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Draw and paint sci-fi’s most iconic character! FEATURING
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Mike Hill shares his designs for the futuristic neo-noir
KEYFRAME MASTERCLASS Create compelling film concept art
36
INTERVIEW
ANTHONY FRANCISCO Marvel Studios’ vis dev artist on Thor and more…
INCLUDING BLACK PANTHER DOCTOR STRANGE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY ANT-MAN
SKETCHES FROM JURASSIC WORLD READY PLAYER ONE FANTASTIC BEASTS AND MORE!
ISSUE 173
L ART BEYOND WESTEROS HRONES! ARTISTS FROM THE SHOW REVEA TH GAME OF T
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www.bit.ly/magterms nu m b ers(starti ng 0 1o r 0 2)o r arei nc lud ed aspart aspa rto f anyi an yi ncl nc l usiveo r free ee m i nu tesall ow ow an ces ce s(i f o ffered b yyou r p ho ne ne tari ff). F orfull term san d co nd iti o nspleasevi sit . O ff er en ds31M ay2019. ay201 9.
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Contents 36
Your art 10
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F X Pos
You ou subm bm it you our w orkto us and nd w e then n sho how you our gor orgeou ous art to the w orld!
News and events 20 P ow er o he xel W etalk to the hem aster artists creat ati ngpixel el art, and discov over er tha hat the heir distinctive e w orkis m ore tha han just aretro aes estheti c. 30 A stin R esi en ce From H ollyw ood oodtotheC otsw olds… con oncept pt cos ostum eartist D arrell W arne ner show ow us aroun u nd his “w aterside shed ed”.
Features erview 3 6 In ervi A n th th o n y F a n c i c o The artist w ho’ s w orked ed on Black k Pant nther and nd G uardians ns of the G alaxy xy reveal als w hy M arve vel Stud udios is m orethan n just ajob. 4 S k e c h b o o k :J :J a m a J u ra ra b a e The aerospa pace eng ngineer-turned ed-con oncept pt artist present nts ske ketche hesdonefor arang nge e of person onal and professi onal projects.
I ntervi nterview :M ke H
54
Blade deRunner 2049 is just oneof thefilm s theBri tish h con oncept pt arti st has w orked d on.
Reviews 96
S of
ar
rti rtis t o rtf rtfo lio
ANTHONY FRANCISCO “The general term for
MIKE HILL “I had to synthesise
it is seaman”
designs from scratch”
Anthony reveals his US Navy role
Concept artist Mike goes all out
20
9 9 T ai 10 0 B ooks
rti rtis t o rtf rtfo lio
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May 2019
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A stin sti n R esi en ce: D ar ellW ar arner ner
Issue1 73 73M May 201 9 48
80
orks or ksho ho ps 66 Paint Pa int an iconic sci-fi character ch aracter Film lover Kevin vin McGivern McGivern celebrates Alien’s 40th anniversary by painting Ripley Ripley as she’s about to confront onfront the the deadly xenomorph.
Sketchb Sketc hb ook: ook:Jam Jam a Jurabaev
72 C reate conce concepts pts w ith the Photoshop Photoshop Pattern Stam p tool Lino Drieghe reveals how this Photoshop staple can beused early on in i n the the creative process to generate interestin interesting g textures. xtures.
Keyfram e art
66
80 C oncept oncept keyf keyfram e art from real life life Henry enry Fong reveals how how to createmood and drama from a chosen location location photo provided providedby aproduction production designer. 86 Perfect Perfect the art ofchiaros ofchiaro scuro Unco Uncover the the mysteries of light light and shadow with Patrick JJ JJones and learn how to harness harness their atmospheric ric properties.
86
Iconic sci-fi sci-fi ch aracter
72
10 8
Th e art ofchiaroscuro ofchiaroscuro
T ad
al A rt
10 4 Traditional Traditional art FX Posé Explore this this month’s selection of the finest traditional traditional art, that’s been sent in by you! 10 8 W orks orksho hop: p:D D raw raw a range oftextiles & textures Tim Von Rueden develops a stunni stunning ng fantasy portrait portrait in pencil that showcases different different material erials s and surfaces.
Pattern Patte rn Stam p tool
D raw te textile xtiles s & textures textures
114 First Im p ress ressions: ions:Eric Fortune Fort une The US artist arti st on how social media success can lead to artistic artistic self-development, and his his hopes for society’sfuture. future.
May 2019
7
Resources
e tt t tin g o ld o f t is isis s u e ’s’s v i e o s n d c u s to to r u s h e s is u i k n d e s y . J u s t is it it o u r e i a te te w e b p a g e a t https://ifxm.ag/film173artspecial C OVE VER R W ORK RKS SHOP
GET YOUR RESOURCES
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Go to the website T y p e t h isis in i n to to y o u r r o w s e r s a d r e s s b a r n o t t h e s e a r c h b a r) : https://ifxm.ag/film173artspecial
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Find the files you want S e a r c h t h r o u g h t h e l is t o f r e s o u rc rc e s to t o d o w n lolo a d
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Download what you need… o w n lolo a d t h e f ilil e s o r w a tc tc h th e m ia a e s p o e o u u e lin
ay 2
O V VE R E R 4 H O OU R U S R S of v ide o tutor ia f r ro m pr o ar ti ls sts to w atch and lear n f r ro m!
P ain tstr stro n g ch aracterfilm art Watch Kevin McGivern’s workshop video as he illustrates Ripley from Alien, in the film’s 40th anniversary year. Turn to page 66 to learn his colour, lightingand texture techniques.
Issue1 73 73M May 201 9 WORKSHOPS it o r ia ia l
Acting Group Editor in Chief claire. how lett@ futurenet. com
Art Editor
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a n ie i e l V in c e n t l if f o p e
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o n t riri u to to r s C irstyn Bech-Yagher,Dom inic C arter,Lino Driegh e,Gary Evans, Henry Fong,Ruth Ham ilton,Richard Hill,Jam a Jurabaev, Kevin McGivern,Patrick J Jones,Beren Neale,Tim Von Rueden, D arrell W arner
d v e r ti t is in in g Media packs are available on request Com m ercial D irector
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Get more from Photoshop’s Pattern Stamp tool Watch how concep concept artist arti st Lino Lino Dri Drieghe quickl quickly y create creates a sci-fi landsca landscape. More More on page 72.
Head ofNew strade T
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Balance light and shade in your figure art
nor itsem ployees,agents,subcontractors or licenseesshall be liable for
Patrick JJones covers chiaroscuro in his workshop video, and there’s more insights on page 86.
otherw ise stated,and reserve the right to edit,am end,adapt all subm issions.
is sent at your ow n risk and,although every care istaken,neither Future
lossor dam age.W e assum e all unsolicite icited m aterial al is for publication unless
TRAINING Watch TRAINING Watch a clip from Rendering/Blending… … then turn turn to page 99 to see seewhat we thought of of Anthony Anthony Jones’ instr instructi uctional onal vide video.
PLUS 671 CUSTO CUSTOM M BRUSH BRUSHES ES,, INCL NCLUD UDII NG NG… … SAMPLED_BRUSH
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TH EPLAC PLA C ETO SH A R EYO U R D IG ITAL TA L ART
Melvin Chan LOCATION: Australia MEDIA: Photoshop WEB: www.melvinchanart.com LOCATION: Australia
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ELBEZEL, THE SACRED GROVE
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May 2019
Want to submit your work Visit http://ifxm.ag/getinifx Visit http://ifxm.ag/getinifx
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May 2019
11
Lora Lee
2
LOCATION: US MEDIA: Photoshop, Paintstorm Studio WEB: www.loraleeart.com LOCATION: US
Freelance artist and assistant university professor Lora has been drawing, designing and animating for over a decade. “I love love to explore artistic styles, different cultures and telling stories,” she says.
1
THE CAVE
VOICES OF THE FIRE
“A piece of atmospheric concept art inspired by my adventure in a cave in southwest China. I love to
“Fascinated by traditional Tibetan costumes and folk art, I experimented with digital painting techniques
draw inspiration from nature and take my own
to render the fire and smoke and create a surreal
reference and texture images.”
ceremony scene.”
12
M ay 201
Want to submit your work Visit
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/ixm /i xm ag /geti /g eti
3
4
3
THE YOUNG HEALER
“I’ve been creating a series of fantasy illustrations in Photoshop and Paintstorm, after being inspired by the ancient Tibetan folk religion and cultural heritage. This piece depicts a healing ritual.”
W ant ant to to subm subm it your your w ork? Visit Visit http://ifxm.ag/getinifx
4
OLD HOUSE
“This is piece of concept art that I created to use as reference for a 3D environment, which I wanted to build in Autodesk Maya. It was a demo project for a course I taught.”
May 2019
Natalie Russo
BISCUIT, BISCUIT, THE DEEP SEA JELLY BUN
LOCATION: Sweden MEDIA: Photoshop WEB: www.natalierusso.com LOCATION: Sweden
“I’ve long held a fascination
As a freelance concept artist and creature designer, Natalie combines her love of all critters with her passion for creating art and designing narratives.
with fish and deep-sea critters. With Biscuit I wanted to design a glowing jellyfish that was cute like a bunny.”
1
14
M ay 201
Want to submit your work Visit
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/ixm /i xm ag /geti /g eti
2
2
CHOMPER
3
SIEGE OF THE
“I wanted to illustrate a fearsome bug-like world in the forest. I used lighting to direct the viewer’s eye to the focal point of the piece: those jaws about to strike!”
COTTONTAIL
“For this scene of bunnies going into battle I focused on the lighting, colour palette and composition to help give a more dramatic mood to the narrative.”
3
W ant ant to to subm subm it your your w ork? Visit Visit http://ifxm.ag/getinifx
May 2019
Chase Henson LOCATION: US MEDIA: Photoshop, oil paint WEB: www.artofchasehenson.com LOCATION: US
Chase is an independent fantasy artist who’s obsessed with storytelling, mythology and colour. He’s working on a personal project entitled Book of Olith: Sacred Chains, and also finds time to be part of the band Mome Wrath.
1
2
SISTERS OF CREATION “Taken from the introduction to the Book of Olith. The story is about an archeologist by the name of Ried, under pressure from the university to prove the Old Gods existed.”
TEMPLE OF AIR “He’d been the one to explain to them the importance of this temple. How it was the source of all the air in the gods’ world, and without it they would all perish.”
PRIESTESS OF SHADOW “Her purple skin seemed to glow in the unearthly smoke and lights of this realm, as she raised her hand and a single wisp of shadow pierced the man’s heart.”
16
M ay 201
Want to submit your work Visit
tt
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3
May 2019
17
Cornelius Cockroft
GATE ASSAULT “This is the fourth in a
LOCATION: US MEDIA: Photoshop WEB: www.artstation.com/cor LOCATION: US www.artstation.com/corneliuscockroft neliuscockroft
series of keyframes inspired
Cornelius – aka Corny – got a bit of a late start on his artistic journey. He’s been creating digital artwork for a couple of years now, mainly at Brainstorm School in LA.
by feudal Japan. I tried to capture the moment right before the battle gets down and dirty.”
1
2
REDHOOK KITCHEN “This is part of a series I’m working on. Mob enforcers arrive at one of their larger drug kitchens to set a trap for a vigilante who’s been disrupting their business.”
MINSTREL “This general’s soldiers have been twisted by strange magic. He’s been known to play his guitar even as the battle rages.”
LAST RED RIBBON “A sorceress monarch inspecting her newest trophy. The ribbons are worn by the ruling family of her current enemy, and she likes to display each one after their heads have been taken.”
18
M ay 201
Want to submit your work Visit
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3
4
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May 2019
19
ARTI RTIST ST NEWS, SOFTWARE
EVENTS EVEN TS
AT TH THE CORE CORE OF TH THE E DIGI DIGIT TAL ART ART COM COMMU MUNI NI TY
Matej Jan started drawing on the ZX Spectrum in the early 90s, when pixel art was basically the only choice.
May 2019
LET’S GO OFF-ROAD!
DOWN BY THE RIVER
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD
An exhibition brought together 4 4 artists, w ho w orke orked d to visualise hitherto unseen corners ofthe epic vistas from Georg Geo rge e RR Martin’s Gam e ofThrones. Pag Pa g e26
Film costum e artis artist D arre arrell ll W arn arner er refers to his studio as a w aterside shed.This bright w ork space is anything but shed-like, as w e soon found out… ou t… Pag Pa g e30
Got som ethi ething ng art-related art-relate d that you w ant to get offyour chest,or just w ant to shout about your latest art achievem achievem ents? Th Then en w rite in and let let us know ! Pag Pa g e35
N D
Richard Schm idbauer’ s gam ing inspirations include X enon 2,Hyper
ST RY
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MATEJ JAN
Light D rifter and Super Tim e Force.
The The pixel art art expert loo looks at the current current state of the the medium
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Slynyrd,has a deep-seated deep -seated affinity to t o the th e aestheti c, having having g row n up in the
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22
May 20 19
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May 2019
en erat erate e g ap hics
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Im agineN ati on N ew s
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May 2019
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Sometimes, Richard likes to add stylisations in Photoshop. “I like to keep the source files clean and have a separate Photoshop file for that stuff.”
ew ,s
are & eve It’s almost like you’re building an image rather than illustrating
compared to some individual pixel artists, who have 100,000 followers and more,” he says. “There are a lot of people who love pixel art.” This increased popularity of pixel art has also benefited the image of the medium, which in the past has sometimes been hamstrung by its connection to games. “With so many talented artists using the medium to make non-game-related art these days, pixel art seems to be turning some new heads,” says Raymond. “While most of my commission requests come from game-related projects, an increasing number come from unexpected places. I’ve done work for hip-hop, soul and rock musicians. I’ve even been approached by people in the fitness industry.” Jubilee agrees that it’s an exciting time for the medium. “Each day, more and more artists are pushing the boundaries of what pixel art is, and it’s awesome! I hope it becomes even more popular, because it’s been nothing but positive for me.”
“I’d dare say that everyone apart from millennials got lured into pixel art by nostalgia,” says Matej.
May 2019
25
ImagineNation N ImagineNation Ne ews
26
May 2019
Arti tist stnews, softw tware are& events
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West side side T Thi hin nk you know Game of Thrones Think Think again, ain, as artists artists cast newlight on unexp unexplored corners orners of George RR Marti artin’s n’s world orld
A fantasy ar ti tist’ st’s raison d’êtr être e is i s to visualise w orlds that only exist exist in the m ind. ind.That’ That’s certainly certainly som som ething the group of44 artists behind Unseen W es esteros teros, ,an art exhibition and accom ac com pan panyin ying g b ook, w ould agre agree e w ith.
