The Idea
I was in New York for New Year's and had a fabulous time visiting various art galleries including the Met, The Guggenheim, and a few other smaller galleries! I felt so inspired and I was sure to take a ton of pictures of things I liked, interesting shapes, and other things in general that I might want to paint.
As we were leaving our hotel (The Standard High Line) I took this really snazzy picture of it! Once back home in North Carolina, I was scrolling through my gallery looking for inspiration and decided that’s what I wanted to paint. I wanted to create a piece that used a few of the most prominent shapes featured in the picture but with a unique color scheme.
Although I had initially considered creating this as a painting, I decided to utilize Procreate since the piece would primarily feature precise straight lines. Since I was going into this not knowing anything about using this application, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out just how convenient this approach was. However, it did take a lot of trial and error.
The following documents the start of my journey using Procreate!
Draft One - 50 minutes of doing things the hard way
I considered using a blue, gray, and white color scheme that matched the original colors of the photograph but it wasn’t bringing me joy. During this draft I was literally zooming in to every little area to make the lines as straight and precise as possible. Since I didn’t understand the importance or function of “layers”, I ran into problems such as the colors filling in wrong when using the fill color tool. After much confusion and frustration…I decided to scratch the whole page, actually research how to use this application, and then started a whole new page.
The first few things I learned:
Two shapes that are touching will fill together
If shapes are in separate layers, that doesn’t happen
There is a stabilizer setting in the brush settings
The app automatically screen records
There is a specific image quality setting you should choose before starting
You don’t have the option to change the quality settings afterwards
Draft Two - 2 hours of almost getting it right
I started my second draft thinking that I would create each shape in a different layer, make each shape a bright color just to see what I’m working with, and then figure out the color scheme in the end.
Now mind you, I don’t have a working Apple Pencil at this point so I’m going in using my finger with the stabilizer settings at max but I’m still zooming into each section to do the outlines which is extremely time consuming.
Once I finish my 40th layer, having completed 40 shapes, I go to create another layer and it doesn’t let me! At this point I’m panicking because I’ve spent over two hours on this project as a whole trying to figure everything out and I’m just like “what the heck?!”. I think quickly and try to salvage the progress by creating the remaining shapes in the pre-existing layers.
After I outlined all of the shapes I wanted to use, I started using the color fill tool to change all of the colors to grayscale. I’m not sure how I managed to accidentally put two color blocks beside each other; but that mistake in addition to losing a tiny shape in the layers brought me to a breaking point.
The second few things that I learned:
If you know you’re going to have a lot of layers, decide from the beginning how you’re going to add multiple shapes in the same layer that won’t mess up when you need to recolor them.
Number your layers on your drawing
If you hold down the Apple Pencil, it’ll automatically straighten the line and then you can edit where it stops and starts.
I started from scratch yet again but with a much better plan, new skills that I could implement, and a working Apple Pencil!
Draft 3 - The Sketch, 1 hour and 30 minutes of progress
Notes on how I organized this creation process:
Step 1: Start by adding the reference photo already uploaded in grayscale
Step 2: Sketch 3-4 shapes in a single layer
Notes 2:
Make sure shapes are not close to each other
Write the layer number on the shape in a distinct color so that it’s easily searchable
Use the color matching tool to match with the desired value
Step 3: Repeat until complete!
Choosing the Color Scheme
When I’m painting I feel like I have a limited number of colors to choose from so I usually just pick a few and go with it. Technically the possibilities are endless but I like to choose from my readily available assortment which made choosing the color scheme for this painting difficult. I just had so many options! I wanted it to be colorful but not obnoxiously neon, feel calm but not boring, and to use pink! To settle my indecisiveness, I used a picture of a sunset that I took at work one day as a color reference photo.
Another helpful point:
If you import a picture and update/ create a new color palette within that document, the color palette will be available in any other file you open in Procreate as well.
Initially uploading the photo in grayscale was extremely helpful because I could easily match the color blocks to their accurate values. When I started color filling the final colors, I was able to match values enough to where the dimension of the building was still recognizable although not exact.
The Finishing Touches!
I think my favorite part in creating a piece is adding the finishing touches. I feel like the lines bring the whole piece together, make it pop and look much more refined. This is when I start getting super excited about what the final product is gonna look like because I have an idea of it but seeing all come together is so cool!
To finish this piece, I duplicated the sketch in a new file for safe keeping, just in case I made a major error. I couldn't choose between either a white or black outline so I ended up just creating one of each!
Naming The Piece
I wanted to find a word that brought together both organic and inorganic elements. I found that the term “ecological design” is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world. The philosophy emphasizes a design process that is guided by the nature of the building's environment, materials, and purpose. Since I used a color palette derived from a photograph of nature to complement the creative reconstruction of an architectural photograph, the name “Eco Design” became the perfect fit!
Important Takeaways and Considerations
Before starting a project be sure to determine your goals, it’s much easier to work backwards from there.
If you think there’s an easier way to do something, you’re probably right.
If you don’t know how to do something, try to use these resources to figure it out:
People you know
YouTube
Pinterest
Google
Note: If you still don’t know and it’s art related, you can ask me! :)
4. Abstract art isn’t inherently “easy” or “mindless”.
Thanks so much for reading!
Take a look at my other blogs or my gallery next:
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