Today got another reminder that I can win a free full year if I post a project in the Adobe Fresco classes and this made me doodle a bit more with the app and make a project for the Illustration Practice: Lettering & Florals With Adobe Fresco class by Dylan Mierzwinski.
The Project
Last time I played with Fresco, I liked the watercolor brushes and how the red pepper from that project ended up. I don’t have any watercolor experience (except from elementary school), so I kinda went with the (water) flow.
I wanted to have some red peppers in the drawing and the class was about combining lettering with drawing. After a bit of brainstorming, I’ve decided to try Harvest and Red Peppers.
For some time now I’m collecting the weekly free resources from Creative Market. I knew I wanted some antique or old style lettering, so I’ve started browsing the fonts I’ve “harvest” over time. If you configure the Select Preview Text on a font page, the setting will be saved in a cookie and used on any new font page you’re opening. This simplified a lot my search. In the end, I’ve settled on the Marena Typeface.
With that done, I’ve started searching for pepper images on Google. As I thought to draw the peppers tied on a rope on one side of my piece, I’ve also searched for a bunch pumpkin images so that I can make a pile that would ballance the hanging peppers. I’ve also searched for some garlic ropes, as I thought to mix them with the peppers.
With all references prepared, I’ve opened Fresco and started drawing the garlic thread, various peppers and a bunch of pumpkins. Also traced the lettering, to the best of my ability. Having enough elements, I’ve started duplicating and transforming my pumpkins to make a pile. Played a bit with the composition, then started to color the pumpkins and the peppers using watercolors.
Played a bit more with the layout and signed the piece. As the image was kind of empty, decided to add some background to it. Job done!
Update: It’s Harvest Time
The initial image looked a bit empty, so, after thinking a bit, I’ve decided to change the text from a simple Harvest to It’s Harvest Time. I think it’s looking a bit better now…
Summary
What I’ve used:
- Marena Typeface as template for lettering
- the Pixel Brushesh > Sketching > Pencil for drawing the initial sketches
- the watercolor brushes from the Live Brushes to color the pumpkins and the red peppers
- the Pixel Brushes > Ink > Natural Inker for lettering and black accents overpainting
Here’s the timelapse of the whole drawing.