Led by matte painter Sven Sauer, and involving
many artists who have
worked on the TV series over the years, the idea was born back in 2015. Their aim was to visualise the parts of George RR Martin’s world that had been mentioned, but had not enjoyed realisation in the series. “We were working on season five of Game of Thrones,” recalls Sven, and the book World of Ice and Fire had just come out, which tells the entire pre-
The free city of Norvos, as painted by Philipp Scherer, a concept artist and illustrator who’s based in Berlin.
story of the world of the series.” After two weeks he had 15 artists on board. Soon, the ranks swelled, boasting artists who had worked on successful video games titles like Horizon Zero Dawn as well as films such as Avatar. “It wasn’t easy getting people on board,” admits Sven. “Many concept artists were booked up for the whole year, so to convince them to participate meant them cancelling paid jobs!” Normally, five to six concept artist work on a season of Game of Thrones, explains the artist. “You can imagine what a huge creative potential it was when all 40 artists came together!” And it’s fair to say that this enterprise has been a success. Over 16,000 people filed through the
May 2019
27
ImagineNation N ImagineNation Ne ews Sven Sauer worked with concept designer Kirill Barybin to depict one of the labyrinths on the island city of Lorath.
Theori ginalidea a w as thatw ecou ould pack kall thepaintings into a con ontainer and andgo gow herever w e w ant anted ed doors of the Berlin exhibition in the
screen, the whole exhibition
first four days. The art book has hit its 2 ,000 Kickstarter Kickstarter goal, goal, with over
experience becomes very different and not as impressive as we had
80,000 to spare at time time of going to to
planned it,” he says. “The paintings
press. And it’s not over, either. “We
were painted big, at 6,000 pixels wide
plan to travel with the exhibition,” says
or more, so that we can have them
Sven. “The original idea was that we
printed out at a final size of
could pack all the paintings into a container and go wherever we wanted.
180x100cm. That’s how we want them seen: either in real life, or as high-
We’re already in discussions with other
quality prints within the book.”
possible locations. So keep an eye on the website.”
So when Tyrion talks of the fall of to accompany the fantastical images
not the best way to see the contents of
that appear in your head, visit the
the exhibition, and the exquisite art
exhibition or buy a copy of the book.
that’s contained within. “When
You can find out more details at
displayed on a tablet or computer
MEET SOME OF THE THE ARTIST RTISTS SFROM UNSEEN WESTEROS n S ue
Sven has been working as a matte painter for Game of Thrones since season two. He’s helped to depict Harrenhal, Dragonstone, Dreadfort, Kings Landing, Qarth and many more locations from the show.
28
San Francisco-based matte painter Kristin Johnson illustrated the Arm of Dorne, before it was destroyed by dark magic.
ancient Valyria and you want a visual
However, Sven admits that online is
S
Matte painters Sven Sauer and Max Riess say, “In the series only a small ruin of Valeria was shown briefly. We want to reveal how gigantic this city must have been.”
May 20 19
unseen-w esteros. eros.com
.
T ob i s M Two-time Emmy-award winner Tobias has been a VFX concept artist on Game of Thrones since season two. He designed the look of Braavos, Deepwood Motte, Riverrun, Blackwater Bay, among other settings.
F
sD
en
Floris is a VFX concept artist, and joined production on Game of Thrones for season five. Oldtown, parts of the Citadel and Meereen are locations he’s worked on.
A
ew ,s
are & eve
This fearsome ice spider was painted by Jimmy Przemek Duda, a senior concept artist based in the Berlin office of VFX studio Trixter.
Tobias Mannewitz, a creative director at Karakter Design Studio, painted Greywater Watch, a castle that’s built on a man-made floating island.
Eve Ev e Ventr entrue
Robert Simon
Eve is a freelance artist based in Switzerland. She worked on season four as a matte painter. For the exhibition she painted The Grey King (left).
Emmy-award winner Robert has been part of the show since season five, working as a VFX concept artist on creature designs and dramatic action scenes.
Rene Borst
Falk Boje
Rene worked on seasons two, five and six of Game of Thrones. Among others locations, he developed the islands of Pyke.
Falk has worked on Game of Thrones since season four. His projects include developing the Fist of the First Men hill fort.
May 20 19
29
agi eN
A
n R es en
My fi rst love remains portraiture, portraiture, which led me into film. Framed here is a s mall study of my son when he was aged nine.
This collection ranges from bits of sculpture to skulls and seed heads. With the changing seasonal light I enjoy rearranging the m to create ‘mini’ still-lifes .
Darrell Warner D ve i Fr m C
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Sacrificial Sacrifi cial Ridge featuring Tom Tom Cruise from The Mummy, illustrating the potential costume profiles for the main characters.
I boug ht m y studio by a lake about nine nine years ago,having failed to attain p lanning lanning perm ission to bui ld a studio in m y garden. garden. Forced b y the need for a separate w orkspace orkspace coupled w ith a grow ing fam ily, m y w ife punched a search search into into Google and m y present present studio w as one ofthe first prop erties to appear. Unbelievab ly,it’s just a five-m inute drive from hom e.
Admittedly, the studio is little more than a shed, being classified as a lodge that sits on the edge of an lake. Its southerly aspect means I tend to be bathed both by sunlight and reflections from the water. Initially, I didn’t think this was ideal – at least from an artistic point of view –
30
May 2019
Over the years I’ve collated various bits and pieces. This plan chest was a Westland Helicopter drawing office asset ass et that was due to be dumped. I was glad to rescue it from an ignominious fate. fate.
A
This display rack contains a variety of limited edition prints prepped ready for postage. Prints and cards are available through www.seneciodigital.co.uk www.seneciodigital.co.uk..
I find this long, thin oak table invaluable for setting out or reviewing work that’s in progress.
ew ,s
Although I also do some work at an easel, my first choice is a drawing board with an anglepoise lamp. I like to keep a couple or more paintings on the go, such as this horse portrait.
are & eve
I’m not one for having too many of my own paintings on the walls, but this self-portrait is a gentle reminder both of mortality and that time I took part in the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year.
My illustration portfolio open and ready for self-assessment. This is an exercise that I like to undertake either twice a year or whenever I’m meeting a prospective client.
Promotional literature and greetings cards stacked, ready to be sent out.
May 20 19
31
Im agineN ati on A rtist in Resi dence
nishe d co stum e w atercol ur ofD
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a hand ulofG ou ache colou s or bo dy. I u se se R o se se m a ry ry & C o . S e r e s 9 9 N o . 6 S ab e b ush es p us three three large ushes:a 12,16 an d a m op exp an sive w ashe s.M ul
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32
May 2019
ainting s in the f
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Traditionally trained artist and illustrator Darrell Dar rell revels in the the useof the humble pencil ncil. He’s developed a successful career creating creating fil fi lm costume concepts. You can see his work at www.darrellwarner.co.uk.
A
ew ,s
are & eve
Captain Salazar from the most recent Pirates of the Caribbean film. This concept drawing was done to sell’ the character to actor Javier Bardem.
My studio set up is rel relativ tively basic. I work traditionally I’ve collected num erous ‘how to draw anatomy’ books over the years, but can’t state enough how brilliantt the 3dtotal É corché brillian figures are to have to hand.
This is a personal piece, replicating the continuity of composition from a series of paintings completed some years ago.
May 2019
33
ESSENTIAL ART RESOURCES
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i P a d i s a t r a d e m a r k o f A p p l e I n c ,.r e g i s t e r e d i n t h e U . S . a n d o t h e r c o u n t r i e s .A p p S t o r e i s a s e r v i c e m a r k o f A p p l e I n c .
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34
May 2019
Letters
Newworks orks that that have grabbed our attention
YOUR FEEDBA DBACK & OP OPINIO INIONS Contact the editor, Claire Howlett, on claire imaginefx.com or write to ImagineFX, Future Publishing, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, Bath, BA1 1 UA, England England Follow us on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/imaginefx Tell us your thoughts on Facebook:
www.fac facebook.com/ ebook.com/iimaginef nefx x Post your art or photos on Instagram:
www.i.instag nstagram.com/imaginefxmagazin azine e
Whole lotta love! Thank you sooo sooo much! I lovedloved loved that you you featured Audra Auclai uclair! r! She’s my favourite artist and I just love her! I follow foll owher acc account avidly avidly on on Instagram and I just adore everything about her work. She also is very candid about her artistic arti stic struggl strugglesand how she can can someti sometime mes s feel feel low l ow. I personall personally y find that very helpful as I sometimes feel like an imposter – not that I’m anywherenear her level. One dayI would would love loveto get good enough enough to be on your your cover cover li ke Audra. Thanks Thanks again. ain .
e thth i nk nk w e m a d e re re a d e r Sa s’s s’s yea r by featuring eaturing u d r a A u c lala i r a s isis s u e 17 1’s 1’s co ver a rtist rtist
Issue 17 s feature feature on fi nding your ow n art styl styl e inspired inspired r ea ea d e r JoJo d y t o l o o k b a c k o n h e r ch ch i l d h o o d i n fl u e n c eses
copy my favourite artists. I’m not ashamed ashamed to admit admit thi this, s, and don’t worry, I don’t try to pass of their work off as my own or anything. My aim is to break down how they work and also find out whyI like li ke their art so so much. much. Anywa Anyway, I’m I ’m waffli affl ing… what I li l iked ked about the artists in your feature was that their style didn’t come come to them in in a lighteningstrike. It was more gentle. For some, they they seemed to recognise ogni sethe the things they liked from culture – especial peciallly from their their formative years years– and hone hone in on that. I think think you calle all ed it ‘honourin ‘ honouring gyour inf i nfluenc luences es’ in i n the feature. So now I’m going goingto delveback into things I used to love in my childhood and create art from this. I’m not goingse oing searching hi ngfor for my my style – I’l I ’lll keep on creatinguntil it finds me!
Italo Freitas ludus.art
Jody dy, viaem ail
Claire replies H
el Jody,yesI Jody,yesI eal
enjoyed t at eature oo. I beleve beleve yl
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pu yoursel n on creatng eatng
atyour atyour
de ofyou. ofyou . Y ou j tneed tn eed t posi on
d i. i . K eeping
a greatstart. G ood luck!
Where are you ImagineFX I can never find find you you in in my local store! store! I ’m in Canada! da!
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Arti Ar tis st Po Portfolio
A N T H O N Y F RA N C ISC O The artist who’s worked on Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok, and Guardians of the Galaxy tells G aryE va van n s why Marvel Studios is more than just a job
A
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Interview Anth Interview Anthony ony Franc rancisco
BA TTLEO NTHERA INB O WB RID IDG E “T hi act on scene w as a com pl plcat cated one. P oducer oducersneed sneed ed to see see how T horw oul use
htning
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GLA DIA TO RHULK “Hulk w as one ofm y favouri favouri charactersg ow ng u p.Ihad a lot offun h thi on e,m aking sing
th a ot
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he shou de rp ece rby nsp raton rat on
May 2019
37
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STARLO RD “ G o in g fr fr o m c o l l e c tin g th e u rd ia n s o f th e a lal a x y c o ic s a s a k i to p in tin g o n e p ts o f th e le d ra te rs w s u i te te a t h r i llll !
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DRESSING DRESSI NG A GOD GOD OF MISCHIEF
Anthony explains the design decision behind the new-look Loki in Thor: Ragnarok… and the unlikely in uence that Mr T from from the A-T A-Team had on the character’s look “ T is isi s t e d e s ig n jojo u rn rn e y I a d a s e d o n w h a t L o k i w a s g o in g t o d o in t e t ir d o r fi fil . S t o r y isi s r e a l l i p o r t a n t t o e . is c o s tu t u m e isis asym e tr t r ic a l e c a u s e h e ’s’s u n b a l a n c e d y t e d e a t h o f is fa fa t e r in a n d h e d o e s n ’t’t k n o w if i f e ’s’s g o o d o r b d u t h e ’s tr in g e g o o s o ll th e ia g o n l l in e s re fl e t th is in n e r t u r m o il . I w a n te te d t o u s e m y o w n i e a s a n d s e n s ib ility to n e w o s tu e s th t fe e l l ik e t h e y e l o n g o n t e tr tra s h p la n e t o f
38
M ay 2019 20 19
S a k a a r . L o k i h a d t o l o o k to to u g h e r o r e re r e g a l lil ik e a w a r ri rio r a n d n o t s o a n d r o g y n o u s w it h h is is a r o u r a l s o e o in g s g rd ia n o tifs n it it i l l y t e l it it t l e p e n d n t w s a l o t ig g e r li l ik e a c h a in in w o r n b y a r a p p e r a b ig L f o r L o k i s o e th t h in i n g th th a t w o u l e a ig c e n tr tr e p ie c e . h e n I w a s th in in g e o u ld e je w e ll e r y ll o v e r lilik e M r T – to to e r T isi s ic ic o n icic . v io i o u s ly l y it it i n ’t ’t e n d u p l o o k in in g a n y t in g lilik e M r T u t t a t ’s’s h o w in d w o r k s s o m e ti ti e s .
,h
g.A nthon y lef
e h e l e t is m y fa f a v o u ri r it e s t y lel e o f h e l e t f r o m t h e c o ic b o o k s t h a t ’s’s o p e n a t th e t o p s o y o u c a n s e e t h e h a ir i r . h isi s l o o k e d o r e N o r s e a t o n e p o in t u t I d e id e d e s til tilll h d to fe e l l ik e t e L o k i f r o m f ir s t t w o o v ie ie s o r L o k i s S a k a a r l o o k I id a u n c h o f c o l o u r p a s s e s e fo f o r e w e s e t tl e d o n th e lu e n d e ll o w e rs io n . I ls o id tu rn ro u n s s o th e o s tu e e s ig n e r a d c l e a r d ir i r e c t io n . e o p l e t in k w e o n ’t’t t in k o f e s ig n a l l t e w a y r o u n d to th e k u t w e o !”
Interview Anth Interview Anthony ony Franc rancisco there worked as pros in the entertainment industry. There was even a class on creature design: “I was like, You can draw monsters and get paid for it After class one day, Anthony’s friend got talking to Alec Gillis, co-founder of special effect company Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. Alec saw Anthony listening intently. Alec asked if Anthony if he’d like to come to the studio with his portfolio. Anthony said he’s very much like that. Problem was: he didn’t have a portfolio. “You have to be prepared when the opportunity ortuni ty arise arises. I wasn’t quite prepared. But that wasn’t going to deter me. me. I decided: I’l I ’lll just keep on drawing every day, all day, all night, till four
IN F IN ITYG A UN TLE T V A RIA IA TIO IO N “H ere Im Im
rying ou
som e otherloo ks or he d esi n for he nfi nity G au ntlet.
