Is it possible to make this picture JUST using photoshop?

[JollyHolly818]

Hi Forum,

I have a question about the picture below:

Is it possible to make this picture using JUST photoshop? I am taking a 25 hour intensive course on photoshop in 2 weeks.

Was wondering, if after this, focusing on JUST photoshop, will lead me to be being able to make this picture?

Or do i also need illustrator? Or what are the best tools i'd need, as in, what's the most efficient program set to make this picture?

Thanks Forum!

Juno

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Was wondering, if after this, focusing on JUST photoshop, will lead me to be being able to make this picture?

I see no immediate need to involve Illustrator (or other vector-oriented applications) in the creation of artwork along the lines of the image you posted.

But whether you will be able to create similar images after taking such a course depends on factors other than Photoshop’s features alone, like your drawing skills, the actual focus of the course, the source images you can use, …

Does the course also focus on nondestructive techniques (Adjustment Layers, Smart Objects, …)?

[rayek.elfin · Accepted solution]

How are your drawing abilities? Because what I see in that image is that everything was hand-drawn or even done with traditional media and/or airbrush (edit: after more examining, I am fairly sure this is a traditional airbrushed piece with painted details on paper).

I believe that is the cover for the album from Bathory ‎– Blood On Ice. (1996 - the image might be earlier, though.)

So, YES, it is possible to create a similar painting in Photoshop. IF you have good drawing/digital painting skills. It can be done in any digital painting application with good painting tools.

Now, if your question is whether that course will teach you how to do this? If your drawing skills are lacking/undeveloped, than the answer is a resounded "NO". The best that course can do in that case is to teach you how to composite photos and other images in Photoshop and how the painting tools work. But that course will not be able to teach you how to draw and design like this in a mere 25 hours.

To become this good at painting takes at least one or two years. Probably more for most people.

[Guest]

If you are considering becoming a digital artist there are free alternatives to Photoshop more suited to digital painting like Krita for example

https://krita.org/en/

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Pursuing freeware alternatives is not a bad idea, but if one intended to work professionally within a commercial framework or even as an employee at a company sticking with commercial and widely used software might be beneficial.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Have a look at Bert Monroy's illustration of Times Square

Pick out any part of the image, and keep zooming in.

This is the watch on Thomas Knoll's left wrist centre bottom.  That level of detail is maintained right through the illustration, so anything is doable.  The thing to remember is it took Bert two or three years to complete this illustration.  Just keep plugging away one bit at a time, and then join them all together.

The blue image at the top of the page will have used similar techniques to an airbrush artists, but instead of masks and stencils cut out with a scalpel, in Photoshop you would use layers, layer masks, clipping masks, the pen tool, lots of brush presets, and _heaps_ of time.  I have no idea if this a digital image, or done with an airbrush, but you could always ask him.

Blood on Ice - Wikipedia

Kristian Wåhlin - Wikipedia

[JollyHolly818]

Trevor.Dennis, when you say the blue picture at the top of the page, the Bathory album cover of Blood on Ice, takes _heaps_ of time, what are we talking about here? What would you estimate to be the time it would take for a skilled photoshop user to make this picture? I am only asking so I recalibrate my expectations of my self. This has really been my major problem. I never sit long enough on a single drawing. So if I had the skill and photoshop know how, how long should i expect to sit to make a drawing like the Blood on Ice cover?

Thank you!

J

[Trevor.Dennis]

What you will come to learn as you get into Photoshop, is that it has an incredible number of little tricks to help you make better artwork, and do so more quickly.  There is going to be up front time to develop and learn those tricks and techniques, but once you have them, the next project is going to be done that much more quickly.  I mentioned Bert Monroy, and some this forum's regulars worked as Teaching Assistants with Bert for his Digital Art workshops at Adobe Max in 2016.  I came home from that, and made this 100% digital painting of my wife, but it took me a month.  If I did it again, it would take me a week working two or three hours a day.  As a for instance, I took time out while doing that project to learn Photoshop 3D, because it made it so much easier to rotate the broach and earrings.

You can get the notes from Bert's workshop here. LINK

[JollyHolly818]

The picture is lovely and your wife is very beautiful.

I guess I got my answer. If you want to make great art you need great time.

Nice thanks for the reference to Monroy's notes. I'll keep this for reference. Makes sense, I took a 3D modeling course 1 month ago and the instructor said the exact same thing you are saying when I pressed him for a time estimate regarding each exercise he gave me. With greater experience, the routes towards the same goal become differed and shorter.

Btw I contacted Kristian Wahlin and asked him a few questions about the Blood on Ice cover. I'll post back his answers if he answers and is fine with me posting them.

Thanks!

[JollyHolly818]

Waw guys thank you all for the replies!

To answer all your questions, I should start by showing you pieces of my work:

The horse head took me 30-45 min to make. I showed it to a friend of mine who is an art dealer, around 2 years ago, and he said, "it needs a lot of work." And that's been my problem. I rush through my drawings and can't wait to finish them. So i've sort of stopped making art because the detail of my drawings has stagnated at a certain level, and i have no idea how i would get over this hump.

The 2nd and 3rd pic took me 10-15 mins. I finish them and leave them. I dont want to do this anymore. I want to sit at a station with all the tools available to continue on a drawing in any direction i see fit. I cant do that with regular media. I get stuck trying to figure out the next texture, then i get frustrated when I can't find it, so i leave it.

That's why i decided to move to the digital platform, only that was worse, because, using Clip StudioPaint and Sketchbook, the options were so numerous that i ending up jumping from function to function, making only abstract drawings. Really, nothing worth looking at, and like in the hand drawings, never detailed enough, finishing one in a hurry to jump to the next one.

For example, using Clip.

So here was my thinking: if i took a course on photoshop, coupling it with post photoshop education from the photoshop classroom in a book textbook which I bought, I would refine my visual abilities, to get a better eye for detail, thus being able to get into the deeper details of the drawings that i make.

The consensus from your comments has been that yes, I can make the Blood on Ice @rayek.elfin picture using photoshop, if i were a good enough artist. This is great news. True, I am not a good enough artist, but I can become a good enough artist, if i had a platform i understand well enough to be able to get into any detail i envision.

The course does focus on nondestructive techniques like (Adjustment Layers, Smart Objects, …) @c.pfaffenbichler

Amazing picture @Trevor.Dennis. Really amazing what can be done in Photoshop.

@rayek.elfin​ I can’t believe this was drawn on paper. I thought they must have used some form of digital media.

In conclusion my strategy will be to take this course then to sit and try to make drawings as detailed as the Blood on Ice picture. This is really my ambition, to make drawings that detailed.

I think I will pursue this method, unless somebody has a better suggestion for the method to employ in order to evolve from the drawings I've attached to drawings as detailed as the Blood on Ice picture?

Thanks!