The results of all my hard work lately

The past few weeks have been very busy for me around here. In addition to my new fall classes, I had a large exhibit graphic to paint and prepare for printing in a very short amount of time. The tight deadline was mainly because the client delayed giving approval and sending final details until very late. The graphic backdrop had to be done and ready for an exhibit in a tradeshow, so that was a firm date.

But the real problem was the size of the file. The final image was to be over 19 feet long. Even reducing the resolution (which is common in large images), the initial file was over 4 Gb, and I hadn't done much painting yet. So I decided to split it in half. Even with that, each half was so large that I had a hard time working on them, due to the way they slowed down my computer. All in all, the final composite, layered image would probably be about 5 Gb. Photoshop won't save a PSD over 2 Gb; for that you have to use a PSB, the large document format.

In spite of last-minute size changes and additions to the image, I finished it on time (3:00 a.m. on the morning it was due). I had been working days, nights, weekends, and every spare moment to get this darn thing done. The final image was output as eight different panels and assembled on a curved backframe. Here is a picture of it. I was quite pleased with how it came out. Mostly, I'm pleased that this whole ordeal is over.