GREENO NGREEN “I as estng est ng ou erent
ar pa nt
de as or hi
esi n of
ulk,develop ed by R yan M einerdi nerding,head ofvisualdevel sualdevelop
ent
atM arvelS arvelS ud os.
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et.I et .Ihad had
ki
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hat Iw as hinking
May 2019
39
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erew olfoveran d over– biggerhead, alerh al erh ead,lon germ
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ou d n o lon gersee the
ou ce.H ce.H e’d d aw n an d redr redraw n a ei d alen al en
atend ed u p grow
DO CTO RSTRANG E “Very early stab on a direction for Doctor Strange’s iconic look. Karla Ortiz designed the final look you see on-screen.”
ga
Som etim eIjust havetopinch h m ysel elf. It’ sthe he dream job echan echan ho
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IN SID IDEM AR VE L A ntho ntho ny’sn ow partoft partofthe per anent vi ualdeve opm entteam atM arve S udios.T os.T hatm eans eans he and histea ork cont nu ou ci em at
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A ntho ntho ny w asbu y w y W ar(2018) ar(2018)
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chance to w ork ork on Black ack P anther– anther– esthatended esthaten ded up bei g am on g t ostsucce ostsucce “I
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T ake E go (played ayed by K urtR usselli G uardi uardians ofthe ofthe G alaxy Vol.2).T .2).T hi as a parti p articu arly d ficu
40
May 2019
DO R M A M M U “It was fun trying to come up with my take on this demon, while echoing some of Steve Ditko’s unmistakable trippy shapes for the dark dimension.”
Interview Anth Interview Anthony ony Franc rancisco
BULLETA NT “I ear earned ned so m uch abo utantsw hi on thi
oject.Iw ou d w ork w hi
atching every antdo cum ent entar ar hat Icou d ge th old o
GLA DIA IA TO RTHO R “E xplori ng deas ofT hor’ costum e, rying
o g et him
oo king
ore lke lke
he N orse go d o ft fthun hun de
May 2019
41
Artist Portfolio
LIKE A LIONESS IN THE SERENGETI A ntho nytalksab o uthism o stfam o uscrea creat tio n:the D o raM ilajeteam o fw arrio rsfro m B lac ack kP an ant ther “I was busy working on Avengers:
this idea of a lioness hunting in the
Infinity War when I got the
Serengeti, standing up on a rock,
opportunity to contribute to Black Panther. I designed the Dora Milaje
surveying her land, getting ready to attack her prey. That gave me
that director Ryan Coogler and
warm colours, yellows and oranges
costume designer Ruth E Carter
and reds.
brought to life in the movie. I love comic books and so most of
After head of visual development Ryan Meinerding took my designs
my suggestions were based on the rich source material. When I started
into the first pitch, the discussion opens up to other members of the
working on the film Ryan was
team and the producers of the
confirmed as the director, but Ruth
movie, and there are changes and
was yet to join the production team.
little things added on. “Okay, let’s try
OKOYE WEAPONS
It comes back to me and I make
I had to work on character designs
red. Let’s try this. Let’s try more
those changes.
based on descriptions of scenes.
African patterns and get even more
“I wanted to show the general in a fighting stance and also to work out the costume in a more dynamic pose.”
I wanted the women to look fierce and definitely not scantily clad. I had
of a tribal feel.” Overall, that’s kind of the process.
I had a blue version, a version with white stripe, more multicoloured. They ended up sticking on my initial yellow, that feeling of a lionesses
DORA MILAJE TRIBAL WARRIOR
hunting. But when my design doesn’t
“I wanted to apply some of the Massai elements to this design of the Dora Milaje.”
understand it’s not what they want so I try something else. You have to
get through, I’m okay with that. I
take criticism positively p ositively.. I heard Ryan Coogler really liked
DORA MILAJE WARRIOR “Testing out other shapes and layering inspired by Zulu warriors and weapons.”
42
May 20 19
the final design. I didn’t get to go to that meeting, so the head of the team relayed these messages. But hopefully I’ll be in those meetings one day.”
InterviewA Interview Anth thony ony Fran ranc cisco I ad
s ea o a l es g in e S eren enget get p on on a ck eyi er an d get g ead o at ack er ey
DO RAM ILAJEFIN IN AL “Th There’ e’ sal ot of sym ym b oli sm inthi si m ag e. O koy o ye e i sa trad i ti onali st, ve very ryb alan ance ced dan dunw av averi ering l i ke ke aroc rock k and an d she’ sh e’s o na rock, roc k, w hi l eN ak aki i ai s m o re ad ve ventu nturou rous. s. O ko koye’ ye’s sho uld er arm o ur i s sym m etricalfor b alan ance cean and d N ak aki i ai s A -sym m etri cal ca l tosym b ol i seherreb rebell ell i o usnatu usnature. re. Eve vent nthesha shap p eofthe thei i r w ea eap p o ns echo ec ho the thei i r p erso erson nali ty. ”
May 2019
43
A rtist Portfoli o
ALKYR KYR E
TW EEN GROOT GROOT
“A m ore Norse-looking
“I’ m alw ays using reference
version ofthe character.
w hen I can.C apturing m y son
The final design w as by
in this p ose w as just p riceless. ”
C onstantine Se Sekeris. keris. ”
Even if your design isn’t chosen, you still did your job by letting them know that’s not the direction they want to go
cha haractertodesign. n. Theteam am , heade ded d up byA ndy, received dthebri ef, then n itw as“allhand n ds ondeck, k, ”and n d everybo everybodycam e upw ithdesi gns. gn s. A nthonytri ed dtobalanc nce doingw hat the producers w ant anted edw ithhis ow n
w astoldtocom om eupw ith“an nepi pic
person onal tastes,w hich his usua ually“goi oing
A nthonystarted dw orkonthe film .
real allyfar – like,w eird far. ”H ecam am eup
H ow eve ver, he’d col ollectedthecom om ics
battle” betw een eenTh ano anos and andD r
w ithfi vedesigns n s and n dtookthem em to the
asakid. A ntho honyinsists you ouhave veto
Strang n ge.H esaysM arvel el’ s w ayof
m eeting w here the team com par pared ed
beacom om ic booknerdto do his job.
w orkingis soopen n and n dcol ollabo borative
w ork and n dreceived dnotes. From om there,
First, itw ouldn’ tbeint nterestingi fyou o u
tha hat anarti st’ s design ncan anhave veadirect
A ndygui u ides therefiningoftheidea a
w eren’ n’ tseriouslyinto it, and,secon ond,
influenc n ceon the hefinalscript.
untilit looks right.
you ouneed dtohavean nalm ost
“Ev Even enifyou our designisn’ n’ tcho hosen, n, you ou stilldidyou ourjob bylettingthe hem know that’ s notthedirectionthey y w ant n t togo. o. Process ofeli m ination. ” M ost peop oplehadn dn’ theardof G uardians an s ofthe G alaxy axyw hen en
44
May 2019
SURTUR SURT UR DESIGN OPTI OP TIONS ON S “Exploring the balance betw eenthe m olten olten rock on Surtu Su rtur’ r’s body. The final design w as by A leksi Briclot . ”
enc ncyclopa paedi d ic know ledg dgeofafi lm ’ s
T E ORD ESCAPES ME
sour u rce–thecom om ics.
A ntho honyFranc n cisco ois sti lltrying ngto
W hen nA nthonydoesn’tgetto see the ful ullscript–to preve vent n tleak aks –hehas to
fi ndthe herightw ords to an sw er thi his questi on: beyo yond top-notch h artski kills,
com om eupw ithideas as based dascene neor
w hat doesittaketow orkasavis-dev v
scene nedescri ption.O n Infi nity W ar, he
artistat M arve vel Stud udios?
Interview Anth Interview Anthony ony Franc rancisco AN T-TO NY “D esign ng a retr retro- oo king a nt, ut he ne ed ed
o feellke feellke a b ke.Iused
rush
and Ke yshot or he ant de sign
“People skil ki lls… That doesn’t mean doingwhate doing whatever people want. It means you’re open to workingin a collaborative manner. And respectfully. Show respect, get respect… I don’t know. know. The word escapes me.” Maybe the questions threw him off because of the word “work.” ork.” Talk Talk to Anthony about Marvel and you see it’s morethan just j ust a job. The Dora Milaje’s Mi laje’s costumes are inspired by mainly by African culture cultu re,, southeast Asian tribes, Native Americans, samurai and the Ifug If ugao people from the Phi Phili lipp ppiines. nes. Baby Groot was modelled on his children. Marvel is part of his life, and has been since he was a kid. Anthony finds the word that defines a success in entertainment art: “Longevity.” He’s been involve involved in the industry for nearly 20 years now. The film’s he’s been part of have made billions of dollars. But he never mentions that. He’s in it for the making of fully formed formed worlds, a hero for every villai vil lain. n. Anthony makes dangerous places you can safely explore.
HU LKV SFE N RIS T hiskeyf am e
ast
elp visu al alse se th e size di er erence ence an d ho w coo the
attl e co uld l
k.
May 2019
45
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May 2019
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PROFILE Jama Jurabaev LOCATION: England
o n io i lec t l le o c a s t n e s p re t p iss t i t t a r t jeec t s p e o j ro c p r n l o a c n d o io i e s n n s r e u f t t o nee r i n a l a nd p r n e e ng c o a s r p p e s p p o ro r f e o a T he f o r a ra ng e e n o d s e h k e t c o f s k
T E MEET ME ET NG “This w as anexperim ent in w hich I tried to balance the am ount oftexture in m y strokes.I w anted to create an illusion of details,rather than having to paint them in. ”
DARK AGE AG ED “Sketches are a key part ofm y creative process – they enable m e to convey an idea very q uickly.”
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May 2019
Tajikistan-born Jama now lives and works in London. He graduated as an aerospace engineer back in 2004, but recently decide to pursue his dream to become an artist. Jama’s worked as a concept artist on a range of blockbuster films including Kong: Skull Island, Jurassic World 2, Ready Player One, Doctor Strange, Avengers: Age of Ultron and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. www.jamajurabaev.com
Sketchbook Jama Jurabaev abaev I love ove the me mediev dieval al period. It’s dark, grey and mysterious
Z O U W U “Some very early sketches for the zouwu, from Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Because it’s a dragon/tiger-like creature, I wanted it to look elegant, yet appear strong enough to deal with the large cat-like matagots.”
A F
B
W
B . P
. A
M ay 201 201
49
SC -F C TY “This was another grease pencil exploration done in Blender.”
KELPI “My early ideas for these watery creatures from Fantastic Beasts. I was trying to find a balance between a real horse and a strong fantasy design.”
I was trying to find a balance betw betwe een a real horse and a strong fantasy design
ART AR T3M S “These sketches show this strong female character in action. She can fight and she can race!”
d e v r e s e r s t h g i r l A . s e r u t c i P . s o r B r e n r a W k r o w t r a e n O r e y a l P y d a e R l l A
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May 2019
SketchbookJ Sketchbook Jama Jurabaev abaev
I-RO K “This the first character that I designed for Ready Player One. E verything about this this character was supposed to be over the top. Big guns, crazy armour. I enjoy experimenting with ideas using only lines and basic shapes.”
May 2019
G REASEPENC IL “Here’s one of the experiments I did in Blender, which enables you to use 3D software like a sketching tool.”
It’ It’s all about action here and sketches are probably the best way to delive iver it
PELUDA “Early explorations for the peluda from Fantastic Beasts. This creature never made it to the final cut, which happens quite often on a film production.”
May 2019
Sketchbook Jama Jurabaev abaev
D R A W IN G “O ne ne of m yd ail yex erci sesw here he re p racti sed raw ing form s. ”
ME TRO PO LIS IS A very ve ry uicki d ea ea fo r etrop o l i s, w hichw as as l ater cut cu t fro m the e fi l m . ”
JURA SSIC W O RLDFIGH T “Ascene ce ne d ep icti ng a d ram ati cm o m ent. en t. t’ s all ab o ut act ac ti o nhe reand an d sketche s arep robab rob ab l y thebest w ayto d el i ver i t. ”
A l l J u r a s s i c W o r l d : F a l l e n K i n g d o m a r t w o r k U n i v e r s a l S t u d i o s . A l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d
D o you
ant o
are ar e you you r ketches
h you r el elow ow I
agi eF X
eader ea der
selecti tion on of your art, art, capti ptions ons for each piec piece and a photo and bi bio of your ourse self to
Send us an email with a
ket
bo ok
May 2019
agi efx.c x.com om
3
Artist Portfolio
Artist Portfolio
M E LL G aryE van vans s find this artist enhances his concepts
using story theory, engineering and psychology 54
M
y 2 0 19
Intervi vi ew M ike H ill
T
he M ikeH illm ethodfor
edi d itor, eve ven n the hecol olour grade der. The
w atchi hingfilm s in thr hree e
M ikeH ill m ethod forw atchi chingm ovies
sim ple ish st eps p s:first,
is abo bout seeing“ho how thestorylooks
pick kam ovie and n d w atch h it.
from 3 0,000feet. ”
Sec econ ond, ifthem ovie
This ishow the heBr British hartistlikes es to o
NF NITE W ARFA AR FARE RE’S ’S RETRIBUT ON “The flight deck is a com plex logistical
givehim feedb dbackonce he’d sent nt them , and n dif w ecou ouldestabl blish h an iterativeproces ess tom akesur ure his
space designed desig ned in full
respo ponses w ere perfectlyclear ar. W e
3D .This piece w as to
aske ked dM ike e tosha hare som epictures of
give a sense ofm ood
m oved d you ou insom ew ay, don’ tjust go o
do thing ngs–all thing ngs,itseem s… H e
‘Ye Yes,tha hat w as nice’ e’ andleav ave eitat tha hat;
w as em ailed dsom einterview questions.
propo p osed dlayo youtfor the earticle,
w atch hitaga gain,slow ly, car areful ully,scene n e
M ikew ant anted edto know precisel yhow
sho how ingtheim age ges w e’dlike etouse
byscene ne.A nd, three,take kethem ovie
longhis ans n sw erssho houldbe,ifw ecou ould
and atm osphere.”
intoavideo o edi d itor, cut utitup, col olourcod odethe heacts, the esequ quenc n ces,the he scen enes,real allyget etin nthe here,pick k itapa p art, lookat the estoryfrom allang n gles,and n d try tounderstand ndthe decisi ons m ade de bythe hescriptw riter,the hedirector or, the he
his w ork.M ike epolitelyrequ quested da
and n dhow w e’d liketouse them , w hich h hew ouldthen nrevi view ,and n d,if
Watch tching movi movies is is all all about seeing how the story looks ooks fr from 30,000feet feet
necessary,m ake kesub ubstitutions. ooki ok ing athow M ikeappr approaches oaches those tw o everyda d aythings – w atchi hing am ovie,ans n swe w eringan n em ail–and ndyou ou get agoo ood ideaofhow M ike e
May 2019
55
Artiist Port Art rtffolio G A U N T L E T “Truck designs for a Dakar-style rally for Bongfish’s game, Gauntlet. Future technology with a grounding in reality.”
