The Big Mash-up: Idea and Style

I have yet another entry in the Woot Derby this week, and will probably have one more next week. They've been very generous in announcing four themes in advance to celebrate the site's 10th anniversary.

This weeks theme is Pop-Culture Mash-Ups, and I wanted to work with and idea that I'd had for over a year. We all know that wizard schools are high security locations and no one can simply appear there at will. We also know that police boxes that travel through space and time can go anywhere...a bit of a paradox should they exist in the same universe, and the elemental soup of mash-ups.

So what would happen if said time-traveling police box appeared on the grounds of a highly secure wizard school? Would the universe implode? Or would a cantankerous professor be more focused on the fact that a student reporting this phenomenon was violating numerous rules to do so?

As a fan of both Harry Potter and Doctor Who, I could not resist this bit of parody. Of course, I'm not saying that the images here are representative of those stories. The boy in this picture has no glasses and wears colors that do not represent any Hogwarts house. And a police box is not necessarily a TARDIS; it's just a police box. It would certainly be an unusual site if someone were to truck one into the country and deposit it on the grounds beneath an old fortress. Anything more is in the observer's imagination. It's titled "That CAN'T Happen HERE!" 

The most interesting thing about this project was coming to terms with my own artistic ability to project an idea. All the time I'd carried this idea in my mind, I'd imagined it in a more cartoon-like depiction. My ability to draw in this style is weak and I was not at all happy with what I came up with. I was on the verge of posting a message to see if any other artist would be interested in a collaboration when I finally asked myself if I could get this message across in a style with which I felt comfortable.


I'd recently done a couple pieces using negative space, drawing the "negative" shapes and using them as a guide before removing them, and I'd enjoyed doing those very much. So I abandoned the computer for paper and pencil and started sketching some outlines. Eventually I had a couple of human silhouettes that could make me smile (along with a mound of eraser crumbs that could possibly fill a dragon eggshell).

I used Photoshop to draw the castle and police box which incorporated more straight lines, then scanned in the other images. Once I started adding color, I was filling the shapes more completely, so a "negative space" this was not (um, yes... as long as we're doing mash-ups, it's completely appropriate to speak like Yoda). More of a stenciling technique this is.

This entry is up for voting now through July 24, 2014, noon Central time. Many thanks to any and all who click over there to support me! 

Thanks for visiting and please come again!

"On a Summer's Eve"

I spent all day yesterday working on another entry into the Woot derby. It features children catching fireflies beneath a starry sky and I've titled it "On a Summer's Eve." The theme is "negative space" which simply means that a design element is created by what is around it. Sound familiar?

Having just used this technique, I felt primed to do it again, and thought I could do it more quickly this time. Well... not as quickly as I thought. But it got finished and entered, so if you feel it deserves a vote (now through July 3, 2014, noon Central Time), I'd be honored.

I've yet to look at the competition, but I'm sure there are many fine entries as there always are, so be sure to check those out as well.

Tip for the day: Avoid my mistake. Sometimes I'll be working with Photoshop, and it just doesn't seem to work right. I'll check all the settings, try the function again, and still get the wrong result.

This happened to me yesterday, consuming considerable time in confundation, convincing me the program had gone wonky. Every time I tried to "erase" something I'd painted onto a mask in white by going over it in black, it wouldn't erase completely and ended up looking like I'd painted on it with white at 5% opacity. Drove. Me. Crazy.

Eventually I found my error. I'd checked all the parameters except the color. I'd thought I was using black, but there was actually a very dark gray in the palette, which I'd used briefly and forgotten about. It certainly looked black. Once I corrected that, everything functioned as expected.

Well there you have it. Don't take anything for granted and check everything.

Thanks for visiting and please come again!  (And don't forget to vote!)