March Featured Artist: *kuschelirmel-stock

=Manip-Equips has become a big community for artist to share useful and quality resources. As every month, we bring you this month's featured artist, *kuschelirmel-stock.
*kuschelirmel-stock keeps a variety of resources from stock photos to brushes, tutorials, textured and CSS templates. Her work is inspiring and unique, and she was kind enough to share her knowledge and experience with us.




When did you decide to open a stock account and what motivated you to do so?
When I started out with photomanips, I didn't have a camera on my own so I needed to rely on others to provide that for me. I've always tried to give back to the community which had been so generous to me, so having a stock account was a logical step (once I'd bought a camera, that is). Here I can offer all sorts of resources, ranging from fractals to stock pictures and from brushes to CSS journal layouts without cluttering my art gallery at my main account. Also, to be honest, while I am generally a very helpful person, I do not appreciate it when people mistake my art for stock - separating the two is best to avoid any confusion.

What's most important to you when you create stock photos?
Tough question. There are cases when I shoot stock because I need that specific shot for myself (the books for example [link]). In that case I know where I want the light to come from or in which angle to shoot. But most of the times I just take my camera and shoot what cannot run away lol. Back at the computer, I sift through endless shots and choose the best to use and/or upload. Stock is a very personal thing for every manipulator I believe. Things I consider to be absolutely great sometimes don't get used at all (like that abstract texture - abstract002 [link]) and other things I put online more because I thought keeping them lying around would do no good anyway become frequently used. I think it's because each photomanipulator has his own way to do things, and his own way to make things work - leading them to use different things from myself.

Besides the stock, you have also created several tutorials. Let's not also forget the club you own that is entirely dedicated to tutorials =photoshop-tutorials.
Which of your tutorials are your favourite and which other tutorials you find useful?
One of my all-time faves is also one of my oldest tutorials: Layer Masks Explained. I like it because using layer masks is a rather simple thing but one that you have to be told or you most likely will not learn to use it. The tutorial shows the basics and gives some ideas of what can be done with them.

One of the more recent tutorials I like would be Mercury Walkthrough because it shows the way I work on a piece that still means very much to me.


Concerning other tutorials, I love to read whatever comes my way. Every tutorial on =photoshop-tutorials has been handpicked by me and I can recommend each one. But the one I simply adore is `alyn's Advanced Planet Creation. I remember stumbling over that when I joined dA and thinking "what a detailed tutorial, full of possibilities to expand on that knowledge". These are the best tutorials in my opinion: the ones that help you get started and leave you full of ideas.


Your stock account is in my opinion one of the most useful around dA, what does it feel like when someone uses your stock?
Exciting! I mean, I know in which way I would probably use the pictures, but other people have soooo many other ideas and it's absolutely fascinating to see them take shape. And when I go out with my camera and come home with dozens of pics, I know they won't be lying around gathering dust until one day the irmel might have an idea how to use them - that in itself is pretty gratifying, especially since I know how it feels to be dependent on other people and their will to share their pictures.

Your art at ^kuschelirmel is unbelievably impressive and inspired me personally, you often use your own and other people's stock, what are your favourite stock account to search for?
I do not have that "one fave stock account" because I like diversity. There are quite some stock accounts I watch, for example =lockstock, *LongStock, *PersephoneStock, ~AlicelefayStock, *alreadybroken-stock, ~Stock-of-Beauty, ~b-e-c-k-y-stock, ~chromostock, *lindowyn-stock, *nighty-stock, =resurgere and for brushes *1lovesdevine - this list is not complete
Some of these I watch for the people stock, some for the backgrounds and others for textures. Most of them have blank prints permissions (for dAprints) or at least a policy spelled out that I can go by. I avoid stock accounts that do not specify if they'll allow prints or that openly state they don't.

When you start working on a new piece, what is your work order?
That depends very much on my mood: sometimes I have an idea and set out to find matching stock, but more often than not, I see something in a gallery that grabs my attention and then I will use that. Photomanipulation is an artform that is naturally limited by what pictures you can find - I've had to change or adjust my ideas more than once just because I couldn't get the right stock. And sometimes, even though I have a particular picture in mind that I think I can use it turns out it looks rather bad... that's why my pieces sometimes take on a life of their own - it's like the picture is telling you what direction to take.

Can you give us some tips to work with stock photos?
hmmm... tips... let's see. For one, choose the stock carefully: a blurred/fragmented/grainy image or one that has been enlarged in Photoshop will never give you a clean result in the end (yes, you can still use it with tons of overpainting, but that's not really the point, is it?). Also, it has to be evenly lit or you're going to run into problems adjusting the light. With that we come to the most important part of using stock: if you want to have a girl infront of a background, let's say standing on a rock beside the sea. For this to work and look natural, you need to carefully look at the background and determine where the light is coming from. Then determine from which direction your figure is lit. They need to match up to make it work! Sometimes flipping either of the images helps, and sometimes you'll need to look for some other stock or do tons of adjustments. Another point of working with stock textures in particular is that sometimes less is more: try having several texture layers set to soft light and reduced opacity instead of one bold texture covering the whole image on full opacity and overlay.
I could go on, but I think we'll leave it at that, in my gallery there are some tutorials as well as on the =photoshop-tutorials account that should help you out if you want to know more

What are some advices you would have for stock creators when they submit stock to deviantArt?
Try not to be overly artistic when doing stock: keep the light even and try to shoot in front of a neutral background. If you're doing object stock, try to shoot different angles and perhaps different light sources (light from the front/from the side/from above). If you're shooting textures, get them straight from the front to minimize blur due to doff. Try to do something different once in a while. For models, that could mean a pose or a costume, but no matter what kind of stock you provide, you may find that it doesn't need to be costly: you don't need to pay tons for costumes, try arranging a bed sheet around you or if you are more the objects and textures type, try photographing ordinary thing close up or in a different angle. Especially for textures, you can experiment a great deal like that without having to go to great lengths. Just use your imagination because that is what the manipulators will do, too.

What is your personal opinion of the stock accounts provided in dA?
There are some great ones on here for sure! The only problem I sometimes have is in determining if I can use it for prints or not. Something that doesn't concern me personally, but which I have witnessed before, is that I have seen many stockers be insulted by the fact that someone merely dropped a texture on their picture or something equally "unworthy" and had the audacity of submitting it... While I can see why it might be frustrating for a stock artist and knowing that some things just can not be called a manip any longer (like just adjusting the hues or something like that), I feel that we should never forget that everyone has to start somewhere! A few years back, I was doing the very same thing - I needed the practice and I needed people to tell me what I could do better in terms of technique before I could move on to "greater concepts". I would never blame anyone for refusing print approval for such things, but to demand it be taken down or moved to scraps is a bit arrogant I think. After all, we're a community here and people actually join this site for exactly that reason.

Thanks for sharing all of this with us. Is there anything you would like to add before we conclude this?
I hope you found this information at least a little useful - I fear I may have needed a few words too many. In any case, if you have any more questions or need help with anything manip-related, feel free to ask me. It might take me a while to respond, but I promise I will try

Interview taken by: =zuzu123
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