My Painting Technique

Painting Technique

This site contains two different types of artwork; paintings which are painted digitally in PhotoShop and Photographic
Art in which I have combined camera and telescope images in unique ways.

Limited Edition Painting Technique

The first step in my process is to determine the subject matter and then I work out a rough composition in PhotoShop.
I then spend time researching the subject matter so that I can reproduce all elements as accurately as possible.
The painting process starts with a base layer for each element (e.g. The command service module) that defines its
shape. The details are then painted on separate layers on top of the base layer. For the command service module I
painted 692 individual layers to create the final image.

Some elements I do not paint from the ground up but start with a photograph I have taken. The moon, for example, in
some of the paintings started as a photograph of the moon taken with my telescope. I then use this photograph as
my base layer and in PhotoShop add painted layers over it so that the final look matches the style of the painting and
it no longer looks like a photograph.

If you choose to purchase Option 3 of any of the paintings the image is printed on canvas and then custom
embellished it with acrylic paints.

Living in the southwest as I do I have many fantastic opportunities to indulge my passion for landscape photography.
With California, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah so close the opportunities to visit some of the most beautiful deserts,
forest, canyons, badlands and National Parks in the world are almost endless.

One of my passions is creating landscape mosaics with a 160 degree view of beautiful vistas. I recently began
combining this with my other passion, Astrophotography, done using my CGEM-800 Telescope. Although I love deep
space photos, my favorite subject is our closest celestial neighbor, the Moon. The shot of the moon used in this
artwork is a mosaic created from 45 individual photos. The clouds and stars are also compilations of up to 30
individual photos. All the photos are combined and composed in PhotoShop to create a unique piece of photographic
art with a slightly extraterrestrial feel.