This week has been focused on Faeries. The good and the bad. The new and the old. And everything in between. And it wouldn’t be complete without giving you the chance to make a few faeries of your own.
Worried about your artistic talents? Don’t be.
A few months back we found ourselves holding a copy of Fairies Art Studio. As this isn’t exactly a normal occasion, we decided to celebrate by asking some of the interns around the office to try their hand at creating faeries.
It’s a test, we thought, we’ll soon see if just any old person can create a faerie using a book and a computer.
We’d never used human guinea pigs, er, experiments before in order to test something out but we had a great deal of fun watching as faeries were born in the cubicles around us. What follows is what we learned about the book and a look at the faeries who were brought forth as a result.
The humble beginnings of one intern faerie.
Click the faerie above to see how she turned out.
The Photoshopped Fae
The problem with using a book like Fairies Art Studio is that creating is so darned simple. In its description, the book claims you’re able to:
- Create your fairy (be it a pixie, a wood fairy, a gothic fairy, a flower fairy, and more) using airbrushing and painterly techniques
- Color your fairy and accessorize her with wands, wings, hair decorations, and spell books
- Place your fairy in a background, adding trees and shrubs, flowers and toadstools, and more
- Add magical effects like sparkles
- Develop or personalize your own fairy scenes by mixing and matching various clip art elements
So naturally, no one had any difficulty in getting started. The trouble came in stopping. The faerie creations we were presented may once have been simple faeries (as you can see by the photo on the left), but they were soon equipped with homes and brightly colored backgrounds.
Another surprise was the relative ease with which the faeries were created. The book, which includes all the above mentioned stuff on a CD, is as much a Photoshop guide as it is a book on Faeries (and it is a book on Faeries). You begin by learning about Photoshop techniques and basic theory about working with template files. The book then begins getting in to more interesting coloring and detail techniques.
Another intern faerie springs to life.
Click the faerie above to see how she turned out.
But, while all of this is going on, we also get detailed descriptions of the many kinds of faeries to be found, along with original artwork (which serves as the basis for the template files included with the book), and a catalog of of you can build each kind of faerie and trick them out.
So what did we learn in the end? That our interns had colorful personalities!
HA HA…Ha…ha…huh.
Seriously though, if you’re interested in digital art, brushing up your skills, and have an interest in the various types of faeries, then you’ll probably be interested in this book. Pick it up and pixel out.
