Posting Three

Meet Bert Monroy - Digital Photo-Realist Artist


Several years ago I signed up for my first NAPP (National Association of PhotoShop Professionals) hoping to pick up some helpful hints on how to effectively run my images through the program.  What I got instead was a rude awakening in the person of Bert Monroy, self-proclaimed Digital Photo-Realist Artist. I knew I did not belong when Bert projected his latest endeavor, "Damien." It was a great image of a Chicago Elevated train station.  But why did it take him nearly eleven months to create? I thought PS was a lot more efficient than that. Truth be told, "Damien" wasn't an image at all, the entire projection was created in Illustrator and PhotoShop. The hundreds of real professionals in attendance let out one large gasp when Bert mentioned "Damien" needed some fifteen thousand layers, which collapsed into a file of 1.7 GB (you read it correctly GIGABYTES). I didn't want to draw attention to me by asking, "What was a layer?" I did remain for the entire presentation realizing that I had a long way to go before I could effectively use PhotoShop and its tools on my images.


Today, I have advanced my PS skills to include the use of layers - not the 15K that Bert needed - and masks, and other PhotoShop techniques. NAPP has been a huge help in my learning curve.


Check out Bert's website and his photo-realistis artistry: http://www.bertmonroy.com/