I just completed my latest matte painting Colga. It's based on some photos I took when I was trekking in Colga canyon in Peru last year. It's the world's second deepest canyon (more than a 1000 meters deep!) and provided some great reference photos.

I really like the matte paintings where the architecture is totally integrated in the landscape, so I wanted to give it a shot myself.

I'll be uploading a short movie, showing the different steps of the painting. I'll have it ready soon. In the meantime I hope you like Colga.

I just wanted to let you all know I'm working a new piece. It should be online within the next couple of days.

I've gone ahead and uploaded 2 new songs. You can check them out in the downloads section. I would love to hear what you think so please write me if you have any comments.

Ha! Just 1 new update in a whole year?! That is both ridiculous and embarrasing and has no real good explanation. However I will try...

To give you an update, Sep. 15 last year, Maria and I went to South America and there we spent four amazing months. We traveled from the southern most tip of Argentina, north to Bolivia, through Peru to Equador, celebrated my 20th birthday on Galapagos(!), spent christmas in Mexico City and new year's eve in the Carribean. And had a trillion amazing experiences on the way of course. It's definately something I have to do again!

Coming home, I got a job at a kindergarten where I've spent the last six months drawing aliens and tractors. Not bad.

So here I am, back again. And to make it all up to you, I've redone the whole gallery section! I've divided the images into new categories. The old ones seemed a bit unpractical and silly.

Also, I've added a couple of new pictures. First of all, there's a small pencil drawing.

Then, there's a big new piece, a new matte. It's called Curiosum and it took me forever to get finished. A few details bugged me and I ended up putting it on the shelf where it was for far to long. Finally, I sat down and finished it and I'm finally proud to present it to you. I hope you enjoy it. :)

Finally, I'm already working a new update on the site. First of all, I'm going to upload some photos from my South America travels to the photography section - Second, I've made some new music which will be availible for download as soon as I'm done mixing it - And last, I'm already working on a new matte, which should be finished sometime within... well, within a year :)

See you around,
Cheers

Mayana has been selected for inclusion in the esteemed 3dtotal gallery!
What a great way to leave vue and matte painting - 'cause now, there's only two days left to go 'till Maria and I are of to South America(!)...

Therefore, this will probably be the last update this year, so...
So long - have merry christmas and happy new year.

Og til familie og venner: Vi har oprettet en blog på adressen sydamerika.thomaskrahn.com som I skal være mere end velkomne til at se lidt på. Vi skal nok sørge for at få lagt en beretning og et billede eller to ind en gang i mellem :)

I've updated the about me section.

I've finally completed Mayana. Or for now, at least I think I have...

It took a long time to get right but I like it where it's at now. I've completed the foreground and done a lot of tweaking to the overall image. I hope you like it.

I've uploaded an example of some the commisioned work I've done.

This particarly image was designed for as 2 x 1 m. large backdrop, for a partyband named Jukebox Junkies. They wanted it simple, colourful and with a strong disco and dancing feel. I had a very short deadline, and this what I ended up with after a long night of work. And I'm proud to say, they liked it a lot :)

Also I should mention that I'm still working on Mayana and I should have a major update ready very soon.

Major update on Mayana!

Because of some very positive feedback from family and friends, plus the fact that I was quite fond of the tropical sketch (since named Mayana) I decided to complete it as a full-on mattepainting.

It's not finished yet though. However, I've been promising you guys a "the making of a mattepainting" for quite a while now but, lazy as I am, I never got to it. So I thought now would be a good time to show you what I do, while I'm actually working on the painting. Please note that a lot of what I do is self-taught and probably isn't the best way to do it. So it wont be a tutorial, just a walkthrough and a description of the various steps in the proces.

Anyway, feel free to check it out. I'll go work some more... It's good to be painting again! :)

It's been excactly half a year now, since I last uploaded anything to my site. That's a loong time and a lot has changed in those six months.

I finished High School and in September, I'm going on a 4 month trek through South America with my girlfriend. That'll probably mark the beginning of another long period without updates.

Anyway, I've uploaded a new quick sketch. It's not that special, but just to prove I'm not dead or anything but still painting away here in Denmark. Depending on what you think about it, I may realize it as a full matte painting.

Although it's not shown here on the website, I've also been doing a couple of posters for an organization here in Denmark and even a huge backdrop-banner for a band! I'm considering uploading them later on.

