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Imagine FX Annual Volume One

© 2017 Future Publishing Limited

Part of the

bookazine series
 Contents
96

38

18 108

08. FXPosé 18. Digital Revolution 28. Artist Q&A

Discover some incredible Artists who want to get digitally Struggling with a painting
digital art from artists all creative are spoilt for choice technique or topic? The answer
around the world when it comes to software may be in these pages

Artist Portfolios Sketchbook

38. Scott Gustafson 68. Dawn Carlos
There’s more to Gustafson than his Insects, gaming and aliens provide
fantastically detailed fairytale images inspiration in this sketchbook

44. JC Park 74. Tom Fowler

Park reveals that his best work was on a A motley collection of characters
project that never saw the light of day inspired by Dungeons & Dragons

52. Even Mehl Amundsen 78. Genzoman

How Amundsen became
a successful globe-trotting artist Pirates, fairies and street brawlers
in a love-hate relationship

58. Peter de Sève 84. Stephan Martinière

de Sève explains why drawing well is
like telling a good joke Sketches, concepts and more from
the Hugo award-winning illustrator

88. Cosmin Podar

Fantasy figures and grotesque
creatures mingle in this sketchbook

68

6
 Workshops 141
96. Paint a bright
& dynamic figure
Learn how to use Photoshop’s colour
editing and drawing tools with Loish

102. Bring fantasy

portraits to life
Achieve realistic portrait paintings and
make them stand out from the crowd 142
108. Capture the look
of Blade Runner
Journey to Los Angeles 2019 to combine
character art with neo-noir architecture

112. Develop a strong

lighting scheme
How intelligent lighting choices can 52
create a compelling book cover

118. Creating a
dragon knight
Painting a classic fantasy scene that’s
heavy on realism and details
87
120. Using brushes
in Rebelle
Introducing Rebelle, the natural media
painting program

122. Paint iconic Ghost in the

Shell art
Exploring the theme of identity in the
iconic anime film universe

126. Create a scene

in Black Ink
The process of concepting and Traditional
composing in the Black Ink program
126. FXPosé Traditional
Showcasing a selection of the finest
traditional fantasy artists 58
142. Get inspired by
Del Toro
Create an atmospheric mixed media
112 painting inspired by Guillermo del Toro

152. Mix story elements

on a book cover
John Howe explains how he composed a
book jacket illustration for Robin Hobb

148. Getting started with oils

Boost your knowledge of oils with this
brief introduction to the medium

154. Pencil and

watercolour art
How to bring an image to life with
watercolour washes and pencils

7
THE PLACE TO SHARE YOUR DIGITAL ART

Luisa Preißler
LOCATION: Germany
1
WEB: www.luisapreissler.de
EMAIL: info@luisapreissler.de
MEDIA: Photoshop

Freelance fantasy
illustrator Luisa loves
character-driven art. She
works mainly on book
covers, games and comics,
and always tries to convey emotions
that allude to a larger story in her art.
“Watching Sailor Moon as a child
made me start drawing early on,” the
German artist reveals, “while in my teens
digital illustration opened up a whole
new world of possibilities for me. It
enabled me to grow confident with
colours, lighting and atmosphere – my
favourite things to paint.”
In her free time Luisa enjoys reading
urban fantasy novels, travelling to Italy
and testing out delicious new recipes in
the kitchen.

1 SEA CIRCUS “This was done for Jon

Schindehette’s ArtOrder challenge,
the task being to create a water-themed
wraparound cover for a magazine. It
only placed second but I still love the
idea of an underwater circus. I enjoyed
designing the mermaid as a circus
magician and was satisfied that the
composition works as an upright single
page (the right-hand side) and as a full
landscape-format image.”

2 ELVEN QUEEN “This is one of my

rare personal pieces, in which I
collaborated with Klaus Scherwinski.
I started with an elven queen sitting on
her throne but even at the thumbnail
stage it was looking too generic. Having
her shot with an arrow adds a nice,
if tragic, twist to the piece.”

3 CYBER TRACKER “Moving from

fantasy to science fiction was a
challenge for me, but it was fun to delve
into something completely new and
combine unusual tech elements with
human skin, and then add a background
to give the character a sense of story.”

8
 FXPOSÉ IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

John Stanko is excited

by what he sees…
“Luisa has an
excellent sense
of anatomy,
composition and
colour theory, but what
makes her art stand out is
the use of subtle elements
such as lighting and camera
angles to enhance a story.”

9
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL FXPOSÉ

10
 FXPOSÉ IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

2 Simon Sweetman
LOCATION: Canada
WEB: http://ifxm.ag/s-sweetman
EMAIL: si.f.swe@gmail.com
MEDIA: Photoshop

A former abstract oil

painter turned mobile
game artist, Simon has
delved further into the
realms of illustration.
Growing up with the works of Patricia
McKillip, Kinuko Y Craft and Hayao
Miyazaki, Simon’s art depicts dream-like
fantasy worlds, with vague narratives
only slightly informed by their titles.
“I prefer to create works that exist away
from the clang of fantasy battles and
reside in the quieter, if not eerier parts of
those worlds,” he explains
The illustrator fell in love with digital
art by participating in, and later leading,
the Creature of the Week competitions
on ConceptArt.org and maintains a
healthy interest in creature design.
When he’s not working on freelance
projects or his own art, Simon indulges
himself in East Asian cooking and
crafting tabletop game campaigns.

3 IMAGINEFX CRIT
“Despite the two
imaginative outdoor
compositions on
show here, my eyes are
drawn towards Simon’s
delicious-looking,
atmospheric Noodles
artwork. What’s that
sound? Why, just my
stomach rumbling!”
Cliff Hope,
Operations Editor

1 ROILING LAND “A development

piece for one of my personal projects.
I wanted to juxtapose two vastly
different scenes and moods, connected
by a colour palette. A serene and
secluded town that thrives next to an
utterly destroyed wasteland, relatively
ignorant of the ominous cause.”

2 NOODLES! “There are few things I

enjoy more than a good bowl of
ramen. This piece was both to practice
drawing food in a way to try and make it
look appetising, as well as just being a
love letter to my favourite food.”

3 THE ARRIVAL OF SPRING “A

breakthrough image for me, the
Arrival of Spring was one of the first
personal works that I started building
at my own pace without worrying about
speed. There is some fairly obvious
Hayao Miyazaki influence permeating
my work, and this is one of the more
blatant examples.”

11
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL FXPOSÉ

Julia Metzger 1
LOCATION: Germany
WEB: http://ifxm.ag/jmetzger
EMAIL: julianatmetzger@gmail.com
MEDIA: Photoshop

German concept artist and

illustrator Julia works on
both video games and RPG
publications, drawing on
her experience as an
in-house artist and as a freelancer.
“I often take my inspiration from my
surroundings, especially from nature,”
she explains. “I always keep my eyes
open for new interesting shapes, trying
to capture the magical and mystical
sides of the world in my images,
merging them with the fantastical.”
Julia aims to unite light, colour and
storytelling to literally paint a mood
within her images.

IMAGINEFX CRIT
“Between Julia’s
gorgeous depiction
of light, and her
harmonious colour
choices, she’s managed to
create lush fantasy art that
pulls the reader into the
scene. The scale and
grandeur in her painting
The Well is palpable.” 2
Claire Howlett,
Editor

1 THE WELL “This piece is a little

concept for a personal project of
mine. The well is considered to be the
birthplace of magic in its world,
although in the memory of people it
only remains as a myth, because no one
knows its location.”

2 UNICORN “In June this year I joined

the #junicorn challenge for a while,
ending it later on with this illustration.
I love painting mythical forests and
creatures, so this was perfect for me.”

3 SAMAEL “From time to time I come

back to this angel, trying to nail his
design. The research was interesting,
because a lot of the descriptions
contradicted each other. There are a lot
of facets to his character that make him
a huge source of inspiration.”

4 AWAKENING “During autumn I saw

some reflections on a pond in front
of a huge tree, its leaves already fallen
onto the water’s surface. I thought it
would be the perfect setup to have
something lurking in the depths: there
was just someone needed to call upon
the ancient creature in the water.”

12
 FXPOSÉ IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

13
1

Eoghan Cowan 2
LOCATION: Ireland
WEB: http://ifxm.ag/e-cowan
EMAIL: eoghan783@hotmail.com
MEDIA: Photoshop

Eoghan is a concept artist

and illustrator with over six
years’ experience in the
games industry. “Back in
the day, I studied
animation. But to get into the games
industry, I taught myself digital
painting,” the Irish artist reveals.
Daily life in Dublin is a constant
source of inspiration for Eoghan, while
his long-term goal is to open up his own
studio and develop his own IP.

1 THE CREATURE THAT LIVES

“I wanted to capture the moment just
before a ‘boss battle’ in a video game,
and push the scale of the creature in
comparison to the warrior.”

2 MAX RHINOTANSKY “I’m a huge fan

of the Mad Max movies. I also love
the characters from the animated film
Zootopia and thought it would be
interesting mashing up the
characteristics from both films into one
anthropomorphic character.”

3 CUSTODIAN OF THE
NECRONOMICON “For this character
I was inspired by the works of HP
Lovecraft and the Dark Souls games.
I imagined that he was the keeper of the
Book of the Dead. He’s not necessarily
evil – he just protects the book from
falling into the wrong hands.”

14
 1

IMAGINEFX CRIT
“Like all the best
concept art, Joseph’s
paintings seem to
strike a perfect balance
between detail and
suggestion – but then,
when you look closer, you
discover even more and
learn more about the
subject of each work.”
Daniel Vincent,
Art Editor

16
 FXPOSÉ IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

Joseph Diaz
LOCATION: Spain
WEB: http://ifxm.ag/j-diaz
EMAIL: joseph@j21studio.com
MEDIA: Photoshop, Cinema 4D, ZBrush

A freelance concept artist

based in Barcelona, Spain,
Joseph has worked on
productions such as
Warcraft, Game Of
Thrones, Biutiful, Europa Report, The
Impossible and A Monster Calls. “Living
in Barcelona, I feel the influence of the
great masters Gaudi and Dalí,” he says,
revealing that he wanted to become an
artist ever since he watched Blade
Runner when he was five years old.
“I am also obsessed with guitars,
the number 21, the planet Jupiter and
the exact mathematical representation
of pi,” he reveals.

1 WORM SANDS “I remember

watching Dune when I was a child.
One of the things that remained in
my subconscious was the sandworm
creature. Years later I read the Frank
Herbert novel and it still remains one
of my favourite sci-fi books. This is my
interpretation of sandworms.”

2 TRIBAL GOD OF FIRE “I wanted

to create a horned character with
superhuman abilities and deep esoteric
knowledge. I really love symbology and
occultism in paintings, because in my
opinion it creates a deep layer of
storytelling within the image.”

3 TIME-SPACE TRAVELLER “I love

to paint sci-fi scenes. This one shows
a time-space traveller just before his
journey. I like to find unusual shapes
when I design spaceships, but in my
mind even this awkward design has a
lot of functionality and makes sense.”

3
SUBMIT YOUR
ART TO FXPOSÉ
Send up to five pieces of your
work, along with their titles, an
explanation of your techniques,
a photo of yourself and contact
details. Images should be sent as
300dpi JPEG files.

Email: fxpose@imaginefx.com
(maximum 1MB per image)

Post: (CD or DVD):

FXPosé
ImagineFX
Quay House
The Ambury
Bath, BA1 1UA, UK

All artwork is submitted on

the basis of a non-exclusive
worldwide licence to publish, both
in print and electronically.

17
 DIGITAL ART
REVOLUTION!
From art apps that punch above their weight to
inexpensive software that replicate traditional media,
artists who want to get creative are spoilt for choice…

he days of digital art GIRL, ORANGE Whether you want to go down the software that we think you’ll benefit
being monopolised by This issue’s cover artist, route of mimicking natural media from using. Many come in different

T two software behemoths

are long gone. Illustrators
with tech know-how
Jana Schirmer, creates
another arresting portrait
piece using Procreate on
her iPad Pro.
(playing with paint in globs, and
mixing it impasto on your screen),
experimenting with digitised tools
flavours, priced according to how
much of the full arsenal is offered, but
for each of these there’s a free trial
have started influencing – and in and brushes, or digitising your comic version for you to have a play with –
some cases producing – innovative art just like a professional, there’s a and we encourage you to do just that!
creative software, with artists as their Photoshop and Painter alternative out Whether you’re working from your
primary focus. The result is a wealth there that shouldn’t break the bank… iPad, PC or Mac, venturing into
of idiosyncratic yet powerful platforms, and may even add to it! 3D-based concept art, or aiming for a
each one meeting the various needs of Here’s our selection of inventive, traditional media feel, there’s
the modern digital artist. inspiring, and often eye-opening art something here for everyone…

18

MAKE
ADJUSTMENTS
Procreate has powerful blur
effects, in the form of Gaussian,
Motion and Perspective blurs,
Sharpen and Noise filters,
along with colour
adjustments like HSB
and Curves.
REVVED-
UP ENGINE
The new Metal Engine of
Procreate 3.3 promises quicker,
more responsive mark-making,
a leap in the natural behaviour
of mixing watercolour
paints, and a faster
Smudge tool.
PROCREATE
The small iPad app with the big artistic brain,
that’s designed for rapid-fire creativity on the fly
or those who haven’t tried
F this art app, you’re in for a
treat! This may be an iPad-
only product, but there’s
really nothing diminutive about it
other than the asking price. And
with the latest version, the app just
got a lot more powerful.
First of all, there’s the interface. It
took the team behind Procreate a year
and a half of design work to arrive at
what you see when you fire it up, and it
was time well spent. A set of powerful
multi-touch gestures drive common
tasks, making the creative process
unlike anything else. The two-finger-
tap to Undo is a good example. The
developers designed this gesture so
artists don’t need to travel to a button
or use a key command – instead, they
just tap the screen with two fingers.
Procreate ships with 128 brushes,
which are all customisable. They range
from traditional media to spray paints
and the humble Round brush. With
professional artists in mind, version
3.2 enables you to import Photoshop
documents and keep their layers and
blend modes, and now you can achieve
more with layers: speedier layer
selection and alteration means more
creative possibilities. You can also
Version 3.2 enables you to
import PSDs and keep their
layers and blend modes
DIGITAL ART REVOLUTION! IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
BRUSH
TWEAKS
Each brush is
customisable with over 35
adjustable settings. Artists
can use any of the defaults
as a starting point to come
up with a brush that better
fits their style. You can also
create custom brushes,
either using source files
from the built-in library,
Image © Chrissie Zullo
images you’ve created,
or photos that
you’ve taken.
record and play back all that creativity
Price with the new video capabilities.
£5.99
“It’s an app that can definitely
Available
iPad only compete with any advanced desktop
Company program” says artist
Savage Interactive Chrissie Zullo. “It has
Reviewed everything you need
Issue 146
Rating
as a digital artist, in a
+++++ simplified interface, and
the way it works with the Apple Pencil
is the most ‘realistic’ digital drawing
experience I’ve ever had.”
This is no happy accident. Speed and
performance are the advantages of
specifically developing for the iPad,
and if you’re using Apple Pencil on
iPad Pro, it’s taken to an entirely
different level. All of which just got
silly! ImagineFX has seen a beta of
Procreate 3.3’s Metal Engine in action
(out soon), and things move four
times faster than before. Standouts are
a more accurate Smudging tool and
advanced watercolour paints.
Procreate is perfect for art on the
move, outside or in a coffee shop – all
for the price of a nice sandwich!
19
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL DIGITAL ART REVOLUTION!

REALISTIC
WATERCOLOURS
Martin Hanschild says, “The
painting process in Rebelle is
unique and closer to the traditional
watercolour experience than
anything else. It has the best
digital watercolours
out there.”

NATURAL
PAINTING TOOL
The watercolour simulation is
the brainchild of artist Peter
ˇ who developed it as a
Blaškovic,
drawing projects. His aim was
to create the most natural
painting tool possible.

20
 DIGITAL ART REVOLUTION! IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
Images © Martin Hanschild
REBELLE
Roll up your sleeves for the realistic
traditional media software that’s both
experimental and seriously creative
ebelle is all about getting
R your hands dirty – or at
least feeling like you have.
Think Corel Painter at a
snip of the price, and you’re close to
understanding Escape Motions’s
ambitions with its flagship software.
“I love how the program encourages
experimentation on the canvas,” says
artist Martin Hanschild.
“I’ll randomly paint spots,
shapes and lines on the
wet canvas, to see how
colours flow across the
screen, and then find interesting
structures and shapes to change into
characters or landscapes.”
His job is made easier with Rebelle’s
tools. The Blow tool brings a breath of
inspiration to your work – literally, as
you can manipulate your watercolour
marks as if blowing on the paper. The
Tilt control enables you to make the
wet media run and drip, or you can use
the dry media brushes (pastel and
pencils) to slow things down.
Images © Martin Hanschild
The newly released version two
promises an even more realistic acrylic
arsenal, while continuing its attention
to detail in how the media and the
paper grain interacts. The user interface
remains beginner-friendly, so as not to
put off traditional artists who are
Price £48
Available PC/Mac
Company
Escape Motions
Reviewed Issue 123
Rating +++++
making the jump to digital, and this
might explain why Escape Motions
haven’t done much to develop
Rebelle’s tool customisation. All this
takes a lot out of your computer.
“The math running behind the
program’s painting process is quite
The Blow tool
brings a breath of
inspiration to your
work – literally
complicated,” says Escape Motion’s
Andrea Vachova. “Rebelle has to
compute around 25 layers,
which include water
simulation, diffusion,
wetting, drying and all the
different watercolour
effects, so the computing speed will
depend on your hardware’s setup.”
Basically, it would stand you in good
stead to have at least Intel i5 or a
similar AMD processor, although it’s
worth noting that new OpenGL
brushes have been developed in
Rebelle 2, which speeds things up
significantly, especially when painting
with large brushes.
21
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL DIGITAL ART REVOLUTION!
PRESSURE
PAINTING
Some brushes enable
you to change colour
based on how hard you
press with your stylus –
ideal when you want colour
variation without going
back and forth to the
colour palette.
BLACK INK
Things can become a little abstract with this experimental
software, but we say embrace its non-traditional nature!
lack Ink’s publisher Bleank
B is honest with its aim. This
isn’t art software trying to
mimic traditional media. It’s
digital embracing the nature of digital.
“The thing that I like most about
Black Ink is how unpredictable the
brushes are,” explains Tony Foti.
“There are times when I
need to design things with
more of a random feel, and
it can be difficult to not
create something that
doesn’t look like a group of shapes.
The chaotic nature of some of Black
Ink’s more animated brushes keeps
you on your toes.”
Black Ink isn’t the best software if
you want to paint representational art,
and currently layers are limited to just
eight. But if you respond well to
experimental mark-making, there’s
plenty here for the interested artist.
22
Bleank had the mobile phone user in
mind when it set out the user interface
– a clear space with room for complex
tools. Those tools include 72 default
brushes: a few ‘normal’ ones like a Felt
pen and Pencil, and a lot more random
ones, all of which are customisable.
For Ayan Nag, the brush controller
is a huge highlight in Black Ink. “It’s a
little complex when you
start out, but the amount
of variations you can come
up with is unreal.” He also
likes how the way Black
Ink utilises the graphic processor.
“That’s one of the reasons why the
software performs so swiftly.”
The brush tip shapes can
warp and pulsate with the
movement of the stylus
CUSTOM
BRUSHES
You can modify your
brush strokes after you’ve
made them, create new
brushes using a huge range
of controls, and paint
directly into the preview
window to see exactly
what each tool will
do for you.
“The brushes are all so different, but
Price £50 one of the standout features is how
Available PC/Mac many have a particle effect to them,”
Company Bleank
Tony says. “The tip shapes can warp
Reviewed Issue 147
Rating ++++
and pulsate with the movement of the
stylus, which makes the process feel
different from my usual workflow.”
As well as saving out in its native
BKD format, you can also save your
chaotic artworks as JPGs and 16-bit
PNGs, which doesn’t enable you
to save layers but retains pretty
awesome precision in colours and
transparencies. There are plans to soon
export files as PSDs, due to popular
demand, so watch this space.

Images © Jort van Welbergen
SKETCHUP
Build entire worlds from the ground up, with
this super speedy yet simple 3D art program
ketchUp definitely belongs
S in this roundup, especially
when top concept artists
such as Donglu Yu and
Jort van Welbergen are using it for
professional (and personal) work. As a
piece of computer-aided design (CAD)
software, you’d be forgiven for
thinking that its sole purpose is
creating bog-standard architectural
designs. Well, in the hands of an artist
the possibilities are practically endless!
“I love SketchUp mainly
for its speed,” says Jort.
“Because actions are
relatively simple, the
number of key presses for
tools and actions are reduced, which
means you can work at a faster pace.
You won’t have to waste time looking
through menus and lists.
“Another cool, unique element of
SketchUp is that you can copy parts of
geometry, like cut-in detail, super
quickly – and make patterns quite
easily, too.”
Simplicity is both SketchUp’s
greatest strength and weakness. The
It’s perfect for kit-bashing
and making dynamic,
mechanical models
DIGITAL ART REVOLUTION! IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
EDIT
THE INTERFACE
The user interface is pretty
standard, but it’s easily
modifiable by dragging parts
of the menu items around.
GOING
PRO
The standard package is free,
although you won’t be able to
export except as a DAE file. If you
want OBJ and FBX exports then
you need the Pro version,
which comes in at a
hefty £490.
interface may be pretty standard, but
Price Free (Pro
version, £490)
Available PC/Mac
it’s modifiable. However, if you want to
create complex, game-ready elements
like landscapes, materials or
Company Trimble
Reviewed N/A animations, SketchUp isn’t for you. It
isn’t great for smooth and curved
surfaces such as cars, either.
But from a creative standpoint,
SketchUp helps you to generate ideas
quickly. “It’s perfect for kit-bashing and
making dynamic mechanical models
such as robots quickly, thanks to the
grouping system,” says Jort. “And, of
course, it’s great for all things
architectural. Even if I end up using
another program to finalise a model,
like MODO or Fusion360, I tend to use
SketchUp for my initial sketches.”
And it’s free – or at least the standard
version is. This will enable you to
transfer files between SketchUp, Maya,
3ds Max and Rhino. However, if you
CUSTOM want to export OBJ files to pick up in
PLUGINS
There are hundreds
Photoshop, then you’ll need the Pro
of plugins for
version, priced around £490. However,
SketchUp, which are we’d advise getting hold of the free
mostly free. Notable
ones are the Round
version first, to experiment with.
edge tool, the Loft If you’re serious about getting
tool and the
Modded push/ creative quickly in the field of concept
pull tools. art, then SketchUp could be a powerful
tool in your arsenal.
23
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL DIGITAL ART REVOLUTION!

BETTER
USE OF REFERENCES
Version 5 refines the concept of using
reference images as part of your
painting process. Now you can pin
multiple images to your screen, but also
resize, move them around or even zoom
right into them, if you only need to
focus on one area.

