first try at matte painting (composite)

[ravells]

Here is my next trip into art...it's a copy of an illustration by an artist called Bilibine (nowhere near as good as his version).

[pyrandon]

Hmm! I like the serenity herein! Is this handmade, or an edit/composite, ravs?

You're having fun with this art stuff, aren't you?!!

[ravells]

This one is entirely handmade. I am having fun with the art...I think it does make you a better cartographer in the end!

[Badger]

Rav, I liked the horse and knight composite as well as this last one you posted. I'm not an artist by any means, but I think you are doing quite well. So well in fact, I think I want to take a page from your book and start trying it myself. But let me get this straight, you are essentially taking several different graphics from different art and making it into your own picture... sorta like a collage, but instead of a jumble you make it into one coherent piece.... ? (This is going to be a fun challenge for myself)

Did you only use PSP for the final composite? Were those free (copyright) graphics or since this was originally something for your personal self-teaching did you not worry about that?

On the last painting, did you copy that from a photo or from somewhere on the web... I'd like to see the original art is what I mean to say.

What a unique and fun way to further ones skill at both the software and as a cartographer... kudos rav, have some rep

[ravells]

Hi Del and thanks for the kind words. Making matte composites can be just using images or a combination of images and drawing. So for example The one with the knight and castle was just done using images - as explained on post #3 of this thread. These were a combination of photographs, a bryce render for the sky and images I found on the web of the castle and the knight.

The one of the rider looking at the castle in the distance was a combination of photos I'd taken of the horse and landscape, the sky and lightning were filter effects and the rider was a Daz 3d model. The castle was the fantasy land castle in Disneyland and the water was Bryce generated. The saddle was painted. For tutorials on doing mattes, see Arcana's link further up this thread. There's some great tutorials on that site.

I used PS for the compositing, but you could equally use PSP. What you must try to get right (in addition to properly cropping the images for compositing) is the perspective, the right darks/lights and saturation for the colours.

Here is the original Bilibine drawing which I tried to copy in the last one - originally done in the 1800s so I don't think there are any copyright issues. It's such a simple and beautiful composition and the textures are lovely. If you google Bilibine you will find other drawings of his on the web. Attached is one which I think is a real beauty. His style of painting - similar to Arthur Rackham and Edmund Du Lac is one which is really suited to cartography, I think.

Cheers

Ravs

[Midgardsormr]

Beautiful. I'd never been exposed to Bilibine before. I think I'll have to keep an eye out for him in the future.

[Badger]

Thanks for the info Rav, I must have missed that link about matte paintings ... I read to fast for my mind to catch up.

That is a really good impression of Bilibine. You captured the serenity and peaceful essence quite nicely. And honestly (no bull) I like yours better... I think its the difference in the overal shading or hue of the complete painting... it appeals to my eye better... But hey, I'm no art critic or even an artist so my opinion probably shouldn't be taken too seriously...

Since I'm trying to learn all I can about Photoshop, I'll be using that. Learning the programs functions more intimately is the goal I had in mind after reading this thread... Again thanks for the info

Del

[Midgardsormr]

I tried my hand at a matte painting for class this week. I quickly discovered that good undersea photographs are hard to come by.