Another little one

I'll upload the rest all in one go, seeing as I seem to be getting quicker :) I'm so glad I'm getting into the swing of things!

First Successful Painting!

I've finally created something on Photoshop that I'm happy with :D I'll definitely be finishing my other sketches now! Maybe another one or two tonight, but I need a break from the computer for a bit.

Sparrow Sketches

I've been feeling a bit down with the stresses of uni and the pressure I've been putting myself under to get better with Photoshop, so I decided to have some fun and concentrate on what I enjoy and am best at. I drew a little drawing of a sparrow in lectures a couple of weeks ago and fell in love with my own creation haha - I love little birds! I've started to sketch out some poses for it:

As I drew it straight in instead of scanning it on paper, hopefully it will be much easier to develop further and colour.

Quick Sunset

I had a little play around with layers and custom paint brushes. I put a photo I took underneath, picked out the basic colours and messed around with lots of mixing, layers and brushes on top. I also used the magic wand tool to cut out the foreground and pasted it on top. It's all helping me get to know Photoshop a bit more when it's hard to know where to start.

It's nice having a bit of time to experiment, I've really been in need of a break from uni to focus on my hobbies!

It's love

I got my tablet!! It's wonderful - much easier to get used to than I imagined, though I've only been sketching so far. It's now my reading week so I'm going to give myself a break from uni work for the weekend to concentrate on a personal website. I'd love to make a Flash website but I haven't finished the one for my module yet so plain old HTML will have to do. I've hardly had time to play with my tablet yet, I'm gutted- I need to stop saying no to last minute things that never lead me home. Hopefully I will finish the website tomorrow because I want to design some concept art and start my career!

The Sketchbook Project

About a month ago a signed up to an exciting little idea called The Sketchbook Project as something do in my spare time, to improve my art skill and as something really interesting to put on my CV.

You pay for a little sketchbook and it gets posted to you, then you fill it up with ideas from your chosen theme (you have to choose from a list), and send it back by the deadline in January. Here's the great part- it goes round a tour of America, then ends up permanently in the Brooklyn Art Library! You get a bar code with your book and you get notifications every time someone looks in it, which is pretty cool. There's still time to sign up so here's the link: http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject/

I was going to save filling it in for over Christmas when I don't have any work to do, but as I have the morning off and I'm still waiting for my tablet I'm going to give it a start. The theme I've chosen is 'Help', which I'm extending to 'Help save our species'. I'm planning to draw and write about beautiful and unusual endangered and critically endangered species because I am a huge animal lover, and I hope it will inspire and be thought provoking to whoever opens it.

Waiting...

So, turns out because I drew out my dragon in a hefty sketchbook, I'm having all sorts of weird problems with the textures in the background for painting...I'll either sketch over the top with my tablet in a new layer, or finish it as a pencil drawing and start fresh on a new design I thought up in lectures- who wants to listen about ActionScript when there's a tablet to think about! Right now I'm just waiting, waiting, waiting. It's been dispatched so hopefully it'll come tomorrow. I'm mega excited!