Edvard Munch’s masterpiece The Scream painted 100 years ago inspired my attempt at transformative art with pixels and vectors
Why I Painted a Copycat version of The Scream
Normally, I would term my digital recreation of Edvard Munch’s masterpiece The Scream a copycat, but today to recreate the art or photographs of others in a surprising or an unexpected way is termed “transformative art.” Transformative art has a fair use copyright standing in many cases.
I downloaded the Munch digital brushes from Adobe for Photoshop, and had dreams of creating a piece of digital art in the Munch style for the Adobe contest. I made my sketch, and started to paint with my Wacom pen.
However, my computer is a dinosaur, with a slow processor. Every stroke I took with the Munch brushes was like watching a swath of color slowly populating across my screen. As grand as it was to play with the Adobe Munch brushes, it was far too tedious for me, so I abandoned my sketch.
The Scream by Munch has proved itself a timeless classic due to its original expression of a universal theme, panic. Munch painted from life. He was walking with two friends on a bridge, and suddenly he heard nature screaming at him and deafening his thoughts. It was a singular experience that found its way onto his canvas.
Munch painted four different versions of The Scream. One hangs in Oslo at the Munch Museum.
Digital art and design just got more creative with Adobe Creative Cloud. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I subscribed to Adobe CC. Buying a subscription was happenstance because I needed a current version of Dreamweaver, which now resides on Adobe’s Creative Cloud.
Now I am walking on a cloud. I grab free fonts from TypeKit, play with color palettes at Adobe Color CC, share my portfolio online and follow my favorite designers on Adobe’s Behance, integrate Adobe iPhone and iPad apps with Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, etc.
The sky is the limit. Adobe even provides templates to put up your website if you have a URL. I made a basic portfolio website, PatriciaWiskur with Behance in a matter of hours, thanks to Adobe templates.
Discover the Adobe Community on Behance.net
View tutorials live on Behance Live and YouTube/Adobe CC channel. Subscribe to be alerted of the current live stream schedule.
My favorite live streams from France, 2017, can be seen on YouTube as replays. Moderators for the live streams are Michael Chaize, Head of Creative Cloud Live Streams at Adobe, and Rufus Deuchler, Principal Manager of Creative Cloud Evangelism Adobe.
In 2017, they filmed artists and designers from London, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, etc., as the artists work in real time.
My first attempt to replicate Maite Franchi’s exclusive bird house with Jacuzzi. Watching Maite execute her sketch in Illustrator is memorable.
Adobe Live gives an inside glimpse into how the pros approach an art project. Filmed live from Paris and California, the Adobe team films artists who work from concept to finished art, using sketch pads, iPads, Apple Pencils, computers, tablets, and Adobe CC. The live streams are lengthy, two-hours each, and provide a rare insight into an artist’s working style.
These are some of my favorite Adobe CC streams from Paris, that you can replay on YouTube:
Maite Franchi: creates three illustrations from sketches with Adobe Illustrator, working with symbols, original color palettes, and design tips; then adds texture to her art in Photoshop (watch Maite’s AdobeLive YouTube video to see how she executes her bird house in Illustrator and Photoshop)
Pieter Ceizer: demonstrates typography and hand lettering – Pieter is a superstar from the Netherlands now living in Paris, with clients such as Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Coca-Cola, etc. Visit his website or see him on Instagram.
Swerve from the UK: free-lance designer with his own popular YouTube tutorial channel and eclectic style
Tina Touli: London based illustrator. In three sessions Tina creates a poster and pamphlet design to celebrate the 30th year anniversary of Adobe Illustrator – must see all three videos (link to the third of three session).
Illustration Tee-Shirt Art Streamed Live from San Francisco
Iris and a butterfly, AKA, a “flutterby”
In February, AdobeLive streamed from San Francisco, with talented U.S. designers and their creative process, during a 3-day marathon that included portfolio revue, tee-shirt art, drawings for free subscriptions to Adobe CC, and tips and resources. Check out replays of the event artists on YouTube/Adobe CC or Adobe Live:
Darrell signed a Christmas card for our granddaughter Zlata with a wish for a “Merriest Happiest Year” to celebrate her first Christmas and the beginning of a New Year. She is about to crawl, so things will get merry, fast.