CLASSIC INTUITIVE
TOOLSET
The default brushes focus on traditional
INTERFACE
The interface is intended to be
media: oils, pencil, pastel, felt pens, instantly easy to navigate, so that
watercolour and palette knives. Each tool it’s straightforward to choose
comes with a selection of default presets tools and colours. After all, who
Images © Phil Galloway

designed to introduce you to the wants to fight various menus

different possibilities, and enable you while trying to paint?
to jump straight into creating.

quarely positioned in the Yet the program’s main appeal

ARTRAGE
For artists with a traditional media
background who want all the benefits of
working digitally, this is the natural choice
S ‘traditional media
experience’ class of digital
software, ArtRage has come
a long way since it was launched as a
straightforward oil-painting program
way back in 2007. Version 5, released at
the start of the year, came with a more
developed pastel and pencil arsenal,
perspective guides, more options for
customisation and an altogether
swifter nature – all welcome changes.
remains the same. “What sets ArtRage
apart is its ability to recreate the flow
and texture of oil paint like
a malleable medium, right
there on the screen,” says
Phil Galloway. “The paint
behaves as paint should –
and for an artist with a fine art
background coming into a digital art
world, this is key. ArtRage ticks all
these boxes for my loose style, enabling

24

me to use swathes of colour and
natural emotive strokes that other
painting programs don’t seem to be
able to do without the process feeling
a little unnatural.”
Every tool acts differently, all
responding to texture and blend in
different ways, so picking the Felt pen
versus an Oil brush is a much bigger
leap than choosing a different-shaped
brush. “This is the opposite of most
digital art programs,” says ArtRage’s
DIGITAL ART REVOLUTION! IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
What sets ArtRage apart is its ability
to recreate the flow and texture of oil
paint like a malleable medium
Uwe Maurer with more
than a hint of pride. “Such
programs have one ‘basic’
brush and then go on to
Price £63 – or create multiple variants
upgrade discount:
50 per cent from based on it, and call them all different
ArtRage desktop brushes.” What cheek, eh?
editions (2,3 and 4) Yet it’s not just the brushes you can
Available PC, Mac,
(and iPad, Android
experiment with. You can adjust
for £4.99) Thinners in the Oil brush and
Company Watercolour tools to achieve much
Ambient Design
runnier paint; you can turn on
Reviewed Issue 147
Rating +++++
Smoothing for the Ink pen to have it
automatically smooth out a shaky
stroke; or simply adjust the Softness
and Graininess of the Pastel and Pencil
tools. We also like the way ArtRage has
embraced mobile, linking up iPad or
Android with desktops. The iPad and
Android and version 5 editions can
record script files, which can be played
back in the desktop editions to recreate
every brush stroke, and it can do so at
any resolution, which enables you to
scale your mobile paintings up to any
resolution for printing larger artworks.
Whether the additions of the latest
iteration sound interesting or not,
ArtRage remains the leading
traditional art painting program.
25
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL DIGITAL ART REVOLUTION!
BRUSHES
There are over 140 brushes to
choose from, most of which
are created by artists,
with artists in mind.
Image © Paris Christou
SKETCHBOOK PRO
Focusing on sketching and drawing, this program
encourages creativity through simplicity of use
ketchBook Pro is here to
S make you draw. Where
other programs offer tools
to design, to build
architectural blocks, or to use photos
as your starting point, Autodesk’s
2D software is only interested in
providing you with a digital canvas
and 100-plus customisable brushes to
start drawing with.
26
EXTRAS
SketchBook Pro has also just
revealed SketchBook Extras, giving
in-app access to brand new brushes
updated on a weekly basis.
Straight from the off, it’s made to
make this goal as easy as possible. “I
have plenty of experience with most
leading artistic programs,”
says Paris Christou, “but
the number one reason
I chose Sketchbook Pro
over the rest is for its user-
friendly, fresh, modern environment.
You’re not overwhelmed when you first
launch the software, unlike most
Price $4.99/month painting applications.”
or $29.99/year
SketchBook Pro’s best attributes are
Available PC, Mac,
(and iOS and its ‘straight to the point’ access to any
Android with tool or action to speed up your
in-app pricing)
workflow. Tools are accessed using a
Company
Autodesk circular toolbar on the canvas, or
Reviewed N/A lagoon, which you can fill with your
most frequently used tools.
The program is pretty generous with
its file support and compatibility for
importing and exporting images,
You’re not overwhelmed
when you launch SketchBook
Pro for the first time…
which includes PSD files. And
although SketchBook Pro is all about
the drawing, you still have the ability
to build up a drawing in layers and use
perspective guides. There’s a fair bit to
sink your teeth into, but once you’ve
UNLIMITED played around with it, the learning
curve will be quickly mastered.
LAYERS
With limitless layers “When I first started exploring
and the option of a
huge canvas (does 100
Sketchbook Pro, what shocked me the
megapixels sound big most was how I quickly adapted to the
enough?!) you can
produce huge, software,” says Paris. “Sketchbook Pro
detailed also pushes an artist to solve problems
drawings.
practically instead of relying on
software tricks to do the work for you.”

PALETTES
Palettes are drawer-based
and can be opened and closed
as necessary. The UI can be
customised, and artists can
establish a range of settings
for different workflows.
CLIP STUDIO PAINT
This user-friendly software has gone through some major changes
over the years, but it remains the number one choice for comic artists
reviously called Manga
P Studio, Clip Studio Paint
was rebranded by Smith
Micro to give artists a better
idea of what the software can do. What
remains the same is a dedicated piece
of kit, with hidden depths, that’s aimed
at comic artists and animators.
“There are two factors that make
Clip Studio Paint stand out from its
competitors, especially Photoshop,”
says long-time user
PJ Holden. “They are its
tools for comic artists, and
its price. While Photoshop
has introduced Perspective
Rulers, Clip Studio Paint (back when
it was Manga Studio) was doing it
first. It has dedicated tools to help
quicken flatting, it has a dedicated
tool to add tones (aka Letratone, or
Benday dots) to artwork that make it
simple to go in and alter the density
of the dots after the fact quick and
simple,” he takes a breath, “and it has
a non-destructive method of
DIGITAL ART REVOLUTION! IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
converting any layer into blue line
Price Clip Studio
Paint Pro, £38;
Clip Studio Paint
EX, £168
that’s as simple as a button press.”
PJ also reveals that Clip Studio Paint
can differentiate between pencil layers
Available PC/Mac and inked layers, and enables you to
Company exclude pencil layers from exports or
Smith Micro
Reviewed N/A
prints while they’re still visible.
While there are many cool templates
and tools to start creating comics with
the Pro version, PJ stresses that the
Clip Studio Paint two
key factors are its tools for
comic artists, and its price
more expensive EX version is the way
to go, “for the simple reason that it can
handle multiple page documents.
Being able to set up a single page size,
with bleed/trim/safe area, all within
one document and then to have
multiple page documents, each using
the same page size, is a real boon for
working in the industry.”
COMIC
TOOLS
Clip Studio’s core features
revolve around pencilling,
inking, painting and
colouring. The colour mixing
and blending options are
great, as are the vector
capable canvas and the
perspective rulers.
CHOICE
OF THREE
There are three main
Save settings:
Illustration (a blank
800x600 canvas that’s
easily customisable),
Comic (includes preset
or custom panels) and
Animation, for
frame-by-frame
animations.
Image © PJ Holden
There’s also a wealth of hidden gems
to find in the EX version of Clip Studio
Paint. “I’m always surprised to find
that many of the tools and hints that I
post on Twitter is new information
even to seasoned pros working in Clip
Studio Paint every day,” he says.
“So many of its tools are hidden.
One layer, for example, can be set as a
Reference Layer, then you can work on
another layer while using the reference
layer to select colours – utterly essential
to colouring in comics. Because most
people come to Clip Studio Paint from
using Photoshop, where these tools
don’t exist, they keep working in the
same inefficient way.” If you’re a comic
artist, maybe it’s time for a change?
27
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL ARTIST Q&A

STRUGGLING WITH A PAINTING TECHNIQUE OR

TOPIC? EMAIL HELP@IMAGINEFX.COM TODAY!

I like to add a lots of glow,

lens flare effect when I paint
reflective surfaces, and here
I paint some subtle ones
over her face.

Jia-Ying Ong
Jia-Ying is a freelance artist
from Singapore, who has
done work mostly for mobile
games, books, and dabbles
in animation projects every
now and then.
www.circus-usagi.artstation.com

Mélanie Delon
As a full-time freelance
illustrator, Mélanie spends her
time working for different
publishing houses and
developing her own personal
works on a fantasy theme.
www.melaniedelon.com

Tony Foti
Tony is an artist with Konami
who also contributes
Question
freelance work to numerous
books, trading cards, video
How do I paint curved glass on a helmet?
games, magazines and Rosie Ball, England
advertisements of all types.
www.tonyfotiart.com

Kelley McMorris Answer

Portland, Oregon is the home
of freelance illustrator Kelley.
State University. Her clients
include Disney Hyperion and
Scholastic. She also works on
the indie video game Crea.
www.kmcmorris.com
Brynn Metheney
Brynn specialises in creature
design, fantasy illustration and
visual development for film,
games and publishing. She
lives and works in Long
Beach, California.
www.brynnart.com
Mélanie replies
Spacesuit are fun to paint, but
the helmet part can be tricky to
get right, especially the glass
element because you have to
take into account its reflective properties,
and the fact that it’s transparent.
So here are a few tips to paint this
element. The first thing to know is that
you almost don’t need to paint it! This
I’ve made a custom brush for this article, which enables me to paint the light
may sound odd, but because it’s reflecting off the helmet. It’s included with this issue’s resources.
transparent all you have to do is to suggest
the glass element with subtle hints of light.
The second thing to keep in mind is the
shape. It’s like a ball, so the light and
colours should be depicted exactly the
same as any other round object.
Artist’s secret
Essentially, I’ll be painting a glass ball. EXTR A COLOURED LIGHT
t effect I add a
Glass is a very reflective surface/material, To create a more intense ligh
s won’t
so painting the light is crucial. It’s the basis pink light inside the helmet. Thi d to add
part so the re’s no nee
of everything: the texture, the volume and affect the glass e bright
ecti ons on it. I just add som
shape of the helmet, so have fun and go pink refl figure.
jaw line of my
crazy with your space-faring character! pink on the back and

28

Step-by-step:
Capture the look of a
futuristic glass helmet
From my concept sketch I create a
1 round shape with a custom textured
brush. I don’t want the glass to have an
overly clean look, even if it’s usually a
smooth polished surface. I use a neutral
violet colour for this base. The glass shape
and volume is only suggested by curved
brush strokes and the rest of the helmet.
I refine the previous lines, and erase
2 some dark parts inside the helmet
leaving more room for my character. I try
to create a clean, curved shape. I work the
face as normal; I choose to keep the glass
uncoloured, but you can quickly achieve
coloured glass by adding colour on a low
Opacity layer on top of the figure’s face.
3 To add light I paint some almost white
curved lines on the borders of the glass
part, where the glass is the most reflective.
Adding some coloured hints of the
surrounding environment will increase the
realism of your helmet. With a very small
Round brush I add small dots of light on the
edges to bring in reflection effects.
ARTIST Q&A IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
Question
Any tips for concepting a manga mascot?
Christian Talbot, Australia
To create a sense of
harmony, I first fill in the
background colours, then
work over the main focus
with the determined
colour direction.
Assuming the animal
mascot will be appearing
regularly next to your
character, keeping the
overall design simple will
allow for better readability.
Answer
Jia-Ying replies
When creating an animal manga character in their journey. I imagine that
companion to a manga character, it’s the creature would abruptly enter the character’s
important to note that the design life, as they often do, disrupting the normalcy
shouldn’t take too much attention and heralding a new adventure. To convey the
away from the human. It’s always helpful to impression, I used a bedroom setting so that it
keep the colour palette minimal as well. Think seem like the creature is trespassing into a
of any notable manga character or series that person’s private space.
has an animal mascot: the creature is generally
designed to be simple, iconic and appealing.
Before I start concepting, I consider existing
animals that I can use for inspiration. For this
article, I want to incorporate some cat and hare
features, because the result of fusing two
Artist’s secret
different entities is a tried but fun method. GET IT LIT
I also have the option to use elemental or even Need your light source
cultural themes which, depending on what to pop? My favourite
you’re going for, can help drive the story behind thing to do in Photoshop
your animal mascot. is to use the Color Dodge
In this case, I just want this fantasy animal to tool to highlight certain
exude a magical vibe. I include traits like a spots. It’s a quick and
flaming tail and markings on its head and ears effective way to draw
to hint of an underlying, more powerful form, attention to your main
that might manifest later on to aid the main subject using contrast.
29
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL ARTIST Q&A

Question
How can I paint decaying vegetation?
Morgan Winter, Canada

Answer
Mélanie replies
Painting decaying plants can
add a nice touch to a
composition, and they can be a
strong storytelling element.
My example will feature
Eden gone wrong, with a gorgeous woman
surrounded by dead plants. I want to
create a contrast between healthy and dead
vegetation. To achieve this I’ll play with
the shapes and colours. A healthy plant
will be basically straight and green in
colour, while a dead one will be bent and
feature autumn-like colours.
The shape and the colour scheme are
both important to create the sense of
decay. A dead plant loses all its colours, so
its green stem and leaves are replaced by a
lot of brown, orange and even black and
grey parts. If you want to paint flowers
then the colour scheme needs to be treated
differently. The flower colours simply fade
away, so for example instead of having a
bright red the petals will be paler and
desaturated with some hints of brown.
The wilting plants and flowers quickly
conveys to the viewer that the vegetation is
dying. Note that the petals and leaves react
in a different manner: their oval shape
becomes distorted as they curl up and I add some dead leaves
droop. To create this effect you just have to blowing all around the
character, to emphasise the
paint a crazy leaf shape – my walkthrough sense of decay and give the
will explain things in more detail… scene extra dynamism.

Artist’s secret
DEAD LEAVES BRUSH ess when I have to
To speed up my painting proc
leaves, I
do some repetitive elements like . I add some
Even in this basic
sketch, it’s clear which
brushes like this one
plants are in rude
usually create
the whole
shadows and light, and rework realism .
health, and which ones
are destined for the
compost heap.
thing to develop mor e volume and

Step-by-step: Paint decaying plants quickly

I start with a curved shape I choose this colour
1 for the stems of dying
2 scheme to show the
plants. I choose a dark green to difference between healthy
increase the sense of decay. I and dying plants. On the left
keep some stems straight to are the green pastel colours I
show that they’re growing next use to create my Eden, and on
to the figure. Then I add the the right are the autumn brown
leaves, keeping their shape tones that will represent dying,
simple. The edges aren’t clean decaying plants. I use some
and that’s the key trick when nude skin colour highlights
painting decaying matter. The instead of grey to create a link
same technique applies to the between my character and the
flowers in the scene. dead vegetation.

Now I start to add details Now I play with the light,

3 on the leaves. The stems
4 increasing the contrast
don’t need much work because between the dead plants in
they’re very thin elements. To the foreground and the
create the wilted texture I background. I add more light
simply scribble on my leaf base on their wilted leaves, and
with a very small Round brush. sharpen their outlines slightly.
I need to create a rough I really want to create a crisp
appearance with plenty of look here. I use a basic hard
colour variations. I enhance the edge Round brush to add dots
sense of dying vegetation by of light. Finally, I choose some
adding angular outlines instead desaturated colours to ramp
of the normal curves of leaves. up the feeling of decay.

30

I make the light ray shine across the
character, not quite hitting the eyes
because I want them hidden to give
a sense of disconnect.
Question
Help me paint dramatic lighting and shadows
Fia Håkansson, Sweden
Answer
Jia-Ying replies
Before I start the painting, I
consider the mood and the story
that I want to tell. I’ll go through a
mental list of scenes that will be
appropriate, or subjects whose intentions will
be complemented by having dramatic lighting.
In this case, I want to depict a darkly clad
figure who’s sneaking her way through a dingy
passageway, lit only by the light from the
setting sun streaming from the air vents.
An important aspect of lighting is mood
creation: the intensity of the light source and
colour of the light both help set the tone of the
scene. Here, I choose to soften the light around
the cheek and hair a little to suggest empathy
for the character, while contrasting with the
harsh reflection of the blade in her hand.
Using light and shadows, we can highlight
the key parts of the composition, and guide the
viewer’s focus on to certain areas. For this
painting, I choose hard, diagonally cast light,
to not only emphasise the slant of the weapon,
but to cast half the character’s face in shadow,
implying an element of secrecy. The intense
light that’s reflecting off the sharp blade
further amplifies its deadly purpose.
ARTIST Q&A IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
Step-by-step:
Establish lighting over
different surfaces
I start with a quick sketch, then block
1 out the character with a Layer Mask to
keep my painting within the confines of the
main figure. The lines don’t have to be
clean because I tend to colour over them
afterwards. I select a monochrome
background colour, so that the cast of a
bright, orange light will further stand out.
I go over the character’s skin with
2 warm tones, keeping the shading
smooth to denote softness and youth. On
the other hand, the light reflecting off the
weapon is blinding and sharp. With a
saturated orange hue, I use the Color
Dodge tool to go over the brightest areas,
like the tip of her cheekbone and knuckles.
After a quick splash of light across the
3 background, I start to paint over the
sketch, and erase away some of the
unwanted edges. I use large brush strokes
to fill in the rough shape of the folds with a
rectangle brush. At this stage, I also Liquify
parts of the initial drawing like the eyes
and mouth to improve on the overall look.
31
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL ARTIST Q&A

Blending the more distant

parts of the creature’s body
to imitate atmospheric
perspective and layering
fog in front of it makes it
more three-dimensional.

Tan Hui Tian

Tan is a senior illustrator with CDS in
Singapore. She has
a graphic design
background, and so her
works feature a strong
design sense.
www.tanhuitian.daportfolio.com

Tom Foster
Best known for his work
on 2000 AD and the
Judge Dredd Megazine,
comic book artist Tom
also writes and performs
stand-up comedy.
http://ifxm.ag/tom-foster

Tony Foti
Tony is an artist with
Konami who also works
freelance for books,
magazines and games
such as MtG and Fantasy
Flight’s Star Wars games.
www.tonyfotiart.com

Artist’s secret
Use custom
brushes wisely
dering
Custom brushes are useful for ren is
dif ferent materials aft er the form
hair
finalised. You could use a fur and a
e, and
brush for details on a creatur
ke. It’s
smoke effects brush for the smo first,
crucial to have the form pain ted
the
though. Layering fur brushes from ddy.
ke the form look mu
start may ma

32

Question
How can I paint smoke realistically?
Katherine Batts, US
Answer
Tan replies
Smoke is fairly simple to
depict, because the airborne
particulates are typically
matte. Yet it differs in thickness and
texture, and therefore requires a variety of
brushes with differing Opacity levels. You
can use a simple Round hard brush for the
task, but it’s often more efficient to use
custom brushes for wispier areas.
Search for photo references for different
types of smoke, which can vary from thick
and heavy industrial smog to wispy and
light incense smoke. The Liquefy tool
comes in handy for adding random
movement to the smoke. Adding a creature
into the mix makes for an interesting
visual effect, as it creates a contrast with
the solidness of the creature and the
transparency of the smoke.
For this article, I’ve chosen to depict a
mythical creature that’s a mixture of a
horse, stag and zebra, to reflect the
mysterious smoky atmosphere.
To subtly give more
depth to the creature,
I add smoke effects
on top of the legs.
ARTIST Q&A IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
Step-by-step: How to
illustrate a fantasy
creature made of smoke
1 I put down undefined blobs using large brush
strokes, and then slowly refine the shape by
picking out the areas of highlight and shadow. The
lighting should be consistent: here, the lighting is
from the top, and the darker areas are below.
2 I warp the smoke using the Liquefy tool into the
shape I want. It’s easier to lower the Opacity of
the smoke later than doing so the other way around,
so the current smoke is more opaque than the end
result. I’ve also roughly painted the creature in.
3 To ensure the creature blends in with the smoke,
I use a colour scheme that’s of a similar palette
to the smoke. The creature is painted with a solid
brush with Opacity set to Pen Pressure. I reduce the
Opacity of the smoke with a large Airbrush.
33
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL ARTIST Q&A

Question
Can you give me some advice on foreshortening please?
Holly Mason, Australia

Answer In this illustration I’ve placed the

vanishing point inside the image area
and close enough to dramatically
Tony replies foreshorten a lot of the main figure.
Foreshortening, like
happiness, is all about
perspective. If you want
something to appear dramatic
and grab the focus in a composition, have
it pointing towards the viewer. Then place
the vanishing point close to the object and
have the camera in real close. With these
three elements, you’re going to feel the
volume of your focal point a lot more.
Perspective is one of those things that
can fill up several books. But the two main
concepts are the horizon line and a
vanishing point. The horizon line is a
horizontal line that corresponds to the
viewer’s eye level. The vanishing point is a
place on the horizon line that a set of
parallel edges on your object will all
recede into. Think about how telephone Artist’s secrkiet
t
poles get smaller on a long road, and how
Perspective tool t has
Keep a Photoshop file around tha ishing
they all seem to recede into one point.
That’s the vanishing point.
horizon line s, perspective lines, van
to go. In
points and parallel lines ready for every
If you draw in your perspective and
don’t like how something’s being
school I’d often crea te a new grid
just keep
image, but realised it’s easier to
distorted, just change it. Moving the
horizon line will alter the height of the
camera, and moving around vanishing
them handy.
points will enable you to control the
amount of distortion in the background
and foreground.

Pay attention to the lines coming out of the vanishing point that’s off to the left
of the image, and notice how I’ve used them as a guide for the gun and woman.

Step-by-step: Get some perspective

1
Start by loosely drawing the amount
of foreshortening you want in a sketch
from either your mind or reference, but
don’t use perspective lines. Just mess
around until you have an amount of
exaggeration that expresses what you’re
going for with the image.
2 Now figure out where the horizon line
and vanishing point would be. Do this
by either finding parallel edges on an
object (like around the gun) and finding a
spot that they at least roughly point to, or
create a vanishing point on its own layer
and trying it out around the horizon line.
3 Then redraw the image, but this time
using your new perspective lines. As
you paint, leave your perspective on its
own layer, on a low Opacity: you’ll have a
constant guide to make sure everything’s
correct in relation to one another. This will
ensure believable foreshortening.

34
 ARTIST Q&A IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

For this prison scene,

working out my lighting
in 3D saved me hours of
Step-by-step: Using 3D
working out the
logistics of complex
cast shadows.
software to help create
dramatic shadows

Although 3D tools
can make certain
aspects of the job
easier, a strong sense of
composition and
staging are still required
for setting a scene.

1 I use DAZ 3D to set up my scene, carefully

positioning all the crucial elements so they can
be lit up by a relatively narrow area of light. The
further I place the light source from the bars of the
cell door, the less the shafts of light will fan out.

Question
How can I quickly paint
dramatic cast shadows?
Wilbur Hawthorn, US

Answer
Tom replies 2 After rendering in 3D, I use Photoshop’s Stamp
The great comic book artist, filter to create something approximating a line
Wally Wood, once wrote, drawing. I always upscale the resolution of the image
“Never draw anything you can first, because I want the filter to preserve as much
copy, never copy anything you detail as possible.
can trace, never trace anything you can cut
out and paste up.” Indeed, there’s no need
to make drawing and painting any more
difficult than it already is. Using photo
references, applying textures directly onto
an object… these are just two of the ways
art software helps you to realise an image.
If I’m in any doubt as to the way
shadows would fall in real life, I test them
out with 3D posing software. I mock up a
quick scene from some prefab models and Artist’s secret
primitive shapes and then I draw the
Seeing the light
of the light
Looking from the point of view s of my
finished piece over the top. This keeps my
shadows accurate and enables me to focus
source enables me to see whi ch area
atever’s
image will be lit, pre-render. Wh handy if
all my drawing attention on the details
that the reader is actually going to see.
obscured will be in shad ow. Thi s is 3 I create a new layer and draw the finer details
ents in the
I want to highlight specific elem
using the Pen tool, putting more character in the
face and making fixes to anatomy and clothing. In
scene.
this instance, with big block shadows covering so
much of the image, I barely had to do any drawing.

