Environment Concept

For my first piece of work in Photoshop, I chose to create an Environment Concept. I will be talking through my approach to the subject, my inspiration, the skills learned, how I could improve the piece.

Approach

As a beginner in Photoshop and with no previous art experience, I wanted to create something simple with the tools available to me. For this piece of work, I decided to create a simple landscape, which I thought would be easy enough for my skill level. I used a simple range of colours which reflected what a landscape would look like. Elements such as clouds, grass, mountains, a path and a river were drawn, which I used the Brush Tool to create, whilst using the Paint Bucket Tool to quickly fill the gaps. Additionally, I created the Sun, by creating a circle with the Ellipse Tool.

Inspiration

My inspiration for this concept was the Alps mountain range. After researching photos of the Alps, I was in awe of how the mountains look in the background of the images. I would sway towards the Swiss Alps being my most go to location for the mountain range. I had noticed this during my research, where I was always interested in the Swiss Alps the most. Below is a picture of one of the inspirations for my concept art piece (Pow, 2020). This is the type of image I wanted to create, as just looking at the mountains in the background gave me inspiration, with a grass landscape in the foreground.

Skills Learned

From this piece, I had learned the basic skills used in photoshop to create basic images. As mentioned above, I had used the Brush Tool, Paint Bucket Tool, Blur Tool and the Ellipse Tool. The Brush Tool was used the most, as I used this to draw where each landscape would be. I also inserted tiny details into the environment with this tool, such as the rivers stream, grass strands in the foreground and dirt tracks on the path. I was familiar with the Paint Bucket Tool, as this tool is standard in most drawing applications. I familiarised myself with the Blur Tool, as I think it would definitely be a useful tool in future drawings. Similar to the Paint Bucket Tool, I was familiar with the Ellipse Tool. I used this tool to create the Sun, as it is available and much easier to create a circular object with this tool, than by freehand.

Improvement

After looking back at this art piece, it can definitely be improved. I can safely say it is an amateur piece of art, with very little skill involved to create. However, I would improve the image by redrawing many aspects, including the mountain range, the river, and the path. With the mountains, I would add more shading and detail, as I believe they look very bland and not detailed at all. The river I would redraw to give it more perspective, as it stays the same width during the course of the river, and does not give it a three-dimensional look. Much like the paths width, as it narrows as the path gets closer to the mountains. I would also include more colours. Colours which are not as saturated as others, or colours which are not as bright. I believe these would allow the image to feel more lifelike.

References

Pow, L, A. (2020) The spectacular Lauterbrunnen Valley, near Grindelwald in the Bernese Alps [Photograph]. Available online: https://www.internationaltraveller.com/europe/switzerland/ultimate-road-trip-swiss-alps/ [Accessed 23/9/2021].

Below is my Environment Concept art piece.