Posted Images

I seem to have neglected to say anything about the images posted in the last blog. I apologize that I got so hung up on my rant about copyright violations and the protections I like to use.

All three images are examples of the techinque called "stippling." It is created by placing a series of dots, made by fine marker pens. In it's purest form, a stippled image will have absolutely no solid lines in the drawing. The dots are placed closer or farther appart to create the effects of shading and solidity, intensity or weakness of color. Stippling is often mistakenly called "pointilism." It is not exactly the same. Pointilism uses dabs and strokes of pure color. In both cases, it is left for the viewer's eye to "blend" the colors into reconizable forms, textures and colors. Examples of pointilism can be found in the works of Georges Seurat. Examples of stippling can be found in the portraits of every issue of the Wall Street Journal.

In the picture of the fish, there are no solid lines or colors drawn or painted. The fish are pure dots and the green background is just the color of the green construction paper on which the drawing was made. Even the "reflective" wave motion of the background was the result of a happy accident when the wetness of the densely packed dots caused the cheap construction paper to wrinkle when it dried. I liked the effect and was very pleased that it scanned in quite well.

The chicken was the result of other techniques and effects. The chicken, the fence and the circle in the background were all done with pure dots. After scanning in, I isolated these main elements and created the sky background and the eerie "tear" going into the globe in Photoshop. The blue to orange effect was simply a gradiated fill. The tear becomes obscured in the distance with the addition of a gausian blue applied via a gradiated mask selection. This image was done for a children's book illustration.

The carousel horse started off as another, "just for fun," image but was seen by one of my clients who bought the rights to use it in a brochure. It is an example of purest stippling with no solid lines or colors appearing anywhere on the image.

These are very labor intensive and can take several man hours to create. While the fish were completed in just a couple of hours, the chicken and the horse each took eight to ten hours to complete. I don't recall the exact time each took, but I recall that each was done over a couple of days.

In subsequent posts, I want to go back and discuss the issues involved with graphic design and related subjects, ESPECIALLY as they relate to commonly posted questions on Yahoo Answers. But I promise that I WILL post more of my images, including some photographic work and, discuss the technique and details that went in to their creation.

In the meanwhile, cheers!

luv,

vince