The Software I Use

I use just three software programs to create all my art: Photoshop CS6, Vue5 Esprit and Chaoscope 3.1.

Photoshop CS6: The indispensable Photoshop is rightly the most widely-used image software available. I think that each artist probably uses the program in the way which suits each personal style, which shows just how versatile this software is. Because of my years of experience working with brushes and paint, my own approach tends to be very painterly, building up textures and using digital brushes much as I would with conventional brushes, paint and texture resins. I’ve tried working with a tablet and pressure-sensitive stylus, but abandoned it in favour of my trusty mouse, which seems to give me all the control that I need. I know that there are various websites which create texture libraries and generously make them freely available for the use of others (the exemplary Shadowhouse Creations deserves a mention here). But I tend to create my own, using scanned-in handmade papers that I buy from a shop in Utrecht, among other resources.

Photoshop layers have become a key element in my work, and some of my images contain up to fifty or more, some of them deliberately almost subliminal, but which give a specific ‘vibe’ to the atmosphere that I wish to create. As a Photoshop plug-in I also occasionally use Mehdi Kaleidoscope 2.1 for mandala effects. This plug-in does have a pleasing serendipity factor, although creating these styles of patterns by hand using ‘pie-slices’ in Photoshop does give me more control over the result when that is needed.

Three ceramics created with Vue5 Esprit. The challenge for me was to create different degrees of reflectivity which suggested the different glazes, and to make these pots convincingly look as though they had been thrown on a potter's wheel. Studying and understanding the way these things look and are made in the actual world is essential to creating them convincingly in the virtual one.

Vue5 Esprit: When one can use virtual 3D software to command the sun to rise and set, cause mountains to erode with a single mouse click, and summon whole cities into existence, then it cannot be denied that the experience is a pretty heady one. To create a scene from scratch and then to have the facility virtually to move around inside that scene, view it from any angle, change the direction of sunlight, alter the atmospherics to cloak the scene in thick mist – or merely a dusty haze – is both compelling and ringing with creative possibilities.

Mixed materials cladding a polygonal terrain with a surface of red ochre clay created in Vue5 Esprit, with a reflectivity which suggests a partial drying-out in the sun. To achieve this effect, the amount of reflectivity is here dictated by the elevation: the higher the terrain, the more dry it appears. You can practically hear the wet clay squelch underfoot. That's Vue5 Esprit for you.

Using the Vue5 Esprit software I create textures which I then can use further in Photoshop. As I mention above, I think that each artist will adapt a software program to whatever suits a personal style best, and whatever individual needs require. Vue5 Esprit is a powerful virtual tool which I use for my own specific needs.

Chaoscope 3.1: The designers of this remarkable bit of digital magic could probably make a killing selling it, but in their beneficence instead issue it free (and absolutely safe) to download. From the settings which you can fully control with sliders, it will generate, convert to virtual visual form and render all the strange attractors, Julia and Lorenz sets and other algorithmic exotica you could wish for, in surfaces of your choice (plasma, light, solid, etc.). I additionally use it to generate lighting effects and textures for further use in Photoshop.

Digital spun glass: a close-up of the refined intricacy of a Chaoscope plasma Julia set, seen in an oblique view. All attractors generated by this program are fully-virtual, and can be rotated to be viewed from any angle.

Here is where you can download Chaoscope. The other two programs above I trust that you will buy legally, as I did. Having spent so many years of my life earning my living with my creativity, I know that the stone-hard reality of using crack codes is that, somewhere along the line, you are stealing money from someone. It was the theft of their software by those using crack codes that has now prompted Photoshop only to make their superb program available online by subscription, and the version which I now have is the last version that will be available to buy on disk. It’s a pity, but I for one can hardly blame Photoshop for taking this decision. They were being robbed blind by cowboys who thought that using crack codes to access their software for free was a fun thing to do. So if you happen to fall into this dubious category, I suggest that you go and earn your living, feed your family, pay your rent, etc. by actually producing this stuff instead of parasitising the creative efforts of others, and then see how you feel about things. Okay, lecture over. Now back to Zeno and other worthwhile pursuits.