Illustrator CS2 Splash Graphic

Another tutorial from n.design studios, this one a little harder. I think probably every illustrator I know has had a crack at this tutorial at some point! It is very good for work with the pen tool and use of gradients and blending, ideal for anyone like me who loves creating on screen graphics, and the end result is quite satisfying. I’m enjoying keeping my hand in with Illustrator….next it’s the fearsome Adobe Bridge icon.

Glossy Buttons

Another digital tutorial from n.design studios, which uses a blending technique combined with a simple black and white gradient. Very nice too…extremely easy to produce and change the colours around, while maintaining scalability.

Photoshop CS2 Splash Graphic

To keep my hand in with the digital side, I’ve recently been running through some of the graphics tutorials on the splendid n.design studio site. They’re very good indeed at helping sharpen on screen graphics skills in Illustrator. I really enjoyed this one, which ended up with a blended effect that was almost watercolour.

Drawing from Life

I started going to an art class in traditional media techniques at Rhyl Library back in October. It’s brilliant, especially for someone like me with a design degree, but a real love of art and a huge desire to learn more! Our tutor Jim Taylor is very laid back, and very knowledgeable too having taught many courses over the years. It’s all extremely relaxed, and the first few sessions in October were concerned with drawing from life – a friend of Jim’s came in to model, first as a bag lady and then as a busker, complete with ancient mandolin. It was great practice, and really taught me to notice form and angles, as well as knowing there was a time limit (as we couldn’t really keep Barbara there all day!)

Glenn Ibbotson Print Workshop

This monoprint workshop held at Denbigh Library with the artist Glenn Ibbotson was a real inspiration, and got me thinking again about texture in my work. I usually find that it’s good to have a break from digital, which is why I go to these traditional workshops (when I can afford it!) I find that you come away refreshed, and looking at your work on screen in a different way.

I don’t have much experience in printing, but Glenn and his partner Carole, who is also an artist, took us through the process and helped us as we went along. There were only four of us, but that was actually rather nice as it meant that we could all get quite a lot of prints done. I chose to follow a sea theme, underwater scenes and the sea itself is something I find fascinating. I was thinking about maybe a coral reef, but resolved eventually on life underwater, with jellyfish and a whale “fluking” as my subjects. We used oil based printing ink on a thick polyvinyl rectangle to make the plate, either covering the plate entirely and removing ink to create the image or painting the image on with brushes and using bits of cardboard, kitchen towels and rags to create the texture. I preferred the painting method, and had immense fun with all this getting as much ink on me as on the plate! The paper was soaked in a bath for half an hour, the excess squeezed out and then rolled through the etching press with the painted plate. I made six prints, and each one turned out differently. I love creating unique things – one looked quite graphical, one pointilised, one very soft. I’ve shown them to different people, and they’ve all had a different one as their favourite – ah, more proof if it was needed that art and design is a subjective experience

What next?? Well, Glenn recommended that I could tint them by hand with watercolour paints, or immerse them completely in a bath of ink. Who knows, they might even make their way into Photoshop….

Ann Bridges Workshop

It’s been a while (April this year), but this workshop was such an inspiration. It was held at Rhyl Library and Arts Centre by local artist and printmaker Ann Bridges. Very friendly and relaxed, with a hands-on approach to printing, which was useful for a complete novice like me! We created hand cut stencils, some of which were etched into with a ball point pen or sharp tool, and then used these as part of a print process using acrylic inks in the three primary colours and a sheet of acetate. The effects were wonderful – the more you rolled them through the hand flat-bed press the more pastel they became. I experimented with moving the stencils around too, and kept them very abstract as I was already planning to use them digitally. I love hand crafted and traditional media, but I love to incorporate it with digital media, blending the two types of creativity together. I really don’t see either of them as mutually exclusive.

I’m posting a couple of my favourites here. I’ve used one a an infill to one of my favourite fonts, Jugend as my new branding on the website. It just needed masking out after careful positioning I promised Ann that I’d rustle something up in Flash, so must get on and do that – watch this space.