Featured Artist Kim Whittemore

Digital artist Kim Whittemore enjoys tickling the viewer’s imagination with her creative and fun compositions. To see more of her fanciful artwork, please visit her website.

 

 

I’ve been a “Compositeer” (aka Digital Artist) since 2012. My first step into the digital image world was as a portrait photographer in 2001 where I got my first taste of Photoshop. After many years of traditional digital photo editing, I started using Photoshop as a creative tool.

 

 

Drawing and painting was my first love as a youngster, but other life adventures held my attention until 2012 when my desire to create art resurfaced. I’m now in a position to devote all my time and energy to creating art and I couldn’t be happier.

 

 

I recently defined my artistic style as “Unrealistic Realism” and my objective is to conjure up the possibility of the impossible and to set free whatever emotions that brings to the viewer. I think it’s essential to think and imagine outside the box that surrounds all of us. I’m always asking the question “what if…” and that seems to be the catalyst of my inspiration most of the time.

 

 

My images start with dozens of separate photos and sometimes 3D objects I create in ZBrush. Even though it’s all digital, I still utilize traditional-type painting and drawing skills in most of them. I’m really just a pixel mixer.

 

 

My image “Camping With Bigfoot” is an example of utilizing ZBrush in my images. It’s just another great tool with which to realize my imagination. I feel I’m pretty fluent with Photoshop, but ZBrush is something I really need to develop. Learning is part of the adventure, right?

 

 

Photoshop allows me to create anything I want, but I’m not trying to fool the viewer. I mean, it’s easy to understand the unrealistic part of each image. I’m just creating a space for imagination.

 

 

I spend more time than I’d like to admit noticing things around me: shadows, reflections, color casts, perspectives, textures, etc. This helps me create that realism. For instance, notice that my hand in the image “Payback” looks like it’s pressed against the glass. The little things make the image.

 

 

I love creating a visual adventure for the viewer. Many of my images convey movement and my hope is that the viewer is playing out that movement in their own imagination.

 

 

Most recently, I’ve been experimenting with image transfer techniques on various substrates. I like the idea of creating perfect images in the digital world and then allowing happy accidents to happen with the process of image transfer.

 

 

I’m just plain happy when I’m creating something from my imagination, and then so content with life when I see my finished image. Life is always providing new adventures for me.

 

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