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Treasures in the Dark: A Surreal Fairy Painting


Treasures in the Dark by Justin Gedak

Treasures in the Dark

Digital Painting and Photo Manipulation of a Mysterious Fairy

by Justin Gedak 2017

I've been wanting to start some more fairy paintings for awhile now. I know there's already a ton of amazing faerie artwork out there already--but I've still been feeling like it's a theme that I want to explore. It's like they're a part of a world that exists just outside the corners of our eyes. A place unseen and full of mystery. Artwork based on fairies always seems to have a surreal sort of dream-like feeling as well. I really like that.

It's also fun to see my take on the subject. To wander into those dream-like worlds, and see what comes up from the shadows as I create the artwork.

I actually very rarely know how I want my paintings to turn out when I start them. When I do know in advance, I tend to get bored with them early on. The not knowing of what I want, or how the artwork will turn out seems to keep things interesting for me. This is why for the digital works like this, I never really draw out any concept sketches. I just sort of take a photo or two for reference, and see what comes out as I'm painting.

Fairy Wings Detail
Grass Detail

This fairy artwork was created with a combination of digital painting and photo manipulation using Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop, and a Wacom Intuos Pro drawing tablet.

The stock images I used for reference for this one were from ArtReferenceSource and Mithgariel-Stock

Treasure Detail

Background Detail

Fairy Crown and Face Detail

Open Edition prints and merchandise are available at Society6, Inprnt, and Curioos

Society6

For anyone wanting to sign up to my mailing list, I'm giving away a free full resolution digital download of "Born for Battle". It's a very large image, 9000 x 6750 300dpi, and I figured it would be interesting for people to be able to zoom right in to see the details and brushwork. Also, anyone with access to a good printer can print off their own print of it without having to order anything online.

Click on the image below to sign up and get your free download

Free Giveaway Art

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