Steamtown
A new section of the Six Flags America park in Bowie, MD
Freelancing with Schiele Group
One day in May 2024, my friend Ruby reached out with some great news. Schiele Group, her place of work, was looking for a freelancer to help with some work that was coming in hot. Ecstatic to finally have work, I said yes! Later that day, we hopped on a call and discussed what was needed.
Brainstorming
I started by sketching out ideas to get a general sense of what the stakeholders wanted. I knew they wanted walls that looked like the inside of a mad steampunk scientist’s lab, so I used lots of gears in my designs.
Once the stakeholders liked my direction, I started fleshing out the scene in Blender. I knew working in Blender was risky, but I figured it would be the most accurate way of portraying the perspective I wanted.
Workshop 1 before painting
Workshop 2 before painting
Large Format
These images were going to be pasted onto garage doors, so their dimensions were the HUGE! I had never worked in such large Photoshop files before, so I had a lot to overcome when it came to optimizing my computer’s performance.
When it came to exporting these big fellas, I moved them from Photoshop to Illustrator as a flattened image. Exporting them out of Illustrator took a lot less time.
Final Thoughts
Now that I have seen the printed versions through videos and photos, I can see some areas of improvement for next time. CMYK is a much more limited color space, which I need to remember when creating dramatically-lit scenes.
I am so grateful to Ruby, Preston, and Patrick at Schiele Group for this amazing learning experience! I can now say that my artwork is in Maryland, even if I have never been.