PHOTO MANIPULATION. Raven Dawn

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Griselda Maxwell
5 years ago
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2 PHOTO MANIPULATION Raven Dawn Raven Dawn is one of my more popular photo-manipulations. This particular stock image has been used quite often by designers, but I decided to try and do something a bit different with it. Many of my digital artworks try to approach familiar concepts or themes in ways that are refreshing and new.

3 Pony Girl

Lady Huntress of Autumn Lady Huntress of Autumn is a photomanipulation I worked on shortly after another seasonal piece for winter called, Lady Snowflake.

In the case of Lady Huntress of Autumn my artwork was partly inspired by the cover artwork and title of the David Gemmell Novel The Hawk Eternal.

This photo montage allowed me use a lot of different elements and effects in combination. During my time developing this piece I was looping Dedicated by Linkin Park.

4 Lady Huntress of Autumn Lady Huntress of Autumn is a photomanipulation I worked on shortly after another seasonal piece for winter called, Lady Snowflake. Often I draw inspiration for my fantasy manipulations from the large collection of novels on my shelves, or from movies or music. In the case of Lady Huntress of Autumn my artwork was partly inspired by the cover artwork and title of the David Gemmell Novel The Hawk Eternal. Cloud Chaser Cloud Chaser, was probably the image I enjoyed working on the most this year in my portfolio. This photo montage allowed me use a lot of different elements and effects in combination. During my time developing this piece I was looping Dedicated by Linkin Park. I would have to say that contributed to the energy of the piece. Ultimately the overall elements/themes were based around my own love of eagles and hawks. Rhythm Emotion Rhythm Emotion much like Cloud Chaser, is an earlier piece from the beginning of the year. With this piece I wanted to convey the feeling one experiences when they are so involved and emotionally in tune with a song that everything else subtly fades away.

Star Girl Star Girl Star Girl was interesting to work on, I used several effects here including one that required me to make a custom flare-brush set.

5 Star Girl Star Girl Star Girl was interesting to work on, I used several effects here including one that required me to make a custom flare-brush set. This has since become one of my most popular images on both Photoshop Creative and Advanced Photoshop. The simple and clean nature of this image makes it powerful and compelling, though the techniques used to create were anything but simple.

6 Cherry Crush The photo-manipulation Cherry Crush demonstrates an effective use of selective color, as well as retouch work to elimnate the models blemishes. Inspired in part by Frank Miller s Sin City, style of images, this is one of my favorite pieces of digital artwork.

7 Fan Girl Using the same model from Cherry Crush, Fan Girl is it s total opposite. This vivid image was created using the underpainting technique as well as several color effects and blend modes, while the textures were built up through manual brush work using a wacom tablet.

8 Star Girl II The inspiration for this image was mostly a desire to revisit things that I have done in the past that worked well, but with a fresh eye. I wanted a comparison to demonstrate my growth as an artist, not to mention I originally wanted to do a series of graphics around the Star Girl concept but just never got around to it. The main idea was to create a very strong, dynamic visual image, while still being simple and clean.

Often this leads to the creation of some of my best digital artwork and designs. I feel that music allows me to channel a range of emotions into my artwork rather than them being dull and lifeless.

9 Inspired By MUSIC As I ve mentioned before a good deal of my general design process involves being inspired by music.usually ideas come more from the lyrics of songs, but mostly I try to focus on the emotions that the music creates in me. Often this leads to the creation of some of my best digital artwork and designs. I feel that music allows me to channel a range of emotions into my artwork rather than them being dull and lifeless. With Divine Rhythm I specifically wanted to paint this image with light and subtle but undenyable energy. I needed to convey the feeling of being lost in the music in the same way person might be lost in meditation. DIVINE RHYTHM Divine Rhythm is about balance, subtlty and beauty. I wanted to explore textures and colors that would compliment the model.

Designing Club Flyers, is always an interesting and fun experience, as well

Each flyer has a unique and different approach it requires, and it s own

My favorite piece out of these is the flyer for Club HADEZ, mostly because I

10 Designing Club Flyers, is always an interesting and fun experience, as well as something I would look forward to doing more of in the near future. Each flyer has a unique and different approach it requires, and it s own style, not unlike the clubs themselves. My favorite piece out of these is the flyer for Club HADEZ, mostly because I designed it in the style of an album cover. CLUB FLYER: Step Your Game Up! CLUB FLYER: HADEZ PARTY FLYER: Couture/Pradaria

11 Poker Face More often than not I get the creative inspiration for my artwork from music, movies, or books. In this case I was inspired by watching the music video Poker Face by Lady Gaga. I found the colors, objects and symbols that repeated throughout the video (mostly associated with cards and gambling), to be a great source of design inspiration.

12 The Summoner

13 PSA: Responsibility

My work in this particular area was done mostly for submissions to various digital art magazines. For my digital paintings I make use of a Wacom tablet and custom brushes as my primary tools.

14 DIGITAL PAINTING Digital Painting is a skill I developed much later in my design career. With my oldest background being that of a traditional illustrator I found the transition was not very difficult for me. My work in this particular area was done mostly for submissions to various digital art magazines. For my digital paintings I make use of a Wacom tablet and custom brushes as my primary tools. I spend hours creating the right blend of colors and building up textures from scratch. Primairly when working on these pieces I always try to communicate a series of underlying emotions in a unique and interesting way. So Very Broken Utilizing the artistic nude stock of Marcus J Ranum, this digital painting was developed to convey feelings of intense sadness while contrasting it with warm and vibrant colors. So Very Broken has been featured in issue 54 of Photoshop Creative Magazine with two other pieces of my work. Lady Snow Flake This image was entered into Photoshop Creative Magazine s contest for images representing Seasons. Lady Snow Flake as piece was an other experiment in contrast. I used the concept of a winter beauty, while keeping her warm and appealing rather than creating a frigid ice queen.

