Barbara Arianna Ripepi

Mythological Satyr

Mythological Satyr

BY BARBARA ARIANNA RIPEPI

Artist, Web Designer, Writer

Milan, Italy

Barbara Ripepi’s experience with traditional media and the digital arts has migrated to mobile devices with elegant line drawings and sensitive portraiture.

To realize Satyr I have started from a pencil sketch realized on a notebook usually used to draw user interfaces for iPhone (Notepod, http://notepod.net).

On the same layer I have started to perfect the line, working a lot with the zoom and refining the excesses with an eraser. In a few cases, the eraser turns out to be even more important than the brush to obtain an acceptable level of precision.

I photograph my pencil sketch to bring it into my iPhone and then open the sketch in the app “Brushes”.

In “Brushes” I have left a white background layer for areas of light and on a new layer I have sketched out the image using a basic brush with a very low percentage of transparency.

I am only using the basic design as a guide. The design evolves through multiple layers that are merged when the work is satisfactory.

The zoom allows for greater detail. Working with the eraser can improve the work, for example thinning uneven sections.

“Brushes” allows the creation of up to four layers: to shade, I have created two layers, to be united later in one single layer, together with the original pencil. Layers allow you to refine the design by isolating the parts on which you are working. They are also useful when working with transparency. I have used different kind of brushes and varied the transparency a great deal to obtain the intended effect.

I have left the background coloring separate from the foreground, but maintaining an average percentage of transparency for the color of the figure to utilize the background for a few tones of the satyr’s face.