Behind the Scenes of Waterways Art Collection - Muted Colors

Happy Friday Creative Souls!

I have done a few post where I let you in behind the scenes :-) For this post, I am focusing on muting the images in Photoshop for a yummy twist! There is a link under the second photo to a similar post, so you can see how I paint a bit backwards in order to get a lot of icons to play with in an art collection. (click images to view larger).

I always start with sketches, some I color a bit with color pencil. In the end, I have 21 icons and 8 paintings. For example, the lighthouse above is a painting, the anchor is an icon. I also painted 2 backgrounds: An ocean/sky background and a background of circles.

Here are some progress photos of one of the paintings. Most of the time I paint the 'icon' first (in this case the sailboat) and scan it in, then finish the painting and scan the finished piece. If you want to see more of this process check out this post: Behind the Scenes: Building a Painting in a Collection.

I didn't like the large cloud! :-)

SO, to add a twist I soften the colors in Photoshop. I chose a simple way to do this. In Photoshop, open up the original painting scan. In the file menu, click on 'image', scroll down to 'hue/saturation'. Turn down the saturation to mute the colors.

Now I need to set up some repeat patterns and product mocks for this collection!

How many paintings do you paint in a collection (or central images :-) ? More? Less?
Thank you for visiting, commenting sharing on social media - this is a fantastic community of artists we are apart of!

Artist Spotlight - Beth Parker

 

Tell us a bit about yourself: Did you go to school for art? Are you self taught?
I am self taught. A great learning experience for me was participating in the All Media Art Event at WetCanvas.com. Every week, I churned out a lot of paintings in a bunch of new mediums, with each being finished in 2 hours or less. It stretched me creatively and gave me a great community. I have always gravitated to a style that people recognize as Bethville.  "Art that makes you wiggle your butt."

Do you work in just one medium? Several?
My favorite mediums are watercolor and acrylic. I have recently fallen in love with polymer clay and I find that when I try new things, they sort of cross pollinate, if that makes sense. I love mixing things up in a way that carries one medium into another.

What inspires you / where do you get inspiration from?W
I get a lot of inspiration from living in a small town. I like turning complicated things into simple, less serious versions of themselves. A patron at an art show once studied a small town painting for a long time, then proclaimed, "I know what's going on here. Someone just told a joke and your buildings are laughing." I loved that so much! It's not uncommon to see a paisley cow or a quilted pig in my art somewhere. I get a lot of joy from making people happy. 

What are you working on now?
I have been asked to do a coloring book from my small town paintings and I'm working on three welcome signs for our town, based on one of my watercolor paintings.  I have owned a sign shop for 23 years and these signs are very exciting. A local nonprofit group got a grant to do the signs and they selected the painting. I am also adding collections to ArtLicensingShow.com.  I'm working on new collections all the time.

Anything else you would like to share with us?
I like to keep busy. I have a lot of irons in the fire, because it keeps me creating and learning. Being self employed for over 23 years has taught me to diversify and to not be afraid to switch gears when the market or the client dictates it. My art is in Our Favorite Place, a made in Oklahoma gallery. I have an Etsy shop for my jewelry and a Society 6 presence for prints. The last two are new this year.

Are you an early riser? or night owl?
Absolutely an early riser. I have a studio in my home and I spend at least an hour on my art every morning before I go to work. (On weekends, I get a little more time to create.) Morning is my favorite time of day.

What is your favorite food?
Ice cream.  If coffee was a food, I'd have to pick that.  I love my coffee!

You can find Beth:
http://bethparkerart.com
https://bethparkerart.wordpress.com
http://facebook.com/bethparkerart.page
http://twitter.com/bethparkerart
http://signsbybeth.com
http://artlicensingshow.com/members/bethparkerart/profile/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Bethville

Email:  bethparkerart@mail.com

Do you want to be spotlighted? Send me an email: info@AnnGraphics.com

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Favorite tools and a few tips for different art jobs!

Hi Everyone! Giving you a peek into my art life/tools I really like.

