"It's so frustrating to have a great idea, and be able to picture it so clearly in your mind, only to have it appear differently to what you expected or wanted when you tried to replicate it," said Mr Valric. "I was constantly coming up with some fantastic ideas, I just didn't have the tools or the drafting skills to put them down on paper."

In addition, the very nature of the images Mr Valric conceives meant that until he discovered the benefits of working Adobe® Photoshop®, it was not just his drafting skills which posed a serious challenge.

"My paintings have a great deal of geometric influence through shapes and patterns," he explained. "Painting these concepts using traditional sketches would have taken me weeks or even months of hard painstaking work and would not realistically have enabled me to run a profitable business in producing them.

"The advent and evolution of digital imaging and powerful photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop has made a huge difference. I am now able to produce artwork which exceeds even my own expectations -in a fraction of the time."

Mr Valric now operates The Art of Zen, a design company specialising in the provision of creative artwork. However, Mr Valric is the first to admit that this would not have been possible without the ability to express his ideas through creative applications of Photoshop.

"After living in Malaysia for a few years, I came back with all these beautiful pictures and pieces of work in my mind," he said. "All I wanted to do was draw them on paper, but it never came out exactly how I imagined and hoped."

"However, since Photoshop was launched in 1989, I have become a loyal user. I was first introduced to the program in my role as publisher of a major graphic design magazine. Upon reviewing the product I immediately saw the potential and fell in love with it then and there - and I still can't work without it!"

Photography and drawing collide
With Photoshop's assistance, Mr Valric can now unleash his creativity, allowing him to put down his ideas precisely and accurately. He can also integrate his passion for drawing with his new hobby, photography.

"While I am far from being the world's best photographer, I really enjoy it, and am saved by my ability to draw," he said. "I now can have the best of both worlds and bring out the essential elements of a photograph by enhancing key features with my drawing.

"Photoshop makes it easy for me to create layers from the photo and from my drawing so that I can hide my photographic amateurism by using a lot of levels, playing around with the colours and by painting over the top of it all. It looks even more realistic when the montage is shaded from reality, it's just like enhancing a photo".

Mr Valric's artwork is very focused on vibrant colours, and as such, it is essential that on-screen colours are consistent with final prints.

"Often the entire look and feel of a piece can alter with just a simple change to one of the colours," said Mr Valric. "There is no point making these slight modifications to perfect the colouring if it is going to change in the printing process. The reassuring thing about Photoshop is that whether I work with PMS colours or not, I know that what I see on screen is exactly how the end product is going to look."

Multiple layers central to design
One of the most useful Photoshop features for Mr Valric is the ability to view individual layers on their own, or in any combination. Because of his unique artisitic style of mixing multiple mediums, Mr Valric places great importance on being able to dissemble layers quickly and easily, as well as move them up and down to try different combinations.

"I usually use 14 or 15 layers and I need to be able to view each layer individually, with just surrounding layers or as part of an overall piece" he said. "Being able to move layers up and down allows me to experiment with keeping certain elements in the painting and erasing others. The art work can become very busy, so I need to be able to enhance or soften foregrounds, backgrounds and middlegrounds to ensure the eye does not get totally lost in what's happening.

"Basically, layers are very central to the way I work - I may like a foreground element, but if it is too strong I can place it at two thirds and replicate the same layer in the background, simply playing on the highlights or colours of the image. I have the freedom to play around with the initial idea and go down different paths without destroying the image I am working on. This means I can actually see how things are developing as I go, rather than just imagining it".

Apart from creative freedom, Photoshop also enables Mr Valric to streamline his artistic processes, improving the precision of his artwork and thus the profitability of his business.

"Some of the images I have created in a few days would otherwise have taken me months and I could never have got the level of detail I am now capable of," said Mr Valric.

"I can now turn around an entire piece of artwork in a week, with the main framework put together within 48 hours. Although this timeframe seemed ridiculous before I used Photoshop, it now plays a significant part in the way I operate, particularly when I am doing a piece on commission.

"But the best thing about Photoshop is that it allows me to do what I love and do it well. The power and flexibility of the product is amazing - the results are unbelievable and there is very little you can't do."