Digital art

So. Little something about my latest endeavours - digitally colored and collaged drawings. How they came about.

Accidentally almost.

First came graphite.

Few years ago i started drawing with graphite because i saw these talented graphite artists in Instagram and it sparked an inspiration to try it. From small experiments i then started drawing these bigger drawings that i have now turned into digital art.

Doofus

Because of an accident caused by now deceased assistant - claw marks and smol toe prints in my (almost finished) Moonflower drawing - i also incremented ink to my graphite drawing to hide the damage. So that was the first effort to add color to these drawings.

This shows how something disastrous is actually many times a blessing in disguise. Like his face was in disguise looking all innocent when he knew exactly he wasnt supposed to be claw skating on my drawing. Which was on my defence covered with a paper to protect it. It just wasn’t enough for this skater.

And so these drawings just evolved naturally and caturally into the direction they are now.

Of course i also added some gold leaf as well. . . because i’m me.

It has been fun to find and explore this this new world of images. Every medium i use has a unique feel to it and unique beings that come through it.

The most.. I love drawing wavy lines. And just weird and sometimes accidental references of spiritual concepts.

Experimenting a new medium is like finding new territory and you never know beforehand where exactly you’re gonna go.. what kind of images you’ll make with it. That goes for both graphite and digital. And for all mediums.

Graphite is so basic. But like any medium, when you focus, you can do amazing things with it.

Digital

I think my first digitally colored graphite drawing was my first mooncalendar, which i planned to be finished with Photoshop from the get-go. The whole thing was just play and fun. And that’s probably why i have kept making them.

The other two calendars i made from my arty drawings because the following years i didn’t have time to do drawings specifically for the calendar. Graphite is very time consuming. So i used ones i already had in hand.

Digital art por favor

I never meant to color my arty drawings when i first started making them. They were and are pieces of graphite art standing on their own.

When i started to play around with color, at first i wanted to go for the old photograph feel, way back when they added just few random colors for black & white photos. So the Moonflower is done with that vintage feel.

But as i kept coloring more drawings, more stuff appeared. Again. Because i’m me. Gotta have those billion different things in one picture right. So you won’t get bored looking at it. And so i found the fun of digital collage as well. Color wasn’t enough.

How quick it is!. compared to drawing, to add a bird or flower you just click it in place.

I’m surprised how well the drawing and the collage part fit together. I’m also surprised how much fun it is to make them.

Artmaking is sometimes pretty rough because at some point you inevitably hit the low point of the process when all is doomed. The piece you’re working on is doomed. You’re doomed. As a person. And as an artist. But there’s not that much doom or points of despair in digital art. It’s very odd and pleasant.

The six digital collages i’ve made so far, are all in my portfolio.

The last one i finished - ‘Torii’, which wasn’t much of a drawing as a graphite drawing really, since it’s one of the first drawings i made and very simple - spruced up real funky at the end once i had added some extra bits and bobs to it.

My digital art is printed with the same high quality giclee technique as the prints from my paintings. So they are sturdy Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Satin paper prints with a white border, printed with archival pigment based inks that don’t fade over time. Signed and numbered below the image.

I researched other artists who make digital art and tried to find out what size editions they usually make and other esoteric knowledge regarding digital art, and then decided i will have an edition size of 75.

In digital art the print is the original artwork.

Just like in printmaking you make an edition of prints. Neat.