We haven’t hand-inscribed Christmas cards for friends and family for years. However, this year we bought some Charlie Brown stamps, sat down with our list, and started writing.
I was charmed when Darrell signed our granddaughter’s note wishing her a “merriest, happiest year,” and thought it a perfect sentiment for all as we begin a New Year.
Darrell gets a little wild when he signs cards. To share the full effect of his signature with you, I scanned it. Then traced his ink letters in Illustrator, and added a frame with some embossing in Photoshop.
I’ve felt rather empty-headed ever since I decided to re-design my FIVE websites.
Designing my first website came easily nearly 11 years ago after watching a Macromedia Dreamweaver video by a whiz kid from Great Britain. However, today that website design is archaic. Technology and coding have changed drastically. XHTML has come and gone – tossed that book. And it’s time for me to change.
Antique AIM Shoulder Head
Therefore, it’s not surprising that when I made my New Year’s Resolutions 2015, I resolved to (1) re-design my websites and (2) simplify my life. Funny I didn’t see the dichotomy of those two goals at the time.
Well, it’s week one of March, and I’ve made some progress on my website. I have narrowed my page content to include entries on Art & Journal, Antique Dolls, the Ozark Mountains (where I live), and UFDC Doll ClubMemorabilia & Artist Dolls. Also, I’ve chosen a color palette for the design based on a photo my husband took of a favorite antique doll.
Six main colors in doll image
Using Adobe Color CC, I picked six top-level colors for my palette from a photo of an antique doll. I was pleasantly surprised by the colors that emerged from the photo with the color picker. They were exactly what I wanted because I was aiming for a color palette unlike what I normally choose and one that leaned towards the Bohemian side, quite unlike me.
Stupid Cupid, Stop Picking on Me spins round in my head when I think Valentine. And that song inspired this Valentine art, along with another Valentine great, Brach’s candy hearts. I wax poetic with Brach’s candy hearts on Valentine’s Day.
Bored with love?
Bored with Love?
This Valentine is for those bored with love or have love on hold.
I was drawing Valentines on my iPad while watching the Olympics 2014. It was sweet to see snowboarder Jenny Jones in Slope-style at Sochi taking Bronze for Great Britain [Feb. 9].
Snowboarder Jenny Jones in Slope-style at Sochi takes Bronze for Great Britain
NOTE: Stupid Cupid, Stop Picking on Me is a classic song by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, charting out at #14 on the Top 100 in days gone by.
No matter how hard I strive for sophistication in design, my projects take a right turn towards the wild side as did my first journal kit, aptly named Zany.
I had fun creating Zany papers, buttons, brushes, and elements.
My favorite brush is the Lip-Smack Brush, and my favorite element is the pool ball button.
Here’s a preview of my kit, which includes 16 Papers, 20 Elements, and 2 Brushes.
Creating brushes in Adobe Photoshop is a cinch!
Slick your lips with a bright lipstick and kiss a piece of paper.
Scan the Lip-smack into your computer as a jpeg.
Create a black and white copy of the lip-smack. (Optional: I cleaned up the image and removed the white background from the scan so that I had a transparent background for a .png file.)
Select the Elliptical or Rectangular Marquee Tool and drag to create a selection around the Lip-smack.
With the Lip-smack selected, go to Edit>Define Brush Preset>Name your brush>Click OK.
Look for a visual image of the Lip-smack brush at the bottom of your brushes palette. Deselect your Lip-smack image.
Before you close your image, save the lip-smack as a .png file so you have a brush and a handy image of the lip-smack, ready to put a personal stamp on your projects.
I’ve felt rather empty-headed ever since I decided to re-design my FIVE websites.
No matter how hard I strive for sophistication in design, my projects take a right turn towards the wild side as did my first journal kit, aptly named Zany.
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