wicked apple artwork
The art work for wicked apples is primarily based on a single water color painting. The apple was scanned and manipulated digitally to help speed up the creation of new apple ideas. The process below was used on all artwork to tie it together with a similar illustrated feel.
Original Painting & Cleanup
This is the original watercolor painting of the apple. I painted several in a row so I would multiple options to choose from. The one I ended up choosing was actually the first apple I painted.
After selecting a painting I scanned in the apple then used Photoshop to brightened and color corrected the image. I also cleaned up any blurry edges, but did not completely smooth the apple edge to keep a looser watercolor feel.
Carving the Apple
While each apple has it’s own design, many feature cutouts that reveal the apple flesh. The apple flesh is created using a watercolor texture painting. I use watercolor textures a lot in my digital artwork and have created several dozen texture varieties and colors.
After drawing out the areas I want to cut away on the apple skin I cut them out of the flesh texture and applied the eyes, nose and mouth areas on top of the apple as separate layers. This allowed me to move around each feature individually to find the perfect positions.
Creating Shading
To add shading the the apple flesh areas I opted to use a second bolder watercolor texture instead of darkening the original texture. Instead of simply having a grey or black edge, it creates a more colorful and interesting shadow.
This layer is created by erasing the bold texture layer with a soft brush to reveal the lighter layer below.
Adding Ink outlines
To create the “ink” outlines for the apples I create a duplicate layer of the entire apple thus far then apply the stamp filter. Although most apples use roughly the same stamp settings some need to be tweaked to keep a consistent black levels and line thickness. Afterwards I set the blend mode to darken to so only the black is displayed.
Finishing Touches
To complete each apple I will go back though and touch up the edges as well as add or remove ink lines if it feels too balance out the overall look.
Each apple can take between 2-10 hours depending on the complexity of the design.