35
 Ar t i s t Po r t f o l i o
38

38. Scott Gustafson

There’s more to Gustafson than his
fantastically detailed fairytale images

44. JC Park
Park reveals that his best work was on a
project that never saw the light of day

52. Even Mehl

Amundsen
How Amundsen became a successful
globe-trotting artist

58. Peter de Sève

de Sève explains why drawing well is like
telling a good joke

52

36
44

58

37
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL ARTIST PORTFOLIO

SCOTT
GUSTAFSON
There’s more to this artist than his fantastically detailed
and nostalgic fairytale images, as Ed Ricketts find out

’m not proud of my computer

I illiteracy but I do feel the need to be

honest about it and share my
situation with others,” admits Scott
Gustafson, renderer of gorgeous fairy
tales scenes in traditional media. “It’s only
through talking about this shameful
problem that I think we, as a society, can
come to terms with it and learn to deal
with those less fortunate among us who
neither text nor tweet…”
He is, of course, joking here. As a veteran
illustrator of 36 years to date (and still
counting), Scott has little need of digital
tools, versatile as he is with almost every
traditional medium – be it oils, gouache or
charcoal. Besides, the kind of
gloriously detailed and
coloured scenes

38
SCOTT GUSTAFSON IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

DRAGON AND SCRIBE

This oil-on-panel illustration
was commissioned by and
sold to a private collector.

39
DRAWING THE REAL WORLD
“It’s always fascinating to observe from
life and see how that interpretation differs
from a photo-based reference. I find the
still-life elements, though not as accurate
as the photo-informed ones, literally
have more life, and I recommend giving it
a try.”

VITAL STATISTICS
The artist’s journey in bite size...
Age NC Wyeth,
59 Arthur Rackham,
Date of birth Gustaf Tenggren LITTLE SAMBHA…
7 December 1956 What’s the best …and the Tiger with the
Current location piece of advice Beautiful Little Red Coat, also
from Classic Bedtime Stories.
Chicago, Illinois anyone has ever
Favourite artists given you?
William Heath Spend some time
Robinson,
Rembrandt, J.
finding out what
you enjoy doing The idea of someday becoming an
Waterhouse, the animated
films of Walt Disney and
Warner Brothers Studios,
most, and then do it.
Web address
www.scottgustafson.com
artist was with me from just about as
far back as I can remember
he paints, harking back to the Golden
Age of illustrators, seem to cry out for the
gentle touch of media to canvas, rather
than the sometimes harshly delineated
tones of software.
Scott is unashamedly influenced by the
likes of NC Wyeth, Norman Rockwell,
Maxfield Parrish and Arthur Rackham, and
like those admired artists, he creates
nostalgic, glowing images that never veer to
the sickly or twee. It would be slightly
reductive to call him a children’s artist,
although it’s true that Scott has created
many illustrations for age-old fairy tales
and bedtime stories (if you’re of a certain
age and grew up in Britain, you might
be reminded of the classic hardback
Ladybird story books).
Yet he has also written and illustrated his
MERLIN AND ARTHUR own children’s book, Eddie: The Lost Youth
An original image imagining the
relationship between the two of Edgar Allan Poe, which showcases a
mythological characters, which was somewhat darker side to his talent, and
made into a limited edition print.
commercial clients include Playboy, The

40

A CONFABULATION
OF DRAGONS
A chance to experiment led to one of Scott’s favourite pieces
Scott was approached by a private
collector for a commission that had
only three requirements: it should
contain three young women, a Huskie
dog and at least one dragon. “Here was
a chance to see what I could come up
with within a very wide set of
guidelines,” he says.
“I had been looking for a word that I
could use to refer to a group or
gathering of dragons, much like a pod
of whales or a pride of lions, and I felt
that I found what I was looking for in a
‘Confabulation’ of Dragons.
“I envisioned the scene as a great
meeting of dragons – a sort of draconian
summit, where representatives of the
diverse world of dragons would gather
and confer. What I liked most about this
idea was that it lent itself to a group of
dragons of all shapes and sizes.”
Scott decided that the dragons
would meet at the base of a large tree,
with the three young women
representing some sort of human
liaison, perhaps priestesses. On the
ground and nearby boulders are ancient
runes, which were carved by members
of earlier ‘confabulations’.
“Soon, I began designing dragons as
well as setting up a photo shoot for the
young woman who would pose for all
three of the young women in the
finished picture,” he adds. “Fortunately,
they were supposed to be sisters,
so it was okay if the characters all
looked similar…
“The final painting measured 46x34
inches, and took several months to
complete. The biggest challenge, as
always with a complex piece, was trying
to balance all the elements so that the
overall effect was one of harmony, yet
with a variety of shapes, contrasts,
colours and details. This one offered
challenges on all those levels.”
SCOTT GUSTAFSON IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
A CONFABULATION Saturday Evening Post, The Bradford
OF DRAGONS
The finished piece, which
Scott painted on canvas
Exchange, DreamWorks and The
Greenwich Workshop.
using oils, was awarded
a Silver medal in
Spectrum 17, in 2010.
SINGLE-MINDED AMBITION
“I grew up in a small town in northern
Illinois, and attended elementary and
high school there,” Scott says. “I always
liked to draw and was continually
encouraged by my parents, relatives and
teachers to continue drawing and painting,
so the idea of someday becoming an artist
was with me from just about as far back
as I can remember.”
However, it was animation that called to
the young Gustafson, so much so that he
eventually majored in animation at the
Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Ambitions
changed when he realised that he could
become a freelance illustrator, but he feels
that his education still aids his work today.
“In studying the work of the great
animators like Ollie Johnston, Frank
41
SOURCE REFERENCES
“Take time to do research. If the picture
calls for a throne, see if you can find a
few examples to work from instead of
making one up. A 15th century Spanish
DRAWING
throne is going to be way cooler than
anything I could have come up with on POE: THE
my own, that’s for sure.”
WONDER
YEARS
How the master of the macabre
inspired a fairy tale illustrator
YOUNG POE Several years ago Scott came across an
old paperback of Tales of Mystery and
“The wondrous words that had
crowded his brain earlier that night Imagination, the collected stories of
were gone…” The title page from Edgar Allan Poe, that he had bought
Scott’s illustrated novel. when he was about 13.
“It not only brought back memories
of how fascinated I was by Poe and his
stories at that time, but it also got me
wondering what Poe would have been
like at that same age,” Scott says. “As I
thought more about it and then began
to research it, the idea of Eddie just
seemed to take on a life of its own.”
The resulting novel was Eddie: The
Lost Youth of Edgar Allan Poe, written
and illustrated by Scott and aimed at
eight to 12 year-olds. It’s something of a
departure from his usual work, not least
because all of the 90-odd illustrations
are in monochrome, apart from the
cover art, shown here.

Thomas, Eric Larson, Woolie

Reitherman, Bob Jones and Bob Clampett,
I found that they helped me to learn how to
capture facial expressions and pose a figure
so that the posture and pose helped define
the character and the role that he or she
plays within the story,” Scott explains.

THE APPEAL OF ANIMATION

“These days, I’ve actually found a lot of
inspiration looking up pencil tests of great
animators online. The work of Glen
Keane and Sergio Pablos is particularly
wonderful… I’ve grown to prefer these
pencil tests because they’re the actual
animator’s drawings, filmed in sequence
as a test before going to colour. I’d
recommend taking a look for anyone who
appreciates great character development
and beautiful drawing.”
So would he consider dabbling in
animation again? “Well, animation on
the level of the animators I’ve mentioned is
a very complex art, and as much as I’ve
gone in and out of fantasising about it
again, I usually take the lazy way out and
watch classic films like Fantasia or Lady
and the Tramp!”
As he has done for most of his
professional career, Scott works from
home, albeit in his own studio which takes
up the entire second floor of the house:
“This space is one of the main reasons we
bought this house over 20 years ago.” He
also tries to keep to regular work hours,
which helps keep a separation between
work and non-work time. “When I was
younger, living in a four-room apartment,
I got up late and worked late, and it seemed
like that’s all I did…”

42
 SCOTT GUSTAFSON IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

EDDIE AND THE RAVEN

The cover illustration for Scott’s
book, the only one of the 90-odd
images that features in colour.

“As far as illustrating the story, even in its earliest concept stages
I knew I wanted a lot of pictures and that those pictures would be in
black and white,” he explains. “Black and white not only seemed
appropriate to Poe and the story, but illustrating a book with
drawings as opposed to paintings was something I had wanted to
do for a long time.”
The story itself grew out of possible situations that the young
Poe may have found himself in, and the visual possibilities grew out
of that. “When illustrating it, I was mindful of an atmosphere that I
UNDER THE LAMPOST
Eddie stakes out the
wanted to evoke, as well as illustrating the actual story,” says Scott. mysterious Mephisto.

A typical Gustafson image begins as a
series of thumbnails, anything up to 12
loose sketches to set the idea out. That then
becomes a larger sketch: “I average about
three of these to show the client, or just to
make sure I’ve tried more than one
approach to any given idea.” A more fully
fledged drawing then comes next, with
reference, props and even a model shoot if
necessary for the project.
“Then I transfer this drawing to the
surface on which the final painting will be
done – usually gessoed masonite. This is
done by either directly tracing through a
copy of the final drawing using graphite
paper, or by mounting an archival print out
of the drawing onto the panel.”
With the image complete, Scott turns
his attention towards colour. “On a
mounted, reduced print-out of the finished
drawing, I do a loose indication of what
I think the colour will be for the final piece,
followed by underpainting. Depending
on the piece, I do either a monochromatic
tonal underpainting to establish the
values, or, referring to the colour study,
THE MAN IN
THE MOON
A limited edition giclee
canvas print, one of
several available to buy
When I was younger, living in a four-
through Scott’s website. room apartment, I got up late and worked
late, and it seemed like that’s all I did…
a thin, transparent layer of those colours
in the corresponding areas of the
transferred drawing.”
EVERY PAINTING’S A CHALLENGE
The final stage is painting. “Depending
on the complexity and size of a piece, this
can take anywhere from several days to
several months. Last week, for instance,
I finished painting a vignette in three
days, but the picture before that one –
another illustration from the same story –
took three weeks to paint. They are all
different and all present their own
surprises and challenges.”
Scott has experimented with many
mediums over his artistic career, but
primarily he now sticks to acrylics or oils
for his finished colour work. “In recent
years I’ve been concentrating almost
exclusively in oils as they offer me the
widest range of flexibility and possibilities,
as well as depth of colour and overall
richness to every picture.”
It’s a complex process – though the
results are certainly worth all of the effort
– and it’s hardly surprising that Scott hasn’t
really had time or inclination to investigate
digital processes. “Seriously, though, the
computer is a fantastic tool, and I’ve come
to rely on it for many things, chiefly
communication and reference,” he says. “I
leave anything more complicated than that
in the capable hands of my wife and
business partner, Patty, who handles
all those aspects of our little business
quite marvellously.”
With a new book in the making,
currently tentatively titled Storybook
Fables and scheduled to be published by
Artisan in late 2017, life is pretty good. Scott
admits that he has never really thought
about what’s next beyond the current
project, and so far that has worked out
well for him and his family. Of course,
there are always new ambitions circulating.
“I used to fantasise about illustrating
editions of Alice in Wonderland or The
Wind in the Willows, but John Tenniel,
Rackham and EH Shepard are pretty fast
company,” he laughs. “If I were offered the
chance, who knows? I love illustrating the
classics, but I think it would also be very
exciting to work with a contemporary
author as well.”

43
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL ARTIST PORTFOLIO
C Park planned to be an
J engineer. At least, that’s the
career his parents imagined for
him. The South Korean didn’t
get the grades for engineering
college. He eventually completed a
major in digital cartooning and began
working as an illustrator and concept
artist. He’s since built up a huge
portfolio of mechs, vehicles and
spacecrafts, with designs so intricate,
so beautifully engineered, that even
his parents must be proud.
Artist
PROFILE
JC Park
LOCATION: South Korea
FAVOURITE ARTISTS: Craig Mullins, Daniel
Dociu and Feng Zhu
SOFTWARE USED: Photoshop
WEB: www.j-circle.net
44
JC wanted to work in comics. But
when he graduated, a decade ago, the
comics industry in South Korea was
struggling. Meanwhile, the video
games industry was expanding rapidly:
PC bangs (LAN gaming centres)
were growing in popularity and
MMORPGs were attracting tens of
millions of players. That was when
JC landed a job at one of the country’s
best game developers.
“The games industry was growing,”
JC says, “because of games like
Lineage, an MMORPG made by
NCsoft. I sent a basic portfolio to
NCsoft and the company invited me in
for an interview. I was really lucky.
“Since I was seven years old, I
enjoyed doodling for friends or family.
When I drew something they were
really happy; however, that wasn’t
my dream job – it was just a hobby,
 JC PARK IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

I sent a basic portfolio

to NCsoft and it invited
me in for an interview.
I was really lucky

ROBOT MARKET
“When I painted this futuristic
market I used some photo references
for the texture on the side pillars, as
well as for the overall composition.”

45
THE WANDERER
“The vehicles of the Star
Wars universe have clean
shapes and simple colours.
Here, I gave the vehicle a
basic shape, and then
worked up the details.”
I thought. I liked arcade games
such as Tekken, sci-fi films like The
Terminator, and fantasy stuff –
Dungeons & Dragons, for example.
All these factors encouraged me to
work in the games and film industries.
There are a lot of talented artists in
South Korea, so I was lucky to break
into the industry and meet all these
skilled people.”
JUST PART OF THE PROCESS
JC worked his way up to senior concept
artist, a position he held on AION –
another of NCsoft’s hugely successful
MMORPGs. When working on a game
like this, JC usually receives a brief
from the game designer. He gets to
work on creating some concepts.
They then bring in a 3D designer to
discuss whether or not his concepts are
practical. It’s at this stage, JC says, that
he must make the most amount of
compromises to his ideas. Next, the
team speaks to the game director and
46
UNKNOWN PLANET
“I took inspiration from Ridley
Scott’s Prometheus to paint a
mission on an uncharted planet.
I wanted the foreground character
to look both curious and anxious.”
Concept art must help the
overall production of game,
so I should be thinking about
the final 3D result, too
receives feedback to see if their
concepts are in line with his overall
vision. Once he gets the nod, JC can
finalise them, before passing it on to
the 3D artist, UI designer or level
designer. “I think concept art,” he says,
“must help the overall production of
game, so I should be thinking about
the final 3D result, too.”
Not all projects run this smoothly, of
course. JC created concepts and
illustrations for another NCsoft game,
Steel Dog, which was never released.
JC says he learned just as much from
this failed projects as he did the more
successful ones: “This was one of the
best projects in my game career. I
worked with one of my best directors,
Mr Hwang, who had really creative
ideas, a positive drive. I’ve never seen a
game like this before. It called for really
creative concepts. Unfortunately, this
project was cancelled.”
A quick look at JC’s ArtStation or
Facebook pages shows what a prolific
 JC PARK IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

PRACTICE MAKES… AWESOME!

JC explains how a lunchtime sketch grew into an epic piece of concept art…

STARTING OUT WITH THE COMPOSITION BASICS… … BEFORE WORKING UP ELEMENTS IN THE PAINTING…
“I drew this during one lunch break. I did it to practise scale, distance and developing a strong “I added the sky and desaturated the colour. Then I began to work on each of the characters,
silhouette, and I drew it pretty quickly. I wanted to do something simple – it was just a bit of fun.” almost as if they were separate images, and then decided who would be the focus of the image.”

… TO AN EPIC FINISH
“Then I looked at the
position of the figures.
The viewer should notice
the visual flow: how it
moves from in front of
the characters to the huge
beast and the background.“

artist he is. When he’s not working on a

freelance project, he’s spending time THE BIG REVEAL
“A moment of crisis at sea was
on a personal project. And when he’s the starting point for this painting.
I imagined an attack by a huge,
not working a personal project, he’s mysterious creature, but only
planning his next piece. wanted to show its tentacles.”
“I’m constantly thinking about what
my next my drawing is going to be,”
JC says. “I’m also always gathering
references, so when I do have time to
draw, I can get to work straight away.”

SPEED IS KEY
JC often works late into the night.
Sometime’s he draws while watching
the TV or listening to a podcast. He
doesn’t have a dedicated workspace.
Instead, he sets up his Wacom and

47
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL ARTIST PORTFOLIO

DRAGON’S EYE VIEW

“In this concept I wanted to
show a vast landscape and a
castle town on the cliff. It’s a
fantasy world so I added
dragons in flight, with the
knights in the foreground.”

48
 JC PARK IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

I’m always gathering

references, so when I do
have time to draw, I can get
to work straight away

49
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL ARTIST PORTFOLIO

WITH A LITTLE HELP

FROM HIS ART FRIENDS
Discover why JC thinks online art communities are both
crucial to his work and his continual self-development
“When I started getting more ‘follows’ The skills I have, my abilities, are
on ArtStation, that’s when I felt my never enough. So every day I
work was going in a good direction. feel thankful to the online community
I got the same reaction from my and the companies who contact me,
Facebook page. Indeed, several because they encourage me to
companies contacted me through become better. I try to pursue
Facebook to offer freelance work. more creative projects, and do work
This was all relatively recently – that makes everyone happy. I hope I’ll
almost four years ago. be doing this for the rest of my life!”

FOLLOWING MY HAND
“This was done during a busy period of work –
I treated it as a bit of relaxing down-time.
I simply let my hand take the image forward.”

ONLINE ENCOURAGEMENT
With over 12,000 ArtStation followers and 6,000 plus Facebook followers,
it’s no surprise that JC says, “I felt my work was going in a good direction.”

MacBook on the dining table in the
living room of his house, which he
shares with his wife and children.
“I prefer a laptop to a desktop,” he says,
“because I like to be able to move my
workspace easily. It means I can take it
with me when I need to go on trips.
Sometimes I work in a nearby café.
That’s really good for a diversion.”
In May 2016, JC moved to Hamburg,
Germany, where he now works for
online games company Goodgame
Studios. He also works as a freelancer,
not just on games, but also creating
art for everything from animations
and feature films, to cover art and
TV commercials.
So many talented artists are making
lots of great concept art every day, and
so much of it is lost or forgotten
During the early stages of a project,
speed is key. JC carries a pencil and
sketch pad with him, so he can quickly
get down any ideas he has while on the
move. If he’s working on a particularly
detailed concept or illustration, he
might begin a project with a paper
sketch, but usually he draws directly
onto his tablet in Photoshop. It means
he can easily modify, rotate and layer
images. He uses a large brush and a
mono colour – grey or dark brown.
At this stage, he’s concentrating on the
overall composition as he adds simple
colours. Next, he gives the images
depth and lighting, then starts to work
in more detail.
THE STAR WARS
“Sometimes I draw fan art
while mixing in my own
design ideas. Someone
once asked me, ‘Who’s
the guy at the front?’ Well,
he’s just my character!”
“If something isn’t working within a
project,” JC says, “then I take a breather
for a few minutes – go out for a walk, or
search the internet – then I go back to
the image with an idea of how to fix it.”
IMPRESSIVE STORYTELLING
JC uses Pinterest to gather references.
Sometimes, he’ll take a collection of
images and combine them into a
single, new image. Occasionally, if he
really likes a picture, he’ll recompose it.
“I could be watching a film or TV
programme when inspiration hits,” he
says. “I try to remember what it was
that fired me up. Sometimes the image

50

NUMEN VILLAGE
“I wanted to emphasise the village’s small size,
hence the huge head of a creature on the hill.”
is so clear it comes quickly, but it’s not
always easy to maintain that positive
feeling right up until the work’s done.
So I try to finish a piece very quickly,
usually within three to four hours.”
JC is currently creating concepts for a
mobile role-playing game, and is
hoping to work on a AAA console
game in the near future. His dream
job? The next Star Wars film. His style
and his meticulous attention to detail
seems a good fit for the franchise.
The artist says that his style has
changed in recent years, but
underpinning everything he does is
the desire to tell a good story, to make
JC PARK IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
SEASIDE TOWN
“I rarely use custom brushes, but I wanted
to try them for this piece, focusing on
traditional painting techniques. It wasn’t
easy, and took me a long time to complete.”
sure everything fits together properly,
and to create something that’s
beautifully engineered.
“I’m focusing on more realistic
concepts built around good
storytelling,” he says, “so every day
I try to be more creative with that aim
in mind. I want to create concept art
that endures – for the audience and for
me, too. So many talented artists are
making lots of great concept art every
day – basically every moment – and
so much of it is lost or forgotten. When
I reflect on my experiences of the art,
it’s something that has strong
storytelling at the heart of it.”
51
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL ARTIST PORTFOLIO
he art test called for a
modern assassin with an
old-school weapon. Even
Mehl Amundsen created a range
of thumbnails, various styles,
different anatomical types, then Volta
picked the design it liked most. Next, the
visual development studio asked him to
come up with an environment for his
character. The stakes were high for the
young Norwegian artist. Even had just
quit art school and needed a job.
The Quebec-based studio provided him
with a 3D mock-up, so he had to learn
PROFILE
Even Mehl Amundsen
LOCATION: Denmark
FAVOURITE ARTISTS: Paul Bonner, Paul
Dainton, Jesper Ejsing, Kim Jung Gi, Karl
Kopinski, Alphonse Mucha, Ilya Repin, Hiroaki
Samura, Adrian Smith and Claire Wendling.
SOFTWARE USED: Photoshop
WEB: http://ifxm.ag/evenamu
52
FAREWELL
“One of my recurring
characters,
Birker, and his companions
saying farewell to new friends.”
WHITE HAIR
“One of the many gods
who are explored within
my sketch project.”
photobashing and other new skills for the
first time. Even worked on the test for most
of the “long, stressful summer” of 2011.
“Seldom have I felt as much dread as the
week and a half it took them to get back to
me,” the Norwegian says. He was visiting a
friend when he got the nod: “I danced
around his studio for a solid 10 minutes –
yelling incoherently, singing triumphantly.”
Even left Falmouth School of Art, the
UK’s number one arts university, because
he felt the fees were too high, a gamble that
paid off when Volta offered him his dream
job as a concept artist. The Norwegian now
looks back on this as the greatest milestone
of his career so far. But his career faltered
before it got going, when he began to
“butt heads” with a fellow Volta artist.
A TENDENCY TO ARGUE
Even was born in wealthy, conservative
Stabekk, to the west of Oslo. Doodling
pirate ships and dinosaurs had grown into
a more serious hobby by the time he was SPIRIT OF THE HUNTED
“Perhaps the most interesting of all the gods that I’ve drawn from my
15 years old. A few years later, he sketch-a-day series, this is Gypla, the spirit of the hunted.”
 EVEN MEHL AMUNDSEN IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

HARLEQUINS
“I’ve done a good bit of work for
Games Workshop’s Warhammer
40K products. The Harlequins were
one of my favourites to play with.“

Seldom have I felt as

much dread as the week
and a half it took them
to get back to me

© Games Workshop

53
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL ARTIST PORTFOLIO
discovered concept art and became
hooked. After two years at the Einar
Granum Fine Arts School in Oslo, he
earned a place at Falmouth. By his own
admission, he wasn’t a very good student,
but he was also dissatisfied with the
teaching he received. So after a year, he left.
Even remembers a lot of time in
Falmouth spent sitting around in a local
cafe and art gallery called Babahogs,
drinking coffee, sketching and talking:
I’ve learned adults ought to be able
to disagree without being disagreeable
– but that’s not always the case
“Long rambling chats with good friends is
a hallowed activity for me, especially when
accompanied by the fruits of the grape and
the grain. I imagine it’s how some people
feel about church.”
The university also taught him, however
inadvertently, the importance of “making
one’s mind up”. His mind was made up to
quit and he was soon on a plane to Canada.
He spent three years in Quebec, learning
his trade from many artists he looked up to,
a “small but very skilled phalanx of heroes”.
He also began working for bigger and better
clients. The most memorable of which
– Even being a self-confessed Tolkien geek
54
BIRKER
“Birker, with his two
friends, Hedda the Goat
and Mickel the Fox,
making a narrow escape.”
– was creating characters for The Lord of the
Rings Online: Riders of Rohan.
“As for challenges,” he says, “I think
getting over my own ego was the one that
taught me the biggest lesson, and allowed
me to grow the most as an artist.”
At Volta, Even was asked to work with
an artist named Arnaud Pheu. The
Norwegian’s “tendency to argue” strained
the pair’s working relationship, particularly
when it came to solving visual problems.
“I have a tendency to argue,” says Even.
“Over the years, I’ve learned that while two
adults ought to be able to disagree without
being disagreeable – but that’s not always
the case. However, we both came an
understanding of our respective
stubbornness, and once we managed to
redirect our focus on collaboration rather
than insisting on our own visions, we
worked tremendously well together.”
INSPIRATIONAL COMPANY
These days, Even lives in Copenhagen. He
gets out of bed at 7am and runs in his local
park. After a shower and breakfast, he walks
VOLTA STUDIOS
ART TEST
Even tells us more about landing his dream job
at the Canadian visual development studio
“I think my greatest career milestone,” Even Mehl Amundsen
says, “at least in terms of how different life was before and
after, was passing the art test for my first in-house job at
Volta Studios in Canada.”
Even had just dropped out of Falmouth School of Art and
was looking for freelancing jobs in Norway. A friend said he
knew of a job going in Quebec. “I had barely any notion of
where in Canada it was,” he says, “but I buckled down and
took on their art test, working at it all summer.
“The test was to do a character, going through the usual
feedback system that most studios use, and after it was done,
to do an environment to put that character in. The brief called
for a modern, Asian assassin, using an old-school weapon.”
The finished piece is a kind of urban ninja, dressed in a zip-
up coat and combat pants, wielding a couple of swords. The
backdrop was a narrow, cluttered street strung with Chinese
lanterns. “For the environment, I worked off of a 3D mock-up
that Volta provided. That was a far greater challenge. I had to
learn how to do photobashing and stuff like that. It somewhat
cemented my dislike of that process.”
It took Volta a week and a half – a week and a half of
“dread” – to get back to him. “I was visiting a friend when
I received the confirmation.” Cue the celebrations. Even
remembers it as “a very good day.”
VOLTA ART TEST
“The assassin was a chance
to really put in some hours
on rendering, and as a
result, it all came out looking
a little plasticy. Let that be
a lesson – study your
materials, kids!”
 EVEN MEHL AMUNDSEN IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

NIDALEE (LEAGUE OF LEGENDS)

“My first piece for Riot, trying to match the
quality that the company’s known for, while
maintaining a little of my own style as well.”

