Ripple Effect

I decided to break out my old pencil rendering skills and see what I could come up with for this new card. When I first started out making art I only drew with graphite for years. I swore back then that I was happy drawing super realism in black and white and didn't have the desire to dabble in color or paint... I find that very funny now. It turns out that I love painting more than anything, and drawing in pencil is more tedious than I remember, but still enjoyable. I'm glad that I can combine my pencil work with my digital painting like above. So I used color pencil (who needs erasers?), scanned and combined the two drawings in photoshop, then digitally colored.

See the meaning of this card and others at: Intimacy Without Responsibility -The Conscious Evolution of Love  facebook page

Wholeness

©Sam Nagel

I recreated an older piece of art I had done about five years ago. The concept of this tree fit very well with the card I was designing. check out the meaning of the card on facebook, link is below...

See the meaning of this card and others at: Intimacy Without Responsibility -The Conscious Evolution of Love  facebook page

Curly Fern

©Sam Nagel

I kept this one pretty easy. I actually enjoyed painting the background, trying to create soft blur focus in some areas along with some texture. I had sketched the fern leaves in my sketchbook and scanned it. The line is my original sketchbook drawing, the rest is painted digitally in photoshop. I really wanted to use the imagery of the curly fern for a while, and use the concept of a yin yang, but without it being the yin yang symbol. I took some artistic liberty with the curl of the fern transforming into a full fern leaf... it probably doesn't actually look that way in nature (nor is it blue). I also needed to create something with the cool colors rather than so much warmth.

The Poet

©Sam Nagel

I've had this idea floating around in my head for a long time and so I finally got around to painting it.

See the meaning of this card and others at: Intimacy Without Responsibility -The Conscious Evolution of Love  facebook page

digital painting/photoshop

Autumn

©Sam Nagel

I finally drew in my sketchbook. Seriously does not happen often enough, but I realize that my pencil drawing is so much better than trying to use the tablet. Even though it takes a little extra time and more steps to complete, I think this is the way I will go about painting from now on.

See the meaning of this card and others at: Intimacy Without Responsibility -The Conscious Evolution of Love  facebook page

pencil + photoshop

Growth

©Sam Nagel

Is it new life or weeds? Do I let this grow, root and mature, or pluck it and change my surroundings? We decide what we want.

photoshop cs5