Chopper Profile 11
Yep there back, and what a chopper to kick of the second round of chopper profiles. Been a member since April 2003, 15 wins, 14 seconds and 13 thirds. Winner of the last old timmers reunion chop. He’s French, he’s got attitude, style and skill…its time to read the profile of…..
1. What is your nickname and how did you get it?
IMO Jerry717 should have been the one interviewed for he's the only PS guru on this site. Plus he's nicer than I am
Ledirlo means "headmaster" in french slang, I was called so by kids I taught in school.
2. What is your real name and age?
My name is Nicolas Houllet, I'm 30
3. Where are you from and what’s so great about being there?
I was born in Paris: It's great to be able to walk in Paris in the everyday life...cranky people, grey weather, insane car drivers, amazing architecture, hot as hell petite women. In such a city, with so many different people, one can be sure one can act freely, just because the locals don’t have time nor energy to gossip, in opposition to how it goes in small cities. People who live in Paris are mostly people whose parents or grandparents left the countryside, so most are actually "simple" people trying to fit in the city . Due to the raising fascist/nationalist policy, the freedom and will to create new things has decreased, so we're on a sort of stand by. The intellectual and artistic life is becoming dualistic, developing on meaningless debates. Living in Paris is tough, however.
4. What do you do to keep the bills paid?
Ask any French he'll tell you the situation in France is bad. The day I got sick of looking for jobs and decided to quit PSing, I was asked to make an exhibition of my chops. Therefore I did so. I shot the material I need, then I chopped it in large sizes and printed it. I get paid if it sells. Currently I'm working in real estates, then I may start working on another exhibition for a big NYC gallery, which is a good opportunity to sell and get known by customers. I thought it would take me to produce more classics, mainstream pics but I found out that my creepiest pics were the ones people remembered and liked. Business in the USA is actually still alive, especially in contemporary art, the category my chops fit in. In some way I like it, it allows me to keep away from the advertising industry and its insane cokeheads.
Any advice you would like to offer to budding artists and fellow PSCer’s?
My advice if any is to walk on one's way peacefully, regardless of the votes and opinions. Whatever the reason you make pics for might be, work on your way with consistency. Look at technical perfection before letting yourself be creative, in other words, learn the tool you wanna work with before you start creating things.
5. What do you do in your spare time?
I spend much of my time being with the people I love, reading about religions, theology and quantum physics: I'm no expert in these fields but they keep fascinating me. The rest of the time I cook for those I love, and I practice the inner form of my martial art, Moo Doo Kwan.
One of the oldest Korean martial art and good for relieving stress and stress related pains, must come in handy for artistic types like us.
6. How did you find PSC, and what do you like most about the site?
I typed Photoshop contest in Google and saw the watchutalkinabout contest, and kept laughing for a long time. I remember thinking "wow these guys are so friggin nuts I gotta join" .The 8 am rush for finding an idea, sources and making it fast clean and funny, before advantage appeared is what I liked the most. It was a race for votes back then. It really was the same as brainstorming for an ad poster project, same rush and quick need of a picture that says it all.
7. If you could change one thing at PSC, what would it be and why?
I wouldn't let the users any room except in the contest area. I would try to take it more towards professional photography and photo realism, through the image it would give and vehiculate in order to lead the users to some higher level: no talks, no fun, but technical skills that would make adobe and apple drool. It seems to me that once you've been winning a few contests, or dozens like anfa, things stop by themselves. There must be something that could take the best posters to something else.
Definitely, I would make PSC back to what it was when I joined it: nostalgia I guess.
8. You have a passion for digital art and artwork, what do you see as the next level for the digital artist?
The next level would be art that actually opens a new dimension in the artist and viewer's mind.
9. Other than this site, where else do you like to surf, that is not PhotoShop orientated?
I only use the Internet for PSC and down loading stuff. I hate the Internet and computers.
Your answer
For PSC, competition is my main motivation. But in my work, my inspiration doesn't matter; "what customers like" is my only inspiration, that and the need to pay the bills and the anxiety it involves. Recently though, I started thinking about the history of 2D art, and it gives me many ideas to bring some new things into mainstream PSing. We are so far from having the talent of Leonardo, Michellangello, Velasquez, M.C. Escher, Magritte or such, or the anonymous artists who created the religious art of ancient times. Just try to imagine what they would have done if they had been able to use PS... If I was that good of an artist, I guess I could play with the symbolism they used in a way that means something to other people, with more technical skills (due to PS) than they had; I'd bring something really new to art...well I don’t, and I don't see anyone who does in the world of photoshoppers. I wish I did
Since at PSC, the inspiration is egocentric, I think it's a must for anyone who want to improve to make pics on one's own, to find another, more creative source of inspiration, more personal.
I started looooong ago with lousy PCs, recently got an imac. Now I use a 2ghz 20" Imac, PS cs2, and the apple soap bar like mouse. I never used a tablet and don’t need one, I can’t draw. PS cs2 is the only software installed on my mac. I got rid of all the bundled apple software so it's a PS dedicated machine. Wether for psc or my job, I have not searched the web for sources for very long, I usually try to find a pic that will blend nicely with the pic I'm altering.
1. What gets your creative juices flowing, how do you create that masterpiece?
To produce a masterpiece it would take me to be a master, which I'm not. I usually make my best pics as soon as I get up. No idea why. Otherwise, I get in front of my screen at 9 PM and chop past midnight. It's all a matter of setting to me. I guess my pics would be different if I was chopping in my sea side house, looking at the sea through my veranda. I can’t help noticing the flaws in my pics, which means they exist. Beauty is in the viewer's eye, I just make my pics and then they get different levels of popularity. Anyhow, my inspiration mainly comes from the 90's DDB ad campaigns, for they were the ones that reinvented photomontage when PS appeared. In these days, French ad agencies had the best studios and produced insane quality. Most of my friends were part of these studios, at the very beginning of adobe and I guess watching them work served my inspiration
2. What do you use as inspiration?
For PSC, competition is my main motivation. But in my work, my inspiration doesn't matter; "what customers like" is my only inspiration, that and the need to pay the bills and the anxiety it involves. Recently though, I started thinking about the history of 2D art, and it gives me many ideas to bring some new things into mainstream PSing. We are so far from having the talent of Leonardo, Michellangello, Velasquez, M.C. Escher, Magritte or such, or the anonymous artists who created the religious art of ancient times. Just try to imagine what they would have done if they had been able to use PS... If I was that good of an artist, I guess I could play with the symbolism they used in a way that means something to other people, with more technical skills (due to PS) than they had; I'd bring something really new to art...well I don’t, and I don't see anyone who does in the world of photoshoppers. I wish I did
Since at PSC, the inspiration is egocentric, I think it's a must for anyone who want to improve to make pics on one's own, to find another, more creative source of inspiration, more personal.
You have a passion for digital art and artwork, what do you see as the next level for the digital artist?
3. Do you have a system? Does a chop have to be done a certain way following steps or are you a messy chopper and just go with the flow?
My only system is thesystem, known as polishmf (stands for polish male/female)
4. Does a chop have to be done a certain way following steps or are you a messy chopper and just go with the flow.
Browsing through image banks is another thing. I need to get my idea ready to know what material I will need to shoot, and how. This is what takes the crazy inspiration flow away.
I used to mix many different sources for psc, and found out it was better to mix only two. It's a different process: take two objects, mix them so you create a third object that shows the distinct properties of the two objects used; using objects that don't match in the everyday life gives the opportunity to create an eye striking and mind bending object. It relies both on the initial idea, and the technical quality of the result, that involves photorealism.
Wow never looked at it that way, but it opens a new prospect that just finding that one source to fit that one image, limiting it to just two images sure makes it difficult to achieve your final result.
5. Filters, brushes and techniques, what do you use and not use and why?
I uninstalled most filters in Ps to make it work faster; I kept the noise, gaussian blur, liquefy, high pass, unsharp mask. The rest is just useless to me. I rediscovered the liquefy filter, it's a great way to create organic, chaotic patterns: fire, hair, etc. I create a lot of brushes depending on my needs: I built stencil shaped brushes, smoke brushes, etc. I don’t draw with them but I use them as erasers, or to paint masks. I actually don’t draw, but I erase parts of the source to get the shape I want. I create my own shortcuts and a menu, which lets me, work much more efficiently. I use the history palette as much as I can.
