flowering clown
For this clown illustration, I wanted to try something different. Click on “more” for some of the process I used to create this guy.
First came the sketch.
Now for the coloring. I decided to take a bunch of flowers my daughter had pressed, and I scanned them in at a very high resolution.
Then I brought them into Photoshop and put them all on separate layers and turned the layer style to multiply (which made an almost totally black image). Then I turned all of the layers off except one, and started erasing away the clown shape.
One by one I turned on each layer, which built up the color, and then I erased more away.
Here I switched one of the layers to “normal” and lowered it’s opacity, to lighten the whole thing (it was getting too dark). And then continued to erase.
And finally, once the color was done, I turned on a really dark flower layer and erased it all except for the line work. And there you have it. Click it for a big version if’n you like.
September 10th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Wow. Love this piece Bry….more please?
September 10th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Very creative way of doing this clown. No wonder Phil Visher called you one of the most creative persons he`s ever known. Very cool!
September 10th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
that guy is super creepy until the linework, and the flowers make it creepier…sweet process though
September 11th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Very nice pic. Thanks for the wonderful and detailed descriptions.
September 11th, 2007 at 10:20 am
wow! your processes always fascinate me. and i agree with jeremy- that second before last step is super creepy.
September 11th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Love it Bry, love it.
Such a great process too.
September 12th, 2007 at 3:31 am
what a fun process and idea for texture.
It works really really well. I’m looking forward to do the clown.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:27 am
I absolutely love this piece. The technique is fabulous and gives one such a wonderful texture and rich sense of depth in surface design. You, once again have taken a sharp left turn at “the new” and made a gem… You win.
September 12th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Wow! reaaaallly scary. Thanks again for the awesome tutorial!
You manage to make a flower look more scary than a clown…
I’ll try this flower-texture on my lady-on-water to see if she turns out even more creepy!!
beautiful pic Bryan!
b.
September 13th, 2007 at 10:35 am
thanks Yance, I’m going to try this on some more pics in the future.
Cristina, Did Phil really say that? I know he thought I was odd.
Jeremy, creepy is as creepy does.
Thanks Rob, I always wonder if it’s worth it to put all the making of stuff up.
Mike, yeah, now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have just gone with the second to the last step and left off the linework.
Thanks JV.
Muff, can’t wait to see your clown.
Thanks Doug. You win on the creepy clown contest though. Hands down.
Bruna, oooo, can’t wait to see what you do with it. Thanks!
September 13th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Bryan,
Oops, I missed quoted him. But he did say you were one of the “most unusually creative folks we ever hired.” That`s pretty much the same thing…right? lol Here`s the link http://www.philvischer.com/index.php/?page_id=53
Sorry for miss quoting him. Maybe it was me who said that and I mixed my thoughts up.
February 5th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
thats really freakin’ awesome… i never would have known it was flowers! thats beautiful.. it looks like pastels and oil pastels! super awesome… man.. i want to make art
February 5th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
You should make art! Don’t think too much about it, just go for it.
June 16th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Hi, I don’t live in the US how can I get one of your t-shirts? ty
August 28th, 2008 at 3:39 am
great tutorial process? Thanks so much for sharing. You’ve definitely had good Patience working with so many layers. But the finale turned out awesome!
August 28th, 2008 at 7:01 am
[...] Drawn! link of the day] Brian Ballinger presents one of the most unique process presentations to come down the pike in quite a while. [...]
August 28th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Hey Gerald, thanks! Once I got in the groove with some good tunes, it just rolled along.
August 29th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Thanks a lot for detailing the process that way. A great idea for sure! And the results speak for themselves of course…
Thanks!!
August 29th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Thanks Yann!
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:16 pm
This is a lovely insight into a process of producing something wonderful. Textures and cartooning. yup!
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Thanks Paul, I appreciate it. I took a look at your sight, love your cartoons, really great.
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:04 am
Right, now I just need to press some flowers.