I wanted to share a bit on how I played with textures for 'The Bruising of Qilwa' —the cover illustration I made for @cronocifi—, because I put a lot of effort in them on this one.
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First we have this frame with the cells, which I wanted to resemble a bit of a Persian tapestry. So I downloaded a few cloth textures and made tests until it hit just right.
On top of it, and on top of the whole piece, I overlapped a mix of two textures I use a lot: watercolor —painted by myself on Arches cold press paper— and wood —again, downloaded—. I also added some watercolor splutters with a CSP brush. They often give a really nice and warm finishing touch.
For the background, I wanted to play with the "bruising" that appears in the title and is part of the disease Firuz is researching. Wanted to get the city of Qilwa to seem slightly bruised, from left to right. So I tried to use a couple of CSP watercolor brushes, but it didn't really work.
So I grabbed another Arches watercolor paper and decided to paint the bruise with good old traditional watercolors. Then scanned it, put it on top, and painted a bit more with my digital brushes. Traditional paint has this rough, chaotic vibe that I find difficult to emulate using just digital tools
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