The Photoshop Questions Thread

[Goddess_Clio]

I have a nerdy computer graphics/illustration question for anyone - please point me in the right direction if you know anything more than I do!

I am wondering if anyone knows how the illustrations/images for pottermore were created. They look CG to me but not like something done in, say, Adobe Illustrator, they look much more painterly than a vector-based program like Illustrator can do, so far as I understand that program. Maybe like they're done with a stylus and drawing pad?

Anyone know where I can find out more information on these images? Or have an idea of a good program to play around in? (I have the Adobe Creative suite already)

Reason: I'm going to illustrate a hilarious Army version of The Night Before Christmas ('Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the skies,/Air defenses were up, with electronic eyes./Combat pilots were nestled in ready-room beds,/As enemy silhouettes danced in their heads.) to send to a friend of mine who is currently stationed in Afghanistan and I wanted to see if I could do the illustrations in a painterly, computer-based "pottermore style"

Please owl me if you have any ideas on a good way to recreate a "pottermore" kind of look in a computer program.