An Epic Play Mat

At the beginning of October my youngest son approached me with a task of creating an illustration for a playmat. Essentially this is like a mouse pad on tour computer, only larger. It will be rolled up, then unrolled when he is ready to do some serious card gaming.

I accepted the challenge. Before I even began, he came up with a mood board and instructions for the playmat. I love how he used a little typographic hierarchy to tell me what is most important about the illustration. 

Together we figured out I needed to produce an illustration 24 inches wide by 14 inches deep. 

With that, I dove into creating this. To expedite the speed in which this would be produced, I chose to use a combination of AI image generation, compositing techniques, using Affinity Photo, and digital illustration where needed.

The Process

My process essentially went like this:

1. Generated images of the landscape and the dragon using Stable Diffusion. Composited those as best I could
2. Illustrated the Fox on top of the rock in which he would stand

3. Took that image into Stable diffusion image generation to develop a more refined fox that would fit in with the rest of the landscape.

3. Refined the overall look and composition of the illustration, Colors, touch up of AI images.

4.Needed a higher res image of the dragon. I cut out the head only, then used the image of the head to produce a more refined and detailed dragon head. This worked out better than I could have hoped

Before image re-generation

After image re-generation

5. Refined the Fox. Despite the improvement in the overall look of the Fox hero, there was much in the way of illustration to make it look just like the one, stylistically and design, like the fox. This involved creating new pixel layers that I used to, Illustrate with my Wacom monitor tablet, the look my Son was looking for.

6. After this I went through one round of requested edits. More illustrative refining. And we finished.

Here is an animated GIF to give you an idea of the number of layers and compositing involved with this. Also a few more Screen grabs at 100% zoom.

Bison Study Aug 2024

 

Final Digital painting by Aaron Thorup. Purchase a Print.

I started this particular study sometime last year. A good friend gave me an art book called Painting Wildlife TEXTURES Step by Step, by Rod Lawrence. This book highlighted using a technique of gradually layering the paint to build up the details. The idea of applying the same techniques to a digital painting intrigued me.

Maddy

Stats: 

Canvas size: 4200x3300 pixels

Brush: Custom-made paint brush (Krita RGBa)

Program: Krita 

Reference: Multiple

Earlier in the summer one of my cousin's daughters (Maddy) tragically sought to take her own life. Doctors fought to keep her with us. Many prayers were raised to the God of the universe. After all of this, God took her home and she passed out of this life. I would describe what led up to this, but her mother gives a far better description of Maddy's life and some of the struggles she endured that led to the series of events that resulted in her passing. You can read about that on her blog here.

I will only say this much about the passing of Maddy: As is the case with all of Heavenly Father's children, she was subject to all the vicissitudes of this life. That included her DNA, her circumstances and the choices she made. She was an incredibly complex beautiful soul. I am in no way qualified to judge her. Nor do I judge God as to why she was taken from us so young. His will be done in all things, and I have no doubt Maddy is safe and loved beyond anything we can comprehend in this life. When it comes down to it that is core reason for my attempt to illustrate Maddy in the arms of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. His love and power are infinite. God the Father, His Son and the Holy Spirit have never let me down; they will take care of her and be there with her on her eternal journey.

The following is a glimpse into the process and struggles I experienced in digitally painting this illustration. Read on if you would like to know more

Vanilla Sky, a Digital Painting

Stats: 

Canvas size: 4200x3300 pixels

Brush: Custom-made paint brush (Krita RGBa)

Program: Krita 

Reference: Photo taken by me

I snapped the reference photo for one of my wife's pet geckos in March of this year. I loved the look, lighting and pose so much, I decided to paint this as an exercise. As I progressed I decided to execute a fully rendered digital painting

Reference Photo of Vanilla Sky

As always using Krita and the custom brushes within the program are amazing. The interactive feel, that balances smudging and applying paint all within the same stroke, feels so natural and intuitive.

Below are a few detail images at 100% zoom.

Detail at 100% zoom

Detail at 100% zoom

Mountain View Corridor and the Mitt Romney Visit

Couple months ago, Mitt Romney came for a visit to check out the pieces of military property that needed to be transferred into state hands so they can finish building the MountainView Corridor. I was asked to generate a couple maps to make clear what is being proposed. Went through multiple revisions. Used Adobe Illustrator to produce these. 

Digital Painting - Crane

Well, what can I say. I took an overly long break from posting on my blog. Well, time to dust off the good ole keyboard and make a new beginning. Over that past six years I have engaged in a ton of graphics for the Public Engagement department for Horrocks. While I find the work useful to the communities in which we serve, the creativity factor is lacking greatly. I do a ton of maps, signs, flyers and other collateral for various civil and transportation projects.

I will only post on such things if there is some kind of interest beyond the norm. No, here in this blog I wish to share an ongoing chronicle of creative dabbling's, and ongoing projects. I like to share what I learn. I will also share, from time to time, my inner mind, thoughts and feelings.

The following digital painting exercise was completed in about four to six hours, over a couple month period. Keep in mind I do this as a hobby on the side. Being a working father and husband my time to indulge in this is limited. Have to spread things out.

Overall, I'm happy with the final result of this painting. While Affinity photo isn't the absolute best tool for digital painting, it can produce excellent results.

Detail of the head and Neck of the Crane

Detail of the Wing area

Detail of the Feet.

View of the workspace with photo reference on the left.

Final digital painting of the Crane

Goose themed 3D scene

Sometime at the end of 2018 I made the decision to re-focus my personal learning as a Graphic designer on Photo realistic image generation using Blender as a tool. The following images represent an effort to make Photo realism a reality.

Shooting for the Moon

Below is a Photo I took at my parents house a while ago. I really like the light, and the Porcelain Geese inspired me to make the 3D image a Goose-themed one. Additionally it is simple to compose. As a beginner I knew I could easily model this, and the real challenge would be in generating effective textures and lighting. I will say from the outset, I have only partially achieved what I set out to do. I still have much to learn. The quote by Norman Vincent Peale comes to mind;“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.” I very much hope to land among the stars in this endeavor.

Modeling and first steps

I began by modeling the Window Frame, seeking at first, to copy the texture and shapes of the frame in the source image. Then I decided I didn't like how plain the sliding widow was. Decided to do something a little more decorative. Should be noted that it was also about this time I decided to do a Goose-themed setting.