Click images to view larger.

I buy as small of a bottle or tube of paint etc. that I can (except for black/white paint) since I switch mediums. A lot of times stuff dries up or goes bad before I get back to it again. My masking fluid (above) is dried up :-( It is quite full!

WATERCOLOR / GUACHE
Above is my ALL TIME favorite brush/shape. I like that I can get a fine line to a decent size brush stoke width with out switching brushes :-) Blick art materials refers to them as "angular" http://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-studio-decorative-angular/

Love particle board or heavy card board. I just use cheap masking tape to tape down watercolor paper. Don't leave it on for too long - the tape gets goooey. If I will be using a lot of water/washes. Artist tape works better.

Second favorite brush is a square shape :-) I like the shorter stubby ones for lettering.

White ceramic plates for mixing watercolor / guache. Also, if you do any cutting, get a cutting mat. it makes cutting so much easier! I picked up the plates on sale at Target. This cutting mat came from Blicks http://www.dickblick.com/categories/cuttingmats/


ACRYLICS

My newest tool is an easel. TIP: buy it during back to school sales and get a great price! http://www.dickblick.com/products/winsor-and-newton-shannon-easel/ . I used to hunch over my light table or hold the canvas in my left hand! This makes life so much better :-) Be sure to check the extension height. Mine goes up to 8 feet and just misses the ceiling.

This photo gives you a peak at my ALL TIME favorite tool! A light table! It is 20+ years old. Thanks Mom and Dad still love this present :-)

I use two mason jars for water. I will have a scrap piece of paper to brush out a color I am done with, then I wash it in one water jar, and then give it another wash in the 'clean' water jar. I have a thing about keeping my brushes in good shape. Lay them flat until dry.

As you can see, I use a disposable palette for acrylic paint. I will use it for quite awhile. You can peel off the paint after it dries.

In the photo above is a jar of molding paste. See image below to get and idea of how thick you can make it. Yup, I like texture! You can get higher peaks than this quarter inch thick butterfly wing.

Palette knives rock! If you haven't tried using them, give it a shot. Below are my two favorite. The plastic ones are a couple of bucks for several in a package. That is an 8"x10" panel so you get an idea of the scale.

Trusty tools and long time favorites. Of these, I like a kneaded eraser the best. Besides the obvious that it erases, you can use it to lighten and smear. I also play with it while I am 'thinking'.  C-thru rulers are just so darn handy. Everyone needs an X-Acto knife :-)

Love or hate any of these tools? :-) Please share what you use and any great art tips you have - would love to hear!
Thanks so much for stopping by the blog.

Peek into Creating Art for Licensing - Patriotic

Happy Friday Creative Souls!

I like to see how other artist create their work. Everyone creates a bit differently. These are progress photos for acrylic paint on canvas panel. I have done this a bit backwards. If I were creating a 'typical' painting I might paint the entire background and then paint the detail on top. It just depends on what I want when I am finished.

First I sketch out ideas - in this case 'icons' for a patriotic theme. Nothing fancy, this is computer printer paper. I also make some notes, so that as I am painting these I don't forget what I was thinking! (click on images to see them larger).

Next I clean up and re-draw to scale of the canvas panel I will be painting on. For this collection I scribbled on the back of my drawing with pencil so I could trace/transfer it on to the canvas panel. The largest panel is 8x10 so it will fit on my scanner.

Jump in and start to paint! I paint the 'icon' first so that I can scan it in an drop out the background easily.

Time to scan, These do have quite a bit of texture - some of it will get lost when you scan it and color correct. You could take photos to capture more texture.

Once I have the isolated icons scanned in, I finish the paintings and then scan them in again. Since I do paint some background only panels - I don't know that I need to do this step, but it does give me a few more options.

Now it is computer time to set up patterns and product mocks! Taaaa Daaaaa!

Do you paint with acrylics? How do you use that medium to create art for licensing? I would love to hear from you! Thanks for stopping by :-)