Concept art ... the 3D, CG cyborg ... because we're doing a story later in the year, More Than Human, which is being cowritten by two of my favorite writers, and I'm starting to think in terms of the cover art.
These renders were done using one of my old characters plus colored lights and so forth, and then they were processed through Photoshop for a bit of overpainting to add an extra dimension. The brush set I used was a very nice set called Techno Brushes, by a designer called Coby17, who asks for a credit if they're used. Happy to oblige here ... I do believe these brushes were downloaded from a site called BrushEasy, and I wonder if I'm the only artist who's hopelessly confused by the licensing situation on so-called free brushes. They oftentimes come with so many strings attached, one isn't quite sure if one is allowed to used them or not! I think the brushes used in these images are "free for a credit," and here is the credit.)
The brushes available for Photoshop are amazing, and at first glance a great number of them look to be free, or free for a credit, which is more than fair enough. But you need to take a squiz at the fine print before you even download them, much less install them! One designer is asking fro $650 as the licensing fee to use one stroke of one brush out of a set of 50 brushes...! That's not a typo, that's six-hundred-fifty bucks, for the rights to use a swatch of one of his brushes on a piece of artwork that might earn the artist $25 if s/he's lucky. That's just so far over the top, it leaves you speechless.
Suffice to say, the licensing situation on the so-called free brushes is so exquisitely confusing, I'm going to be making a beeline back to DAZ and Renderosity, where you can buy glorious bush sets to use without limitation, for about $5 or so. It might cost a few bucks, but it makes life sooooo easy!
Jade, July 1
