I just completed my first full-scale "painting" in Photoshop. I have been working with this digital medium for more than a year but I have not created any "finished" art with it. Now that I know enough to simulate painting technique with the program, I decided to do a piece which refers back to my fantasy landscapes and architecture of the 80s and 90s, when I was a professional fantasy/science fiction illustrator.

During those years, I was the unofficial "house illustrator" for the fans of Marion Zimmer Bradley, a pioneering female fantasy author. One of her imaginary worlds was that of "Darkover," a far-off planet orbiting a red sun. The Darkover tales were a mixture of swashbuckling, magic, and social experimentation, written by Bradley by herself or with collaborators from the late 60s until her death in 1999. I did numerous character portraits, scenes, and landscapes from the World of the Red Sun.

In 1990 I did a fantasy landscape as a commission for a Darkover-fan friend. This was "The Mausoleum at Hali," a fantastic structure which sat at the edge of a mountain lake which was not made of water, but of mist. It is watercolor on board, 16" x 20".

With this picture in mind, I set out to create a similar scene in Photoshop. I used a picture of a northern Italian mountain castle as a reference. I drew directly to the computer, using my Wacom drawing tablet with no previously scanned pencil drawing. Each section of the picture, from mountains to castle to lake (this time it is water, not mist) to foreground balcony, was done in separate "layers," which are work areas that don't mix with each other until you need them to. This is something that of course cannot be done in conventional media.

Photoshop uses what might be called "pixel spreaders" instead of actual fiber brushes. It adds color into the microscopic grains of the screen, using light instead of pigment. These "pixel spreaders" are usually simply called "brushes" in Photoshop. The possibilities for these Photoshop brushes are endless; you can create your own or modify ones that come with the program. For landscaping, there are very convenient "brushes" which slightly randomize your stroke so that you can paint the irregularities of rock or cloud or wood. And there are other brushes which "spray" or "spatter" dots in more "randomized" patterns to resemble tree leaves. I used all these digital tricks to recreate the "natural" textures I saw in the photograph.

Interestingly, though Photoshop picture creation seems easier than conventional painting even to the point of "cheating," I spent about the same amount of time doing the Photoshop work as I did the original watercolor: a week or so, working about 3 hours each night. It's possible that I will be able to work faster as I get more proficient in Photoshop. After all, one of the things which make conventional work go slower for me is that I have to wait for paint to dry in order to put the next area on. In Photoshop, everything you do is ready to work on as soon as you have placed it.

So here's my tribute to Darkover and the World of the Red Sun, done in Photoshop rather than watercolor. Dimensions are 20" x 16".

For a larger version of this image, please click here.

Posted at 3:52 am | link