Category: step by step, how to

AI art, daily paintings, fantasy illustration, humor, step by step, how to, storytelling art

Creating Backgrounds with Copic Markers

Michele B. Naquaiya

Abstract lines drawn on YUPO translucent paper by Legion

When you use these fascinating markers, aka alcohol inks, you can get lots of effects. When the inks touch each other on the special paper, they can bleed together, repel each other, or you can layer one on top of another, side by side or upsidedown, to create more choices. I usually only use two or three colors because this background will be combined with another artwork.
I have been experimenting with making cat characters. Here’s what I used: #1 cat breed #2 a facial expression #3 clothing. I was looking for a combination of all three to come up with a comical character who had a great personality. I chose the grey cat and inserted a pipe for him to smoke. The background was black because I wanted to see the trailing smoke from the cigar. So my prompt included a “CAT SUIT”. For the background, I used the above Yupo sketch. The AI gave me this guy who I kind of fell in love with. Here are a few versions, with a made up text that seemed appropriate. I pictured him running a casino and having a flashy flare….

I liked him. I added the Yupo paper background to give it a little art deco style flair. What I especially like is the way the colors blend and compliment each other. Here is another version where I changed his suit and thought he looked like a casino boss. So I gave him a title to advertise his place of business.

Wow. Look at that personality change. I went through 3 or 4 versions of the fishy suit and decided on this one. I gave the suit a leathery texture and that gave his face a grainy texture as well. Here my Yupo background is very subtle. To my eye it compliments and looks a but moody and mysterious. What a dapper guy. Would you trust him? So I hope you can see that you can create your own backgrounds. They are important because they are individually YOU!

AI Art, daily paintings, loving mexico, Odd Little Stories, Pen and Ink Drawing, step by step, how to, Tablet Drawing, whimsy

Overwhelming tmi

Michele B. Naquaiya

Too much information is not good for the creative mind. It blocks, it mocks, it kills free thought. Here is a new work in the making… Lost love teenager in Paris.

step by step, how to, thoughts behind the work

Old watercolor palettes

Michele B. Naquaiya

quiller-wheel1

Cleaning up one of my old, old Quiller watercolor palettes. After all these years I decide how much I still love colors by Blockx and Marimeri Blu. Soon it will be time to shop for new paints. Tomorrow I will photograph the 2 new palettes I bought. ONe is rugged and small for plein air.

Ajijic, people, step by step, how to, street scenes

Marketplace seller, WIP

Michele B. Naquaiya

This woman is a weaver and she was sitting in a dark corner of the marketplace.  The sun shone through the archways of the Mexico town plaza.  The cobblestone streets are a maze of patterns and colors.  Piece by piece, she is coming together.  I will add some cast shadows and some detailed drawing elements to help define her more.

This is large, a full sheet watercolor.  When you get away from working big, it is scarey to  pick it up again.  This painting will help me re-discover my old self, when I painted big all the time.

The pallette is my full plastic stephen quiller pallette, now a good 15 or 20 years old.  When I grow up, I will get the porcelain studio pallette.

fantasy illustration, Illustrations, Revising Old Work, simple photoshop, step by step, how to, thoughts behind the work

Corn Fairy’s Nightly Run

Michele B. Naquaiya

corn-fairy.revised-web

What can I say.  I am working hard trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t work in photoshop digital painting.  I’m still getting layers mixed up and even though I am still scrambled eggs about it, I am so happy to have learned a new thingy in this one.  I found an old abstract painting and brought it in as a background and tilted it, blew it up, changed the levels a lot until I got a nice contrast between the background and my sweet fairy.  With that as a positive, the negative is that I feel I lost an opportunity to paint the corn as it should look in moonlight.  The same can be said about miss fairy herself, although I like her weird hair with the red maple leaves all over it.  I won’t do that again  though because I don’t think it worked.  When you add something and it looks added and is not inspiring, it will always be a dead issue and is better off left dead.  But alas, every time I paint one of these, I get a little closer to getting the concept.

corn-fairy-old wc

This is the old corn fairy from 2005.  I like the idea but I am surely not there yet. All in all, this is the better work but I will meet the challenge of reviving it.  It is always good to save your work.  It is much more rewarding to revise your own stuff that to just grab something off the web.  I love the corn in this and the corn colors. I also think her skin tones are pretty cool.  I may try this whole thing again at some later date.

abstract-milky way-th

Here is the abstract big watercolor.  I changed so much of it –changed the levels and saturation in photoshop.  See if you can guess which little section of this I used and manipulated.  The original painting is misty and washed out just as it looks here because I washed and tried to scrub out what I had painted a long time ago.  Because I used Arches 140lb. cold press, I could not get it all out.  Now I am so happy about that because I can use this artwork for so many digital applications now.  How cool is that?  The other option is that I could paint over it but I think that would ruin it.  So I will leave it as it is: a hidden treasure.