How I illustrate
The process of creating an image.
Okay, so yesterday I was painting in oils until two pm. I had an idea to illustrate a scene in my book Spider Lake; http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CL0QPW4 and I thought I would show how it is I create the imagery. This is generally the same way I start a painting.
My years of experience in the retouching industry had me doing all sorts of crazy things. "Can you put this dress on this image of a girl and make it look real?" "Can you extend this image of the room, creating the leather couch in perspective? Oh, and could you build a wall here and place a painting on the wall?" Working for ten years on Conde'Nast's flagship magazines including Vanity Fair had me doing all sorts of crazy things, and I was the lead man. I had the best set of skills in a room full of gifted artists.
I know, this is really brash, and I shouldn't be so full of myself. My answer to that would be to say; I am trying to sell my advanced skills to anyone who may need them. I have never been an egotist, but I have always been competitive. I don't like being second best. That being said, let's see how I approach my illustration. One final note before I begin. I use images from the internet. There are copyright issues that must be followed. When I make something for painting reference, what I end up with is derivative and adjusted, pulled, stretched, assembled, that the originals are obscured forever. They are placed through the Gregg Hangebrauck filter so to speak, and I would never use someone's imagery in it's original form. Even the image I am showing you today would eventually be painted, causing even higher levels of originality.
Here we go; Find the files that fit your original vision.
When I think of an image, it is already composed in my head. When I wrote the passage in my novel, I had the same image rattling around in there, so it was just a matter of going looking for the elements. The image below is filtered with distortion to obscure the original imagery, my apologies; but you can see where I am going with it.
Now let's put it together
In Photoshop, you have to think of the layers as a deck of cards. The background image being on bottom, and each new element being above as it moves forward in the image. All Photoshop pros know this. This extra info is for any novices out there. So, I begin with the background image, and work my way up. The following progression of images will pause whenever explanation is needed.
As you can see in this progression of layers, the original background on the left is the first layer. The middle image is the two layers; one and two, and I grained up the roadway I added so the asphalt would look like gravel ( as in the book ). The third file on the right has the lightning added ( I know, it is hard to see ) The lightning layer ( layer three ) is in ( overlay ) form in the layers palette. This darkens and lightens the layers below with the tone of layer three. ( see the palette image layer three and you will notice it looks very different in it's original form. )
A word about masking
Photography is a limited media. The dynamic range that a camera can produce is about a third of what the human eye can process. Many photographers take pictures all their life without knowing this. When you go out and photograph a landscape, and your camera is metering on the trees and grass, the sky the camera produces on the film ( or chip ) becomes lighter than your eye actually sees it. The same is true for the tone in the deep shadows. Your eye sees all the detail that the limited camera leaves out. Some recent techniques allow for that with the bracketing of exposure and the subsequent marrying of the three exposures digitally ( a topic for another time ). The limitations of the camera often allow the post-manipulating Photoshop guy to get an easy mask. The two images below show how I often produce my masks.
The green color on the image is simply the Quick mask color. The menu on the right shows how the mask is produced using select/color range and setting the Selection preview to quick mask. I like the place I sample to turn green ( not the opposite ) so the program needs to be set up how I like it first.
Lets add a few more layers
Layer four ( left image ) is done by applying a dark purple tint to the mask of all but the sky. This layer is changed from normal to ( multiply ) in the layers palette. The middle image which is five layers combined, adds the fiery sky within the sky mask. The third image is the lightning copied and pasted using the same masking technique as the sky.
A little trickery with the cupola
The image of the cupola needed to be bent to appear to be more at eye level. If the original file ( left ) were placed as is, the viewer would notice something wrong. The human eye and mind know when things look right ( or wrong ) and this type of thing comes up all the time in high-end photo manipulation. A chair added to a room scene needs to be at precise angles to marry correctly, even down to the proper photo length of the lens. ( An image shot at 50mm looks very different than one shot at 85mm. ) The trickery here is simple manipulation using filter/liquify.
Lets look at three more layers
The image on the left has the menacing cloud added ( once again, using select/color range ) and it is copied and pasted into a new layer. The layer is once again changed from normal mode to multiply which mimics a transparent film being laid on another. The next two images are fairly obvious, the cupola being placed, color corrected to match the dark hues of the background, and the tree layer handled the same.
Lets add some bent up cars
Okay, the next few layers are also handled as the cupola and the tree. Copy them in, color correct them ( using curves ) and placing them correctly in the image. The hard part of this iis knowing what images will work in the perspective of the design. The images you choose must be photographed at relatively the same lens height above the ground, and at a close focal length. A trained eye can see what would work, but a novice might have problems. The image on the right has an added layer with airbrushed shadows. I use a Wacom tablet and hand brush any shadows needed. ( just like airbrushing )
The finishing touches
In the final image, I add the cracked glass image to all the windows, changing each layer from normal to pin light. I have also added the weather vane atop the cupola. Finally, I save all layers into one, and filter the image using the watercolor filter in the layers palette. This image is almost exactly as I envisioned the scene that I wrote in my novel.
A look at the menus
This is a segment of the menu palette I have on my second monitor. It gives you a sense of what each layer is doing, and what the imagery actually looks like. I have omitted the many broken glass layers. There were so many, it would be redundant.
Be sure to visit the Spider Lake Facebook page, and while you are at it, why not purchase a book? The reviews have been great!
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