A_P_I133_2015_

The real image-creation process for Jose

Daniel Cabrera Peña would be closer to a

back-and-forth random testing with filters,

tools, shapes, and compositions.

THE IMAGE

CREATION PIPELINE

TECHNIQUES HOW I MADE

06

PAINTING IN OTTOMAN JANISSARIES

The central figures of the painting, Ottoman Janissaries, are line-drawn and

hand-made. I first took the poses from a photo of some men pushing a car, dressed

the mannequins as Janissaries, then coloured in a base layer underneath the

line-drawing layer using environment picked colours. Finally, I coloured on top to

hide the line drawing and make the light pop.

04

CREATING ROCKS AND RUBBLE

Next I continued to create the rocks and

rubble, burying the tower’s base and starting to

search for the cooler tones to separate them from

the top warmer colours to add colour depth. Until

now, the work is mostly based in photobashing

and value adjustments.

05

BEGINNING HUMAN ELEMENTS

Living elements start to be added to

the painting, from the all-painted central

Ottoman flag-bearer figure to the Photoshop

smoke, made using a special custom-made

smoke Photoshop brush.

07

OVERPAINT WORK

In this phase I did vast overpaint work, trying to make all the

painting ‘brush language’ match or be even.

08

POST PRODUCTION

The over effects, or postproduction, was

very important for this piece. Not only to allow the

whole painting to have a gritty and dirty feel, but also

to create a dense atmosphere in the upper half of the

painting, with strong particle effects, versus a cooler

lower half with better visibility because of the

non-highlighted atmosphere particles. Here it was

key to make good use of Photoshop’s Layer Style

menu with the Blend If Gray discriminator, Layer>

Layer Style>Blending Options>Blend If Gray,

which will allow you to hide an atmosphere effect

if darker colours are underneath.