I chose the theme Reality vs. Escapism/Illusions. The play is set in the 1930s–40s, during the Great Depression and a time of great hardship. I felt that each of the three characters had their own way of escaping from the harsh realities of life: Tom through his poetry and the movies, Laura through her glass collection, and Amanda through memories of her youth as a beautiful young woman. I wanted to explore the contrast between harsh reality and the dreams and illusions they each retreated into. I focused particularly on Tom and was drawn to the theme of reality being represented by factories, chimneys, ladders, rooftops, bricks, and late-night lit windows—while illusions were symbolized by smoke, as a metaphor for lightness, dreaminess, and escape. I didn’t manage to produce three thumbnails that I was completely happy with, but I chose the two strongest ones. I also think that If I took these further I would add more details and icons. I really liked getting going with the words, but I quickly noticed that I deviated from my wordstacks and I also came up with totally different ideas. Is it efficient to work with tangents or ideas that just pop up in ones head? Or will they lose detail and lose connection to a strong theme?

I chose The hound of hound of baskerville and chapter 7 at random. Not much action in the chapter so I worked with what I had. Any suggestions on how I could improve these?

I chose the two minute one to finish, though I like the 30 second one (I like it enough that I didn’t even want to shade it lol)

Great exercise, I will try to remember to do it now and then. Pretty intense though, working with such focus for 2.5 hours. I feel totally drained. I like 30 min and 4 min. Kind of weird how the 2 minute one deviates so much from the others.

It would be "fun" too see how many ways one could tell a story in this image, a bit like the comic 99 Ways to Tell a Story. But just by using light!

I must say the architecture was a bit tricky to understand. I just tried to draw what I saw. I could have darkened my cast shadows a bit. I really like that light values are perceived as dark in relation to lighter values. The dark around the horses in the demo video are perceived as black, even though they are light grey. It almost feels like a trick, because it is not possible to see that way in real life. We always see in full value range.

There we go! Fun exercise. I'm more of a high key guy though (good pick up line?)

I noticed when I was done with this and checked out the video one more time that I have only use three values, instead of four. I guess I made the challenge even more difficult in some ways. The first version was the hardest. It really goes against intuition to do white cast shadows, and that I guess is what is great with these kind of exercises.

I wrote a few pages of journalism. Some of the stuff is private and I won't share, but some of it I would like to share. Maybe someone else has the same struggles as I do. Here are a few points: Digital or traditional, or both? A constant battle for me is deciding if I should work digitally or traditionally. This has been a major concern for me since I started my art journey five years ago. If I could choose freely, without any outside force affecting me, I would choose traditional art in a heartbeat. But for some reason, I have this weird idea that I can't create my ideas with traditional mediums and that it is expected of me to work digitally. Reasons why I think I need to work digitally and counters to that: Reason 1: I am always in a hurry, I never think enough before I start painting. With digital paintings, I can always redo and add. I have thrown away so many traditional paintings because they were not well thought through, and I ran into issues that I could not fix. Counter argument: If I put more time into the sketch and composition phase, thinking through the ideas properly, I can minimize the probability of running into major issues. I think working traditionally will strengthen me as an artist and let me create more interesting and original art. Reason 2: To be able to work in the industry, I need to work digitally so that I can work fast and make changes that the client wants. If I work traditionally and need to change something late in the process, I am screwed. Counter argument: Same as above, I just need to put more time into the ideation phase. And I need to understand which clients I will work with in the future. If it is concept art for games, then yes, working digitally is the industry standard. But maybe my future clients are somewhere else. Maybe I should work with clients that fit my style of working. First comes the art, and after that come the clients. Reason 3: Digital art allows me to experiment without worrying about ruining anything. Counter argument: I can always experiment on the side with traditional tools. It is a parallel process. I just need to think, this piece is for experimenting, and this piece is about implementing tools that I have learned from my experiments. It is a major issue for me that there are too many tools in digital programs and too many ways of doing things on the computer, and it is just a click away. Reason 4: It is so easy to carry my iPad with me anywhere, and it has all I need to create a sketch or a final painting. Counter argument: This is true, but it also falls into the above reason. If I am out and about, maybe I do not need to do highly rendered art but should instead try and capture what is around me, whether it is cafés, train stations, or waiting rooms. That I can do with a pencil. There is one thing though that I will probably continue doing digitally, and that is refining sketches. Layers over layers, adjusting scale, perspective, and so on once the idea is set. With this course and new motivation, I have come to the conclusion that I will work traditionally for my finished work, only using digital tools for the sketching phase. I want to think more before I do No more rushing through ideas, always being in a hurry. This has a lot to do with the discussion above. I think traditional art will help me slow down, and I hope this course will help me think more and paint less (sounds weird). I hate completing a piece of art and then thinking, If I had just put some more thought into it, or if I had explored more in the beginning. I know these thoughts will probably always be there, but I do not want to feel like I rushed a piece. Not overworking my art This also has to do with digital art versus traditional (it is getting tiresome, I know), but I always overwork my art when I work digitally. I never know when to stop. I think that is why so many new artists struggle with finding their style, because the options and brushes are too many. No wonder everyone is fixated on brushes in Photoshop, thinking that will fix the style issue. Style, I think, is about leaving things out and limiting yourself, not overpainting to find it. I am confident that traditional art will help me find my style. When I paint with watercolors, I almost always know when it is time to stop.