This week’s prompt was “shield” from Inktober52. This was drawn in Adobe Fresco with an Apple Pencil using vector brushes. I made use of opacity in the brushes, so I could put the eyes on any skin color. This is a similar technique to what I use when painting eyes on rocks with acrylics, and make the rock the “skin”. I drew one eye without the highlights, then mirrored it for the second eye before adding the white dots.
This week’s prompt was “brave”. So many interpretations of brave are possible. Is it brave to join the crowd (especially if you are an introvert)? Is it brave to not join the faceless mob? Is it brave to have a different perspective when everyone else is focused on one thing? Or maybe my person is contemplating a new hairstyle, which is another kind of brave. (Thanks to my husband for that insight.)
This drawing is the closest to ink, as I used the ink sketch brush in Adobe Fresco. I made an oval to use as a guide so all my people were of similar size, and only used one size brush. In order to use the word as a mask, I had to merge the face drawings (which were all on separate layers) with a white background. I kept a copy of the original layers, though, because I may need them for another project. For such a simple drawing, it has taken me the longest to complete. This will also stay colorless. It saddens me that we are still surface focused and don’t value people for who they are (or can be) inside. Yes, we are all different, and that is a good thing.
I combined two prompts this time. The spaceship prompt was giving me trouble, then along came the prompt “microscopic”, so I thought it was completely appropriate to envision a tiny spaceship destroying COVID viruses. This is a photo collage, done in Adobe Fresco. The electron microscope image of COVID-19 is from NIAID, and the image of the X-wing fighter is an actual electron microscope image of a 3D printed model by Microlight. Not to scale. Much artistic license applied. I did reduce NIAID’s image back to monotone, then added subtler color. The X-wing image was monotone, and I added the faded red paint and the lasers were done with a physical straight edge and the basic brush “soft round”.
This week’s prompt was “powerful”. I could not get storms out of my head, so tornados and lightning made it into the art. I used Adobe Fresco and an Apple Pencil (not ink, sorry Inktober52, but I do love the prompts). Because the photographs of spectacular lines of tornadoes usually have a mottled appearance, I chose the watercolor brushes in Fresco for the background and the funnel clouds. Lightning was a little trickier, but there is a basic pixel brush with a solid core and soft edges that worked spectacularly with the Apple Pencil! I merged the watercolor and pixel layers with a white background (if you don’t the watercolors remain transparent), then applied the scene to the letters to mask them.
A new week, a new prompt, and another deviation from the word art theme. The reason is that I have a design running around in my head and the prompt “egg” was the perfect excuse to work on a sketch. Our front doorbell recently broke (Winterpocolypse? Maybe.), and in searching new farmhouse door bells I saw many cute animal surrounds, but no chickens. So that needs rectification. The idea is the round button will replace the egg and it will look like the hen has raised up to check her egg. Done in Adobe Fresco with an Apple Pencil with copious use of layers and vector brushes. I prefer vector since resizing is immensely easier.
This week’s prompt was “camping”, and I used the oil brushes in Adobe Fresco to paint a camping scene using different layers. I don’t like to merge oil painting layers because some bizarre effects occur, so once the painting was done, I used the Creative Cloud app to export the image as a JPG. I then went back to Adobe Fresco and imported the JPG on a layer. I used a text layer to create the word “camping” then pixelated it so I could transform it taller. I made a duplicate of the text. With the painting layer above the pixelated layer, I used the mask button to fill the letters with the painting. Then I offset the duplicated black text layer to make the sharp shadow. And now I’m all caught up after a round of quarantine (my youngest, she stayed healthy), and Texas’ Winterpocolypse.
I was excited about the prompt “dragonfly”, because I love dragonflies. I may love them a little too much because the possibilities were immense and I was feeling overwhelmed. After a couple of sketches and a bit of time away on another craft, and I settled on this design. I drew a single dragonfly with the color on a separate layer, then duplicated it and changed the color just on one layer of each dragonfly. The word is done semi-opaque behind. Happy news, text layers can be converted to vector or pixel layers in Adobe Fresco, which means stretching a font is easy. Since I drew the dragonfly with a vector brush (basic round this time), I can reuse this asset in other projects! Hurray!
Sustained subfreezing temperatures, rolling blackouts, full blackouts, and frozen pipes are true monsters. These little guys are downright cute. I had fun using the end taper vector brush to create them in Adobe Fresco.
This week’s prompt is “remote”. I worked with masks in Adobe Fresco for this concept. I was so excited that masks are supported in the app! My concept is being remote from the crowds of cities and suburbia. So my city circle and ‘burbs circle are single hue, simple shapes, done with vector layers and masks. But the little tent out in the mountains uses vibrant color and I made use of the water color brushes in Fresco (and lots, and lots of layers). I did merge the layers before I applied the circle mask. Hmm. I didn’t incorporate the actual word in this week’s prompt. Maybe that is a challenge for another week.
This week’s prompt is “ancient”, I was thinking buildings or ruins, but my eldest suggested a tortoise. A good suggestion! I chose the Galapagos tortoise because they have a long life span and a wonderfully large shell (which makes putting words on it easier). I drew this with a reference photo using Adobe Fresco and an Apple Pen on an iPad. I used the vector brushes and worked from shadow to light using layers. I have to admit, this wasn’t pushing my envelope very much. I enjoy making images this way, but the experience was improved and streamlined using the pressure pen.
