Over the past several months I immersed myself in the process of creating artwork with digital layers. Using Procreate on my I Pad Pro and Adobe Photoshop on my MacBook, I continued to learn more about the tools a tricks of masks, merging layers, spot healing and brushes.
The process that I use to create my layered paper cuts transformed well into the I Pad illustrations. I chose a color scheme and design, made a layer with each color and then erased the layer on top to show the color underneath. The dragonfly is a design I have been wanting to try for a while and I had hand drawn sketches to work from.
Layered Dragonfly created with erasing layers on Procreate
Then I created series of composite images using Photoshop. My writer friend, Amy Earls, wrote several short stories about the beautiful state of Oregon a couple of years ago and I have been wrestling with how to create illustrations inspired by her writings. I have sketched and taken hundreds of photos of sand, people, rocks, tide pools and views from the many vistas on the Oregon Coast. I thought initially I would created layered paper cuts of the stone wall, tall trees and ocean waves.
Adobe Illustrator drawing from several Oregon coast photographs.
Slowly my ideas morphed into something new. Using the hundreds of photographs from the coast, I chose images that were illustrative of the words and phrases in Amy’s story. “Stop at the stone wall and look at the tall trees standing around the cove that meets the ocean,” she says to start off her short story, Oregon Oceans. I wanted to embody the feelings that she expresses when she says “It is chilly here, but you do not mind. You have never felt this alive anywhere.” Each image was created with 4-5 photographs showing people engulfed in the beauty of the Oregon Coast.
The Oregon Coast Composite Images, 2019
I am excited to share my first Oregon composite images in a collaborative group show coming up this September. Catch it at Rudy’s Barbershop on SE Division in Portland.