Technique: Photobashing

Photobashing is a term which describes the art of fast and effective illustration—blending (compositing) photos with clip art, 3D assets, paint effects, backgrounds, textures, and more. Typically photobashing is a sophisticated form of scrapbooking - although most scrapbooks look like a bundle of often unrelated images, while photobashing tends to look more like a professionally made artwork. It's commonly used to prepare concept art for a client prior to commissioning a job, or to follow how a project is developing. Photobashing is used extensively within the game development market where the 'look' and feel of a scene, for example, needs to be extremely accurate before it can be translated into a 3D environment. But don't let that put you off - I have been using photobashing techniques for years - beginning with digital scrapbooks, but I then moved up a gear once my editing techniques improved and I had the confidence to tackle...