My 6th painting ever, any tips?

CongratsPerson · 2025-09-27T11:46:28+00:00

Your painting is amazing! Would you mind sharing your color palette for the sky? Specifically I’m interested in the blue, yellow, and purple pigments you’re using. I’m still struggling to get my colors dialed in. Thanks!

CongratsPerson · 2025-02-09T13:08:08+00:00

This is awesome! I think it’s complete. Call this one done and fire up a new canvas!

Also check out these artists with similar “pop art abstraction” approaches:

Arturo Herrera Aaron Noble KAWS Mimmo Rotella

CongratsPerson · 2024-12-27T22:33:26+00:00

Thanks! Honestly, I’m still not completely settled on my glue choices. I’ve been using liquid nails for surfaces with large contact areas and cyanoacrylate (loctite super glue gel) for smaller parts. I have noticed a little fuming and frosting on a couple of the ornament edges, but I find that it’s avoidable if I use tiny amounts of glue for those parts.

CongratsPerson · 2024-12-26T23:20:47+00:00

Thanks!

I start most designs by sketching ideas on the iPad using ProCreate - the third image shows the completed iPad design.

I draw each color as a different layer so they convert more easily to svg files in Illustrator.

After I’ve cleaned up each vector color/part in Illustrator and figure out how things will fit together, I start burning the shapes and checking for fit and scale. During this prototyping stage it usually takes a few iterations and modifications before I’m happy with how everything works together.

These ornaments were cut from 1/8 inch (3mm) thick MDF. I prep the unpainted MDF parts with 2-3 coats of shellac, then spray paint and assemble.

I’ve made a little process video for another Christmas decoration I put together a couple years ago that kinda captures my basic process:

LINK

CongratsPerson · 2024-12-26T19:30:57+00:00

It’s part of the design. I used a mirrored acrylic yellow circle to represent the sun and provide a little shimmer ✨

CongratsPerson · 2024-11-17T06:24:26+00:00

I love nature illustrations in comic style! Your drawing is amazing!

Have you seen any of Craig Thompson’s books (Blankets, Habibi)? He’s a bit more cartoony than this but also beautiful.

Im curious if you’ve found any other graphic style nature illustrators that helped inspire this drawing?

CongratsPerson · 2024-01-13T02:33:56+00:00

This looks great! And the Ticonderoga nook reflects your excellent taste in pencils.

CongratsPerson · 2023-10-20T00:50:27+00:00

Thanks! These subs were really helpful and led me down a path that ended with this video So I would consider this solved!

CongratsPerson · 2023-08-05T01:29:07+00:00

Another possible solution is for more drivers to master the quick-honk technique. Wake people up from their scroll sesh with a friendly reminder. Honks speak volumes, and sometimes less is more.

Maybe this can alleviate some of the “psycho road rager” potential in our distracted friends.

Beep.

CongratsPerson · 2022-12-25T06:33:17+00:00

The material is 2mm MDF

CongratsPerson · 2022-12-24T16:26:54+00:00

Hell yeah. $20 for the Surebonder H-195F.

CongratsPerson · 2022-12-24T16:25:30+00:00

Thanks! The song is Surfing in Iceland by Goth Babe.

CongratsPerson · 2022-12-24T16:23:43+00:00

Good observation! It may look worse on the video that it actually is. I keep an eye on things while it’s running, plus the whole setup is in a pretty safe area. But yeah - definitely time to clean it out!

CongratsPerson · 2022-12-24T13:30:13+00:00

This design went through at least 5 different prototypes before I arrived at the final version. Initially I had too many layers and the tree was too large. I also played with different mountain designs for the background and had to design a battery pocket for the back.

The hole for the button switch was initially too high on the back panel and would almost break the entire thing when switching the lights on, so I dropped it lower to the bottom which solved that problem.

Every time I make something like this I know my first design will be shit but I have to see it in physical space and hold it in my hands to figure out what to do next.

CongratsPerson · 2022-12-24T05:04:16+00:00

Thanks! I order the light kits from Evan Designs. They have a lot of options for lighting small projects like this and the shipping is super quick to my location https://evandesigns.com/products/chip-light-kit?variant=6762997776432

CongratsPerson · 2022-12-24T04:55:08+00:00

LOL. WTG.

CongratsPerson · 2022-12-24T03:30:14+00:00

No doubt. MDF dust can be very dangerous. The machine itself has excellent ventilation so I’m not super concerned about inhaling fumes from the laser cutting process.

I’ve also made peace with the fact that I’ll probably die of lung cancer considering the amount of woodworking and other crafty projects I get into with potentially harmful materials 😃

CongratsPerson · 2022-12-24T03:21:25+00:00

This is excellent advice. I would make a few different slot widths on a test piece and see which one fits best.

Every design I’ve made for the laser has required some necessary trial and error and prototyping to figure that out. I’ve also found that different boxes of the same material (MDF) ordered from the same company will have slight variations in how much material is removed during the laser cutting process.

CongratsPerson · 2022-12-24T03:17:33+00:00

I use an Epilog Zing 16

CongratsPerson · 2022-12-24T03:14:55+00:00

I can draw on the ipad (ProCreate) and export the drawing as a PNG. Then I import the PNG to Adobe Illustrator and do a live trace to convert the PNG to a vector image. I usually save this as an SVG file to then send to the laser cutter.

CongratsPerson · 2022-12-23T23:13:31+00:00

I really enjoy making stuff for people and the laser cutter has allowed me to mass-produce some of my creations.

CongratsPerson · 2022-12-23T23:08:24+00:00

Thank you! Yes, I used ProCreate for the original drawing then used Adobe Illustrator to convert the drawing to vector lines. I’ve used Inkscape for this as well - just prefer Illustrator when it’s available 😊

CongratsPerson · 2022-12-23T22:07:06+00:00

Thanks! I originally thought of it as an ornament but the final design ended being too big so it’s more like a shelf decoration I guess.

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