'Till then, Shalom!

I've been working on a new matte painting for a couple of weeks now.
I wanted to create something that looks like it could have been taken straight from a classic fairytale, yet still be somewhat realistic.

I hope you like it.

The results for the contest came in a week ago, while I was away on a vacation. I won! :) There were a lot of great entries so I couldn't be any prouder. Thanks to all who voted for me.

You can check out the other entries here.

After Atlantis and Paraíso, I felt I wanted to try something else than a full-on mattepainting. Yesterday, I stumbled upon a painting challenge where you are to paint a snowy landscape so I thought I'd give it a go.

After a couple of hours painting and looking into the deepest depths of my memory to remember something from my last skiingtrips to Austria and Switzerland, this is what I came up with. I hope you like it :)

Now let's see how this challenge goes... fingers crossed!

Ohh.. and thanks to all who wrote me about my music.
I really appreciate it!

How truly embarrasing! No updates for such a long time, nor the "Making of..." that I promised. I'm very sorry. For now, I guess I'll have to stop making any promises about future updates. It depends too much on how much time I have for making updates and new images.

Anyway, I'm back with a new mattepainting. I participated in a contest where you were to make a painting of Atlantis. I wasn't among the winners, but making the painting was a fun challenge. I hope you like it.

I've also added three new songs to the downloads section! I recorded them last easter. Once again, this was a soloproject. I play all the instruments myself, do all the singing, mixing, etc. If you check them out, I'd love to hear what you think about them.

Some complications prevented me from uploading the other image in time, and I'm quite glad it did. As I wrote it really was something very different, and it truly didn't fit in with the rest of the images.

Instead I began on a new mattepainting so I wouldn't forget everything I learned. It took a lot of time to complete but finally, here it is.

To make things a bit more interesting around here for you visitors I'm planning to do a "Making of Paraíso". Easter holidays are right around the corner so I should have plenty of time to make it.

I hope you like it.

I'm working on something new and completely different from anything I've ever done. It's going to be weird...

I hope to have it finished sometime this week.

On other news, I'm going to Slovenia next friday and will be away for the next week. I hope to collect some new photomaterial there that I can incorporate in future mattepaintings.

It's been an embarrassingly long time since I've last updated this site. Sorry! I promise it won't happen again and I'll update every once in a while, even though I don't have a new image.

Well, I'm back and with a new image even. My High School has been making a musical entitled "The Show Must Go On", based upon the movie Moulin Rouge by Baz Luhrman. Last perfomance was last Saturday.
I myself was playing the part of a stuttering dadaist and had 3 songs.

It was a great experience and even greater success.

I was also hired to do the poster. I was told to incorporate the Moulin Rouge in some way, but otherwise I had free hands.

I hope you like it and that you'll continue to stay around, although I've been absent for some time.

I've been experimenting a bit lately with drawing something from plate.

My father took a very cool photo on our recent vacation together, and I wanted to try and extend the shot and make it into something more fantasy-like. It's just a quick sketch, done in a couple of hours but I thought it was worth sharing.

I hope you like it!

I'm continueing on improving my drawing skills in Photoshop. Haiku took a bit longer to create than Cathedral, mostly because of all the vegetation, but it was a lot of fun to make.

I hope you like it!

Also I've done what I said I'd do in my last post. I've taken down many of the old images on my site. If you'd like to see them again some time, you can still view them all in my gallery at Renderosity.

I'm back with a new image and this time it's something quite different. Not Vue, not matte painting but a drawing I did in Photoshop.

Cathedral is quick study in composition and establishing a colour pallette from scratch. I hope you like it.

More importantly I'm planning a major revision of the site. Some of the images in here are starting to look old and I don't think their quality is good enough for my site anymore. Many of the old ones will therefore be taken down.

I don't know when I'll find the time to do it, but hopefully it'll be done by the end of the month. Stay tuned...

Satori was inspired by my recent journey to Switzerland. In the alps, soaring high above the valleys, lay some beautiful sci-fi restaurants. I tried to take that concept a bit further.

I've uploaded a new image to the Moody-gallery. Suprise, it's a matte painting! It's mainly created to try out some different techniques. I started by drawing a sketch in Photoshop, and tried to follow it as a closely as possible when making the final painting. I've also uploaded the inital sketch if you're interested.

The whole painting was completed in about 12 hours.

