want more texture in your art? here's how... (+ wallpapers & speedpaints) (Patreon)

hello!

process-enjoyers, I am back with, you guessed it, some good ol' behind the scenes business how it's made theme starts playing. this month is all about continued experiments with mixed media and digital collage all in the name of adding texture, which I simply can't get enough of. I'm like a fiend, a hound if you will, sniffing out any opportunity I can find to inject my digital art with delicious texture. my method is really easy and even more excitingly, can be used over and over again in new ways. read on to find out more!

speedpaint is up top, wallpapers are at the bottom. enjoy~

song credits:

Don't Miss It / James Blake

I'll Come Too / James Blake

₊˚❀༉‧₊˚.

you already know the drill, we start with what? the reference board of course. this is just a nice way for me to pull anything that catches my curiosity in the moment, gather them in one place, and start to pick out patterns and themes as I ask myself why something seems interesting to me. I try to stay open to any ideas that may come up and not get too caught up in any one thing so I can better explore possible approaches to take.

I then do super rough sketches of artwork ideas that are popping up in my head. I like to keep things simple and stay away from adding detail at this point, because it's more important for me to focus on the overall feel/impact of a piece (mainly in the composition). things like colors and character are largely irrelevant at this point.

you can watch the rest of my painting process in the speedpaints above!

a fun perk that has come out of my experiments with mixed media is getting more mileage out of one thing. for example, I've been making paintings in my sketchbook that once I scan in or take a photo of can then be used infinitely for my digital artworks. I like to use them to add texture, usually in the background, and think they give so much vitality to pieces that can otherwise feel too flat or one note, something of an eternal struggle/limitation I have with digital art.

I've already gotten so much out of this painting and have used it in multiple pieces already! I use the transform tool to stretch and move the piece to use different areas and will adjust things with hue/saturation/lightness to get the exact color I want for a specific artwork.

it really feels like the uses are endless, it's really fun to see all the different ways one piece can be transformed into other artworks. I like how it feels like all art is just building on other art, that making something is just a continuation in a long line of other people making art. it feels like an ongoing conversation and there's something about that that is rather comforting.