© Riot Games
while listening to a podcast to a place he WOODKIN
calls Embarrassing Company. He shares a “When their borders are
threatened, the elves of the Deep
workspace at the illustration studio with Wood send their warriors into
Danish artist Jesper Ejsing: “A glowing ball battle, armoured in living wood.”
of inspiration and 90s rap lyrics.”
For the first hour or so, Even replies to
emails and Facebook messages. Afterwards,
he works until around five or six, at which
point he begins his daily sketch, a project
that culminates with the release of an art
book later this year.
Sometimes he’ll sit down and actively
decide to create a certain kind of character,
then come up with an idea to go with it.
Other times he’ll have an overriding idea
that leads the pen around the page. “It
might be a pose,” he says, “it might be a
combination of colours, it might even be
a phrase that pops up in my head. The trick
is to always be searching.”
For Even routine and discipline go hand
in hand. But he does make room for his
other great passion: travel.

EUROPE CALLING
After three years at Volta, Even heard “the
strings of old Europe call.” Coming straight
out of a studio job, he was unsure how
much he could expect to make, at least
his first year, as a freelancer. So he looked
for somewhere he could live well but
cheaply. Prague seemed perfect.

55
 CIRCLE
“A mellow moment for the
travelling trio, taking an
opportunity to explore some
landscapes in the little
world I came up with.”

PRESENTS
“Dwarves inhabit every corner of the world I’m
building. This one is an adoptive father to one of the
characters, presenting her with a fine new blade.”

DREAM
“Sweet sleep her gift, in all its many forms.
Be it for a blink of the eye, or the dreams that
never end, hers is the hand that grants them.”

56
 THE SINGER OF POOLS
“Sometimes you must indulge in
some Wendling-esque whims,
and play with flowing lines. You
can learn a lot from doing that.”

GUNNAR
“Gunnar the Giant, one of the many little side
characters who I hope I’ll get a chance to revisit.”

A few friends had already made the move

to Prague and spoke highly of the place. So
he spent a year in the Czech capital,
establishing himself as a freelance
illustrator and concept artists, and “making
merry”. Then Blizzard Entertainment asked
Even to join them in California.
Highlights of his time in the US include
contributing to the cinematic trailer for the
third Hearthstone expansion, Whispers of
the Old Gods. “I got to do some of the
establishing artworks,” he says, “and I did
the base design for the troll character. And
I had the chance to have my work critiqued
by the terrifyingly skilled Laurel D Austin.
That sure taught me a few things!”
Even says knowing when to stand his
ground and when to back down, a skill he
first learned at Volta, is one of the greatest
challenges a working artists faces.
California wasn’t for him, so he left for
Denmark, moving to Copenhagen and
returning to freelance work with a new-
found talent for diplomacy.
“Working for a client involves
interpreting another person’s vision. To do
this, it’s very useful to compartmentalise
one’s personal pride. You have set that aside
Inspiration is a lovely little
for commercial work. This will make you
far more open to learning and adapting.”
minx. But Miss Deadline has
no time for romance
ALL ABOUT THE STORYTELLING
Even is reluctant to describe his own art, Expression, for Even, is far more common sense needed to be a successful
preferring to leave that up to others. As well important than technique. He uses a pen freelancer, which is probably why he’s
as creating concepts, he’s a gifted illustrator and paper as much as Photoshop. He’s currently so in-demand as an art teacher,
and character designer whose art is always always trying to simplify his process. A new something he’s increasingly doing more
incredibly lit. Rather than separating project moves quickly from “generals to of. So far he’s shared pithy advice
concept art from illustration, he sees it as specifics”. The artist is conscious of the everywhere from London and Warsaw
all part of the same medium: storytelling. specific problem he’s trying to solve, so uses to Zagreb and St Petersburg.
The challenge, he says, is to find the most a kind of reverse-engineering. He knows Pablo Picasso said: “Inspiration exists,
interesting way of telling the story. where he needs to end up and works but it has to find you working.” Even offers
“The central theme I try to pursue is backwards from there. He’s also very
SEEN EVEN’S students his own, remixed version of this
COVER ART?
believability. Not realism, mind you. The willing to try a new approach if the current famous quote: “Inspiration,” he says, “is a
He painted issue
fine balance of creating something that one isn’t working. “I am,” he says, “ready to 127’s cover. To get lovely little minx when she comes around
can be fantastical, but still not beyond the kill my darlings.” a copy, visit myfa- to spice up the day. But Miss Deadline, she
realm of what could work in a world as Even knows the importance of balancing vouritemaga- has no time to wait for that kind of
true as our own.” his artistic side with the level-headed zines.co.uk romantic affair. She’s got stuff to do.”

57
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL ARTIST PORTFOLIO

© 20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Artist Portfolio
PETER DE SÈVE
The American artist tells Gary Evans why
drawing well is like telling a good joke
eter de Sève, aged 16, a student at Parsons school of art
and design, walks through Greenwich Village to the
corner of Bleecker and Macdougal Streets. It’s snowing.
He finds a table in Café Figaro, the New York coffeehouse whose
past regulars include Bob Dylan, Lenny Bruce and Jack Kerouac,
where he drinks cappuccinos and draws in his sketchbook.
With his drawings, Peter’s trying to impress people – friends,
girls too. And it’s during these quiet afternoons that he starts to
understand what it means to be illustrator, and exactly what it is an
illustration is supposed to do.
“It was a magical time,” the artist says. “It was 1977 when I
started Parsons. For a kid from Long Island, living away from
home for the first time, it couldn’t have been more exciting. The

SCRAT SKETCHES
Peter created Scrat, a
sabre-toothed squirrel and
one of the stars of the Ice
Age franchise. He drew
these sketches in 2006
using wax crayon on film.
Courtesy of Netflix

THE LITTLE GIRL

Peter worked on the recent 3D animated
film The Little Prince. This drawing is a
development sketch of a “smart and precocious”
character known simply as The Little Girl.

58
 PETER DE SÈVE IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

For a kid from Long Island, living

away from home for the first time, it
couldn’t have been more exciting
© 20th Century Fox Film Corporation

ICE AGE, DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS

In his character designs for the Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, as with
illustration work, Peter strives for exaggerations that feel real and credible.

59
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL ARTIST PORTFOLIO
CROCODILE TEARS
This unused New Yorker cover, created in
watercolour and ink, shows Peter’s love of an
arresting image that’s full of character.
PETER’S BIG BREAK punk scene was in full swing – yet there
In 1995 Peter accepted an was still a faint whiff of the folk scene down
offer from Disney to work
on The Hunchback of on Bleecker Street. There were hardcore
Notre Dame. It was the punks and stoned hippies all over the place,
start of a long career in
character design. and that’s where friends and I spent most of
our free time. We’d walk through the snow
and hunker down at the Café Figaro.
“I just loved to draw things that would
amuse myself and other people. That’s kind
of the job of an illustrator in a nutshell, isn’t
it? It’s not only about pleasing yourself but
you have to communicate to and entertain
an audience. Every drawing is an
opportunity to make someone feel
something specific and to do it in the
cleverest, most economical way possible. I’ve
always loved that challenge. I think I was
hard-wired to be an illustrator from birth.”
© Disney Enterprises Inc.
CONSTRAINED BY THE FACTS
In 1995, Disney came calling. Peter
accepted an offer to work on character
designs for The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
60
SCRAT DE SÈVE
This wax crayon drawing shows sees Peter looking a
lot like his most famous creation, Scrat from Ice Age.
How your
audience views
your work
determines how
well you’ve told
the story
They didn’t use much of his work, but it was
the beginning of a long career in character
design. His credits now include
A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo and all five
Ice Age film – he created the endearing
character Scrat for the franchise.
Peter says his work is as much about
concept as it is technique. He likes a strong
image, a split idea – like a lion in a vegan
restaurant. His character designs are often
about the little details that change the image
in a big way: a head tilt or an eyebrow
raised. He doesn’t use too many references,
because he doesn’t want to be “constrained
by the facts.” Yet any exaggerations in his
characters must also feel real and credible.
He describes his own work as looking
contemporary, but “glazed with a 19th-
century patina.” And as a working illustrator
and character designer, the viewer is
PROFILE
Peter de Sève
LOCATION: US
FAVOURITE ARTISTS: Jack Davis, Wally
Wood, Frank Frazetta, Heinrich Kley, Arthur
Rackham, Roland Topor, Murray Tinkelman
and, most inspiring by far, Brad Holland
MEDIA: Wax crayon, ink and watercolour
WEB: www.peterdeseve.com
 PETER DE SÈVE IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

SID AND BROOKE

A playful character study
based on two of the leads from
Ice Age: Collision Course,
the fifth and most recent
film in the franchise.
© 20th Century Fox Film Corporation

WILD RIDE
Buck, an insane one-eyed weasel,
joined the cast the Ice Age franchise in
the third film, Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

61
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL ARTIST PORTFOLIO

‘YOUR CRUMMY
DRAWING’
Peter talks compliments, criticism and dealing
with knock-backs… some of them self-inflicted
Peter was already a successful editorial artist when Disney
asked him to design characters for The Hunchback of Notre
Dame. They didn’t use much of what he drew, but it was his
big break into animation. He’s since learned a few thing about
dealing with criticism and compliments.
“I take compliments as lightly as possible,” the artist says,
“and have a pretty good antenna to help me determine which
are genuine and which are just nervously polite. As for
criticism, I take that more seriously – though, again, my
antennae is crucial here. Sometimes a criticism can come
from a personal bias. A piece might have an off-putting
element in it – a rat, for instance. However, if enough people
don’t get what you’re trying to say, the fault is not in the stars
chum, it’s in your crummy drawing.”
Peter is perhaps his own toughest critic. He has trouble
looking at past projects – even successful ones: “When I look
through my work, I have real difficulty in looking at finished
pieces. Invariably, there’s something that bugs me about
them. Something I didn’t quite pull off. But for some reasons,
I’m much more forgiving of my sketches and looser drawings.
They are always much less self-conscious and to me are a
glimpse at the artist I’m supposed to be.”

© Disney Enterprises Inc.

QUASIMODO AND ESMERELDA

Disney never actually used Peter’s characters
designs for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but
he’s since gone on to work for box-office hits such
as A Bug’s Life and Finding Nemo.

62

© Paramount Pictures
CRASH
“Every drawing is an opportunity
to make someone feel something
specific,” Peter says.
Ice Age images © 20th Century Fox Film Corporation
always an important element of what
he does.
“To me,” Peter says, “the viewer is the
second most important element in picture-
making, second only to the picture itself.
How your audience views your work –
meaning in which order he or she takes in
what is happening in your picture –
determines how well you’ve told the story.”
Peter is also known for his front covers
for The New Yorker magazine. For 20 years,
he “worked in the trenches” of editorial
illustrations, submitting as many as three
pieces each week to Forbes, Business Week
and The New York Times, among others.
He’s also created book covers and posters
for Broadway shows.
Almost all of
my biggest heroes
are artists whose
work is grounded
in reality
PETER DE SÈVE IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
MONSTER TRUCKS SHANGRI-LA
Peter worked on Monster Trucks, This handsome bunch are inhabitants
a film released earlier this year. of Shangri-La, taken from last year’s
This subterranean creature is, Ice Age: Collision Course.
appropriately, called Creech.
He’d been at Parson for a year when he
was introduced to editorial illustration.
The 1970s, he says, was editorial
illustration’s heyday. He came across a book
called The Art of the Times. It contained
editorial art by illustrators “hired for their
hand as well as their brain,” such as
American artist Brad Holland.
“Man, I loved his work,” he says. “He fit
perfectly into that rubric of exaggerated
realism I mentioned earlier. But beyond his
drawing style, were images that insisted the
viewer engage with them. Not literal
solutions that simply depicted what the
article was about, but visual companions to
the written words, which made their own,
independent statement.”
EXAGGERATED REALISM
For many years, Peter worked late at night
and would stick at it until the early hours of
the morning. He’s easily distracted. There
were fewer interruptions at night. After he RAT RACE
Peter says a good drawing is like a
got married and had a family, he switched to
“a much healthier” nine-to-five. But that
good joke: the punchline should always
come at the end: like seeing the rat
doesn’t mean he’s free of distractions.
after seeing the commuter.
63
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL ARTIST PORTFOLIO

SPOTTING MISTAKES
WHAT’S ON THE Peter has created around 50 covers the iconic
The New Yorker magazine, but finds it

MENU TODAY…?
Peter reveals through his process for coming up
difficult to look at old work. He always
sees the things he didn’t get quite right.

with a cover for venerable title The New Yorker

“My work often begins with a visual dichotomy of some kind. In
this case, my initial doodle had something to do with carnivores at
a vegan restaurant, the kind of place you can easily find in a
Brooklyn neighbourhood like mine. My wife, Randall, has been a
vegetarian since she was 12 and though I tried being one for
almost eight years. I realised it just wasn’t for me. That moment,
when I first began to rethink my diet, is what this cover is all about.
Once I landed on the lion with a salad watching more delicious
options walk by, I began to refine the drawing. Originally, I had an
anaemic-looking lion, but soon decided on a healthier version.
After that, I concentrated on his expression. It’s amazing how the
tilt of a head, the placement of an eyebrow or even the height of
an eyelid can totally change the tone of a drawing. In the end, I
wanted the viewer to hear the lion think to himself, “Hmmm.”
I don’t generally go overboard with references. I always do my
rough sketches out of my head, so I’m not too constrained by the
facts. Still, there are little touches one can discover by looking at
photos of a place he or she is depicting – the little flower in the
mason jar on the table and the exposed brick wall all telegraph
the kind of earthy, crunchy-granola vibe a place like this projects.
It also didn’t hurt to take a closer look at what a lion’s face is really
about. It’s easy to convince yourself you know how to draw a
thing, but that can lead to an over-reliance on cartoony clichés.
I like my exaggeration to be based on reality, at least a little bit, to
help me put an idea over the top.”

A NEW LEAF
Peter likes works built around a “visual dichotomy”, such as a lion in a vegan
restaurant. He then develops the character, capturing details like facial expressions.

CONSTRAINED BY FACTS
Peter doesn’t use many references for his
work. Early sketches are done in his head,
where he can’t be “constrained by the facts.”

64

THE LITTLE PRINCE
CHARACTER DESIGNS
One of Peter’s earliest
influences was Frank
Frazetta. He loves his
“exaggerated realism”
and used similar
techniques in his work
on The Little Prince.
His dream working day looks something
like this: he lives and works in a Brooklyn
townhouse, where, second cup of coffee in
hand, he sits down at his drawing board
and waits for “exquisite, heartrending
images to spill from my pen. Hours later,
without having looked up from my work
even once, I turn out the light and go back
upstairs to rejoin my family… None of this
has ever happened, of course.”
A GAUNTLET OF DISTRACTIONS
His home studio “is a wonderful place,”
which is part of the problem. Bookshelves
overflow all around the room. Art from
The Little Prince images courtesy of Netflix
friends and heroes hang on the walls. “Just
crossing the room is like running a gauntlet
of distractions. I often find myself staring at
a book or a picture, wondering what the
hell I was meant to do in the first place.”
Ideas typically come to him away from
the drawing board, during those distracted
times, when he’s doodling in his
sketchbook or out running. He divides his
PETER DE SÈVE IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
I loved to draw things that
would amuse myself and
other people. That’s kind of
the job of an illustrator
STUDY ON A SOFA time between the two fields, character
Even when shown in a design and editorial illustration. In both,
quiet moment, Peter’s
characters still exhibit life his aims are similar: to create a character
in their expressions and or an image that’s just one or step or two
body language.
away from reality, something that’s plays
of a bigger narrative, a bigger idea,
something that drives the pictures towards
its ultimate punchline.
“Almost all of my biggest heroes, past
and present, are artists whose work is
somewhat grounded in reality,” Peter says,
“with a general respect for anatomy and
perspective, while still disregarding them
for the sake of telling a story. Or a joke.
“In my Rat Race picture, for instance, I
make dead sure that the first thing you
absorb is a lone commuter standing on
an empty platform waiting for a train.
I don’t want you to see the rat below
him doing exactly the same thing until
the second beat.”
Peter ends with this key advice: “Just
like telling a joke: your setup is just as
important as your punchline.”
65
 Sketchbook

I like to inject a
sense of youth
and playfulness
into my art… 68

68. Dawn Carlos

74 Insects, gaming and aliens provide
inspiration in this sketchbook

74. Tom Fowler

A motley collection of characters and
creatures inspired by Dungeons & Dragons

78. Genzoman
Pirates, fairies and street brawlers in a
love-hate relationship

84. Stephan Martinière

Sketches, concepts and more from the
Hugo award-winning illustrator

88. Cosmin Podar

Fantasy figures and grotesque creatures
mingle in this sketchbook

66
84 88

78

67
 Artist

Insects, gaming and aliens – in fact, almost everything she sees –

provide inspiration for the concept artist and illustrator’s sketchbook

INSECTARIUM
AND THE QUEEN
MOTH-ER
“Studies from the insectarium in
the Montreal Botanical Gardens.
The Queen MOTH-er was originally
a sketch of a woman’s face that
never quite worked out, so it was
abandoned. After seeing all
manner of insects I was able
to return to it with some
fresh ideas on how to
salvage it.”

SPACEY ROGUES
“I love how far you can push the
weirdness of aliens – using animals,
insects, shapes and textures –
ROOT MOTHER
“From roots and turkey tail
but still retain a sense of mushrooms – rotting, blossoming
character and humanity – all while hiking through
through it all.” Muir Woods.”

68
 FOUR
EYED SAGE
“Inspired by fishes, frogs and
tree bark. Using my trusty
brush pens and those
little label dots.”

I love how far you can push

the weirdness of aliens but
still retain character
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL SKETCHBOOK

YOSEMITE GROVE
“Ink drawing as a gift for my parents,
based on a grove I hiked through during
my first time in Yosemite.”

I played the Mass Effect CROW BRO

“Starting with the idea

trilogy and my love for all of a shoulder-perched

pet, this turned into a lone
wizard, his familiar, and a

things sci-fi was rekindled magical crow claw

prosthetic.”

70
 DAWN CARLOS IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

TWO WHAELSTROM
“I felt like drawing a
EYES, THREE…
“These were postcard sized
monster whale. This one
is also based on a pun, a
drawings done shortly after play on the word
I had played the entire Mass maelstrom.”
Effect trilogy over two months
and my love for all things
sci-fi was rekindled.”

71
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL SKETCHBOOK

JERK MAGE
AND TROLL BIRD
“Mages can be real jerks sometimes,
picking whatever, whenever from whomever
for some potion or spell or magic stuffs. Poor
Troll Bird hasn’t even got that many
feathers to begin with!”

IF YOU CANT BEAT ’EM…

“Played Overwatch one night and had a horrible
losing streak. So I gave up and drew the
characters instead.”

Played Overwatch
and had a horrible
losing streak, so gave
up and drew the
characters instead

72
 DAWN CARLOS IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

CAT-LIKE THIEF AND

THE MUSHROOM PONCHCOAT
“Couldn’t decide if our Mushroom Merchant is
wearing a poncho or a trench coat, so it’s a
Ponchcoat. Or was it Trencho?”

ITS A TRAP!
“Started with fishy mouth
up right, then scales, then
thought, ‘Oh, like scaly
armour!’ Then a hooded
figure, a squire and
an elf.”

73
 PROFILE
Tom Fowler
LOCATION: Canada

Tom’s worked in comics,

advertising, and film and
The illustrator and cartoonist introduces us to game design for clients

his motley collection of characters and creatures including Disney, Marvel

and Wizards of the Coast.
He also writes and sometimes draws
the Rick and Morty comic series.
Tom’s blog, D&D&D, is so named
because he draws while playing
D&D. These sketches and more will
appearing in Tom’s forthcoming book.
www.tomfowlerddd.tumblr.com

ATTAINABLE
GOALS
“If nothing else, it proved
Knekbeerd’s vision-board
had worked.”

ODD
MAN OUT
“Rypurt suspected he was
being left out, but he
just couldn’t put his
finger on why.”

FAMILY
OUTING
“Even with all the noise from
the birds, no one ever
bothered the Grismunds’
aviary caravan.”
 LIFE
OF THE PARTY
“He sang, ‘Mmbodumby
bodumbow bodumby
bodumbow,’ but no one
joined in. Hey ho.”

BAD JUR
He sang, ‘Mmbodumby “Bad Jur regretted little in life
– that was just his nature,
how he rolled.”

bodumbow bodumby bodumbow,’

THE
LITTLE LAMAS
“Omsted was terrible with
directions. It was a wonder
he ever made it home
after a day trip.”
SCALLYWAGS
“It’s said that a ship is only
as hungry as its crew. In this
instance, it’s a perfectly
accurate observation.”
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL SKETCHBOOK

PRESTIDIGITATION
“Fongo only knew one spell.
And it was a good one.”

CHARTER
“Herbit hated the ‘nun
runs’, but the pig was happy
for the exercise.”

CHIN UP
“Gru’up had his pride,
if nothing else.”

Krrun loved his unicorn.

No one had the heart – or
the guts – to tell him it
wasn’t a unicorn

EQUESTRIAN
“Krrun loved his unicorn.
No one had the heart – or
the guts – to tell him that,
actually Krrun, that’s
not a unicorn.”
 NESTING
“Birt would give her
absolutely anything.”

SNACK
ATTACK
“Ba’a’all watched the
flame and remembered
his mother.”

PLYK
“He’d caught
them all, without
breaking into a
sweat. Something
to tell the lads
back home.”
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL SKETCHBOOK

HORUS
“Egyptian mythology is a great
source of inspiration. Usually the gods are
shown as thin characters, so I decided to
make Horus bulky and massive.”

PROFILE
Genzoman
LOCATION: Chile

Gonzalo Ordoñez, also

known as Genzoman, is a
self-taught illustrator
who’s spent the past 20
years creating art for video
games, magazines, films and card

Pirates, fairies and street brawlers in a love-hate relationship are just games. You can see examples of his art
in Udon Entertainment’s Street Fighter

some of the characters to appear in this leading artist’s sketchbook comic, and World of Warcraft.
www.genzoman.deviantart.com

78
 GENZOMAN IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

Fairies are a fine balance

between strong magic and
delicate character design

SPIKE SPIEGEL
“Back in the 1990s I was a big fan of
Cowboy Bebop and anime. Shinichiro –
Watanabe creates such interesting
worlds and characters.”

CLIDNA
“This sketch was done
for the Myths and Legends
TCG. I love to draw fairies –
they’re a fine balance between
strong magic and delicate
character design.”

PRIESTESS
OF ODIN
“Another sketch for Myths
and Legends. When the
editor sees this basic colour
sample sketch he’ll have a
good idea of what the
final design will
look like.”

79
 The Secret of
NIMH was my first
big inspiration to
start drawing when
I was a kid…

RYU VS KEN
“Here’s the cover sketch for Street
Fighter Unlimited #1, featuring
two eternal rivals and friends,
Ryu and Ken.”
 ATHENA
“A rejected sketch for
an unreleased game.
I like the idea of a calm
Athena, instead of the
typical fierce warrior
stereotype.”

MRS BRISBY
“Don Bluth’s film The Secret
of NIMH was my first big
inspiration to start drawing
when I was a kid. I still love
that movie!”
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL SKETCHBOOK

INSPECTOR AND PENNY

“Inspector Gadget was one of my favourite
cartoons when I was a child. Here I was going
for a gritty vibe, while staying true to
the cartoon’s roots.”

THE
MERMAID
“A couple of years
ago, my office was
really close to a branch
of Starbucks. I used to
go there for coffee
and sketch there on
my break time.”

82
 GENZOMAN IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

AQUERONTE
“Sketch for an unreleased game. I tried to maintain
a HR Giger vibe on Aqueronte’s design. Greek
myths are great!”

PIRATE GIRL
“A sketch for the
upcoming board game
The Pirate’s Flag. I love
drawing pirates – there are
a lot of cool elements
to work with.”

PATHFINDER
“Compositional
sketches for the covers
of Pathfinder: City of
Secrets #1 and #2.”

83
 Artist
PROFILE
Stephan Martinière
LOCATION: US

French-born Stephan is an
acclaimed multi-award
winning artist, who was
voted one of the 50 most
inspirational artists by
ImagineFX. Stephan has worked on a
range of smash-hit movies including
The Avengers, Tomorrowland,
Guardians of the Galaxy, I, Robot,

The animator, concept artist and Hugo award-winning illustrator Star Wars Episodes II and III, and the
upcoming Aquaman.

shares sketches and concepts for unmade films and more! www.martiniere.com

SF ANTHOLOGY
IDEA 1 AND 4
“Sketch ideas done for a compilation of science
fiction stories. I like doing explorations with
no specific stories. This is usually when I can
push myself creatively and play with
ideas and shapes that I’ve not
explored previously.”
 UNBREAKABLE
“Sketch idea for the book of
the same title. A babe with big
guns! Science fiction books are
like Hollywood films – they follow
or create trends – and so over a few
years I was commissioned to
illustrate stories about strong
female characters, usually with
very high-tech gear and
mean firepower.”

SKETCH
1 AND 2
“These are interesting
exercises for me, where I try to
do a clean sketch in one shot
with no sketchy lines. It’s a very
instinctual process, but
also forces me to be
very careful with
every line.”

I like doing explorations with

no specific stories. This is when
I can push myself creatively
 DEATH
OF SLEEP
“A sketch idea for a book
cover. This was a very
unexpected sketch as I usually
have to be very loose when
I explore spaceship ideas, but
this one came in one fluid
line, almost like building
it out of wire.”

THE SOFTWIRE
“These started as a series of
concepts for a film. The film
didn’t happen, but a book was
made instead. It was an
interesting universe with a mix
of sci-fi and fantasy.”
 TRANSCENDENTAL
“Another sketch idea for
a book cover. Sometimes
simplicity is what works best.
I liked this idea much better
than the other one the
publisher ended up choosing,
but that’s fine, it’s part
of the process!”

GULLIVER’S
TRAVELS: DEAN’S HOUSE
“This project was for a full CG animated feature,
and I spent over six months developing all
kinds of different concepts, from characters
to environments and props, as well as doing
storyboards. This was a really cool

I liked the idea much better semi-cartoony project that

unfortunately didn’t happen.”

than the one the publisher

chose, but that’s fine! MERCEDES
COMMERCIAL
“This was a very early sketch
exploring a creature concept.
It’s another way I like to sketch,
in a looser, very sketchy line.
HOP: CANDY FACTORY
“A concept for the film. Interestingly, I did
I had the pleasure of pushing
the design to full colour and
not get to see the film when it first came out. I detail with added elevations to
was under the impression that the film did not get help the CG modellers build
made. This was a fun concept that I had hoped it. This was a very funny
to push to colour and possibly 3D, but the and very well-done
client was fine with just a sketch.” TV commercial.”

87
 PROFILE
Cosmin Podar
LOCATION: Romania

A keen artist from

childhood, Cosmin built up
his painting skills by doing

Fantasy figures and grotesque creatures mingle with hints of
Romanian urban and rural life in this artist’s sketchbook
caricature art first, before
securing a job at video
game developer Gameloft in Cluj.
After two years he was promoted to
lead artist, and spent a further four
years at the company before leaving
to become a full-time freelance artist.
He says his quest to become a better
artist is never-ending, and that he’s
his harshest critic.
www.behance.net/podarcosmin

WOMAN
FACES
“I’m usually reluctant
to draw female faces,
especially beautiful
ones , but I gathered
my courage and
put the pen to
good use.”

FATA
CU BUCIUM
“An homage to a
traditional singer of
our country.”

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 COSMIN PODAR IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

I had the
urge to draw
something gross,
that resembled
insects…

DAVID
“I was inspired
GHOST
by a picture online,
then remembered
RIDER
“This was a funny one,
the David vs Goliath I guess. I wanted to draw
theme and produced an exaggerated
my version of it.” perspective.”

MONSTER
“I had the urge to
draw something
gross, that resembled
insect creatures.
I was just keen to try
different things.”

89
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL SKETCHBOOK

HORNED
ALIEN DEMON
“No real story behind this one,
“This is an exploration of
but I was pleased with this
head decoration on an alien
character’s design.”
head. I was just passing time.”

AMPHIBIAN
“This was a special sketch, I wanted to see
how you could make a recognisable face just
by scribbling with a pencil.”

I wanted to see how you could

make a recognisable face just by
scribbling with a pencil

90
 COSMIN PODAR IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

CIOBAN
“This is my
homage to a
traditional Romanian
FACES
“This was an
sheep herder.”

exploration exercise
– taking a shape and
rotating, flipping it and
making different faces.”

BLACKBEARD
“This is a popular
pirate character, so
I thought I’d try my
hand at drawing him.”

91
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL SKETCHBOOK

HANDS
“A study of hands,
but how to make it
more entertaining?
Maybe this way…?”

92
 COSMIN PODAR IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

PUNK
“I just wanted to
draw a dynamic guy
singing at a mic.”

BUS
“This is an
example of what
it’s like to travel
on one of the
city’s buses.”

I imagined how
an underground
DJ travels with his
TRIP
bulky luggage… “I imagined how an
underground DJ travels
with his bulky luggage.
Just out of shot: his
decks and speakers.”

MAN FACE
“I really like drawing
men with ugly faces.”

93
 Workshops
96. Paint a bright
& dynamic figure
Learn how to use Photoshop’s colour
editing and drawing tools
96
102. Bring fantasy
portraits to life
Achieve realistic portrait paintings and
make them stand out from the crowd

108. Capture the look

of Blade Runner
Journey to Los Angeles 2019 to combine
character art with neo-noir architecture

112. Develop a strong

lighting scheme
How intelligent lighting choices can create a
compelling book cover

114. Collaborate on
an airship design
See how three artists work together to draw,
design and light an airship

118. Creating a
dragon knight
Painting a classic fantasy scene that’s heavy
on realism and details 118
120. Using brushes
in Rebelle
Introducing Rebelle, the natural media
painting program

122. Paint iconic Ghost

in the Shell art
Exploring the theme of identity in the
iconic anime film universe

126. Create a scene

in Black Ink
The process of concepting and composing
in the Black Ink program

Bringing an original
character to life is exciting

94
 122

108 120

112

95
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS

PAINT A BRIGHT
& DYNAMIC FIGURE
Follow Lois van Baarle’s process and learn how to use Photoshop’s
colour editing and drawing tools to create a sense of movement

or this workshop, I’ll be ensure the lines, shapes, colours and of the detail. As I work towards the
Artist
PROFILE F showing you how I make
a colourful, playful and
bright image. Flow and
composition all contribute to this
feeling of movement.
The early phase of my process is
finished piece, new problems
sometimes present themselves and
the image may evolve in unexpected
movement are very important to the mostly about getting the mix of ways, so I try not to stick to my initial
paintings that I create, because this colours to feel right. Colour editing sketch too much.
helps lead the eye around the image. tools and gradients play a big role The most important things to keep
An energetic pose and bright during this phase, in which my goal in mind is to choose colours
Lois van colours generate energy and life, is to create a striking colour scheme. intuitively, and to start rough and let
Baarle (Loish) making the artwork really stand out. Later on, it’s mostly a question of the image evolve naturally. So
LOCATION:
The Netherlands When I paint a figure, my goal is to gradually painting in more and more basically: just go with the flow!
The artist, known to her
numerous fans as Loish,
is a digital painter and
concept artist living in
the Netherlands. She’s
worked with LEGO,
Guerrilla Games and
Marvel to bring their
characters to life.
www.loish.net

Introducing rough colours

Initial, loose sketch
1 Rather than working out every detail, I emphasise
gesture, energy and movement. I then draw just enough
to give a sense of the pose, general direction of the hair
and facial expression. The looser the lines, the more
movement I create, which is key at this point.
2 I apply some colours to a layer below the sketch,
and tweak them using colour editing tools until I like
what I see. To add some depth to them, I change the
sketch lines to a reddish hue and set it to Multiply. Finally,
on a separate layer, I roughly paint the face and lighting.
Now I have a clearer idea of where the image is going.
PAINT A DYNAMIC FIGURE IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS

Paint with the

Eyedropper
Once I have my colours
down, I can paint
intuitively using the
Eyedropper shortcut.
When I’m using a brush,
all I have to do is press
Alt and click, which
temporarily activates the
Eyedropper tool.
Working like this feels
like I’m sculpting with
colour: there’s very little
distraction because I can
keep painting without
having to change tools
or open dialogs.

Drawing the line work

3 I flip the image because this works better, and then start drawing the line work. This will form the basis for the
final painting, but it can stay fairly sketchy because I’ll be painting over many of these lines. For the hair, I avoid
drawing individual strands, instead focusing on bigger clumps of hair and their shape, direction and movement.

PHOTOSHOP
CUSTOM BRUSHES:
LOISH_OIL PASTEL

This brush is great for

line work and more
chunky painting style.

LOISH_HARD ROUND

This one is soft when

pressing lightly, sharp
when pressing hard.

LOISH_SPLATTERNAME

This brush is from Jonas

Establishing the base colours
de Ro’s free brush set
(http://ifxm.ag/jonasdr).
4 On separate layers, I block in the colours for the background, hair, body and clothing. I also change the colour of
It’s meant for snow, but it the line work. During this phase, I use a lot of gradients to blend colours and bring variety to the colour scheme. I also
works for glitter effects.
use colour editing tools such as Selective Color and Color Balance to tweak the colours until they feel right to me.
 PAINT A DYNAMIC FIGURE IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

Gradient tool
Combined with layer
modes like Overlay,
Screen and Soft light,
the Gradient tool can
help bring depth to a
colour scheme by
lightening or darkening
specific areas,
intensifying colours, and
developing colour
transitions. With this
tool, I can create subtle
variations in colour, so
that the eye is led around
the image. Be sure to
choose the Foreground
to Transparent option

Colour adjustments and details Painting more detail

5 I feel like the colour scheme needs to be brightened
up, so I add some yellow hues to the image using
gradients on separate layers, set to various layer modes
such as Screen and Overlay. I also make the character’s
trousers a deeper blue, and add some belts and decorative
details to her general clothing. At this point, I have all the
details in place, and am ready to start painting.
6 My goal now is to start working out the shading and
lighting. I use a chunky, textured brush for this, which is
great for defining edges and bringing some contrast to the
shading. The colours that I want to use are already on the
canvas, so I use Alt+Click as a shortcut to access the
Eyedropper and start working out the details. I start with
the face and work my way around the image, bit by bit.

Painting the hair

7 When painting in more detail, hair presents a
unique challenge. I want it to look detailed without
literally painting every strand. I do this by making sure
each clump of hair has a gradient of colour that makes it
stand out from the other hair around it. I also paint in the
shadows cast by the clumps, which adds depth and makes
the hair look more realistic.
Adding depth and shading
8 Now that the details have been worked out, I feel the shading style has too
many hard edges. I’m ready to add some softer, more delicate shading. I use a Soft
brush, as well as the Gradient tool, to smooth out the shading and apply softer,
more neutral tones for the shadows. The purple from the previous step still shows
through, but it’s less harsh now.
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS
Bringing in details to the hair
9 I’m now ready to add more detail to the hair. I zoom in and start shading in
detail, using the ribbon principle when adding highlights (see reference image). I
also smooth out colour gradients. As the level of detail increases, I feel like it’s a
good idea to add more clumps of hair. This enhances the sense of movement the
hair gives, and bring some more detail to the image.
Painting loose strands
11 I select a smaller brush and paint strands over various parts of the hair, which
gives the hair a more realistic look and also adds movement. I usually pick a lighter
colour, such as a highlight, to make these strands stand out.
10 Smoothing the edges
I now need to finalise the paintwork and details,
which can get pretty boring and time consuming. I find
that it’s helpful to focus on the edges, rather than all of
the details at once. I zoom in and define the edges of the
face, the hair, the clothing and so on. To add colour and a
playful feeling, I sometimes choose a bright colour rather
than dark lines for these edges.
12 Adding effects to the creatures
I’ve left the flying creatures for last. I swap the green
and purple ones around so that they stand out more from
the background. I smooth out the shading, and define the
faces and wings, then add some movement lines on a
separate layer, which I blur with Motion blur and set to
Screen. I use gradients to give them a magical glow.
 PAINT A DYNAMIC FIGURE IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

Colour editing
tools
Once I’m happy with my
base colours, I start
tweaking them with
Photoshop’s Color
Balance, Hue/Saturation,
Replace Color and
Selective Color tools to
achieve the combination
that feels right to me.
I continue to use them
throughout the painting
process. Experimenting
with the sliders enables
me to try different colour
combinations before
settling on something
that works. My favourite
tool is Selective Color.

13 Stock photo brings sparkles and shine!

Now that the image is almost complete, I want to give it some sparkle. I apply glittery elements to the design on
her shirt and trousers, using a stock photograph that I purchase from textures.com, of sparkling fireworks. I set the
photo to Screen mode. I use a different firework image to add some sparkles to the movement lines from the previous
step. I also use a splatter brush to add a glittery effect around the flying creatures.

14 Final paintwork
I now apply the very last finishing touches to the piece. I zoom in and paint more detail on the character’s trouser design and belts. I also
add more details to her iris, as well as some more refined detail in the eyelashes. Finally, I smooth out the edges of the painting along the outside
border, so that there are no rough edges visible in the final version. And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed reading about my process.
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS

Artist insight
BRINGING FANTASY
PORTRAITS TO LIFE
Mélanie Delon talks through the tips, tricks and techniques she uses to achieve
realistic portrait paintings, ensuring they stand out from the crowd
antasy portraiture is my advice I can give, because nothing good example), I don’t hesitate to redo

Mélanie Delon
F favourite subject. Bringing an
original character to life is
exciting, but can be difficult
comes from rushing a painting.
It’s worth spending time and effort
trying to understand how a face ‘works’,
everything… and have a coffee break!
The main challenge in a portrait
painting is to make the character stand
LOCATION: France to achieve. To avoid mistakes and save such as under a particular lighting setup. out. Usually there’s no surrounding decor
Mélanie is a time I try to follow a few rules. But they’re Such a skill won’t be grasped overnight. in the environment to help you achieve
freelance really just guidelines, so feel free to adapt, Spend time experimenting with several this goal, and a finished, polished portrait
illustrator who change and test other techniques that techniques, and don’t be afraid to fail. can often end up looking flat and boring.
specialises
in fantasy
might better suit your painting process. I’ve learned – and still learn – a lot more Thankfully, there are several simple and
subjects. She spends her The most important thing to bear in when I struggle on a painting, and when effective ways to achieve a striking
time working for mind is to take your time. This is the best I’m stuck (on a mouth or nose, for portrait that will be remembered.
different publishing
houses and developing
her own personal works.
www.melaniedelon.com
1 Preparatory sketch
Before starting an illustration,
I always do some quick pencil sketches
to lay down my ideas. This helps me to
see more clearly what I want to do and
express, and be more confident about
the direction I want to take. I use these
sketches to build the composition,
reworking them slightly in Photoshop if
necessary. Usually I like to keep them
rough, because this gives me more
freedom during the colouring process. I
feel restricted by perfectly clean line-art.
 FANTASY PORTRAITS IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

Proportions of the
2 head and face
It’s important to be aware of the
proportions of a human face. Of course,
they’re only guides – everyone has a
different face shape that doesn’t
necessarily meet the beauty standard –
but it’s essential to know these rules, if
you’re going to play by them and break
them. I recommend practising with
facial proportions, until it almost
becomes instinctual to apply them to a
portrait piece. I always start with a basic
oval and then slowly add the facial
features, steadily building up the
character’s face.

Slightly tilting
the character’s
head helps to add
visual interest and
life to an image

Ensure your colour

3 scheme is harmonious
Usually the biggest mistake in a portrait painting is the skin’s colour:
it’s never either beige or black. Skin comprises a multitude of colours,
from pale blue around the eye, pink, to hints of yellow for the
mouth’s corners. I start painting with very few colours, and
progressively add more hues. I save my colour palette in a corner of
the illustration so that they’re always on hand. To avoid a muddy
look, I avoid using pure black or white. Instead, I increase the
saturation to the colour I using for the shadows.
4 Develop a dynamic composition
The composition and placement of the character in the illustration is
essential for introducing dynamism to the painting. I always try to imply a
slight torso movement, which avoids a straight and boring posture. Placing
the character’s face in the centre is a classic approach and works well, but I
also like to nudge the character towards a corner of the image to add a little
originality, and free up space in the scene. I find that slightly tilting the
character’s head helps to add visual interest and life to an image.
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS
5 Working the
background
The background can also help give more
impact to the portrait. I don’t like to
overload it with details, preferring
instead to leave it relatively plain to
avoid any unnecessary visual
distractions. I usually add subtle texture
and a gradient to avoid a flat, lifeless
look. Another alternative is to add
blurred elements, such as a forest or a
building, to give the character context
and hint at their story.
An outlandish hair
style helps to elevate my
character’s importance.
character’s dark skin.
104
6 Introduce realistic details
Small details such as veins or beauty dots won’t be immediately apparent, but
will give the last touches of texture and realism to portraits. These can also tell a
Keep some story: for example, exposed veins can be useful for depicting a vampire or a person
brushstrokes who’s ill. I generally use the same brush to create these details: a very fine brush that
Skin is never perfect, and allows for precise work. I slightly blur the brushstrokes’ extremities, to unify and
sometimes seamless
blending can ruin a skin’s
soften the details.
texture. I never blend
and smooth my
brushstrokes, because I
like to maintain colour
variations in the face,
along with some texture.
Tiny scribbles help to
introduce extra texture.
Gold war paint
on the face helps
to illuminate my
Small details such as veins or
beauty dots will give the last touches
of texture and realism to portraits
Emphasise key facial
7 elements
It’s easy to get lost in the details, even in
an intimate portrait piece. To avoid this
and save time I don’t detail the entire
illustration, instead only working up the
areas that I want to draw attention to.
For a portrait the most obvious area are
the eyes, but depending on the lighting
and the story I want to tell I can add a
second focal point, usually a key
costume element.
 FANTASY PORTRAITS IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

Eye contact
8 Even in the busiest of
compositions, a face will always catch
the viewer’s attention. And to make the
face even more powerful and striking,
ensuring strong eye contact remains the
most effective trick. The viewer is
instantly connected with the character.
It’s an effect that I use a lot in my
portraits… perhaps a little too much!
But I also love to play with more subtle
glances, which are less direct and help to
develop a sense of mystery, raising
questions in the viewer’s mind.

Source your
references
References are
important. You can
always do some internet
searches but the most
simple and obvious
approach is to use

9 Paint appealing lips

Lips are an important facial feature. They draw attention as much as the eyes
yourself! I always keep a
small mirror next to my
computer when I need to
do, and help the character to express emotion. To get them right it’s just a matter of quickly check some
texture. Lips aren’t a flat, plain element: I paint the little wrinkles with a very thin expression or feature.
brush, which gives them texture and a lot of volume. Indeed, volume is the key to You can also ask your
friends or family to pose
bring life to the lips, so I always add some intense dots of light to make them more for a portrait.
realistic and attract even more attention.

HOW TO BRING LIFE TO THE EYES

The key to achieving a striking portrait lies in the eyes. Here are three steps to easily paint them

Capture the eye’s shape
1 First I quickly sketch the shape of the eye. It’s
essentially an oval, but you can play a bit with it because
nobody has the same eye shape. I quickly sketch my lines
so I know where to add the light and the shadows. It’s all
about curves because the eyeball is round, and the
eyelids must reflect this shape.
Develop light and volume
2 Once I’m happy with the shape of the character’s
eye, I can start to apply the colour base, along with some
volume and light. The upper eyelid will catch a lot of the
light and will give volume to the eye. Here I decide to use
a pale mauve for her make-up, which will work pretty
well with the blue of her eye.
Introduce a sparkle of life
3 I further define the eye and add shadow under
the upper eyelid to enhance the sense of volume. The
final touch is the eyeball’s bright dot of light which is
essential: it’s the sparkle of life in any kind of portrait
painting. After that I can add more details such as
eyelashes, to increase the sense of realism.

105
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10 Take the profile approach

Developing a character’s profile is tricky because there’s no eye contact
to play with and only half of the face to show. I use light and contrast to
compensate for the lack of interaction with the character, and enhance the
costume design to hold the viewer’s attention. Here, the figure’s hair does
almost everything: it defines her head shape and contrasts well with the
bright, empty background.

Adding vibrant colours

to details like the
orange feathers will
balance out a pale
colour scheme.

11 Captivating eyes
The eyes are usually the main part of a portrait, and are my
favourite element. They can look sad, sparkling, mysterious or
dangerous… and done well, can bring any character to life. I like to
give them a lot of intensity with unusual colours such as purple or
yellow. The trick to make them really stand out is to play with the
light and saturation. I use a precise brush to create some colours
variations in the eye and finish it a bright dot of light that will give
volume to the eyeball.

A clean outline
helps to make a PHOTOSHOP
character stand
out, especially when CUSTOM BRUSHES:
SMOOTH
the background
is very bright.
It’s the brush I use for
almost everything, and
especially skin. I like the
soft texture it brings to
any element and it’s
perfect for skin. It’s not
too soft or too textured,
so I don’t have a lot of
blending work to do.

