Creativity: a digital illustration

After illustrating the brain and experimenting with trying to get my letterforms to fit within the shapes, I referred to my previous general research on psychedelic graphic art. I chose to complete a bit more research on this area, to allow me to post my thoughts on this blog, before colouring the piece.

I would have liked to create the whole piece without using the computer, much like Bonnie MacLean, however, I didn't have the correct materials to paint or print the work. Instead, I decided I would work in illustrator to add colour but I decided that I would only touch up my original line art rather than redraw the work digitally.

I wanted to experiment with gradients to try and include as much colour as I could without overpowering the page. In psychedelic graphic art of the 60s and 70s, they normally had a limited colour palette and picked one or two bold, flat colours. As this piece is on creativity, I wanted to take it a bit further than that and experiment with lots of colours and blending.

I didn't want to plan anything out as I felt it might limit the experimentation as I might fixate on one idea. I added some pink gradients for the brain behind and I like the effect that made as it kind of made it look like the brain was bursting out from behind the words.

I had no idea what to do with the background, however, and I wasn't feeling so well so thought I would just experiment with making the brain the focus point. I added some 'rays' and added a gradient behind the brain so it appeared to glow on the page. I think I could have done something more interesting with the background but I would have needed to spend more time on it.

I did think about having creativity burst through the page so I took my original drawing and added the ray lines. I then began to tear the page in the centre and peel back the image.

Once I had done this I photoshopped the design behind the drawing. It didn't quite turn out how I would have liked it too however I did think that this would have been cool if I had taken photos as I tore the page. These images could have then been used to make a stop motion animation to reveal the drawing.

I did enjoy working like this cause I was just playing around to get the effects I wanted without any final idea already sitting in my mind. The overthinking that I would normally go through in the process I feel can hinder my creativity because I think sometimes I settle on one idea before I have even started experimenting.