I hope you like it :)

As I mentioned in my previous post, three of my images have been selected for inclusion the "d'Artist: Matte Painting". It was one of those images, Mogura 2005, I talked about in my posts from April 9 and May 19. I didn't want to upload it, in case it wasn't chosen for the book.

But finally, here it is! This is the third time I update Mogura. It has been one of my most popular images, so I've been careful not to ruin the original feel. Mogura 2003 can still be seen on my website.

It's been a long time. The summer holidays arrived here in Denmark a few weeks ago, and man have I been busy! I spent the first week touring Germany and Switzerland with the Hovedgaard School Orchestra.

Coming home I had only a few days to relax before travelling to Corsica with my family for two weeks. Corsica has to be the most beautiful island imaginable and I have inspiration for years after my vacation there! I'll come back for sure...

I now work as a lifeguard at the local pool. I'm sorry for all those unanswered mails and waiting for replies.

In the middle of all this, my art career has been moving forward with an incredible pace. It seems that after my inclusion in Exposé 3, things have started to snowball.

Three images (Mogura 2005, Mantra and Quebec) have been selected for inclusion in the critically acclaimed art book "d'Artist: Matte Painting". I was invited to submit a few images by one of the authors, the master artist Chris Stoski, who really helped me and gave me some valuable critique on some of my images. If you're interested in matte painting yourself, I highly recommend you to have a look at this book! Check it out here!

No wonder, my passion for matte paintings has grown quite a bit, and I spent hours taking reference photos on Corsica for my future projects. Sarténe is a result of several hours in Photoshop merging, drawing, etc. with those pictures. It can be found in the Moody-gallery. I hope you like it.

Last thing to mention, the amount of visitors to my site has skyrocketed within the past two or three months. I'm very interested in knowing how you find my site and if you'll take the time to write me, I would love to hear from you!

I'll be back soon with some updates and perhaps even a new image, so stay tuned ;)

I really enjoyed creating Lost and almost immediatly after completing it I wanted to make another picture. WWII In Imaginary Italy can be found the the Miscellaneous-gallery.

It's created using the same techniques as Lost although it was a lot more complicated to create. This time I also had to worry about things such as shadows, light and perspective.

It's a very fun process that includes both CG, photographic elements and loads of drawing in Photoshop.

It's not my usual Vue stuff, but I hope you like it just the same.

I've finally made a new picture. It's the not the picture I mentioned in my previous post, but a brand new one.

Yep, a couple of days has turned into more than a month. I've been hesitant about uploading it for a number of reasons, and I'm going to keep it back for the next couple of weeks too. Something needs to be certain before I reveal it.

The new image Lost is something completely different for me. Unlike any CG image I've made before, this one doesn't contain a single bit of Vue d'Esprit but is made entirely using Photoshop. I've done it by editing various photos and merging them together. And believe me... it's not as easy as it sounds.

Probably the biggest thing to take place in my very short art career has just happened. My image Mantra has been chosen for inclusion in the critically acclaimed CG art book Expose 3. I can hardly believe it!

Learn more about Expose 3 here

I thought I'd let you all know what's happening around here. I'm still busy with High School and this week I'll start working on a major project.

Concerning images... I am working on something new and I expect it to be up in the next couple of days.

And now for something completely different... I used pretty much my entire spring break in a little recording studio I've put together at home with the help of my family and some friends. I've recorded a few songs I've written and made a little CD.

The songs are written by me and I've sung and played all the instruments myself (bass, guitar, snaredrum, trombone, backing). I hope you like them!

For A While.mp3 - 4,4 MB
Prepare For Fall.mp3 - 5.9 MB

If you have any comments or critisicm, I would love to hear it!

Once again I haven't updated my site for nearly two months. I can hardly believe it!

Well, I have been doing something. These last few weeks, I've been rendering huge versions of some of my images. So far I've finished Mantra, Quebec and Araguaia.

And I've had my very first poster printed! Mantra in 75cm x 50cm. Now that's a large print. Take a look!

I hope to start making new images again soon. Untill then, please have patience. Thank you.

A few more updates today.

I've moved many of the old updates into a seperate site. You can find a link at the bottom of this page.

A bigger update is that I've uploaded some of my drawings and paintings. You can find them in the Miscellaneous Gallery.

I hope you like them! I would love to hear any comments you might have.