Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Art Prehistoria #2: Megalosaur Background

Megalosaur in the Jungle by Peter Bond

Created for the palaeoart-themed Boneyard Carnival #21 hosted by ringleader The Flying Trilobite. The piece will be used in an upcoming post on The Tyrannosaur Chronicles.




Last Art Prehistoria, I detailed the process of drawing and painting a dinosaur (a megalosaur in this case!) This post will illustrate the step-by-step process of adding a photographic background to your painting.

Step 1: This is the finished dinosaur painting that I digitized by taking a photograph of it and uploading it onto my laptop. He's cool, but he is missing a home!


Step 2: Using Photoshop, erase everything around the actual painting. I am absolutely in love with the Magic Wand Tool!


Step 3: Find a suitable picture of the dinosaur's home online. Choose a high-res image - I used Google Image Search set on extra large images. Save the photo and open it in Photoshop.


Step 4: Copy the cut-out dinosaur and then paste it onto a layer on the jungle picture. Move and resize (using Free Transform under Edit) the megalosaur until you are happy with his position.


Step 5: Using the Lasso Tool, cut out some ferns and bushes that will be in front of the dinosaur. Copy and paste them as a new layer. The dark splotches are shading lines to make the beast look like he is actually in a jungle.


Step 6: Put all the pieces together and add a slight shadow under the dinosaur. Now, the mysterious megalosaur roams his realm in all it's glory...


...A second background could be created as well:

Megalosaur on a Riverbank by Peter Bond

Which one do you think is better?

5 comments:

Glendon Mellow said...

The riverbank is cool. I like the jungle better though.

The shadows and colouration on its back look better in the jungle.

This will be a mega-addition to the Boneyard, indeed.

traumador said...

I should put these on my kiwi dino post.

I like the river better.

Peter Bond said...

Thanks a ton Glendon, I'm looking forward to exploring other paleoart on the Boneyard.

No worries, Traum, use them as you wish!

One vote for Jungle, one for River...

Mary Dylke said...

Howdy - I think I like the river best, too.

Anonymous said...

I like them both.