Clemenceau is the September 2022 Artist of the Month. She is a talented Poser artist. Her use of bold colors, striking poses and powerful female characters is inspiring. Clemenceau spoke to us about her background as a digital artist, her creative techniques, and advice for aspiring Poser artists.

The video gallery features 10 works chosen by Clemenceau from her large and fascinating gallery. We thank her for taking the time to talk with us and share a bit about her creative process.

Interview with Clemenceau

Renderosity: What got you into creating digital art?

Clemenceau: I originally became fascinated with 3D art as an avid adventure gamer, and I found Mike Bonnell’s website many years ago, which featured static, ethereal screensaver art. This got me interested initially in Bryce, which I still use today, and eventually Poser.

Are you self-taught or have you had formal instruction in using Poser and/or other tools?

Clemenceau: I’m self-taught, but with the benefit of reading a lot of comments in forums and watching videos on how to accomplish specific tasks. I did go to school for the Adobe Creative Suite, which I use at work daily, and Photoshop and Lightroom are useful tools for post-processing.

What is it about Poser that enables you to create such amazing images?

Clemenceau: I find most aspects of Poser fairly intuitive, so I was able to learn it on my own. It’s the variety and quality of products created by content creators that is most inspiring and I hope I can represent their creations effectively.

Any advice for first-time Poser users?

Clemenceau: I often get “over-stimulated” with ideas for projects, so I have to keep a digital notepad of everything running through my mind, to be used at a later date. I love seeing other creators’ artworks that are obviously inspired or drawn from media, literary characters, and mythology since I think these themes lend themselves so very well to using the many characters, accessories, and props available (wings, horns, weapons, bows, mermaid tails, etc.). I think it’s easier to be creative when you have all these accessories for your characters…

Any final thoughts?

Clemenceau: If you’re like me and don’t have the latest or most powerful computer, you can still get a good result by creating art in layers and assembling the components in Photoshop or a similar program. I also have lots of challenges with lighting and it’s one of my weaknesses. I often find the ideal lighting for the background of a scene, but it sometimes falls short for foreground subjects.

As I’m still trying to improve my workflow for creating lighting, I find that using curves adjustment layers in Photoshop helps save an image. If you use Photoshop, experiment with adjustment layer masks, to compensate for lighting that might not have turned out exactly the way you had hoped. I don’t have a goal when I open up curves, but I literally just play around with highlights and shadows until I feel like I have the result I want.

While I like using depth-of-field sometimes in Poser, I also use gaussian blur on a separate layer, to add depth-of-field in post-processing, because it can take several test renders in Poser to get depth-of-field the way you want it. I then mask off or erase the area of the 2nd layer where the focal point is. Experiment with blending modes when using layers.

I also like to use vignetting for images instead of cropping, or where I want the image to look a bit more mysterious.

Using a bit of dodge and burn in PS to add highlights and lowlights to specific areas, like noses or knuckles, creates more depth. And since I’m sometimes working in layers in post, I add “drop shadows” or high/low lights behind a character to help them pop out from the background a bit.

Clemenceau's Gallery