concept central

Featured Portfolio: Randis Albion

2010-06-24T06:14:00.000-07:00

I like artists who make great Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira tribute art. I also like it if they're generous set up their own website dedicated to helping others improve. That's why I like Randis Albion.

If you take a peek at Randis' deviantART page, you'll find out that he's a huge fan of all this Japanese stuff. And who isn't, really? He loves their music, the anime subculture, everything. He's big on Haruki Murakami's works, which is almost always great.

Now, if you didn't look at Randis' deviantART page, you'll be surprised to learn one of his biggest artistic influences is Yoshitaka Amano. You know... the guy who designed stuff for Gatchaman and Tekkaman? The guy who worked on Vampire Hunter D? Final Fantasy?

Nevermind. Just look at Randis... interpretation of Amano's work. I must admit, I'm not overly familiar with Amano's work, but I don't remember humongous breasts. But I could be wrong! I could be wrong...

As you can see, Randis can render fleshy beings, as well as mechanical objects pretty damn well. There's nothing like a well rounded artist, is there?

Although this portfolio feature fails to fully convey the depth of Mr. Albion's portfolio, I hope you understand that this guy's pretty versatile. OK?

Oh, have you seen his cover for ImagineFX? The image is attached below. C'mon, ImagineFX - one of the last mainstream digital art magazines in PRINT?! If you bought it, good for you. If you haven't, well...

If you happened to stumble on Randis' sketchbook at Conceptart.org, you might some of his really old anime stuff, which looks pretty... good. I definitely see the blueprints of greatness here...

Really, Randis is one of the greats out there. If you're starved to learn a bit of his technique, I suggest you make your way to his Facebook group. At the time of this writing, he posts regular updates and tutorial videos. Head on over there. Now.

Please?

Or... as one reader pointed out - you can check out Randis' Kitchen! Again, it's up to you if you want to get good. Kapeesh?

Featured Portfolio: Shunya Yamashita

2010-04-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

Since I can't read Japanese, and all I can find are toy-related articles, it seems there's really only so much one can say about the notorious Shunya Yamashita.

Like some of my favorite Heavy Metal artists, all he seems to draw is sexy nymphs.

Sure, he'll draw the occasional big, badass dude, or as you can see above, the nymph with a big gun/hairdryer thing, but that's all part of Mr. Yamashita's appeal.

Would it matter if I spouted stuff from the guy's Wikipedia article? Would you care if I said he worked as a character designer for various Japanese videogames, eventually landing (quite comfortably) on toy design?

Maybe. I suppose it would. I don't want to insult anyone's intelligence, but I guess Mr. Yamashita's just one of those guy's portfolio you just wanna' ogle at and not think about anything else.

Like what makes him popular? Why the anatomy seems very idealized? Or why his annoyingly pricey figures keep disappearing from shelves a day after their release?

Nah. You don't need to ask those questions anymore. All you need to to do is observe what people keep twittering or posting about Mr. Yamashita's latest high-priced toys and you'll get it. Your subconscious will just accept why this guy deserves the success he's having.

If this post read like another one of those poorly researched, train-of-though bullcrap that doesn't make a bit of sense, I truly apologize.

His work can be a little distracting you know? I'll try to make it up to you. There's this one decent write-up for Mr. Yamashita's 2008 artbook "Wildflower".

Eh? How does that sound? Good right? Great.

Finally, you might come across this conservative looking illustration below, with a heading called "rick-o-sound". I'm not sure why Japanese likes naming things like this, but it seems its his personal toyline.

Have a nice day! Hope you enjoyed my little treat!!

Artist Profile: Alberto Mielgo a.k.a. PINKMAN

2010-04-17T17:10:00.000-07:00

Whatever you do, do NOT ask whether Alberto Mielgo rotoscopes his animation work. Because he doesn't.

Born in Madrid, Spain, in 1979, little Mr. Mieglo studied his ass off learning the fundamental of things and at the age of 17 he began interning at various animation studios in Madrid. He moved to jolly ol' London were now he lives and works as a freelance painter, art director, designer and animator for a bunch of companies we'll hear about because of non-disclosure agreements.

If I could describe his work, I'd say it is... pure eye candy. I get a rush just looking at them sometimes.

According to an interview entitled "Modern Rebel: Alberto Mielgo & Pinkman.tv" at the Motionographer, he is almost completely self taught. So for all you art academy students, listen up... don't do what he did unless you are dedicated and supremely talented!!

