HIS MOODY PHOTO-ILLUSTRATIONS ARE SEAMLESSLY BLENDED
Jonathan Barkat expected to have to struggle while he established a career as a professional illustrator - building up a client base and so on. Sure enough, it was hard getting started, but he's glad he did it; he'd always known that illustration was what he wanted to do. He says that as a kid, he was constantly drawing, painting, and making things with his hands. Illustration attracted him because he likes "working through an idea for a purpose."

During his junior year at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Barkat started working with photographs, painting them with acrylics and later with transparent oils; for compositing, he used enlargers. After he graduated about twelve and a half years ago, he continued to use these manual techniques until he realized that he could get "more flexibility, richer colors, and better light control" on a computer. He now scans his transparencies and brings them into Photoshop, where he does most of his work. To ensure that the images look seamless, he pays close attention to blending edges, matching colors, and adjusting shadows and contrast to make the objects appear to have been photographed in the same light.

	I have a thing for trees. I could put them in every illustration. - Jonathan Barkat

When Barkat plans his illustrations, he tries to stay focused on a particular emotion and ensure that the images convey it powerfully. He describes his work as "moody," and says that he tries to keep it "very simple and symbolic."

Barkat grew up in Cape May, New Jersey, a seaside town where he first learned to take inspiration from natural forms. "I have a thing for trees," he laughs. "I could put them in every illustration." He lives in a far more urban setting now - Hoboken, New Jersey, just outside of New York City - but makes it to the country as often as he can to go mountain biking and to unwind.

This story originally appreared in Adobe Magazine.