Rob Shields is probably one the greatest and most well known digital artist I’ve ever seen. His work serves as a constant inspiration to myself and many others in the artistic community. Whenever I look at Rob Shields work I am blown away and inspired to take my own work to another level.

You most likely have seen Rob’s work in Advanced Photoshop Magazine in the form of tutorials for photo manipulation. You can view more of his work not featured here at his personal website Robshields.net and on his Deviant Art account.

Life is Elsewhere

This image is beautiful and inspires in me the emotions of longing or loneliness. Like most of Rob Shields work this is very detail oriented, and balanced and dramatic.

Stillness is the Move

The retouch work alone in “Stillness is the Move”, is inspiring and the lighting effects give it something very special.

Keep Me in the Dark

This image conveys to me BOLDNESS. I don’t know how else to really describe it, I love the selective color that was incorporated, as well as the high contrast monochrome, the abstract elements rather than acting as a distraction actually brings the main figure out even more in my opinion.

My Baby's Just Stardust

I love the arrangement and combination of elements in this image. The choice in effects and colors is also excellent.

Dark Days Light Years

This image screams passion, and energy. Its fierce and even though the model is stationary it conveys a sense of movement mostly because of he uses the elements of the dress to manipulate our eye direction. All and all the result is an image that is nothing short of amazing. The choice of background, the renders, and the addition of the ravens to this image add to the surreal and dark imagery of the piece in a big way.

She Carelessly Turned Amazingly

Another stunning piece of work, again particularly the retouch work on the model. The cybernetic renders were an excellent touch and again highlight Rob’s attention to detail. I also think that the texture work helps balance the image out.

Drop It Doe Eyes

The range of effects and elements used in this image are stunning. Not to mention the angles involved give an even great sense of impact and depth. The color blending was very well done, and demonstrated a lot of thought as did the flame effects.

You Forget It In People

Finally this is probably one of my favorite pieces by Rob, the lighting effects, the textures, renders, high contrast, and retouching all come together to make this image outstanding.

Rob Shields is one of my favorite artist and a huge source of inspiration, I hope looking at his work has inspired some of you as well. You can view more of his work not featured here at his personal website Robshields.net and on his Deviant Art account.

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing an amazing Digital Artist who specializes in Digital Painting. She is Russian based artist and designer Alena Lazareva and you may be familiar with her work from DeviantArt, Advanced Photoshop, Photoshop Createive, or ImageFX. Her images are nothing short of mystical and it was a real treat to get to talk to her about her work!

Could you tell us about yourself, where you’re from and how you got started in the design field?

Hello ! My name is Alena. I am 29 years old. I live in Russia.
I have been drawing since childhood. I studied at the School of Art at the artist. There I drew pictures in oils and watercolor, is now engaged in graphic design. My first acquaintance with Photoshop was in 2006. Then I went to the computer graphics courses, and began to paint in Photoshop. Now I draw in Photoshop every day and improve my skills. My interests: art, photography, computer graphics.

Sad_fairy_by_AlenaLazareva

A lot of your designs involve painting with light, is there any particular reason you gravitate toward this particular style?

In my artworks mythical creatures, fairies, elves, mermaids … The effect of light in the paintings give a sense of magic, magical world. Light – is the warmth and magic.

Fairy_by_AlenaLazareva

Were there any barriers you’ve had to overcome in entering the field and trying to develop as an artist?

At first, I did not have enough skills in the field of graphic design. Was it difficult to translate the plan. I went to courses graphic design, it really helped me. now improve their skills every day.

What has been your most valuable resources as a designer?

I think, valuable resources in the design of this creative thinking, a fantasy artist and good technique in creating artworks.

What would you say is the hardest part of being a designer?

The designer should strive to learn new skills, get acquainted with the artwork of other artists. And most importantly, the designer must have creative thinking!

Are there any other designers or artist that you draw inspiration or advice from?
I always liked works of KAGAYA. They inspire…me .It is a great artist – illustrator .

