Two things happened today. I just finished binge-watching the series Wednesday on Netflix, which put me in a kind of spooky mood. And I saw a Facebook reel that made me want to practice drawing trees.
I try to impose a time limit for myself when I work on these pieces. My first couple of ideas were time intensive, so I abandoned them early. I kept the skeletons of those ideas around though so that I can revisit them when I have some more time.
I’m not happy with this overall. There’s pieces of it I like, but plenty more pieces that make me cringe a little bit.
The moon
I’m really not jazzed about the moon. I couldn’t really find a brush or technique I like that would let me translate the image in my head onto my canvas. The colors are awesome, but I’m just not thrilled with the textures.
Like, yes, it gives spooky blood moon vibes. I love that. But it’s vastly different in style from the rest of the piece. So I’m distracted by the lack of cohesion in the overall work whenever I look at it.
This is part of the reason I’m putting myself through this torture, though. I want to create every day. I want to get used to putting up stuff that makes me cringe a little. Stuff that I have to criticize. Like this moon. This fucking moon.
The tree
I’m happy with the way I got the moonlight to hit the tree, and I love the creepy style of the branches. I love the depth that I put in there. But I’m not in love with the overall look and texture of the bark.
I used a lot of smudging in the tree rather than spending a lot of time layering strokes for texture, and I kind of regret that, especially given the way the moon turned out. You can also see hints of the original style I was going for at the edges. I wish I’d had the courage or the time to do exactly what ended up in my head.
Sometimes I hate creating digital art
The one downside to using my iPad rather than good old fashioned pencil and sketch paper is that I feel like I have far less feedback. When you’re working with real materials rather than digital materials, you can hear and feel the pressure you’re using. Digitally, everything just – glides.
I think that’s why digital art will never fully replace real art. Not because the end products aren’t good or because they can’t look natural. So much of art is about the journey in creating it. And digital art can sometimes feel lifeless and joyless compared to using real materials.
When I was working on this piece I kept longing for the smell of pastels. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as the sensation of smudging colors into one another with your own fingers. Or the intoxicating sound of my pencil scratching at the paper as I sketch out a composition.
Trying to create texture digitally is challenging when you can’t get all five senses involved in the process. Which is a challenge I’m up for, sure. But god damn do I want to invest in a good set of oil pastels ASAP.
And now I know what I really want to practice and work on with my digital art in the next few weeks.
