Masquerade Bee-Bop! The Ongoing Project

Its no secret that I use Adobe Photoshop CS4 as a part of my workflow. My personal project “Masquerade Bee-Bop” is underway and we’re having a blast. Due to the amount of work that my team and I have been doing as of late has had me sifting through hundreds of crisp and yummie imagery in Adobe Lightroom. Man, I love my Macs! Anywhoo, I have chosen 2 images that will be paired together in a set to be retouched in a creative way. ***Note***This is just a peak into my retouch workflow. When the Red Scarlet becomes available I will offer amazing video of cool stuff behind the scenes.

The hard part is over. I have chosen the imagery for this set. It is paramount for me to sit back, lights off and visualize the content onscreen as well as its many outcomes. I then fully realize what needs to be done. The stage is set, so let’s begin.

Music can be a guide when retouching and finishing art. It frees our movement and drives us in different directions each time you hear it. I’m listening to Blonde Redhead – Elephant Woman on iTunes as a beginning point and will most likely end with Θάνος Πετρέλης – Mia Nyxta Einai a greek song that I like. This is a powerful song from start to finish. I feel a major sense of accomplishment when I complete a project to this song. My ideas are flowing, its time to complete the basics!

These images are the starting point. The first thing I need to do is compose the image followed by cleaning up of the dust artifacts using the healing brush, and then bump removal.

As Blonde Redhead played, I started to reflect on interesting events in my life. Through this daydream (yeah I zone out when I work. I know I’m weird!) I saw a path in-which to create my image . A reflection. I did not want to reflect the same event. How many of you wish you could rewind time or better yet because time is irrelevant step back into an instance of yourself and go left when you may have gone right. That is what this image represents. A reflection of the same form moving slightly differently. This will be an interesting piece for me.

I finished cleaning the dust particles. I need to get an air pump for my sensors. It wasn’t dirty but its always good to be on the safe side. Now its time to reflect the image. Since this will be a mirrored reflection it’d be a good point to make sure your skin texture lines up. Remember, I plan not to have a plan. My subject, music, and mood determines the outcome. I am just the medium used to put everything together. A director of sorts.

Skin cleaning is always a challenge with each new face. There is no such thing as flawless skin. There is no uniform texture. There is no plug in that will clean a surface and protect it’s pores. This is where you get your wings! My way of skin retouching is an ever evolving technique. I find new ways to do things utilizing old principles. All of it deals with illusion. If you are a photographer, learn the art of make up! Kevyn Aucoin gives a lot of insight into the art of makeup. Following his techniques when coupled with an amazing Make Up Artist like DemiV.com on your shoots only enhances your post-production workflow.

When retouching skin remember this secret, ahem*** (clearing throat) “DON’T RUSH!” its not needed. Also work on separate layers from the original. Depending on the camera and the technique I use to shoot the imagery, my raw source file can go from being 66mbs to 126mbs when converting to 16bit tif or as big as 2gigs. I am not going to go into deep with it now, but my thoughts on capture isn’t to capture the moment. It’s capturing the energy of something, a surrounding, someone, etc.

Review, review, review! Right now you are removing blemishes at the pixel level to insure consistency and the realism. Zoom out to review your work. Eyes burning! Get some fresh air. Have a coffee. Comeback and review again. Know this, high-end clients can utilize a multitude of retouchers on one image. Its like proofreading for a newspaper but this time we’re looking for image accuracy.

***On a tech nerd note. Did I mention how much I love, love, love Adobe CS4? Especially on my Apples! Utilizing GPU’s in tandem with the cpu is a huge improvement over Adobe CS3.

Oh my, look at that! Missed One. Yep that one right there!

I grew up watching bugs bunny and those WB classic cartoons in the 80’s and 90’s. “Yes I am 32 and I still watch cartoons, ahhh, eeerrr, in appreciation of the artist creating it (wink, wink)”.

The female form in those cartoons were curvy with pronounced lines creating a path that the eye would follow. Those cartoon girls were seckzeaaahhhh!!!! That’s one of the reasons I can appreciate the form of a woman. For me her lines are like a road on a Sunday afternoon drive through a vineyard in a sports car with the sunroof open and the windows down; suns rays peaking through the trees which hides the lanes away. The air smells of strawberries and grapes.

Pay attention to your subject add her movement to your flow!

Subtle smoothing out of line creates a path for the viewer appreciating your work to follow. I’ve often seen imagery in the past where everything from the lighting, models, to the angles used, were spectacular. But when it came to the clean up, it may have lacked a little. Now, I’m ANAL when it comes to the finished product. Each shot represents my work and as an artist I critique myself rather harshly. It sucks that I do that but it does insure that I push myself to become better than I was the day before.

I have been utilizing photoshop in previous jobs to create websites, ads, and other type of marketing media. For years I’ve overlooked one of the most powerful of tools. The Pen Tool. I just discovered this a few months ago and WOW!!!!! It’s like there is a party in my pants. It has made my job of composing lines sooooooo much easier.

I am again going over the image looking for anything out of place. Skin blemishes, uneven skin tones, redness, etc. I will now move into the final stage of the post production of Zaya for the Masquerade BeeBop Project. Within this final phase you will yet again have to step back and visualize color. Your music will aide in this. Due to a desaturation of the red tone my piece has a blue tint to it. It looks nice but, I did like the way it was having a hint of magenta at the corners. So let’s bring that back!

I feel like Bob Ross. My happy little color in the right spots makes me all warm inside. My brothers playing my Street Fighter 4 on PS3. I’m taking a break for a hot second to crush him and post more pics as I finish up this last stage…

With my song Mia Nyxta Einai on repeat. I enter the final stage to the completion of my latest works. It has been pretty cool to document this entire experience. Again, this was only a peek into my workflow and methodology into creating imagery. I am now going over the imagery one last time. This final step is all about cloning out small things that can distract the viewer from the bigger picture. Like these fly-aways for example!

For your viewing pleasure… Masquerade BeeBop – Reflected

Masquerade BeeBop