Cassie and Licorice remembrance Portrait, October 2025

 I digitally painted this as a remembrance for two dogs our family grew to love and adore. The dog in the foreground, Licorice, has passed to the great beyond. The background dog, Cassie, is still kicking.

Compositing reference images

I used two separate photos of the dogs, both taken in a similar setting. I then used AI image generation (XeroGen Forge) to create the green blanket Licorice is lying on.

Mount Pleasant Horses

Purchase a print of this at my art store

Title: Mount Pleasant Horses Touching the Sky

Dimensions: 18x22.2 inches at 300 DPI

Tools: Krita, Custom-made RGBa brushes that mimic the feel of oil paint.

Previsualizing the concept

During the Mount Pleasant Independence Day parade I snapped this photo of these horses mounted by local beauties:

After deliberating on whether to use this as is, for my reference image, I decided I didn't want to include the women as part of this piece. I liked the horse, but I also wanted to include clouds. In order to do this, I engaged in some photo compositing. Using another photo which included some puffy clouds and another photo that included a horizon and some far-off clouds with some mid-ground landscape. 

Hard lesson learned about using AI as a reference tool

At one point I utilized Photoshops AI image generation tools to produce the lower portion of the horses. I fully rendered that generation into the painting. After reviewing other reference photos, I came to the full realization that the AI generation was completely flawed. I felt like a fool for taking as long as I did to come to this realization. Lesson learned, and I plan to never again us AI as a tool, except in the most minor cases. So, I finally did what I should have done in the beginning, and I used other references from horses in the same parade to produce the final rendering. I feel I ended up with a much more realistic and pleasing result. You can see the contrast in the progression video or animated GIF I produced, along with the painting. (See at the end of this post).

Stephanie Memorial Illustration

Medium: Digital

Tools: krita, using custom digital brushes

Duration: Approximately 10 hrs, over 5 sessions

On February 12, 2025 my cousin Stephanie Fryer passed due to a combination of diabetes and illness. Shortly after her passing my wife suggested I create a digital portrait to memorialize her and her life.

As has been the case with most of my illustrative work from the past 2 years I sought to use digital techniques in the most traditional way possible.

From this I advanced my skills as an artist and illustrator. I also learned how much of her mother Ellen she had within her. Studying every detail of her face, as I worked, helped me to see that clearer than ever. As is the case with all of the daughters of God, she was beautiful inside and out. I look forward to getting to know her better in the next life 

Christmas Newsletter Illustration, 2024

Deciding on what exactly to do this year proved a difficult decision for me. In years gone by the imagery flowed with greater ease, or I already had an image waiting in the wings. Starting around Thanksgiving, after mulling it over for a couple weeks, or so, I finally decided on sharing something that goes well beyond the Christian mainstream. A concept that is alluded to briefly in the Bible, that has an expanded meaning due in no small part to the Book of Mormon and modern prophetic revelation. This Christ centered idea of the Tree of Life is deeply meaningful to me and my family. Every Christmas, not only do I share the story of the nativity, but I also include Nephi's vision of the Tree of Life and its meaning. The ideas engendered in his vision of our Lord and the Tree have become inseparably welded into my heart and mind whenever I see a Christmas tree. For me the Christmas tree is a symbolic representation of the Tree of Life pointing us to God through the living Messiah, even Jesus Christ.

The first part of this post will be about the process and tools I used to create the illustration. If you are willing to stick around, the second half will be a more in-depth explanation of the meaning behind the illustration.

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

Finished 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

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

Inktober Illustrations

Progress using Krita as an illustration tool

Following are a few illustrations I did for Inktober. I was supposed to do an illustration every day during the month. Failed miserably. But I succeeded in using krita as a tool for producing quick illustrations with a newspaper comic look to them.

Love dinosaurs

I thought it would be fun to make most of these illustrations dinosaur themed. The question I asked myself: "What if dinosaurs existed during Halloween?" This is a question I wouldn't mind exploring further through art and illustrations. Hope you enjoy seeing these as much as I enjoyed creating them.

Illustration complete

 

This illustration definitely had its frustrations but here it is, complete at last. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but decent. The series on my one-year-old children is now complete. In a few days I will have a 16x20 inch print that I will mount in a glass covered frame. I look forward to seeing all four illustrations side-by-side.

The eyes were a huge issue

For the last few weeks I have been frustrated in how the face was turning out. Just did not look right. Finally came to the conclusion that the eyes were too small and too close together. The thought crossed my mind to start the whole thing over. Instead I did some resizing and reintegrating of the eyes. Below is the the final result (Right) compared to an older version (Left). Not perfect, but immensely better looking than before.

Now I need to decide on my next big personal project. I have been meaning to do something with the original photos of my wife and I on our wedding. Perhaps that can be next years anniversary present.

Krita is a great program

Heres another call-out to the program known as Krita. Working in this program his a pleasure. Look forward to more creative work being done with this superb tool. 

Daughter illustration update, July

Been a while since my last update on this illustration. I went through a little funk where I just didn't have the desire to work on it. But I finally picked it up this last week and have made some significant progress. Below are some detailed images of the illustration as it is now. I have a bunch more detail to add. Should be fun though. Hopefully I will have this ready by my wife's Birthday.

Details on Face progress

Another update on my Daughters illustration. I am finding Krita easy to use with a tablet. Love how easy it is to get just the right shade of gray. Super-easy to get that painterly feel with default brushes too. things are progressing on details in the face.

Daughter illustration update June 6

Minor update on my illustration for my wife. Details on the face are progressing. Still so much work to be done. But I am learning the basics of Krita.

My daughter's digital painting begins

This is the first in a series of posts concerning an illustration I am doing of my youngest child. I have 4 children. For each I have taken photos of them at 1 year old. From these photos I have created a 16x20 drawing that are now framed in our living room. Each is as unique as the child illustrated in each frame. The first I did in white colored pencil on black board. The second I sketched on paper, scanned the sketches then used Gimp 2.6 to illustrate the colors into the scanned sketches. The third, I simply took the digital photos, composited and artified them. I did this during the stress of University schooling, so it turned out to be the least traditional.

Graduation party invite

Following is an invite I created for a graduation party I put on. The illustration was done in Krita and the text in Gimp. Not sure why I did the text in Gimp. The thought crossed my mind that I could have done the text in Krita. Of course, this thought did not occur to me until I had completed this. Oh well.

My reasoning for Godzilla was simple. School is ending for me, and what monster has such an awesome way of ending things than Godzilla. Also, the new Godzilla movie came out on the 16th of May, which just happens to be the day I held the party.

Dragon eye, my first foray using Krita

This is my first attempt at using Krita to illustrate something. I felt like doing something in White on black, i also wanted it to be simple. So i typed in the word 'eye' in a Google image search. Found this really cool eye of an African cat. As I began I decided to ad some scales, turned it into a dragon's eye. Obviously this is no where near to complete, nor do I think I will complete it. This was just to play around, experiment, get to know Krita better. Love this program!