The inspiration for this picture came from my hometown of Bradley. I've lived across from a paper mill for about 13 years, and it's always been bothersome whether it be the sight or the smell of it. However, at dusk when the sun sets, the colors are just amazing. There is the usual, yet classic, yellows and oranges, and sometimes even bright pinks and purples, making the sky look as if it were actually painted. I've kind of thought of it as sort of a blend between machine and nature, and a beautiful one at that.
The picture itself was actually quite easy to make; but, while I was drawing, I'd be unsatisfied with the way I smudged something, or whether or not an object seemed out of place. I first started out by using a gradient for a background, I thought that a sort of bright orange slowly blending into pitch black would serve as a good background for a dusk setting. The black bottom which takes up about 1/5 of the screen and that all the building are connected to was just made with the rectangle tool and the free select tool (to carve out various shapes) . I also used the rectangle tool to create the smokestacks, as well as the the antenna on the wide building and the power lines running horizontally through the bottom section of the picture. The smoke took me the longest time to do, because it was the part where I was never satisfied with either the blend of the black and the orange, or the puffiness of the smoke itself. I basically started out with the paint tool and tried to the get soon-to-be smoke as close to the top of the smokestacks as I could, then I simply smudged the edges to my liking. I decided on mixing in some orange into the smoke on the sides and top, to give it the appearance of the sun shining on it and making even something as bad as mill smoke look beautiful. The birds in the right-hand corner of the drawing were made using the galaxy tool and smudging each dot carefully until they looked as though they had wings. As for the small building next to them, rectangle tool and calligraphic brush. Nuff said.
I really like this one. The silhouette composition is really nice , and the streamlined style is really beautiful. You said you were frustrated at how long it took to make the smoke, but it really paid off. The orange and black may not be blended much but it's enough. Was there a certain brush you used to blend with because the smug tool for me just made things muddy? I wasn't able to drag color.
ReplyDeleteAll I really did was smudge around the edges a bit. The smudge tool is strange, because it uses the brush tool that you used last to smudge. All that I used was the circular brush, but I've found that the airbrush tool works pretty good as well.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really cool photo Cody, how long did this take you?
ReplyDeletethis is really good. i thought that it was a legitimate picture at first! good job!
ReplyDelete