Art is everywhere!

Nature | Pareidolia | Reflective Drawing

Concept art | Doodle art

Font art | Line art | Template art

As a creative graphic artist

I tend to see art in everything and love to discover images beyond the normal view simply by shifting my perspective, be it the face of a lady singing in linoleum or an alien being in an old wooden desk drawer. I can always create newness in the world starting only with a line drawing and then enhancing with image editing software or mixing real life photography with abstract patterns for many unique designs. And with Photoshop for raster images as my best friend, as well as Illustrator for vector, the possibilities for creativity are truly limitless.

Art in nature

I love to mix the abstract of Photoshop with photos I’ve taken in a way that breathes new life into what would be considered just another pretty flower by patching the parts where the bugs were chewing and adding some contrasting design elements.

Clematis & Weave

clematis – original photo	clematis patched with added PS effects

Art in pareidolia

Pareidolia: the tendency to interpret a vague stimulus as something known to the observer, such as seeing shapes in clouds, seeing faces in inanimate objects or abstract patterns, or hearing hidden messages in music.

Old piece of gold-veined linoleum	images seen: Old man & Shark
Old man face	Shark

 

Old desk drawer	Image seen: Alien being
PS mod: alien male	PS mod: alien female

PS mod: Alien Portrait

Art in reflective drawing

Non-dominant hand writing is a tool for connecting the right and left hemispheres of the brain from which many an image has been presented. The coolest thing about this type of line drawing is that you don’t know what image is being presented until it is finished because you don’t deliberately draw the lines and curves with your conscious mind. When you let the pen flow onto the paper like this you will be amazed at what creative genie is behind the process and it is your own self-expression.

These are two of sixteen such images from my book, Charges – Answers from the Universe.

Miss Faerie Lady	whimsical bird

Concept art

Much in the way of business and publication in design revolves around creating graphics that represent an idea that is being presented to attract and/or engage the audience, such as icons, logos, branding, comics and cartoons.

Facebook page header

Design elements: The Adinkra ESE NE TEKREMA symbol for friend (friendship and interdependence) Background of Shifting Sands to represent the enormous changes these countries are going through Blocks of Waves to represent the motion of that change that is occurring in these two nations The respective flags and coat of arms that symbolize the history and nature of the people

Doodle art

This freestyle of creating lines and then seeing what you’ve doodled can be done on either paper or the computer.

Lithos Pro letter ‘S’ – stretched & distorted	doodle created from Lithos Pro letter ‘S’
image seen in doodle – Seahorse Maiden

 

Font art

Rather than drawing freehand on the computer I often use fonts or shapes that match the figure I want to create to reduce jagged edges in Photoshop.

 

Fonts: Symbol, Wingdings, Comic Sans Letters: l, Y, s, z, }

Line art

Another way to create uniqueness is to begin with a line drawing or template image and break it down into its line segments and then match those to a shape or stylized font in Photoshop to give it a fresh look.

 

whimsical bird – original line drawing	whimsical bird – recreated with shapes & fonts

Template art

When creating a specific kind of cartoon graphic it may be easier to find something close in MS clipart and use it as a template and then identify what shapes to use and modify accordingly.

clipart template dog	my dog created with shapes in PS