CHOPPER PROFILE 4
This Chopper has been a member of the site just over half a year, but during that time he has made a very solid impact. He has a good eye for detail and fresh clean chopping skill. 14 wins from 155 images and I don’t think he’s stopping at that. So it’s time to sit back relax and read all about this man from Plymouth in the U.S.of A…
1. What is your nickname and how did you get it.
Nickname is Rey Rey. My name is Rey. (Go figure)
2. What is your real name and age.?
My real name is Carl Reynard Louis Michaud (you had to ask?) and I am 38. (I think...)
3. Where are you from and what’s so great about being there.?
I live in Plymouth, Connecticut USA. I live on a lake and I love it. It is a small community and
my children have a great place to grow up and my wife loves it to.
4. What do you do to keep the bills paid?
I am a digital artist. I am the lead digital artist at two in-house studios for two different promotional agencies. I run the studios with the help of two other very talented artists. We do everything from simple retouching to Illustration and package creation. I also do freelance illustration on the side. I do work for Heineken,Amstel, Unilever, Dove, Campbells Soup, Lean Cuisine, Nestle Waters, Poland Spring, L.L Bean, Pepsi, Skoal, Us Tobacco, Motts, Timex, Dannon, Subway Restaurants, etc., etc.
5. Other than Digital art I beleive that you also use the more traditional art forms?
Besides photo retouching and color correction, I also do Illustration, and fine art. I was originaly trained as an illustrator and fine artist. I was using oil paints and acrylics.
This is one of my oils.
This is one of my acylics.
This is a digital illustration.
Wow some impressive stuff there, I do like the boots. Thanks for sharing those mate, but now back to the profile Q & A.
I use a G5 Mac with Dual 1GB processors and 4GB of Ram. I use Photoshop CS2 with a Wacom tablet. At work I also have to use Illustrator, In Design, Acrobat and Quark. My true love is Photoshop.
I like Google for a search engine. Sometimes Yahoo or istockphoto.
1. What gets your creative juices flowing, how you create that masterpiece?
I don't consider anything I do a masterpiece. I just have fun and do what I do. When I first started this contest. I decided I was going to try and do every contest for a month. In Sept. 2005 I got 1821 votes. I thought that was fun. I just kept on entering. Sometimes it was well done. Other times I just thought it was funny. Other times I was experimenting. I never had a lot of time to work on them, but I was addicted and had to enter something. On 09-13-2005 the contest was "talk like a Pirate" I entered 2 pieces. One I worked on for a while. (about 2 hours) The other was just a picture I took of my hand in front of my computer screen holding a glass of water.
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/83862/display.html
I cut it out and pasted it on a background. The one that I worked on got 28 votes. The one that took 10 minutes and was just a photograph and a cut and paste got 46. Go figure..
I gave up trying to work out why people vote the way they do, it will become one of those never ending mystries...
What about your ideas where do they come from?
I find that ideas come quick to me when I am doing a bunch of things at one time. I am not sure what triggers it. It just happens. I find it harder to come up with ideas if I actually have time to work on something. I never took more than two or three hours on any entry. I usually did them during my lunch breaks at work. Most of them took about an hour. (not counting image search) I found that doing this contest really helped pump my creative juices and speed at work too.
2. What do you use as inspiration?
Looking through the portfolios of some of the members here really lights a creative flame under your ass. Some people are skilled Photoshop people, others are genius Idea people. When you find someone who is both, it is awe inspiring.
3. Do you have a system?
I look at the image to see if anything pops into my head, a theme, a joke, an scene, anything. If nothing is instant, then I flip the image or walk away from it. Then I'll start to do something else and the idea usually comes then.
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.
I work with nervous energy. I attack things full throttle. I work very fast but very thorough. I create things as they pour out of my head. I paint like that, I write songs like that. I play guitar like that, I live like that. I don't know how to do it any other way. I label my layers accordingly. "layer 1, Layer2, Layer3
5. Filters, brushes and techniques.
I use Photoshop, all of it. I don't use third party filters. I just don't think they work as well as photoshop. I have played with most of them and I think they are fun but I would not use them in professional work. My favorite tool in PS is the airbrush. Why look for a filter to create something when you can just draw or paint it. Photoshop to me is like an extension of myself. When people come to me with a job, as they are speaking to me, I can see, in my head, exactly how I am going to do the job in photoshop. I know which tools and techniques I am going to use before they are even done talking about it, and I think how cool this is going to be. I work with PS, I play with PS, I can not get enough of it. (Somebody help me....)
6. What style of chop do you like most?
I like chops with textures and dramatic lighting. I really love dramatic lighting. If you create an image with a good idea and clean PS work, a little attention to the lighting can really push it over the top.
1.) If you have a digital camera, use it. Photograph textures, leaves, rain drops, ice, whatever. It comes in handy. It can also help you learn how to create. Take a picture of a glass of water with something behind it. Study how things distort through the water and the glass. Take a picture of fire and see how it really looks.
2.) If you have drawing and painting skills, use them. Don't always rely on filters.
3.) Don't be too proud to ask questions. You don't know everything. It is how we learn.
4.) Try everything!!! Experiment. Push all the buttons. Open every door. Explore!
5.) When you are done with an image, look at it again, see if the whole image works and improve it one more time.
