By Bianca Gubalke

Digital Art

There is no mystery in Art - whether digital or not: clearly, before ‘improvisation’ and the absolute freedom of creating just anything, even a blanc canvas with nothing but a signature on it! - before this comes the dedicated and disciplined learning of a technique… and then it’s like the piano player: Practice! Practice! Practice!

It takes the Passion of an artist by heart, a Vision inside of what needs to be expressed and shared with the world out there, that keeps these individuals going and focused on the path that ultimately leads to Excellence - but with no guarantees. Money comes second; it’s needed to keep the mind on what counts most: a Passion and its expression.

Graphic Computer Programs

Today, we can draw and paint on our computer like we used to with conventional brushes, pencils and paints. Yes, there is a difference - and in my view a good one: no more sore eyes from breathing in all those chemicals and no more need to spend hours getting the paint off one’s fingers, hands, face, brushes, the easle, the wall and the floor… and the cat that happily walked through red and yellow turning the blue carpet into a Matisse.

Today there are highly sophisticated graphic computer programs that are simply mind-blowing tools. I say tools - as it’s still the person behind them who creates what appears on the screen. The Vision is there first… then add to it Skill, Knowledge and Talent - well, it’s here where things happen…

As I wrote in a recent article on Digital Advertising: this is a market on the rise and what I personally see as possibilities - especially the way the Internet is developing NOW with better streaming possibilities - WOW! this is something I wish to be part of!

Years back I was deeply disappointed and ultimately totally put off by the fact that even the best designs - say on ADOBE Photoshop - were ‘too heavy’ and ‘too slow’… All the work done was good as an exercise - but unsuitable for the net. Photoshop was designed for offline advertising… and it still stands out as the absolute ‘must-have-must-know’ tool in my view. But with the rapid evolution of Web 2.0 this has changed… and I am thrilled to see good designs more often on the Internet - and this will accelerate heavily in the near future.

And there are incredible 2D and 3D Programs out there now - and no modern movie is made without them.

So whoever is interested in this area needs to start somewhere - learn - and practise! Practise! Practise!

While I advise anyone serious about this path to get into Photoshop and while I am refining my skills there continuously, it’s good to get a hand on other graphic programs as well to widen the horizon. Interestingly, I had to abandon the idea of learning to control ONE program perfectly first before attacking the next… I listened to good and experienced masters in the field who advise to rather learn several programs simultaneously. I must admit it keeps the spirit moving in a very ‘youthful’ and pro-active way and it’s absolutely true that one moves faster that way in grasping concepts that may be overwhelming in the beginning but that apply to many programs.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg… it’s quite somewhere else I want to get… but first it’s about Basics.

Digital Landscapes

As some of my readers asked where I was finding “… all my ideas” and all those “… landscapes” my answer is: ideas come when I get to work, that’s part of the Passion. The landscapes are part of this ‘creative process’.

Please note that I am just beginning and learning 3D, but these landscapes are all created from O, from nothing… I had this program for years and never took the time to get into it - now I am. Now it’s about working with ‘meshes’ and ‘planes’, round or cylindrical shapes…  and giving them forms, shapes, textures, perspective depth and shadows etc and then adding light… while observing views from all angles - Director’s, Camera, Top, Sides, Bottom, Back - adding, changing and finally rendering.
Brief: it’s about developing something where there was nothing before - nothing but an inner image that wanted to show itself to the world.

Here’s a simple example I was working on last night… and it gave me quite a headache until I found why I struggled in the first place. I wanted to create a landscape with 2 mountains and a lake. This seems simple enough and in 2D you just go and draw and paint… but this is 3D - it all happens in space, with light and shadow and reflections. And jeeez… sort of ‘false’ perspectives to help identify object. Imagine 3 different boxes, one on top of the other, seen from the top. What do you do to select the one in the middle? The top one covers it…? Ta! See… good I learned Patience on the Internet. . .

Here I show you the raw images that I create in a 3D program (BRYCE 5) as a preparation for then doing the fine work in ADOBE Photoshop where I can be much more precise and where I have tons of adjustment options, especially through working with layers and of course the fine tools. And bear in mind this is all done with a mouse - not the professional WACOM Intuos4 I AM going to get soon :))) Not only is it professional BUT such a fantastic way to work with… ’simply indispensable’ as the French say.

Digital Art - Preparation Seascape 1

IMAGE 1

While the above seascape (raw image, untouched) may be attractive in itself, my plan to create a landscape with 2 mountains and a lake flopped as I didn’t get the water into the well prepared hole in the rock and sand.  In case an accomplished Pro is reading this I see the big laugh… the one that comes after trying again and again until “it works”.

And if you don’t believe me, put on your wet suit and dive down… then you will see the crater I created… however, I guess it must have been the rain here that developed into an ocean… ready to absorb Noah’s Ark…

Well… as it was midnight by then I decided to dream with the ocean and get up early and try again…

IMAGE 2

Today, 6 am… here I am grabbing a coffee and my courage and I start all over again: a landscape with 2 mountains and enough space for a lake. This time, I changed the resolution of my work screen (I no longer use the large Vista Vision). Again, this is a raw image - untouched by Photoshop. And I worked in a much smaller format (530 width) to save on rendering time - I just wanted to learn how to do it! That lake I mean!

So far so good…

IMAGE 3

BINGO! There is my crater. . . the one you could have seen underwater on Image 1 as well… before the floods :) And you thought I simply take a pen and draw the lake? No no. . . this is 3D and what I did was basically create a negative mould that became the crater… like a mountain turned upside down… and you see it’s still empty. No rains here… not yet!

But then I did my “Rain Dance”… and the floods came…indeed :(

IMAGE 4

Remember that movie with Robert Redford - “Durch die Mitte fliesst ein Fluss” ? Well, that’s how I felt when I saw my first shot.  but I knew I was on the right path… at least this wasn’t an ocean… here I went to activate my “Wireframe underground button”, get into Front View and carefully move the water plane along the Y and Z axis (. . . I had to laugh at that one. . .) until I got the desired result in the minuscule Nano Preview, meaning this:

IMAGE 5

FINALLY! The water is in the lake! While I am not yet happy with the texture of the water itself, I have it all in place so I can work on improving that… and then do the refinements in Photoshop.

Wouldn’t this make a fine oasis with some palms and a camel caravan snaking down from the mountains?

Which reminds me of that hot tea I wanted to have since a while… am going to get it now! The sun is just setting here in beautifully rose-golden colours and I can’t wait to start working on my fresh “raw material”… changing the colours, the mood, the feeling… until. . .

It’s all about Emotion. . . meaning ENERGY IN MOTION!

IMAGE 6

OOOPS… this became a landing platform for pink penguins - but it can change in a snap!

I hope you enjoyed this little excursion that shows the beginning of a process of creating a very realistic picture - something you could later easily take for a photo… but with our modern tools you just never know!

Although I want my NIKON Coolpix P90 . . . I won’t be able to get to Egypt or Fantasialand faster than with my Magic Toolbox!

Your comments are appreciated!

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