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Windows

Reliving the Bliss of Windows XP.

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digital painting of the Windows XP desktop with a pinball game open

About my windows project

Our theme this month is “Windows”.

Windows XP was the first computer operating system I paid any attention to. I used versions before that, but XP was the first time I was conciously aware of the operating system. I think the main reason was the gorgeous default wallpaper Bliss.

Looking back at old desktop screenshots, the entire Windows XP theming is incredibly dated. Yet I love how blue and green everything is. I don’t know if the OS colors were chosen based on the Bliss photograph, or if the photograph was chosen because it captured the theme colors so well, but they belong together.

For my project this month I decided to pay an incredibly subtle homage to Windows XP.

How I made it

As has become my norm, I jumped into Procreate on my aging iPad. I knew from the beginning that I was going to use the original Bliss photograph. After a few rough ideas, I decided I wanted to “paint” the dekstop elements onto the wallpaper. I found some paint-looking markers in Procreate and used screenshots with color grabs to get going.

It isn’t creative club if I am not doing it last minute, so time ran out on this one. Overall I am happy with how it turned out, but I did not get very far into my Space Cadet pinball recreation. Even still, it got my mind in the past and I had fun making it.