Have you ever thought to yourself: Must be nice to be an artist, and have cool ideas pop into your head all the time…
Well, I’m an artist, and that almost never happens to me. I have to sit and think. But once in a very great while an idea does just pop into my head. This was one of those rare times.
I was thinking to myself: I should do a piece about the Olympics before the Games are
all over. Then I thought of the five interlocking rings. And the image of a beer glass magically making colored rings on a bar flashed into my mind. A second later I saw the miniature swimmer in the glass.
Here’s the final:
Funny how it only takes a few lines to define a swimmer. I made the rings using a set of free “cup stain” Photoshop brushes that I had previously downloaded for some forgotten purpose. Here’s a close-up:
The text effect was achieved by rasterizing the Text layer in Photoshop, accessing the Layer Styles window, and simply experimenting with the Inner Glow settings.
The 2012 Games are in London, and I thought a Union Jack coaster would be a nice touch. I downloaded a free flag image, cropped it using the Elliptical Selection tool, and added a bit of wear and tear using a scratchy brush and some partial masking. 
Where does one start on a project like this? I always start with a ratty little thumbnail sketch scratched out on scrap paper using an ordinary ball-point pen. Then I do a full-size pencil drawing, ink it using various markers, and scan it into Photoshop for coloring.
Here’s my scanned line drawing. Looks like I had a tough time spelling Olympics… : (
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What do you think? Were you familiar with the meaning behind the Olympic rings? Ever seen anybody swimming in your beer? Hope you’ll leave a comment.
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