“A New Galaxy”

Technique & Tools

I use an old Wacom tablet hooked up to an old, grumpy laptop and the program Autodesk Sketchbook to create my pieces! I always use tons of layers for shading and highlights, despite the crying from my laptop; I find this makes things much easier to control as any detailed shading isn’t suddenly blended away if i want to shade more “underneath” for example. Acid trip colors are obviously a must in all my work, I would be lost without them! In terms of brushes I actually use a very limited amount, although I do want to experiment with more; I mostly use a soft rounded bristle brush in different strengths and flows depending on if I’m doing line art, shading, shadows or highlights and blend it into submission >:). I usually use a watercolor brush for textured blush and accents and then add lots of silly stuff like sparkles, piercings, blood and bodily fluids yum!

Description

I chose this piece because I feel it shows my progress best, which I suppose is good considering it is one of my most recent! I’ve been pushing myself, now i’m comfortable with working digitally, to create more engaging work through my composition and environment; I want my pieces to feel more alive (a la Dr. Frankenstein). I made it for a “fantasy” theme because I’ve always found it interesting how space and the exploration of it treads the line between mystical, unknowable and intensely scientific and studied. We know so much but so little, not to mention, within a lifetime going to space still seemed like an impossible fantasy. Also I just love the space aesthetic, give me aliens (especially the horror kind), astro-babes and UFOs any day 😉

As i mentioned, I also chose this piece because I felt it represents my progress; I used to work only traditionally, mainly with watercolor, and never thought I would touch digital in my life, but I started having health issues which affected my ability to comfortably paint at a desk for extended periods so I started trying my hand at digital work. I sucked of course at first and for a while I was just trying to be as good as my past work, which I always saw as better unfortunately, but more recently I’ve noticed that working digitally allows me to experiment a lot more and push my style further than ever. I feel this piece captures that, there are a lot of elements I had never attempted to draw before and I just wanted to throw everything I could at it (for better or worse!). I’ve finally reached a point where I feel I’m looking forward with my art and where it can go in this digital medium instead of looking back and trying to emulate what I once had with my watercolor work!

Artist: @therabbitdied

WANT TO JOIN OUR GALLERY? CONTACT US ON SCIUPP.BLOG@GMAIL.COM!