Photorealism With Bert Monroy

Bert Monroy, one of the pioneers of digital art who created many software products such as Photoshop, ImageStudio and PixelPaint, introduces another break through in computer graphics, Adobe Photoshop’s “Photorealism”.

From the word itself you can define photorealism as something that is realized in photos. Imagine yourself in Atlantis, draw the scene and make it look like a picture. Think it’s impossible? It can be made possible through Photorealism.

Photorealism is not a new term. It came from a movement which began in the late 1960’s. The movement specializes in painting scenes or objects in a style closely resembling a photograph. The true subject of a photorealistic work is not the image but the interpretation of the observer on the image. Richard Estes, who does street scenes and Chuck Close, who is known for his enormous portraits of neutral faces are examples of leading members of the photorealist movement. Another method in photorealism is the oil painting. Unlike Monroy’s photorealism, it is done manually. From the name of a movement, the word photorealism now became a computer term.

Photorealism showcases Monroy’s personal methods in creating ultra-realistic images. It demonstrates a combined technique of Adobe’s latest releases of Photoshop CS and Illustrator CS in addition to paint or vector-based drawing tools. One of the techniques used is the setting of objects in Illustrator and dragging them in Photoshop for stroking and styling. It also includes techniques for creating smoke, grass, lighting, fire, reflections and mold. It is basically a tool for photorealistic imagery.

Photorealism teaches you how to make images like metallic logotypes, fireworks, 3D illusions, icy letters, underwater scene, antique photos, a speeding bullet, shadows, rusty text and a lot more. It will also enhance your ability in using pen tool, layers, alpha channels and masking.

Photorealism is a very reliable computer graphics tutorial created by one of the true masters of digital graphics and an accomplished illustrator who serves clients like Apple Computer, Adobe Systems and American Express. A renowned artist, Bert Monroy also worked in the motion picture industry and authored books which have received critical acclaim around the world.

According to Monroy, his motivation is the challenge in recreating reality. The instinct for realism is the powerful drive to reproduce oneself, a replication of life. With Photorealism your image will look like a real photograph.

One of the advantages of the photorealism is that it allows you to create photographs of products or situations that cannot be captured with a camera. In other words, you can draw everything and anything even if you haven’t actually seen it or you are aware that it does not exist and make it look real.