My brother came by the other day and wanted to scan in sompn and clean it up on my puter. Very quickly he realized sompn was wrong with my mouse. He took it apart and was gonna clean it and noticed the horizontal bar was gouged. Our recent tenant used to volunteer to clean our meeces...glad he's gone now!
When we got to Circuit City I noticed they had a wacom tablet with a pen and wireless mouse on clearance.
When we got home it was nearly 24 hours later before my brother was through playing and I got to scribble for a few minutes before I went to bed.
Today, I woke up at 4am and did this...in Adobe Photoshop, even. Not having a clue how to use Adobe and new with the pen, I'm excited to show it to everybody.
My question is, is it a bit much for the van? (The artwork?) I lettered the sides of the van, but wanted to put a nice peaceful mural on the back, to give folks an idea of what I like to do.
I would love suggestions and feedback, especially if anyone has a fascinating way to frame it in so it doesn't look I parked it to close to the easel fer a spell...hehehe!
I'm planning on losing the Ford emblem and the aerostar blank, but for now, it's wysiwyg.
posted
By the way, I couldn't find the tape button and not sure how to cut masks in Adobe, so you'll notice some disorganization around the edges of the mural, got some overspray all over the place hehehe!
I just thought this would be a kewl way to show somebody what an airbrush job might look like, prior to execution and be a great thing to clutch whilst putting the mural together.
To me, the pen is the missing link between my brain and the monitor!
posted
Thanks Adrienne, for the advice...I didn't know they still made Dummy books. The last one I got was "Time Management for Dummies." (No, I haven't finished read it yet.)
Stephen, I would like to paint something on the back of my van, do you have any ideas for me?
Mark, I'm hoping some nong doesn't change the Georgia tags for a spell...lol. That's one of the reasons I wasn't sure I should do this or not.
Oh, thank you for the compliments too! I was so scared somebody would tell me it looked stupid, ...but now i can tell em they're out-voted? hehehe!
[ January 25, 2002: Message edited by: Linda Silver Eagle ]
posted
Yea, aint the tablet great? when you get used to it, it's as easy as drawing on paper. I've had a wacom for about 4-5 years now. love it, and havent had any problems at all.
Using photoshop, I use the airbrush tool about 95% of the time. I dont think you even need a frame around the picture, just let the colors blend into the color of the van. Or, like in the crazy van days, put clouds around the mural. Or one I like is use silouetes of trees on the sides, having them the color of the van, instant boarder and then blend the colors top and bottom.
posted
Hey Linda, that was a lucky find! I was just discussing those pens with a friend the other day, I want to get one too. For a boarder, how about the ripped metal effect? You could have the water spilling over into a caption; "Welcome to my world"...."Explore your options" or whatever. Just a thought. Enjoy the pen!
-------------------- Linda Seymour Bundaberg, Q.L.D Australia
"DARE!" Signage of Distinction Bundaberg freeloner2001@dingoblue.net.au Posts: 94 | From: Q.L.D Australia | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
Thank you Steve, Rick, Linda and Ralph. It feels nice to have something appreciated.
I've been trying to think of a way to give this more impact, so I did the word MURALS in Compacta (really bold) and put the mural behind that so you could see it through the letters, only. Now, I'm thinking of shrinking it heighth-wise and putting it below the tag area, so it can be read from far away. I tried lots of colors to run an outline around the letters and sea-foam green seems to be the most peaceful color I've checked out. I'm going to paint this again so I can slide the pictorial elements around and check it out. There may be lots of designs before I get it on the van though...hehehe!
I did a sketch many months ago of a place in the mountains we used to go swimming, took pizzas, watermelon and beverages down there. I haven't found it again yet, so I reckon I'll be trying to reproduce it again hehehe!
I'll post again as this takes shape...again, any more ideas to ponder would be appreciated!
I'm not afraid, anybody wanna chew this up, go for it hehehehe!
(psssst the puter has an undo function, so if you don't like the stroke you just did you can undo it, AND you can go over what you've done with another color and it doesn't muddy up, AND you can drag one color to another to mix them and when the cursor turns into a bucket, you drop the new color into a fresh tile area and voila, a new color!)
It's more fun than you'd believe! I like the fact, ya don't have to stir the "paint' and then have to clean up a big mess afterwards hehehe, plus, there's no fumes, you don't have to wear a mask, etc.!
posted
Well, bein stubborn about findin that pic I drew months ago, I've been unsuccessful, but I did find a lot of other stuff to tend to, been busy, doin more putterin than anything...hehehe.
Here's a version of the murals, masked out in the word "MURALS." Is this concept too "out there?"
I'm anxious to do it, just wantin to get all the feedback part ironed out before the paint is...LOL.
