Digital Art

Welcome to my digital art page! I started making digital art in 2019. I was working another job at the time and I started to notice people on the Internet making art and I yearned to have that type creative passion. So, I started creating art in my free time. I particularly liked the anime style of art and so I started creating my own illustrations based off of popular media. I used Adobe Photoshop for about 2 years and made a conscious effort to draw almost every day. I eventually switched to the Procreate application for illustration on iPad. My first few drawings are obviously a bit embarrassing, since I am still a relatively new artist. But, through loads of repetition and patience, I have reached the place I am at today.

In fact, digital art has been life changing for me. During the past year, I have been able to connect with other digital artists who make art for their career. After speaking with them and hearing their experiences, they are what really motivated me to start going to college. I have decided that I wanted to get a formal education on it in order to make my art even more marketable. I would also like to learn the ins and outs of the art industry and figure out my place in the art world!

I decided to teach myself how to use Blender (a 3D computer graphics software) during my winter break. It was definitely a challenge since I have never designed a 3D project before. After a plethora of Youtube videos, I ended up creating a typeface that is a snake spelling out the word "python". I started off by sketching out a few designs for the snake body. It took me quite a few tries to find a design that did not look too cluttered and was legible. I reached the current design after using a fountain pen and becoming familiar with the flow of the word. I then molded a Nurbs curve in Blender to make the body of the snake modeled off of my design. The scales and belly of the snake were made from images produced by recursive and spiral art programs using the Turtle module in Python. I took a very long time looking up hex colors during this part! Next, I took the images they created and manipulated them in Photoshop so they were not as pixelated. Then, I wrapped the "skin" of the snake onto the 3D model in Blender and added studio lighting to the whole thing. I ended up creating a short animation of a camera rotating around the text, which is shown above. I would eventually like to add a head to the snake, but I am very happy with what I have created so far. I will be implementing this project in my Undergraduate Scholarship Conference presentation that will take place this spring (2022).

In my 2-D Design class, I designed a gig poster for a made-up band named “Revenge on Ithaca.” The band received this name because the poster depicts Circe, a minor goddess from ancient Greek mythology. According to Madeline Miller's version of the story in her book Circe, she was exiled to the island of Aeaea after turning another goddess into a sea monster. She became very attuned to the nature of her island and in turn honed her potent magical powers. Visitors would wash up on her shore at times, but often they were brute men that she turned into pigs when they would make forceful advances on her. One of the men that came to her island was Odysseus from the island of Ithaca and they ended up becoming lovers. He eventually had to leave her to return to his wife on Ithaca and much drama ensued after this due to the fact that Circe was pregnant with his child. Therefore, this is where the poster received its name, as Circe felt, understandably, heartbroken from the incident. She is a very powerful feminine figure and I attempted to portray this sentiment in the poster using the principles of shape, color, and line. This piece was very fun for me to make, especially since I love her story. My inspiration for the art style was Aubrey Beardsley, who also used contour lines and black, white, and sometimes red in his pieces. I am very happy and proud of how it came out and it is even hanging on my bedroom wall right now!

I would say the piece I am most proud of is "Medusa's Daughter". It took me about 3 weeks to finish and it was the first time that I added intricate details to a background on one of my works. I am absolutely in love with the color scheme I chose also, as I believe the popping colors add to the magical effect of it. I am currently working on "Thinking About You", and I hope to add a big city apartment type background to it with just as much detail. I am excited for this piece since I have recently been trying to go for a more realistic style. Here is a work-in-progress picture of it below!

The video below shows my drawing of the fictional Minotaur from ancient Greek mythology, which is something that I am very interested in! I read a lot about this subject and I have a lot of fun transferring the images I see in my mind onto a visual plane. This video also shows what it looks like to draw on an iPad, using my Apple pencil. You can hear the sound the pencil makes as I draw on my matte screen protector. I chose this protector for the satisfying sound and for the fact that it allows my hand to slide across the screen easier while drawing.