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Help me find my medium!
Redspoon
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Greetings all!
I need help choosing a medium to express my undying love to my beautiful wife.
TRADITIONAL BACKSTORY, I CHOOSE YOU!!:
My wife is quite the handcrafter. Primarily scrapbooking, crochet, and cross-stitch work. She spent 3 months on a fairly large cross-stitch pattern of the Hogwarts crest for me. It's amazingly detailed. She, in return, wants me to put my artsy side to work for her Christmas present. I used to draw quite a bit, although I was never 'good', and I've dabbled in painting and chalk and pastel scribbles.
So, I was thinking I'd craft her up an image of a peaceful country cottage, nerdy'd up with gaming references scattered about. (Master sword and shield and a pair of muddy boots on the porch, for example). My hang up is thus - I want it to be decently impressive, and to me that makes me think I should paint it, but I'm also pretty terribad at painting.
I feel like I'm probably not of such a skill level that this will turn out well either way, but since the previous drawing I did for her a few years ago (when she was pregnant with our first child, it was essentially a single line profile of a pregnant woman with some sappy love quote) is her point of reference, she's not expecting much either.
SO! Can anyone recommend me a medium that would give an impressive classy-feeling result, without being overly complicated? Can I use pastels on a canvas? I could just illustrate it out with good old pencil and ink it in when I'm satisfied with the lines, and while it would give me the best results, it feels too plain a presentation to be a gift. Are there such a thing as paint-pens that would give me the ability to draw out my idea but still present as painted texture?
I need help choosing a medium to express my undying love to my beautiful wife.
TRADITIONAL BACKSTORY, I CHOOSE YOU!!:
My wife is quite the handcrafter. Primarily scrapbooking, crochet, and cross-stitch work. She spent 3 months on a fairly large cross-stitch pattern of the Hogwarts crest for me. It's amazingly detailed. She, in return, wants me to put my artsy side to work for her Christmas present. I used to draw quite a bit, although I was never 'good', and I've dabbled in painting and chalk and pastel scribbles.
So, I was thinking I'd craft her up an image of a peaceful country cottage, nerdy'd up with gaming references scattered about. (Master sword and shield and a pair of muddy boots on the porch, for example). My hang up is thus - I want it to be decently impressive, and to me that makes me think I should paint it, but I'm also pretty terribad at painting.
I feel like I'm probably not of such a skill level that this will turn out well either way, but since the previous drawing I did for her a few years ago (when she was pregnant with our first child, it was essentially a single line profile of a pregnant woman with some sappy love quote) is her point of reference, she's not expecting much either.
SO! Can anyone recommend me a medium that would give an impressive classy-feeling result, without being overly complicated? Can I use pastels on a canvas? I could just illustrate it out with good old pencil and ink it in when I'm satisfied with the lines, and while it would give me the best results, it feels too plain a presentation to be a gift. Are there such a thing as paint-pens that would give me the ability to draw out my idea but still present as painted texture?
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I'm awful at anything "freehand", but when I work with shadows and light in minis I do decent for myself. The lines and angles are all there for you, and it becomes about inking and highlighting to create a proper scene.
You can, easily, make the kind of "scene" you want to... and it sounds perfect if you're interested in putting in a little effort to learn the basics of how to paint minis. If you're interested I can link tutorials for painting techniques that, frankly, any adult with a little patience can make look good because the techniques, themselves, tend to be simpler. I've been painting minis for years for no actual understanding of color theory or any artistic technique other than what I've taught myself.
This seems left-field from what you may have expected, but it actually sounds close to what you want. Let me know if you want more info. Doing dioramas is rather easy. Only warning would be that it may end up a little expensive for materials, but budget stuffs are all over if you need them.
Go to target or some other home goods store and buy a painting of a cottage:
They're going to be real easy to find. Then, do some color matching, and paint a chocobo or whatever into it.
Now, this isnt going to be easier, in some ways, so I wouldn't suggest buying something huge. If you have a decent printer and photoshop, maybe consider collage.
I had thought about this route, and I REALLY like the idea, but I think doing it right would take a few tries longer than I have time for this project. That said, I'm totally going to start doing this cause.. it strikes my fancy.
As for Minitures, I've totally done them before, but it's been something like 13 years now since my last one. Another glorious idea to follow up on for future exploration - particularly if I can meld the two projects.