I've decided that it's time for me to improve my digital art skills. There's certainly something to be said for the eye-poppin' colors made possible by creating images on a digital canvas.
While similar colors are attainable on traditional canvas as well, they don't always transfer to the digital viewing platform as bold as I would like them to.
So.... since I want to be able to create digital art, and do it WELL, that means it's time for me to study.
I am by no means an expert when it comes to digital illustration or digital painting. It's an entire art form, just as traditional watercoloring is, oil painting is, etc. And I will be the first to say that I only know the basics. And only a few basics, even! But I have the desire to learn, and that's the most important part.
Since I'm just a beginner, I probably do things a little wacky. Someone with more knowledge and skills probably does things a bit differently... but I'll share my work flow with you so you can get an idea of how I created this little scene (even if it IS wacky!). Just remember, I'm just LEARNING to do this so no giggling! *grin*
I drew up this little scene last night, and then spent a few hours this evening coloring the image. Since I drew the image in black ink on white paper, I first had to scan the image to get the sketch captured as a digital image. The page was a bit crooked on my scanner bed and if you look close you can see the faint lines of the edge of the paper showing as a shadow.
Once I had the image scanned, I opened the image in Photoshop and started editing. There are other programs you can use to do this, but I have Photoshop so that's what I use. I straightened the image and cleaned things up a bit. I removed those goofy shadows around the edge of the paper, and even swapped out one of the clouds. Copy and paste. It's a wonderful thing.
I started using wide brush strokes of bold color to fill various areas of the image. On this project, I used a Wacom tablet and pen to control color and the way it was applied. Similar to how you can control things using a mouse, the Wacom tablet and pen allow you even MORE control using pressure-sensitive technology. Way cool!
Yesterday, when I colored the cupcake kitty, I actually used my mouse and not the Wacom tablet or pen at all. So it is possible to create digital art without a Wacom tablet and pen ... but you have far more control with the pressure-sensitive Wacom pen.
I fiddled around a bit with adding shadows (see the car and tree trunk), and even tried adding a few subtle textures (see the tree leaves).
One of the things I appreciate most about this kind of art is that it's quite simple to change colors or fix "boo-boo's". Making changes and fixing mistakes isn't quite as easy when you're working with actual paint and paper. I could have experimented all day with colors and textures, and the best part is that all of my experiments were able to be "undone" with a quick click.
As I added more and more colors to the image, it really started to get fun! I wasn't satisfied any longer with just the big bold areas of color, so I started adding subtle changes of color, shadow, and light on all of the objects in the image.
I added various shades of color to objects to give them depth. I did a
lot of undo's as I tinkered with colors, shading, and getting a general
feel for the Wacom pen.
Finally, (because I could tinker with this image for DAYS, but need to call it quits at some point) I applied a texture filter to the 
image. See how it looks like it's actually painted on canvas or textured paper!? I also cropped the image a bit, and added a black border to give the entire image a frame.
While this process certainly took longer to do than my usual method of coloring, I had a GREAT time and I'll be doing a lot more of this! And I'm excited at the possibilities!!
Alan even gave his .02 to the project as well! Notice the color of the car window in the final version -- it's "tinted", as suggested by Alan. And the color of the door mat? It went from brown (which Alan said just looked like a worn out area of grass in front of the door), to a nice fresh orange color (and weave texture that you can't really see in the small web images).
I'm sure I'll continue to share my practice sketches now and then...
hopefully improvements will be seen as I learn more about the art form.
Yahoo! It's almost the weekend!! Make something crafty this weekend! Just for fun!