It was an early education at animation and guidance from his peers did he evolve to the artist you see today.

He's created some pretty interesting shorts, including “Pill, Kill Your Stress, 女孩陰毛, and PINKMAN” under the banner of "Pinkman.tv" and the thinking behind that is that he feels 2D has pretty much gotten the short end of the stick in recent decades.

Like most of the people working in the 2D animation field, he feels that the cold, calculated world of 3D has collapsed the 2D animation market in such a big way that people view it as an antiquated medium. Unfortunately, with the success of a number of 3D-only animated and live action projects means this trend will only get worse, and 2D work will be relegated to the a very niche crowd... Damn!

But like any fine connoisseur, he believes that the world of 2D can be graphic, and holds no boundaries to the imagination. In fact, he has become somewhat of a spokesperson for the medium, constantly pushing studios to use it more. This has resulted in one of his pride and joys, the Beatles: Rockband intro, which he did color keys and backgrounds for the first half:

Every piece is traditionally animated, frame by frame. The process is simple: scan, pencil, animation. He describes the fairly painstaking process in his own words: "... Once the animation is right, I do a very basic color action. For example, pink for body and dark pink for shadows. Then, I paint on top of each drawing. As the shadow layer has also been animated, I don’t loose shapes. As each frame is hand painted, the skin has that moving feeling, something that here, I was looking to see in the animation. So, every frame is a painting."

Alberto Mieglo's PILL on Vimeo.

His tools are the usual Adobe Photoshop and After FX. In the end, he has no interest to enter 3D, and I really can't argue with his current output!

Aside from his animation work, he busies himself with conceptual design for commercials and Cartoon Network, as you can see in the images posted here!

One more thing about this amazing artist...

Yeah, apparently he did some comic work for Image Publishing's Popgun anthology. If you're into that sort of greatness, then order one!

Have a nice day!

Watch FARD Now

2010-04-16T17:27:00.000-07:00

I admit, I am one of those guys that claims to love indie animation and yet watch only a handful of shorts every few months. However, the fact that I am recommending to you "Fard" a short directed by Luis Bricenco and David Alapont, should tell you how awesome I think it is.

I also recommend you check out some of this other short, this one was partially done by Scott Kravitz, who did the wonderful closing credit sequence in Madagascar 2. It's an ad for United Airlines, directed by Jamie Caliri (who also did the end sequence of Lemony Snicket) and it's pretty sweet.

And for a little more diversity in style, watch some of this hand-drawn stuff by Argentinian designers Matias Vigliano and animator Dante Zaballa work.

Thanks Cartoon Brew!!

Featured Artist: Juan Giménez

2010-04-15T17:11:00.000-07:00

Ever heard of Juan Giménez? No? Nobody? Fine.

I could only find bits and pieces of info about this 'modern master' on the net, which is a good thing as it will make this post shorter. Isn't that the trend now? Shorter blog posts? But I digress. Mr. Jimenez is described as "... one of the most renowned artists in the history of comics, excels in a variety of genres, from fantasy to science fiction, and adventure to erotica."

To my knowledge, he pioneered what I call the "Badass Wearing Helmet Staring Down At You". (Unfortunately, it's not the most clever thing I can come up with at the time of this writing)

Good ol' Giménez was born in 1943 in Argentina. He took up industrial design (always a plus for great sci-fi artists) and then he traveled to Barcelona's Academy of Fine Arts (that always does the trick, doesn't it?)

He settled in Europe at the end of the 1970s where his art has been published in Italian, French and Spanish magazines, graphic novels and books. His collaboration with the likes of Carlos Trillo and Ricardo Barreiro gave the guy a lot of cred.

If you're old enough to remember his published work on the French mag Metal Hurlant, more power to you.

He is probably most well-known for his work in "La Caste des Méta-Barons", published by Les Humanoïdes, where he collaborated with some Chilean writer named Alejandro Jodorowsky. This epic series covered the origins of the powerful clan of the Meta-barons and a lot of other events I don't seem to remember.

The friendly looking Meta-baron...

Metabarons was the series that introduced me to the all that awesome European comic stuff that nobody seems to really appreciate.

... did not like getting cancelled.

It was brought in the States by Humanoid Publishing in collaboration with some other major publishers in the early 2000's (or noughties or whatever you want to call that decade) but from what I heard it didn't pan out so well.

In any case, Juan Giménez is an awesome artist and I'll leave it at that.

"The Adam Hughes Technique"

2010-02-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

I regret I've never done a feature on Adam Hughes. You do know Adam Hughes, right? The guy who did all the Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Starwars, Danger Girl, Power Girl pinups? I figured it's time to do one. Sort of.

Y'see, I stumbled upon this ol' post at The Drawing Board forums. It's a fairly old interview with Adam Hughes his coloring technique, from his Yahoo group. I can't be too sure if his technique has changed much throughout the years, but I figured it would make a good read for the time being:

*Note that there might actually be newer Adam Hughes tutorials I've never ever seen, but I really just posted this as an excuse to get some great Adam Hughes artwork on this blog. Silly me.

Q: What version of Photoshop do you have?
Adam Hughes A: I'm still using Photoshop 5.0, because every time a new version comes out, yes they have exciting new features, but they also seem to like re-assigning keyboard shortcuts, which I LIVE for. I've got my key board shortcuts so memorized, it's like I'm playing the piano. If I switched now, the learning curve would slow me down.

Q: What are the main tools that you use in Photoshop?
A: The Lasso Tool, the Magic Wand, the Path Tool. I do a lot of my rendering with the Lasso Tool. I select an area, then fill it with 10% of the FG color. Then I move the selection (or make a new one) a little to the left or right, and do it again. Do THAT 6 times, and you've got a nice analogous gradation.
Sometimes I'll make Lasso selections with the feathering set up to give me a soft edge. Lara's Gerber-baby cheeks in the TR piece was done that way.

I also use Lighten and Darken (regardless of the tool) a lot when applying color.

Q: Do you keep a (color) palette next to you?

A: Definitely. I keep a lot of my Preference windows up while I'm working. The Palette is VERY important to me.

Q: What general sequence (if any) you use to color with Photoshop? (Such as) scanning inked artwork. Do you save a copy with lower dpi for easier coloring?
A: I color at print size. I upgraded my PC to handle a regular-sized comic cover with relative ease. I SHOULD upgrade again, now that you mention it…

Q: Is your local color midway between the item's shadow and highlight, or more towards its shadow…?
A: Darker. I treat the flatted piece as an imprematura, upon which I go in with my 'opaque' colors.

Q: (Do you) render the shadow areas with cuts and the airbrush & paintbrush tools?
A: Render light areas after. I never use the airbrush (or paintbrush) tool. It's got that phony digital softness I can't stand.

Q: Since you say you don’t use the paintbrush or the airbrush then do you smudge a lot?
A: No. I think the smudge effect looks digital and phony. I'll post a file with a detail from WW's face so you can see what I do up close. I let the printing and the reader's eye do a lot of the final 'closure' for me. My selections look like tiles in oil or gouache painting, when seen up close.

Q: Do you use different layers or channels for rendering? Do you render certain elements first, such as skin before moving on to hair, or foreground elements first before background? Do you render certain elements completely - shadows & highlights - before moving on to other elements? Do you render from shadow to light or vise-versa?
A: It's a judgment call. Whatever the piece calls for is how I handle it. I usually only have two layers going at a time. The basic background Layer, and them the section I'm working on (i.e.; WW's face) I save the selection of that area as a channel, that way I can get as sloppy as I want, and then I just load the inverted selection, delete the unwanted crap, and merge the layer back down to the base BG Layer.

Q: How do you go about changing the black line work in some of your pieces in Photoshop? (For example the trees in the background of the Hammer of the Gods cover). The closest I can get is choosing "Load Selection" and using the airbrush to color the inverted selection. But there always seems to be some color that creeps outside of the selected area regardless of how tight the selected area is. Please tell me there is an easier way?
A: By 'creeps out of the selected areas' do you mean that unselected areas (non-line art) are getting colored? If that's true, then something's up with the feathering on your selection. If you mean, areas of your line art that you don't want to be colored are getting color, either de-select what you don't want to receive with the Lasso tool or don't use the airbrush tool.
When I want to change line art to color, here's what I usually do:
1. Load selection.
2. Invert the selection
3. Deselect everything but what I want with the Lasso Tool.
4. Activate the Line art Channel and delete the selected areas.
5. Leaving the selection going, I activate the CMYK channel, and Fill with whatever color I want.
This is for a PC, which is what I use. Macs have the ability to eliminate a step, and I can't figure out if it's a setting I can change in Photoshop, or it's just something that Macs do. On a Mac, you can make a Lasso selection in the Line art Channel, and it automatically 'grabs' just the black line art info.

(This image was probably NOT DONE in Photoshop)

Q: How do you do those amazing shines?
A: I do a large feather selection, then fill with a light color like a yellow or orange, set on Lighten. I do this to 'set the stage' as it were. Then I fill it again with a color like orange or red, set on Color Dodge. I then use the Fade filter to control how much the highlight 'burns'. Try it; it's fun to experiment!

Q: What do you use the Path tool for?
A: If I need to make a large gradeful color selection, such as might be found on a reflection on her armor, or on a leg or something, I'll use the Path tool to create a very graceful arc to my selection. It's also good for rendering color highlights on hair.

Q: The Lighten feature doesn’t seem to do anything when I use it?!?
A: The color you're applying (i.e., your Foreground color) has to be lighter than the areas you're trying to affect. It won't affect any areas that are lighter than your FG color. For example: a 50% magenta in your FG color selector, with your desired Tool set on 'Lighten' will only affect pixels that are 51% magenta or darker. Anything 49% or lighter won't be affected. It sounds confusing, but I stumbled upon it all by accident. I use it a LOT.

ImagineFX Issue 54 features an Adam Hughes cover!

Q: How do you use the Fade filter?
A: The Fade Filter is at the top of the Filters drop-menu; it's the second from the top. On a PC, it can be keyboarded by hitting Ctrl + Shift + F. You'll also notice you can alter your color application there, after-the-fact. This is where I discoverd the value of Lighten, Darken, and Color Dodge. In the Fade Filter, you can change the color application of the function you just completed. It's a great 'before and after' tool.
Q: Do you use any Photoshop filters in order to give your colors a particular finish?
A: I never used to, but I've gotten braver about it. Sometimes when I feel my flesh values are too high-key, I run them through the Auto Levels filter, just to see what it does to them. Sometimes I use the result, sometimes I don't.

Q: What filters do you use commonly? What would you recommend for specific effects, such as metal gleam or rain?
A: I disdain the use of filters, until you can prove you can render that stuff on your own. It's like Ian Malcolm's diatribe against raising dinosaurs with genetic engineering in Jurassic Park. If you don't take the time to master a technique, you don't learn the even more important disciplines that come with the experiences. Any decisions you make with shortcuts are uninformed ones, and you open yourself up to a world of bad judgments.

And that ends this wonderful interview with Adam Hughes, brought to you by Adam Hughes Yahoo Group. Find it and join it if you like. Oh, and before I close this one out, I stumbled upon another post about good ol' Ah! at this comic blog. It's a bunch of Marvel beauties in swimsuits. I think it was done in the early-to-mid 90's... Here we have Black Widow, the Wasp and if you're into it, She-Hulk as well...

Head on over to this link...

And that's that!!

Why You Should Study at Les Gobelins

2010-02-11T16:24:00.000-08:00

Do you like animation? Do you dream of making your own animated short or showreel, that could rival professional studios? Then you've gotta hit the books. Or you could enroll at Les Gobelin...

This particular French "visual communication" school caught my eye after I featured one of their amazing alumni turned world-renowned concept artist in another post. Here's a sampler of what students are churning out at the academy. This is an opener to some festival several years ago:

You can check out their website at http://www.gobelins.fr/index-flash.htm. If you don't speak French, then maybe this promotional video can help you out:

It features good ol' Eric Riewer (who?) describing the school's various program and the selection process for new students, as well as what makes a good student film. Fascinating stuff, and it could help if you really do plan to enroll!

With that out of the way, lets watch some student shorts! Now I know the very mention of the word 'students short' might suggest weird, highly experimental, and amateurish pieces, but I assure you... their work is amazing. If you've seen some of the embedded films in my last post about that alumni-turned-concept-artist feerik, then you might know what to expect.

The first entry is a simple film called "Sébastien". A story about paper airplanes, and some deeper message about doing what you love.

Next, is Fenrir. Presented in the International Festival of the Film d' Animation (FIFA) d' Annecy 2009. By Nuno Alves Rodrigues, Usama Bouacheria, Alice Dieudonné, Aymeric Kevin, Ulysses Malassagne. It's about this a Fenrir that is awakened by the rays of the sun. The fenrir climbs this ancient tree Yggdrasil to attack the sun and some kid stops it. Or something like that.

Next is a film by Lucrèce Andreae, Julien Chheng, Tracy Nowocien, Rémy Schaepman, students of the formation Design and realization of films d' animation (2nd year) called Dodudindon. Something about letting loose.

And here is a favorite by some 2nd year students called Monstera Deliciosa. A film that celebrated the year 2009 through references to l'Allemagne or through "dance". Someone help me out here.

And now for something different. Jelly Sunday, which features little Gretchen her new friend “Jelly”.

Well. When are you going to send your application!?!?

Artist Profile: Joel Dos Reis Viegas

2010-02-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

He's French, he likes the hip-hop culture, and his art kind of objectifies women. His day job at Steambot Studios has him working on the most interesting franchises out there. He's Joel Dos Reis Viegas.

a.k.a Feerik.

He studied at prestigious Les Gobelins, an experience he describes as "...something unique for anyone who wants to be an talented artist". He said it's known as one of the best animation schools in the world.

Well, guess what happens when someone who has a background in animation enters the concept art world. Yep. His drawings are full of beautiful gestures and powerful emotions!!!!

He uses all kinds of apps, like Artrage for color blending, Painter for those large, painterly strokes, and Photoshop for everything else. He also has above average 3D skills (which greatly complement his work), thanks to the wonderfully intuitive Mudbox. What a guy.

Of course, he wouldn't be where he is if he didn't develop discipline. It's said he worked as in-between animator and storyboarder for an Animation studio in Paris called Alphanim. Very interesting!

According to an interview at CG Channel, one of the most important skills an artist can learn is to control one's creativity, as a flow, and to be productive even when inspiration goes up and down. That's discipline for ya'!

"I have a fascination for explosive and controversial characters and I love to paint these. It could be a punk, monster, warrior or serial killer; I‘ll try to paint with the most appealing rendering possible" The guy never runs out of inspiration. Deform reality, observe, and all that jazz.

"...Hip hop is my culture, I grew up listening to rap music and looking at graffiti. It still influences my art. Sci-fi is everywhere, all the concept artists I know already painted sci-fi in the past, so I thought mixing both universes could make something interesting." That quote, my dear readers, was directly lifted from CG Channel.

His advice to all you wannabes and amateurs. A little something he learned from all those conferences and setting up his own lil' studio with a couple of concept art heavyweights: "Teamwork is the key when you start a structure with your friends. Its important to be able to see their skills and to learn from them."

"The other advice is be respectful with your friends, don’t think because you are friends you can be less organized or use less clear communication. You should treat each other like colleagues to keep good working relations. This is the key to succeed in creating together."

Interested? You might be. So go rummage through the archive through his blog (doesn't get updated often), or better yet, his deviantART.

Oh, and just so you're aware of what other graduates of this "Les Gobelin" churns out, why don't you watch some of these animated shorts?

Voodoo. Exquisite animation. It is what it is!

The classic Pyrats, which I featured already once in this blog. I didn't know it was animated by grads from this school. Took seven months, and was shown on an animation festival in 2006. Still awesome.

Traintamarre. Great mood. You may have not noticed, but I love 2D animation.

Featured Artist: Dan Luvisi

2010-02-09T05:11:00.000-08:00

"Dan LuVisi is a digital concept artist working in the film, video game and comic book industry."

That's all you need to know about him really. The guy's resume is all over the net anyway, and I'm sure they've done waaaay better writeups than I ever would. I just... had to feature him here, that's all.

Okay just so I have something to say for this post, according to Mr. Dan "Adonihs" LuVisi's' lil' deviantART FAQ, he first started out real terrible-like. He said he could draw, sure, but the moment the pen touched the tablet...it was just one of the most irritating processes ever. "I felt like giving up, I found myself not know how to choose colors or do anything." As you can see, he eventually got the hang of it.

Nowadays, he usually works on a canvas roughly around 4500 x 6500 pixels (300 DPI = poster size) with tons of layers. It takes... three to four days to complete a piece.

Most of his skill was derived from the great tutorials at www.thegnomonworkshop.com. He did NOT attend art school. But I think you knew that.

He loves all the classic sci-fi movies including the original Star Wars trilogy, Blade Runner, Alien and Aliens, and so and and so forth.

To Mr. LuVisi, art is important in his life because people can remember him for that. You can follow him at his twitter account, or simply check out his extremely popular deviantART account from time to time.

Featured Portfolio: Zorin Vasili

2010-01-23T16:57:00.000-08:00

Not much to say about good ol' Vasili Zorin. I'll have to wait for a more enterprising blogger or art publication to conduct a proper interview, and then maybe I'll rip off the stuff from there and post it here. So anyways, Mr. Vasili is 23 years old (wow!), and is currently living and studying in St. Petersburg.

I gotta write something, lest this blog turn out to be a glorified art tumblr page. From what little I could gather (since I can't read Russian), Mr. Vasili likes art, and loves to paint and... draw. What a revelation!

He hopes to get some of his original work published after he graduates. For now, you'll have to settle to Image's Popgun art anthology.

His current series is entitled "Kink Radio", and can be found here. This lovely lil' strip is set in "Lime City, the only town in the US with overall Lime consumption so high that its residents never smile". Yeah!

His work sports that wonderful, always-in-vogue, retro-inspired look. Just about all the artists I like seems to have dabbled in this style one way or another...

You can see a lot more of Mr. Vasili's wonderful work at HonkFu! Just no hotlinking, please.

Gary Tonge's Vision Afar

2010-01-18T16:48:00.000-08:00

I first heard about good ol' Mr. Gary Tonge's work on an issue of ImagineFX magazine. I then bought Mr. Tonge's book, Bold Vision. It's nice. Too bad I only found out about his showreel today. Beautiful stuff.

I'm lazy.

See more of Gary's work at http://www.visionafar.com/ or you can get other updates on his dev iantART profile.

Sketchbook Feature: Jana Schirmer

2010-01-11T17:15:00.000-08:00

So far I've had regular blog staples like "Featured Portfolio" and "Artist Profile" where I showcase a sampling of some of my favorite visual artists' works. I have poor memory, is all. And since most of my content is "borrowed" from places like ConceptArt.org, I decided to feature another thing from that place. Sketchbooks!

I love ConceptArt's artist's sketchbooks. This is where you get to see your favorite artists early works, work-in-progress (be it sketches or paintings). The evolution of an artist is absolutely fascinating. But enough of my babbling.

Let's start off on a high note with the magnificent Jana Schirmer (Janaschi is her ID), an absolutely amazing visual artist based on Leipzig, Germany.

She was born July 30, 1987... and what amazing figure studies! Amazing considering these are some of her earlier works of 2009.

Her color studies are gorgeous. Lots of light. Not muddy like most artists her age.

Yes, I will be gushing about her work for this entire post, but it's not like people aren't doing on the boards. See those amazing gesture lines!

She offers a peek into her workflow as well. Her attention to detail and composition is spot-on. Of course, if you have something else to say about that, say something.

She draws women all elegant like. Kinda reminds me of Alphonse Mucha for some reason. Maybe it's because I know so few artists.

Here's a cute little piece she did towards the end of 2009. Slick.

Go on. Catch up on all her latest works at her DeviantART account. Or if you want to see more of her amazing process and sketches, then head on to her sketchbook. Groarr!!

Artist Profile: Matthew M. Laskowski

2009-12-27T15:41:00.000-08:00

So I was listening to the always awesome Asaf Hanuka (on Big Illustration Party Time Podcast), brother to Tomer Hanuka, whom I featured earlier in this blog. Anyway, he mentions how he loves the comic-book aesthetic, and how surprised he was when it became in vogue in the professional illustration world. Nobody could've predicated it really... But if you've been following this blog, you would have definitely seen how a number of artists have taken advantage of this trend.

Nobody knows how long this bubble will last. In the meantime, I'm loving every minute of it. Here's another artist doing the same!!

It's Matthew M. Laskowski, ladies and gentlemen! Lovely, slick style. Gotta hand it to him. He's at his best when he delivers clean, crisp illustration like the one I used for the title.

He's got that larger than life perspective thing going on, which I love. Colors are vibrant, but I wouldn't expect any less in this post-Mirror's Edge world.

The guy loves photography, and for some reason, that always translates well for illustrators like good ol' Matthew.

He's got this original character names named "Maia" from his original graphic novel "Sythesis". Sorta like Artgerm's infamous Pepper. I like quirky stuff like that.

Wonderful individual, great portfolio. Inspirations include the likes of Lucasfilm concept artists Doug Chiang (he left...), Iain McCaig, as well as Kristian Donaldson, Inio Asano, Kiyohiko Azuma. If this sort of information means anything to you.

Like most illustrators these days, he has a deviantART account and a pretty active journal. I am pretty damned please professional artists are posting their art process online as opposed to being all mysterious-like. Go on. Check his portfolio if you've got nothing better to do.

Or better yet, watch how he works:

Want To Break In? Get The Right Mindset First!

