'Earthed' - Caught Up in Cobwebs.

'Earthed' - an image which began using the free drawing program 'Scribbler Too'

 Lately I have noticed some strange, spider-web-like drawings on the internet, such as this beautiful example by Bettina Makley, who lives in the USA.  I began to wonder where people were buying these ultra thin black pens from which could make such delicate lines!  After a bit of investigation I found that they had been made by using a free online program named 'Scribbler Too'.  Go there, have a play, and I can pretty much guarantee you will be as hooked as I am.  It's so much fun!  And the great thing is that you can save your image, take it in to any other drawing software and add more effects and colours to your heart's content. 

Here is an example I have been working on, which is not finished yet.  I am enjoying working on it so much that I would actually prefer not to finish it...I will just keep drawing until my eyes pop out of my head, which is what almost happens when I am doing one of my 'drawing until 3 in the morning' episodes.

For 'Earthed' (seen above) I began by loading a circular tree image I had drawn previously using another great free online drawing program called 'Art Rage'.  You can see it in the screen capture image below, the one which looks as though it has been drawn with coloured pencils.  I liked the shape of this tree, so I used it as a tracing and then used the scribble tool to draw the black and white tree that you see below it.  I then saved it, took it into Photoshop, and used the paintbrush tool to add more colour.  I like to turn the opacity slider down quite low, and build up the layers of colour.
 

A screen capture image I took while using Photoshop.
Here you can see how 'Earthed' evolved.

I used a graphics tablet for this drawing (Wacom Intuos 3) but I have also seen some amazing examples of drawings using Scribbler Too, which have been completed using the mouse.  Some people love the program so much they started a Flickr group to share their work!  There were only 22 members (including me) at the time of writing this post, but I'm sure the number will grow as people discover the program.  You can see more at the 'Scribbler Zombies'.


Have fun!
Regards,
MM.
PS: (Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE :))