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Stay positive! How to maximise the creativity and joy in your work

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LEARN TO DRAW WHAT YOU SEE PAINT SCI-FI CITIES AND STRUCTURES COULD YOU BE OUR ARTIST OF THE YEAR?

ISSUE 190

KSHOP & INTERVIEW! THE LAST OF US PART II UNMISSABLE STEP-BY-STEP WOR

ARTIST NEWS, SOFTWARE

EVENTS

AT THE CORE OF THE DIGITAL ART COMMUNITY

How to be happy as an artist Joy division Leading artists tell Tom May how their art makes them happy, and offer their tips for emulating them Despite popular wisdom, you don’t have to suffer for your art. Indeed, for many artists it’s their greatest source of happiness. Take freelance fantasy artist and author Jesper Ejsing. “I’ll often ‘wake up’ from having been painting for hours, look at the clock wondering where the day went, and realise it’s time to go home,” he says. “That feeling is fantastic, because it tells you that you were immersed in something beautiful, a state of mind that’s not

“The monster’s expressions and the small narrative of this image always makes me smile,” says Jesper Ejsing.

BITTEN BY THE TRAVEL BUG When she’s not working in her super-organised studio, German artist Meike Schneider likes the travel the world for art inspiration.

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possible to grasp or register until you leave it.” Of course, creating art is not always a delight. It has its challenges, to say the least, and artists find different stages of the process at turns fun, challenging and maddening. Jesper himself is generally happiest at the start: “It feels like coming out of a tunnel and all the possibilities lie before you,” he says. “The further you get into a painting, the more the options narrow down.”

HALFWAY TO HAPPINESS

Katelan Thomas, an illustrator and 3D artist, reveals she’s usually happiest during the halfway point. “The beginning process can go either smooth or rocky, but once I’m about halfway through, I love making the diagnostics of how the piece should come together,” she explains. Conversely, freelance artist Bre Gotham is always happiest at the end,

Once I’m about halfway through, I love making the diagnostics of how the piece should come together 23

ImagineNation Artist in Residence My Wacom Cintiq is quite big and heavy. It’s connected to a Flex Arm on the reverse, which makes it possible to move the tablet around and adjust its position.

Meike Schneider

Cozy corner The German artist gives us a tour of her home studio, which is white, bright and features gold highlights My creative studio is located in my apartment and it got a huge makeover last year. I’m a very organised person and I can’t work efficiently when my studio is messy and things are all over the place. Although my studio is quite small, the room has an interesting L-shape with large dormer windows, which let in lots of daylight to brighten up the room. I’ve put my work desk right underneath the window so I don’t have any issues with the bright sunlight hitting my monitors. Because I also like to work with traditional tools, this is the perfect corner to use both traditional and digital media. I wanted my workspace to be warm, cozy and also colourful, so I’ve chosen a soft beige colour for the walls and white furniture. I upgraded some of my old objects by spraying them gold to add some eye-catching highlights

This is my work setup. I use my iPad Pro for sketches and the Cintiq for more detailed work. A second monitor comes in helpful when using references.

Artist news, software & events

I’ve put my work desk underneath the window so I don’t have issues with bright sunlight on my monitor 31

Feature

THE ART OF

One Pixel Brush’s Shaddy Safadi reveals what it takes to create art for this year’s most anticipated video game…

THE LAST OF US PART II WORKSHOP Turn

to page 74 to se e how Balázs Ágos ton created concep t art for th e ga I need text here to me. promote the workshop

SEARCHING THE SWAMP

Antoine Boutin shows no matter the tools you use, it’s the artist’s eye for composition that makes the best concept art work.

PROFILE

e r o fi l e B o r Mau

n bring actio to s il c n e p red k e and colou life in his sketchboo it h p a r g s e artist us rtraits to This Italian racter studies and po scenes, cha BUG

Mauro Belfiore LOCATION: Italy Italian-born Mauro became passionate about drawing, cinema and video games during his childhood. After high school he began his adventure to become an artist. Today he works as an illustrator and concept artist for a range of clients, including Games Workshop, Activision and 2K Games. www.artstation.com/oruam

“Just a bug. It’s a detail from a bigger sketch, and here you can see how I like to smudge my drawings to create more depth and mood.”

INSECT SWORDSMAN

“I was inspired after playing the game Hollow Knight and of course I needed to draw a swordsman with some weird insect aesthetic.”

ASTRA

“For this space-themed coloured pencil sketch I wanted to play with lighting, adding exposure and altering the saturation and colour temperature. My aim was to achieve a painterly feel.”

TINA

“What I really like about coloured pencil is the versatility of the medium. You can choose to go more opaque or show more of the hatching, as in this sketch.”

Sketchbook Mauro Belfiore  I like to smudge my drawings to create more depth and mood…

TALE

“I was thinking of a fantasy tale and wanted to see how I could represent the characters on a poster or book cover.”

Workshops

Clip Studio Paint

PAINT AN ORNATE FLORAL PORTRAIT Ejiwa ‘Edge’ Ebenebe reveals how she utilises whimsical and ornate flower elements to create a joyful, colourful portrait Artist

PROFILE Ejiwa ‘Edge’ Ebenebe LOCATION: Canada Ethereal fantasy work captured Edge’s imagination during childhood, and she’s spent her artistic journey so far exploring its limits. www.artofedge.com

I created this painting for the Light Grey Art Lab charity show Small Art For A Big Cause in late 2018. We were given an open brief, but were encouraged to keep to themes that could be relevant all year round. Creating something joyful and calming seemed fitting, and as it was also winter I wanted to counteract the bleak weather surrounding us.

I decided to paint something bright and indulgent. Flowers have so many whimsical, ethereal features, and fitted perfectly into the theme I was going for. As I was considering how to engulf the piece in flowers, the idea came to mind for the ornate hair. I decided that I wasn’t concerned with depicting realistic elements, but rather wanted to play around with creating pattern and exploring some fun, stream-of-consciousness

painting. I was also at the earlier stages of leaning into more surreal, abstract elements in my pieces, and decided I wanted to try dipping my toes into that pool too. While I made a quick scribble on paper, the majority of the process – from sketching to final painting – took place in Clip Studio Paint. I love the way the brush engine works; it feels intuitive and helps me feel more tuned into my digital process.

How I colour…

A PORTRAIT ON A SINGLE LAYER

Explorative sketching

I often have specific ideas to paint, but this time it’s more of an unclear feeling that I want to convey. I end up exploring numerous options to solidify it. After I’ve found my general direction, I try out different details and variations before deciding on the final composition.

Blocking in the forms

Once the final concept is fleshed out, I block in major elements on different layers for ease of working. I prefer painting directly in colour and try to minimise my use of the Undo button, as overlapping colours while incorporating my mistakes can result in some unexpected yet welcome variations.

Refinement and details

I’m aiming for a more organic arrangement of flowers, so I try to achieve this by painting all the flowers in a single layer – overpainting elements and intertwining shapes. I also chose to leave the final lighting for last, allowing myself to focus on refining the underlying structure first.

Artist insight Floral portrait

Workshops

Artist insight

19 WORKFLOW TIPS FOR BLENDER

Brandon Hix and Kjartan Tysdal reveal how to optimise your workflow and boost your skills in Blender, the free tool for sculpting in 3D Blender is a rare example of a high-calibre tool that’s dedicated to remaining free for everyone. Last year’s update of Blender to version 2.8 was a major step forward towards it becoming a more industry-compatible tool. We’re now up to version 2.83, which fine-

tuned many of the new features brought in with the milestone 2.8 update, as well as providing a performance boost. In the past, many artists have criticised the software’s steep learning curve and resisted incorporating Blender into their workflow. A

completely overhauled user interface, a focus on real-time asset creation and many other innovations have artists industry-wide taking a second glance at moving over to Blender. Here are 19 tips to help you make the switch, revealing the power and flexibility of Blender.

1 SET UP BLENDER TO SUIT YOUR WORKFLOW

Artist

PROFILE Brandon Hix LOCATION: US Brandon is a Blender foundation certified trainer, and founded a Blender-centric online training academy The Orange Guild. https://ifxm.ag/b-hix

The latest version of Blender is brimming with updated features and changes designed to make your workflow more streamlined than ever. Most people never take advantage of the plethora of customisation options Blender comes bundled with to accommodate their ever-changing workflow. Start-up file preferences, hotkeys, UI themes – these are just some of the things you can alter. Everything from your workspace layout to which mouse button you use to select objects with can be changed in the user preferences found under Edit>Preferences.

2 USE INTERACTIVE WIDGETS WITH KEY TOOLS If you’re new to Blender or just more comfortable with using your mouse than hotkeys, then you’ll enjoy the new interactive tool widgets. Tools can be selected from the toolbar on the left-hand side of the 3D Viewport. A small black triangle on an icon indicates tools hidden beneath. To reveal these extra tools, click and hold on the icon. Once a tool is selected a new widget will appear around the selected object in the 3D Viewport. Click and drag to interact, and check along the bottom of the screen for toggable options.

Artist insight Blender workflow tips

3 EXPLORE THE UPDATED HOTKEYS

We all hate learning new hotkeys, but Blender enables you to work efficiently if you utilise your keyboard more often. A few of the commands have now been updated to optimise your workflow and accommodate some new features.

Shown above are a few hotkey switches that threw us for a loop when we first started exploring the latest version. To try these out, select a mesh object, and switch into Edit mode. Go to Edit>Preferences>Keymap to search, explore or customise your own hotkeys.

4 CREATE MATERIALS INTERACTIVELY WITH THE LOOK DEV VIEWPORT SHADING MODE As Blender seeks to align itself more and more with industry standards, physically based shading workflows have finally received a lot of attention. The Look Dev shading mode in the 3D Viewport enables you to quickly set up a background HDRI to preview your model in a temporary environment as you work on creating your textures and materials. This latest version of Blender comes bundled with several HDR backgrounds. Combined with the power of the Real-Time viewport, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be able to stop thinking about the technical and shift your focus to the artistic.

5 QUICKLY CREATE REALISTIC HAIR AND VOLUMETRICS WITH PRINCIPLED SHADERS Creating convincing hair and volumetric effects are easier than ever before in Blender with the help of its physically based principled shaders. When bundled with the power of the Cycles rendering engine, they can match even the most demanding needs for elements like hair, fur, fuzz, smoke, fog and flames. Make sure Cycles is enabled as your current render engine, and then select your object in the 3D Viewport. Add a new material in the Material Preferences or Shader Editor, and from there you can add the Principled Hair or Principled Volume nodes and tweak your Shader settings.

Workshops

Mandelbulb 3D & Photoshop

PAINT SCI-FI CITIES AND STRUCTURES Jacek Pilarski reveals how he constructs futuristic cities, filling them with intriguing, complex structures using Mandelbulb 3D 70

In depth Sci-fi cities

Artist

PROFILE Jacek Pilarski LOCATION: England Jacek is a lead matte painter/generalist at Framestore London. He’s worked in the industry for nine years, and spent over 12 years as a pro photographer. www.jacekpilarski.com

This workshop features an image from my personal sci-fi project, Fracton 8. My creative process involves Mandelbulb 3D (a greeble generator), 3D elements modelled and rendered in software such as Blender, and then Photoshop for finalising the composition. Fracton 8 is set in the distant future of our planet, with no cities in the

usual sense. People are gradually colonising outer space, building their new home on top of megastructures left behind by aliens. In every piece I try to present human interaction with large-scale environments: flying vehicles, industrial lighting, TV screens and holograms. These elements helps to bring the cold steel structures to life, which are often seen from a person’s perspective – in a dark hotel room or

behind reflective glass, say. Doing this adds another level of detail and scale. Composition is the key to visualising an interesting story. That’s why I spend time choosing the best angle before tackling the details. For that process I usually use my own references. Being a photographer and matte painter means I’ve built up a massive photo library t hat I use both at work and in my personal art.

Workshops

Photoshop & Blender

THE LAST OF US ENVIRONMENT ART Artist

PROFILE Balázs Ágoston LOCATION: Hungary Balázs is a concept artist based in Budapest. He’s been part of the video game industry as a freelancer for five years. Triple-A projects that he’s worked on while at One Pixel Brush include Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, The Last of Us Part II and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. https://ifxm.ag/balazs-a

See how One Pixel Brush concept artist Balázs Ágoston creates an interior for the video game The Last of Us Part II I always try to find the right balance when implementing 3D into my workflow. During my time working on The Last of Us Part II, I found that maintaining 75 per cent 3D for interiors and 25 per cent 3D for the exteriors worked well. For this workshop I’ll explain how to deliver a complex interior scene. I

work with Blender because it handles complex scenes effectively, even on a low-powered setup. The program’s huge amount of Add-ons have become part of my workflow. I’ll be touching on topics such as texturing techniques, finding the best composition, preparing assets ahead of time and lighting the scene. Preparing for the Photoshop phase is also key. Choosing the right render

paths can save time because you can produce loose-looking areas that are easy to finish in Photoshop. Photobashing techniques can quickly introduce greater realism, and with the right amount of research you can solve a lot of issues that you wouldn’t have time to do in 3D. This workshop covers just a few of the aspects I consider when developing complex interior concepts. I hope you enjoy it!

In depth The Last of Us Part II

Develop a 3D block-out

I build up the foundation of my 3D scene based on the client’s layout. The setting is an antique pottery shop. The building’s façade, windows and furniture all have to convey the idea of an average shop selling pottery and other items in Seattle. The client sends me several reference photos to point me in the right direction.

Introducing textures

Next, I create an overall colour theme. It’s always easier for me to develop a design if the colours are chosen early on. I decide to combine the wooden floor with some forest ground textures to break up the cleanliness of the ground plane and make the room feel more abandoned. The red walls get the same treatment: grungelooking paint and dripping, damp-like textures added to the Blender materials help to give them an “apocalypse” effect right out the gate. It doesn’t have to be perfect because I can always add more environmental destruction later in Photoshop.

Traditional Artist Workshop Pencil

Pen

UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN FORM There’s more to life drawing than recreating the figure in front of you. PHILIP TYLER explores the inner workings of the human body to help inform your sketches

rawing the human figure is complex and take years to master. However, the task can be made simpler by following a few basic steps, simplifying the figure down into a series of directions and distances. Seeing how any figure can fit within a square aperture will help with proportion and foreshortening, and measuring can

rib cage 1 The The cage-like structure of the thorax is somewhat egg-like in form and gently tips backwards. It varies a great deal according to gender and build of the subject that you’re drawing: it’s somewhat short and wide in stocky builds while being longer and thinner in more slender frames. Notice that the angle of the ribs isn’t parallel to the ground. Instead, they slope downwards from the back towards the front opening.

The ribs meet the shoulder (far right)

Attached to the sternum is the clavicle, or collarbone, which in turn is connected to the scapula, or shoulder blade. This floats over the thorax and rotates when the arm is lifted. With the arms down at the side of the body, the scapulae are like two inverted triangles facing downwards. However, when the arm is elevated these change angle and begin to point outwards, away from the body.

MATERIALS PAPER n Pastel paper DRAWING TOOLS n Graphite pencil n Caran d’Ache coloured pencils n Lamy fountain pen n Winsor & Newton Promarkers

be done with simple tools such as plant labels and skewers. In this article I’ll give you a few easy tips to help you draw the figure with greater ease, describing ways to approach the problem. I’ll also explain how to find the contour across the body, using both your eyes and your hands to feel your own body and understand the structures and tensions within. Understanding

what lies beneath the skin will also give your drawings volume and mass, and help you understand what you see much more clearly. Philip is a figurative painter and senior lecturer at the University of Brighton in the school of art, where he teaches life drawing, visual research and colour theory. Explore his artworks at www.philip-tyler-artist.squarespace.com.

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In depth The human form 4

The cervical region

First-hand experience

Feeling your own body is immensely useful in understanding the different kinds of structure under the flesh as well as the three-dimensionality of the limbs and torso. As you feel your own body, keep an eye out for those parts that come closest to the surface of the skin. These become the markers, the things that you look for. It’s often advantageous to look at them as pairs and try to see how they relate to each other: two elbows, two knees and so on. This will help you relate the parts of the body to the whole.

The humerus meets both the clavicle and the shoulder blade as a ball joint

The thoracic region

The lumber region

spine 3 The The spine is made up of 33 small bones. Each vertebra has a small amount of movement on its own, but when seen as part of the whole spine it has considerable movement of flexion (forward folds), lateral (left and right), extension (back bend) and rotation. From the side the spine isn’t straight, but instead is made up of an S-shaped curve. The cervical region is nearest the skull and curves slightly inward. The thoracic, or dorsal, region is connected to the rib cage, or thorax, and it curves outwards. The lumbar region is the small of the back and this curves inwards before connecting to the sacrum, which is the back region of the pelvis. This creates a kind of inverted triangle at the base of the back that finally finishes in the residual tail, or coccyx.

The arms

The humerus meets both the clavicle and the shoulder blade as a ball joint. As it descends towards the elbow, it gently twists and forms two socket joints. The forearm is made up of two bones – the radius and the ulna – and with palm held upwards they run parallel to each other. With the palm facing down, the radius, which is on the thumb’s side, radiates over the ulna and causes a twist in the arm.