I g a in in e d n understanding o f w a t lo o e d vis u l l y ‘r ig t’
approaches concept work on bigname franchises (Game of Thrones, Blade Runner 2049, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare). He has a deep desire to understand how things work now and how they might work better later. He wants everything everythi ng to be logical, everything structurally sound and functioning right. You You shoul should d also be able able to predict predict the kind of response we’d receive after asking Mike a careless question like this: what separates good concept art from great concept art? “I would argue,” Mike says, “the question should be: what separates concept art from concept design?”
W H A TW A SR IG IG H T ” Growing up, Mike drew dinosaurs, copied game box art, liked car and aircraft design. He believes by regularly looking at lots of imagery he gained an “unconscious “unconscious understanding understa nding of what was ‘right’ ‘right’ from from a visual engineering engineering point of view.” He started a college
rtist P R O F IL E M ke H L O C A T IO N
Budapest
Craig Mullins, Eddie Smith and Francis Tsai S O F T W A R E U S E D Photoshop, 3ds Max W E B www.mikehill.design F A V O U R I T E A R T IS T S
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animation course, but dropped out after a few months. By then, he was focused specifically on sci-fi art and capable of teaching himself at home using online guides a nd reference books. He got into Photoshop and 3D software after seeing work by digital artists like li ke Craig Mullins and the late Francis Tsai. Around this time, 2004, Mike started playing first-person shooter Halo: Combat Evolved. He became mesmerised by the t he Silent Cartographer level, set on a creepy
S P A R T A N “An animated redesign for Halo’s Spartan helmet. The idea was that the design would lock into the closed position, allowing space for the head to enter and giving associations of loading a weapon.”
paradise island. He looked up the concept art online. This was something he wanted to do: build worlds. Mike’s first job in art, he designed “corporate branding and interior design concepts” for nightclubs in his hometown of Southampton. He wasn’t building worlds, but iitt was a star t. After dropping out of college, he and a friend made of successful business of it, these smaller, local jobs helping them hone their skills – work that would would eventually eventually lead to clients clients like like Sony and Netflix. His first fir st job in entertainment art, 2007, 2007, Mike worked as a 3D asset modeller and texture artist for Amsterdam video game developer Streamline Studios. Here Mike met his future business partners: Henrik Bolle, Floris Didden and Tobias Tobias Mannewitz. Mannewitz.
O NTH ERIG HTTRA C K Karakter Design Studio started out in a co-working space under under train tracks track s near Amsterdam Centraal station. As a small group of four, the artists
Interview M Interview MiikeHill ill S H A D O W F A L L A drop ship de sign
or
zon e S had ow Fal Icreated a hyb
d d op shi
hat em ploys ploys he principles ofa V-22 O sprey and an A
-6 4 A pache,w hie hie st eing un
ue y
zo ne
V EKT AC ITYST A TIIO O N “ForK
zone S hado
Fa ,G ue rr a
an ted
a train stati n that ap pe d nt contem po ar archi ec ture and offered a u ofIS ofIS A
ho
an vision e planet.
VE HIC LETES TS “Test ng w orkflow veh cle
or
esi ns,startng ns,startng
th sp ne
to e stab sh
a f am ew ork ora esi n,then extrud ng surface s,ren
ering
an d o ve rpainting
May 2019
57
Artist Portfolio
THE THEP LOTFI LOTFISH
An au on om ous d on unit tha t op erates as a eco ding an d survei an ce dev ce Ryan G oslng osl ng ’s Offic er K.”
REDESIGNING A CULT CULT CLAS CLASS SIC
Mike talks through some of the concept design decisions that he he took while worki working ng on Blade B lade Runner 20 4 9 “I go t nv ve d w Jan uary 201 2016 6 in
h Blade Blade Runn er i e e-p duct
stag st ag e o f develop uly ul y deve
en . The scr t
ed co ce
ne d w h p
us
m scrat scratch ch
ex
On ce the feel g
as delve del ve ed, m y
as to to synt esise desi ns f
e sc
t’
Whe n start startng ng a co ce t art co ssi n I’ lb eg n y con sider ng hat the the desi n n eeds t
m
as desc
h just
ti lde sc scri ri ti s.
s and
dev ce s t at t e scri t job
ca nv as an d could desi n ev eryt erythi hi
duct du ct n desi ne
De s Ga ssn ssner er a rt rtcul culati g el g e w an d to e cit sets an d t e va
as
ualy, ual y, so m y
efs co sist sted ed o f st ry co co
scratch scratch at o ated b h l ca y an d em oti na y. I w as g ven a b an
co .
unicat cate e to to the the a ud en ce. Then , h
at in
d, I’llsi ul ulan an eo usly
ne cessary f r the desi n o alsti al stic a d fun fun
. Th s e
ei h up w hat hys calan d
e to to p ng -pon g in m y
ech ani anicalr calreq eq ui uiem em ents w lbe
rative
di t co urati ur ati fee s ri t i tuiti y. I’lldo si
e 3D b
Max , g ett g
d t st
s to to see
ch
ck ut uts s in 3ds
ajo r st uctu al
elem el em en s into an
nd quick
ycl s o f de desi si n
ati ns
ace . I’llcreate at w ldescri e
ech an calf calfuncti uncti ni ning ng of the the desi n. Th s al
s t e de si n to “ex
ess”
sel , even ev en n raw an d untex ur ured ed . This stag stag e is i
an , be cause
ut it t e structuralide deas as co uld eco
e ar
ary.. ary
Wi h the a ni at Wih ated ed m delin p ace , I’ lr lrun un som e a ni at ns p ast he diec di ec
r ( n Blade Runn er m
delve del ve ab t co ce
K’SS P RTMENT K’ RTM ENT
sw
). T e di ec
ab e to see he
Ano he r spa ce that that w as ntended to b e m ni al, t supp rtthe sc arcity tha exist exi sted in in he rld o f2049.”
May 20 19
st of m y
e a ctual ctualy y an r
ati
s,
lb
eh avi ur f he
desi n, w hich is m uch m ore i ant an e a esthetic fi sh. This m ea ns ere isn’t a c
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InterviewM Interview MikeHill K’S KT KTC EN “Inspired by the iconic original kitchen, but taking the design into a colder, more brutalisminfluenced future.”
a n d A l C c o o l n u m E n b t e i a r P t a i n i c t u m r e e n s t I n , d L L u C s 2 t r 0 i e 1 s 7 ,I , n W c a .A r n e l R r i B g r h o t s s R .E n e t s e e r r t v a e i d n m e n t I n c .
LUV’S GLASSES “With these glasses I was going for a design that was a sleek and minimal holographic interface.” interface.”
variations: if it works, it works, and so and the process of making the design look appealing can begin. I’ll do some quick UV unwraps of the model I’ve mocked up, create simple texture concepts and then render them out, either from the viewport screenshot (sometimes simple is better) a nd paintover. Alternatively, if the design needs real Alternatively, polish, I’ll get it into Corona Renderer and get some physical renders out to clarify material treatments.”
T E MEMORY ORB
MANI MA NICURE TRAY T RAY
“This is a production title for the object that Dr Stelline uses to create dream memories for replicants.”
“An oriental-inspir oriental-inspired ed piece of hardware to operate as a service station for a future manicurist.”
May 2019
59
Arti tis st Po Portfolio
found work easier to come by. They complemented mplemented each other, not just j ust artistically, but in doing all the other stuff that goes into setting up a studio: branding, schedulin ul ing g, accounting, ounti ng, and just beingorganise nised. In 201 201 0, Karakter Karakter moved to Berli n and a bigger studio for a bigger client list, and a year later worked on concepts for Killzone 3, developed by another Amsterdam developer, Guerrilla Games. It’s a collaboration that continues nti nues to this this day. Howev owever, er, in 201 3 Mi Mike decided it was time ti me to
USCFLA G SHIP A he o d esi n p ace d into a arketing
ustrati n co ntext
he elease of he
ee -to- pl play ay
video g am e Fract actur ured ed S pace. g si siuati uation s,hum an co ntext
60
May 2019
A NIMERO A DSTER “Insp red by the feel ng of classic Jap an ese ani
e,Idecide d t
create create a de sign and strate itin a
re
ea stern- nsp red style.
leave. He was in Los Angeles Angeles for a while and now lives a “nomadic lifestyle” in Europe. “Managing and growing a studio didn’t leave much time to be creative. I made the decision with the other guys to restructure the studio so I would be able to continue expanding my intere interests in in design and psychology hology.”
T H EM O N O M Y T H How does a film look from 30,000 feet If it’s any good, the dec decisions madeby the scriptwriter, riptwriter, the the director, director,
the editor, and even the colour grader, will be linked to “a central structure.” This structure is set out in a hugely influential book: The Hero with a Thousand Thousand Faces. Author Author Joseph Campbell said that, throughout history, all the best stories have shared a fundamental structure. The theory of the “hero’s journey” – the monomyth – has influenced everyone from Stanley Kubrick to the the makers of of Mag M agic: The Gathering. Understand the monomyth and you’ll understand stories. “There’s a massive misunderstanding about creativity, especially with storytelling,” says Mike. “Ultimately there’s an unbelievably powerful logic to a story’s construction, a thick tapestry of interlocking causes and effects at every level. Through its delivery, through the sensory overload of a movie, when all al l those interlocki interlocking ng elements overlap and intertwine, we, thankfully, fail to see the logical structure and will summarise it as an emotionally tional ly artistic artistic experienc experience. e. “But, as Mad M ad Max direc di rector George Miller said: Most of what wesee in the world has hidden architecture.’ And that hidden architecture is extremely logical.” Interesting stuff, so how does all this benefit your art
Intervi vi ew M ike H ill
KI LLZON LL ZONEE ANG A NGAR AR “This w as a full m ock-up for a level design f or K illzone Shadow Fall. This piece w as to sell the m ood and tone ofthe space:ships b eing suspended o n racks for launch. lau nch.”
“Ae Aesthe heticsare neve veraniniti alfact ctor
a n d A l C c o o l n u m E n b e t i r a t P a i i c n t u m r e e n s t I n , d L L u C s 2 t r i 0 e 1 s 7 ,I W , n c a .A r n e l R r i B g r h o t s s . R E n e t s e e r r t v e a i n d m e n t I n c .
w hen nI’ m con si deringadesi gn, n, ” M ike e says ys. “Th That’ s abitlikethi hinkingabo b out cosm etic m akeup akeu pbefore you you’ ve scul ulpted dahead. d. ” H ebegi gins acon oncept pt byana n alysingw hatthe desi gn n needs ds –oft en nw hilew alking gorrun unning. In his head ad, hetests var arious designs ns tosee e w hat feel els right. “Th This feel elingis alw ays ys the hesum um totaloflotsoflogical alideas as sync ncingup,rather than ansom eesot oteric hippy-di dippycreativefeel eling.” H e kno kn ow s how the design gn w illlook bythetim ehestartssim pleblocko kouts
This feeling is always the sum total of lots of logical ideas in3 dsM ax. Then en he m akes akesani an im ations problem s later on.For or now ,how it
MADAM’S DESK
lack ckoffun uncti onjum ps off the escreen. n .
that “de describethe m echa hani n ical function
w orks is far m oreim portant ntthan nhow
“A Blade Runner 2049
Thedesi gn n si m plyw on’ tw ork.”
ofthe hedesign. n. ”This stage geis im portant nt.
itlooks. It need eds to obe“real alisticand
W itho houtit, struc uctur ural cho hoicesare
fun uncti on. ”Adesk k need edtobeadesk. k.
m eani ean ingless. H e needs eedsto know the
design show ing a m ulti-layered,highly dense w orkspace. Inspiration takenfrom the original film . ”
If he’ s w orking ngonafilm ,M ikew ill sho how theani n im ati ontothedirector so o the hey ycan anseethe edesign’ s “be b eha h avi viour. ”
design n w orksliterallybeforethi hinking
A LACK L ACKOF OF FU FUNCT NCT ON
N ow the hecon oncept ptartistcan an start to
abo bout how itw orks sym bolically.
M ikeelabo borates:“I noti cethi his alot
m ake keitlookcoo ool. H edoes quick k
M ike ebelieves es theaud udienc ncew ill
w hen enlookingat m echan echani ical desi gn gn
know bylookingat itw hethe her ornot
online: often n it’ s clear ar tom etha hat the he
w hich hena nabl bles him tocreate a2D
unw raps aps–unfolding the m odel,
the hede design gnis right, even enitthe heycan an’ tsay ay
desi gns n s havebeen nm odelled d ingreat
textur ure to fi tthe e3 D object – the hen n
exac actlyw hyitm ight ht bew rong.H e
detail.But, havi vingspe pent n talotofti m e
m ovesitintoC oronaRend nderer,ifthe
ani n im ates in thecon oncept ptstage getoavoi o id
doingri ggi gingand n dani n im ation, thesheer er
designneed eds “real alpolish. h. ”
May 2019
1
Artist Portfolio WHEN DUTY CALLS
Mike on how the most satisfying moment of his career enable him to combine his two loves: design and stories “Perhap “P erhap s m y m ost inter nterest est ng
di en sion alprob em :d :desi esi ning
ojec t as desi ning he Re ri ut n ev lde si n r Callo Callo
co ex h ub levelt evelthat hat nee ded t satsf sat sfy y am e m ech ani anics cs and
Duty:In
e Warf Wa rf re. I do ’t thi
I’ve I’ ve ha d any clear
om ents of
eak hrough n m y caree caree . Ther are ar e m om ent ents s
here her e a desi design be gins
arrati arr ative a cross a h ug e si o st etch al allm lm y ca ab
f a sl
ent is m uch m ore
-b ur urn n si siuati uati n w
spe ct ctacl acle o f Eu eka !’ That’s That’ s be en
ut en s.
y exp erien ce, at least.
The ch al alen en e o n Ca lo f Dut Duty: y: In
e Wa rf e w as a
ul -
es as
desi ne r at the sam e ti e.
o com e tog tog et ether her and every hing clck cl ck s, but b ut I t k in g raltha creat cr eat ve develop
-p ayer
cam paign . Thi This gave m e the the chance
I did ha ve sev alp ts n tha cess w he e I w as in a f w stat state, e, co sideri g al allt lt e v ari us desi co nsider derat at ns at the the sam e ti e. Tha t w as v ery sat sf sfyi yi
, to to see
10 years f ex erien ce b eg n to co
et
ethe et he r as part of on e dense
desi n ch al alen en e.”
