Luck and Elbow Grease

#293
Source material: Honey locust pods, plaster wall.
By pure luck I stumbled across this effect of glowing pods, and except for carefully outlining the shapes to effect the background separately, this image came together very quickly.


#292
Source material: Painted plastic tarp, Idaho clouds, polka dots in graphite and charcoal.
In contrast to #293, I worked a long time on this one, scrapped many versions, then finally began getting the texture of the fabric to an interesting place. Still, on its own, it wasn’t all that interesting. Adding “drawn” polka dots created a nice contrast, but the balance didn’t really gel for me until the clouds were added as a third element and modified to interact with the other two.


#291
Source material: Cutty Sark, Japanese cloud icon.
I wanted to give the ship a sense of nostalgia, and the sepia tone is a something of a cliché; the clouds yet another. Still, I like the effect. Two clichés equal success.