Original DA Upload Date: November 30, 2021
[Afternoon on a weekend. Wendy and Nicole sit on a bench in front of an ice cream store, eating ice cream cones. Wendy has chocolate and cocoa bean, while Nicole has mint chocolate chip]
Wendy: “Mint chocolate chip, huh?”
Nicole: “Yeah. What about it?”
Wendy: “I don’t know, never really took you as the kind that likes mint chocolate chip. I thought you were more of a… I don’t know, maybe peanut butter or cotton candy kind of sow?”
Nicole: [laughs] “Nah. I do like those flavors, though. But mint chocolate chip is the best. It tastes like chocolate toothpaste! And you know how much I love brushing my teeth!”
Wendy: “Just curious, but… why do you like brushing your teeth?”
Nicole: “What do you mean?”
Wendy: “I mean, why do you like brushing your teeth so much? It’s a weird thing to like doing. Especially for somebody who wears braces.”
Nicole: “Well, I love the taste of the toothpaste, for one. It feels… clean. Clean and refreshing. I don’t know how else to describe it. That’s why I’m eating this ice cream that tastes like it.”
Wendy: “Huh.”
Nicole: “And two, it’s just really relaxing. You’d think it’d be boring and tedious, but it actually helps keep my mind off things. Like my teachers and how they hate me.”
Wendy: “School’s rough for you, isn’t it?” [licks ice cream] “I wish your teachers understood you better.”
Nicole: “So do I.” [pause] “At least I have you, though. You and Dolly.” [Wendy smiles. Nicole smears some of her ice cream on her little sister’s nose] “Ice cream boop! Heheh!”
Wendy: “Oh, Nicole.” [pokes Nicole’s cheek with her left index finger] “You’re so cute sometimes.”
This was mostly just drawn as a test of my abilities. Most of my artwork is traced from artwork I’ve already drawn before, ensuring that it stays on model. This time, to make sure I’m not going soft, I decided to draw this piece without tracing. The result? Well, I’d say I still got it. Perhaps the line work does look slightly funkier than usual, but it’s not enough for me to say that I’m losing my skill.
Aside from the Wyler sisters here, I’d like to talk about the background. As anyone following my artwork would know, I’ve recently been using stock images in my artwork, especially for brick walls, which I’ve always hated drawing because mine always look so fake. This is a continuation of that trend, refined a bit further. The stock image used for this one didn’t have a watermark over it, but the bricks were still selectively chosen, to appear more random. You may have also noticed that the brick wall here is more seamless than before. This is partially due to the use of ASP’s ‘inpaint’ tool, which randomly generates pixels in a selected, blank area of a layer, based on the pixels that are around it. From there, I selected other areas of the image with the clone stamp tool, and used their pixels over the inpainted areas to make it look even more seamless. The result is… the background you see before you. Which do you prefer? Stock images or my own bricks? Because I think I prefer stock image bricks at this point. Perhaps it’s not as professional, but I’d rather my bricks look realistic than like some cheap-looking trash.
Also, I decided to dial up the contrast on this artwork, since, as all of you know, Grunvale is meant to take a lot of inspiration from pre-digital technologies, as well as early digital technologies. What does this have to do with the color? That’s easy; I’ve observed that works shot on film have more vibrant color than those shot digitally. And I feel turning up the contrast on this one really made the colors pop, more so than usual.
Finally, the reason I decided to make this artwork ice cream-themed was because, yesterday, I bought some Neapolitan ice cream, with a coupon I got from Winn-Dixie after getting my Moderna booster. I’ve never tried Neapolitan before, but I found it to taste delicious, so much so that I can’t believe I haven’t tried it before. Even if… well, it is technically three flavors I have had before. That everyone has had before. I decided Wendy should have chocolate, and Nicole should have mint chocolate chip. Because, let’s be honest, those would totally be their preferred flavors.
Anyway, that’s all for this one. I know it’s a short description, but I don’t really have a lot to say about it. Also I want to get this piece out on DA when it’s still the final minutes of November of 2021. So, until next time, take care, and Happy Hannukwanzmas.
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Grunvale/OTOG is owned by me. You’re free to draw fanart of it, as long as you link me to it.
This artwork was made at a resolution of 3996×2160 (aspect ratio 1.85:1).
The Gallery of Stormy Adler 