I got amazed by the warp transform tool in cs2, adobe should invent more tools like that if they want people to pay for their updates.
6. When do you know ya got it just right, or is it constant changes up untill or after you post?
it depends on my mood: basically, the quickest the better.
7. Is there a limit to what you will chop?
Yes, I don’t make fun of people.
Everything starts with colour, contrast, luminosity alteration. It's enough to make good pics. My only advice is to start working in 300 ppi; that's what PS was invented for, and you're really missing out 90% of the thing if you spend time on 72 ppi pics. Many more pixel’s to handle involves much more work, attention, many more details, more beauty.(or ugliness if you fail)
Therefore, in my opinion, it only takes that you are able to blend two photographs correctly in A4 300ppi to be a good photoshopper. I don’t think that people who can make "nice" 72 ppi montages are good photoshoppers: they're good at making 1 inch wide pics for the Internet. I guess that matching the properties of two pics is hard enough to achieve, bypassing it makes one really miss out the power of PS. Face swaps are a great way to learn it.
About shadows, I think they're the hardest thing to deal with: in nature, a shadow is never what you expect it to be so when one creates a shadow in PS, in cannot be accurate. So many factors play a role, even when one tries to replicate a simple studio like scene, featuring an object on a white background. The shadow depends on: the intensity, diameter, shape, temperature, position, distance and fall off of light, the spectrality and shape of the background, its light absorption properties, it depends on the camera's sensitivity, white balance, contrast settings, also on the object's size (for the shadow's perspective), and edges: what if the light is soft and the edges are sharp? What difference if the light is "hard" and the edges are round? Unless you spend 6 full months to calculate the correct shadow with inverse square fall off equations, you can only estimate what a nice looking shadow would be, but not in any way create one that looks real. For an outdoor scene, think of that 50 feet away tree that shades a part of the scene seeming lessly, for instance.
Great tip and I do agree, a good shadow can make or break a winning image, if I could just perfect a good shadow
1. What is your favourite type of source image, and why? (Machine, people, nature, views, objects. What type do you prefer to work with.)
I don’t have any favourite kind of source. Just the high definition ones, since they give me the opportunity to work on details. I guess pics that already contain some mood in their subject, setting, lightning is good since they imply that one works on that mood, following it or altering it. It involves feelings.
2. What is your favoured site for outside source images?
I don’t use web pics any more, I shoot them.
I tried that once and well, discovered that my face ain’t going to win me any contests
3. When you search do you have an idea what you are looking for or is it hit and miss?
I look in my personal photo stock and find what seems to be good.
1. In your opinion what makes a good chop?
I like photorealism the most. Hellekro, thbeghin, claf, serious are PSCer’s I admire. I never look at illustration unless the author is Craig Mullins or such: web sites are filled with pics of people who use Ps to make fantasy art, sci fi art, pixel art, manga art, comic art, hip hop like art...they bring nothing new, they're just a transposition of the traditional stuff people draw on their notepads in college, just that using a mathematical algorithm makes things easier than using a pen. Same for that guy who shows off a guitar he designed entirely in PS on his PS tuts website: he does nothing but traditional product design, just on PS instead of using traditional tools. Same about that guy whose name I cant remember, a PS guru who creates pseudo 3d scenes in PS, getting less good results and spending more time than if he just used a 3D modeller. My friends used to do better than most of what I see with a paper sheet and rotring crayons. Mezopunk is one of the few to bring something very new in her style in my opinion. Therefore I love pics that make me feel that nothing else than PS was used to create them: they're photorealist and make me wonder if the object I see is real. These pics are most often made by photographers.
A Good chop is one that either makes me laugh, not smile but laugh, or that keeps me looking for more than a second. I look for photorealism, correct luminosity, contrast, and saturation. Some people have that colour wheel chart in their eye. Some have a prism that makes everything they do look beautiful to them
2. Do you have a system to get things started? ie Music, mood setting stuff like that?
"There’s no creation without pain”: I think it is true, even when I spend a full day enjoying myself making a pic.