Go Deep This image was one that I spent a great deal of time and detail on.

15 Light Bringer This was yet another instance where I used stock produced by Marcus J Ranum (angel on the right). This image became a very popular desktop background as download from my website. Go Deep This image was one that I spent a great deal of time and detail on. Ultimately I wanted to create a surreal underwater world in which the subject is exploring. The stock photo used here for the model comes from Marcus J Ranum and his amazing portfolio of stock images. One of the challenges was creating the illussion of the dive, then there was the lighting. I was very satisfied with how the overall image came out.

Buttercup The inspiration for this image was the main female lead in the movie The Princess Bride. In addition to music and books, movies serve as a constant source of inspiration for me.

16 Buttercup The inspiration for this image was the main female lead in the movie The Princess Bride. In addition to music and books, movies serve as a constant source of inspiration for me. This was one of my early transitions into mostly painting a composition. By utilizing a wacom tablet to manually build up several layers of texture, I was able to give this a very natural feel. Using retouching techniques I had already learned I was able to make the eyes the focal point of this image, despite all the other elements that were present.

Typography is an essential skill for any designer to have, though it is one that many in the creative industry tend to overlook in favor of more glamorous aspects, like digital illustration and photo

17 Typography is an essential skill for any designer to have, though it is one that many in the creative industry tend to overlook in favor of more glamorous aspects, like digital illustration and photo manipulation. Some designers forget that the goal of design is to communicate ideas and concepts visually. While focusing on the visual, many forget about the communication aspect, which primarily is the difference between art and design, and is taken for granted. A perfectly good design can be ruined by a poor understading of typography. You can open magazines or browse a bookshelf and find multiple examples of this, where a designer has chosen to use five different fonts arbitrarily, in multiple colors that don t balance each other or the primary image. SEO: Learn It, Love It, Live With It The Helvetica Project This project was one that I was very excited about. As a designer Helvetica is one of my favorite typefaces to use, its clean, professional, and still feels artistic, and has a history in design. I ve included a few samples of this particular project in portfolio to demonstrated my typographic skills and style. When working with type specifically, many of my decisions are influenced by modern constructivism, mostly in the vien of Piet Mondrian. For this reason I lean toward utlizing primary colors, and using vertical and horizontal lines and simple geometry. The Helvetica typeface is one that lends itself very strongly to this style of typographic design. Helvetica: so much more than a typeface

18 Helvetica A Graphic Designers Best Friend

19 Helvetica Loves You Helvetica Blues

20 LOGO DESIGN As a Logo Designer, I set out to establish immediate recognition, inspiring trust, admiration, loyalty and an implied superiority through a clients logo. The very things one needs to promote themselves or their brand. Sound O

Album Cover: Bear Witness Recently I developed a new album cover for a gospel rap artist. Developing this ablum cover was an interesting challenge.

One of the first things I did with this design was layout the typography. The title of the album was so loaded that I wanted to take advantage of that and do as much with just those words as possible.

21 Album Cover: Bear Witness Recently I developed a new album cover for a gospel rap artist. Developing this ablum cover was an interesting challenge. It required me to consider an audicance that had not recently designed for, while still creating something visually interesting and functional. One of the first things I did with this design was layout the typography. The title of the album was so loaded that I wanted to take advantage of that and do as much with just those words as possible. To balance the impact the type would have on a religious audience I felt that the main image had to contrast the emphasis on the word DEVIL so that people wouldn t become confused or be detered from buying the album. That was were the decision to use the image of a saint protecting children came into play. The inside cover was originally close to unreadable, I made a particular effort to address that fact. Keeping the themes and elements established on the front cover in mind, I designed the inside cover to reinforce that approach. The result was a consistant look and feel for the over all product that looks professional and is visually compelling.

22 SOFTWARE Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Adobe Dreamweaver Adobe InDesign Adobe Flash Adobe Fireworks Adobe Premier Microsoft Office DESIGN SKILLS Web Design Search Engine Optimization Print/Layout Design Identity and Branding Typography Digital Illustration Vector Illustration Photo-manipulation Photo Retouching Photography Copy Writing Video Editing CODING & CMS XHTML/CSS/JAVASCRIPT PHP/MYSQL ACTIONSCRIPT 2 & 3 WORDPRESS/JOOMLA/ SMARTY/JQUERY/ Detailed oriented team player. Organized, flexible and capable of meeting deadlines in a fast paced environment. EXPERIENCE Advanced Internet Technologies Graphic and Web Designer Sears Portrait Studios Digital Photographer and Sales Associate EDUCATION Faytteville Technical Community College Advertising and Graphic Design Jack Britt High School Douglas Byrd Senior High School Diploma and College Tech Prep Dual Certification FREELANCE 2009-Current Self Managed Freelancer Graphic/Web Design and Photography Freelance Media Photography and Photo Retouching Charlesway Bridal Photography and Videography Assistant CONTACT INFORMATION Phone: rblake@robertoblake.com Web:

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