P#44: Late Afternoon Reflections

Brushes, Filters, and Light

Bert Monroy: Late Afternoon is the mirror on a dresser that's capturing that late afternoon bright red sun that we get in California on certain days.

That's an early painting. That was actually an early alpha experiment for Photoshop 7, alpha, because I'm part of the alpha testers for Photoshop. We work with Photoshop way before it goes beta, when it's just in the planning stages, and we're starting to develop the tools and how they should work, and so on. That, I was brought in really early on 7 because especially being one of the few illustrators who are alpha testers, I was crucial to help develop that feature. (click the image for a larger version)

That painting there, a lot of the details of the dried flowers on the vase on the dresser, the maple leafs visible in the reflection in the mirror, the little stitching that's on the edges of embroidery on the cloth on top of the dresser, all those were done with brushes that were designed and modified in the brush engine to get the effects that I wanted there.

That was a real experiment in getting the brushes to work properly. In fact, that little maple leaf brush that I developed for that painting ended up in the program. I've got about eight brushes in Photoshop, and three of the brushes that are right when you first open up Photoshop, the three little brushes, maple leaf, and two little grass brushes next to it, are three brushes that I did for various paintings that I did while I was experimenting with early versions of Photoshop 7.

Late Afternoon was basically an experimentation of brushes, and filters, and light.

To Conclude

When you look at this painting of a late afternoon reflection, you immediately find yourself transported to someplace more tranquil and relaxed -- a testament to the painting's creator.