Re: Spirit Island, Alberta

Inspired by a photo of Sprit Island, Alberta, made up of little maple leaves. Hope you like.

Re: Spirit Island, Alberta

Gorgeous picture. Inspired!

Re: Spirit Island, Alberta

This is awesome.

Re: Spirit Island, Alberta

Beautiful!

Re: Spirit Island, Alberta

hmmm, i'm from Alberta but i've never been there. what part of alberta is it in?

Re: Spirit Island, Alberta

Wow! This must have taken ages to create. Looks great!

Shigwarm wrote:Wow! This must have taken ages to create. Looks great!

Thanks. It was fun for a while, but in the effort to get it down to 6 colors, it felt like I did the art 3 times over. I don’t think I'll need to worry about placing too high this week, but do appreciate the votes. Congrats on being in the fog so early. Good luck!

redghia69 wrote:Thanks. It was fun for a while, but in the effort to get it down to 6 colors, it felt like I did the art 3 times over. I don’t think I'll need to worry about placing too high this week, but do appreciate the votes. Congrats on being in the fog so early. Good luck!

This is really interesting... did you use Adobe Illustrator and create a custom "leaf brush" for yourself? I don't have a copy of Illustrator at the moment, so I had to do all my leaf placing by hand in Photoshop... it would've saved me a hour of work or more if I had Illustrator.

daedalusknight wrote:This is really interesting... did you use Adobe Illustrator and create a custom "leaf brush" for yourself? I don't have a copy of Illustrator at the moment, so I had to do all my leaf placing by hand in Photoshop... it would've saved me a hour of work or more if I had Illustrator.

Something like that, but all PhotoShop. Select something, choose Edit/Define Brush Pattern.... Under Window/Brushes you can then set up Shape Dynamics (among other things) to vary size and orientation as you work with a tablet. Having picked up a tablet almost 3 weeks ago now, I had an idea something like this should be possible, and figured it out last night. My biggest mistake was starting with too many colors and having to do a lot more painting once I brought it down to six. It might have been nice if I’d started with a more stylized leaf as well, but once I got into it, I just kept going. Kudos to you for being in the fog, and deservedly so. You’ll have fun with the bit above, but as far as your sunset design goes, your hand-placement probably worked to your advantage, producing a better design. [As I type this, I’m dreading the thought of seeing 100’s of entries in future derbies based on the same technique. It could so easily be overdone, and it’s not really likely to be a winner. I was experimenting, and posted in the “you never know” frame of mind.]

Thanks to those that voted for the Spirit Lake shirt though!

redghia69 wrote:Something like that, but all PhotoShop. Select something, choose Edit/Define Brush Pattern.... Under Window/Brushes you can then set up Shape Dynamics (among other things) to vary size and orientation as you work with a tablet. Having picked up a tablet almost 3 weeks ago now, I had an idea something like this should be possible, and figured it out last night. My biggest mistake was starting with too many colors and having to do a lot more painting once I brought it down to six. It might have been nice if I’d started with a more stylized leaf as well, but once I got into it, I just kept going.

Ah... I see. Thanks for the tip. This will certainly save me much time in the future.

I don't have a tablet at home, but my exceedingly cool giant Kensington trackball is okay for "inking" over lines. I just need to sketch on paper first and then scan it in to use as an inking guide.

redghia69 wrote: Kudos to you for being in the fog, and deservedly so. You’ll have fun with the bit above, but as far as your sunset design goes, your hand-placement probably worked to your advantage, producing a better design. [As I type this, I’m dreading the thought of seeing 100’s of entries in future derbies based on the same technique. It could so easily be overdone, and it’s not really likely to be a winner. I was experimenting, and posted in the “you never know” frame of mind.]

Thanks very much. It really was something I spent a lot of time getting "just right." I flipped, resized, spun, and moved layers around until I got everything exactly the way I wanted. A brush, as you say, won't get the same effect as it can be somewhat random in placement and not as elegant in execution.
It would have been really helpful for filling in the center area, though :-)

cdncarlie wrote:hmmm, i'm from Alberta but i've never been there. what part of alberta is it in?

"Google is your friend" as they say. But get this -- type "spirit island alberta" into Google, and your post/my entry is #3 on the list! How bizzare is that?

EDIT: No longer near the top on Google, but it was there for a couple days -- really!

cdncarlie wrote:hmmm, i'm from Alberta but i've never been there. what part of alberta is it in?

This shirt is unbelievable! I've never been there, but you've done a beautiful job... can certainly picture/imagine the scenery of Spirit Island! GMV

Re: Spirit Island, Alberta

I would never buy a nature shirt that you would find in the National Park gift shop but this...I would buy. You should design shirts for Park Gift Shops. Their sales would go through the roof.

rres wrote:I would never buy a nature shirt that you would find in the National Park gift shop but this...I would buy. You should design shirts for Park Gift Shops. Their sales would go through the roof.

I agree. The colors have the quality of a tapestry.

I wonder if I can fit in one more button in my sig?

rres wrote:I would never buy a nature shirt that you would find in the National Park gift shop but this...I would buy. You should design shirts for Park Gift Shops. Their sales would go through the roof.

“Oops, it’s a tourist shirt” was my first thought once this was done. To a place almost no one’s ever been (second thought) and pretty Canada-specific on a week when few Canadians will be voting, since they haven’t had the opportunity to purchase anything yet (third thought). Ah, well – it’s done and you never know.... Part way through it, I wrote down “Northern Lights” as a second idea. sigh.

Thanks for the kind words though!
Thanks also to sailstud, mjc, and the others that left comments. Even when the design isn’t destined for greatness, your comments are encouraging.