This is the Studio Artist demo that some of you have been asking me to create. This is a 22 step creation of a digital painting in Studio Artist to show you a demonstration of how to use this innovative art program. I have decided to use the same size images I usually use. I want to give you a better flow than I think you will get from going back and forth between thumbnails and enlargements. But for the workspace and the final image I am providing the thumbnails so you can look at the enlargement if you want. Of course any of the other enlargements are available on request.

This is what the workspace looks like. Here is a screen shot of the program after I have already done some steps so you can see which part of the workspace is the source image and which is the canvas. Studio Artist always has a source image, but there are many ways to use this source image including use of the colors, the image to manipulate and not at all.

Workspace

I am putting in a thumbnail that you can look at full size in case you want to see more of a closeup of the controls of the program. This is the identical image but it will blow up larger.

I use the acrylic painting “Fire and Air” (that I have been using for the series of digital paintings in posts the last couple of weeks) for the source image. I bring the source image onto the canvas to start this creative process. In other words, I tell the program to place this image on to the working canvas so that I may begin to manipulate this image.

Fire and Air – the original painting, Acrylic © Diane Clancy

Then using the “interactive warp” operation with the “translate” tool (as opposed to the “translate local” tool), I grab the curvaceous yellow curve in the upper right hand corner and pull the image a little down and to the left. You can see the reflecting, both vertically and horizontally, of the yellow curve. If I had dragged in only one direction, it would have reflected in only that direction.

Step 1, Digital © Diane Clancy

Using the same tool I again grab the upper right hand corner with the yellow curves and drag them a little to the left and substantially down. Notice that the doubled curve doubled again. If I had originally kept dragging, it would not have doubled again. Each time I stop, the whole operation starts anew with the new resulting image. Notice the way we have pretty much lost the green. But the striped reefs (I think someone called them) have also expanded and doubled.

Step 2, Digital © Diane Clancy

Looks like I then repeat the process … I couldn’t duplicate it. There are many subtle decisions – just like in traditional painting – that are hard to exactly duplicate. (At least for me.) Fortuitous happenings happen here too.

Step 3, Digital © Diane Clancy

I translate this image again moving to the right and upward, this time to try to bring more of the stripped reef back in. The yellow curves got a little dominating so I wanted to bring back more contrast. In the process the little pieces of the reef at the top and bottom left get more substance.

Step 4, Digital © Diane Clancy

Using the interactive warp operation with the “rotate” tool (as opposed to the “rotate local,” “rotate scale,” or “rotate3symmetry” tools), I grab the reef and work to keep it prominent but at a tilt.

Step 5, Digital © Diane Clancy

I return to the translate tool and grab the reef and pull it down and to the left. This gives me a lot of texture back.

Step 6, Digital © Diane Clancy

Then I rotate it again to give it more tilt since many of you like that off-symmetry. Now we move to a different kind of technique. The new base canvas has basically been set up for more of a dissimilar kind of movement.

Step 7, Digital © Diane Clancy

I use the interactive warp operation of “sphere” (as opposed to “sphere1” or “sphere2”). If you look to the center and then a little up and to the right, you will see this swirl … or umbrella as it has been called. This is where doing a video would be very effective.

All these tools are “interactive” – you can use them and create and see changes in real time. These spheres are something else though – they are gorgeous in the way they move and ebb and flow, right before your very eyes. But if I stop to take a screen shot, then I cannot get back the same image. It is extremely interactive – it is not sequential, but live time!

Step 8, Digital © Diane Clancy

Another sphere or umbrella up is at the top to the left of the center.

Step 9, Digital © Diane Clancy

For the next few shots I go in for close-ups to try to give the feel of the fluidity. We are working near the center, near the first sphere. This tool of the interactive warp operation is “sphere2.” I make a move with the tool, take a screen shot and repeat the process a couple of times to show you the movement.

Step 10, Digital © Diane Clancy

Step 11, Digital © Diane Clancy

Step 12, Digital © Diane Clancy

Step 13, Digital © Diane Clancy

I make another shape or umbrella with sphere 2 near the left edge of the image, just over halfway up. To me it is starting to look like a street scene as someone mentioned about another painting.

Step 14, Digital © Diane Clancy

Then there is another swirl (technically named “sphere”) or umbrella, basically between these last 2 spheres and down a little. That’s starting to look like a street corner to me.

Step 15, Digital © Diane Clancy

Going back to the top of this painting, I use the interactive warp operation with the sphere1 tool to create another movement there on the left. With all of these sphere tools, there is an incredible amount of interactivity while using these tools. I wouldn’t call it a lot of control, but certainly a lot of choice and possibility!

Step 16, Digital © Diane Clancy

Slightly to the right of this last umbrella, another one pops up.

Step 17, Digital © Diane Clancy

Between these last 2 umbrellas is an overlapping third one, also created with the sphere1 tool. These spheres warp wildly as I use this tool.

Step 18, Digital © Diane Clancy

Going back to the sphere2 tool, I make another umbrella near the bottom left corner. It just seems the city needs another umbrella there!

Step 19, Digital © Diane Clancy

I rotate the whole image again a little to the left and up to get more movement in the painting. It breaks up the upper right hand corner that I think was a little too static and adds some interest to the bottom left corner.

Step 20 Digital © Diane Clancy

I decide another umbrella is needed near the bottom right corner. This is sphere2 that creates the “eye” looking spheres. The sphere tool creates translucent looking spheres and sphere2 creates more circular, more regular spheres.

Step 21, Digital © Diane Clancy

One last umbrella is created above and slightly to the right of the last umbrella. It is odd – things start out as shapes for me and then become specific things as I keep playing with a painting. This happens in both traditional and digital medium paintings.

Step 22, Digital © Diane Clancy

OK – now that we have created this painting, we still have to name it. Some ideas I have are Streetscape I (because surely there will be more like this), Umbrellas in the Rain, Looking Down from Floor 25, Theater Square … do you have any to add?

Using this program is like using any creative tool. Each little step can look obvious and manageable, but each step involves choice and techniques. If you start with the same tools, similar ideas, the same source image, you will get a different result than I will. This is because we each bring all our vision and experience to bear on each decision we make – including the artistic ones.

I hope this was helpful to you! As all writing in every blog, this material is © copyrighted. Thank you for taking the time and having the interest to read and follow this demonstration.

~ Diane Clancy

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