CHESS POSTER - pieces that i like...

The final mandala

Owls

Owls always travel in pairs, so I created a male and female owl. Plenty of influences for their shape and patterning. I have used the original owl design (see 'My owl 2' post) as the shape. I made the owls slighty thinner, by pulling the wings in a bit. However, everything else is the same. If you look at the photo below, you can see dark brown pointy-hearts on his white front...

Using the Blob Brush Tool I made the hearts. Then made them into 4 swatches - 2 large (body, brown and purple) and 2 small (wings and head, brown and purple). See pattern below:

The owls:

Monday progress

Here's my mandala thus far:

Weekend work

I have no internet access at home. So i saved my mandala at different intervals while working on it throughout the weekend. I'm getting to know Illustrator quite well - it is a killer program, as in its sweet as. Here are a couple of progress snapshots from the weekend...

Friday

Saturday

Illustrator

By the way, I now own illustrator.

My owl 1

I made an owl in illustrator using the image of the owl on the mug (shown in previous post). I inserted the original image into Photoshop, cropped it, and used the contrast/brightness tool to take out all colour. This made it easier for me to "trace" (using the drawing tool in Illustrator) over the owl to make my owl. The end result is very simple, but I think that's all I need. The mandala is pretty chaotic, so i think keeping the content/symbols basic is better. Here is the original owl and my owl: