Cinematic Matte Painting

So one thing I have been super interested in this past year are matte paintings. For those of you who don't know what a matte painting is, a matte painting is a painted representation of a landscape, set, or distinct location that allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that would otherwise be too expensive or otherwise impossible to film or visit (thank you Wikipedia!). Basically what a matte painter will do is combine paintings with photographic elements (and sometimes 3D elements) to make a scene. You'd be surprised at how many of your favorite movie or TV shows contain matte paintings. Fun Fact: Before computers, matte paintings were exactly what they sound  like, photorealistic paintings.

Ok enough with the history lesson! Like I said I found the subject of matte paintings to be super interesting, so I decided to try my hand at it! One of my guilty pleasures are doomsday films, and what would a doomsday film be without a post apocalyptic shot of our nations capital! Heres a shot of the US Capitol building I found online.

Now heres that same image, but manipulated to look like it went through hell and back!

TAH DAH! One post apocalyptic DC shot at your service! This piece took around two hours to complete from start to finish. It was made up of a combination of photo manipulation and painted elements. In the end I used around 27 different layers to create this I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, considering it was a first attempt. If you have an idea for any matte paintings, feel free to leave a comment down below!

If you're interested in learning more about matte paintings, check out this awesome documentary on the subject.  All the matte paintings you'll see in this are traditionally done, nothing digital about any of them! And if you want to see some examples of modern matte paintings, check out this video!

As always thanks for checking out my work!

Enjoy!

~Josh