Y
ou may be familiar
with Becky’s work- her vintage seaside
posters of Devon
and Cornwall beauty spots are
modern and fresh, yet depict
a time when life was drifting at
an easier, slower pace.
Becky began this style of work
when she was asked to exhibit in
the gallery at Greenway National
Trust in 2013. She explains:
“Greenway is the old home of
Agatha Christie, a truly stunning
place set on the banks of the
River Dart in Devon. I loved
the old-fashioned 1930s travel
posters and was inspired to
replicate this style but in
a modern way.
“I knew the final look I wanted,
with flat colours, sharp lines and
a graphic style and I knew that
this could be achieved through
Photoshop. The only drawback
was that I was a technophobe
and loathed computers!
“Through hard work and
tutorials I learnt the process of
how I could achieve the result I
wanted. You have to make paths
and hundreds of layers – each
shape is cut out and created as
a path, then converted into a
layer where the colour can be
dropped in and altered quickly
and easily.
“Now I am more confident
in what I am doing. I have a
process of how I work and this
is replicated in each picture.
First, the composition needs to
be perfect – once this is right I
build up the picture creating the
paths and converting them into
layers and follow this processuntil the picture is complete.
Some pictures have more than
300 layers! This is similar to a silk
screening process, but is much
less messy!”
While traditionalists may say
that digital artwork is not as
creative, Becky says her work
definitely is: “To start with, I really
struggled with accepting that
what I do is on a computer
and not on a canvas,
using a mouse and not
a paintbrush.
“There is a slightly
old-fashioned viewthat this is not a true piece of
artwork and digital art is not as
creative. I am a real purist who
loathes computers and used to
do everything by hand, so I do
understand how people can feel
like this. However, I am not using
special digital effects, or clicking
a button and getting myBecky Bettesworth