Category: scratchboard drawing

patterns, scratchboard drawing, storytelling art

After Picasso Field Workers, drawn in scratchboard

Michele B. Naquaiya

This is a scratchboard drawing I did as a series getting the inspiration from early Picasso works. I had learned somewhere along time that there is a colorful bug in Africa called the picasso bug. I don’t know if it was named after him or not but it actually has circus colors not too distant from Picasso’s harlequin early paintings. So I drew him in the series as a kind of funny comment on how such a little bug can sit alongside the great master. I will be posting the fun short series. This one is engraved in scratchboard black and painted with various water and acrylics. Of course the textures and colors and patterns are typically me.

Illustrations, scratchboard drawing, simple photoshop, t-shirt design

Playing with the moon outside her gate

Michele B. Naquaiya

I guess you could call this a composite drawing and the category would be surrealist art. That’s ok with me. It is a composite because the Hopi girl with firecrackers is an old scratchboard from years ago.

I masked her and her firecrackers out from the black textured background and got the idea for the gates from a snapshot I took from the tv in an old black and white basil rathbone film of Shirlock Holmes. I loved the moodiness of the view of the foggy atmosphere and the far away landscape in the film.

So I started putting pieces together in photoshop 2018… I just wanted to basically create a mood with the art. It went through a lot of changes. I had an idea in my head of a piece of art where the subject was coming out of the background frame. This turned out differently., Don’t ask me how I ended up with this but that a learning curve for you.
As usual, the problem with this kind of art is that it’s really hard to put into a specific category for commercial use. So when I go to fill out tags for it, the category that came the closest was I’m guessing is surrealistic. Who would buy this and how would they search for it in their tags? I would buy it since I like it but what do I know. I’m prejudice.
Nonetheless, it was fun and fairly quick and turned out completely different than I thought. I’m perfectly ok with that since I would not even do it if it wasn’t fun. Here’s the link if you want to check it out…..

fonts, Holidays, Illustrations, Revising Old Work, scratchboard drawing, whimsy

Kissing lips for valentine day

Michele B. Naquaiya

Once upon a time I drew this artwork in scratchboard and colored it with liquid acrylic. I’m guessing it was about 10 years ago…omg…. I drew my own lips. funny right?

Now I have reworked this art into a tshirt and other products, masks, etc. I tested myself to see if I have gained a little speed and yes, I have. I am having a stupid problem in photoshop because I don’t seem to be able to get my old settings back where I can load my artboard so that it lines up with the measurement grid….yesterday I wanted to cry and almost did. Like all things digital, if you could describe the problem accurately you could probably fix it. It’s kind of like going to the doctor and he says what’s wrong, and you are suddenly stumped. grrr. language throws me.

So here’s the new artwork in transparency for textiles. This is a new site for me “Tee Public” and I’m loving their interface. check it out. any comments as usual are appreciated. gracias.