2009-12-23T16:32:00.000-08:00

All of you students and aspiring artists out there looking to break into the art/media industry... read this article. It might just give you the mindset to survive. Here's an excerpt:

We know you've been working very hard on your screenplay, but before you go looking for some professional feedback, you might keep in mind the following piece by A History of Violence screenwriter Josh Olson.

I will not read your fucking script.

That's simple enough, isn't it? "I will not read your fucking script." What's not clear about that? There's nothing personal about it, nothing loaded, nothing complicated. I simply have no interest in reading your fucking screenplay. None whatsoever.

If that seems unfair, I'll make you a deal. In return for you not asking me to read your fucking script, I will not ask you to wash my fucking car, or take my fucking picture, or represent me in fucking court, or take out my fucking gall bladder, or whatever the fuck it is that you do for a living.

You're a lovely person. Whatever time we've spent together has, I'm sure, been pleasurable for both of us. I quite enjoyed that conversation we once had about structure and theme, and why Sergio Leone is the greatest director who ever lived. Yes, we bonded, and yes, I wish you luck in all your endeavors, and it would thrill me no end to hear that you had sold your screenplay, and that it had been made into the best movie since Godfather Part II.

But I will not read your fucking script.

Go on. Read the full article http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/09/i_will_not_read.php?page=1

Now replace what you've just read with the specific artistic/design field you're working on and you're good to go. The article was reposted at ConceptArt. You might find some good responses there to answer any artistic turmoil within you.

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=168616&highlight=I+will+-read+your+fucking

Devaluing Your Own Work

2009-12-19T16:02:00.000-08:00

People have been "pimping" this article for a while now, but for those of you who haven't heard or read it, here's an excerpt:

When you're an artist, people try and take advantage of you in ways they wouldn't if you had a conservative career (though whenever you're self-employed, people will generally try and take advantage of your skills).

They don't know they're doing it, because in a society that doesn't value art for the most part; it's normal not to value artists. And artists often don't know it's happening, because they're part of that society and the trend of devaluing their own work. [...]

That is the culture of art and artists in Western society. People on my friends list are guilty of it. People I meet and hardly know, and people I know very very well are guilty of it. I'M guilty of allowing it (though you can probably tell I'm getting reaaaaaally sick of it now). Friends of mine who are artists participate in this 'I will sell myself short because I'm an artist and you expect me to sell myself short' culture.

It's the expectation that bothers me. It's not like I don't freely give my art as gifts, occasional pro-bono book covers, or haven't sent pictures in the past. I do and have. I genuinely want to.

It's the expectation that because I'm an artist, I exist to do art for others, for free, or for nothing more than a 'gee, you're so talented' (I know that, that's why art costs money, because it's a rare and desirable skill that not everyone can do - even with training). It's the assumption that I am some bohemian who basically wants to spend her entire life sharing my creativity with others, but never making money off it - because bohemians live on tea and noodles and tuna and don't want for anything more than that if they have art in their lives. Right? Wrong. Or at least, certainly wrong in my case. Doctor's appointments, art supplies and a mortgage aint cheap.

Full post:
http://moonvoice.livejournal.com/1075184.html

It's a universal problem, probably more so where I live. If you've got 90% of the population that's barely scraping over the poverty line, who's gonna care about your sketch or painting? Nearly everything here's either pirated or shown for free, so paying for a drawing or even a painting seems ludicrous and a tad hedonistic.

Of course, there's hope. One reply referred to an interesting book you probably should seek out and read:

"... It (the post) reminds me of a book called The Talent Code that proposes that it's not so much about raw talent but passion, drive, opportunity, etc. Without those, even the most talented individual may get nowhere. Worth a read, especially if you see it on sale."

Agreed, you need passion, skill, but most importantly exceptionally wealthy parents / spouse to back your career up. I've met a few successful artists who got where they are because of these benefactors. The rest are probably slaving away at some dull, demeaning desk job staring at the office clock.

Manhua Madness - Fung Chin Pang

2009-12-12T20:26:00.000-08:00

Fung Chin Pang is another one of those talented Chinese illustrators that has developed a nice little niche in the international market. Like Benjamin Zhang Bin and fellow Hong Kong-er Lokman Lam, they draw girls of legal age pretty well. Cute, innocent, vulnerable... Nevermind.

Commissioned work for some firm.

The guy racks up at least a minimum of 100,000 hits per illustration in deviantART. There's nothing that says "You're popular!!!!!" if you get that sort of attention for your work.

