When I started working on this prompt, I thought it was going to be a lot easier. The first thing I realized was that I had not left any open surface area on the building wall, on the left, to include the quote. So I had to improvise. I decided to draw around the octopus.

The first step consisted of using photoshop to determine how I wanted the quote to be arranged. It took longer than planned and I didn’t end up going with that arrangement in the end.

After I decided where and how big I wanted the letters, I printed out a paper for reference. Then I used those letters to draw them out on a yellow piece of cardstock paper and proceeded to cut them out. It was extremely tedious cutting out the letters, but it was worth it.

After I had all my letters, I arranged them on the left building. I realized I didn’t like the way they looked (i.e. how I had arranged them on photoshop), so I opted to put most of the quote over the octopus’ body. Once I rearranged them, I then glued them down.

After adding the letters I decided to add more shadows to the windows and to add some curtains to make them look more like windows that are lived in. I wanted to add a bit more personality and whimsy to the piece.

Do you ever use photoshop (or other similar programs) to determine the layout of your art?

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