“Moonlit Demise” was created by Robert Suddarth, of Lubbock, Texas. The ship used in the image was a model built from scratch by Robert’s mentor from art school, Frank Cheatham, who passed away about 16 years ago. Over the years, the ship took on a character of its own with age and parts of the masts breaking. “I’ve studied the ship through the years, knowing I wanted to create an image that would make him proud,” he explains.
In creating the image, Robert set it up on a simple table and draped an Old Masters backdrop behind the ship to give the look of a night sky. A Flood software filter positioned at the bottom of the image provided the water and was manipulated to match the rest of the scene. The moon was a stock image and, for a final touch, Robert selectively added fog with several different fog brushes in Photoshop.
The image won a trophy at Summerfest ‘18 Image Competition for Best Illustrative by a Master as well as a Distinguished Image Ribbon in the Illustrative Open for a Scenic.
