The artist’s work I have chosen to discuss today is Jeff Kepler. Kepler, from Portland, Oregon, uses his skills in photography, photoshop, and digital compositing to create extremely real visuals with attention to the smallest of details. Kepler’s compositing work seems to feature imaginative, and surreal themes that evoke a strong sense of nostalgia and wonder. In “Never Leave Andy's Room”, he recreates a familiar childhood scene with an unexpected twist, while properly blending realistic textures and lighting with digitally animated characters. Similarly, in “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Pool Day,” he merges familiar elements from pop culture with a unique, dream-like quality, combining intricate details with moody atmospheres. His use of lighting, shadows, and scale emphasize the exact tone needed for these compositions to stand out.
Kepler’s work is notable for its ability to straddle realism and surrealism. By carefully combining photographic textures with digital illustrations, he grounds these fantasy scenes in reality, making them believable while also knowingly composited. In Pool Day, for instance, he uses reflections, depth of field, and vibrance to create a scene that feels vivid and almost tangible, as though a dream has been pulled into reality. These techniques make his scenes immersive and allow viewers to feel as though they’re stepping into the characters' worlds.
For my own project, I will draw inspiration from Kepler's techniques by carefully integrating real-world textures and lighting effects to create depth and a sense of trueness in my composition. I will use lighting to set a particular mood, emphasize contrast to highlight focal points, and try to apply texture overlays to blend the surreal with the realistic. I also appreciate his use of popular, animated characters and taking them out of their original setting.
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