What are they?
My first proper project of 2018 was my Cloud People series.
There are four pieces to the series:
Rain, Storm, Snow and Rays. Each one representing an emotion.
When viewed in order they show the journey from sadness to happiness, which, looking back now, is what I was going through when they were created.
Where did they come from?
The initial sketches and idea for my Cloud People were made in October 2017.
I'm not gonna lie, 2017 wasn't the best year for me mentally. I was really down and had just started counselling, so everything was a bit raw. It affected my art a lot, and I was barely making anything. I hated my style and had no idea where I wanted to go with my art.
Then one day, an image flashed into my brain. Just a quick one, but the image stayed with me and sparked off a random surge of creativity. So I sat on the sofa and drew it:
After I drew it, I felt like something was changing. I had never produced anything like this before. This style was new to me and it felt...right. It was the first time in a log time that I had just sat and drawn something from my imagination without second guessing myself.
Now, usually I would take to social media straight after making something that I was proud of, but this one, I kept for myself. This is the first time I have ever posted it anywhere, and as soon as the Nem Cave is finished, he will be hung in there as a reminder that I can "Do the Thing!"
That spark eventually pushed me to commit to finally finishing a project.
What was the process?
I decided that I wanted to practice taking traditional sketches to finished digital pieces. I needed to feel comfortable with doing this so that I could push through the "guilt" of using Photoshop to create digital art.
I created the initial sketch one of my sketchbooks using a Pigma Col Erase pencil, and inked it with black Micron Fineliners. After I had inked the pieces, I scanned them and opened them in Photoshop.
After scanning in the line art, I used Photoshop to tidy up the line art.
I used a basic hard round brush to go over any sections that didn't scan correctly and got rid of the white background (I have a tutorial planned to show how I did this in more detail)
Then I decided to do some colour compositions so that I could get an idea of what I wanted the pieces to look like. Colour Comps are a fantastic way to plan out what colours to use. I found that when it came to colouring, it was a lot faster than if I just winged it!
As you can see, they are really quick and scruffy. In hindsight I could have just printed off the line art, but I was still getting used to my printer and decided to draw them out. I didn't want to stray too far from my comfort zone just yet.
I used my Promarkers for the colours as they allow you to get a really flat colour down, and that is what I wanted to do when I coloured it digitally.
After I chose my colour schemes, I went back to Photoshop and added the colour and shading. I played around with the idea of creating my own signature, but decided to stick with my original "Nemmersis" one as it felt more 'Me".
And Voila!
I really enjoyed this project. I feel really proud of myself for completing it and trying something new. I proved to myself that I CAN finish something and thoroughly enjoyed the creative process.
What's a project that you did that made you feel excellent?
'Till next time,
See thee later,
Nem x x
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