Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Red Dress - Pixel Art

Artwork © 2010 Gene Gonzales

I drew this in my sketchbook with a #2 pencil then colored it in Photoshop CS5. This is a style I would like to develop and refine. I like the pencil lines showing through and the roughness that this approach brings. Yesterday's post, done in Adobe Illustrator CS5,  was slick and graphic. This is messy and has energy. In PS CS5, I used brushes to create the textures I wanted. Changing the opacity and flow of a brush can create different textures and blends of colors. Something you can't do in AI without a lot of tweaking. I can create the nice graphic lines of AI in PS using the pen tool. But then I would be back to a flat line weight or a preset line weight effect.

I've never been a one or the other kind of artist in that I like both programs for what they do best. I would rather use PS to get the light/color effects than try to mimic it in AI. For something bold and graphic, I will go right to AI. And for really cool stuff, mix them in a shaker and pour over four olives in a chilled martini glass. Oops, that's not a program, that's a drink waiting for me right now.

This is Post #1180

5 comments:

LUD! said...

Cool!
I like to scan my pencils at 400 dpi, converting to bitmap, placing AND coloring it in Illustrator!

What can I say-- I like coloring in Illustrator. Main reason: multiple undos. I don't care that Photoshop has the History palate; I like going back and forth on color decisions with a quick and easy keystroke!

Lud

Gene Gonzales said...

LUD - Do you Live Trace/Live Paint or create all the shapes individually?

Gary M. Peiffer said...

Glad that you have an open mind about the tools you use (not a one or the other guy). I really like the red dress girl, maybe a third enstallment very soon?

Gary

Craig Zablo said...

You're on to a cool character. Like her hair, heck I like her "look." Yeah, more of her would be fun.

LUD! said...

Gene, most times I just create the shapes individually... I still miss Streamline! If I've inked my work, I'll generally use Live Trace, but it's still not up to par to what Streamline was.