This one’s been in the works for a little while now (it’s tough finding consecutive blocks of time in which to edit), but I wanted to get it out in time for Halloween (my favorite holiday!).

This one took some twists and turns along the way, but I tried to keep Brooke Shaden’s philosophy in mind and treat the piece as an ever-evolving work of art rather than simply taking a concept-to-product approach).

The model shot I wanted to use (thanks Alexis!) didn’t quite fit the perspective of my background plate (an HDR from an amazing church in Vienna), and changing the perspective of the background to match her left the bottom right and left thirds an empty canvas.

Rather than give up, I instead gave in to the evolution of the art and (keeping the amazing work of Renee Robyn in mind) decided to try my hand at creating atmospherics in Photoshop. The corners started out deep in shadows, filled with smoke, and quickly evolved to something more sinister. Experimenting with different blending modes and smoke techniques, I landed on something resembling fire, so I ran with it, adding in bits and pieces of creature limbs (and Godzilla’s tail) to create my demons.

So what started out as a simple composite ended up being something completely different (though entirely fitting for the holiday!).

Beating back the wings of darkness
View on flickr