THE R VEN – I TEROR TERORBI BITT LDR DROP OPSHI SHI “I created this desi n
th Rave n Softw are, for Callof Duty Duty:Infi :Infi nite War.”
BRIDG BRI DGEE MOO M OODD PIEC
“A uick o ve rpa nt to se la ev elde si n layo ut r the ridg e desi n.
UNSC UN SCJ CK
Ac ex nterorbi nterorbital tal, ve rt rtca ca lt ltake ake -o ffan d lan ding fig hter jet jet.. The e ng ne ering eh nd this desi n w as pret y com pl plex.” ex.”
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May 20 19
RETRIBUTION
“Overview of the UNSC Retr ut uton on , a sp ace ca rr rrer er f r the p rotago ni nist st fle et n Ca lo fD uty:Infi nite Warfare.”
Interview M Interview MiikeHill ill DESERT BONEYARD “For Horizon Zero Daw n I w as asked to design a vehicle and then to put it into the context ofdegrading over centuries in a desert de sert boneyard. b oneyard.”
underlying structure of a design. I believe that the most “successful” artists and designers are the ones who approach a design or artwork holistically, holi stically, bringing bri nging a rang range of disciplines together. The different disciplines make up supportive legs – like a tripod that can hold a lot of weight because it distributes distributes that weight evenly.”
CONCEP CONC EPTT ART S CONCEPT CONCE PT DESI D ESIGN
Mike increasingly uses nuanced metaphor in his concepts. This nuance is seen in his design work on Blade Runner 2049 and, he teases, the muchanticipated remake of Dune (scheduled for release in 2020). But he’s only been able to do this since the designi signing, ng, the making makin gof the thing, thi ng, became second-nature. ond-nature. Look at M Miike’s work from 30,000 feet – work in various fields, fi elds, work work inspired i nspired byvarious disciplines discipli nes – and this this is i s what you you see: all the fancy stuff is built on very solid, but relatively simple foundations.
T E S ADOW MARS MA RS AL’S S P “A Hub level desig n for the Killzone Shadow Fall video gam e series. It’s a transform ing interorb ital spaceship . ”
“I believe there’s a hidden thread to it… I put a lot of cog cognitive ni tive energy into making a tightly knit, logical design. I can see artists who work in similar domains, that don’t necessary pay attention to this hidden architecture of logic. Many artists focus on one area, say aesthetics, and don’t look at the
Iputalot of cog ognitive ene nergyinto m akinga tightly knit logical aldesign
So, So, our final fi nal question, correct orrected ed,, no no longer careless, is now this: what separates concept art art from from concept design sign Methodically Methodicall y, fore forensicall nsically y, logically, Mike explains it thus: “Say the audienc audience doesn’t unde un derstand an artist’s work. The artist might say, ‘Well, they just don’t get it.’ Say the audience doesn’t understand a designer’s work. The designer will go awayand ‘seriousl seriously y interrogate interrogate’ what went wrong, then th en fix fi x it.” Put simply simply,, Mike says, concept art makes the artist feel good and concept design makes the audience feel good. “The “The biggest difference difference is that great concepts communicate something fundamental to a large audience, and great communication is ultimately about structure, logic, coherence, metaphor and empathy. These are the hidden ingredients that I believe make up great art.”
May 2019
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TH E EN D I S COM I NG NG.. . . .
G AM E of THRONES T H E
F I NA L
S E A S ON
ON S A L E W E D N E S DA DA Y 2 7 M A R C H
G ETYO U R RESOURCES See page 8 now!
Workshops Workshops assets are available… Download each workshop’s resources by turning to page 8. And if you see the video workshop badge, you can watch the artist in action, too.
Adv dviice from from the world’s orld’s best best arti artist sts s 66
80
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This issue: 66 Paint an iconic sci-fi character Film lover evin M cGi G ivern celebr brates A lien’ n’ s 40th h ann nniversaryby paintingRipley y asshe he’ s abo bout to con onfront nt the he deadl deadly xenom orph.
72 Create concepts with the Photoshop Pattern Stamp tool ino D ri egh ghe revea eals how this Photoshop op st apl ple can n be used d ear arl yon in the hecreati ve e proc ocess to gen enerateinteresti ngtextures.
86
80 Concept keyframe art from real life H enr nry Fon ong reveal als how to create m ood and nd dram a from a cho hosenl ocation photo provided d bya production desi gne ner.
86 Perfect the art of chiaroscuro ncov over er the m ysteries of light ht and nd shado dow w ith Patricko one nes and nd lear arnhow to harne ness their atm osphe heri c properties.
May 2019
65
Wo W orkshops P ho
ho
PAINT AINT AN IC ICONI NIC C SCISCI-FI CHARACTER CHARACTER Film lover Kevin McGivern celebrates Alien’s 40th anniversary by painting Ripley as she’s about to turn the heat up on the xenomorph… I’ve been a subscriber to ImagineFX for many years, years, so being being asked asked to illustrate the cover was a great great thrill for for me. Films are a re a huge inspiration for my work, so when I found out that the brief was to paint Ellen Ripley from Alien, I was over the moon! In this workshop, I’ll go through my entire process, documenting every step of the t he way, answering
Artist Artist
PROFILE
Kevin McGivern LOCATION: S
cotland
evin is a p rof rofessi essi na artist an d il strator rking pu
n the e
torial,
shing and
ad ve rt sing
nd ustries fo
clents cl ents such as M arvel S ud os,V ariety and P e n g u in R a n d o m
H o u se se .
many of the questions that have been asked in the past about my workflow. workf low. I’ll take you through the stages of laying down the initial initia l sketches, to creating a tight drawing, making colour roughs, my painting process and those finishing touches. I’ve found throughout my career that the more organised I am at every stage, the better the piece turns out in the end. At this point, I’ve developed a pretty solid painting process, which
I’ve found is important to give your work work a consi consiste stent nt look look and feel. feel. The first first thing for for me to do is to re-watch the Alien films. It’s important for me to do this because I want to gain a sense sen se of Ripley’s character, and the feel and mood of the first film – which is 4 0 years old! old! It also gives me the cchance hance to look for subtleties in the character that I may have missed when just watching the film purely for enjoyment.
https://ifxm.ag/kevinm
G ETYO U R RESOURCES See page 8 now!
R E S O U R C E S
PHOTOSHOP CUSTOM BRUSHES: BEST PENCIL
1
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The brief brief from from the the ImagineFX ImagineFX team was quite quite straigh straightfo tforwar rward. d. I had to illustrate the “iconic Ellen Ripley from the first Alien film” with the background of the USCSS Nostromo’s interior having a loosely sketched or hand-drawn look to it, so not as to overpower the cover. The drawing may be my favourite part of the process so I allowed myself to have some fun with some different poses for Ripley. Ripley. The main criteria c riteria I gave myself was that she had to look iconic and strong.
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May 2019
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Workshops
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May 2019
Photoshop
CREATE CO CREAT CONC NCEP EPT TS WITH THE PA PATTER ERN N STAMP TOOL revea veals ls how Lino Drieghe re
this P hotos hotoshop hop
staple can be used early on in the creative p roces rocess s to to g enerat enerate e interestin ting g textures
M ay 201 201
73
Wo W orkshops Finding a good worklife balance is hard. In the evenings, when family life calms down, I like to search and learn new ways of working. I explore new techniques to add to my various workflows and write about them on my blog to help me understand them. The Pattern Stamp tool in Photoshop Photoshop is one of my recent discoveries.
A t
PROFILE Lino Drieghe LOCATION: Belgium Lino is a part-time lecturer in concept art and freelancer with a primary skill in creating environment concepts and designs.
www.linodriegheart.com
Sometimes I use this technique to either overcome the fear of the blank blan k canvas or when the brief of a project has a lot of room for interpretation. I don’t want to be fixated on just one idea. As a concept artist it’s it ’s my job to generate a variety of ideas and concepts as quickly as possible. possible. It’s creating creating that variety variet y where the Pattern Stamp tool excels in. It generates interesting interesting textures text ures and colour variations from texture sheets.
G ETYO U R RESOURCES See pag e 8 now! now!
1
Gathering pictures
Before I start, I gather pictures to build my library l ibrary of patterns. I’m using photos that I take myself or collected from friends and family. fam ily. I’m I’m building up my own reference library by storing photos on a cloud server. That way I can use my own photos, knowing there are no copyright restrictions on t hem.
Furthermore, Further more, it creates enough room room for happy accidents to occur which can be beneficial to the early stages of the creative process. In this workshop I’ll take you through the process of creating your own custom patterns and how to apply them to a value v alue sketch. Based on the outcome of placing the patterns, I’ll refine the sketch to a worki working ng idea. idea. Finally Finally,, I bring bring that idea to a more refined finish.
Using the Pattern Stamp tool 2 The Pattern Pattern Stamp Stamp tool tool enabl enables es me to paint paint or fill my canvas with a pattern that I choose from a pattern library. Similarly to the Brush tool, I can select a brush tip to paint the pattern with. wit h. There are pre-made pre-made patterns available but for this workshop I’ll make my own. I’ve created several patterns that can be downloaded from my website under the Resources tab.
A
C B
3
Creating patterns to use with the tool
I make a new document and copy-paste photos photos from from my reference library A) . By double-clicking double-clicking my layer B) and using the Blend if… option under Layer S Style tyle C) , I can blend layers layers together by excluding colours. colours. Holding Alt while dragging will split the slider in two, resulting in a smoother transition. I make sure that I arrange ar range the photos in such a way that t hat the lighting and shadows correspond with each other. ot her.
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M
y 2 0 19
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ake the pat p at ern t eab e.
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May 2019
75
orkshop
A
6 by
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erspect ve
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h the P at ern S am p too lw
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d h elp take an idea to t e next evel.Fortho .Fo rtho e notaw no taw are ofthe ph ase,a ase,a hap y acciden tin p ai
and un expected h appen .Itturns ou tto be b enef cialto your
76
Block in the colours Iu e the
May 2019
ork ork an d gu des you on o a n ew path hatyou
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In depth Patte ttern Stamp tamp tool RESOURCES
PHOTOSHOP CUSTOM BRUSHES: ROUND
Use this on e d uring the ea rly stage s to b oc k out youri yourideas. deas.
SQUARE
A text textured ured square that’ great gr eat to refine ed ges.
COOL STAR T
Changes colou ran Changes shape. sh ape. Idealw thth Pattern Patt ern Stamp Stamp toolo rto start you rp aintings th!
MIXER
Used in comb na ti n w th the St . Cr Crea ea tes nice transition s w hen u sed on a low stren gth gth..
Rethink the story By placingthe Pattern Stamp tool I come up with the idea of havingderelict communication spheres that are partially buried under the desert hills. I use the Pattern Stamp to create the sea and clouds in the background. Because I use clippingmasks for all the coloured layers, I can easily adjust the values to the underlyinggreyscale layer.
10
Cleaning up the focal points
Once I’m happy with the overall positioningof elements, I upscale the image to a bigger resolution. This enables me to add more details on the focus points. By addingmore layers with the Pattern Stamp tool and applyinga Distort>Spherize Filter on them, I generate more details on the foreground communication hub.
Refining the figures 11 Mixamo (www.mi .mi xamo.com) is my favourite tool to add figures to my paintings. It’s an online service designed to rigand animate your custom 3D characte ch aracters. rs. It I t also also holds a librar lib raryy of pre-made models models and animations animations that that arefree fr ee for use. I pick a model and animation and screengrab the pose to add it to my painting. This model will help me to achieve the correct pose and proportions.
May 20 19
77
orkshop
the readability of the composition 12 Check g an eres g l gh tan d ado w pat er ,Ilead e view erin erin and an d m able to p
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78
May 2019
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Nextmonth IS S U E 1 7 4 H IT S U K STO RE S O N
Tuesday 23 Apri rill BATM AN ! T
S D T
C
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Plus Super Sup erm man ta talks! lks! Writer and illustrator JorgeJiméne on his comic comi c art career.
Be a be b e t t e r c omi omic c a rt rtiist Artists from DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Dynamite Dynamit e Entertainment and more help make your sequential art shine! shine!
Ink fur, Ink f ur, face fa cess and more!
Tess Fowler shares shares her 1 5 tips for for imp improv roviing your inking skills.
Captain Marvel How to paint a heroic comi co mic c art cov cover with the brilliant Jen Bartel. May 2019
© D C C o m i c s
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Workshops
Photoshop
A t
PROFILE
CONCEP CE P T Y OUR K EY F RA ME A R T F ROM ROM REA RE A L LI L IF E
Henry F ong LOCATION: Canada Henry is a concept designer and production illustrator working in cinema, TV and video game development. He’s contributed to projects at Walt Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Film, Ubisoft and Cirque du Soleil, among others.
https: ifxm.ag henryf
GETYO UR R E S O U R C E S See page 8 now!
He nr nryy F ong reveals how to create mood and drama from a chosen location photo provided by a production designer Conce Concept artists artistswho are based in the the art department duringproduction often have to render keyframe art from a real location. location. This helps when exploringideas or assessing the need for on-set dressing, set buildingor
80
M ay 2019 20 19
a CG set extension. tension. This This artwork artwork can also be used asa communicati communication on tool between various various departments set decoration, graphics, construction, cinematogra cinematographer, lighting lightingand and so on so theycan plan ahead. We’re re all working workingon on the the bigger picture, so to speak!
n
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May 2019
ado
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81
orkshop
3
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age w e’lr e’lreceive pot p oten en all caton caton ph ot
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E stab shing the corr co rrectasp ect aspect ect at o righ tfr m crucial,becau e you ra tn eeds o m app earan ce ofthe f m du esentat n o cho en o en
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82
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May 2019
am e,I eed to figu e ou tw
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6 6 7 CUSTOM
BRUSHES!
RESO U RCES
6
Laying Lay ing dow n the textures textures I’ m keen en to m ake kethi his art photoreal alistic,so oI’llbeusingphoto text xturesfrom m yperson onal photolibrary. This m ean ans
all the eelem ent nts w ill besi m ilar to m ylocation photo;ther ere’ s noneed edto paint nt thi hingsfrom scratch. h. M ake e sur urethe e text xtures m atch hthelight h tingof the e underlying ngphoto. Stud udyyou our location photo and n d ident ntify the e light h tsou ource. Fai ailtodothi his and n d
PHOTOSHOP CUSTOM BRUSHES: WET_SPONGE
you ourpaintedelem ent nts w illlookoutof place, w hich h alsom ean ans m orew orkdow n thelinew hen n thepieceevol olves. This brush is ideal for sketches and for painting in rim light in an object.
