I am messing around with procreate a little more, working through oil painting, and contemplating how I will sell some old stuff off by opening a store. Recently, I have been trying to journal a little more and record my thoughts about the work that I’ve been doing.
Digital
Feb 5, 2024
I was playing around with alpha lock on the layer. I want to get a better understanding of how to paint in #procreate. So, I understand that alpha lock will make it so that whatever is already present in that layer is then what can be “worked on top of”. It’s a kind of mask. Then I used freehand selection to quickly hash in shapes, but the color fill is like the paint bucket of old photoshop and such. But, with alpha lock, I can paint onto those filled in shapes with another brush selection like the watercolor brush that I tried today. I should also try using the selection tool and color fill to make a tonal painting and then using other brushes with alpha lock to get a texture on top.
For now, it looks like the only way to do different multiple color fills is to toggle the selection tool.
Jan 21, 2024
What I’ve learned so far
There are some nice tools to use from their Beginner series.
Use of alpha channel lock to draw/paint only on parts that have some existing paint and not have paint transparent parts of the layer
The Gaussian blur adjustment
Color drop and the separation radius
selection and Transform where we can warp objects
Some layer blending options like overlay and subtraction
Gestures
Two finger
Undo
Three finger
Redo
Clear layer with a grab and scrub
Custom color palette
Add color swatches
Remove swatches have to be when color is docked to bar
Using the same brush type from painting to erasing by long pressing on the eraser tool in the tool bar
Long pressing on canvas to use color picker
Potential uses for what I’ve learned
If I make use of fine lines in illustrations, I can then do many color drops to do fills. I may have to hold off on using the painting brushes except for flourishes and finishing touches because of the way it behaves as is in procreate.
So, I can make some sketches, take photos of them and then import them into procreate. Then I can trace over them and plan out my color palette.
Oil Painting
Feb 6, 2024
Yesterday, I started a study using some of the ideas I picked up from some Michael Carson pieces and what I’ve learned over time in alla prima.
The start was pretty good. Using some lean medium to help speed up the stain process is nice. Also, it helps let that initial coloring of the surface dry up quicker. However, it was pretty thin, so a lot of white from the gesso still showed through.
Carving out and drawing in the composition with a little bit more paint, I was using burnt sienna only to begin with, helped simplify the process. But, using the yellow ochre by itself was not quite as helpful when paired with the burnt sienna. I could heap a bunch on, but then there would be too much paint for when I want to make adjustments to the drawing or change the hues.
Speaking of adjustments, I did feel like after a while, I was playing it a bit safe with how I was trying to make the drawing more realistic. So things were falling back into some old habits. It feels a little like how things were when I was painting in Ken’s workshops. I guess that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I want to break out of that into something new. I want it to be more daring in its mark-making and the atmosphere more tangible.
Some of the paint shaping that I did later for the bottles in the background felt pretty good, though. They are catching the light in a way where they are becoming glare-y, but overall, it feels pretty good since I want them to remain in the background.
I do want to continue with some adjustments of the main figure and some of the bar and stool elements. I removed some paint from the face, especially the eyes because it was getting to be overloaded. This way, I can probably draw back in a little some of the details that I want. But, I do want it to reflect more of the sketches that I tend to do with how it’s constructed. Similarly for the rest of the figure, for example the feet and shoes. The bar could stand to be a little brighter and solid while the stools should feel like the fit under the bar a bit while also being out a little. It should feel like they are ready to welcome someone to a seat. Also, I’m not sure if I want to throw a figure behind the bar to be a bartender in the same way that I did the bottles.
For the most part, the paint application is pretty thin. It can be seen through to the lower layers and even the gesso layer. Also, the gesso wasn’t put on the best, because there are lumps and grooves in it. It does draw in the oil and medium pretty well, though. I do want to make the paint more solid and voluminous to really give it that atmosphere that I’m looking for. So, I think I will have to do some smaller areas and nail down the coverage. I do feel that if I go too heavy with the paint in one spot it might somehow unbalance things, but maybe I need to push through that. Since the coverage of the surface is lacking. I do still have to smooth out the topmost paint. It will keep the glare a little more uniform.
Well, it seems like some formatting from markdown files doesn’t transfer over to this new blog editor.