Experiment in the style of Kawanabe Kyosai
Affinity Designer and my iPad have been getting better acquainted of late. I use it more for what I’d call “technical” artwork, focused on geometry rather than random acts of self expression. That said, in the past week or two I have been trying to create more traditional artwork using the pencil and vector brush tools.
I am not going to pretend this is in any way, shape or form “good”. It’s more an experiment to see how these tools behave.
Couple of things to note:
- I started by sketching with the pencil, then grouped, locked and reduced the opacity of the sketch.
- Over the top I layered vector pens with different brush types until I had something I was content with. Or at least until I’d met my learning objectives.
- At no point did I adjust the vector lines. They are what they are for better or worse. I wanted to see how the vector lines formed rather than create something “perfect”.
- While I removed most of the pencil lines, I did leave a few around the structure on the left. I thought it was too abstract without them.
If you’re curious about the reference image, it was one by Kawanabe Kyosai.
My name is Ross Hori
I'm a freelance writer, designer and photographer. By day I create articles, features and reports. At night I take photos and write fiction. Find out more.
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