Got this finished in time for the 4th of July. (Although as its not too holiday specific, I guess it could vary for any patriotic holiday.) I probably had the most fun with this piece so far. When I started I had hoped to complete the whole bit in Illustrator, as I enjoy how flexible vectors are, verses pixels. However, I realized the fireworks weren't going to work out and so moved to Photoshop.
I did make a bit of a step by step of how my process worked for this one. Its simple, but very effected.
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| This was my starting sketch, very small, quick. |
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| I put the sketch in Illustrator, here I added the lines. | |
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| So long as all lines connect, you can use Live Paint Bucket |
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| I then exported the life to Photoshop where I added shading. |
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| Add a background color (separate Layer) |
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| (New Layer) Add in your fireworks- these came as brushes. |
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| Make them look convincing. |
Step two, creating the line work, is what will take the longest. Depending on how precise you want your lines to be. After that, its all pretty much fun work and goes by pretty quickly. As long as you remember to do your separate layers, always the most important point! without those layers, you'll drive yourself crazy trying to make any changes to your piece. I think I ended up with about 20 layers for this card.
What matters is you have fun with, its art, its your own style, so nothing you do is wrong. There is never a boundary, like staying in the lines. My style, while a bit catroonish, is fun and expressive. I don't want my works to be too serious and weighted. I think this certainly shows it.
