Saturday, February 12, 2011

Bandana Dog



Not all of the artwork I create is done traditionally, with paint and brushes, altho 99% of it is. Here is one piece of a series of pet fashion posters I have designed that will be going to press next week. I "drew" and "painted" the images with a Wacom tablet using a pressure sensitive stylus pen. The awesome thing about working digitally is that there are so many layers, literally, of safety nets built in. You can try anything - colors, different brush strokes, certain effects, etc. and if you don't like what you did, just hit the good old Command Z keystroke (or Edit>Undo). And poof - its gone, simple as that.
If only it were so easy with traditional painting. I can't tell you how many times I have put down a big thickly loaded brushstroke that just happened to totally be the wrong color, value or shape and immediately in my mind screamed, "command Z!!!" Those command Z moments are lessons learned the hard way, which is - unfortunately - the best way. Digital artwork is clean, efficient, fast and precise. I don't end up with splotches of Alizarin Crimson and Phthalo Blue smeared across my face like war paint. It has it's plusses for sure, but my heart will always be in the down and dirty tactile world of messy, drippy paints - with no safety nets allowed.

Bandana Dog
Digital Image for Commercial Usage

3 comments:

Denise Rose said...

So true! I am sitting here laughing out loud (and getting strange looks from my husband!) about the "Command Z" comments. I do the same thing! I do a lot of work in Photoshop and always wish it was that easy in painting to undo something. Thanks for the laugh! Beautiful work! You are awesome!

Jerry Stocks said...

Dear Patti, I have been at a workshop in Atlanta since Wed. so my comment is for everything you have posted since I have been away from my computer. All are wonderful. I gave your name to Diane Klock who will be getting in touch with you. Hope you two will gel. She's very talented like you.

Patti Mollica said...

Jerry, thanks for that information - I look forward to connecting to Diane. Hope the workshop was a great one for you!