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Hi, I'm Mike Harrison from London and I'm going to show you how I made my creation for the Ten by Fotolia project
I can't live without my Wacom tablet.
I got rid of my mouse a while ago, and I would never go back now.
It's a lot more natural and great for sketching ideas.
The same goes for the Adobe Suite, in particular Photoshop and Illustrator as they are the two that I use most.
I wanted to do something based on a powerful animal, one that would allow me create good energy and complexity.
So using a bull as my main theme, I wanted to create a high-energy illustration loosely based on bullfighting,
but adding a playful aspect to it by using certain colours and elements.
One of the things I really enjoy doing in my work is combining mediums,
so with this creation I combined digital with traditional by using stock imagery from Fotolia
with hand drawn elements.
You always get a unique and surprising result, and throughout the creation process it’s always evolving and taking new turns.
Every artist loves creative freedom. It allows them to express themselves through their work.
A defined art direction is also good, because it can be a nice challenge to come up with ideas and follow a specific brief.
But at the end of the day we are making art because we love to create,
so having that freedom is always a great tool.
My creation is very layered up;
this helped me achieve a more complex look and sense of energy.
I didn’t start at the top layer and work backwards or vice versa, I was constantly re-arranging everything all the time throughout the process
to work out which elements worked best and where.
When drawing with my tablet I put everything on separate layers,
the base linework, shading, colour and details.
This made it a much less destructive way of working as I could modify any of those layers easily.
Also with the main stock images I used from Fotolia,
I drew on top of them in various ways to make them blend in better with all the illustrative elements going on around them.
I used both Photoshop and Illustrator in my creation, but mostly Photoshop.
Some elements such as the rope were created using a custom brush in illustrator which allowed me to quickly create a number of different shapes,
which I then brought into Photoshop as smart objects.
I used a mixture of hand drawn elements;
some were drawn with my tablet, and others with pencil and paper that I scanned in.
It gave it a nice blend between traditional and digital, plus you get some nice texture from the scanned-in parts.
The techniques I used in my creation were mostly familiar to me,
but for some of the hand drawn elements I wanted to try something out by using a number of repeating lines to create the shading on them.
This helps give it a nice illustrative and traditional look and feel.
I'd say even before you start working, spend some time looking for the perfect stock images. Dont rush it.
This is where Fotolia really helped me, as it didnt take me long to find what I was looking for.
Really pay attention to details, keep on zooming in to add hidden elements that people won't see at first glance.
When adding in hand drawn elements, its a good idea to just let things flow and position them quite randomly at first.
Don't be too regimented because with illustrative work such as my creation it needs to be an organic process from start to finish.
To make your photos blend in with all the illustrative elements,
play with adjustment layers such as hue and saturation to change the colour,
and levels make the image pop more.
One sure-fire way to change the look is to add linework to some of the edges of the photo,
instantly giving it a new lease of life.
You can also redraw certain portions of your photos.
Thanks for watching the video.
You can download my PSD over at the TEN by Fotolia website. www.fotolia.com/ten