My Experience Between Digital And Hand Drawing

Digital design is one of my favourite things. I find drawing on Photoshop a lot more productive than drawing in a sketchbook. I guess that is because I am a bit of a perfectionist – I can delete bit’s I do not want and add in more layers in on Photoshop. I find that I use my sketchbook as a starting point, as well as photography. I draw or capture something that interests me, a view, a nice print, flowers, nature, landscapes etc. I then always scan that in and use it as a starting point to create a design.

Photo I took at YSP

Sketchbook drawing of picture above

design from picture and sketch above

another design inspired by same picture and sketch

First I took a photo, from the angle I wanted to draw from. Then I sat and drew it, Quickly, Messy. I then scanned my sketch in and worked on it in Photoshop. Using layers, different brushes, filters and hue/saturation.  From early on in my art education I knew I loved working with colour’s. It makes every design look better. I feel like if it was my work without the colour it simply would not be my work at all.  This design was one of the first designs I created at university and did not include much technical education at all. The second design I created inspired by the same picture and sketch. I liked to rotate layers around to create a more repeatable pattern rather than just a block type ‘picture/print.’

photography from granddads garden

photography from granddads garden

sketchbook work inspired by the falling leaves at YSP

When doing my commercial designer project I wanted to create a print for fashion or interiors. I want all my work to have a signature look therefore I kept it colourful! I took plenty of pictures of flowers as my focus was on nature. I also kept in mind the leaf inspired sketches I did in my sketchbook with inks and watercolours. Combining my photography and sketching together I wanted to create a colourful layered up design.

Design inspired by photography and sketchbook work above

Using layers, The lasso tool (to select and copy area’s to new layers), Gradients, hue/saturation, filters, curves and many more tool’s I create the design above. I was really happy with the outcome of the design. I played around with layers and moving them around, This caused the hue/saturation and curves to effect more or less area’s depending on where I moved the layer’s. Being able to edit my work gives me a peace of mind as I know I can edit it until I like the outcome. I can not do this just drawing in a sketchbook and the worst feeling in the world is spending time on a drawing and hating the outcome of it. I also love being brave with colour in my work and digital design allows me to do that freely, I also like adding filters to create texture in my work, This is not always easy when drawing by hand. I have found a way of working where I can practice photography, drawing and my digital design skills and I am really happy with this way of working. I will always keep a sketchbook for my hand drawings as I can always use this as inspiration or a starting point for many digital designs.