PRECISE

This is a basic Round

brush with Shape
Dynamics turned on and
Minimum Diameter set to
zero per cent. It’s ideal 12 Storytelling
A portrait leaves very little space to
for painting tiny details
such as wrinkles or tell a story, so the general style of the
eyelashes to a portrait. character is important and can give a lot
of indications and information about
DOTTED
their life. I try to pay special care to their
clothing, even if the viewer can only see
a small part of it. I also spend time on
Eyes can look sad, sparkling, This dotted brush is
useful for adding extra
texture like skin pores. I
their hair and details like a crown, to
give the maximum amount of visual
mysterious or dangerous… and done often use the Blur tool to
blend the results, giving
information. Their story can also be told
by elements on the skin, like a tattoo, a
well, can bring any character to life a soft and natural look
scar or tribal markings.

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 FANTASY PORTRAITS IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

13 Good lighting
The light is crucial in a portrait. If you get this right, it adds to The shiny golden headdress
the atmosphere of the piece, and brings life and volume to the face. I breaks up the huge amount
always start a portrait with neutral mid-tones and gradually add of shadows on the top part
shadows and light. I love to accentuate the light in a chiaroscuro of the composition.
style; I think it brings a classic feeling to my fantasy theme. However,
I keep my shadows very soft, and my gradients are usually very
smoothed, because the face is made of curves and not sharp angles.

Adding some of the

background colour to
the character helps
to better integrate
the foreground and
the background.

To increase the contrast,

I often leave some parts of
my characters in
the shadows.
14 Skin texture
The skin is obviously an
important element in a portrait
painting, and a common mistake is to
make it look flawless. It’s relatively
simple to paint clean, soft-looking skin,
but if you’re not careful your character
will end up looking like a plastic doll
instead of a person, and besides, nobody
has perfect skin. To avoid this, I start
15 Play with contrast
Another trick that works very well is to add contrast to the composition.
with a textured base and use a Soft I achieve this by adjusting the lighting, playing with complementary colours,
brush with a little grain texture to or using warm and cold hues. The trick is to separate the character from the
recreate the skin’s irregularities. I also background. My favourite approach is to use a very dark background and an
add some dots of light to create pores, unusual light source to illuminate the character. The light captures the
particularly on the character’s nose and viewer’s initial attention, who then moves on to my character portrait.
around the eyes.

107
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS

Photoshop & Traditional media

CAPTURE THE LOOK
OF BLADE RUNNER
Krzysztof Domaradzki journeys to Los Angeles 2019, and combines
character art with the city’s neo-noir architecture from the iconic film
he ImagineFX team got in from the film, just like I did with Ellie I’ll then reveal how the concept

Krzysztof
Domaradzki
LOCATION: Poland
The graphic
designer and
artist works in
various fields
of visual
communication. He
specialises in illustration
and likes making
typography experiments.
www.studiokxx.com
T touch with me to create the
cover image for their film art
issue. Their interest was
piqued by my fan art piece for the video
game The Last of Us, and the series of
artworks I created for The Witcher 3
limited edition steelbooks. I was asked to
paint a piece of art based on the 1982
science fiction film Blade Runner, by
focusing on the character of Rachael and
then incorporating futuristic architecture
from Naughty Dog’s game. This workshop
will take you through my creative process.
I anticipate this image will take me
about four or five days to finish. I’ll start
by explaining my approach to the concept
stage, where one needs to focus on
defining the idea for the artwork and
the general composition. Later on I’ll
explain how to find the right tone for the
artwork by choosing the best reference
photographs and colour scheme.
becomes a high-resolution illustration.
This part will include tablet sketching, a
lot of pen and pencil drawing and some
intense colouring. The final stage will
involve drawing tweaks, and adding final
effects and enhancement layers.
I encourage you to create the image at a
large enough size so that you’re able to
print it out for displaying as wall art. I
imagine this sort of image looks best
when it’s printed quite large.

Reference images
2 Searching online, I find a few portraits
of Rachael, some shots of the iconic Tyrell
building , the flying police car and the
futuristic LA panorama. I try to keep sides of
the image empty for now and I put Rachael
Visualising the brief in the middle. I make a selection of her and
1 I start with a super quick sketch on paper. I visualise only two ideas, because start to incorporate various photos onto her
the brief from ImagineFX is quite specific. I’m asked to focus on the character of using Hard Light and Screen layer modes. I
Rachael, but then think of ways to bring in the neo-noir environment of Los Angeles like how Tyrell building’s interior works with
into the illustration, which is almost like another character in Ridley Scott’s film. I go her hair and top part of the face, especially
with the first sketch, and decide to flip it horizontally. how the floor lines “cut” across her face,
creating a sort of architectural sketch.

108
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS

Strengthening the composition Making final touches to the concept

3 I add the city panorama at the bottom of the image, which
makes the composition ‘heavier’, while I like how the lights of
the flying police car reflect on to Rachael. I cover up her chest by
adding an exterior view of the Tyrell building: doing this makes
the structure look as if it’s looming menacingly on the horizon.
4 I add smoke textures to the image using Screen and Soft Light layer modes on the edges
of the image. I use the Gradient Tool and masks when necessary. This helps to make the
composition more coherent, while at the same time placing the main focus on Rachael. Once
I’m happy with how the concept looks I sketch on top of it to bring out the details, and then
send it to the ImagineFX team for their comments and approval.

Consider the
High Pass filter
This works best with all
sorts of detailed work
such as drawings and/or
photography where
some of the elements
need to be very sharp.
In order to achieve extra
a crisp look, duplicate
the target layer and go
to Filter>Other>High
Pass. It’s best to use
0.3 to 0.4 Pixel Radius for
smaller images that are
Implementing the revision requests Sketching over the concept
roughly 1,200px high,
and around 1.4 Pixel 5 I lower the police car and move the portrait to the right. 6 Once the concept is approved I add a plain white layer on
Radius for images as big
ImagineFX suggests I should add more city lights, so I find a top of the flat concept image at 40 to 50 per cent Opacity. I use a
as 5,000 to 6,000px. For
best results, use with good reference from a Blade Runner image. I distort the image’s simple Round brush (2-3pt) to sketch each element of the image,
either a Soft Light or perspective so than all the vertical lines are straight, and then focusing on the head while keeping the rest loose. I draw all the
Overlay layer mode. modify it with neon lights. I apply blue and orange gradients to vertical and horizontal lines while holding Shift, which helps to
make the colours pop more, especially from the top. tie together the image’s architectural structures.

w
CMYK previe
)
Cmd+Y (Mac
Ctrl+Y (PC)
to see
Enables you
w the scre en colours
ho
when
would change
de.
in CMYK mo

Printing and drawing Applying the drawing layer

7 I print the finished concept, which has some barely visible
shadow tones on Rachael’s face. The whole image fits on to a
single sheet of A4 paper. I draw most of the illustration using a
black ballpoint pen. For the face I use a 0.5B graphite mechanical
pencil. I spend a lot of time adding subtle lines and making the
drawing as detailed as possible.
8 I scan the finished drawing at 400dpi, then use Levels to
enhance the whites, greys and blacks. I place the Grayscale
drawing layer on to the concept and match it with my sketch.
Using Select>Color Range I apply various Colorize Hues onto the
drawing: red, yellow, blue and so on. I make the top background
drawing lighter and change the layer mode to Multiply.
 CAPTURE THE LOOK OF BLADE RUNNER IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

Adjusting the source material

9 I use the Gradient tool to lighten the dark areas, then
select a soft Round brush (2-8pt) to colour the various areas that
are created by the drawing layer. I draw at various Opacities (30
to 90 per cent), covering up the low-resolution look of my photo
references where necessary. I hold down Alt to quickly select
nearby colours to maintain the smooth, painterly look, all the
while regularly referring back to my drawing layer.
10 Enhancing the base colours
Next I press Cmd+J to duplicate my colour layers and set them at an Opacity of 60 per
cent. This makes my painted colours look more solid. I then shift the sketch layer to the top
and turn it to Soft Light layer mode. I erase the sketch from the face using a layer mask.
Having done this I duplicate all the layers and merge them yet again, before applying
Filter>Oil Paint on to the merged layer at 0 Shine.

Adding effects to the colours

11 I use high-resolution textures to enrich the
colour effects and Color Range to select areas that
I want to enhance, before adding colour using the
Gradient tool. I add a stars texture that fills the
image and change it to Soft Light layer mode at 30
to 60 per cent Opacity. Finally, I duplicate and
merge everything, then apply Filter> Noise>Add
Noise (2.80) and reduce the Opacity to 70 per cent.

Step Backw
ard
Undo
Cmd+Alt+Z (M
ac)
Ctrl+Alt+Z (P
C)
Use when yo
u want to go
back a few ste
p when
using brushe
s.

Futureproof
your artworks
I often create my art at a
much larger size than
necessary, for two
reasons. First, once
scaled down to the
proper size the image

12 Further tweaks to the image

I create another layer above the colours and drawing, and 13 Finishing up
I select Rachael, invert the selection and lighten the
becomes super crisp and
one can really see the
details. Second, if you
use a Round brush (2-5pt, 90 to 100 per cent Opacity) to refine background slightly. Then I increase the colour saturation so that
need to display your art
all the little details such as light reflections in Rachael’s eyes, the art will stand out on ImagineFX’s cover. Next I duplicate all the then you’ll know it can
strands of hair and her lips. I also fix any minor errors in the layers, merge them and apply the Oil Paint filter – just enough to be printed at a size that’s
suitable for showing off
drawing by covering them up with colour. Then I add the visible tie everything together. I repeat the duplication, apply a High Pass
in a gallery, for example.
rain drops by using Shift to create simple straight lines. filter at 1.4 pixel radius and set the layer mode to Overlay.
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS
DEVELOP A STRONG
LIGHTING SCHEME
Rudy Siswanto shows how intelligent lighting choices can help
to turn a straightforward composition into a compelling book cover
Rudy Siswanto
LOCATION: Indonesia
Rudy is a
passionate
illustrator who
loves animals.
He works on
fantasy card illustration
and concept art, as well
as character design.
http://ifxm.ag/rudysis
PHOTOSHOP
CUSTOM BRUSHES:
FEATHER BRUSH
I used this brush to
render the feathers on
the owl bear and griffin,
especially their wings.
RENDER BRUSH 1
I used this brush for
detailing and refining
the overall images.
RENDER BRUSH 2
I used this for the initial
shapes when rendering
to block big shapes
and rough colours.
112
aby Bestiary was a commission
B I had a lot of fun doing,
especially because animals
and creatures are my favourite
subjects to paint. The client, Metal
Wave Games, approached me with
a simple brief: to create a mirror
composition. I found it a challenge
because I needed to make a simple
composition look interesting.
I usually begin a painting by adopting
a workflow that’s used by many artists.
I start by producing thumbnails to help
me decide on the overall composition,
then proceed to put together a basic
colour rough, before eventually finalising
the colours by rendering the scene. This
approach enables me to focus on the
How I create…
BEASTS THROUGH THE AGES
Initial sketch
1 I wanted to incorporate three
different life phases of the owl bear and
the griffin. So I started simply by observing
animals that live near me. I learned that
animals tend to play with each other during
their infancy. During their adolescence
the playing turns to fighting – and it happens
all the time! They tend to be calmer when
they’re fully grown adults.
composition and the lighting, rather
than focusing on developing my brush
strokes on the canvas and steadily
rendering the painting.
Because of the simplicity of the
composition, I needed to put a lot of
expression into my characters. In
particular, the focal point was my
opportunity to ramp up the visual interest
in the composition. I already had
something in mind about the flow of the
image. I wanted the audience to follow
the beasts’ journey through life, starting
from their infancy and all the way
through their adulthood. This means
I needed to treat the lighting in this
painting in a very specific way, in order
to tell the story behind the image.
Colour rough
2 During the early stage of making a
colour rough, a common approach is to focus
on the middle of the composition: in this case,
the two fantasy beasts’ teenage years. But
this made the composition uncomfortable
to read. So I changed the main focus to the
lower part of the image, where the beasts
are still in their infancy. This suits the book’s
theme, which is about nurturing baby beasts.
Enhance the focal point
I find the real challenge is to simplify a
complicated image that contains a lot of
elements. That’s why I increase the contrast
in the main focal area, both in value and in the
silhouette. I also make the lighting come from
behind the beasts’ infancy phase, to create a
stronger silhouette. I also want to direct the
audience to explore the owl bear’s face by
illuminating its face with a strong lighting.
Light
Subsurface
Final stages
3 I want to keep the values intact. So
rather than using a frontal lighting scheme,
I use lighting that originates from behind
the beasts. This enables me to define the
silhouette of both beasts clearly. I want the
viewer to be able to read what’s happening in
this cover very clearly, so that when this book
is displayed in the bookstores the silhouettes
of the playing baby beasts are obvious.
 STRONG LIGHTING IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

The flow of the image

I want to emphasise the focal area in the bottom part of the cover, where
the infant beasts sit. So I make the visual flow resemble an arrow pointing
downwards. I also utilise the beasts’ body parts, such as beaks and claws,
making them point downwards as well. By doing this, I make the flow
of the entire image leading down towards to the bottom of the book cover.
I hope the audience will get the message that I intend to send.

Lighting up
the griffin
I use an additional light
source from the front, to light
the expression of the baby
griffin. I use this to help the
viewer explore this area more.
Sometimes we’re allowed to
ignore realism a little, so our
painting can deliver the
message we want to send.

Exaggerate the
expression
Expression is important for
me. Here I try to exaggerate
the faces of the beasts. I want
to make their faces adorable
and cute, based on general
references. The main focus of
their face will be on the eyes.

113
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS
Traditional skills, SketchUp & Photoshop
COLLABORATE ON
AN AIRSHIP DESIGN
From sketch to finish, see how three artists at Foundation Art Group
work together to draw, design and light a Final Fantasy-inspired airship
oin us and dive deep into the
J individual mindsets of three artists
and designers, as we take you
behind the scenes at how we work
here at the Foundation Art Group (www.
foundationartgroup.com). In this special
workshop, we’ll show you how three people
collaborate to draw, design and paint a Final
Fantasy-inspired airship.
The most important factor that we want you
to keep in mind while reading or watching this
workshop is that a strong foundation is key.
Although we’re using standard art software
114
here, all our creative decisions reflect our
group’s primary focus: education.
Many artists rush to learn the latest software
tricks, or try to emulate trending painting
techniques, while too few spend their time
developing their core design and drawing skills.
That’s why we’ve focused this workshop on using
basic tools and software: pen and paper,
SketchUp and Photoshop. The techniques used
when working in the software are also very
limited. And our collaborative approach is meant
to give you a taster of how artists work in a
pipeline, at industry level.
In SketchUp, we’ll be bashing together parts
of models found throughout their 3D
Warehouse (see step 6). It won’t require a lot of
3D techniques to do so – just a familiarity with
the program. Meanwhile, in Photoshop, we’ll
utilise basic Adjustment layers, as well as photos
for textural detail.
However, the fundamental of this workshop
all began with the sketches of the flying ship.
We want to show you how some rough marks
on paper can result in a strong design that’s
ready to be passed up the pipeline. Okay, here
we go!
 AIRSHIP DESIGN IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

PART 1 JOHN PARK: RAPID IDEA DEVELOPMENT

John Park
LOCATION: US

John is both a
concept artist
working in
the film and
video game
industry, and a teacher
and co-founder of
Brainstorm School in
Burbank, California.
www.jparked.com

Generate plenty of rough sketches

1 After gathering reference and doing your research, it’s
time to begin sketching out some loose forms and ideas. It’s
best to do these in a flat profile view, since we’ll be filling
them in with black shortly. Go totally wild! The more you
explore here, the more you’ll have to choose from during
subsequent phases. Layer Mask
Alt+Shift+Cmd
+K (Mac)
Alt+Shift+Ctrl
+K (PC)
(custom shor
tcut)
Applies a ma
sk to a layer
and inverts it,
enabling
you to paint
white to
reveal areas.

Identifying a strong silhouette

2 Now comes the fun part! It’s time to get out your brush pen or black markers, and fill in your shapes. Don’t restrict
yourself to the lines that you previously laid in – instead, think in terms of both positive and negative shapes. Giving your
fantasy airship a unique form and visual language will also unify the design and help sell the idea to your art director or
prospective client.

Why work
traditionally?
When in doubt, sketch
it out! One thing that
traditional media allows
for is rapid, loose
exploration. There are
times when we become
too precious while using
software because we’re
Lay in your markers Refine your lines
3 Now I select a few of the silhouettes to explore. With a 4 Here we have three sketches all in difference phases.
afraid to destroy our
image. With traditional
sketching, we know that
30 per cent grey marker, I lay in a three-quarter perspective The middle design is in the original markers, while the top
the sketch isn’t going to
view version of my ship. This will help me visualise my forms one has been loosely sketched on top of, and the bottom is be the final result, so this
and loosely sketch on top to reveal the designs that I have in been refined a little more. Consider blowing up the sketch, enables us to loosen up
and explore some really
my head. This is a technique that’s used by professionals, and reducing the opacity and further refining your drawing,
cool ideas in the process.
helps to quickly generate variations and new ideas. because this will help save time later on down the line.
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS

PART 2 DANIEL PARK: TAKING THE IDEA INTO 3D

Daniel Park
LOCATION: US

In 2006 Daniel
graduated
from ArtCenter
College of
Design, and is
now a visual artist busy
working in the industrial
design, entertainment
and architectural sectors.
http://ifxm.ag/daniel-p

Working in SketchUp Visit the Warehouse!

5 The second part of this workshop will be to take the
approved idea and bash together a rough model using
Google’s SketchUp (www.sketchup.com). 3D is a daunting
tool for some artists, but SketchUp really helps to bridge the
gap for beginners. There is a free version of the program, and
learning how to navigate and rough in geometry is a user-
friendly experience.
6 One of SketchUp’s main advantages is being able to
use the Warehouse. This resource is filled with designs that
have been uploaded by SketchUp users for sharing with the
community. At this stage in the process, it’s a great time to
look around, find a couple of rough models to get you
started, and begin to break things apart so you can use them
for kit-bashing.

Grasp the
basics today!
Some art beginners try
to bypass this lesson, but
always to their cost! So
perhaps they’ll listen if
we don’t put it in art
terms. So, just like with
learning any new
language, you first need
to know the letters in the
alphabet, in order to put
them together to create
words, in order to put
together to create
Kit-bash individual assets Finalising the rough 3D model
7 As you can see, utilising the contents of the SketchUp 8 Here’s an almost complete version of the model that
sentences, and so on.
You can attempt to write
Warehouse can give you a great head start on designing a we’ve been building. You can tell that I’ve utilised pieces from the most intricate novel
out there, but without
fantasy vehicle. I’m only using parts and pieces of models the Warehouse throughout the model: there are turbines, knowing the alphabet it
here, and I’m still staying true to the original design. Most of boats, drills, and so on. At this phase, I’m also unconcerned may become a challenge.
the hard work was done earlier when we laid out our sketch by the texture information provided from the pieces because
– now I’m finding pieces in the Warehouse to bring that idea – just as with real-life kit-bashing – we’ll be painting it grey
to life. very shortly…

Save out multiple passes of the model

9 Now it’s time to save out the model for further refinement. I save out a line pass, a shadow pass and a general 3D model pass of the
ship. These three passes alone will be able to give us a very nice head-start when it comes to finalising the design in Photoshop.

116
 AIRSHIP DESIGN IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
se
Create/Relea
ng Mask
Clippi
ac)
Cmd+Alt+ G (M
C)
Ctrl+Alt+G (P
nt layer to
Bind the curre
rneath
the layer unde
as a mask.

10 Composite everything together

With a white layer on bottom, I take all three passes
and align them perfectly in Photoshop. Then I set each layer
mode to Multiply to reveal the layer underneath. I would also
encourage creating a mask by selecting the area around the
outline, inverting the selection, and filling it with black on a
new layer.

PART 3 MATTHEW ZIKRY: LIGHTING AND TEXTURES

Matthew Zikry
LOCATION: US

Matthew is
a concept
designer in the
entertainment
industry, who’s
working on film, video
game and theme-park
designs in Los Angeles.
www.matthewzikry.com

Lay in the shadows

11 It’s time to refine a shadow pass of the model. Here, I 12 Overlay a range of textures
With my shadows now in place based off my general
fill in the mask with a 25 per cent grey value. On top of that lighting direction, I find multiple photos of various textures
layer, I create a Levels layer and clip that into my mask layer. I that I’d like to add to my design. I next utilise Overlay layers
can then drop the white point until we get a dark version of at this point in the project, and crush the black and white
the ship. Now I mask that layer and paint white to reveal the points of my textures so that the shadows underneath are
airship’s shadows. left intact. PHOTOSHOP CS6
CUSTOM BRUSHES:
SOFT BRUSH

Very useful for blending

textures and creating soft
shadows while painting
on adjustment layers.

TEXTURE BRUSH

A great brush to help

break up forms and add
texture variation without
having to use a photo.

Refine the textures 14 Putting in the finishing touches

A few final touch-ups and we’re done! I brighten up
13 At this stage I have a good idea of how my textures are the top sail, as well as some of the railings on the ship. I also
SILHOUETTE BRUSH

beginning to read on the ship. Now I make use of additional darken some shadow areas on the boat itself, to further
photo textures on Normal layers, while adjusting Levels and reinforce the lighting scheme. With all textures, materials Create a solid shape with
Curves to match the layers underneath. The benefit of and shadow information in place, the airship is ready to be no transparent opacity,
enabling you to lock the
working in greyscale is that it enables me to focus purely on passed on to the next phase of the production pipeline.
layer and paint within it.
values, and not complicate the process with colour. Thanks for joining us!
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS

Dragon details
Here I pay more attention to the
design and form of my dragon. All
the small scales and horns need to
be painted over correctly – and all
following the lighting scheme.

Photoshop
CREATING A
DRAGON KNIGHT
Dongjun Lu
COUNTRY: Singapore
Dongjun Lu uses his film concept art experience to paint
Dongjun is
a classic fantasy scene that’s heavy on realism and details
a full-time
concept artist his is a personal piece, which I classic fantasy elements of a knight and At first I toyed with the idea of
working in
the film and
video game industries,
on titles that include
T completed in under three
days. Before this I was busy
creating concept art for a film.
dragon. However, I still had to draw
on my film concept art experience to
achieve my goal. Because I was short
depicting a knight on a horse, but then
I wondered if it might look a little odd,
seeing a horse in such a dry, hostile
Toukiden, Romance of This assignment had lasted a number of of time, I used textures to help speed up environment. So I changed my mind
Three Kingdoms, months, and before moving on to my next the painting process. and settled instead on a dragon with black
Uncharted Water V and
Ninja Gaiden 3. He also project I was keen to paint an image that The origins of this piece came from scales, so that it contrasted nicely with
has five years of art was the opposite of my concept art. the sandy building image that I eventually the sandy desert.
teaching experience. I wanted it to be realistic and heavily used in the background. It gave me the Once I was happy with my initial idea,
www.ludongjun.com
detailed, and decided to portray the idea of painting a knight in the desert. I started to sketch out the scene.

