Assignment#5 – Seven days – Self critique

Well, when I look back at this working process, I must say it was the most challenging one. Accustomed to traditional techniques such as drawing with pastel, colored pencils, graphite (and lately watercolor and watercolor pencils), I saw this Assignment as opportunity to learn to work more digitally and to familiarize myself with process that lies behind modern illustration. I would usually work in some traditional media, than scan it and rework in Photoshop. I was always playing with prints and textures and this is what I enjoy to do so those combinations worked fine for me but I have never become such advanced Photoshop user. During this chapter I discovered magic called Layer Mask. It is not that I have never heard of it but I was very skillful in avoiding them. It just seemed too complicated but actually it is not. When I discovered all benefits of using layer mask I became more confident, void of fear that I will erase something and never get it back.

Blending mode also gave me numerous opportunities to combine whatever I want. I even scanned my towel as a texture which I mixed with other textures. At the beginning of this working process I was struggling to paint my drawing. I would scan it and than clean it from shadows using brush tool. After that I would paint it with Wacom Pen but this whole process usually results in ache in my hand and red dry eyes. As I was working I was finding a way to ease myself this process so I kept searching blogs and tips and gathered some very valuable information. Unfortunately it took me to finish my 5th drawing just to discover that there is much easier way when working with scanned drawing in ink. It was great revelation that saved much time.

I started to paint drawing using plain color but I didn’t like that plastic look so I found a good way to add textures and make it more natural. I got some interesting shades and effects that gave picture the whole new feeling. Water was my biggest problem. I tried so many things; from painting it with gouache, using manipulated photo, combining textures and layers. At the end I found one interesting texture I made using acrylic. It reminds me of marbles or ocean ripples so I reworked it and got a water.

I am a bit sad because this course is over. I enjoyed every part of it, from objective drawing with pencils, generating ideas to all experiments I made. It was a valuable experience that inspired me to work more on myself and to discover how many things can be made in totally unusual way. It inspired me to experiment in any field (but some wasn’t so thrilled with my meals!) and to look things differently.