Some of my biggest influences are artists such as Shaun Tan and M.c Escher. Their pencil work has always been a source of admiration for me, and the reason being is they seem to make their illustrations transcend being 'just a pencil drawing'. They have real depth to their works, and it sometimes leaves you questioning how they made their works, if it wasn't specifically specified as the use of graphite sticks/pencils or any manner of drawing tool.
These are the photographs I took of my dad's marble for reference. I also took each of these at a different type of day, from a different angle of the light. This has created some suprising differences to the depth and colour of the orb.
I became quite fascinated by the many layers one item can yeild depending on the light and I decided to delve into some digital painting, using the program Coral Painter 10. I started to make 'thumbnails' but solely using colour and paint, abiet digitally, to study each varying depth the orb shows in the photographs.
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To make these I applied both guache paint and 'Artist's Oils' settings and began to lay down the foundations of the tone. I selected various hues of dark blue underneath before working into it with light blue colours and metallic shades. Afterwards I applied the pallete knife affect and began to smudge the paint around, creating this smooth and almost liquid texture.
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The image below follows the same principles of the above but due to the high amounts of highlights, this required a little more detail. Instead of just smudging I later applied the highlights after in digital Oil paint, I then used photoshop to blur these highlights so they didnt seem as liquid, but didn't clash with the overall smooth quality of the orb.
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This photograph is my favourite as the orbs seems to be more than just a sphere. It seems to have a depth to it inside, that colour couldn't event capture. Never the less I endevoured to capture this depth, similar to one of my previous thumbnails, and began to have fun painting the skin tone against the deep blue of the orb.
I followed the same technique as the previous but this time I set myself the challenge of putting the artificial 'dry' mode on the paint settings. What this means was the paint, digitally, is on a timer and dries out over time unless you manipulate it. This meant I had to just be bold and not play safe, placing the colours thick and fast and then quickly manipulating it with the pallete knife before it dried out. You get some nice differences in smudging in this picture. Some of the colours readily smudge and create some great depth ( particularly in the orb ) whereas where I neglected the paint, such as on the back fingers, my digital pallete knife only seemed to scrape the paint. This created that strange blurring outlining the back fingers.
Collage was also a useful method in capturing the many layered tones of the sphere and I applied the same formula, though I didn't wan't to get bogged down in the detail. Again, as with my previous collages, my concern was merely getting across the general picture. I quite like how the varied tones come together and imitate nicely the depth of the marble.
Here I did some of my own takes on escher's works, and found one of my dad's old marbles. Below I used two types of techniques to create texture and tone. The one below follows the Shaun tan-esque route, and I used a graphite stick to gently and subtley make dark tonal areas, always shading in circular motions to suit the spherical object.
Below was a different approach, this time using cross hatching. This method sacrifices detail, its its broad technique, but instead creates harsh tonal areas that are quite distinguishable.
I returned to my magic markers for this sketch, and even added a slightly metalic blue colour to give it some measure of depth. Essentially this thumbnail takes form with the use of the dark grey, whilst the white negative space creates the 'highlights'. Everything else is just shaded linework or heavily rendered tone.
These are the photographs I took of my dad's marble for reference. I also took each of these at a different type of day, from a different angle of the light. This has created some suprising differences to the depth and colour of the orb.
I became quite fascinated by the many layers one item can yeild depending on the light and I decided to delve into some digital painting, using the program Coral Painter 10. I started to make 'thumbnails' but solely using colour and paint, abiet digitally, to study each varying depth the orb shows in the photographs.
.JPG)
To make these I applied both guache paint and 'Artist's Oils' settings and began to lay down the foundations of the tone. I selected various hues of dark blue underneath before working into it with light blue colours and metallic shades. Afterwards I applied the pallete knife affect and began to smudge the paint around, creating this smooth and almost liquid texture.
.JPG)
The image below follows the same principles of the above but due to the high amounts of highlights, this required a little more detail. Instead of just smudging I later applied the highlights after in digital Oil paint, I then used photoshop to blur these highlights so they didnt seem as liquid, but didn't clash with the overall smooth quality of the orb..JPG)
.JPG)
This photograph is my favourite as the orbs seems to be more than just a sphere. It seems to have a depth to it inside, that colour couldn't event capture. Never the less I endevoured to capture this depth, similar to one of my previous thumbnails, and began to have fun painting the skin tone against the deep blue of the orb.
I followed the same technique as the previous but this time I set myself the challenge of putting the artificial 'dry' mode on the paint settings. What this means was the paint, digitally, is on a timer and dries out over time unless you manipulate it. This meant I had to just be bold and not play safe, placing the colours thick and fast and then quickly manipulating it with the pallete knife before it dried out. You get some nice differences in smudging in this picture. Some of the colours readily smudge and create some great depth ( particularly in the orb ) whereas where I neglected the paint, such as on the back fingers, my digital pallete knife only seemed to scrape the paint. This created that strange blurring outlining the back fingers.
Collage was also a useful method in capturing the many layered tones of the sphere and I applied the same formula, though I didn't wan't to get bogged down in the detail. Again, as with my previous collages, my concern was merely getting across the general picture. I quite like how the varied tones come together and imitate nicely the depth of the marble. 
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