Concepting a Horror Illustration in Photoshop

In this course, we’ll explore what is truly frightening and how to evoke fear for creative brainstorming. Drawing inspiration from other horror artists and disturbing imagery, we’ll craft a story to guide our design process. Using Photoshop, we’ll begin by painting a completely black silhouette using abstract shapes. Then, employing the lighten blending mode with a single color, we’ll reveal the anatomy of our figure from the darkness of the silhouette. Once the figure is refined, we’ll use it as a reference for our main design—a paintover for our final image.

Throughout the course, we will delve into the essence of fear and explore techniques for crafting a compelling narrative before diving into the design process. Using a black silhouette as our foundation in Photoshop, we’ll experiment with different blending modes (like lighten, darken, and color dodge) to create our digital sketch. By the end, we’ll have developed a cinematic and unsettling figure that could serve as inspiration for films and games.