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I like to use processes to create art. A while ago now, I came up with a method of creating a certain type of stylized art. It involves a set of layers interacting with each other in specific ways, but beneath all of that sits a regular old layer of pixels that you (or more specifically, I) paint onto to create the final look.

That isn’t all that surprising. What is surprising is that this is pretty much the same way that I have been making different styles for a long time, and I only recognized it now.

If you have dealt with photoshop or similar graphics programs any time in the last few decades, you will have come across very rapid fire tutorials designed around creating some effect or other. Usually they require a very specific set of steps to create a certain look. Occasionally the tutorial will have you punching specific numbers into a filter or adjustment layer. You will get the look, but only in a tightly prescribed way.

I tend to think that is bunk.

If the effect relies on certain magic numbers or sets of steps that you have to match exactly, well, that ain’t cooking. Cooking requires some looseness, some improvisation. You have to be able to substitute ingredients or swap spices.

The method I created is the same as most of the methods I create. It relies on passing the pixels through sets of operations, but at the lowest level, the artist has all the control. You get to paint or draw what you want.

I won’t share this method just yet, but maybe in a few months when I have the art all readied I will post some. Until then, this is just a weird, vague, jab at unhelpful tutorials.