My First Art Post! This Is A Massive Dump Of My Works Dating From 2021 To Today, 2024. This Is For Anyone

I M P O S S I B L E

Late Easter post in Tumblr! I’ve been itching to post this. And I still don’t want this weekend to be over, to be honest. Faber Castell and Simbalion Watercolors on Hue & Ai Mix Media paper.  Update: Someone recently reposted my art without crediting me, so I updated my watermark.

You still have Jesus!

Just felt like sharing my art progress over the years. It's kind of crazy how much and how little has changed, lol. If you ever feel bad about your own art, compare it to much older pieces! It might surprise you how much has improved incrementally.

I'm obsessed with the way different architectural styles reflect different aspects of God.

Like, gothic? The spires and the stained glass and the pointed arches? The gargoyles on the outside of churches, signifying that the demons can't enter into a sacred space? It's grand, almost foreboding. It sings in the piercing, ethereal song of the dryads of old, "He is not safe, but He is good."

And then there is romanesque, and it is God as fortress, God as bulwark. Round arches, heavy stones. Sturdy, safety, support. It sings in low Gregorian chant, "God is my strong tower, my refuge."

And then there is Baroque. And your breath stalls in your throat, and your heart does something strange because, oh—oh this must be what heaven looks like. It's dazzling, marvelous, almost a dream. And its song is not in words because there are no words to express it except "Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus." But its chorus is celestial all the same. It is God as Divine Beauty, the source from which all beauty flows.

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇 ANTI DEPRESSION BAT ATTACK 🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇 🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇

Since we keep getting "live action" CGI remakes of already perfectly adequate animated movies, and because people need to understand that animation is a medium and not a genre, I have prepared this primer about the importance of Visual Language for Conveying Information.

Can you tell what the personalities of these two mice are?

Can you tell now?

Which of these two tigers feels safer to be around?

Which of these three dogs is the funniest one?

If you can answer these questions, then you already have experience with the idea of visual language and stylistic choices being used to impart narrative meaning. If you can understand why these choices were made to impart meaning, then you can understand why animation is a medium for telling stories that has its own inherent value, and is not merely a "placeholder" for the eventual implementation of photorealistic presentation (aka "Live Action" CGI). Animation does not need to be "corrected" or "legitimized" by remaking it into the most representational simulation of observable reality.

Samwise Gamgee is the ultimate icon for friends of people with disability imo. I can't take your arthritis for the day, but I can walk behind you up the stairs and make your coffee. I can't take your adhd while you're working on this assignment, but I can help you stay on task. I can't take your depression upon myself for a bit, but I can come over to your house and help clean your room and listen to you. No, I can't absorb some of your memory loss issues, but I can remind you of things and save you a seat when you're running late. Yes, I know it's a lot, and yes, I know it's a heavy burden to bear, and no, I can't carry it for you. But I can carry you.

...that your audience won't hate.

This is a method I started using when NFTs were on the rise - thieves would have to put actual work into getting rid of the mark - and one that I am now grateful for with the arrival of AI. Why? Because anyone who tries to train an AI on my work will end up with random, disruptive color blobs.

I can't say for sure it'll stop theft entirely, but it WILL make your images annoying for databases to incorporate, and add an extra layer of inconvenience for thieves. So as far as I'm concerned, that's a win/win.

I'll be showing the steps in CSP, but it should all be pretty easy to replicate in Photoshop.

Now: let's use the above image as our new signature file. I set mine to be 2500 x 1000 pixels when I'm just starting out.

Note that your text should not have a lot of anti-aliasing, so using a paint brush to start isn't going to work well with this method. Just use the standard G-Pen if you're doing this by hand, or, just use the text tool and whichever font you prefer.

Once that's done, take your magic wand tool, and select all the black. Here are the magic wand settings I'm using to make the selections:

All selected?

Good.

Now, find a brush with a scattering/tone scraping effect. I use one like this.

You can theoretically use any colors you want for this next part, but I'd recommend pastels as they tend to blend better.

Either way, let's add some color to the text.

Once that's finished,

You're going to want to go to Layer Property, and Border Effect

You'll be given an option of choosing color and thickness. Choose black, and go for at least a 5 in thickness. Adjust per your own preferences.

Now create a layer beneath your sig layer, and merge the sig down onto the blank layer.

This effectively 'locks in' the border effect, which is exactly what we want.

Hooray, you've finished your watermark!

Now let's place that bad boy into your finished piece.

You'll get the best mileage out of a mark if you can place it over a spot that isn't black of white, since you'll get better blending options that way. My preference is for Overlay.

From here, I'll adjust the opacity to around 20-25, depending on the image.

If you don't have a spot to use overlay, however, there's a couple other options. For white, there's Linear Burn, which imho doesn't look as good, but it still works in a pinch.

And for lots of black, you have Linear Light

Either way, you're in business!

EDIT since this has escaped my usual circles, and folks aren't as familiar with my personal usage:

An example of one of my own finished pieces, with watermark, so you can see what I mean about 'relatively unobtrusive'-- I try to at least use them as framing devices, or let them work with the image somehow (or, at the very least, not actively against it).

I know it's a bummer for some people to "ruin" their work with watermarks, which is part of the reason I developed this mark in particular. Its disruption is about as minimal as I can make it while still letting it serve its intended purpose.

There's other methods, too, of course! But this is the one I use, and the one I can speak on. Hope it helps some of you!

Some concept art of my character, Kira, inspired by the cartoony style of Rise of TMNT.

This user has Misophonia