Thursday, January 15, 2009

Prickly Love - Tiddly Inks/Christy Croll


This is watercolor, pencil and ink. It was touched up in photoshop to darken the black. I have to get a new scanner because my colors aren't coming through true and it bugs me. LOL

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I've almost completely given up on scanning in my watercolors because of how horrible it ends up looking in the computer. I say good job on keeping with it AND making it work!

Now - something I would clean up, but I'm not sure if it's something you want to change...but sometimes the color seems to leak out beyond the linework...For myself that's something I always try to mask - but I also try to keep those water puddles out of mine (not that yours has any, but most watercolor does and it's the 'beauty' of watercolor, but I can't stands it!). But, it's a minor point, but something I could see to point out.

And, of course, I'm going to talk about tangents. The swirl on the right hand side tangents with the heart antenna. It's a tangent, but then it's also getting a little vortexy (where too many lines converge). Same with the swirly lines around the characters - on the right hand side, just as one swirly does a loop, they all kind of vortex right there...oh - and the swirly on the left hand side also tangents with the left side antenna.

Now some of those tangents might only look like tangents because of the size of the picture (I assume it's not at 100% that we're seeing) so if that's the case, and it doesn't look so tangenty in the big picture - just ignore them. But I would still stand behind my vortex comments.

End transmission!

kris fulk said...

Haha welcome to the world of craptastic scanner. I was supposed to get a new one, but my monitor broke and I had to prioritize lol.

You know I love your huggabugs. They're just so cute. But constructively speaking, I think you colored it really well. Specially the porcupine. I do agree with Isaac about the tangents though, but like he said, that could very well be the image compression. If you do decide to resketch, I think maybe instead of drawing the two crossing lines directly accross her middle, have them on each side so they don't cut her body. Maybe it's bc the black was darkened in photoshop, but the lines look really severe there. That's just a thought though.

Hopefully our scanner woes will come to pass lol. Not that I can scan pastels though, but good thing I am learning to take better pictures :-p

Pixiewinkle said...

The scanner makes me crazy EVERY time. Have you considered photographing? That is what I seem to fall back on. I feel like my worst photographs are always better than the best scans.

kris fulk said...

The tricks I learned when photographing art: use a tripod, take a pic on a sunny day/no flash, low ISO/small aperture/long shutter speed, and use a timer since you might jar the camera when you release the shutter. Post-processing is our friend. I think the hardest part though is making sure the artwork is flat and level with the camera - I take it to a big board and prop it on a wall outside lol.

pete said...

I'm also a big fan of photographing...its all I do. I tend to shoot on overcast days, so the image doesn't "yellow." I think you get a nicer spectrum when you've got indirect light from the sun, but that's just my experience. Another option I use is a tripod, easel, and OTT (full spectrum) lamps. I like my results with those, too.

About your art. I definitely like the richness of your darks...they look like chocolate ! The posture of the characters are great. Very stylized!

Christy/Tiddly Inks Digitals said...

Thanks all. Isaac and Mariskis, I agree with you.. I wil fix the lines pronto...afterall, photoshop is my friend. They can go away. LOL

I find that I am so absolutely bad at photography that even my worst scan is better than my best photo. It is discouraging all around! LOL I know about the ISO and it still never works for me. I am going to try a class or two when I get a chance.

I always want to add a disclaimer to my art that goes something like, "But, if you could see it in person, you would see that it is really nice." :)

sara.b said...

Hey Christy,
I too adore your huggabugs, the ones I've seen recently (which are the only ones I've seen), but a great stylization nonetheless. The colors are soft and sweet, the concept is beyond adorable...especially since that's a porcupine, and I'm a big fan of swirls. :)

The things that stand out to me are, one, what Isaac said about tangents. He also mentioned the spots outside the line work. I'm big in watercolor, you know that, and I actually like the fact that you can be very loose with it. But from what I see here that's buggin me is part of the scan issue. The tid bits of gray/purple is the texture from the watercolor paper (I'm assuming) and part of the clean up from the scan. Really get in there or play with brightness/contrast (I'd say masks but that's the one thing I never really learned in all...oh...12 years of photoshop). Your work is fantastic, don't let those little things bring it down. It's a technical issue...and man did I get harped with that in school. Sorry, can't help it, it's ingrained. :/

The last thing that sticks out to me, is it too me forever to find her eye. I understand the style of your huggabugs, but my suggestion would be...just bring the eyes up...just a bit. It's so close to the porcupine, and almost mimics the line right under it, that it's almost untraceable.

But other than those...beautiful colors, beautiful sentiment, beautiful concept. :)

Carmen Medlin said...

The whimsical style of this is great! I like how you handle colors, bright and good contrast, and good anchoring shadow so she isn't floating in space.
There is no crit I can add that the others have not said -- but a way you can clean up little specks that show up on your scans in Photoshop is to use the clone stamp tool. It's my best friend, lol -- my scanner is not the greatest either. It's an easy way to erase cat hairs off the scans, too! (ha)
I have had dismal results from trying to photograph my work -- glad some people here know how to do it correctly so I can learn as well.