Discovering my potential

The Cute Bunny

After a few tries on Adobe Photoshop I returned to grafitti. I wanted to draw something that was closer to reality than what I had done before. I searched for one such pic online and finalised on this one. The ease and flexibility that Digital art offered amazed me. I did experiment a little and found that the freedom of being able to use darker colors on lighter ones and vice versa was a bliss. 

                                         The bunny looks complicated but is very simple. An outline in black of moderate opacity. Quick stroking moves to make the fur look hairy keeping in mind the darkness of the shade in various places. At the junction of white and black a little merging had to be done. Somepart of it was done in black and some in white so that the blend is proper. The eyes took me some time to make. Complete black base then the brown pupil and finally the shine was done in white. First in less opacity and then bright shine in more opaque color.

Familiarizing myself with the tool

Friends forever

I couldn't wait any longer to try my hand at drawing with the new tablet. The very evening that I bought it I sat down and started doodling and made this one.I was in awe of the tablet since it made my job so easy. That can be seen from the fact that this one has lines of smallest possible thickness all over. Of course it took me a while before I could actually feel comfortable drawing with it.
                   Work here is simple enough. gradient background and a little darker shade for the water. Then comes the moon, the land and the dolphins follow next in black and opacity set to halfway. The finishing part was fun because of the ease with which I could now do it. A little highlights to the land,trees and dolphins concluded the work.

The Mighty Weapon

Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet (CTL-460)

In January 2010, I attended Spring-fest'10 at IIT Kgp. While I was there I participated in a few painting competitions and to my surprise won 2 prizes.
I was longing to buy a tablet for really long given the fact that I had become a die hard fan of Nico Di Mattia. Had spent more hours watching speed painting videos than anything else. I had made my mind up that I will buy a tablet with the prize money no matter what. During that summer while I was in Bangalore, I finally bought one.

 For people who are unaware how a Tablet input works, here's the deal. The pen that you see in the image works as a pointing device and the pad detects its motion.Plugging the pad into a USB slot will enable you to use the pen now as a pointing device similar to a mouse (only it is a hell lot easier to use because it feels like a regular pen). It has right and left click on it and the cursor can be moved by simply hovering the pen over the pad a few millimeters away. Touching the pad with the pen also has the same effect as the left click.
                  
       
The Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet (CTL-460) (cost me around  4400). Today its one of my most prized possessions. Of course there were some cheaper alternatives available starting at around  1600 but I preferred to buy a good one once and for all.

My very first work in Digital Art

Deers at Dusk

Now this one started it all. I know it looks an amateurish attempt at digital art. It was a little difficult for me back then considering the fact that it was done with a Microsoft basic mouse. But this was a milestone for me and so I had to share it. Made on facebook's graffitti application. Its very simple and took me about an hour. Looking back I feel how much effort I had put in to make such a simple piece of work because mice don't offer you the comfort to be able to draw effortlessly.

Simple use of opacity and different size of brushes. Started with the background, then came the tree and deer. Mountains and the highlights of the tree we the finishing touches.