Maeza #2

Maeza Nr. 2 | September 2015

Magazine & Blog about Illustration and Art

“From topic to painting for Illustrationfriday�

Creative playgrounds

Content

Our secound issue is looking on how I work on a picture for a topic from a weekly challange. I have found that I got the best results when I start off with a bunch of sketches. They do not have to be good or to fit perfectly, but they get me into the flow. When I am stuck with a topic, I do brainstorming and researching. If this still does not help, then I take it as it is and instead train a new drawing technique.

There is always something you can train in.

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From topic to painting for Illustrationfriday

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Creative playgrounds

We hope you enjoy this issue. Yours Maeza

Editorial

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From topic to painting for

Illustrationfriday

Illustrationfriday is a webpage which announces a weekly challange for all artist and fans and is open for any art media. The topic is published of course every Friday and you can submitt your work during that week. Such webpage is a so called creative playground where you can get inspired and creative, simillar to „100 days drawing“, and other projects. For me, the weekly task is a great way to get into a routine, to train different styles and media, and to step out of my comfort zone of topics.

I documented my approach

The challenge: The topic

clothes and things, Tree. I

for the topic „OLD“ and will

was quite unspecific, as it is a

wanted my painting to inspire

show you how I got to the

description, so I decided to

you to think: wow, that is old,

resulting picture that you can

brainstorm around the topic. and wanted to think further

see on the front cover of this

What can be old? Grandma/

issue.

pa, newspaper, house, book,

You can also drawstorm, and sketch immediately. I use this technique often for topics I am more familiar with

Some details from the oak to get into the mood

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Blog

rather than painting a grandma who is obviously old.

I also wanted to add a feeling to support the word from the first brainstorming.

What

feeling can I associate with old? Creepy, friendly, deserves

Colour and shadow studz

respect, is knowledgeable, boring, broken, dusty. I decided now for: Tree and friendly.

Start sketching & researching I decided that an oak would be the best candidate and searched on internet different

A form studz helps meo understand the features

pictures of old oak trees to copy and sketch them. This was my first oak tree, so I made a small study: rough, detailed, silhouettes, shadows...

Sketches will help me as a cheet sheat for the painting

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At the end of the study, I made this prototzpe oak. I wanted to show the knobbed and knottz branches in detail., because they are tzpical for an old oak and that was the topic

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I then made a water colour picture of the tree only, so I was not too nervous about the actual picture and getting the technique right and finished the challenge with creating the picture that is now on our front cover.

My oak tree is friendly and therefore a home to various creatures. I wanted the oak to give you a warm feeling and as if a goodnight story could start here.

Test water colour of the old oak

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Creative playgrounds This is an experimental approach to challange you to discover new twists and paths in your creativity. The point is to do something for you and expand your phantasy. There are different types of challanges: daily, weekly, monthly. You can create the piece just for you as a project or upload it to a community.

Daily

Weekly

Montly

You choose a topic every day and create a small painting. Normally you stay within your style of comfort and focus on constant output. They can be 100 days or 360 days long. I have seen these projects only as private projects so far, where you collect your pieces and publish them on your blog, or maybe at the end of the challange as a collection.

These type I have seen typically within a community, where you can also upload your work. They are mostly open to any style, media, and artist and you can just experiment around.

Withing this type I have seen just one so far: The palette project. Each month you create pieces within the same color scheme or using just one colour.

Ideas: What I had for lunch today A comic charater a day An animal a day

links http://illustrationfriday.com/ https://www.facebook.com/

I visit Illustrationfriday and the facebook group Build a Freelance Illustration Business, where the topic is announced weekly

link http://picolo-kun.deviantart.com/ journal/The-Palette-Project511143555

I haven’t started such a challenge, but I would like to do: a miniature painting a day.

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Published on ISSUU under Maeza