NARRATIVES

The following pages contain detailed instructional explanations of Studio ideas, thoughts, techniques, and processes used in the construction of artwork and media products.
 
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Don Bergland
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PAINTING - VICTORIAN BACKGROUND #1 - By Don Bergland
This site provides a detailed presentation of the Studio processes used in the construction of a background painting.
shim background
  This painting was constructed to use as a Victorian Background image in paintings constructed in the Pop Surrealism style. This is a style begun in the Studio in December, 2012.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2013
 
shim
  PROJECT - BACKGROUNDS-VICTORIAN
Location - Projects/Project-Backgrounds-Victorian Last Worked on -
Since beginning the new Pop Surrealist style, I've encountered situations in which I need very subtle and ambient backgrounds. Through discovery and exploration, I've discovered that the backgrounds I like best in this style, are derived from Victorian imagery. Throughout the development of this stylistic series, I've used a variety of Public Domain paintings from the Victorian age as Exemplars in my Studio explorations.
 
At this point, I've been basically using these Victorian Backgrounds as Placeholders. The Backgrounds themselves have been very crude and technically, very low resolution.
I want to start building high resolution backgrounds to use in my finished paintings.
I'm going to start with a background idea that was initiated in my last Painting Project - #1435-Improvisation.
1. I have been using (I can never remember the name of this technique - Render...something - RenderTests?) a background technique in my latest work:
- Bring the composition to a settling place
- Make a render
- Bring the render into Photoshop
- Benchmark some Backgrounds behind the composition
  During the benchmarking process, I usually discover something new or different about the composition. At times, I stumble across the perfect background and then this becomes part of the development process.
2. I've been finding some excellent Public Domain Victorian paintings to use in this process. A number of these have emerged as very strong candidates for present and future work.
3. I want to start developing a Library/Inventory of these types of backgrounds. A good starting place was in a rough test image connected with Project - #1435-Improvisation. During one of the benchmarks, I inserted a Victorian Public Domain painting and immediately liked what resulted.
  image
  Now this background just sits here as a Placeholder. I have to figure out how to make a high resolution replica of this background.
  I could create this in Photoshop or in Poser. I'm not sure which would be best, so maybe I should try both.
4. I'll try a Photoshop replica first. So, I'm going to get this file (the one above), open it, and SAVE it as backgrounds.psd to the Project Folder.
5. I'll then close down the foreground layers, get the background I want, and enlarge the whole file to 5000 x 4000 px. Note - This is taking a very, very long time. A VERY LONG time.
6. Now, we have just the background I am interested in replicating.
  back
  This has made the photographs in this file really bad, but all I want to do is use the existing photographs as Exemplars for the construction of newer ones.
6. For this Photoshop reconstruction, I need drapes, wall texture, a brass lamp, and palm trees. I think I can construct the wall and background using just Photoshop tools. I could probably do the same with the drapes. So, let's start by blocking out the background elements.
  background
  Because this file is so large, the SAVE function is taking a very long time.
  That took 7 minutes to Save. Ridiculous.
  I think I need to dump all the other photographs out of here is this is going to be an efficient file.
7. I'm going to see if I can construct the gold curtain in Photoshop. The curtain has 3 vertical strips showing. I'll make one strip and then just duplicate it several times for the completed curtain.
8. I made one curtain strip the same color - gold.
  background
  I made this wider than the strip in the Exemplar so I had a nice space to paint in. I can scale this to be thinner after I finish the strip.
  I duplicated the layer and turned off the bottom one. I'll work on the duplicated layer.
9. I'm going to use the Brush Tool to paint in the shadowed edges of the curtain.
  Soft Brush, 422 px, Opacity 10%. I used the Eyedropper Tool to pick up the color of the shadow.
10. I set Layer Lock so I wouldn't be painting outside the color area. I'm going to simply lay down vertical strips of paint, one over top of the other, moving the brush down in a vertical manner, over and over until the shading starts building up.
  I'll move to the other side of the drape and carry through with the same technique. This will be lighter in nature.
  background
  I now have one strip.
12. I duplicated this strip 3 times and placed them side by side. I'll build a drape with 4 panels.
  background
13. I looked at the Exemplar and the size of the Drape. I used Guides to mark the edges of the 3-panel Drape.
  background
13. I merged the layers in the Layers Palette and then used the Show Transform Controls Tool to scale the drape so that 3 of my panels fit in the space provided by the Guides.
  background
  I'll turn off the Drape for now, since I'm going to work on the Wall.
14. I would like to get a Texture for the wall. I think I'll check out Mayang's Free Textures site online.
  textures
15. I downloaded 4 textures from the Walls section and imported them into the Photoshop file.
16. Three of the Texture files are quite small.
  site
  One Texture file is large.
  site
17. I took the large Texture File and moved it in to fit the wall space.
18. I cut a section out of the Texture to use at the bottom.
  site
19. I moved it into place.
  site
20. I used the Clone Tool to clone sections of the top into the bottom to remove the connecting line between the two pieces I cut and pasted together.
  site
  I then Merged this into one layer.
21. Originally, I created a colored shape to represent this wall. It was basically the color I wanted, but without Texture. I duplicated this colored shape, placed it on top of the Textured section, and set opacity down so the Texture showed through. I then Merged this into one Layer Shape.
  site
22. Okay. So this is what I have at the moment - A vertical drape and a flat wall.
  site
23. I'm going to try and paint the background area to the left of the wall.
  back
 

This is a fairly simple Landscape background. I'm going to create Layers with the Landscape shapes on them and then modify them using the Paintbrush Tool. There are the following Shapes.
- Foreground
- Mountain
- Cloud 1
- Cloud 2
- Sky