3. After you finish your chop is it a matter of just post it or do you seek opinions of family and fellow choppers?
Really a matter of just posting.
4. What qualities do you look for when deciding to vote on a chop?
I usually vote on the import and blend aspect. I vote for pics that display quality, up to my quality criteria. A fine cut and paste is enough to me.
5. Some people won’t vote for pure filtered chops or animated GIF, is there any particular style/type of chop you won’t vote for?
mmm just those I don’t like
6. Time is always a factor, how much time do you spend on a chop and how much time is too much?
I don’t think time is a factor in artistic creation; many artists will say they feel like they've been "time warped" while they created they work.
yeah that happens to me a lot…next thing I know hours have gone by and all I’ve done is found some great images for future work.
7. What chop did you do and it did not do as well as you expected?
All my chops are under estimated!!!
. Generally speaking, it happened only twice that I knew my pic would win, and most often I was very surprised that pic I thought of as a quick try won.
8. You can be a little controversial at times, is there any thing you have said/typed you wish you could have taken back.?
I'd never take anything back. Especially the offensive things. Controversy is what makes ideas evolve and what creates progress, and I use and abuse it. A few years ago, the Internet was a great way to act freely, in an easier way than in everyday life. Now it's the opposite, one needs an attitude, on PSC like on dating sites or forums. If I want this kind of frame, I don’t need the Internet, it already exists in the real life. To me it's quite bad that the whole Internet, therefore the whole community of people who use it, have accepted this attitude for themselves. Controversy only kills the business, but I as a user, I am not into business, so I don’t get why I should mind, unless I get paid at some time.
1. Your best chop ever?
I think my best chop is the one I didn't make yet. Maybe this auto-portrait is the one I prefer,
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/7457/ornements2od.jpg
for it actually transmits the feeling of stupidity and constant mental aberration I wanted to put on my face. I'm actually quite proud to show myself under this angle. It just implies a front side face shot, one side shot of each ear and one large shot of the mouth.
I must admit mate that this one here is one of your better chops, love the work and other than your “GREEN CHAIR” chop is one of your best.
http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/8897/autoportrait1er.jpg
2. Your worst chop ever?
My worst chop ever was my second or third entry at PSC. Good thing, they are not hosted any more, I don’t have them any more. They involved Gary Coleman and Pikatchu.
Now I tried to find any one who had a copy of one of these chops, but fell short. If you have a copy please PM so I can get it on the profile. Would love to see why you think they are so bad.
3. Best chopper out their today, and what makes him the best in your opinion?
I have a few in mind, by Chrispis and Hellekro. As a PSC entry, I'd say serious' entry a few month ago, where he created a pedestrian accident in my gf's street.
4. What you hate to see in a chop and why you hate it so much?
I hate to see lousy tries to imitate what has already been done, and getting credits. I hate to see unjustified votes on a pic .I think everything has already been done , and it's terribly boring to see a bad shadow, cartoon integration, motion blur, or so called masterpieces that display nothing masterful. I hate to see pics those involved lots of work and that are full of flaws.
5. The best chop of all time?
I have a few in mind, by Chrispis and Hellekro. As a PSC entry, I'd say serious' entry a few month ago, where he created a pedestrian accident in my gf's street.
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/85979/votes.html
Have to agree is one of the best realistic chops around
Now I know you have had some of your artwork displayed. How did that make you feel and did it go as you expected?
Ah...yes I produced an exhibition in Paris: twelve large prints of photo montages, for a rather conservative public; it was a hell lot of work, anxiety, and expectations. I only did it to provide the ones I love with a good opportunity to meet, a good moment to remember; also to have done something else in my life.
the gallery owner didn't advertise nor sold anything.
Well thanks for your time Nicolas, and it was fun doing this. Feels good to get a profile out and about once again. Good luck to you mate in your future goals and would be cool to see you post a little bit more in the daily contests. Well what a great way to start the profiles once again, Don’t know when the next will be up but will try and get it under way real soon. I hope you all enjoyed this little insight into another chopper's life, till next time… Blue_lurker
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CHOP.