118

How I developed…
A DESERT ENVIRONMENT
Composition and
1 perspective
This is the first step and also the most
important. I use three-point perspectives
to help me find a simple composition. The
curves of the dragon’s body, lighting and
shadows help to create visual flow through to
the left corner of the image.
DRAGON KNIGHT IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
Refining the building
I need to adjust the building, which is
in the background, to match the lighting
scheme. I add more shadow to the side and
adjust the direction of light that’s hitting it.
I also reduce the details, because they’re in
the background and are unnecessary.
Rendering the armour
I use some armour texture to help with
the forms. Then I paint over it and render
highlights and shadows, along with some
more interesting designs.
Painting
the rocks
Here I knock back the
details on the foreground
rocks by painting over
them. This was because
I needed to emphasise
the lighting and colours
on the rocks.
PHOTOSHOP
CUSTOM BRUSHES
DONGJUN BRUSH 1
DONGJUN BRUSH 2
Taking inspiration Adjustment
2 for the design and rendering
The second step is the most difficult one. This is the final step. After developing enough I used two brushes in
After making a simple silhouette based on details in my designs, I slightly adjust the the image. My texture
step one, I use textures as inspiration to help composition and the pose. During this stage brush is for sketching
me develop the details in the scene. They’re I also increase the detailing in the focal point, and metal rendering,
a shortcut inasmuch as they help me visualise and reduce distracting details elsewhere, while the other brush
the final, painted surface. to increase the impact of my painting. is for smoothing and
reducing details.
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS

Rebelle
USING BRUSHES
IN REBELLE
Martin Hanschild introduces Rebelle, the natural media painting
program, and looks at more of the software’s painting tools

he Watercolor tool is Watercolor); and Dry media brushes, on how you use all of Rebelle’s other
Artist
PROFILE T probably the best tool in
Rebelle’s toolkit - it’s also
the most commonly
such as Pencil, Marker, Pastel and
Airbrush. There’s the Eraser too,
which is dry by default but has some
features, such as Canvas Wetness,
brush textures and so on.
Here I’ll introduce these remaining
utilised as well. However, there’s special features, as you’ll see. painting tools, point out their specific
more to Rebelle than Watercolor - The parameters for all of Rebelle’s attributes and behaviours, and
there are many other painting tools tools are set to predefined values demonstrate the range of effects you
in Rebelle that are well worth taking to start with, and they work fine ‘out can achieve with them on the canvas.
Martin the time to explore. of the box’. But you can tweak them Rather than a step-by-step tutorial,
Hanschild They can be divided into two according to your preferences. You I want to give you some tips and
LOCATION:
basic groups: wet media brushes can always reset them to the defaults. advice to help you better understand
Czech Republic
(including Acrylic, Ink Pen and Remember that the results depend Rebelle’s painting tools.
Martin is a 2D and 3D
character designer
who works in Prague for
motion art house Eallin.
You can change
Brush strokes with a high
www.hanschild.com
brush textures Loading value totally cover
the canvas texture.
Dry Media

Pastel Marker Airbrush Pencil

Wet Media Here you can reset the

properties of the selected
tool to its default.

Acrylics Ink Pen

Brush stroke
preview. You can change
If you want to bring back some brush textures to
of the canvas’ texture, start achieve different
Comparing painting tools painting on a new layer. impasto effects.
1 All tools have a Pressure parameter for controlling a
brush’s pressure sensitivity, and a Size setting to control the Working with the Acrylic tool
size of your brush stroke. The maximum size is always 100, but 2 You’ll find the same properties for the Acrylic brush as for Watercolor,
the actual size is different for each tool. Dry media tools don’t but of course it works in a different way. Colour spread is reduced, and it
have a Water parameter, and Pencil and Pastel will dry a wet occurs more slowly on the canvas. If you increase the Loading and Pressure
canvas. You won’t find an Opacity setting, as in other painting values you’ll have a thicker brush with a lot of mass, producing an impasto
programs, but there’s a Loading parameter that controls the effect, which totally covers the canvas texture. For better colour blending,
amount of colour loaded on your brush. especially with a high Loading setting (close to 100), switch to Dirty mode.

120
 BRUSHES IN REBELLE IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

Combine the Ink Pen with

the Watercolor tool.

Combine tools
Rather than using tools
as standalone steps in
your painting process,
why not experiment by
combining them for
more interesting results?
For example, I love to
put together watercolour
strokes with thin, sharp
and sketchy lines drawn
with the Pencil, and the
fuzzy lines of the Ink Pen.

Use the Wet tool to You can achieve this look by using
diffuse Ink Pen lines. the Wet tool on your drawing.

Using the Pen and Pencil tools on a wet canvas

3 The Pencil tool doesn’t have a Water parameter, but you can use the Wet tool to dampen your artwork and
produce an effect close to watercolour pencils. The Pencil also dries a wet surface and can stop or slow down the
spreading of colours through the canvas, which can be used in a creative way. The Pen simulates drawing with ink
pen, and it dries faster than the Watercolor brush, even if you draw on a wet surface.

With the Pastel tool, using lower The Eraser is not only for
Pressure values will bring out the removing mistakes. In this
paper texture. I typically use quick sketch I rendered the
values between 15 and 40. light with the Eraser

Choose different
paper to change
the look of the
Pastel tool.

If you reduce the values

of Pressure and Softness,
then the Eraser will lightly
scratch the painting

The Eraser isn’t just for handling errors

Quickly fill up the canvas with the Airbrush
4 For one reason or another, I never used to work with the Airbrush, but
I’ve subsequently realised that it has its uses. This brush has the biggest size
compared to the others, so it’s great for quickly filling big surfaces. And if you
don’t like its basic texture, use your own to create interesting structures.
5 The Eraser has some specific settings of its own. A lower
Softness value leaves the paper texture more visible, while a
higher value leaves erased parts cleaner. By default, the Eraser
completely dries the erased area, but if you turn on ‘Keep
wet’ then the tool cleans colours, the erased area retains its
wetness and colour continues to flow.

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IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS

Photoshop
PAINT ICONIC
GHOST IN THE
SHELL ART
Guweiz creates promotional art that explores the
theme of identity in the iconic anime film universe

122

s a devoted fan of the Ghost
A in the Shell franchise,
especially of its more
introspective,
psychological side, I jumped at the
chance to illustrate a promotional
piece for Paramount’s new film. The
theme given to me was ‘Identity’. The
story is set in the future where
humans can opt to have entirely
synthetic bodies. However, when one
physically becomes an A.I., does it
mean that he/she also ceases to be
human, or have a soul?
Major Motoko Kusanagi is the
female lead that often personifies
GHOST IN THE SHELL IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
this question, having both depth Artist
PROFILE
of character, yet also the ability to
become emotionless and inhuman
in the line of duty. I felt that a clear
composition would be an effective
tool to set the mood from the get-go.
This explains my choice to present
the physical juxtaposition between
Guweiz
her two contrasting character traits. LOCATION: Singapore
In this workshop I’ll explain how
Guweiz is a freelance
I turn a rough line composition into illustrator who likes cool,
a structurally accurate value sketch, kickass female
and then into the final painting, characters and just feels
happy when he gets to
while trying my best to maintain draw.
the initial mood and feeling that http://ifxm.ag/g-z-w
I had for the piece.
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IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS

DOUBLE THE FUN

Introduce visual interest

I use a glitch effect to help bring the focus to the
characters faces and add visual interest. By
breaking up straighter silhouettes slightly, it
gives the viewer’s eyes a reason to pause
occasionally, but retains the large shapes and
readability. Leaving the focal areas largely
untouched helps elevates their importance.

Create suit patterns

Specular highlights can help convey a shiny,
synthetic surface, but I find it’s sometimes
better to take a clearer, more direct
approach, such as adding and wrapping a
suitable texture around the material.
Airbrushing in Layer Mask mode ensures
the texture follows the suit’s surface.

Strengthening the story

While developing the image, significant changes may be
needed to present a clearer message. In this case, the
client requested a clearer differentiation between the
two personas. A quick overpaint with a Soft Pressure tip
and the Lasso tool revealed that having a tech-suit for
the left persona served that purpose perfectly.
 GHOST IN THE SHELL IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

Depicting strands of hair

After studying many photo references of hair, I’ve
noticed that the thinnest hair strands usually capture
and reflect a slight flare in front of bright lighting. It’s
also a neat way to show the viewers the highest
“resolution” of detail by having a prominent, fine
element presented near to the focal point(s).

Make use of perspective boxes

It’s sometimes easy to forget or lose small degrees of rotation and
contours, especially in the early stages of rendering where the lighting
setup isn’t fully established. These boxes helps remind me of the facing
and orientation of important forms in the composition.

A mix of rain drops

A mix of brush-generated and hand-painted
raindrops helps push the atmospheric effect
in the scene. Any suitable particle brush with
Motion Blur, along with transform tools for
perspective, creates the regular layer. Two or
three of these coupled with a hand-painted
rain layer finishes the job.
PHOTOSHOP
CUSTOM BRUSHES:
SOFT PRESSURE TIP

How I visualise…
MAJOR KUSANAGI’S DUAL IDENTITY Gives a thinner stroke on
low pressure, and is ideal
for airbrushes when set
on high pressure.

FIXED SIZE ROUND

General painting brush

Build the scene
1 At this stage, I focus on
finding the best set of elements to
fill my canvas with. I preserve my
energy by focusing on the rough
layout, ensuring that there’s
sufficient detail for both myself
and the client to understand.
Find the structures
2 It’s key to define structures
in the painting accurately, while
keeping in mind the ambience and
lighting setup. Without strong
directional lighting, the positioning
of highlights and halftones
become indicators of form.
that helps avoid
unintentional thickness
variations common with
Colour over values the default Round brush.
I want the colors to take a VARIED PARTICLES
back seat, in order to sell the grey-
green ambience. It’s a balancing
act to define local colors
Produces particles
sufficiently without overtly and varied in value, size,
unintentionally highlighting a sharpness and opacity.
particular area in the piece. Use it with blend modes
for more control.
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS

Black Ink
CREATE A SCENE
IN BLACK INK
Ayan Nag breaks down his process of concepting and composing a dramatic
environment in this novel GPU-based painting program

irst of all, if you’ve never used in four equal spaces. I’ll then sketch painting while making small changes that
Artist
PROFILE F Black Ink before, it’s a
relatively simple program to
use, so you should soon be
rough thumbnails into these spaces,
helping me to explore the possibilities of
my initial idea while keeping all the
help to improve the image.
I’ll be using Black Ink’s default brushes,
although you can create your own custom
up and running. concepts in one place. brushes. So everything you need will be in
My approach to art is straightforward Then I pick a sketch that appeals to me the software when you install it
and my techniques can be easily the most, and start to develop a colour (download it from the official website at
introduced into your own workflow. I’ll palette that fits it. You can do this using a http://blackink.bleank.com).
Ayan Nag be explaining them in detail over the reference image, such as a photograph, a So without any further ado, let’s get
LOCATION: India
course of this workshop. particular painting that you like, and so started. I hope you have fun and learn
Freelance concept artist I generally start a project by first on. Just try not to pick colours directly something useful from my painting
and illustrator Ayan loves
travelling, plein air
choosing the canvas size and dividing it from them. From here on out I’ll start process with Black Ink.
painting, dancing,
playing cards and
learning new things!
www.artofayan.com

Check values
regularly
If you have a strong
value statement in your
painting then everything
will work out well. You
can create a black layer
on top and set the mode
Put down the underpainting
to Color. Turning this
Coming up with thumbnails 2 The underpainting is the stage where you fill out
layer on and off will
toggle the colour to 1 This is the most important stage. It’ll help you build the canvas with a single colour or gradient as a base for your
greyscale and make it
easier to check if
the foundation of your painting, and gives you the chance to painting. It’s a standard method in traditional paintings. For
everything you want explore your idea and see how it can be improved. I divide this step, I create a layer below the sketch and fill it with a
people to notice can be the space into four equal parts and start sketching rough colour. Use a complementary colour (or a variation) of your
seen properly or not.
ideas. I then pick one sketch to develop further. main colour scheme to get started.
BLACK INK IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS

Introduce light to the scene

Blocking out the main shapes
3 I start painting colours on top of the underpainting and block out the primary
shapes in the painting. Working carefully, I let some of the orange show up through the
strokes. This will help me to quickly develop some interesting colours and make the
points of interest stand out.
4 Next, I identify the main light source and paint it with
a lighter version of the existing colour. You can also complete
this step by placing a Color Dodge layer on top and painting
into it. I then add a hint of light from the sky using a grey
colour. This acts as the secondary light source.

Eliminate
errors quickly
Regularly flip your
canvas so that you see
your work-in-progress in
a new light. Doing this
will also ensure that
minor mistakes stand
out, enabling you to
correct them easily.
You can even keep a
duplicate window
floating, where the
image remains flipped.
This enables you to keep Getting rid of the sketch
track of both aspects of
the composition.
5 After painting and further defining the shapes I erase
most of the sketch. Now I have a rough painting that’s free of
any line art, which means I’m free to change objects and
shapes around, to enhance the image. I recommend keeping
the main objects on separate layers, because this will come in
handy later on.

Controlling the saturation

Bringing in new objects
6 After spending time tinkering with the painting, I start adding new objects to
help enhance the scene. I refer back to my thumbnail stage for ideas, and keep going
back and forth to discover what works best for this composition.
7 Using saturated colours doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll
produce a colourful image. Most often than not, using
saturated colours everywhere will ruin a picture. So I
carefully get rid of the extra saturation I had in place. I create
a new Color blending layer on top and paint any affected
areas with grey.
 BLACK INK IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

Refining shapes, adding new ones

8 I then move on to refining the existing shapes and
adding new structures, all the while thinking about the
composition and how I can enhance it. I also lay down some
more suggestive brushstrokes here and there, and just keep
on painting.

Defining the focal points

9 Now I darken the surrounding areas of the focal points
and points of interest. I also add some glow around the lit
areas by painting on a new Color Dodge layer. These tweaks
will keep the viewer’s eye on the mark and thus give the
painting greater visual impact.
10 Enhancing the depth of the composition
Emulating depth is an important part of creating a believable environment. The
general rule of thumb is that the further away the objects are, the lighter and desaturated
they become. Bearing that in mind, I create some fog to convey depth and keep on
adding details. I also give the character an energy ball, just for fun!

Start simply
Don’t get lost in detailing
an object too soon into
the painting process.
Start your image by
using a big brush. Try to
Get the most from Color Dodge
11 I use a lot of Color Dodge and other blending modes in 12 Final touches
I play with the value of the image and refine it that so
accomplish everything
with fewer strokes of
the brush. Make it simple
my general workflow. Here I create a new Color Dodge layer the content reads better. I also carry out some colour and straightforward. You
and paint into it with bright colours and a Soft brush to adjustments and refine the brush strokes by sharpening can always add details
indicate bounce light and refracted light. I’m now in the them. To finish off the image I place minor noise on top of later on – or not, as the
case may be.
closing stages of this illustration. everything. This gives the image a more natural feel.
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL WORKSHOPS

BEGINNER’S GUIDE
TO USING BLACK INK
Ayan Nag passes on a few key tips to help you get going with Black Ink and shows
how you can adapt its features to your established workflow

Adjusting the Canvas

1 size
It’s important to establish your
document sizes before you start
working on your project. You can find
the relevant option to do this by
clicking Image>Resize. Once you open
the panel, you can change the
document dimension and resolution.
You can also alter the dimensions to
make your starting image landscape or
portrait format.

Brush panel
3 Press the small downwards arrow
to extend the panel. This will give you
access to all of the available brushes.
There’s also a panel just on top of the
Brush panel where you can store your
favourite brushes for easy access. I
mostly use the default Charcoal Dual
Texture brush. It’s a great brush to paint
– indeed, it’s often the only brush I use
to complete a painting.

Explore the Toolbar

2 The toolbar lies just below the menus on top. Within it are a good selection of tools including Undo/
Redo, Navigation, Flip canvas, Crop, Lasso, Fill and so on. Be sure to try them out.
 BLACK INK IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

4 alter your brushes within the control Editor

The Control Editor enables you to modify almost all aspects of your brushes. From controlling the Opacity to dictating how they handle colour and
textures, everything can be modified through here. You can open the window by pressing C or from within the Windows menu. The Editor can look
overwhelming at first, but don’t be afraid to try it out and see what does what. You’ll soon get used to how it works.

5 manage colours in the color Box

On the left side of the Color box you can store up certain
colours that you often use. By pressing the Solid Color bar, you can
access handy options such as Image-based color, Gradient color
and Auto color-picking. Select this latter option and you can use 6 Layer and Layer modes
I use layers to keep the fore-, mid-, background and standalone objects
the colour you’re painting on top of, without having to select the separate, helping to create depth and manage aspects like colour and positioning.
colour first. You can only have up to eight layers, so plan accordingly!

get more from the eraser tool

7 Here’s a technique that will make your Eraser much more
powerful. Try holding down E while erasing. This will turn the
Eraser pointer red and you can use the current brush you’re
painting with as an eraser. On releasing E you can go back to the
Brush tool and keep on painting. In addition, using a custom
eraser will produce better results and create interesting shapes to
work with.
8 press ‘u’ for a secondary View
A secondary view helps you keep track of your painting’s overall progress,
and highlights mistakes, too. So it’s important that you keep a smaller preview
open. You can also flip the image within the secondary view pane. It doesn’t
change the main window view, saving you the trouble of flipping your work-in-
progress image.
 Traditional

152

126. FXPosé Traditional

Showcasing a selection of the finest
traditional fantasy artists 154
142. Get inspired
by Del Toro
Create an atmospheric mixed media
painting inspired by Guillermo del Toro

148. Getting started

with oils
Boost your knowledge of oils with this brief
introduction to the medium

152. Mix story elements

on a book cover
John Howe explains how he composed a
book jacket illustration for Robin Hobb

154. Pencil and

watercolour art
How to bring an image to life with
watercolour washes and pencils

132
126

148

142

133
 FXPosé SHOWCASING THE FINEST TRADITIONAL FANTASY ARTISTS

Abhishek Singh
LOCATION: India 1
WEB: www.abhishekart.com
EMAIL: abhi.s82@gmail.com
MEDIA: Acrylics, gouache

Born in Gwalior, India.

Abhishek’s childhood was
enriched by the vivid
stories of India’s ancient
myths and folk tales.
He recently painted plein air at the
Varanasi ghats next to the River Ganges
(the riverside steps used for bathing and
ceremonies). “With all the frenzy and
conversations, the sadhus and people
interacting with the painting,” he says “it
turned into a very special experience.”

IMAGINEFX CRIT
“Abhishek’s use
of colour is the
standout aspect
in his compositions,
followed by the strong
character designs and a
real sense of movement.
It feels as if these images
are just moments from
coming to life.”
Daniel Vincent,
Art Editor

1 GANGA AVTARAM: THE DESCENT

OF THE RIVER GANGES
Acrylics/gouache on canvas, 6x5ft
“The story of the Ganges: how a river of
light came down after a penance by a
prince, taking the place of his father
who couldn’t complete the task. The
story represents breaking psychological
barriers and letting the new self be
born. I left the background white to
make your eye move to the corners,
expanding the scale of the experience.”

2 ANAHATA NADA:
THE UNHEARD SOUND
Acrylics/gouache on paper, 6x4ft
“Sing to the barren sky, like rain does to
a famished tree, be the sound that lives
between the murmur of leaves and
chirping of birds, become the song
which dwells in the silence of listening
and in braving the storms. I wanted to
show the gods without any weapons,
and have them pay an ode to nature.”
 INSPIRATIONAL ART IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

2
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL TRADITIONAL MEDIUMS

136
 INSPIRATIONAL ART IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

Charlie Dixon 3
LOCATION: England MEDIA: Pen, pencil
WEB: www.charliedixonillustration.com

Charlie tells us he’s inspired

by “nature, the macabre and
the unusual,” and strives for
atmosphere and realism in
his detailed art.

3 LYCANTHROPE
“This personal piece reimagines
an age-old myth and explores the
4 THE ENCOUNTER
“An exercise in exploring
textures and forms alongside
classic themes of transformation, narrative storytelling.”
decay and death.”

1 SHAMAN
“This piece started out as a
textural experiment, but then
4
gradually evolved into
something more. I’m happy
with how it turned out.”

2 OVERGROWTH
“I was keen to combine
texture, form and intricate
rendering in a single piece,
using graphite.”
 Karolina Larienne
Heikura 1
LOCATION: Poland
WEB: www.larienne.deviantart.com
EMAIL: larienne@vp.pl
MEDIA: Markers, watercolours

Karolina, a freelance illustrator and

concept artist, sounds like our kind of
girl: “While I work, I always have to keep
a cup of tea around,” she tells us, clearly
knowing about the ImagineFX team’s
love for tea.
Bringing people’s concepts to life and
being able to establish a link between her
work and the audience is the most
satisfying part of her job: “What I love
most is telling stories with
my art, either via symbolism
or using composition.” Her
main sources of inspiration
lie in the world of Disney,
fantasy, conceptual art,
elves and the universe.

IMAGINEFX CRIT
“While the art style
takes its influence from
manga, it’s great to see
Karolina tackling the
subject with traditional
media, which adds a
visual texture that’s so
often missing
from its digital
equivalent.”
Daniel Vincent,
Art Editor

1 HEART OF GOLD
Markers and watercolours on paper,
210x297mm
“In this illustration I wanted to portray
the idea that sometimes we’re kind
towards people who don’t deserve it,
and sometimes there are people who
care for us whom we don’t notice.”

2 NOBLE MAIDEN FAIR

Markers and watercolours on paper,
210x297mm
“I created this piece as a tribute to the
legacy of Disney, with which I grew up.
I wanted to give this painting that Celtic
feeling Merida’s known for and present
her in my own vision. I included the bear
as the symbol of motherly love.”
 INSPIRATIONAL ART IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

2
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL TRADITIONAL MEDIUMS

Vivian Mineker 1 3
LOCATION: Slovenia
WEB: www.vivianmineker.com
EMAIL: minekervivian@gmail.com
MEDIA: Watercolour, gouache,
acrylic, graphite

For now, Vivian’s based

in Slovenia, but the artist
has also lived in Taipei
and Portland. She works
primarily in traditional
media, and reveals that “I focus on
conveying emotions and the underlying
narrative of each piece, employing
media such as watercolours or graphite,
for the physical connection with the
work that I create.”

1 FAT CAT
Fabriano paper, watercolour and
ballpoint pen, 9x12 inches
“Inspiration comes to me often while
I’m between waking and sleeping,
and this is a product of one of such
occasion. An image popped into my
head one night while falling asleep, and
I thought that I must draw this because
it amused me. Who doesn’t love a fat
cat getting into peculiar situations?”

2 ARMADILLO
Fabriano paper, watercolour and
ballpoint pen, 11x14 inches
“The start of my alphabetical animals
series. I wanted to create images of
animals in surreal situations along with
plants that they would interact with in
real life, but in an unusual way.”
2

3 CAPYBARA CLOWNFISH
Fabriano paper, watercolour and
ballpoint pen, 9x9 inches.
“I wanted both capybaras and clownfish
for the letter C of my alphabetical
animals series, so I combined the two.
Capybaras are famous for being docile
and friendly to other animals, allowing
others to sit on them – so much so that
there are blogs about this fact.”