So far what would you say is your favorite piece you’ve that you have created, and why?
My favourite artworks : Angels, Paradisial bird, black angel. But very favourite artwork Mermaid!

Mermaid_by_AlenaLazareva

If you could use design to influence or change the world in a positive way, how would you go about it?
Arouse in people a good feeling ! It would be a project consisting of paintings by artists. These pictures would show human feelings, kindness, love, friendship … The project would remind all people of good qualities, which should be in every man.

What do you hope to achieve design wise in the next 5 years?

I plan to improve their skills in design, improve their digital painting technique, to master new knowledge in graphic design. And also think of interesting subjects for his paintings, and to please all his artworks. I also would like to participate in different competitions and get acquainted with the artwork of digital artists.

Paradisial_bird_by_AlenaLazareva

Thanks for a wonderful interview Alena. Be sure to check out Alena’s various galleries and the links below and show her some love and support by commenting, and rating her images!

Photoshop Creative Gallery
Advanced Photoshop Gallery
DeviantArt Gallery
DeviantArt Portfolio
ImagineFX Gallery

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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Roberto Blake Digital Painting- Lady Snowflake

Lady Snowflake is probably my most solid “digital painting” work to date. The brush work took hours to get just right, but I was happy with the results from that effort. I’m going to be entering this in Photoshop Creative’s Forum Challenge, “Seasons”. It took a lot to get the right blend of painterly effects while keeping the sharp details in the face and hair as much as possible. I also wanted to create the illusion of motion or wind while using those elements to manipulate eye direction back to the central figure. Despite the winter theme of this image, I didn’t want the model to come off as frigid, or “cold”, there were subtle things I did in the retouch work to accomplish this.

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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Roberto Blake Graphic Design | Star Girl III

The Star Girl, is a concept I’ve been revisiting in my Photo Manipulations, that I’ve become quite fond of. By combining and array of lighting effects to create the surreal image conveying energy and emotion. The concept was so well received when I did the first Star Girl image, that I decided to do a series of them.

When ever I create a Star Girl I try to make them as unique as possible, while still representing a unified concept. Sound a little difficult? Well I will admit to having to think of a clever way to pull that off. Most people would settle for the fact that they are different models and utilizing different colors, but I felt each image needed more to distinguish it. I decided that I would utilize a different approach to the textures involved in each image, as well as present not only a variation of the effects from the original image, but also introduce entirely new elements.

One new aspect of Star Girl III that greatly differs from the previous two images, is the introduction of repetition in the main model. I wanted to present the idea of an energy echo, or an astral projection, maybe an “aura”, generated by the character. The previous two images were also  very stationary, this one had to make you feel like the character was moving, the model conveys movement on its own but I felt I wanted to take it further. I used several elements to get across the idea of rapid movement, I think the repetition also helped with this since each image of the model was offset and scaled.

Inspiration
Ultimately the inspiration from this image was the previous two Star Girl images, as well as some of the lighting work I’ve seen various artist use. In part I would have to also say that the Star Girl images are partial inspired by the visual effects in the movie “Jumper”.  I also took some of the advice of Adam from Advanced Photoshop with regard to some of the lighting effects, particularly the blending modes. Thanks again Adam! It worked out rather well.

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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The online community is full of amazing, talented digital artist, and today I’m happy to showcase some fantastic photo-manipulation work I’ve seen on DeviantArt. Photo Manipulation is one of the most interesting and diverse forms of digital art work. There is no end to the different images an artist can develop using simple photography as a base.

Some of these digital artist you may have seen before in magazines or on other websites, others are relatively unknown but no less talented. Please give them some feedback about their work and don’t forget to visit their DeviantArt pages when you have a chance. These 20 Photo Manipulatons are nothing short of “Top Tier”.