24. Foreground - I created a shape on a Layer behind the Wall, roughly the same shape as appears on the Exemplar.
  site
25. Mountain - I created a shape on a Layer behind the Foreground using the Exemplar as a guide.
  site
26. Cloud 1 - I created a shape on a Layer behind the Mountain using the Exemplar as a guide.
  site
27. Cloud 2 - I created a shape on a Layer behind the Mountain using the Exemplar as a guide.
  site
  The landscape areas are very stiff and unintegrated. The contour lines are too sharp.
28. I Merged all the layers of the Landscape and used Gaussian Blur and Saturation to bring down the intensity of the landscape shapes.
  site
  This is better, but still not very good. There are still some things to be done, such as making the bottom hill more foliage-like and denoting the contours on a few more of the shapes.
29. I went online and Googled - Palm Tree .png file Royalty Free. I found a good .png Palm Tree that someone was giving away.
30. I installed the Palm Tree on a Layer, brought the green color up a bit, and then duplicated it.
  site
  Okay. This will do for now. There are still things in the Landscape that are bothering me.
31. I'm going to work on the Ledges that appear on the wall. These consist of rectangular horizontal bars with some extension at the left side. These bars are different widths.
  back
32. I set the Rectangular Marquee Tool and Copy/Pasted a long strip from the Wall.
  site
33. I duplicated this Layer, move it down and to the right a bit.
  site
34. I did this several more times until I had 4 Ledges.
  site
  I now need to add shading at the top and bottom of each of these Ledge strips to give them a sense of realism.
35. I locked each Ledge Strip Layer and used the Paintbrush/Black/LowOpacity to paint in very light shadows along the top and bottom of each Strip.
  site
  I need to size each of the individual ledges, i.e., the top one is the largest and the ones underneath are smaller.
36. I sized the Ledges using the Transform Tool.
  site
37. I duplicated this Edge Section, placed it under the existing one, and scaled it down.
  site
38. So, this is where I am at now.
  site
  I need to fix up a few things in the landscape. The bottom part need a foliage texture. The trees need more defintion and some of the hills/mountains need defintion. I have to move on to the idea of the big central drap and how I'm going to construct this.
  Ahhh. I'm kind of losing steam on this project. I think I'll put it away for a while.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2013
 
shim
  PROJECT - BACKGROUNDS-VICTORIAN
Location - Projects/Project-Backgrounds-Victorian Last Worked on - Today, Feb. 7/13
I'm going to continue working on the Backgrounds Project.
The next step is adding the other drapes in the work.
39. This is the exemplar I'm attempting to recreate
  back
  And this is where I am at at the moment.
  site
  I want to work on the next set of drapes in this production. I could probably use the method I used to construct the vertical set, but I want to try something different. A few years ago, I purchased a set of Royalty Free Drapes in a .psd file. I'm going to see if I can find these, and potentially use them for this project.
40. I connected the Backup Drive and went looking for the Drapes File. I found it a and copied it over to this Project Folder.
41. I opened the relevant. Drape .psd files and copied them over to the Project.psd file I'm working in.
42. Photoshop Crashed!
43. I restarted Photoshop and loaded the Drapes in once more.
  drape
  I loaded 3 different sets, looking for something whose shape resembled the Exemplar.
44. I chose the small blue Drape. It has a shape that I think I can bend into a similar shape as the Exemplar.
  drape
45. I Scaled the Drape and rotated it so it sat in place.
  drape
46. I used the Warp Tool to take one end and bend it downwards.
  drape
  Now, I need to place another piece over this curved area. This piece needs to have the Drape folds perfectly vertical.
47. I Duplicated the existing Drape and rotated the Duplication to reveal a piece that should work on the end.
  drape
48. I cut this piece off and moved it into place.
  drape
49. I cut off the underlying Drape and positioned the two pieces over each other. I used the Eraser Tool to blend the top piece into the bottom piece.
  drape
  I Merged these two Layers together so the Drape occupied one Layer.
50. I Duplicated the Drape and moved the Duplication behind the First Drape, and then moved it to the right.
  drape
51. I Duplicated one more time, moving the new piece to the right. I used Hue/Saturation to darken the two new pieces on the right (shadow).
  drape
52. I took a Color Sample from the original Drape in the Exemplar using the Eyedropper. I then created an exact shape of this Drape set and filled it with the sampled Color.
  drape
53. I used Blending Layers to bring the color area into integration with the Drape set.
  drape
54. I created a shape in the lower right corner and filled it with a wood-like brown color.
  drape
55. I found a furniture piece, cut it out and put it over this brown shape. I also used the Brush Tool with Black to paint in a bit of shadow at the top of this furniture piece.
  drape
56. I turned my attention to the Landscape area at the left of the image. From my Library set of photographs, I found a Foliage Texture, cut it out, and installed it over the bottom landscape area. I found a Mountain Texture and installed it over the mountain.
  drape
  I used the Paintbrush Tool and light applications of Black and White to add shading and gradations to these two areas.
57. From my Library set of photographs, I found a cloud that I brought into the sky area. I used the Eraser Tool and Opacity to blend it in with the underlying Layer.
  drape
  I think I'm going to leave this as it is.
58. I have a close enough Replication of the original Exemplar to work in the situation I want.
  comp
59. I decided to try the background image in one of the Victorian Frames I own.
  frame
  Interesting. Now, I just need to get a good foreground working and I may have a decent image!
   
PAINTING - VICTORIAN BACKGROUND #1 - By Don Bergland


You can explore further Studio Production Instructional Details through Don Bergland's Online Journal


© 2012 Don Bergland