140
INSPIRATIONAL ART IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

IMAGINEFX
CRIT
“Vivian’s got a great sense
of the absurd and
abstract, and fortunately
she’s able to capture both
on the canvas. One can
only wonder how that
overweight feline got
itself into such a
predicament…”
Claire Howlett,
Editor

141
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL TRADITIONAL MEDIUMS
Pencil
GET INSPIRED BY
DEL TORO
Illustrator JANA HEIDERSDORF creates an atmospheric mixed media painting that’s
inspired by the world and works of acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro
O
ne of my most treasured
possessions is a DVD box
set made up of the
Guillermo del Toro films
Cronos, The Devil’s
Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth. I bought it
about five years ago on a class trip to
London. I hadn’t turned 18, so somebody
else paid for it on my behalf.
My obsession with film has had a
strong influence on the work I do
nowadays. Having been only mildly
interested in old and new masters of fine
art and illustration, I learned most of
what I know about visual language,
atmosphere and composition from film.
Film taught me what it means to have
an artistic voice, a vision. Especially del
Toro, with his world of eerily beautiful
monsters, haunting atmosphere and
poetry in both image and narration,
showed me what it can look like when you
weave your own web of personal
mythology and symbolism. So you can
imagine my excitement when ImagineFX
asked me to create an homage to his work!
142
Acrylics Charcoal Photoshop
I’ve been fortunate to work on several
film-based projects this year. When you
watch a film with art in mind, you
become more active as an observer. I
believe the goal isn’t to simply enjoy the
movie, but to understand and analyse it,
to find reoccurring themes, symbols,
strong imagery and important details,
while trying to get a grasp on the film’s
emotional core.
In this case I’ve decided to create a
collage of the three box-set movies and
ARTIST INSIGHT Crimson Peak, which seem to me to be
WORK WITH A WIDE del Toro’s most personal works so far. My
RANGE OF MEDIA
aim is to study their visual language and
The more you
compose a strong image that works in its
experiment with
own right, but utilises del Toro’s artistic
different media, the
vocabulary, the taste of his filmography
broader becomes the
and ultimately includes elements, scenes Jana is an illustrator from
palette of tools at your
disposal. Knowing
and familiar characters. Germany who creates moody
how you can combine I’ll be working in a mix of acrylic paint, and fantastical mixed-media
media to create the coloured pencils and charcoal, to create a artworks to accompany
right textures and close to monochromatic picture. Most of everything you can read, watch and listen to.
effects will save you my works also receive a digital colour She’s worked with Titan Comics, Bracken
time and frustration. finish, which I keep to a minimum for Magazine and Bottleneck Gallery. You can
this workshop. see her art at www.janaheidersdorf.com.
INSPIRED BY DEL TORO IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

143
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL TRADITIONAL MEDIUMS

MATERIALS
PAPER
Q Moleskine Cahier
Sketchbook
Q Copy paper
Q Lanaquarelle hot-
pressed watercolour
paper, 31x41cm
PENCILS
Q Derwent charcoal
pencil dark
Q Derwent charcoal
pencil white
Q Derwent drawing
1 Start with research 2 Thumbnail sketching concepts
pencils (chocolate
I watch the four films, and take notes on reoccurring I condense my notes to compositions, aiming to
6600, Chinese White
and defining imagery and ideas. This leads to a messy array include elements from several films and to keep the overall
7200, Sanguine 6220,
of words, phrases and scribbles – the foundation of my dark atmosphere. Working digitally at this stage makes it
Brown Ochre 5700)
concepts. I also take screenshots of scenes that I might easy for me to get a good idea of the overall shapes and
Q Faber-Castell
Polychromos (Sky Blue,
need for reference later on. tonal values I need to create a strong image.
May Green)
Q Faber-Castell Colour
Grip (dark blue)
Q Staedtler 8B graphite
pencil
Q Lyra Rembrandt
Black Pastel Pencil
Q Charcoal
Q Coates Willow
Q Charcoal Sticks
Q White charcoal sticks
of unknown origin
PAINT
Q Store brand black
acrylic paint
Q Guardi Gesso White
BRUSHES
3 Layout drawing
Q Da Vinci synthetic Before I start working on the final artwork I want to
4 Transferring the drawing
Q brushes sizes 0, 8 make sure I won’t run into any unexpected problems. By I print the final layout drawing and roughly transfer it
SOFTWARE sketching both portraits separately and editing them to watercolour paper using an old lightbox. For this I’m
Q Photoshop together in Photoshop, I get a good idea how the artwork using a charcoal pencil that will blend in nicely with the later
will look like. Additionally, I can adjust proportions and add a painting. I also make sure not to apply too much pressure to
few details to the concept. the paper, so this initial drawing can be reworked easily.

6 Start painting
I roughly block in the tonal values and continue to

5 Time for the underdrawing
At this stage I establish the foundation for my painting by creating a detailed
drawing with a black pastel pencil. To avoid mistakes that would be difficult to correct
afterwards, I use screenshots of the film, photos of hands and faces in the required
poses and lighting, and the print of my layout drawing for reference.
built up depth and volume using black acrylic paint that’s
been diluted with water. During this stage accidental
splashes or smudges can and should happen. My goal is to
create an organic, loose texture with precision following
further along in the painting process.

144
 INSPIRED BY DEL TORO IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

WORKPLACE
TIP
EXTRA SUPPORT
Plywood boards can act
as portable surfaces for
your drawings, if your
desk isn’t big
enough.

7 Pushing contrasts in the composition

Getting the contrasts right is a key part of making my illustration work, so I make
sure to paint the areas I want to be black as dark as possible. Because pitch black can
quickly seem dead and boring, it’s important to be sure about where it’s needed.

8 Eye for detail

Now is the time for precise brush work. For this I switch to a smaller-sized brush
(0) and use it to introduce details to faces and hair, and texture the wings of the moth.
I also define edges where necessary and work over pastel and charcoal markings to
make them blend in more evenly with my painting.
 SKETCHING
TIP
DON’T SEEK PERFECTION
There’s a place for
sketchbooks filled with
perfect art, but seeking
9 Bringing in charcoal shadows perfection keeps you
Before I switch to dry media I make sure the paint has dried completely to avoid nasty surprises. I like from drawing.
using charcoal to deepen dark areas even further without adding new marks or distorting the existing textures.
I also use it to smoothen edges, in this case around the faces. For smudging I use my fingers.

ARTIST INSIGHT
KEEPING LINES ALIVE
When you’re using lines
to form volumes and
values, make sure they
follow the form of your
object. If you avoid
cross-hatching in neat
10 Getting splashy 11 Bringing white into the picture
rows of parallel lines I add splashes of acrylic paint to areas I want to gain I use gesso to paint thin layers over faces, hands and
and orthogonal angles more texture, whipping my brush around like a wand. If too hair to soften the underlying textures and lighten the areas. I
you’ll develop an many droplets accumulate at one spot, I use my fingers to work on details such as the eyes using opaque paint. I prefer
organic, natural feel. wipe them off before they can dry. Areas I want to remain using gesso over white acrylic paint because its chalky
untouched by the paint can be covered with scrap paper. nature leads to a surface that takes dry media very well.

146
 INSPIRED BY DEL TORO IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

12 Adding white noise

I use white charcoal sticks to create broad textures
that add some noise to darker parts of the artwork. I also
want Edith’s hair to fade to white towards the background,
forming a contrast to the blackness behind Ofelia. To
achieve this I use the charcoal to lighten this area.
13 Drawing in highlights
I draw in highlights, the final details and dynamic lines with a white charcoal
pencil. For extreme highlights I use a white coloured pencil by Derwent, which is very
soft and creates brighter lines than the charcoal, but can’t be revised or drawn over
as easily because of its oily composition.

ARTIST INSIGHT
GETTING YOUR
HANDS DIRTY
Fingers are great for
art making. Without

14 Keep the eyes engaged disrupting your

To make the otherwise monochromatic image more
15 Looking good on screen workflow by having to
engaging I use pencils to add a few colours. While keeping After scanning the artwork to Photoshop I use switch your tools you
it subtle so I don’t mess up my tonal values and contrasts, it Levels and Selective Color to achieve the right contrasts. I can quickly smudge,
makes the picture seem much more alive and interesting. also play around with the saturation of the image, to amplify wipe and mix wet and
Mostly, I use clay tones, but also add blue to light areas and the subtle colours of not only the pencil lines, but the dry media effectively.
green to contrast reddish lines. different hues of the black and white paints.
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL TRADITIONAL MEDIUMS

Oils
GETTING STARTED
WITH OILS
HOWARD LYON is here to boost your knowledge of oils. If you’ve been putting off
using this age-old medium, there’s no time like the present!

T
here’s an undeserved mystique
around oil painting that has
put up some intimidating
barriers for some artists
wanting to use this wonderful
medium. I hope to remove those concerns
and provide a basic foundation of
knowledge to help you get started.
Oil paint is pigment bound in a drying
(siccative) oil. The most common is
linseed oil extracted from flax seeds, but
you’ll also find paint bound in walnut,
safflower or other oils. The pigments are
generally the same as those found in To begin we’ll go over the key materials
watercolours, pastels and acrylics. needed for you to get started. Most art
Oil paints offer a richness of colour and materials are sold in at least two grades:
its surface allows the creation of beautiful student and professional. Whenever
textures. You can paint thick or thin, possible, purchase pro-grade materials.
directly or use glazes. Oils can be used on I find the difference in price is offset
paper, wood, metal, plastic, canvas and because pro materials almost always last
many other surfaces. longer and the paint goes further.
If you’re just getting started, don’t get Howard has worked as an
overwhelmed. Be patient with yourself illustrator and art director as
and recognise that it’ll take a little time to well as a fine artist for galleries
get the hang of this beautiful medium. and collectors. Explore his art
Don’t overcomplicate it, either. by visiting www.howardlyon.com.

1 A spectrum of colours
There are hundreds of colours Three Master Choice A small synthetic
to choose from, but start with a basic Flats from Rosemary & mongoose round for the
palette that covers the spectrum and Co. Can be chisel shaped finest detailing, from
will give you a good mix of warm and or soft and fuzzy. Rosemary & Co.
cool hues. Pro-grade oils will contain
more pigment, which will result in more
accurate colour mixing, and will be
resistant to fading in sunlight.
A long Ivory Filbert and
Titanium white Round – great for fine
Cadmium yellow detail and hard edges.
light
Yellow ochre
Cadmium red light
Alizarin crimson
Transparent red
oxide
Burnt umber
Raw umber
Phthalo green
Phthalo blue Bristle brushes
are excellent for
Ultramarine blue scubbing in thin
Ivory black. paint as well as Master Choice Filbert
laying down An Ivory Flat Bristle from Rosemary from Rosemary & Co.
thin impastos. & Co. Excellent for thin and thick It’s made from badger
ARTIST INSIGHT strokes, and very durable. hair and very versatile.
BE DELIBERATE
Every stroke you make should have
purpose. What shape, colour and value
2 Oil painting requires a variety of brushes
is the stroke you’re trying to make? Stay I prefer Rosemary & Co. brushes, but I also recommend Silver Grand Prix and Trekell. Hog bristle
focused and paint with intent. brushes are versatile, not terribly expensive and allow for a variety of applications. Finer-haired brushes,
both natural and synthetic, can give you an even smoother finish and make very fine detail possible.
 GET STARTED WITH OILS IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

A tempered glass This wooden arm 4 A surface to paint

The most common surfaces to
palette. These come palette from New paint on are canvas, linen and wood.
in a variety of sizes, Wave Art is light You’ll need to prime the surface with a
and you can put and well balanced,
a value scale with plenty of gesso or ground to prevent the acids
under the glass room for mixing. in the paint from contacting it directly.
for reference. Acrylic gesso is easy to use and can
be applied with a brush or roller.

A wood hardboard panel is cheap

and smooth, and easy to make.

ART TIPS
REGULAR DRAWING
IS ESSENTIAL
Sketching from life is the
fastest way to improve
your observational skills
and your paintings.

A scraper for removing A disposable palette from

paint from a glass palette New Wave Art, for when
(not a wooden one!). you’re out and about. Paper from Raw linen before
Arches that it’s been sized or
has been primed. Expensive,
sized for oil but has a
3 Choose a palette for your paint painting. beautiful texture,
You’ll need a palette for your paint. This can be a disposable one, a clean tabletop or a handheld and is strong.
wood palette, or a piece of glass that can be quickly scraped clean. Whatever you use, choose something
that’s large enough to allow for easy mixing and can be used ergonomically.

5 A comfortable easel
A solid easel is important so
that your work is stable, safe and
remains at a good working height
while you’re painting. You can
purchase small, metal tripod-style
easels that can be used sitting or
standing, or consider a folding wood
easel, or larger studio models that are
meant to remain in situ.

2 From left to right…

1. Inexpensive, metal, tripod-style
easel. Easy to carry and store,
and can be used either when
sitting or standing.
1 2. H-frame style easel for studio
use. Broad price range and comes
3 in various sizes.
3. French-style field easel.
Limited canvas sizes, but is
versatile and portable.
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL TRADITIONAL MEDIUMS

Ink Watercolour Pencil Airbrush

MIX STORY ELEMENTS

ON A BOOK COVER
The Lord of the Rings illustrator and concept artist JOHN HOWE explains
how he composed a book jacket illustration for fantasy writer Robin Hobb

150

S
ubterranean Press
contacted me to create
full-cover dust jackets for
a new and limited edition
of Robin Hobb’s Farseer
trilogy. In reply to my query about
a cover brief, the publisher replied
that there was none: I had free rein
to do as I wished.
Naturally, this sounded like a
dream commission, but of course it
meant making many decisions above
and beyond the actual subject matter:
layout, placement of titles, fonts and
more. I was intent on installing two
things: a proximity to the characters,
and a depiction of wide landscapes. I
decided that the best way to avoid
“posing” characters – equivalent to
a modern-day snapshot taken in
front of a tourist-friendly vista – was
to make use of vignettes.
© Subterranean Press
JOHN HOWE IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
I did all three sketches at once and
sent them off. These were pencil
scribbles, scanned and rendered in
sepia with white highlights, which is
an efficient way of adding focus and
depth. I was also aware that hiding
the dragon’s head behind the vignette
was a bit risky, and considered trying
to shift it, but in the end it stayed
where it was. Approval came back
from both publisher and author with
no revisions, so I got going on the
originals themselves straight away.
The main image was done
separately from the vignette. It’s never
a good idea to paint one image over
another unless there’s some purely
pictorial or decorative reason for
doing so. Should the smaller image
need to be moved, it’s best to have it
as a separate original. Equally, for
sub-rights use, a third party just
might want to licence the main image
without the vignette.
John is a full-time illustrator
and concept artist, who
helped shape the look of the
Lord of the Rings and The
Hobbit film trilogies. You can discover
more of his art at www.john-howe.com.
151
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL TRADITIONAL MEDIUMS

Points of interest: Bring a scene to life

TAPE TIP
TURN UP THE HEAT
Even though I do use a
A ragged silhouette sturdy paper, peeling the
The sculptor in the novel is a fallen wizard of
sorts, using his skills to carve stone with his bare
masking tape off can lead to
hands. The juxtaposition of torn cloak and wild disaster. The solution is a hair
hair with his magical gift makes him come alive. dryer. The heat softens the glue
and enables the tape to come
off without scalping or
otherwise damaging the
paper underneath.

MATERIALS Warm vs cold

I prefer to use the white of the paper for warmer
MEDIA colours, but cold ones are best done with
QInk gouache or coloured pencil. The hands
Q Watercolour themselves are painted in gouache, while a
touch of airbrush helps them to glow.
Q Coloured pencils
Q Airbrush
PAPER
Q 300gr all-round
drawing paper,
stretched
MISCELLANEOUS
Q Masking tape
Q Clear plastic

Rocks aren’t dull or dusty

Wrapping the light
Masked contours are hard and flat; few
things in nature are. Softening the edges of
the rock and the dragon, and bringing a little
of the background light on to the surface
itself adds depth and believability.
Like so much in nature, grass, wood and stone are
kaleidoscopes of complementary and opposing
colours. In a greyish-brown rock, there are
hundreds of tints. It’s best to let all those colours
resolve themselves, rather than choosing one
tame colour and then simply sticking to it.

152
 JOHN HOWE IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

Dragons for
beginners
I have plenty of references
on lizards, snakes and
crocodiles, but only for the
textures. For the structure
of dragons, I find one’s
imagination is more
reliable. It’s best to design
fantastical creatures
without help, relying on
memory and imagination,
before going back to the
photos to paint any details.

Pencils for small sketches

A sketch needs to be legible. I prefer to do mine in
pencil, only doing colour sketches at gun point. I’ll
save colour for later, when I’ll be working full size.

Step-by-step: Painting the rocks and magical sculptor

1 ESTABLISHING THE SETTING 2 THE RISKY PART

Not knowing the spine widths in advance,
I decide to extend the rocky scenery to the
left, just in case the book ends up wider
than planned. The first step is to paint the
sky using plenty of water and bright colours.
I really want to depict an evening scene,
because this means the foreground will be in
shadow, which is the look I’m after.
I mask off the sky, silhouetting the cliff
and the dragon. I prefer using wide brushes
and generous gestures when painting rock,
so masking is crucial. It’s important to cut
most of the way through the thickness of the
tape but not quite, to avoid damaging the
paper underneath. I press down hard on the
tape, to avoid colours leaking underneath.
3 KEEPING A LIGHT ON
The blue glow of the sculptor’s hands
needs to be part of the background itself.
Lots of cliff and rock photos, mostly mine
but also scavenged from magazines, serve
as reference for details and general
structure. I paint the sculptor over the blue
glow, leaving out the hands themselves,
which will be added last.

153
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL TRADITIONAL MEDIUMS

PENCIL AND
WATERCOLOUR ART
Renown animal illustrator KATY LIPSCOMB reveals how to bring a wolf to life,
using watercolour washes and pencils to create a stylised scene from nature
G
et ready to learn how
I colour a howling wolf
using unconventional
methods and materials!
Here, I’ll teach you my
approach for creating my drawings
using a range of media: watercolours,
colour pencils and more.
I’ll start proceedings with a light
watercolour wash and move towards
darker heavier marks with colour
pencils. This workshop is focused on
how to colour using a variety of
materials rather that how to draw. To
begin, you should first select some
heavy-duty paper. I prefer to use
Strathmore Smooth Bristol board;
however, illustration board, a hot
press watercolour paper or a cold
press watercolour paper with a
smaller tooth will also work.
You should also be ready with a
watercolour brush. I enjoy using a
range of brushes, from flat brushes to
PENCIL & WATERCOLOUR IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
Pencil Watercolour
ARTIST INSIGHT round brushes to detail brushes;
CATALOGUE YOUR however, much of this is personal
ART DIGITALLY preference. If you’re unsure about
I create a digital what to start with, I recommend a
catalogue of all my size four Round brush and a thin
works, for posterity and
detail brush with a fine point.
just in the case the
As for media, I’ll be working
worst should happen.
I scan my works in at
primarily back and forth between
least 300DPI as a PNG watercolours and colour pencils. In
file. I then crop, rotate, this workshop I’ll specifically be
and colour correct my using PH Martin’s concentrated You’ll also want a cup of water for
image using image- watercolours, but other watercolours cleaning your brushes between
editing software. and inks will do just fine. My colour colours, a pencil for a primary sketch,
pencil of choice is Prismacolor an eraser and paper towels.
premier soft core, but as with the If you’ve gathered all of your
watercolour or ink, this is also very materials, clean up your workspace
flexible. Last but not least, I’ll be and let’s continue to the workshop!
using a white gel pen and white Katy is famous for her
liquid acrylic for finishing touches. fantastical scenes and
Other materials that will be representations of the beauty
important are an artist’s watercolour found in feral creatures. She’s
palette. I find disposable palette has gained attention from Time Magazine,
sheets very useful, but you can also National Public Radio and more. See her
invest in a longer-lasting solution. work at http://katylipscomb.com.
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL TRADITIONAL MEDIUMS

MATERIALS
PAPER
Q Strathmore Smooth
Bristol Board
BRUSHES
Q Size 2 or 4 Flat,
Round, and Detail
watercolour brushes
PAINTS
Q PH Martin’s
Concentrated
Watercolors
Q FW White liquid
acrylic
PENCILS
Q Prismacolor Premier
Soft Core
Q Faber Castel
Polychromos
OTHER
Q Mechanical pencil
Q Eraser
Refine the sketch
Q Gellyroll white
gel pen Draw a basic outline 2 I continue to block out details and define shapes
Q Water cup 1 I begin by drawing the basic frame of the wolf’s into more organic forms. Now I have a more definitive
Q Watercolour palette head. I find it easiest to block out large shapes when shapes for the snout, ear and fur. It’s important that the
drawing, rather than trying nit-pick details when fur feels organic, rather that stiff. It can be tempting to
beginning a sketch. For example, here I’ve started with a want to draw pointy triangles; however, try to keep your
circle for the head and a triangle for the ear. wrist loose and let the shapes flow naturally.

Apply a darker wash

Begin with a light watercolour wash
3 I always work light to dark when working with watercolour. This is because
I can always add layers later, but watercolour isn’t a media that can be ‘erased’. In
this step, I’m starting with the lightest of my watercolour washes. I do this by
thinning the pigment with a lot of water.
4 After my first layer has thoroughly dried, I begin
adding a second layer to the wolf’s fur using more
concentrated pigment. Watercolour is a medium that
layers beautifully due to its translucency. Even when you
add another layer, you’ll be able to see hints of the
previous layers beneath.
 PENCIL & WATERCOLOUR IMAGINE FX ANNUAL

ARTIST INSIGHT
PAINT REALISTIC FUR
The easiest way to
learn how to create
believable fur is to
study photos of fur.
Notice which way the
fur flows over different
contours of the body.

WATER
TIP
LIMIT YOUR WATER
APPLICATIONS
When working on Bristol
board, limit the amount
of water you use to
prevent the paper
from warping.
Continue with light washes
5 I now start to work with lighter washes across the Put down a fourth wash layer
rest of the wolf. In this step, I’ve chosen to use a
6 After waiting for the previous layers to dry,
complementary colour (those colours located directly I continue with a fourth layer of wash. Once again I work
across from each other on the colour wheel) on the wolf’s from light to dark; this layer is slightly darker and more
chest. Because I’m using blue for the top of the wolf, pigmented than the previous layers. I create the illusion of
I choose a golden yellow-orange for the chest. shadows and fur with a few selective dark strokes.

Tackle the background details

7 I’m now beginning to add background decoration
using a painting technique called ‘wet-on-wet’. I do this
by placing non-pigmented water on the paper in swirling
patterns. When the water is placed in the right locations,
I then apply the watercolour pigment on to these wet
areas. The pigment will flow freely and create swirling
patterns in the water.
Start on the colour pencil detail
8 After the watercolour has thoroughly dried, I begin using colour pencil on
top of the loose watercolour base. I use the pencil to sharpen the image and
highlight details that I want the viewer to notice, such as the fur, nose and ear. I use
a dark brown pencil to accent patches of the wolf’s fur.
IMAGINE FX ANNUAL TRADITIONAL MEDIUMS

Continue the pencil fur detail

Introduce reflective light
9 One way I like to tie the abstract background details to the rest of the
drawing is by adding the illusion of reflective light. I do this by adding a colour that
matches the background to the edges of the wolf. In this step I add warm yellows,
pinks and oranges to the wolf’s fur.
10 I continue to add detail to the fur using colour
pencils. I add the illusion of detailed fur without actually
drawing individual strands of hair. This can be done by
selectively adding dark accents underneath patches of
fur. I also darken areas such as the crevasse of the ear, the
inside of the mouth and the nose.

COLOUR
PENCIL TIP
DON’T DROP THEM!
Prismacolor pencils are a
soft lead pencil, so be sure
to keep them secure to
prevent dropping. One
drop can shatter
the lead.

ARTIST INSIGHT
BURNISHING WITH
COLOUR PENCILS
Burnishing is a helpful
technique when using
colour pencils. To
burnish, lay down a
layer of colour pencil.
Next, take a pencil of a
lighter colour and then Develop abstract fur patterns
firmly press the two 11 When I draw my animals, I enjoy laying down abstract patterns and details to the surface to add visual interest.
layers together. These patterns always flow with the natural forms of the animal and can either be interpreted as adornment or fur. In
this step I use a burgundy and navy blue to bring in these surface details.

Burnish layers with colour pencil
12 At this point I’ve built up many layers with colour
pencils. To create a smooth and polished surface look,
I use a technique called burnishing (see Artist Insight,
below left). To burnish the previous layers, take a lighter
pencil colour and firmly press the previous layers
together with broad strokes.
Finish the final details
14 During this step I work on finishing my final details
with my colour pencils. This includes adding some
finishing touches to the wolf’s fur, nose, and ears. At this
point, I use the darkest tones to pull forward areas of
importance. For me this includes the eyes, nose, mouth
and certain patches of fur.
PENCIL & WATERCOLOUR IMAGINE FX ANNUAL
Place a pencil layer on top of the burnished layer
13 I now have a sleek and smooth layer of burnished colour pencil. At this point,
the fur may look too polished and artificial, which is a common problem with
burnishing animal fur. To combat this, I’ll add another layer of pencil detail. The fur
now features dark browns, burgundy and navy blue.
Adding white highlights
15 In this final step, I highlight certain details with white liquid acrylic or a white
gel pen. This includes adding white highlights to the nose and lips, creating the
illusion of wetness. I also add highlights to certain patches of fur. Lastly, I add white
highlights to the background for a ‘magical’ atmosphere.
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