What is your favorite type of source picture and why?
a. machine (Car, boat, electronic parts)
b. people
c. nature
d. obscure views
e. all of the above
f. other
I don't have a favorite. Certain things will trigger my imagination better than others but I can't say what it is until I see it. I think I like single items better than a whole scene. Single things on a white background give you less options to have to think about. It narrows down the thought process. Ideas seem to come faster when you are limited.
1. What makes a good chop for you?
A good chop for me is all about the idea and the design. I know that I can create what I am thinking of because I have been doing it for so long. I know that I have good PS skills and I can illustrate but coming up with a unique and different idea is the hard part. This contest is not just about PS skills. It is about ideas, composition, and design too. You can spend all day turning something into stone but you can not stop there. After you create the stone object you have to step back and forget about the stone object. Now look at the whole image and see if it works. Forget the stone. Does the whole image work together? That is very important. Most people focus on one aspect of the image and forget about the rest of it. Now if the whole image works together and it is a clever idea, you have a winner. You can usually tell a great chop from the thumbnail. You might not be able to see what's going on in the image but you can see a good comp and design even in a thumbnail.
2. Do you prefer to vote on?
a. all source image
b. import and blend
c. effect i.e. rain/snow/flood/fire/blood
d. as long as it’s a good chop it gets my vote
e. all of the above
f. I don’t vote
I would say d.
When I first started voting I was looking for perfection. I was not using a lot of votes. I work as a digital artist and an illustrator but I am also the boss. I get paid to pick apart images and tell people what is good and what is bad. If I don't like it, it does not go out the door. I approached PSC with this attitude. Then I realized. People are doing this for fun. There are all kinds of skill levels here. You have to look at the individual pieces for what they are. If you see someone really improving over time, that person deserves a pat on the back and a vote. My stuff was not perfect either (still isn't). I was experimenting with ideas. I was not sure what people were looking for (still don't). Then I decided to just do it and have fun. I do like images with effects in them like rain, snow, blood, etc., if they are done well and not overdone.
3. What chop did you do and it did not do as well as you expected?
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/83770/votes.html
This is one of my favorite chops. I was very proud of this. I rebuilt the bird from scratch. I thought it was a good idea and just an overall nice looking image.
4. How did you find PSC, and what do like the most on this site?
I was browsing the internet. I love seeing what truly talented people can do with an image, Photoshop, and a little time. I work with PS, I play with PS, I can not get enough of it.
5. If you ever have spare time from chopping what do you like to do thats no chop related?
Besides fishing,and drinking rum, I also love music. I have been playing guitar and harmonica since I was 5 years old hanging out in my grandfathers music store. I also play banjo and a little piano. (very little piano) I can not read music. I have just always been able to listen to something and figure it out quickly. When I hear something, I can see it on the guitar or I just know where that note would be on the harmonica. It's hard to explain. People always ask me to teach them how to play but I am not sure how "I" do it. So I tell them to go learn how to read music. I wish I could. I have a couple guitars tattooed and various areas of my body. I love the blues and rock and roll and folk music (like Bob Dylan). I used to play and sing for a living when I was younger until I started failing out of school because I was out too late at night . (Mom made me quit.)
Before I was a digital artist, I was a chef for about ten years. I never went to college for it, I just learned by doing and moved up in the ranks. I moved out to California for a couple of years where I was a chef, bartender and playing and singing on the weekends. then I decided I wanted to quit the restaurant business and do somthing with my art. I moved back to Connecticut, enrolled in Paire College of Art, Quit the restaurant business, married the love of my life, and found a job in the art field. Now I have a beautiful wife, two beautiful children and a job that I love. Besides that, I have an addiction to a web page called "Photoshopcontest.com" What could be better.
1. What's your best chop.
My best chop is my next chop. (I hope) Don't we all?
I liked my entry for the "toy Soldiers"
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/84285/display.html
It still makes me laugh. Besides that I think I did an all right job of lighting and chopping it.
2. Now your worst chop.
Probably my next chop.
My worst chop was
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/83862/display.html
because I did not do anything except for one cut and paste but I did prove a point to myself.
3. Who do you consider to be one of the better choppers out there.
The best chopper out there is soon to come because just when you think you have seen the best someone comes up and blows you away. As for active PSC members, I think Claf and Anfa are pretty impressive and consistent although it is always the one person that you did not expect that surprises you. I have not been around that long so I don't really know the "Old School" people.
I know there were a couple portfolios that I have seen in the past that I thought were incredible but unfortunately I could not remember who they were. (A.D.D)
4. What you hate to see in a chop and why you hate it so much.
The "Flood filter".
I don't like when people just use a filter and call it a day. If you are going to use a filter use it along with other skills and use it in a different way so that someone else can not see that you used a certain filter.
5. The best chop of all time.
http://photoshopcontest.com/view-entry/79311/display.html
Claf's "grand Hotel" entry was one of the first entries that took my breath away. I am not saying it is the best all time chop. Just the one that left the biggest impression on me.
Always remember no matter how good you are there was a day when you sucked! So remember that and treat others with respect. Be helpful but not abusive and most of all , Have fun! Consider it a contest against yourself and just try and get more votes than your last entry. Don't worry about everybody else. Again, have fun and keep on choppin!
Thanks for answering some questions mate, it's been a pleasure getting to know you better, enjoy your art and see you out there.
Blue_lurker
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CHOP.
