Beckie Ryan | BA (Hons) Computer Animation Arts, UCA Rochester.

Wednesday, 24 August 2016

Campfire Under The Stars | Landscape Art | Photoshop | Personal Work

Continuing on with my own personal project of landscapes, I thought I would try to combine a starry night with a natural background. I think I have managed to get a nice depth to the mountain this time with the light and dark tones, and doesn't have an airbrushed feel. I added in a camping ground and two people snuggled on a log to give more focus to the the piece and help add depth to the foreground.

Monday, 8 August 2016

Starry Night Sky Over the Mountains | Landscape Art | Photoshop | Personal Work

Continuing into my personal project of landscapes and skyscapes, this time I tried a silhouette of a tree line with a mountain behind and a galaxy night sky. The tree line works well and was quite easy to layer up after creating 5 different tree shapes to add depth. The mountain was a lot harder to paint than I first thought it would be and instead of opting for a more realistic look, I opted for a tonal approach to it. I think this worked well and was a great first attempt but looks a little too blurred and unfinished. The sky was fun to paint and I think I'm getting the hang of painting a blended and tonal sky, I'm just not happy with the 'stars' as they look a little bit like snow to me. This will definitely need more experimenting with. This was a good attempt but I think I will revisit this in the future and tweak certain aspects of it.

Wednesday, 3 August 2016

A Cloudy Sunrise | Landscape Art | Photoshop | Personal Work

Continuing on from my previous post, I've tried to keep with the theme of landscape art/skyscapes. I've been pushing my colour picking and blending to create a cloudy sunrise. Layering the clouds proved quite difficult. Adding depth to the piece also proved a challenge but I'm hoping that I've cracked it now!

In this image, I have attempted to blend colours with the blurred brush and smudging tool. I found that this worked brilliantly for the clouds but the sky itself needed a bit more persuading with this method. I also used several of the colour effects to heighten the sense that the sun is beaming through some of the clouds.

Saturday, 30 July 2016

Sunset | Landscape Art | Photoshop | Personal Work

For a while I've been considering testing my landscape drawing skills as well as my colour picking and blending. I loved creating a sunrise look during the 'What If Metropolis' project and thought a great way to see my improvement from a year's worth of photoshop lessons was to start was a tropical style sunset/sunrise.

I can already tell that I've become a lot more confident with brush strokes and I'm no longer feathering basic lines. My colour picking and blending has also come a long way and helped to create what I think is a gorgeous sky. The composition of the trees was also a lot easier to create and I definitely think this is a strong start to what I hope will become an ongoing project of my own.

Saturday, 9 July 2016

Adventures in Lanzarote

In June I travelled to Lanzarote for a holiday. Unfortunately I forgot to pack a sketchbook (I'd left it on my bed - oops!) Instead I used the next best thing I had available - NAPKINS! I took some gorgeous shots of the island and I would definitely recommend it to everyone! I warn you it is a very windy island and it is very easy to get sunburnt there!

Lampost and flower bed. The Volcanic Green Lake El Golfo

2 of the many hundreds of cactus varieties that I found on the island

View of the Volcanic Green lake El Golfo and the view behind (this was a volcano that has since corroded into the sea so one side is open and the lake exists in what once was the crater)