I like to watch pixels change color on the screen. It is much better than TV and it is very relaxing. Oasis is an experiment simulating pastels. The process uses a brush with an applied texture. The scale of the texture is changed frequently so that the colors underneath show through. I used the polygon lasso tool to select different areas and add the hard edges that give the image its geometric look.

A giraffe is not at all clumsy reaching the highest, greenest and sweetest leaves, but getting a drink is a different story.

This is a digital image created to look like a relief print (wood or linoleum block). There are five layers. The line layer (dark brown), leaves (green), shading (warm grey), spots (med brown), and body (yellow).
The pencil drawing that was scanned into the computer and used as a template to create the line layer.

yellow layer

green layer

med brown layer

warm grey layer | This layer would be difficult to print traditionally because of the change in value.

dark brown |

Can Chickens Swim? | My 14 year old daughter asked this morning. “It’s just random.” she said. She really likes randomness right now. The phrase kept us smiling most of the day. This evening, my 6 year old daughter informed all of us that chickens can swim—she “Put Strippey,” her chicken, in a bucket of water and “she floated!”

For the birds | Not in Idaho! Minus 14 degrees fahrenheit this morning. It was a long day, a very long day. So, for any one else in a frozen wasteland here is some sunshine with some small hummingbirds or some really big flowers.

Chirping birds on a wire | The neighbor girl has been away for the holidays and came over to visit my daughter for the first time in over a week. An instant renewal of their friendship and they picked up right where they left off. They had a wonderful time. Good friends can be magic.

A perfect day for playing in the snow | The kids have spent all morning joyfully playing in the snow. When they started climbing the tree that was covered with snow while wearing snow boots, I was a bit worried, but they were as happy as this bird. And, they all lived to put their bodies at risk another day.

Snow fell through the night. The new year opened with several inches of perfect beautiful snowman snow. It was definitely organic™ and very white. I am pretty sure the snowflakes are made white without significant amounts of bleach and all of them were recycled. With the renewal of snow and a new year I am starting the year right with a new project featuring birds of my imagination. The first one is this lovely penguin who likes the new snow as much as I do. All you bird watchers out there, stay tuned.

“There comes a point (and it comes very soon sometimes) when, unless he is very firmly convinced that there is something in his idea, it is better to abandon it and start afresh.”

Lewis F. Day | pattern designer
Pattern Design, Dover Publications, Inc., pg 205

This image is a preliminary experiment for the A-line series I did for a faculty art show last fall. I have always liked it and felt that it was a good match for this weeks Illustration Friday.

In photoshop, I use a layer for each color. I am using the multiply mode on each layer so that the colors look like they have been overprinted. I added a slightly different texture to each layer so that the color would build up in a more natural way. I started each layer with a solid block of color and then used the eraser tool with a hard edge brush to remove the area that I didn’t want to print. It makes it feel like a woodblock print.
Layer 1 is a white background layer.

Layer 2 | Light green

Layer 3 | A light green with a different texture

Layer 4 | a light green to darken some of the areas

Layer 5 | a light blue for softness

Layer 6 | main line layer in blue

Layer 7 | a gradation from blue to green

Layer 8 | A light blue that adds a halo

Layer 9 | the flowers and a bit of shadow inside the bell of the instrument

It looks like that for the time being, the drawings resemble plants and trees. I have discarded several attempts since the last post because knowing I was planning on posting the drawings I tried too hard to be different. I also found myself worried about what my blog viewers might think. And, I don’t know why I let that worry me because my viewers consist of a few close friends.

This small tree is nothing unusual but it was a few moments enjoying the experience with the inner critic turned off.

Tree | pen & ink | 1.25 inches wide by 1.75 inches tall