VFX
WATERCOLOR_ LOADED_FLAT_TIP
I’ll often illustrate faces with this brush.
Set build
SAMPLED_BRUSH
Useful for creating textures such as scratch marks. It’s also good for giving depth to fabrics.
Foreground detaling
OIL
7
Modifying th e location locatio n N ow I’ m enh n hancingthe edram aand n dstyle ofthe esho hot.Idecide etoturn nthe eceilingtoan n oldrus ustysky kylight h t, becau ause
Iw ant n tlight h t com om ingthrough h and n dhittingthem id-grou oundto height h ten n thedram aofthescene ne. This w illbecom om eaC G set ext xtens n si onforthe FXdepa partm ent nt. M yfocal pointis onourcha haracterim , so o I’llputall m yretro highh -tech h gadg d gets on the eri ght-hand n d w all torefl ect the enear ar-futur ure ti m eperiod w e’ re in.This w illbethe heset build for the heart depa partm ent nt.
Adding important elements into the scene – video phone, chess table, chair and so on
Painting over the Mini to give it a futuristic appearance
8
I use this to paint dirt and stains, such as on the character in step 10.
Painting Painting and redes redesig ig ning certain elem ents ents H ereI’ verepl place ethe eceil ingw ithasky kylightand n d started d m odifying gthe heM iniC ooper in the heori ginal photo,becau auseIw ant n tthi his piece etobe
m ore retrofutur uristic. Itakem yinspi pirationfrom Syd ydM ead ad’ s icon onicveh ehicledesigns from Blade deRunner, and n dtur urn n the heM initoasem i-futur uristic taxi xi cab. b.To ocom om plete thetrans n sform ati onI use thesoftRoundbrus ush hto paint theyell ow col olourona inear ar D odgelayer erontopof theveh icle,and n d resha hape pethebum per onaN orm allayer er.H ow ever er,I retain thebeaut utifulm echa h ani n ical parts that atare visibleunderne neath hthecha hassis. I also begi ginto refinesom eim portant n tstoryelem ent nts, such ch astheche hess tabl bleand n dvideo o phone.
M ay 201 201
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orkshop
Warm lights (secondary)
Cold lights (main)
Warm lights (secondary)
Establishing the lighting and mood
9
A
er ve estab shed every m aj
e to
al se t e lgh l gh
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n
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ere w
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10
C harac harac er are on e ofthe ofthe m ost
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n a keyf am e.
ltake t e op ort
alk overto the the cos um e depar
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o see ifthey fth ey ve a ead y desi d esign ed charact character cos n
e,so I can p ut
y sho sho tto add an ext a layerof
eal m
n m y scene.Iu cene. Iu sual y s artb
painti g m y char ch aracterw erest g si o
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ette.I’ve fou d
e a very ef cien tw ay to create an age
11
atreads
el
A djustin djusting g the the fina finall ligh lightin ting g in in the the keyf keyfra rame me T
create dep h
y f alad n
rush to glaze o ver
84
em
ent
e s ot.Iu e backgrou back grou
May 2019
age on
e lgh l gh
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al y use t e C olor P cker
e scene.I en e.Ive ve al o
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and an d then
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a very goo d chan ce t ey’las ey’lask k you yo u o arou d o
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n he scene.H scene.H ere,Ive e,Ive m oved a few
e foregrou d elem entt en tto em ph as se t e per p er
ectve ect ve of
ere’ ngs
es
Final highlight and touch-up on the character – the keyframe’s focal point
13
Placing highlights ecause Ive Ive l cked do
ere t e key e to
ch
ghtan gh tan d
n
e lgh lgh
g set setup ,Ik ow
e secon ary lgh l gh
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are.N ow
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g.For ard
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aces
gh gh tan d u e a S oftbru h to pai p ai to verthe area.For m
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Final touch-up, adding additional 14 textures textures and colour adjustment D ob
g the f
als agesI
ual y use a hard hard R ou nd brush
g outsom ou tsom e hard edges and an d h gh gh
n the f cal
po ntarea. ntarea.Ial Ial o use the C urve ,C olor A djust entan L evel oo
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May 2019
85
Workshops
F g e
aw
g: ar artt 7
PERF ECT ECT T HE A R T OF CHI CHIA ROS CUR CURO Patriick J Patr
ones on es explores the mysteries of light and shadow,
and demonstrates how to harness their atmospheric atmospheric properties Welcome to part seven of my eight-par ht-partt workshops for ImagineFX on drawingthe figure. Today we’ll be drawingAlana, while placingthe focus on chiaroscuro. This is the composition of light and shadow to create depth, but more importantly, mood. Having explored depth usingvalue in part five we can now build on that knowledge and delve deeper into the artistic realms of of darkness darkness.. Chiaroscuro creates an emotional atmosphere in both art and film. Think of the films that engaged us with their skilful play of light and dark. A few that come to mind are Blade Runner, Eraserhead and Sunset Boulevard. These type of movies are sometimes referred to as Film Noir,
A t
PROFILE Patriick J Patr
ones on es
LOCATION: Au stra Patrick s a figu rative art sta uthor and teacher teacher.. H s art technique b oo ks, T he Anatomy Anatomy o f St Styl yl and T he Sci-f -fi&F i&F antasy T echni echniques ques of Patr Patrck ck J. Jones er ere e bothaw ar arddnn ng be stsel ers.H atestt bo ok on draw ates draw ng the figure, F gures fr m Life, s no w on sale.
ww w.p jart wo rks .co m
GETYO UR R E S O U R C E S See page 8 now!
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In depth Figuredraw drawiing: par artt 7
M IS S E D A N IS S U E T ur n t o 4 6 t o c o mp le c o let t e y o ur r c c o o lle lec c t t io n o f Pa P a tr ic ic k k ’s f ’s f ig g u ure - d r a w ing ing w o r k k s ho p s . T he y ’r e e s s e nt ial ia l re a d in ing g f o r all a ll a ar r t t ist ist s !
May 20 19
87
Workshops Note how chiaroscuro light
Once again chiaroscuro
leadsour eye from the elbow
sim plifies our com position,this
through the hips,in a gestural
tim e creating dram atic focus
curve to the big toe.
along the arc ofthe back.
meaning‘dark film’, but their moody lightingcan be seen in centuries-old oil paintings such as the startlingAn Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph Wright, painted in 1 768, 768, which which is housed in the National Gallery in London. Films with artistic light are often the collaborative work of a director and a cinematographer. When I first watched Apocalypse pocalypseNow I was entranced entranced by the cinematog cinematography and how how it created a constant onstant mood flowingfrom one scene to the next. As an artist it felt like the emotional and gestural flow through great figurative art.
SIN IN G LELIG IG HTSO U RC E In the two photographs at the top of thi this page wecan see how clearl clearly y the figures stand out from the background. They are well defined, dimensional and atmos atmosphe pheric ric in in tone, and for that reason they hold our attention. This is due to the single directional light source and a dark, uncluttered background. My lights are positioned positioned high high to recreatean artificial afternoon sun, in a dark studio background. One benefit of artificial light is that it’s unchanging and remains constant with no dimmingdue to passingclouds. However, you don’t don’t even need need to buy a lightingsetup if you want to create a chiaroscuro photoshoot. All that’s that’s needed is a sunny sunny day and a dark background. An old abandoned factory with a hole in the roof will give you the right light, or any indoor space with an open roof. Add a cell phone on a makeshift tripod and you can createa professional ional photoshoot. photoshoot. And so with our model posed we begin our own chiaroscuro adventure of shifting shiftingem emotional shadow shadows and light usingour humble charcoals and pencil pencils. Let’s get started…
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M ay 2019 20 19
1
The beauty beauty of living separ separat ate e liv liv es
2
P lotting structures structures in the composition
Here we have our wonderful photo and pose to draw from. But how can a drawingcompete with such a great photograph? Well, it doesn’t have to. Photographs and drawings live separate lives in the world of art. With that thought in mind we’re free to interpret rather than copy the photo.
With my willow charcoal I plot out the figure with two major structures: a longtube for the upper torso and a ball for the hips. Workingfrom bigshapes to small I add the scapula (wingbone) and below the scapula I indicate the serratus and latissimus bulges as a convergingV-shape.
In depth Figure drawing: part 7 3
Tak Ta king aho listicap p ro ach
I continue addingsmaller structural shapes to define areas such as the hip bone. Structural shapes are simple versions of anatomy. If I were to draw the intricacies of each anatomical shape as I go, the drawingwould get so complicated that I might lose the sense of the whole figure.
PENCIL G en eral erals s softch softch arcoal en ci ci,P ,P ttch arcoa pe nci
CHARCOAL G ene al als s com press pressed ed ch arcoa lst cks
ERASERS Kn eadab e eraser er,m ,m ono erase ,electric erase en cileraser,grip e ase
MISCELLANEOUS P ape rst rstum um ps,t ss ssue ue p a p e r, r, w a s h e d a n d dried sham
y leather
cloth,new sprint
4
T h ep o w ero fstructur cture
From here webegin to reap the the benefits benefits of strong strong structure. As I go over the drawing’s simple shapes again it’s easy to add smaller anatomical details such as the ribs, the sacrum pad above the gluteus, and the two serratus notches visible at the left of the breast.
S p o ttin g flicke ckering cha ch ang es
I smudge the charcoal into softer forms. In life drawingclasses I have my students step back at this stage and glance back and forth at the model until they see every ver y f lic lickering keri ngch chang ange betw betwee een their draw dr awing ingand and the posein order to make make adjustments. Time spent analysingforms early is time saved later.
May 2019
89
orkshop
6 om
Assessing my progress h alldue ld ue d
gence gen ce do e Istep
e artfor a f alasses
ack agai
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ean Iw antexactprop orton orton ,Im ,Im
ply m aking
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8 7
The figure has become overly gestural m st
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g do
n easy e asy s eetn w as Ico
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n
y qu estto
ve m ade the rai rai ed capu a t o ou ded .K eep n are a f e balan ce ofb ack an d ort ,w
90
May 2019
e pen ci
ch ar scuro.Im scuro.Im g over
y selel -
ake every l e m ore ore ges d
The magical chiaroscuro N ow on o the the sub sub ectathan ectathan d:the d:the m agical
atst uct
ch can fal fallapartatan lap artatan y t
e and an d ges
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king ofthe o fthe si gle s
ho w ttum blesacrossthe ossthe form al
ger .T o stud y t e po
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asI blend w
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9
Creating a sense of sfumato Im ake he shadow shadow sd arkerthan Ineed so so Ican
ge t e lgh l gh tb et er.N ado
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caled caled s um ato an d givesu bo
at osph ere and a clearerfocu cont as
g up per gu e.O
ore ore inter nteres
11
on the curves 10 Straights ve f al y ad essed at esky scap
e t e m sty q al y o fthe
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g a s aigh tli e acr ss
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atw e do n’tshow
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y to a l e.T
e m ale fgu f gu e to ad d a m ore ore rugged oo k,bu tt
e fem ale fgu fgu e,t o.
Bringing in detail, but the drawing’s not done yet… A
era er a rou d o ft
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g becom esa es a lgh lgh era ai .Iad d som e head o
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h an a n eraser,t en p enci en cilin e dep
,m
d and an d at
May 2019
etai
ph ere.
91
orkshop
effect 12 Theh achiaroscuro block of qu are com pres pres ed charcoalIl charcoalIlay n a ges
alab
actbackgr actb ackgrou
.A rt s,
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esbl es black,to
ate ch ar sc add
g t e f gu es orw ard or
o ef ect.T
e ech
g text e a so
uggested m ovem ent o the the f gu e.
Placing texture against flesh 13 Ico ue text g t e backgrou d w h tissue,sha kn eadable eraser aser,t on y ad a paper
92
product of an artist’s artist’ s hand 14 The ere Icallt e draw draw g f ed.T ed .T e phot ph ot graph y leat ercloth an
g m y h and an d asIm as Im ake shapes o avoid epet on .T ext e not n ot
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May 2019
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In depth Figure drawing: part 7
CHI ARO CHI ROS SCU CURO RO STUDY SHEET
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NE X XT T MO NT H! P ar t 8 t 8:
ubd uing thebackg round w ithm uted arks hel sto o the he m oreco cont ntrasting fi ureforw ar
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Welcome to the Blood Temple
15 Aslongas long asthe light comes comes mostly mostly from f rom powerfu powerf ul single sour source ce the figure figur e will wil l appear app ear to to be carved car ved from f rom lig li ght and shadow, shadow, reg regardless ard less of time or place. For my oil painting, Blood Temple I worked with chiaroscuro to create the mood of a misty twilight scene.
May 20 19
9
gr eat r eads!
O N SALE N O W
j u s t
5.99
Artist’s C hoice hoice Aw Aw ard
rt eso urces w th a fi ve-star ve-star ating ece ves the I ag ne rtst’ rt st’s C ho ce aw ard
T
e ates e y
es e
es e p agi F X am P R O D U C T O N T E S S T
SOFTWARE
96 Vue Pro 96 Vue P rof fessio essional nal We see what impr improveme ovements have have bee been made to the software softwarethat thatenables enablesyou to create infinitely varied environments. TRAINING
99 Rendering/Blending Rendering/Blending Artist Anthony Jones helps you with some small improvements that will make a big difference to every paintingyou make.
10 1 Marvelocity:Th Marvelocity:The e Marvel C om ics Art ofAlex ofAlex Ros Ross Relive almost three decades of high-energy comic book art by a master of the medium. 10 1 The Pre-Raphaelite P re-Raphaelite Language Language ofFlow ofFlow ers Discover the meanings behind symbolic flowers in well-k ll -known nown Pre-Raphaeliteart.
BOOKS
10 0 Beginner’s Guide to Sketching:Robots, Vehicles & Sci-Fi C onc oncepts Learn how to develop your ideas into futurist utur istic ic cre cr eationswith this gui guide. de.
RATINGS EXPLAINED
Magnificent
Great
Good
Poor May 2019
Atrocious 95
Reviews We found that Vue’s Path Tracer tool was slow to respond to watery surfaces.