1. Sentient by Conzpiracy

http://conzpiracy.deviantart.com/

2. Noir by Queedo

http://queedo.deviantart.com/

3. Mermaid by Alena Lazereva

http://alenalazareva.deviantart.com/

4. Painted by Hart3uk

http://hart3uk.deviantart.com/

5. Evolution in Progess by Vanority and Buffalotbill

http://vanority.deviantart.com/
http://buffalotbill.deviantart.com/

6. Global Warming Evolution by Pepey

http://pepey.deviantart.com/

7. Fire Angel by Vanority and Buffalotbill

http://vanority.deviantart.com/
http://buffalotbill.deviantart.com/

8. Ocean by Novemberxnight

http://novemberxnight.deviantart.com/

9. Explosive Beauty by xScriibleDoodlex

http://xscriibledoodlex.deviantart.com/

10. Niyo by Karen McDade

Niyo by Karen McDade

http://karenmcdade.deviantart.com/

11. Dancing Glow by VCell

http://vcell.deviantart.com/

12. Iva II by Ivangel

http://ivangel.deviantart.com/

13. Splash by Jmlam

http://jmlan.deviantart.com/

14. Fly to Eternity by Doneandonov

http://doneandonov.deviantart.com/

15. Making Magic by Wicked Juggalo Girl

http://wicked-juggalo-girl.deviantart.com/

16. Violet Sensation by Dean Site

http://dean-site.deviantart.com/

17. Viento by Dazegrafix

http://dazegrafix.deviantart.com/

18. Lets Go by MDesignN

http://mdesignn.deviantart.com/

19. Cutting Myself on Scraps by Mg3000

http://mg3000.deviantart.com/

20. Bill in His True Form by Demonicangel04

http://demonicangel04.deviantart.com/

21. Summoner by Roberto Blake

http://robertoblake.com/blog

Remember to leave comments and show your appreciation for these amazing digital artist and their work!

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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Thanks to the OneOnSoftware.com plugin Genuine Fractals 6 I’m able to resize and recrop a lot of my work for different purposes. Everything from creating desktops, to prints! It really is an amazing plugin and well worth the investment to any graphic designer for the range of things it allows you to do with your images, all without a loss of quality. I decided to offer one of my favorite early Fantasy Photo-manipulations, Light Bringer, as a free desktop background.

The angel in the image is a stock image provided by Marcus J Ranum. His stock work is amazing and I suggest you check it out whenever possible. To download the wallpaper just right click on the image and select “save link as”.

lightbringer-1024x768

lightbringer-1600x1200

lightbringer-2560x1600

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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Roberto Blake | Graphic Illustration | Magic Melody

Magic Melody
This image was something that came to me while watching the Brothers Grimm movie. I decided on the concept for a girl walking through the dark forest spreading enchantment with an instrument, then remembered the perfect stock image by Marcus J Ranum

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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Roberto Blake | Graphic Illustration | Buttercup

Buttercup
While in Barnes & Noble I decided to pickup the book the Princess Bride on a whim last week only to find that it was going to be playing on telvision soon! This being one of my favorite movies growing up, and one of my favorite novels as a teenager, I decided to do a series of images as a tribute. “Buttercup” is the first image in the series. I found a stock photo that I felt favorite the lead heroine and decided to work some photoshop magic.

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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Roberto Blake Graphic Illustration Star Girl

Star Girl
Star Girl was interesting to work on, I used several effects here including one the required me to make a custom flare-brush set. This has since become one of my most popular images on both Photoshop Creative and Advanced Photoshop.

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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Roberto Blake | Graphic Illustration | Poker Face

Poker Face
More often than not I get the creative inspiration for my artwork from music, movies, or books. In this case I was inspired by watching the music video “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga. I found the colors, objects and symbols that repeated throughout the video (mostly associated with cards and gambling), to be a great source of design inspiration. Feeling the need to work more with closeups I decided that the stock image on the cover of  Issue 55 of Advanced Photoshop Magazine, would be perfect for this project.

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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