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monster mountain concept art

Monster Mountain

Monster Mountain is the idea explosion for this post. This week I spent some time working with Photoshop gradients, lighting techniques, and textures. I also used a portfolio template that I purchased from Trent Kaniuga. You can get this detail and more from my last post. So…why a mountain monster?!! Well, why not!

The finished piece placed into a portfolio template.

Design Progression

This was sketched and completed entirely inside Photoshop. I used a nice hard brush to build the initial design and then use and air brush tool to fill in shadows. I used shortcut keys and moved through the initial design pretty fast. I didn’t allow myself to be overly critical. I typically lose most of my time doing that. Once I was happy with the overall design and the values I dropped in, I created additional layers for the color gradients. I would have normally flatted the entire piece first but I just jumped into the color gradients. I found the overall color of the creature that I wanted to use first and that became my base. I used additional gradients for the background and the hammer. The finger nails I separated into a gradient as well. I wanted to have a nice “pop”. Lastly, I used a final two final layers. Once was for fine details and the other was for lighting. I couldn’t decide between using a multiply layer or a vivid color mode. Both seemed interesting. I had my kids look at the piece and I changed the blending modes with them watching. They really liked the multiply so that’s how I chose it.

You can move the slider to see the different between vivid color and linear burn.

Portfolio

After the design was completed I made selections and placed them throughout the portfolio template. I added the additional text boxes to describe the parts that I wanted to draw attention to. The whole piece took about 3.5 hours. This was probably my best time.

I hope you enjoy this. Please hit me up with any questions that you have. Have a good one!

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Freelance Artistry

I am gathering opinions on my latest design. What do you think?

It is a new banner idea that I may use for my websites and other social media. I need to work on the sizing for sure as it is a bit big for Twitter and Facebook.

The inspiration for the design came from the origin of the word “freelance”. A freelance was considered a mercenary back in medieval times. These “Freelancers” would take on work in return for payment. This was once the easiest way to raise an army to fight for a cause. I imagine the downside of this is that your opponent could have more gold to offer and your troops would be bought out from under you. Tides would quickly be turned as the cause is only worth as much as the gold that is backing it.

Please enjoy and let me know what you think.

knight
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Season’s Greetings From the Mountain Snowman

Season’s Greetings From the Mountain Snowman

Season’s Greetings to all of my fans out there. Thanks so much for your comments and support to my page and my designs. This week I incorporated some Photoshop video integration to create the .GIF File you see below. The layered technology of Photoshop made it extremely easy to build. The stock was available here.

Season’s Greeting From the Mountain Snowman!

The Design Process

This design was painted using brushes I purchased from @TrentKaniuga located from his store at Trent Kaniuga (gumroad.com) . The entire design took about four hours all together. Using separate layers I was able to create the illusion of depth by making adjustments to contrast and brightness. A nice glow layer with the brightness turned all the way up was used for the fine highlights. I think this added a nice haunted appeal to the whole piece overall.

Most of my time was spent blending the colors together until I found a nice selection. By keeping the color selection simple, I reduced the complexity of the shading process. Had there been more colors, there would have been more to balance….and it would have taken a lot longer I’m sure to get the desired results.

The simple red scarf provides just enough of an added focal point since that’s the only other color there really. It makes the eyes jump to it and then over to the moon.

What Do You Think?

I’d really like to see your comments and questions. If there is something you’d like me to create, drop a comment and let me know. I’d love the challenge. By the way, I am very new to Photoshop. I’ve used Clip Studio Paint forever but it never hurts to learn something new. Another shout out to all the artists who create YouTube videos because that’s how I learn the best!

Until next time….Good night!