Photo retouching requires a high level of visualisation, observation and imagination.
It requires good knowledge of lighting, reflections, colour management and particularly how things look through the lens. When asked to create transformations and blend images to in print, television frames and animation effects knowing Adobe Photoshop inside out is a good start but being a natural illustrator is an advantage too.
As an illustrator in advertising Myke has not just been drawing images and cartoons, storyboards and visuals. He has also had to adopt many styles and has had the opportunity to create and perfect many things through photo retouching. This has influenced his children’s book illustrations and Myke uses Adobe Photoshop to polish and enhance his illustrations.
Following is a few samples of Myke’s Photo Retouching:
This goes back a fair way, 2000, but I had the opportunity to create an action theme for The AFL Store catalogue, which was like a fusion between comic book and real life photos retouched and set in motion blurs and stylised backgrounds that highlighted the AFL brand. Nothing at the time looked like this or had such dynamic vision.
Lorraine Lea linen had many concepts around linen. This one above was a 4pp flyer with some really exclusive deals on Lorraine Lea linen bath towels. Myke had a photograph done retouched the label and created his own linen stitch font that married in with corporate fonts used by Lorraine Lea Linen. the idea was simple and neat.
This Lorraine Lea Linen concept above was about 20% OFF. The idea of capturing the sheets “OFF” the bed, in a way, illustrating 20% OFF everything. Firstly, to get the sheet to do what we wanted in camera needed some retouching magic. Secondly, another issue came up when the model we originally used had to be replaced at the last minute.
Putting the Cricketer’s Arms Hotel inside a ornamental snow bubble that you shake to illustrate not just the coolest place to have a beer, because of the chilled atmosphere, but “the beer must be the coldest” because this Hotel is so cool.
This retouching job required taking some classic photos and creating some action as well as some style that would suit the wine label and the racebook imagery for AAMI Derby.
OMC International required a colour montage/collage of shipping images with a tritone based around their corporate colours.
Being the senior in-house designer at Lorraine Lea Linen for four years gave me the opportunity to do many retouching jobs and illustrate many concepts that highlighted the brand and linen in general. This festive card was a stylish example.
OMC International in 2011 decided to illustrate their core benefit in all their look going forward. The fact that they engineer safer ports by measuring and giving captians clear understanding of their underkeel clearance and giving Myke an opportunity to retouch a new graphic look. 
Personal “Genie in a bottle” concept, logo design for Genie Jar and Genie Productions Myke’s company before Wildfire Productions.