100 Styles 11 - Lovely Lines - Basic Lines

Basic line effect (Click the image to see it bigger)

This weeks theme is lines, and it's important to notice that it's "lines" and not "strokes", as strokes isn't the only way to create line, and as evidenced by today's post, not always the best way to achieve the effect you're looking for. With that said, let's not waste any more time on words, read on to get info on today's effect and to be able to download the style file.

Experiment 131: Pig or The Ghost of Motivations Past

Created in Artrage 2.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Decided it was time to play around in Artrage again, it was a while since the last time I did that. And after some playing around this creature started to appear.

While on the topic of Artrage I've got to say that I'm really looking forward to the next version that's just been announced, sounds really interesting.

Experiment 127: Mother of cities

Created using my camera, Photoshop CS4 Extended and my Intuos 3

Another example of seeing things... I took an object, photographed it, and manipulated the image a bit (adding the sky) and now it's something completely different.

Experiment 126: Dancing petals

Created in Photoshop CS4 Extended

Another "happy accident", or perhaps not all that accidental, a lot of fun experimenting before I got to this though. (If anyone is interested I can provide a bit more detailed description ;-) )

Experiment 121: Flow or control

Created using Photoshop CS4 Extended and Artrage 2.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Played around a bit in Photoshop with a pretty basic round paint brush and a bit more intricate smudge brush. Then over to Artrage for some pencil fun :-) Seems like this weeks trend.

Experiment 117: Medieval birds

Created in Photoshop CS4 Extended using a Wacom Intuos 3

Recently I happened to stumble upon a list of online versions of Medieval Manuscripts and since I really like that kind of style I started to take a look at a few of them (I cannot say I can read Medieval Latin so I'm mostly looking at the pictures ;-) ). After a while happened to find an interesting pattern, and thought I'd do something with it. I've more or less just traced the pattern and put it on a different background, so why do I call it an experiment? Well, one thing about the original image is that the library where the manuscript is put its exlibris on the image (as you can see in the original ), the most important reason is that compared to doing the stuff I usually do, which is far more loose and mostly just throwing lines around and see what I get, this is something I'm not used to. Doing something interesting with a pattern that already exists, and trying to "make it my own". (Not in the sense that I'm trying to say that I'm the original creator, but in the sense that I've added something of my own style, something of myself, in this picture.)

I gotta add that it was kinda contemplative to sit there tracing those lines too, so it sure was a nice experience. I can recommend it ;-)

Something different again

I have something that I'm working on, but as I'm not finished I'd thought I'd post something else while I work on that. Some years ago I designed the look of the dragon-and-food and my mother (or rather her sewing machine) did the work :-) (The Swedish words on top means "Erik's kitchen")

Experiment 116: A Brilliant Future

Created in Illustrator CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended using a Wacom Intuos 3

Began experimenting with Illustrator's warp tool and after a while and some time in Photoshop this is the result. And though my mistakes show up in the large view (seen by clicking on the above image) I recommend that you take a look at it as the preview doesn't really show some of the nicer details.

Experiment 104: French cheese

Created in Photoshop CS3 Extended using a Wacom Intuos 3

Playing a bit with Photoshops brushes to get a more organic look to it, and playing a bit with prejudices too :-) (Namely that French people would have moustaches and like cheese =) )

Experiment 93: Green

Created in Photoshop CS3 Extended using a Wacom Intuos 3

With a perhaps somewhat uninspiring title here is the latest picture in my series of experiments with the warp tool. (I've used more features in this picture than the former ones, layer masks among others, but am still trying to keep the simplicity.)

Day 88: Flames in fractal landscape

Created in Photoshop CS3 Extended using a Wacom Bamboo

Playing with "fractal brushes" again :-) And yeah, fractal landscapes refer to the brushes rather than the landscape, the landscape is not fractal in and of itself.

Day 85: A distant reality

Created in Photoshop CS3 Extended using a Wacom Intuos 3

Sometimes when you look out into space you can see strange things, I'd be surprised if you've seen something like this though :)
This is not at all like what I started out making, but I like the way it turned out so I'm not sorry about that.

Day 68: Worms in hats 5

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Today it's a hat in the more traditional sense, the decorations aren't necessarily all that traditional though.

Day 66: Worms in hats 3

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

As a worm doesn't have any hands she has to hold the torch and tablet in her mouth :-)
(And just to be sure this doesn't get misunderstood: This is in no way an attempt to ridicule the Statue of Liberty or America or anything at all, it's simply a "wormification" of a known statue. The Statue of Liberty is actually interesting to read about, one place to do that is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_liberty )

Day 63: Fight the fire

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

About as abstract as it gets, an axe above a volcano =)

Day 54: Bird on vacation

Created in Inkscape using a Wacom Intuos 3

Even birds need to go on vacation sometimes, and this one is so exhausted that he falls right down on the sandy beach to relax.

I noticed some minor stuff I should've fixed, but it's a quarter past midnight here, so you'll have to survive =)

Day 48: Earth dragon

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Number three in the element dragons series: The Earth dragon. I though earth would be really hard to portray, but I'm satisfied with this, though it could double as a tree trunk dragon too =)

Day 41: Looking up 4

Created in Inkscape 0.45 using a Wacom Intuos 3

See below for Swedish version of this text. Se nedan för svensk version av texten.

A variation on the theme I began three days ago, please read more about it here: Day 38: Looking up in case you haven't already, there you can also read about the little competition I'm having. And considering that the only guess I've received so far was "a shark with giant ears", something I can assure you I don't have in my apartment, don't hesitate to guess even if it might seem strange.

-\/\/_SWEDISH_\/\/-

En variation på temat jag började med för tre dagar sedan, läs gärna mer om det här: Day 38: Looking up om du inte redan har gjort det, där kan du också läsa om den lilla tävling som jag har för tillfället. Och apropå den är den enda gissning jag fått in än så länge "en haj med väldigt stora öron" och det har jag verkligen inte i min lägenhet, så gissa även om det kan verka dumt, vem vet du kanske gissar rätt.

Day 32: Harmony in F dur

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

I don't really know enough about music to tell whether this is F dur or something else =) but I do know that "Harmony in F dur" is a better title than "Harmony in yellow dur" which was my first choice. (Especially since the final result turned out not to be very yellow at all)

Day 27: Oh well

Created in Artrage 2.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

The "Oh well" in the title is not a sign that I don't like this picture but rather a pun. The effect is a bit 3D-looking and thus the "well" :)