At Water's Edge

Artwork, fursona (C) foxstory 2012

This is my first artwork made primarily with the paths tool. Rather than coloring and painting areas and pixels until I had finished, I selected out areas defined by the paths of their borders. I then colored these as solid colors. It's quite a different approach to digital art compared to the raster painting that I am used to. I think that using "paths" (in Photoshop) gives my art a new kind of precision that it did not once have. At the same time, I kind of miss the old style of digital painting and doing my highlights/shadows as custom marks on a solid color area.

To be clear, this is a new kind of digital painting that I was not aware of until really just this month, January 2012. The idea is to draw a border path, enclose the area, and make that a solid color. As opposed to just setting colors for the brush (stylus) and painting different sections of the canvas until the picture emerges.

I'm not sure if I really like it or not, as it is quite unlike my usual style. I've had a hiatus from making digital art since I made the ACME Worldbuilder package in October. I've used the time to learn new techniques and experiment with capabilities for animation and 3D modeling. But it is so nice to get back to some personal fox fursona art.

Especially with this new paths approach. I'm working toward a semblance of vulpine photorealism- if this is not recognizable as my red fox fursona, that just shows my style has really changed as I've tried this new approach. I'm glad to have a closer approximation of the appearance of my fursona's species, but this cannot be the only consideration. If so, a photograph would always be the best possible way to get in touch with ~the species~ if you will. I'm happy to have a digital fursona portrait like this even if in many ways this is not fully photorealistic in its detail.

On to the artwork itself. At water's edge- at the point of considering the chemical compound and all its traits and properties. But not at the point of crouching down and lapping up the water, that would be another portrait entirely. To me, being at water's edge is considering the wonder of snow and ice and hail and sleet and all that makes winter such a wondrous season for a vulpine in the wild. But not actually being at the point of touching the snow. Only the cold of a faucet on demand- like looking down at the water, but sitting aside from it. Not really experiencing all the wonder that can come from this chemical compound in the full fury and glory of the wild winter.

And that's the beginning of what is meant by "At Water's Edge" for this January 2012 fox portrait.

I know I haven't uploaded in awhile. Or commented on a lot of the recent uploads of the artists I watch. I would greatly appreciate any comments on this new direction for my artwork. Thank you for reading.