Continually impressing us with his elaborate, masterful works, AWAKE sensation Andrei Tallent became the featured artist of Issue No. 15 of Living the Photo Artistic Life. Andrei’s creative output is amazing, and it’s exciting to finally learn a little of what makes him tick …
Q: Your work is exciting. Where does that come from? What do you think inspires you most as an artist?
Andrei: I find inspiration in great classic sci-fi films like Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The moods portrayed in these movies are so complete and immersive. I hope to achieve something similar in my art some day.
I also find inspiration in great Photoshop art, created by the vast number of amazing Photoshop artists out there. I feel lucky to be in the presence of some of these talents in my work at Shift Art. I get to really go behind the scenes with some of these artists, and find inspiration in their methods, their attention to details, or their attitudes towards their work.
Music also inspires me. I find that often while I listen to music I will compare musical composition to Photoshop composition. Each element of the music is like its own layer — the bass line, the drums, the vocals, each smoothly incorporated at just the right blend mode and opacity, and then finished in the studio to make the whole piece cohesive.
Q: How do you typically approach your work?
Andrei: Well, this is an interesting question since I have pondered this quite a bit lately.
When I started on my journey with the AWAKE course in early 2015, I experimented wildly with my approach. I was so enamored with learning Photoshop that I didn’t really work on photography much. I was just obsessed with how much photographs could be manipulated and transformed, and just couldn’t pull myself away from the computer. So, in my workflow I found myself turning towards using stock photos, along with the vast amount of resources provided by in AWAKE, almost exclusively.
Most of my pieces follow an arc something like this: First, I hunt down a great image, sometimes with a rough idea of what I am looking for (a dancer in mid air, a model looking away from the camera, etc.), sometimes almost randomly looking for something unique that stops me in my tracks. Once I find an image that has an impact on me I dive right into Photoshop and Lightroom, open on separate monitors. I look through my AWAKE resources and previous downloaded images in Lightroom and just start opening various elements, backgrounds, textures, and so on, into Photoshop (Ctrl+E in Lightroom :-). Before long ideas present themselves and I just keep refining the work, trying new combinations until I feel it’s done. Usually in one sitting — yet often involving three to four hours of straight work.
Several events led me to attempt to change my workflow. There was the great Quill and Camera article on using your own content. Then there was Caroline Julia Moore, who I greatly admire as an artist, who started doing her own photography. There were the incredible featured artists on Shift Art, like Brooke Shaden, Robert Cornelius, KJER Mariano, all photographers first, photo manipulators second. Finally, when I was featured in Living the Photo Artistic Life magazine, I thought it was time I too follow that path. I would take my own photographs and really take the next step in developing as an artist.
Well, everything seems to have come to a screeching halt creatively since that decision. The reason? My approach has had to completely change! Hunting for a great photo, while getting pumped up with intense music, in front of my computer — that’s gone. My method, which was essentially an improv exercise on manipulating stock photography, now feels like it has been replaced with a need for a calculated vision of my work. I simply don’t have the breadth and depth of photos available to make my workflow go the way I’ve been doing it almost daily for over a year. I just don’t know how to start with a finished concept or piece in mind, prior to getting behind the camera. It’s a steep learning curve!
I’ve gone on three model shoots and I’ve learned a tremendous amount from them. But there is no nice bow to put on this story. Not yet. I am still stuck and the stock photo sites are beckoning me to come back so I can get some art out of me! I know I’ll come out of this for the better. I just don’t know how yet.
Q: While you might be slowing down recently, with your shift to doing your own photography, you’ve been quite prolific in the past, and your compositions are always quite elaborate. How much time do you spend making art?
Andrei: I try to make art whenever I can. Lately my time in front of the computer dedicated to making art has been limited. Primarily because of the reasons mentioned earlier about trying to change my workflow, but also due to spending a tremendous amount of my time growing Shift Art.
When I am really in the groove I’ll spend 15 or more hours each week making art, usually spread over three to five sessions. Of course, I’ll also spend hours and hours learning by watching tutorials, looking at online galleries of art on Flickr, Behance, 500px, and so on.
Q: What are the most important things you’ve learned in your journey to becoming a serious artist?
Andrei: Perseverance and patience. The fact is, no matter how much you want it immediately, learning to really use Photoshop to create what you want to create, takes time. If there is an effect or technique you really want to learn and be able to use effectively, you must allow yourself the patience to learn it well. You need to practice. And, if it takes time and the initial results suck, so be it — you have to persevere and keep trying. Everything in Photoshop builds on the previous things you have learned, so really, there is no way around learning to be patient.