Wednesday 29 October 2014

Digital Painting & Pattern: Bird of Paradise

Todays's post is just to show you  a new digital painting as it turned out-and the pattern it evolved into afterwards.

If you've read this blog for a while, you'll know that I like to do designs specifically for friends and family members (as many people do).

Anyway, there's this one person who sometimes misses out, having a birthday in January, just after all Christmas thoughts have obliterated digital painting from my mind.
So, I thought I'd get a head start, and make her one now, featuring a bird of paradise flower (which she loves).  
It began life with the background above.






Until something more mysterious felt better...
(still not sure which will make it onto her card, and don't have to decide yet). The Computer Man has one preference, I have the other. If you definitely prefer either the purple or pinky background, please do let me know in the comments.

Then, the "Birds of Paradise Pattern...

I'd already noticed that the inherent spikiness and angular geometry of these flows is quite different to anything I normally draw. What I hadn't realised is what good "natural chevrons" they make in a pattern.

Have you ever experimented with putting a painting or picture into a pattern, only to find that the motif takes on entirely different characteristics? If so, please let us know what happened. Or, if you're learned about such things and know why they happen, please let me know also.

In the meantime, I'll keep experimenting...

Wednesday 15 October 2014

Getting the Hang of A Floral Pattern...

Patterns have long made me nervous. So, when these flowers jumped out at me, patterns were the last thing on my mind.
(OK, they didn't jump, but they were so bright, despite what these rather blurry phone pics might have you believe).


So first of all, I did what I thought I was going to do with them, and made a digital painting...

And I liked it well enough (excuse the really low res of this picture). But it didn't feel like it was finished, somehow.

On a whim, I took the individual elements of that picture, and played around with them in Patternshop.

And on the whole, I'm liking what came out,

especially when it gets put to some practical use on a "real world" item, like an IPad case...


Bold Orange Dahlias iPad Mini Case
Bold Orange Dahlias iPad Mini Case by BoundingSquirrel

What about you? Do you have projects or techniques that you avoid, because they make you nervous? I dare you to give them a go...I'm willing to bet you'll surprise yourself, in a wholly good way. 

Thursday 9 October 2014

Free Nature Art Wallpapers App

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wNatureArtWallpapers
If you've checked in here recently. you may already have noticed a new "Free Wallpapers". Well, I think I've tested it enough to post generally about it.

The BoundingSquirrel Nature Art Wallpapers App allows you to set Bounding Squirrel digital paintings as wallpaper (ie the background on your Android phone or tablet) for free.

The paintings are lower resolution than the real things, but for reasons to do with screens, this makes no difference when you're displaying them digitally.

If you want to grab the wallpapers then click here, or on the Google Play icon, below.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wNatureArtWallpapers

If you're an Apple or Windows user, please bear with me.
It seemed easiest to start with the tech with which I'm most familiar...