Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Turning over a new leaf

Prismacolor colored pencil, 6" x 6"

(Well, I'm not really turning over a new leaf, but calling my post "Rotating an Autumn Leaf" just didn't have the same ring to it.)

While I never draw digitally, I do rely on the computer for those non-invasive tweaks that can make or break the finished product. First up:  the rotation tool in Photoshop. The drawing  below shows how I originally envisioned the piece. But as I drew it, it began to look so static and lifeless to me. But with just a bit of rotating, it seemed to take on more movement and became a floating, falling leaf! 


I could even crop off the top a bit for this effect...I'm undecided on this one:




The next digital tools that came to my aid were my iPhone camera and iPad. (I know, this sounds like an Apple commercial.) I knew that the beautiful leaf was going to start drying out and losing its vibrancy before my drawing was done, so I clicked some pics on my phone. Thanks to the iCloud, (Sheesh, now I really sound like an Apple ad...) the pics popped up on my iPad and I could use it as my "model" instead!




So, what do you think? 

Do you like the "rotated" leaf better too?  

4 comments:

  1. I think the depth of your colors is amazing and the computer is there for you to use as another tool, rotation, duplication, saturation whatever it takes to take your art where you want it to be! The freedom of using both is great in combining the physically hand-made with the digitally "hand made/enhanced " Love it ! (my favorite colors too :)

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  2. Beautiful! So much action for one leaf and it captures the season. Good job!

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  3. Lovely drawing - I do prefer the rotated one but not the cropped one. I agree, what did we ever do before computers!

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