Thank you for takin the time to look and offer suggestions. I will be shortening the whole design vertically and to fit full width of the hatch door, (snuggled under the tag area for readabilty hehehe...it bein a sign n all).
posted
Each time you change it.......it just gets better. Shep'
-------------------- Arvil Shep' Shepherd Art by Shep' -------- " Those who dance are thought to be mad by those who cannot hear the music " Posts: 1281 | From: Mt Airy NC | Registered: Mar 2001
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I think you compressed the lettering too much. the horizontal strokes are bolder than the verticals. I think the seafoam color is peaceful but an outline, i/m/o, should make the design snap and the green just doesn't do it for me.
Overall, it a cool idea. I have seen it done before with outstanding results. I wish you the best on this project. Keep us posted.
Have a great one!
-------------------- Bruce Bowers
DrCAS Custom Lettering and Design Saint Cloud, Minnesota
"Things work out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out." - Art Linkletter
Posts: 6451 | From: Saint Cloud, Minnesota | Registered: Jun 1999
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Thank you Bruse for the kind words and thoughts! i am in total Agreement on the letterstyle contraints...why I am attempting to do this with, what many of you old fashoned Gerber 4B folk will understand, Compacta forced to a left/right percentage of 150%-ish. That, and the tag ate my "R."
I've always preached that short fat letters could be read further away than anything skinny, or weak. Matter of fact, when I paint helvetica, I can't help but want to make it more like the "snapper's" thick thin block.
My Elder (teacher) on the subject taught me, when learning to pull the strokes of a block letter to curve the brush in-word on the letters just a wee bit to give the letters an oomph...like optima, a bit. Imagine my joy when they designed they Optima font!!!!!!! (Yeah, this crazy Indian woman has been studyin letters a long time!...she's nuts about em hehehe!)
(Sorry, saw a tip for the newbies available on the desktop of my brain, hehehe. Comes with teaching to all hours of the night hehehehe!)
Bruce, back to you here, the sea foam green is the only color that didn't fight with all the colors I had...I clicked through the whole shee-bang and found the sea foam green color to dance with the beautiful green in the right bottom of the mural. That took my breath away and I realized, I want to do that with my clients...(for postive programming reasons) lets change that to...I'm doing that for my clients.
As Joe stated, slamming a commercial outline on this, did lessen the aesthetic aspect of it all, so bringing back that green in the foreground seemed to complete the peaceful feeling for me. Linda Seymour suggested earlier, that I maybe frame this in torn metal affect. The whole idea of my business is to create a peaceful ambience in an otherwise stressful setting. Sorry Tickerman, I won't be showing off your Bullet Holes Seminar lessons on this one, hehehe. I live in a backwood-ish Southern Red-neck town, fulla crack heads and folks that have been laid off for 3-5 mos. I do not wanna give them any ideas.
Sorry to ramble here.
Shep, I've been checking back to watch wolves and angels fall out of your brushes...it's like watching autumn leaves fall in the park, around the children.
By the way, the water is not hard to paint. I've been studying it for a while now, and have to give credit to Adrienne, her water dances in the morning sun and her waterfalls are full of life...um, they crash over the rocks and feed all the beautiful foilage she's skilled with painting and the wildlife artwork she does is coming along nery nicely over the years. Since I'm a smoker, I deduced she won't be staying with me anytime soon so I better learn how to paint my own hehehe! (even though the shop is the only place we are allowed to smoke, and there's plenty of porches out back.)
It was great to meet Spyke and watch his water quench the thirst of a pair of wolves in a blue moon setting.
The one thing I learned about water, that made all the difference in the world to me trying to learn how to paint it, is that it's like glass. You can't see it, but you can see the reflections off of it, and the dirt, floaties, whatever.
I met a fella at Pat's that worked on a panel with a lovely lake scene, that took my breath away. He had it, the lesson on water, he had it down! ...or "goin on" if you will, hehehe! I wish I could remember his name!
And Artee, like Jesus turns water to wine, Artee turns air into water! Dude can blow paint like the wind. If Ticks and Artee ever got together, man, we'd be in trouble hehehe!
***
Anybody have the book, "The Airbrush Book" by Seng-Gye Tombs & Christopher Hunt? If so, turn to page 44. There you will see an acrylic painting by Don Eddy, called "Glassware". Whooaaa! You want to study reflection, here's your Senior year project...makes the chrome Vargas Girls look like a paint by number. It's a pic of champagne glasses on glass shelves and lotsa reflection. I dare somebody to count the real glasses in that one! Go ahead and take yer Tylenol ahead of time hehehe!
Anyway, back to the real world...
DancinOnnaTablet
[ February 01, 2002: Message edited by: Linda Silver Eagle ]
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