with the opacity masks:

An “Opacity Mask” refers to a mask in Illustrator that you place over an existing shape that controls its transparency based on the values of black and white in the mask. White being visible, black being transparent, and all shades of gray are in between on the opacity scale.
~BittBox
Make an opacity mask and try using the gradient mesh instead of a flat gradient.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Old vector, gradient mesh and digital art

Here is a brief summary of my past digital artwork (2005 - 2007).

Starting out with vector art


I first started expirementing with vector art when I was just about 17 years old. I had never really had access to computer with artistic software, and the whole concept of digital art, let alone vector art, was very new to me.

For those who don't know what vector art is, Wikipedia provides a good explanation:
Vector graphics (also called geometric modeling or object-oriented graphics) is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and polygons, which are all based upon mathematical equations to represent images in computer graphics.

Vector graphics is an alternative to raster graphics, which is the representation of images as a collection of pixels, as is typically used for the representation of photographic images.

At first, I didn't really understand much about vector graphics when I first started experimenting with it.

This is one of my first pieces of vector art.


I found that I really enjoyed using different layers to create an image with such simplicity and depth, like a contemporary/modern take on impressionist painting. Yet unlike painting, vector art requires precise and accurate allocation of colours and lines. I didn't find this restrictive, yet my interests moved onto a style of vector art that uses predominately the gradient mesh tool to create complex yet beautiful and smooth gradient vectors.

Getting into Gradient Meshing

My earliest attempt at gradient mesh wasn't spectacular, but nonetheless did gain a nice bit of attention in deviantart's vector community.


It was a combination of technique and sensuality as i explored the subtlety of the human structure through bezier curves..





Experimenting and mixing styles








Trying out digital painting

I took a break from vector art when I bought myself a small graphic tablet, and started to develop a darker, scratchier, speedier, surreal style of artwork. I really enjoy digital drawing/painting and find that it has given me some new ideas to incorporate into vector art as well.