PERSON
Bert Monroy
Bert Monroy
- Bert Monroy is an internationally acclaimed digital artist, illustrator, author, and teacher. Widely considered one of the "founding fathers" of digital painting, his mastery of Photoshop and Illustrator has earned him a legendary spot in the Photoshop Hall of Fame.
Career & Digital Painting Pioneer
- Bert has been using Adobe Photoshop since version 1.0, acting as an early tester and evangelist for the software. He co-authored the very first book on using Photoshop for production (Photoshop Channel Chops).
- He is world-famous for his mind-bogglingly complex, photorealistic digital paintings of urban landscapes, trains, and storefronts. Rather than using photos, Bert paints every single pixel, texture, and light reflection from scratch using standard tools in Photoshop and Illustrator.
- His masterpieces (such as his 11-month painting of Chicago's Damen Station, or his epic 150,000-layer painting of Times Square) require thousands of Photoshop layers, hundreds of gigabytes of RAM, and months of painstaking work.
Connection to Me and Geek Cruises
- Bert was a highly esteemed and beloved star instructor on the digital graphics tracks of Geek Cruises (such as the Photoshop Fling series).
- I took multiple classes from Bert on trips like Photoshop Fling 3 Cruise (February 2005), learning his secret, pixel-by-pixel techniques for lighting, texture, glass reflection, and geometric perspective. Sitting in his classes and chatting with him about his massive multi-gigabyte files was an unforgettable experience that deeply shaped my appreciation for what is humanly possible in digital art.
What links here
These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.