WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS...



How its all done... 

Well, hello there peeps. So sorry I haven't been blogging lately. It's one of those jobs which you really can only do when your feeling a) inspired - or b) guilty.. 
No its not because I've been glued to Strictly or because Downton has started again... (well perhaps a little of the latter). I really have been lazy and for that I'm sorry.

I'm not going to feel bad about it, because I've recently got a new iphone, (well a cast off from himself) and I know I'm not the only one who wakes up and immediately looks at stuff and then gets distracted, then goes with all good intentions to do blog, then gets distracted again.. it really is very anoying. You see I'm not a very disciplined person, (as he will quite readily point out) but I can get down to some serious work when induced to do so.

(see I'm digressing again... stop it)

Anyway the point of todays post, that sounds like I post daily - well, no people I don't.   I thought it might be interesting to show you a bit about my creative process. 
My disclaimer at this point is that I'm sorry if I do it wrong, but I'm still learning, so all those professionals out there - please don't jump down the computer at me.. 

Well here goes.. 

The pattern at the top is one I made from scratch - and here is how it was done.. 

Take a trip out to National trust property because the kids are bouncing off the sofa and take camera.. I'm fortunate that I have a good camera (Cannon Eos 600D) which never really takes a bad picture - I mean at least in the digital age you don't have to go with your mum to town any longer to Supersnaps and wait 1 week to see them, only to find there really are no heads on folk and you have camera shakes... gosh that was annoying... imagine how much money we've waisted on crap pictures...??

Here are my pictures from the lovely Barrington Court in Somerset.. I'm quite drawn to the dead bits on flowers. - (lets not go there)




So now I've got a couple of good pictures - all I have to do now is draw them.  This bit I find the easiest because, well I've always drawn things.. (I'm not very good at drawing anything with pulse, animals, people etc) Unless they are three miles in the distance..!



As you can see - I've hand drawn the flower based on the photographs. Of course they are not exact, because I've cut the bottom off one and well the other I've adjusted to fit the paper size. But it sort of represents the photo a bit.

The next job - is to scan the picture into Photoshop - I'm not going to explain much about this - because I'm not YET a fan of Photoshop. It never really does what I think it should be doing and sometimes I really do loose the plot and just start all over again. I then saved the image as a jpeg file - after a little clean up. 

Once I'm happy with this its then imported into Illustrator. (please note from this point on I'm on a wing and prayer, because, well, basically these systems are so powerful and complex it will take me another - what - year ? - to become Adobe 'confident' - but I do my best as they say.. 



So I'm thinking about colours, do I want it to be natural or mixed, or seasonal etc... 
I'm using an app called Kuler - it's great for looking at colour combinations etc and often taken from photos from nature - which I always think look best for colours, because I don't think we can replicate them. The best bit is that you can download colour combos and then upload them into Illustrator right there, like 'voila' it's done. 
I also try to be disciplined in them - stick to what you want and keep it simple.

So after all that I'm pretty much done. Not entirely sure what I'm going to do with them yet, possibly stationary although I've yet to find a printer of wrapping paper who doesn't charge you fortune.. 

Hopefully one day I'll have an agent who can help, but in the mean time, I must keep tapping, undoing, drawing, filling, saving, and photographing. 

Good luck to all my fellow ABSPD students.. Module 2 starts soon people... eyes down.. 

Thanks for looking
p.s. I need another few likes on my Facebook page - so be a love and I'll do the same.

Trina 

xx
p.s Went onto my Facebook page and my little boy (2) had not only tweeted on my behalf but it had gone on my Facebook page and Web.. so if you see a thing about a game to feed a horse - its not me, its him.... (how rude is that?)

2 comments:

  1. Interesting to read your process!

    I agree about Photoshop and Illustrator; I can imagine it taking me years to feel entirely comforable with Photoshop and I haven't really started on Illustrator yet!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Judy,
      I feel lost in Photoshop - and Illustrator most of the time.
      There is a lot of 'undo'ing going on - but I'm in cs6 so you've really got to use the pattern tile tool to get the most out of it.
      It certainly makes life easier I think.
      Trina

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