Graphics Tablet Suzuki Bike - Flash Drawing

So. I started with this....

A photo of the 'Rio Grande' road in Western Texas (apparently one of the most scenic roads in the world!).

With a little photomanip and a whole lotta love, I ended up with a scene that would better suit the 'Flash drawing' design of my own artwork (you will see later!) to use as a backdrop. Gladly, I would have taken this photo in person to use for this particular piece of artwork, but alas, flying to Texas just to take a photograph would have been a bit too great a stretch for a student budget.

Next, now that I had a lovely comic-style background (and I've just realised a lovely 3 on 3 pattern happening with regards to the 'Rule of Thirds' but more on that in a second), I used a Graphics Tablet to draw a Suzuki Bike in Adobe Flash CS3 (see below).










Aannnnddd, finally! The moment of truth...



Combine Flash-drawn bike with Comical background....


And happy days.

The bike actually fits in with the image. See, as I was drawing it freestyle in Adobe Flash, the background was plain and boring and grey. Which was great while I was drawing, but as a finished image, it lacked a little... shall we say, pizazz? When I combined the flash-style super-bike with the original Rio Grande photograph, it looked dramatically out of place. As an image, if I were going for making a statement, it could have worked, I suppose. 'Expressive meets Tradition', and all that. But at the end of the day, due to my fascination with comic-books and the wonderfully simple and bold style of drawing in Flash, it just made sense to combine the two elements together for the finished piece.

Rule of Thirds - twice! One second...

Okay, so it's not exactly perfect, but considering it's a manipulated photograph, it's pretty damn close. Almost as though Mother Nature herself understood the concept of the Rule of Thirds when creating the landscape (or insert religious idol of choice, if it isn't Mother Nature according to your beliefs).

Upper section = sky.
Middle section = mountain range.
Lower sections = road, bike, ground.

Each section draws the viewer's attention to a certain aspect of the image. It's quite amazing that the correct positioning of a camera can create an image with clear proportion, enough to purposefully segregate elements of that image according to this rule.

(As a footnote, yes, I am British. And my superbike wants to drive through Western Texas into oncoming traffic for the laughs, just because we do that at home. Seriously, are we the only people to have 'left-hand-traffic' laws? Call the bike's positioning a culturally-inclined alteration to the norm of drive-time in southern America. Just because I'm British.)