INTRODUCTION

BIONIC (A registered Trade Mark) was a mock-up of a technology/lifestyle magazine which never made it to the shelves.

I had a week to work on it but it only took me 2 days. I was up all night on both days. I was obsessed with this image. I remember laughing out aloud a few times as all the elements came together so well.

My brief was an "object of desire" for the cover. In the end, do yo want to kiss her or run away from her?! In any case I knew she would stop people in their tracks at the news stand.

I just got back from Hong Kong at the time and I bought a lot of robot toys whilst I was over there. I scanned in a gundam robot (One of Gundam's foes) as a starting point. I also scanned in an image of Mega City One fro mthe udge Dredd movie. i've always been a Judge Dredd/200ad fan but that movie was just pathetic. Still, the Mega City was done well and it had the future/city lights look I was looking for. I then needed a model, something high fashion. I have a billion fashion magazines lying around the studio and I found her, she's androgenous, unposed and perfect for what I had in mind

Layer 0

I mixed up the robot scan with the city scan using "Overlay" and "Lighten" layer options. I then pasted the scan of the girl on top and set the layer option to "Hard Light" which brings you to what you see here. One scary image!

Layer 1

To add more colour and tone to the current composition I duplicated the layer of the girl, colourised it to a bright yellow in Hue/Saturation and set the layer on "Hard Light".

Layer 2

I duplicated the saturated layer of the girl again, this time I cut around her using a layer mask and brush (my favorite way of deep etching) and then used the "Difference" layer option to get the background to flip to white and the whole image a lot lighter and the detail coming through her skin like tattoos.

Layer 3

I brought the city scan in again, did a hue/saturation to it to make it flouro green, then set the layer option to 'Lighten" to make the city lights show through her body.

Layer 4

I cut out bits of her arms to make her look more bionic.

Layer 5

I brought in more of the robot scans and played with her right side, adding the robotic arm elements and darker tones to give her more shape, body and weight and basically not look so flat.

Finished image

I had to create a mock logotype. The typeface is one of Buro Destructs. I flipped an "i" to make the typeface more dynamic and the logotype a lot stronger. I also added more texture behind her to add more depth to the image.

Justin Fox - www.australianinfront.com.au