My first
associations related to blue are water and sky which symbolize openness,
wideness, serenity, freedom, rest and peace, so I wanted to create something which
is connected to those concepts. Although it seemed in a beginning that I stacked
with ideas, shortly after letting loose my mind, I realized that I have many visions
and I could produce so much ideas.
Spending much
time on a river bank was very helping and inspiring so I could get inspiration
from my favorite source called nature. Actually, this limited palette gave me so much opportunity to experiment and
to observe world trough only those colors.
On a beginning I
was determined that I won’t use much of digital technology, I rather wanted to
play and explore media I wasn’t familiar with. Beside, I also realized that I
do not like much using only digital art, because I was more free using paper,
pen, paint, pencils and other material, and I like advantages of combining
modern technology with hand made technique.
I wanted to try
out acrylic paint so I bought beginner set of three primary colors and I was playing
creating different tints and shades which I was using to make prints and
patterns.
Artwork #1 – Sea bottom
When I finished
my hand made prints, I decided to use them in creating sea bottom. Creating
different rocks on the bottom gave me opportunity to use all different patterns
and prints as well as shades and tints of blue which is a proof that we can
achieve richness using only one color. I wasn’t so much aware of that before
this assignment. My prints really helped me a lot on a way to achieve effects I
was looking for.
I applied them
on almost every element and it looked better and more natural than effects achieved with filters, gradients,
etc. This first artwork is actually mixed media collage where I combined
acrylic made prints, watercolor painting, colored pencils drawing and some
vector illustrations. It also helped me to end war with a pen tool and now, I
am more familiar with it.
As I mentioned before,
at first I created composition which later looked “too much” to me. I placed
together night sky, sea, lighthouse and a vibrant sea bottom. It
seemed cluttered because of all elements which could have been easily spitted into
two different composition, so I rearranged it.
I created underwater
world with rocks, fish, and corals and that makes one unity. I like the effect
of combining different media, it makes artwork appears more rich and creative.
I added some
filters on a bigger rock and I am still not sure whether I should have do it. I
wanted to make rock looks a little cracked but maybe I should have leave it
out. I realized that adding Photoshop effects doesn’t fit too much into work
done on this way. It somehow looks too digital comparing to other elements.
Most of my time, I used only image retouching.
People around me
thought that I should leave this first artwork the way it was in a beginning.
It didn’t look cluttered to them, they see it as an artistic imagination, but I
didn’t like it and I changed it. Looking at the blue bottom of the sea has a
calming effect so that was my first choice.
Artwork #2 – Boat on the sea
I was pretty
sure that I am going to use small fisherman’s boat either related to river, lake
or a sea. I could create it in white which would be in combination with orange
or a blue. I wanted to portray a serenity through quiet peaceful night on a sea
with only one small boat tied to the dock, and a moonlight. I added a buoy in orange
which is complementary color to the blue and I used orange more sparingly in
this artwork.
At first version
I placed a some sort of fence instead of dock but after a few days it didn’t
look good to me and also my friends told me that it would look better without
it. Since this composition seemed a little empty without such detail, I decided
to create this dock using vectors in Photoshop and my print. I was thinking to
leave moon in orange and to create moonlight effect in orange on a sea, but it
looks better and more natural when a moon is white.
Main concern I had
here was a boat. I drew it using oil pastels and it looked much better on a
paper. When I scanned it and placed it into document I thought that I should have used some other media instead. I was
wondering how other designers managed to blend hand made artwork and to adjust
it to the rest of composition. I
reworked it as much as I could.
Artwork #3 – Escape into nature
This is yet
another one thing I was craving for. I spend so much time in the city during
the year that I am tired of crowd, noise, buildings, cars, buses, streets,
malls and everything else that goes with this lifestyle. I pretty easily
created this composition, I had it in a back of my mind all the time, so it
just went out of me. I imagined myself in some beautiful, isolated, and quiet
place in nature where I could clear my mind and to get away from daily routine.
I again
sparingly used orange because I only wanted to emphasized some details because
there is no need to use it in some bigger amount when it comes to night landscapes.
I was thinking to put a small fire in front of a tent, or to create orange moon
but in the end I decided to place lantern. At first I used one that I drew in
paper but I didn’t like it so much. Instead I played with a pen tool and
created vector illustration which suited better to the rest of composition. Finally
I placed a bluebird into the tree crown and I also added a fence to get more
visual dynamic.
I had a doubt
about those trees, I wasn’t sure if I should picture them on that way. I was
thinking about classical approach which includes branches and leaves, and I
started to paint leaves in different shades of blue using watercolor, but after
consulting with my friends I decided to leave this design because it looks more
rich.
