So about a week ago I mentioned that I would be entering an art contest… I didn’t. So… I did end up working on it all week, but add to that a whole lot of other things that for some reason all piled up together all that week, and I was completely stressed out. What’s strange is that it did bring back some memories of back when I was in high school. Back then I was always stressed out beyond belief. Having said all that I did manage to take care of all things or at the very least have them prepared so that I could finish it later. As for the contest itself, by the time I had something presentable that I wouldn’t feel too bad showcasing I only had one minute left. And to make things more annoying I couldn’t find the notebook with my passwords, although that wouldn’t have helped at all since I hadn’t created an account yet… I was so focused on getting so many things done on top of the picture for the contest that I forgot to do something so basic…

Had this been open to traditional techniques I would have been ok, but I had to use Corel Painter. That quickly became a problem seeing as I’m just barely getting used to Photoshop. So on top of thinking about what to draw and how to do it, I also had to learn how to use Corel at the same time. And that is time consuming. Despite all my efforts, I ran out of time by only a minute… It sucks, but I did pick up some new abilities and am now at least somewhat ready for the next contest.

For this contest the theme was “first day of school”. Going by the description I feel they wanted something that evoked feelings of going back to school (whatever that may have been for the artist). As for me, as I explained before I was really stressed out throughout most of my high school life due to the high amounts of schoolwork (among other things), but like most high schoolers I did at some point or another have a crush. And that alone helped ease the stress and give a reason to go to class and sometimes even look forward to it.

It’s funny, when I was in high school or younger I would probably be to embarrassed to even admit this.

That being said, this is what I came up with:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/30281173202/in/dateposted-public/

I had about an hour left when I got to this point, but if I was serious about actually having a chance of winning I had give it a background. And that is what I struggled with before I eventually got to this point:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/30311670511/in/dateposted-public/

Seeing as I was running out of time I used a cloning technique that Corel’s “Master Painters” use by using a picture/photo and turning it into brush strokes that change it’s look and feel depending on what brush and medium you use. But as you can see it still needs a lot of work. I actually decided to use this technique when I only had 10 minutes left and I knew i wouldn’t be able to make a background from scratch. At this point I would change a couple of colors to make it all match and maybe add some more details here and there.

Well that didn’t end up happening, but although I won’t be able to submit this to the art contest I do like what I have so far. It has the potential to become even better after some more work. But I do want to make some artwork for Halloween though. So I’ll probably let this one rest for a bit. Plus I’m still working on that Honedge.

Back to where the contest was being held, DrawCrowd seems to be somewhat new for artist to showcase artwork. And so far I’m really liking it. I really allows for people to see your work even if you happen to be  new to the site unlike Deviantart. With that being said I’ll probably start letting DeviantArt go and focus on Pixiv and DrawCrowd.

Last week I went to go collect some pictures of the fall scenery around my neighborhood before the leafs fall off completely. I took a good number of them. I will upload them to a separate Flickr account that will be filled with my photos that can be used for reference or whatever projects people feel like using them for. I guess I only ask that people say where they got the photo from, but in the end that will end up being the decision of the user/artist. But I don’t want to just dump pile them in there, I want to categorize them so that they are easy for people to find what they are looking for. My main goal is to someday have people collaborate in making this Flickr grow by providing photos of interesting and useful places, objects ect. that can be used freely by everybody that happens to stumble upon them. That’s the main goal I have for it, but for now I will start by just adding my collection. Hopefully that becomes useful to at least some of you.

That should be all for now, I really want to start working on the next piece for Halloween.

Hasta la próxima,

-Nube