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Art in Service of Storytelling

Tag: colour

Welcome to the New Ezra

December 8, 2017 zhangah9 Comments

One City. Two Worlds. One Truth.

Posted in IllustrationsTagged art, city, colour, cover art, crime, dystopian, illustration, line art, mystery, neon, new ezra, novel, process, red, sketches, thumbnails, utopia, writing

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There's hundreds of ways to depict the same story. The main reason why I'm keeping up with personal work (and a lot of that is sketching) is to uncover more techniques and expressions for storytelling. After studying landscape painting and twisted trees, I decided to revisit an old illustration and recreate it from scratch. What I like most about the present painting technique is that I think it's more aligned with my natural way of seeing things - figuring out forms through blobs of colour. Or think of it as finding a kitten in cloud shapes. ☁️ I'm even using this technique now to figure out line art. Even though the current painting looks like it has a lot more detail, it actually took 1/4 the time of the old drawing which began with line art (and the new time even includes the hour lost from Photoshop crashing 😝). #digital #painting #art #illustration #woods #landscape #simple #photoshop #visualart #visualstorytelling #twisted #trees #winter #snow #redridinghood #concept #worldbuilding #artistsoninstagram #red #cape #passion #inspiration #practice #sketch #discipline

A quick study of interesting forms using my favourite digital oil pastel brush. #digitalart #digitalpainting #landscape #scenery #backgrounds #art #artistsoninstagram #rocks #scotland #grass #sunray #study #practice #discipline #2dbackground #photoshop #fun #sunday

I don't often make good use of white space. Naturally painting snow would be a good start. But I still got too caught up in the details because it feels comfortable. This year I want to get away from that and start thinking more about design as it applies to illustration. In this case, thinking more about the contrast between detail and open space so that only the necessary shapes are left to tell the story. #digital #painting #sketch #art #illustration #landscape #tinyhouse #red #tree #snow #scenery #white #cabin #hill #peaceful #drawing #artistsoninstagram #visualstorytelling #fridaythoughts #discipline #practice #simplicity

Happy Valentine's Day ❤️️and for those in Canada 🇨🇦 Happy Family Day weekend coming up! I made a video to share my love for illustrating realistic, character-driven comics and to show how our story is a darker take on love 💔Seraphine, the main character of What the Water Gave Me, is my favourite to draw because she's a complex individual even at a young age. I hope to have captured her circumstances, confidence, strong will, vulnerability and seeping darkness all at once. 🤔You may have already seen that this comic is part of the Cosmic Love anthology 💕and yes, I will continue to shamelessly plug the Kickstarter. We're half way there and need your help to get to 💯! A fully funded project means that me and 15 other passionate, independent creators will get our names out there in print for Comic Cons! If you know some one who's a fan of Florence+the Machine (the music that inspired each comic) and loves original art and stories, please share this post with them ❤️️Thanks so much ❤️️ #indiecomics #comics #artistsoninstagram #visualstorytelling #kickstarter #cosmic #love #illustration #writersofinstagram #collaboration #musicfan #comicfan #comiccon #anthology #valentines #valentinesdaygift #familyday #passion #inspire #supportindies #art #storytime

Today was the usual dance of taking two steps forward and one step back. I've been noticing similarities in my digital paintings like repeated shapes, lighting scheme, camera angle and symmetrical composition. So I set out to do some thumbnail studies to break out of the 'sameness.' I ended up trashing the 3rd one because it was looking like my previous work and did a Turner study instead. Using only one layer and a couple of brushes, this exercise has gotten me to loosen up and break out my own habits. #digitalpainting #study #thumbnail #practice #painting #art #landscape #environment #scenery #photoshop #screencapredraw #drawing #observation #rough #inspire #wip #wednesdaymotivation

I was painting oddly shaped mountains today and ruins emerged at the foothills. #digital #painting #conceptart #worldbuilding #visualstorytelling #photoshop #artistsoninstagram #art #mountains #landscape #ruins #rocks #lake #scenery #idea #inspire #sketching #design #fantasy #daily #wip

"There are no secrets in life, just hidden truths that lie beneath the surface" #illustration #smalltown #secrets #beneaththesurface #snow #visualstories #dextermorgan #art #vector #adobe #illustrator #vintage #pastel #monday #concept #eerie #houses #trees #landscape #scene #simple #colour #rural #artistsoninstagram

Just some quick castle studies. #pencil #graphite #sketch #sketchbook #study #castle #traditional #illustration #art #drawing #practice #discipline #weekend #pen #ink #brush #composition #Camelot #sillyplace

Here's the painting of the castle sketch from earlier this week. I'm really into creating texture like you would using watercolours (ie. preserving whites while layering translucent colours). I like how blobs of pixels can suggest rocky surfaces or architecture without fully rendering them out. I think these effects can give a fantasy feel without being too literal (ie. drawing in a magic beam or something). Anyways is it just me or did Friday kind of sneak up this week? I mean I thought today was Wed/Thurs and was wondering why people were using #friday 😂Well happy weekend everyone! #digital #painting #fantasy #castle #clouds #photoshop #watercolour #texture #effects #concept #art #background #landscape #scenery #fridayvibes #escape #illustration #sketch

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