Vue Professional LAND AHO AHOY We see what improvements have been made to the software that enables you to create infinitely varied environments Bentley/E y/E -on Web https https:// :// info info.e-onsoftwar .e-onsoftware.com e.com Price 75 (monthly), 750 (annual) Company Bentle sed
U
n fi
s lke lke A va ar, ue
ha s be en an ind ustry stap or
any years.It s.It
rsta
ca ti n to o ff
eco sys em s,alow s,alow ng an d g na
the e.I
any to d g i
s dirty in d
evo ve d into a t
h e ase of
as he
al
ki stap stap e,
orkfow orkf ow al ays being
s ke y fea ture.I s cu ren cl en nclud e 3 4 3 In
ust es as w ellas
N a u g h ty ty D o g a n d S a a tc h i
S a a tc h i
E-on has streamlined Vue’s range of tool options into three packages: Creator, Professional and Enterprise, with monthly subscription costs ranging from under 20 to 9 9 (there are also annual subscription options available). We took a look at what Vue Professional offers artists and small
96
M
y 2 0 19
studios, particularly from a productivity point of view. The first thing you’ll notice is the new UI. Previously, its interface was a gloomy monochrome affair, although coloured icons helped on the clarity front. Thankfully, you can now define the colours in the general UI. The main new feature is Substance SBSAR file support. The Substance toolkit has become a standard feature in 3D and so this is one of the features that’s sure to boost your productivity
Th e e o s s te s ve e e n i p r o ve d n d r e a lol o t e a s ie ie r – nd fun – to wo r k wit
levels. Unfortunately, it won’t read all the exposed parameters in the Material Editor, but hopefully this is only a software patch away. The program’s Path Tracer tool is still a bit slow on glass and water, but there are noticeable improvements in other areas. The general render speed has received a nice boost in the Standard Vue renderer, too. This also goes for the ecosystems, which have been improved and now make it a lot easier – and fun – to work with your scene’s vegetation, especially when painting. Vue also has the functionality for the industry standard OpenVDB volumes in the Material Editor and, like Terragen, now offers VDB export and import. This means you can import
Art tool ools s Software oftware IFX Rev - CaptionIFX Rev - CaptionIFX Rev - CaptionIFX Rev - CaptionIFX Rev - CaptionIFX Rev - Caption
Vue Professional ships with compositing tools, but they could use some customisation options for users who are colour-blind.
VDB clouds from, say, Houdini, and they’ll render quickly quickly because the density is already baked in the mesh. However, despite the new features, some things are an issue. If Vue wants to live up to its claim of boosting productivity, then it has to address the random crashes. Lost work is lost
Features S hips P antF act actory ory N ew vers versoning oning sys em S u b s a n ce ce S B S A R support I m p ro ro v e d P a t
work, no matter how often you
T acer
autosave. E-on also needs to do
func ti na ty
V D B /O /O p en en V D B
something about Vue’s habit of hogging system resources to the extent of bringing everything else to a halt. This occurs even in low-res preview preview renders. It’s clear E-on needs to offer more m ore if it’s to stand a chance in a market where, for example, example, Clarisse Clarisse 4 at ¤ 499 a year can do more for less money. If Vue is to be one of the applications left standing in a market where Clarisse, Houdini, UE and Unity are the order of the day in terms of workflow and productivity, E-on has to step up its game. Vue has many good points when used in isolation, but put the software in a workflow setting and its crash-prone nature counts against it.
System Requirements PC: W W
ndow s64 -bi
n d o w s 7 ,W n d o w
8 orW ndow s10 ulti -co re proce ssor I n te te l Q u a d C o re re o r C o re re 7 ) 8 G B o f R A M orb et er,atleast4 G B of ree hard drive space,graphics card h atleast4 G B VR AM
Mac: O
S X 1 0 .1 3 o r
be tter,m ult ult-co -co re processor proces sor IntelQ IntelQ uad C o re re o r C o re re i7 ), ), 8 G B o f R A M o r b e t te r atleast4 G B off ee hard d ri ve spa ce, graphics card w
ha
e a t 4 G B o fV fV R A M
Rating
Vue’s Path Tracer tool has been updated for this release.
M ay 2019 20 19
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TR T R Y 5 IS S UE S F OR
5
BIG SAVI SAVIN NGS ON OU OUR R BEST EST-S -SELL ELLING ING M AGAZ GAZINE INES S SAVE
85
SAVE
82
SAVE
83
SAVE
83
SAVE
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SAVE
80
w w w .m y favourite y favourite m a g a zine zine s .c o.uk o.uk /s pring pring 192
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Inspiration Training Inspiration Training It’s easier than you think to render smooth, natural blends in your paintings, as Anthony J ones shows.
Rendering starts with practice, says AJ , as he demonstrates the basic exercises that will help you improve your painting skills.
It’s not just about which tool you use: AJ drills down into the details of setting up brushes to making blending quicker and easier.
Boredom is a very real obstacle to achieving great great renders: AJ has some hard-won wisdom to share on how to keep yourself motivated.
end eri ng B l end i ng SMOOOOTH Anthony J ones reveals reveals the small small tweaks you can make make to your painting process that will make a big difference to your art nthon onyy Publisher A nth
J ones
Price
4.50
Format Download We Web b www.artstation.com/robotpencil
hile som som e video tutorials are
W
like li ke epi c sag sagas, as,of off fering a big -picture view view of creating art,this video
from Anthony Jones (‘AJ’) is m ore like a short story.The tale that AJ relates here is how you can im prove your rendering w ith ease and a little practice,m practice,m aking aking your p aintings aintings look sm oother and and m ore realis realistic. tic.
Three pithy chapters give you a guide to what’s needed. First up is a basic exercise to create natural blends. AJ shows you you how to break break down forms into simple shapes to get your initial values down, then start to blend them together. There are a few different methods he uses, but his main point in this video is that many artists and students simply don’t practise this painting stage enough. J ust crafting out simple forms to the best of your ability can teach you a lot. The second chapter chapter sees sees AJ get into the mechanics of rendering in Photoshop. He drills down into brush settings such as Shape Dynamics and
Topics covered
aturalb len
s
B asicblend ing techni ues ng s B rushsetti
Pen ressure
eep ing you r focu s
Length 6 2m inutes
Rating
Flow, showing how they affect the results, so you can make your brushes blend-friendly’. He H e also reveals his preferred settings for blending with the Smudge tool, and discusses how pen pressure settings can tear up the rule book when you’re painting with a graphics tablet. AJ ’s point in the third third chapter, however, is critical: no matter how much you practise and tweak your brushes, the crucial ingredients are time and patience. You’ll have to invest a lot of time to achieve great rendering, so he suggests ways to help retain your focus while you work, so that you avoid taking shortcuts through impatience. There’s a fourth video without narration that brings all of this together, as as AJ paints a head with with immaculate blending. His aim with this video is to show that virtually anyone can add polish to their paintings with a little dedication and enough patience – and with these simple techniques, he succeeds admirably.
ARTIST ARTI STPROFI OFILE LE
ANTHONY JO N E S AJhas been workingin the entertainment rtai nment industry industry since 2007, executing uti ngprojects projects for some of the biggest studios studios in the industry, includingBlizzard, Sony Santa Santa Monica Moni ca,, Paramount Paramount Pictures, Pictures, asbro Toysand Western Costumes. AJis Ji s a parttime instructor and educator at robotpenc robotpenciil.net. .net. e’sbeen been teaching chi ngsince since201 0, and and has educated and helped thousands thousands of aspiringartists to begin their careers. e stil still does freelance freelanceas a way to stay fresh and have new things to teach. AJ’s mantra mantra is that talent is earned, not given. www.robotpencil.net
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Revi ew s
From sketch to fully realised concept…J ohn Frye Frye passes on his expert knowledge.
Qianjiao Ma covers the use of perspective and lighting as he sketches the interior of an abandoned spaceship.
Be g inne r’ r’ss Gui Guide to S ke tch tc hing : Robots Robots,, Veh Ve hic le s & S c i F Fii Conc Conc e pts pts HARD LINE Brush up on your basic drawing principles and learn how to develop them into futuristic creations with this practical guide Editor Marisa Lewis Publisher 3dtotal Publishing Price 24 Web www.3dtotal.com Available Now
S
cience fiction is a constant
surface’ concept designs. Or to put it another way, the industrial surfaces that give spaceships, mechs and robots that sleek, manufactured feel. And while these techniques are used here to realise outlandish creations, they can also be easily transferred to more domestic mechanical objects. Broken down into four main sections, this book walks artists through the basics of selecting drawing materials (including a rather worrying observation that some art
source of inspiration for traditional and digital artists – just take a look
at our regular FXPosé sections. owever, owever, these ideas can be just as intimidating as they are fascinating if an artist doesn’t know how to realise them on the page. With this guide though, 3dtotal Publishing has brought together a collection collection of 1 leading sci-fi illustrators and concept artists to lay down the fundamentals
J ohn Frye covers the essentials of lighting lighting and materials using a variety of basic objects.
of drawing and help readers make the leap into the other-worldly.
What separates this companion from others in 3dtotal’s range, including a guide to characters and creatures, creatu res, is a focus on drawing ‘hard-
It’s a strong primer that both new and seasoned artists would benefit from reading
Concept designer and illustrator illustrator Ang Chen generates a range of fl at thumbnails, before choosing to develop one into a distinctive wheeled household robot.
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students question to need to draw by hand), all the way through to advanced projects that demonstrate how software can accentuate your illustrations. The two chapters in between include a look at projects that put theory into practice, and a section that explores how ideas can be quickly iterated and brought to life. It’s the ‘Getting Get ting Started’ Started ’ chapter, though, that contains the art theory substance which illustrators would do well to study. Covering core techniques such as lighting and perspective, this section is a strong primer that both new and seasoned
artists would benefit from reading. Later chapters demonstrate how these concepts can be pushed and tweaked to create everything from lunar buggies to robot house servants, but if you haven’t got the basics down, your efforts are going to suffer. It’s not all rigorous art exercises, though. Dotted throughout the projects are insights from the contributors that remind you to keep your concepts grounded, even if you’ve mastered the drawing essentials. After all, the best science fiction vehicles and robots contain an element of realism and practicality that help viewers accept what they’re seeing. And with the aid of these practical illustration tips, you’ll be able to start doing just that, too.
RATING
Inspiration B Inspiration Book ooks s M arvel arvel ci y:T y:T e M arvel arvel C om s A to fA x R os LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT Relive almost three decades of high-energy comic book art by a master of the medium Authors Chip Kidd & Geoff Spear Publisher Titan Price 35 Web www.titanbooks.com Available Now
A
lex Ross only ever had one dream: to draw and paint superheroes. For nearly 30 years now he’s being doing
exactly that, bring to life some of the biggest Marvel characters, including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and many more.
This collection goes right back to the beginning of Alex’s journey as an
Alex’s pencil sketches of Captain America, when the role is taken over by Bucky Barnes following the murder of Steve Rogers.
T he P
artist, complete with a batch of charming Spider-Man drawings he scribbled at the age of five, and charts his development into a leading comics illustrator. Already hitting a standard most of us can only dream of before he was even 20, Marvelocity also includes critical feedback from the man himself on his own work, not all of it favourable. Broken down by projects, properties and influences, the bulk of this book is a sometimes overcrowded visual barrage of high-octane art that ranges from sketches to paintings and sculptures. Even if you’re not the most well-seasoned comic book fan, the quality of art and storytelling on display is admirable in itself.
Alex conveys the futuristic feel of Spider-Man’s updated costume, complete with glowing logo.
Rounding off the collection is an exclusive short comic written and illustrated by Alex. Without giving away the ending, the story captures the sense of wonder that got him into comics to begin with. A fascination which he, in turn, has passed on to generations of readers.
RATING
-R ap hael e L ang uag e o
er
FLORAL TRIBUTE Discover the true meanings behind symbolic flowers in well-known Pre-Raphaelite paintings with this bouquet of stunning images Author Debra Mancoff Publisher Prestel Price 13 Web https://prestelpublishing.randomhouse.de Available Now
T
o the untrained eye, the inclusion of flowers in paintings by the PreRaphaelite Raphaelite Brotherhood
could appear to be little more than decoration. decoration. H owever, owever, an appreciation of the paintings by the 19th century artists will take into account the symbolism inscribed into the most humble of details, of which flowers are some of the most nuanced.
In this collection, some of the most famous Pre-Raphaelite paintings are
Here, J ohn William William Waterhouse depicts water lilies in human form as nymphs luring Hylas to his doom.
studied in an effort to tease out the hidden visual language of their flowers. Whether it’s the treacherous lilies found floating in Hylas and the Nymphs or the trail of poppies dropped in Night with Her Train of Stars, there’s a whole floral lexicon just waiting to be unpacked. Each E ach image is contextualised to give the reader a better understanding of the imagery. Also accompanying the bulk of the paintings are cropped sections that detail the flowers of the image in question. These provide a valuable opportunity to study the delicate brushwork of the great artists, as well as demonstrating the most indispensable of the brotherhood’s doctrines: “To produce thoroughly good paintings and statues.”
Learn the significance of orange blossom, in J ohn Everett Millais’ The Bridesmaid.
RATING M
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See page 8 now!
W orkshop orkshops s ass assets are availab available… le… fyou see the the video
orkshop orkshop bad ge hen you can w atch the ar st
n acti on .Tu n to to p age 6 to see how you can g etho d o fthe fthe video
Traditional Artist
Inspiration and advice from the best pro artists 10 8
10 4
114
This issue: 10 4 Traditional art FX Posé Explorethi this month’s selection of the finest traditional art, which has been sent in in by you! 10 8 W orks orksho hop: p:D D raw raw a range range oftextiles & textures Tim Tim Von Rueden develops a stunning fantasy portrait in pencil ncil that showcases different different material rials s and surfac surfaces. 114 First Im pressions pressions: : Eric Fortune This US artist on how social media succ success can lead to artistic artistic self-development, and and his his hopes for society’s future. future. May 2019
103
T ad
A
FXP FX P os
2
SHOWCASING THE FINEST TRADITIONAL ARTISTS
Hannah Yata LOCATION: US MEDIA: Oil paint,
gesso, charcoal, graphite
WEB:
www.hannahyata.com
Han ah ’s art art erw eave ea ves s na ur , yt y, arch arch ety s an d t e divi e . She Sh e crea crea vi an t drea cap es tha tha t exp de f m e can vas. 1
1
EDEN
“I used a di ct ap
ac h for t s pai p ai
starti g rst th g stur ll s a d q uick y addi g n c ur. I bui b uit t up e sc e usi an y layers of oilp ai .”
104 10 4
May 20 19
,
2
LUMINARY
Ano
er p ainti g
at w as
uit uit m
sty st y i
no ne s. P en s w ere ere g azed he aviy aviy s p ec e to create a g ng effec . The nishe d can va s m ea sured 40x68 inc he s.”
3
IN THE VALLEY OF THE MOON
“I used a m
e o f a diec di ec t ap
ac h h ere,
h ve ry tte tte un de ai . The Th e b ds w added added on e b y one . Feelf ee o count them and let
e know how
any here here are! are!
