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Thursday, February 9, 2012

IF - Suspense - Digital Baby Steps - Keyboard Commands


This week's prompt for Illustration Friday is "Suspense." It happens that I had this drawing that I did one night, as part of my After Hours Drawing series. That's really just stuff that I doodle when I don't have the energy to work on other things such as actual jobs, work for specific things such as cards, apps (yes, I'm working on one.) or book dummies. In other words, things that impose certain limitations.  

So, one night, after hours, I just started drawing and this is what happened. (That's a characteristic of After Hours Drawing - whatever happens happens.) To put it up today for IF, I did my usual scribbly rendering and then scanned it into Photoshop and combined it with a background color. I have some screen shots below.

This is NOT a finished piece! Eventually it will be full color. Perhaps a limited palette, but not this limited. Just keep in mind, this is only the beginning. I couldn't resist adding the light from the partially open door, hoping that it creates some suspense.  In addition to more color, I may use different textures in different layers. That's something I want to experiment with.


This shows the background color that I wanted for this piece and the scanned sketch side by side. This is all that fit on my screen, but it was enough to do the job. The background is created by going to file - new and making a blank document either the same size as the sketch or larger. (If it's larger, it can be cropped, but it must be large enough to hold the sketch, so  can't be too small.) Pick a color and drop it in with the paint bucket tool.


Then, drag the sketch onto your background and make it a multiply layer. It will blend the sketch with the background color. I LOVE this! It doesn't happen automatically, so don't panic! Just see below:


The multiply layer is created by selecting multiply in the drop down menu in the upper left of the layers palette. You can see, I selected multiply for my sketch - the sketch layer is highlighted) This blended my drawing with the blue background. And that's that!

On a little different digital note, last time, I wrote about some favorite keyboard shortcuts. My friend Barry Gott told me about something called ikey which seems like the mother of all keyboard commands. I'm still learning how it works, but Barry is a genius and super techie. When Barry speaks, I listen! So, here's ikey. Have a look! I'll be adding more friend's favorite keyboard commands in the future.

Thanks for stopping by!


8 comments:

Claire Davis said...

I love the picture, and it was interesting (and helpful!) to read about your process. I like the picture a lot the way it is, but I'd be curious to see how you develop it!

k.h.whitaker said...

Nice Marion, I love the light coming through the door. Can't wait to see what else you do with it. :)

Marion Eldridge said...

Thank you very much, Claire and Karen! I'm so glad if you found something helpful here, Claire. I'm anxious to finish the color! Would love to do it right away, but I'm lucky to have an illo job that I need to get back to. So, it may be awhile. Maybe I'll be able to work on this while they are looking at my sketches! Thanks so much for stopping by! Much appreciated!

June said...

Great to see a new illo AND find a helpful Photoshop tip :o) I shall look forward to watching this develop, and hear more about your app!

Marion Eldridge said...

Thanks, June! The app is moving very, very, very slowly. I never seem to do anything the easy way. It's not the technical stuff - haven't even gotten there yet. It's the artwork. Someday maybe I'll do a short app. I have one in mind. The one I'm working on now is picturebook length and being done between other things. I'm having a good time with it though. Thanks for stopping by!

Ann Marie DiVecchia said...

I really like your after hours work, Marion! I look forward to seeing how this piece progresses.

Marion Eldridge said...

Thanks, Anne Marie. I have a job for an educational publisher that needs to be done first, but I can't wait to get back to this - also some greeting card stuff, my app, and some images for stock. Never a lack of things to do! Not sure it's good to be going in so many directions, but ..... it's what I want to do now, so guess I'll try. Thanks for stopping by!

Susan Miller said...

Great Photoshop tutorial, I am impressed that this is what you do after hours. I waste my time on Pinterest, your an inspiration. Nice job Marion.