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| Please provide a profile of yourself. How long have you been working in art/design, what do you specialize in, have you won any other awards? |
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I feel like I have been into design forever! I remembered when I was a kid, all my notebooks would be filled with a lot of drawings--they go over the notes actually. When I realized it was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life, I took Painting as a major for college. I'm currently working as a product designer/graphic artist, although I'm still dreaming of becoming something really cool like a comic book penciler, concept artist for video games, or runway model (just kidding haha, I'm not qualified). This is really my first major award. I've only been a finalist for a few local art contests. I think I specialize more on digital artworks, although everything I do starts with a scanned freehand pencil sketch.
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| What kind of pen tablet, art/design software do you use? How long have you been using it? |
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I've been using Photoshop since I was in college, perhaps more or less 6 years now, and recently I'm starting to learn Painter. As for my pen tablet, I'm using an Intuos3 6x8 at work (for a year now), and a Graphire4 4x5 (for a couple of months) for my personal endeavors...like my entry for the Holiday Season contest.
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| Where did you get the idea for this entry? |
| I was very excited when I first heard of the theme for this competition. I wanted mine to be touching but vibrant at the same time, something unique, and in a form I'm very interested in. It didn't take long for me to use a stained-glass look as a style, I've been very impressed by these magnificent windows since I was young, so I thought now would be a good time to make it (at least on 2D). Every time I went to a church or cathedral my eyes would just get fixated on their stained-glass windows. Coincidentally (or not) what I do for my job are also stained-glass related. |
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| Why did you use this theme? |
| I was very excited when I first heard of the theme for this competition. I wanted mine to be touching but vibrant at the same time, something unique, and in a form I'm very interested in. It didn't take long for me to use a stained-glass look as a style, I've been very impressed by these magnificent windows since I was young, so I thought now would be a good time to make it (at least on 2d). Every time I went to a church or cathedral my eyes would just get fixated on their stained-glass windows. Coincidentally (or not) what I do for my job are also stained-glass related.
I was impressed by works of Tiffany, the famous stained-glass artisan during the art-nouveau era. I wanted to have a single human icon that would be the main focal point of the rather complicated, piece by piece artwork. Then I thought of doing a child, a street vendor, and yet I wanted her to be beautiful, happy and with a lively demeanor. After all, I've always believed that everyone is happy during Christmas, because during this time peoples happiness is not about who they are or what they do, it simply is Christmas (for what it truly means), and that is good enough reason to smile for. |
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| Did you use a pen tablet to make this? How did you use it (i.e. what software did you use to make it)? |
This work is done entirely using Photoshop. The first thing I did was to draw the basic composition of the window on paper, penciled lightly (there certainly would be a lot of changes). It had to simulate a real stained-glass window, which is made up of countless pieces of colored glass held together by lead. After scanning it I made a separate layer over the sketch for the thick black outline, have it embossed (layer options), so it would seem as if it was the lead. Then I made another layer under that, and started filling it with color. To give the glass pieces more depth I would stain the base color of every single part individually (brush opacity is set at about 30%) with different colors. Then I used the dodge and burn tool, to create shiny parts and darkened parts respectively. It gives it a more “pieced” effect, rather than just looking as if it's just one big single piece of glass. After this I adjusted the color balance of this layer to add more yellow and red, it somehow unifies all the colors as real glass would if it was lighted from behind. A few painted glow effects at the top and edges finishes the look.
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| Do you use the pen tablet with a mouse or just a pen tablet? |
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When I navigate my PC I just use my mouse, but when I'm working on artworks it's just my pen tablet. |
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| Is there any special way that the pen is different from the mouse in the software that you use? |
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I just recalled using the mouse for Photoshop artworks before, and how my hand and wrist hated me! Not to mention the artworks being a bit flat, because I don't think the mouse knows anything about pressure sensitivity…move it gently or smack it up and down will produce the same brushstroke weight I think. Using the pen tablet is incomparably easier, in a more natural way. Your movements are as how you'd actually draw on paper. |
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| How do you program the buttons on the pen and the buttons on the tablet? |
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No programming was necessary for mine. I use it as it is. |
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| Do you work only on computers? If not, what other types of art tools do you use? How are they better or worse than the pen tablet? |
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don't exclusively work on computers. I think it's quite important to understand the traditional method first. Usually, I start off with a pencil sketch on paper then later color it digitally. Although, I've actually forgotten using other traditional mediums to color artwork ever since I started using the pen tablet! It's just that it's so easy to use, no matter what medium (almost everything has a digital counterpart), all you need is to just get used to it and it's all up to your imagination. Plus, there are virtually no mistakes. Just use the undo command or go to the history panel and everything is good to go. |
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