Hi Everyone!

Hi everyone!

So I recently rediscovered GIMP and making collage art when I was sick a few weeks ago. I hadn't touched it in years and didn't expect much to come of it, but I actually ended up making a couple things that I feel good enough about to share.

For now, I plan to purely use this as an art blog to post my stuff (and, if I am lucky, to get into conversations with other fans of the same media/people with similar interests). I have a small backlog of stuff to post, afterwards, we'll just see how this goes. This is very much a work in progress atm.

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"Aesthetic - Poolcore + Dithering + Turquoise/Cerulean"

Aesthetic/moodboard made in GIMP with stock images from pexels.com. Uses the dithering option in GIMP and has a main focus on the colors of turquoise/cerulean.

Additional thoughts below the cut:

Inspired by the Cerulean Waves Mall playlist on Youtube, which I listened to while making this. I also wanted to see if I could use the dithering filter/effect I used while making my "Who's Lila?" artwork for other things, and this is pretty much the polar opposite in terms of colors and style. So I am very happy how this turned out, the colors are very pretty imo.

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"Who's Lila? - Lila" aesthetic/moodboard

Aesthethic/Moodboard made with GIMP using stock images from pexels.com for the character "Lila" of the videogame "Who's Lila?" by Garage Heathen. Both the game and this piece of art use 'dithering' as an art style.

Thoughts beneath the cut:

First character-based aesthetic! I think this turned out pretty well, considering I haven't made that many aesthetics yet. I slightly adjusted the settings I used from the last one and added a layer to make the colors pop a bit more. Also I love the picture for the "shh"/whispering/mystery part of Lila - the shirt saying 'stop' is a nice touch.

I also find it is a neat challenge for myself to try and emulate a specific artstyle; it is a good way to try out the various effects and filters while having a clear goal in mind.

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"Annihilation" - aesthetic/moodboard (based on a mix of movie and book version)

An aesthetic/moodboard made in GIMP based on the Southern Reach books and movie by Jeff Vandermeer. Made with free stock images from pexels.com.

Further thoughts below the cut:

One of the earliest aesthetics/moodboards I made when I got back into GIMP, and before I even really got back into 'Annihilation' again, going purely off of memory to make this one. Not the best I have made imo, but still part of my art journey, so I am posting it.

Also, I kinda like simplicity, how 'ordinary' everything looks, while the book and movie themselves contain weird and uncanny imagery.

Either way, I liked making this, which is the most important thing. And it sparked my attempts to make creature collages later on, like the dolphin with the human eye.

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"Annihilation - The Bear (version 1)"

Digital collage made in GIMP. Inspired by the bear(-creature) from the movie adaptation of "Annihilation" by Jeff Vandermeer. Made with stock images from pexels.com.

This is less of a 1:1 interpretation of the bear, and more of an abstract, experimental, artistic representation of it. After I made the dolphin, I remembered the bear from the movie and thought about recreating it, and was actually quite surprised (in a good way) when I managed to do so.

The pic is meant to be half-realistic, half artistic; the skull kinda looks like it was drawn over the bear, and kinda as if the skull really portrudes from the bear's head. I really enjoyed the 'shared eye' as well, it came out looking really well.

I have a second picture of the bear that I will post in the future; it looks very similar but is not completely identical. Overall, this concept was a lot of fun to try and adapt, and I learned a few new things along the way.

(Fun fact, the bear actually has a name. It's 'Homerton'.) (2nd fun fact, I am almost sure that the art for Tom Rhodes' 'Don't Fear The Reaper' cover features the same skull I used.)

"Who's Lila? -Wheeliam" aesthetic/moodboard

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Aesthethic/Moodboard made with GIMP using stock images from pexels.com for the character "Wheeliam" of the videogame "Who's Lila?" by Garage Heathen. Both the game and this piece of art make use of 'dithering'.

Additional thoughts beneath the cut:

I feel so sorry for Wheeliam and I also love the imagery and scenery of when the players gets to meet and interact with him, so I decided to make a moodboard for him. Again, part of challenging myself to do so only with stockpics. I quite like it.

Also, random sidenote, but there weren't a lot of sycamore stock pics on pexels; I had kinda hoped for showing a whole tree but alas, I think this still gets the point across. Bonus fun fact, 'sycamore' has apparently been applied to different types of trees (source: wikipedia). Huh.