Okay, so I spent some time digging into this ‘Elena Novak’ thing recently. It started pretty simply. I was browsing some old digital art forums, you know, the kind that haven’t been updated since maybe 2010? And someone mentioned this name, Elena Novak, in passing, talking about a particular way she handled light in her digital paintings.
Got me curious. You know how it is. A name you haven’t heard, a technique you don’t know. So, the first thing I did was hit the search engines. Typed in “Elena Novak artist”, “Elena Novak digital painting”, “Elena Novak light technique”. Honestly? Found almost nothing concrete. A few broken links, mentions on other really old forums, but no portfolio, no official site, not even clear examples of the work described.
My Attempt to Figure it Out
This just made me want to try and figure it out even more. Seemed like a bit of a mystery. Based on the vague descriptions I found – stuff like “soft diffused backlighting” and “almost hazy quality” – I decided to just try and replicate that feeling myself. It wasn’t about copying a specific piece, because I couldn’t find any clear ones, but capturing that described vibe.
So, I fired up my usual software, grabbed my drawing tablet. My process went something like this:
- Started simple: Just blocked out a basic scene, nothing complex. A sphere on a plane, classic practice stuff.
- Focused on light: Instead of my usual direct light source, I tried thinking about where the light wasn’t. I imagined a big, soft light source behind the sphere, way in the distance.
- Played with layers: I started layering colours very gently. Used a lot of low-opacity brushes. Put down a base colour, then slowly added lighter tones, trying to make them blend super smoothly.
- Airbrushing (sort of): Used soft brushes that mimic an airbrush effect to get that ‘haze’. Sprayed faint colour around the edges where the light would theoretically wrap around.
- Muted Palette: Kept the colours toned down. The descriptions mentioned a certain subtlety, so I avoided anything too bright or saturated. Lots of grays, soft blues, muted ochres.
What Happened Next
Well, it was harder than I thought. Trying to create a ‘diffused’ look without a clear reference? Mostly guesswork. I spent a good couple of hours just tweaking brush settings, layer opacities, and colour blends. At one point, it just looked muddy. I almost scrapped it.
I took a break, came back, and tried focusing less on ‘making it look like something’ and more on the feeling the descriptions gave me. Softness. Quiet light. I simplified the background even more, used some blur tools very sparingly.
End Result?
Did I nail the ‘Elena Novak technique’? Honestly, who knows? I have nothing solid to compare it to. What I ended up with was… interesting. It did have a soft, slightly hazy quality. The light felt less direct than my usual stuff. It wasn’t a masterpiece, far from it. But the process itself was the main thing.
It forced me to use tools and approaches I normally neglect. Playing with super low opacity layers, building things up incredibly slowly, focusing entirely on indirect lighting. It was a good exercise, even if the original inspiration, Elena Novak, remains a bit of a ghost online.
So yeah, that was my little practical session trying to chase down a name from an old forum post. Didn’t find the treasure map, but enjoyed the digging.
