I think languages are like invisible, atmospheric mists. When I step into an English, French, or German-speaking environment, my emotional and mental state changes with each one. To bring form to these very abstract feelings, I painted interiors that feel the same way each language feels to me, then overlaid each scene with my own significant writings. This was my final project for Computer Paint, done in Adobe Photoshop.

Words really detract from the strength of the environmental picture, but people respond differently to spaces. So I’ll give you some hints as to what I’m feeling.

English is clever, mysterious, distinguished, resolute, nuanced…

French is consonant, smothering, warm, aggressive, casual…

German is youthful, clean, geometric, spacious, unassuming, inviting…

The idea behind matte painting is to combine photo reference and knowledge of light, color, shadow, and perspective to create convincing backdrops as setting for film or animated sequences. Having never done anything quite like this before, I found it ridiculously challenging… but fun. I’m definitely feeling more comfortable with Photoshop now!

The first difficulty was actually inciting the desire to illustrate a place that doesn’t exist… I’m discovering in this class how much I prefer reproducing visuals than inventing them. After digging through my subconscious a bit more, though, I realized that there is nowhere I’d rather be than in a cathedral… so why not combine it with the sacred space of a garden?

The painting turned out a bit too Disney/Kinkadeish for my tastes. Maybe I’ll try it in black and white or otherwise aged (age is the legitimizing factor for me). All in all though, it was great having a project big enough to get lost in again. Those are the highs of my design education! This next one took half the time of the first, yet I like the results much better.

I’ll offer, for comparison, my compositing skills of four years ago. I cringe… in a sweetly nostalgic way.

This quarter, I’m taking several classes that are very challenging. I’m comfortable designing logos and setting type, but painting? The depths of photo manipulation? It’s new territory for me. I’ve really had to let go of needing to make something incredible… and be just happy about learning and experimenting.

So I actually had fun making these two paintings in Photoshop. Starting with scanned sketches, I used the stylus, custom brushes, and layer modes. And canvas texture overlays are the magic ingredient! I wish I actually knew more about painting theory, though. It’s hard to mimic techniques that I don’t know anything about… The first one is based on Neo-impressionism and something I designed way back in Fundamentals of Design. The tulips are derived from recent Life Drawing homework.

There is a fun question to be answered this quarter: What can a graphic designer accomplish with one of these…

…and the nearly unlimited power of Photoshop? It’s obvious what an Animator/Renderer/Digital Painter might want to do, but character and scene design don’t interest me.

Our assignment was simply to experiment. I love incorporating handwritten type in pieces, so that what I was playing around with this week (the piece above). This next piece (the one on the right) was actually the one I did first using the stylus and different brush settings. I like its A.A. Milne-ness. You can click to see it in detail.