LONG WAY HOME

tigaer-design.com in cooperation with the almighty =detail24 proudly presents: LONG WAY HOME

D³SCR!PTION

Long way home is a picture that truly deserves its title. For several reasons. One of the main reasons is the way i started to work on this monster. I got a picture/photo plate from =detail24 since we both decided to do some collab thing for the =DMchat mixed media challenge on deviantart.com. I asked for something with water. I got something with water. Not exactly what i expected to be honest. (check plate here: [link]) The pic, nonetheless, was/is useful. I started to doodle around but only crap came up. I needed/wanted a waterfall in it - that was the deal. I left the project for a few days and restarted. I soon found out that i approached my idea from the wrong side. As soon as i had the right path for my idea i started to play around with my resources.

I'm not doing a lot of concept work when i work on my paintings... i'm just working them out. And while i work on them... it is like i'm discovering a completely new world. Every new detail i add... adds more life to the world i'm exploring. I guess that's why i invest so much work and time into my ideas. I want these worlds to be tangible. May sound weird but that's it.

Recently i really enjoy it to stretch my paintings over both of my screens to see them in full beauty. And it opens my heart. It truly looks like a window to a different world.



TECHN!CAL DETA!LS

Digital matte painting for the win. Once again. Did i mention that i love it? I started with rough work to get myself an idea about the picture setup. The first thing i blocked in was the waterfall. The second part were the mountains. Then the detail work started. Layer for layer i added details, highlights, shadows, foliage to the picture. Made the different photo implementations match the lighting i needed. Added the planets and played heavily with the colors. The planets were an issue that one day. Check the concept stages link below... you'll see what i mean. First the planets make this pic really look otherworldly/off earth. They add so much wonderful depth.

Damn, how crazy beautiful must a sunrise look there?

I even got the suggestion to add water to the bottom of the waterfalls. I tried the idea but it did not work out as expected. It took off a lot of the mysterious look. So i kept the depths in there since it kept alive the feeling of the unknown... "where are the falls leading to...?" - "what's down there...?" - you know what i mean.


In the end... it really was a challange for me to create something magic off that photo. But i did it. Mission Accomplished.

25hrs - intuos3 - photoshop - 5300px wide - 240dpi

Wallpapers can be found in the [link] gallery

See here for [link] Print Detail

See here for various [link] concept stages

See here for the plate i started the painting with: [link]


Happy Viewing (Fullview Essential)


VISIT HIM -> =detail24 - be careful, he bites - but has some tasty photography!