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[ 17 ]Who’s Who in the KelbyOne Community: Darren Herlihy
Darren Herlihy’s obsession with Photoshop began almost 25 years ago when he started using it for basic
digital compositing and scrapbooking. His love has grown through the years as Photoshop’s abilities to create
incredible composites has given him increased opportunity to stretch his creative boundaries. Photoshop
allows Darren to create digital art and tell a story in a way that traditional media can’t do.How has the evolution of Photoshop over the years
impacted your style and workflow?
I think my style has stayed fairly consistent, but the ease and
speed at which I can now create composites compared to
just a few years ago is amazing, thanks to the improvements
that Adobe constantly makes to Photoshop.What are your favorite Photoshop tools?
As a composite artist, adjustment layers are an absolute
essential part of all my images. The Brush tools are also a
staple of my work, and the introduction of the Mixer Brush
has been a game-changer. My favorite new tool from the
last few years is without a doubt the Select and Mask tools. I
do a lot of extractions, and I used to use third-party plug-ins
to do tricky hair and fur extractions and masks, but now I
can do it all in Photoshop. Thank you, Adobe!What’s your background with KelbyOne, and which
instructors and classes inspire you the most?
As I became obsessed with Photoshop, I searched for ways
to educate myself, and that’s when I found out about the
National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and
Scott Kelby. I quickly became a member of NAPP, which later
transitioned to KelbyOne, bought tons of Scott Kelby books,
started attending Photoshop World Conferences, and just
took in anything Photoshop I could find. Through the years,
I’ve enjoyed classes by Deke McClelland, Matt Kloskowski,
Dave Cross, Corey Barker, and of course, Scott Kelby. I just
watched Scott’s course on creating an online portfolio
using Adobe Portfolio, but lately I’ve been focusing on any
courses that focus on compositing and masking.What’s next for you, and what would you like to see
added to future versions of Photoshop?
I hope to continue to learn. I’d be remiss if I didn’t men-
tion the great online training courses offered by Sebastian
Michaels in Photoshop Artistry. These courses really have
increased my skills and are supported by an active digital art
community. I’d like to see Adobe continue their focus on the
iPad version of Photoshop, as I find myself using that version
more often and would love to see it upgraded. nLet’s talk about your cover image first. Where
does an image like that start, and how long did
that particular piece take to finish?
The cover image, (In)Human Touch, was a fairly rare
image in that I had a vision for what I wanted and it didn’t
change along the way, so it came together fairly quickly—
probably about 12 hours of total computer time. In almost
every image I create, the final image rarely ends up as
I originally imagined it; I just let it morph as it needs to, so
having this one end up as I had originally imagined was
kind of nice. I’m a big fan of sci-fi, so I’m always think-
ing of the symbiosis of human/android/robotic futures
and this is what spurred this image: Can inhuman entities
appreciate the natural beauty of a rose?Looking through your portfolio, it’s obvious you
have a vivid imagination. Where do your ideas
come from, and how do you plan your projects?
Luckily, I do have a fairly wild imagination, so ideas can
be triggered by song lyrics, dreams, book titles, movie
scenes—even street signs. The challenging part of any
composite once I have an idea is finding the elements
I need, whether they come from my own photography,
stock photos, or elements that I create in 3D software.
Unfortunately, I have folders full of incomplete composites
because I couldn’t find just the right element to complete
the vision, but they’re always there ready to revisit. So
although I try to plan my composites and elements as care-
fully as possible, sometimes they just don’t always work.Can you tell us a little about your background, and
how you started using Photoshop?
My professional background is in video production, and
I started using Photoshop in 1996 as a way to create pro-
fessional graphics for my video projects. I believe I started
with Photoshop 3, and quickly learned its potential. That’s
when I started creating digital scrapbook pages for family
members, and I was hooked!