Hello and welcome to my website.  My name is Cherie Gerhardt.  I have been creating artwork all my life in one way or another.  I grew up in the U.S. in Wisconsin on a family farm.  During my childhood I mostly drew animals, especially horses.  Animals were my muse.  We had many creatures that were part of our family including sheep, rabbits, cats, dogs and three horses.  One of my fondest memories as a child is when I would sit in the hayloft and draw my horse Missy.

Out of high school I got into tattooing.  I tattooed for over four years, creating a great deal of custom work.  I am an adventurer at heart so it did not surprise me to find myself in college.
I received a degree in Graphic Design and found myself working for a wonderful local print shop. During college and my days at the print shop, that is where Mystic Moon Media was born.  I started by creating my tradition art of ink, watercolor and acrylic… but my love for the computer drove me to what I mostly do today, Digital Artistry.

I have a Mac (of course).  My favorite program and the one I use the most is Adobe Photoshop.  This is a great artist tool and mixed with a Wacom Tablet, you can create just about anything.  The other programs that I also use are Adobe Illustrator, PGE, Adobe Golive and iphoto.  I take photos of just about everything in nature (trees, plants, water, rocks, etc.) and I use these in my creations.

Some of today’s artists that inspire me with there unique and creative works are:
• Rachel Anderson • Amy Brown
• Jessica Galbreth • Selina Fenech • Linda Ravenscroft
Please check out there websites, they will inspire you as well.

I hope that you enjoy my artwork as much I as I did while I created it. 
Thank you and Blessed Be .

How I created
“Maiden of the Sea”

 

Step 1:

Before I start on the computer I create sketches to determine the layout of my art peice.  After having a slight idea of what I am looking for I begin on the computer. Using my tablet I create a crude sketch.  This sketch is used through my artwork on a separate layer.  I turn it on and off as needed.
Step 2:

I place my background layer underneath the sketch.  This layer I created is the base for all my artwork. It took several hours to create.  I created this with many layers of air brushing while using tools like the burn tool and the smudge tool.  I also took advantage of the artistic filters.

Step 3:

On another layer I start blocking in color and adding minor and crude highlights for definition.  I always leave my sketch layer on top and use a different layer for each color.  Remember to use your layers.  Layers make your artwork easy to change or to fix a certain mistake.

Step 4:

Then start with the background.  I added highlights, shadows and detail.  Every detail is on its own layer.  I created all the details with different size and shapes of brushes.  I just layer them until I am happy enough to start on the main subject.

Step 5:

Here I add the finer detail.  Every portion of her body with every color has its own layer.  Sometimes I will compress a small group of layers to manage the artwork.  I also place everything in folders.

Step 6:

After the finer detail I take a large airbrush and highlight areas with a deep sepia color.  Then in the layers palette I set the setting to overlay, multiply or color burn.  This richens the colors and gives them more depth.  Then I apply more artistic filters to the whole artwork.  Multiple layers and folders later you have a finished piece of art.  Each creation takes 6-16 hours and 150-300 layers.


Some Tips That I Find Useful:

1. Create your art in a large format.  My files are 16x20 inches and I use 300 dpi.  You can always shrink your art but you cannot make it larger.

2. Don’t do more then you have to.  Draw a small section of hair on a layer, copy that layer multiple times and combine them to make the whole head of hair.  This works well with trees, leaves, scales etc.

3. Apply filters.  If an edge does not blend well… try a filter. Some filters can soften edges and blend them easier.  They can also make your artwork appear to be more traditional or give a unique visual texture.

4. Name your layers.  Yes it takes a little bit of time, but opening and closing each layer to find the one you need, will take longer.