Artistic Process — Craig Morris

The Work

This is one of my photocollages. Multiple source images have been combined in Adobe Photoshop, with effects applied — including resizing, shading, recoloring, and others — to achieve a cohesive look.

Below you can step through two stages of another piece, to see how the composition shifts as elements are added and refined.

Here you can see each photo source outlined in white, with all effects removed.

Final — Final version with all effects and shading applied.

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The Process

Below, you can step through a few early versions of one of my later works, to see how the compositions evolve and come together over time. Each frame represents a meaningful stage — a new element added, a lighting pass, a detail refined.

Final Version: The completed piece, with all elements, lighting, and narrative in place.

Stage 1: Early composition — establishing the main house, path, and basic atmospheric lighting.

Stage 2: Adding supporting structures and beginning to define the surrounding environment.

Stage 3: Refining background elements and introducing the first passes of fog and mist.

Stage 4: Developing the foreground — fence, path texture, and additional detail layers.

Stage 5: Atmospheric refinement — deepening the sky, adjusting color temperature throughout.

Stage 6: Adding narrative elements: the glowing doorway, subtle figure, and fine detail.

Stage 7: Near-final pass — integrating all elements and tightening the composition.

Final Version — The completed piece, with all elements, lighting, and narrative in place.

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These close-ups show how individual areas of the final piece hold up at full resolution — a benefit of working at very large canvas sizes in Photoshop.