California Theatre

California Theatre - Dunsmuir, CA

digital

1452 x 1848 px

2022

I thought that I would try something new and explore a new style with my digital art that I have been wanting to try for some time now. I have not really messed around too much with color yet digitally, but I still wanted to do a somewhat limited color palette; so this is what the end result of my experimentations ended up being.

I recently just took a quick trip up to Northern California this past month and was very inspired by all the historic architecture in the area. So for this piece, I decided to use a simplified color palette with the inclusion of an accent pattern in the background to help fit with and tie together some of the retro colors and aesthetic characteristics I thought the building’s architecture contained.

In my work in the past, I would rarely veer off from depicting exactly what is there in real life. Specifically while working on this project though, the sky left a large amount of empty space that made the overall piece unbalanced; so something was definitely needed to fill in that space. Patterns for me, do just that; while also benefitting the illustration itself both by highlighting the unique characteristics the foreground may posses and also by giving the overall work itself more character and interest.

With the inclusion of the gradient pattern, I think I was able to highlight further the blue/orange complimentary color scheme going on throughout the building and being reflected in the background as well. It also helped in introducing more of a flow to the piece that was somewhat missing with all the angular and geometric line work used predominantly throughout the architecture in the foreground.