First Attempts at Digital Art

After moving, its been really difficult to keep up my art. Ive been sketching and drawing but not for myself. So in an attempt to get back to it, I tried digital art on my iPad. I used Adobe Draw with my Apple Pencil. I can definitely say now that the pencil works seamlessly with the iPad and I really enjoyed the whole process. Now, keep in mind this is my first attempt so don't judge too hard! 

This is the image I based it off of; definitely one of my favorite photographs (taken by Steve McCurry)

 

image.jpg

I began with an initial sketch and then experimented with a couple brushes to get a feel of the app.

Initial Sketch

Yeah, I know, its a very very rough sketch but it served as a baseline for laying down the color. I struggled with the proportions as I had the picture printed (old-school) next to my Ipad and was trying to sketch, but I think in the end, I did it justice.

The final piece 

So, there you go. My first attempt. I don't have too many positive things to say about the final piece but, hopefully, that's because Im really not used to it. Maybe this will become my primary medium some day in the very very distant future. But right now, everything about this was a struggle. I don't even feel comfortable sketching yet. 

If you have any tips, comment below!

Shivani

 

Venice I

Recently, I visited Venice, Italy on holiday. As it was a city that Ive always wanted to go to, so, of course, I planned each day to the minute to try and do as much as possible. To be very honest, it wasn’t enough time in the city. I wish I could have spent a few more days just wandering and exploring. Its a truly wonderful city; you can be walking through the narrowest of streets with only a strip of blue sky above you and suddenly it will open onto a beautiful square, probably with achurch. It inspired me to begin this series of sketches which I will post here in three posts. Now, don’t expect too much, they are just scribbles created standing in the middle of a busy square. Hope you like them! 

Shivani 

Admitting to Defeat...

This post may have a gloomy title but, I promise it won't be that bad! I'm trying to record my failures here so I can learn from them. So here's the development of my latest piece that really didn't work (but let me know what I could have done better!): 

Testing the Pallete

Putting the colors and textures together before you begin your piece is always a good idea. Thats what I did here. I even attempted to add streaks to the blocks of color but I quickly realised that did not fit with the rest of solid colors. 

Practice Piece 

I then practiced the technique required. I used a palette knife that I cleaned before every stroke. This allowed me to realize that mixing colors would make the palette more interesting. But the lightest yellow would allow the background to show through.  

The Unfinished Final

This is the final piece that I eventually gave up on. I genuinely loved the color pallet and therefore background but the original plan included the 'swirls' overlayed. However, as I started to build it up it began to darken the background colors and become more of an eyesore. Perhaps if I had enlarged the design it may have worked together better. All in all, not my best work but I am still genuinely proud. The color pallet is one I will use again and I tried to bring life to my idea! So I thought I would write this post to make sure your failures don't go in the trash or in the back of your closet. Learn from them!

Shivani

 

Art is a Language is an online portfolio as well as store for Shivani Sarjan’s artwork; focusing on sharing development, processes and final works as well as how an amateur artist may accomplish these.