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3DTotal: What do you feel are the key lessons you could teach newcomers to the digital medium?
Gerhard: A key lesson is understanding the versatility of the digital medium; the production processes are so multifaceted that you should not lock yourself into any one way of doing things. There are so many options and avenues to explore. The thing that makes working digitally so special and different from traditional art is that it allows you to do things that just can’t be done on paper or canvas (or whatever surface). Such as working effectively with photos and never really being able to ruin a piece, as you can always revert to an old file. However, I also believe it’s important to get a grounding in traditional art practice. It teaches you the discipline of art. It’s easy to get lost in ‘tricks’ working digitally. I believe all students of art need to learn, for instance, the pain and joy of working with gouache, or even simply learning how to mix colours. This teaches patience and discipline. After knowing how to work with a variety of traditional mediums, learning digital painting applications is comparatively simple. |
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3DTotal: On the subject of lessons, in which areas do you feel you have developed and improved most as an artist over the last few years - particularly in respect to your digital work?
Gerhard: I would like to think there’s been a general improvement in all aspects of my art. A deepening maturity, I would hope. But that’s for others to decide really. I am certainly faster than when I first started. My own pipeline for digital work is pretty tight. Over the years I have amassed a huge digital image library and developed a sound methodology for researching new projects and briefs. I also have a greater technical understanding of a whole bunch of applications, and how to best exploit them - but all that just comes with time.
3DTotal: You integrate photographic elements in your work. Do you see this as a kind of tether to reality?
Gerhard: I suppose I started to answer this in a previous question. To me, the digital medium is a thing in its own right. While making sure that I maintain core traditional art principles when painting digitally, I also want to explore the digital medium as a separate entity. In my present understanding of digital media, using photos reflects this. It represents a hybrid approach; an integration of painting and photography. Something quite different from a photo montage or a straight painting. It’s something that just can’t be done as effectively in the traditional art realm. This is all new to the world, it really hasn’t been around for too long, so I am just exploring what can and can’t be done. As for a tether to reality, I suppose it be can seen that way. Photos certainly provide a realistic feel to the work. They can infuse tremendous amounts of detail and light information. I don’t want realism (unless it’s for work and it’s a matte) in my personal work, I want a blend. I guess I am still trying to develop and define what all this actually is. |
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3DTotal: With regard to using photographic elements, how challenging has matte painting been in comparison to the more painterly concept projects?
Gerhard: Matte painting is bloody hard. To paint a realistic picture is difficult. I look at the work of Dusso in awe, especially those mattes for the last Star Wars film. Those mattes that Dusso did are just incredible. That’s hard, seriously hard work. On top of that it’s stressful, as it’s easy to see when a matte isn’t working - it just doesn’t look real. You have to be a confident painter, and know your stuff very well to do quality mattes. I find mattes very hard and demanding. I would like to think they are getting easier, but it’s just not the case. Each one is a new challenge. From that perspective, painterly concept projects are not as demanding. Painterly concepts are more relaxed. To begin with, painterly concepts hardly ever go into production - they are generally for internal use. A matte will be seen on a screen or in game so there is a greater performance pressure. So they are quite different, and a matte is certainly more challenging, from both a technical and psychological level. |
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3DTotal: And finally, if you could travel back in time to learn from one painter or artist who would it be and why?
Gerhard: Well that’s a tricky one as there are a whole bunch. I think it would be great to simply be apprenticed, as an artist was “back in the day”. When it was seen almost as a trade, where you learnt the skills of art-making over many years, while under the tutelage of a great master. But back to question. I would love to meet and learn from Peder Severin Kroyer. He was a great and accomplished artist but his work, to me, maintains such a warmth and intimacy. I guess that can’t be taught, as that was his “art”. I would simply love to learn and work with someone that inspired and who could capture such love in their work. |
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