Want to submit your work Visit http://ifxm.ag/getinifx Visit http://ifxm.ag/getinifx
at
3
Want to submit your work Visit http://ifxm.ag/getinifx Visit http://ifxm.ag/getinifx
May 2019
105
Traditional Artist FXPosé 1
106
May 2019
Want to submit your work Visit http://ifxm.ag/getinifx Visit http://ifxm.ag/getinifx
Inspirati onal art
Christy Tortland Gouache,w atercolour,gold atercolour,gold l eaf WEB: w w w .christytortland. christytortland.com LOCATION: US MEDIA: Gouache,w
Christy’s a freelance illustrator and writer whose art focuses mostly on powerful, vulnerable and brave women. Her work has recently decorated the tail of a commemorative commemorative F-3 fighter jet jet of the Royal Royal Netherlands Air Force. Force.
2
paper. It was a challenge
sanctuary and a special
depicts the queen of the
to capturing the
tiger, who survived
gods meeting her future
despite many obstacles.”
husband, the deceitful
ORGANIC
“For this I used gouache on cold press
juxtapos juxtapositi ition on of organic organic
GOLDEN EYES
“This painting is dedicated to a special
versus synthetic, and the shape of the form and figure.”
3
3
1
HERA’S COMPASSION
“This gouache painting
eus. He’s disguised disguised himself as a bird in order to gain her affections.”
2
4
4
SNOW WHITE “My take on a classic fairy tale princess, created
using watercolour and gold leaf.”
W ant ant to to subm subm it your your w ork? Visit Visit http://ifxm.ag/getinifx http://ifxm.ag/getinifx
May 2019
7
Tradi raditi tio onal Arti tis st Workshop
108
May 2019
In depth Textil extiles & textu extures res Alongside his traditional draw ing setup,Tim use Photoshop to help help him finalise his chosen sketch.
Pencil
Photoshop
DRAW A RANGE OF TEXTILES & TEXTURES IM V ON R UE E N e v e l o p s a p e n c ilil i a g e t a t s h o w a s e s if fe r e n t a te t e r i ls n d s u rf r f e s , w il e f u llff ill in g o n e o n v e n ti tio n a t te n d e e s r e u e s t fo r a r t i e r s it
O
ne of the workshops I used to teach was called I Can Draw ANYTHING. It was rooted in the idea that as artists we can draw literally anything, but the real trick was learninghow to believe in that. My students rang ranged from basic to intermediate skill level, but with some encourag ncouragement they learned learned how empoweringyour mind can give you belief in your own abilities. This led into learninghow to learn and how to train your eye to really see.
Materials and textures are the perfect example of thi this and because of that, I’ll include a lot of material studies in this workshop. Over the next few pages, this workshop will go over a similar learningset to showcase how to distinguish the materials you’re creatingand the attributes that are unique to each.
Put yourself into unfamiliar setti settin ngs and see beyond them, them, into the unknown
Tim ’ s draw ing kit containsa range oftraditional and m echanical pencils.Its com pact size m akesit perfect for taking ta king to co nventions.
Breaking Breakingthe processdown into into the simplest of terms, I believe in taking four simple steps for drawing drawingany material or texture. The The stepsare observe, analyse analyse, interpret interpret and execute. First, First, you need to observethe the world around you. This is the easiest step because we’re constantly onstantl y looki looking around us and seeingwhat’ eing what’s there. Put yourself into unfamiliar settings and seebeyond them, into the realm of the unknown.
However, you must also analyse what you’re seeing, eing, look at different different subject matters and determine determine two key factors. Is this object reflecting/ absorbinglight, and does this object have a smooth or rough rough surface surface? Every material rial can be placed on these these two spectrums, and therefore, can be interpreted on how to capture its likeness. So a metallic smooth surface will have a higher contrasted look while a wool sweater will be matte in appearance with a focus on the surface texture. With time and enough practice, you’ll be able to draw anything. For this workshop, I’m demonstratingthis knowledge as I draw different materials and textures. I want to show how to use these different different elements to createa beautiful and engagingpiece of art. Tim i s an inde Tim independ endent, ent, travell i ng convention arti st. e ai aims ms to insp inspi re and mentor others through hard work whil whil e encouragi ouraging ng ambiti tions. ons. Seehi his s artt at www. i nstag ar nstagram. ram.co com/vonnar nnart. t.
ay 20
109 10 9
Tr Traditional Art Artist W Wo orkshop
1
The imp importance rtance of thu thumbnail nailin ing g
w
o ca
Thum
alking
na s he p o
2
en erate erate v ariety an d crea crea ve fl w
ure ure yo ur ustrat ustrat
he n think ng ab ut
. I ha d t s idea n m y he ad for ov r a year ye ar aft
h a co nve nti n at en dee, w ho
ch aracter aracter as a m ajestc ajest c ang el. W h thi this
ksho , he r
an ed to to crea crea e that en t ha s co
e!
I reco
en d usi using your ow n ref refer eren en ce p ctur ctures
eca use use you can create create a m nterpretat
an ed to to see m ore ch aract aracters ers of col ur
ep esen ed in the fantasy en e. So eve r sinc e then I’ve I’ve
Creating your own references , an d av
e diect di ect po se and
d any a ny c
h t and an d if you yo u ca ’t take your
yr
t issues. Ha ve un
m just f your yo urse se , i clude
en ds: he y m ay b ng som ething
ha t you w eren’t con sider ng
etter to
e sh
ef e.
MATERIALS PAPER
Strathmore Mixed
Media sketchbook
OO S
2H traditional pencil, 0.2mm mechanical
4
pencil
Mono Zero Eraser
– circle tip
Kneaded eraser
S OF OF T W
RE
iPad Pro, Photoshop
110
3 o
Digital Digita l thumbn thumbnailing ailing Al
ug h I m
ai t n Pho
sty st y w
k tradi tradi
aly aly, I taug taug ht h
sho p so I st lhave lh ave a l ve
r ge stur stur
Beginning on the underdrawing Af r I’m I’m set w
e i ag e a t so
h
s di talunde talun de
ai
, I p ri
e p er ce t Op ac ty. I lke lke o ke ep t
at it ac s as a f unda
ht
n rat er t an a fi ali ag e.
d c tur g a rg r i ustrati n rst n a di talform talfo rm at. This ena es m e to to ake no r adjus adjus en s easiy easiy – or
I str y b ev e in in tt g tuiti n take tak e ve r in the creati creati n p oc ess so so I w k w h the underdr underdraw ng ore
ca ry ut ag
as a
May 2019
essive ei ag
g f ec essa ry! ry!
uide
. You’l Yo u’llsee lse e
w
y f al
sult sl
y va ries. es .
In depth Textiles & textures
S t rt g on t
ki
For this w orkshop orkshop I ’ m separating eparating each m aterial aterial so so that it ’ s clearer to see the prog ression along th e w ay,
6
D et i
gt
W ith a goo d value foundation ofher skin in place,I place,I beg in to add the details
beg inning inning w ith skin,w hich ab sorbs light unless it’s
and contours contours ofthe underlying anatom y and structure. tructu re.Th Th is is heavily dep endent
covered in a coating such as sw eat or w ater.So I’ll shade
on the reference for the th e nuances,so b e aw are ofthat during your p hotoshoot
it to give it a m atte appearanc appearance. e.W W ith a darker skin skin shade,
sess session.I’ m also depicting a valued face w ith less contrast contrast so that th at the character
I like to w ork in layers layers to build bu ild up that darker value.
stands out am ong the other m aterials that are in the scene. scene.
7
L ook
g or h
pir ton t on
My art inspirations include include Mucha and Harry
C larke,so larke,so I use use this illustration as as an oppo op po rtunity to show case a different w ay ofcreating ofcreating hair agains ag ainst m ore
8
E
g
h
c pt es
view er’s
ent on
W ith the tim e-consum ing outlining finished,I hed,I decide to darken darken the hair and and
realistic m aterials.I start start by b y outlining the hair strands, strands,
add gradients throug hout hou t the hair to help drive the view er’ s focus.Hair is alw ays
alm ost like spagh etti.I’ m focusing on the flow and
tricky for artists,bu t m y advice is to blo ck it out in shapes,even w ith realism .Th e
arrangem arrangem ent ent ofhair as shapes. shapes.
less you focus ocu s on creating every ever y individual individu al strand,the better! bette r!
May 2019
1111 11
Traditional Artist ArtistWorkshop Workshop
10
A dd ng det i
o
gs
Feathers Feather s and w ings are so m uch fun to draw ,and
I recom m end having references to hand so that you
9
D r w ng the
gur ’s
ngs
Feathers Feather s tend tend to be less reflective and m ore focused on the texture,w texture,w hether
can capture them accurately (w ings have a specific patterning to them ).Usually, ually,they begin w ith sm sm aller
sm ooth or rough.So I begin creatin creating g them w ith a value value pass and light blo cking to
feathers leading into larg er ones for the th e w ingspan.I also
help save tim e.It’ s a m ore efficient w ay ofw orking.I turn m y pencil to the side to
enj oy creating the im perf per fections they m ay have,such
give m e m ore surface area area to w ork w ith.
as a w edge ofspace or a cut.
11
L ying he oun d
on of he t f
The staffw as m eant eant to be po lished lished m arble w ith gold accents.These ref reflective lective prop erties are in high contrast to the m ore m atte elem elem ents ents
such as skin,feathers eathe rs and the fabric ab ric arou nd it.I’m creating this effect w ith hig hi g her contrasts contra sts and a focus on highli hig hlig g hts littered littere d throug thro ug hout.But ho ut.But first,I’m choosing to outline the staf staff,w hich w ill give m e a strong foundation to start p utting dow n m y details.
112 11 2
May 2019
In depth Textiles & textures
12
M
king he t f t nd out
W ith the outli ne foundation set set in place,I place,I can
com fortably shade w ithin it to create create a high- contras contrast obj ob ject.The m ore intricate detailing detailing can also also be
13
E t bl h
e ppe r nce nce of
f bri
Fab ric can range from sleek and shiny to m atte and dull.How you shade it
m eticulous,but it ’ s w orth the effort in the end.I end.I also
w ill help sell sell the idea ofthe fabric abr ic you’re trying to depict.I’ dep ict.I’ m w orking to create a
shade a slightly darker value around the staffto add m ore
sim ilar look to m y reference erence im age w ith golden sheets offolding olding fabric,but w ith
contrast,m aking it app ear to stand stand out further. urth er.
less intensity intensity.I .I begin by o utlining the shap es and blocking o ut areas ofshadow ofshadow .
14
C
egor
your f bri
I can now now add value and shading shading to create further urth er
layers layers ofdepth and and w eight.W hen draw ing and recreatin recreating fabric,the abr ic,the types ofw rinkles created can all be p laced under three separate catego ries:hanging/ hanging /relaxed, stretched/tension,and scrunched/com p ressed.Hanging fabric abr ic tends to b e loose and have a flow ing ap pearance.
1
G vi g
dr
g
n lpol l pol
Now beg ins the exciting exciting tim e ofexecuting the final polish on the illustration. illustration.
Often, ten,this m eans eans eras erasing any type ofsm udging w hile w orking,addi orking,adding ng tighter lines
Stretched fabric abr ic creates long lines,usually lines,usually w ith a p oint of
w here they’re lacking,and lacking,and editing editing values throug hout hou t to create a m ore cohesive and
sup po rt.C om pressed pressed fabrics bunch into each other,
better-flow ing value com position. position.And ifyou created created your m aterials aterials correctly correctly, ,they
creating scrunched-looking areas.
should balance each other in your style w hile still feeling distinctly distinctly their ow n.
May 2019
113
Tra radi diti tional onal Artis tist Interview
First Impre res ssions Eric Fortune Thi sU
noticed that attemptingto learn while makingart can really slow me down because I like to pause and take notes. I’m tryingto do less of that.
arti sto nhow
soc soci al m ed i asucc succe ess canl ead to arti sti c self-d evel evel o p m ent en t
Tell us about your first paid commissioned piece
It involved creatingpackaging illustrations for flavoured tea during my senior year at art school. It was pretty excitingand I thought the job jobs would uld keep comingin mingin afte fter that. I waswrong. It I t took took a longtime long time to build up my clientele.
Where did you grow up and how has this influenced your art
I’m from the small town of Coshocton, Ohio. I grew up with my family and also several classmates who were really into drawing. My grade school and high school teacher also made a bigimpact on my life.
Is your art evolvi olving ng What’s the most recent experiment you made
You’re a child, you see a painting that changes everything. Where are you and what are you looking at
I was probably sat in front of the television, watchingcartoons. I drew robots endlessly as a kid. Transformers and G.I. Joe were probably my favourite shows. My world expanded again after watchingFist of the North Star and Akira Aki ra as a teenager. What was your next step i n art Di d other intere i nterests vie for attention
I didn’t know any professional artists growingup. Thankfully, my high school teacher, Mrs Beall, convinced me that an art career was worth pursuing. I loved video games and cartoons, but I feel like those both
GODDESS OF ANT QUIT Y “ used m yl i ving roo m for p ho hot to referen ence e i nthi s acr c ryli cpiece . ”
I thought the jobs would keep coming in after that commission. I was wrong informed my art instead of competingwith ting with it. A W ANT TO BELIEVE EVE “Th T hi si saper e rson onal pi ece e d i d o n reli gi o usb el i ef, using acryl ac ryli conw aterco l o urp ap er. ”
Does one person stand out as being helpful during your early years
My gradeschool teacher Mrs Mrs Cheney Cheney without a doubt. She was such an encouragingperson. Can you describe the place where you usually create your art
It’s a bedroom-turned-studio in my house. house. I’ve I’veput up a few bookshelves to store some art books. I have an art desk in one corner and an easel in the opposite corner. It’s a little cramped but it’s enough. What are your painting rituals
I like listeningto lectures, podcasts and so on while working. I’ve
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May 20 19
I think so. Mostly in the content of my work, but also in medium and scale. I’m tryingmy hand at oils again ain and and hope to have a new body of larger paintings finished in the next few years. Stay tuned. What advice would you give to your younger self to aid you on the way
Not sure I would. It’s overcomingall those challenges chal lengesthat made me who I am today. However, I might tell myself to spend more time with loved ones. I often think our society’s obsession with work ethic has become maladaptive and decidedly unhealthy. How has the art industry improved since you’ve been working in it
It’s excitingto see some artists gain a large social media followingfor doingpersonal work. There seems to be more potential for autonomy and stability by havinga broad base of fans fundingyour art goals. In the near future I think there may be a massive boom in creativity once somethinglike a universal basic income income gives people ople more free time and stability to pursue their passions. I think that might be the biggest improvement our industry and society could have. You can fo You follo llow w Eric’s artistic progress progress on Instagram Instagr am using ericfortunear tist, or by visiting visiti ng www.ericfo www.ericfortune.co rtune.com m.
