Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Digital Painting with "Painter" software

Hi All,

How's your week starting off?  I hope well.  Things are moving right along here.  Keeping busy - a little bit of everything.  Summers starting off nicely here in Phoenix.  It's been in the low 100s and 90s recently.  Warming up!

Some of what's been keeping me a little busy - I've been working on more artwork for my friend, Towanda Allen.  She's been writing books and working on workshops for Mother and Daughter empowerment and enrichment.  The first piece I did a while back was the "Brave" artwork.

Digital Artwork for Towanda Allen's empowerment workshops.

That was a fun piece, and I knew she wanted more soon.  As promised, she came back recently with a request for a book cover design.  The book is a kids leadership development journal that she's written called, "I'm a Leader for a Great Tomorrow - Inspirational Journal for the Next Generation of Leaders."  She's finished writing it and working with a publisher now.

Painting/Design for bookcover for Towanda's kids leadership journal

The direction I got was - "here's the title - it's for boys and girls, let me know if there's an image that comes to you."  I thought about it for a bit and what came to me was clear and quick - an abstract painterly style painting.  Something a bit adventurous, but not in the traditional sense.  Above is the image.

I've been wanting to work with the program, Painter, for a while now.  I do play with it on my own, but I wanted to do some complete works with it, in a painterly style.  This was the perfect project for Painter.  I've worked with it off and on over the years, even when I was still in graphic arts in the Air Force.  It's fun and really simulates artistic media well.  You can use oils, acrylic paint, airbrush, pencil, marker, chalk, pastels, etc - all simulated thru this computer graphics software. (I think Corel is the company that owns/sells Painter now).

Painting/Design for Towanda Allen

I also did a second image - I like it and it's different from the first, but I didn't really like it for this project.  Well, as things often work out, Towanda loved it and wanted it...for the Mother/Daughter workshop.  Awesome!  So, I put some text on it, as seen below.

Painting with text - for Towanda Allen's workshops and promotional materials.

Towanda did like the abstract for the cover and below is a version with text for the cover.  I like the idea of having the translucent text box - so the text reads well and you can still see the art.  It works for my design sensibilities.

Book cover with text.

So that's it.  Since then, another friend wants a book cover also and I'm working on a painting/design for it in Painter also.  More to come on that.  You can check out Towanda's web site for info on her workshops, books, her blog-talk radio show and more.
www.TowandaMAllen.com

Enjoy every moment - be present - suit up, show up, and live it.  Make it a great day - choose to have a great day, even if you're doing a job you don't want, or whatever you're doing...it's a choice you make.
And of course - be good to each other.

Peace,

Tom


No comments:

Post a Comment