Work for a gaming magazine.

Not that it seriously matters though. The guy's style is quite pleasing to the eye. It's got that Ashley Wood style coloring, which I sadly had to reference when the reality is he's more influenced by Manet, Monet, klimt, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Schiele, Hiroaki Samura, Nihei Tsutomu, Yukito Kishiro.

I should know. It said on his deviantART profile. Amazing, isn't it? He's also worked on a book entitled "鶯~EROTICA". It depicts pretty, young things wandering around picturesque neighborhoods...

... Or staring at themselves at the mirror, feeling insecure about their bodies. That sort of thing. You can check out more of the world-famous Fung Chin Pang at his deviantART profile:

http://cellar-fcp.deviantart.com/gallery/

Oh, I forgot he did concept work for some game studio...

Animation: Fumiko's Confession

2009-12-12T15:57:00.000-08:00

Anyone aspiring to do their own animation short should probably have a look at what "Tete" has accomplished with "Fumiko's Confession". It's short and cute.

Based on some of the Youtube comments, the translation goes like this in the two speaking scenes:

Fumiko: "Would you be my boyfriend, Takashi!"

Takashi: "Sorry, I'd like to concentrate on baseball club."

Fumiko: "You bastard!"

(She begins to run)

Final Scene:

Fumiko:"I'll make miso soup for you everyday!"

Takashi: "Sorry, I'd like to concentrate on baseball club."

END

Tete is "...a student who aspires the work of animation" and provides a very detailed look at the production side of things at http://d.hatena.ne.jp/Tete/20091108

Artist Profile: Renji "Range" Murata (Revisited)

2009-12-10T14:53:00.000-08:00

Revisit the one, the only lolita-artist with class, Range Murata! Wikipedia, do your thing of explaining who the heck he is!

Renji "Range" Murata (村田蓮爾 Murata Renji, born October 2, 1968 in Osaka) is a Japanese artist and designer, known for his unique style combining Art Deco and Japanese anime elements. He is best known for his conceptual design work on anime series Last Exile, Solty-Rei, Blue Submarine No. 6 and most recently, Shangri-la.

He's called an experienced doujinshi (self-published) and professionally published artist whose work has also been featured in a variety of magazines, video games, and anime series. Not the erotic doushinji some of you might be thinking. Now that I think about it, I wouldn't know. His style is immediately recognizable by his characters' frequently elaborate clothing and their soft and colorfully emotional appearance.

These are a few of Range's favorite subjects.

He has published more than a dozen books of his work, some of the most notable being Robot, Rule, futurhythm and All The Way Home. He is also voted "Best Artist of the Year" 2006 in the Seiun Award.

"rule" is a mook-stlye (what the hell is a mook) release featuring a look at Murata's design works [clothing, accessories] for his third major exhibit, fa COLLECTION 003. Expect lots of pictures and other sorts of information about his products. The book also includes just a few older Murata illustrations and a look at the work of yoshitoshi ABe, Youki Kanaya, Makoto Kobayashi, and Suzuhito Yasuda.

If this doesn't make you feel uncomfortable, then continue reading.

re: futurhythm is the regular, mass-produced edition of futurhythm. It is bound like an ordinary book and housed in a hard plastic sleeve with slightly varying contents from the limited edition version.

All The Way Home is just another picture book with lots of cutely drawn little girls. Yes, that sounds about right.

Thought I was lying about the little girls part? Order it while supplies last! (Thanks to Jesus_Freak for these scans!)

Here's an excerpt of a 2004 interview from Cosplay Lab, about Mr. Murata's animeworks, as well as this 'fahsion' line he developed, which I won't cover here because, but maybe in the future...

How do you pronounce your name??

Range, pronounced Ren Ji, is a pen name I made up. The character Len in Japanese means lotus and I really like the lotus flower so I wanted to put that in my name somehow.

How did you get into character design?

I used to be a simple illustrator doing magazine cover art and one day I was contacted to do character designs for an anime. Back when I was studying product/industrial design in college, I created things like watches and office products. So when I started to do character designs, I used a similar approach. I start by setting up a role for each character, then draw the character to fit that role. In the real world, everyone laughs in their own way, so I try to design my characters so that, just by looking at them, you can tell that they laugh and act differently.

The character designs for Blus Sub #6 and Last Exile are quite distinct, how did you achieve this level of detail?

The departure point for the designs is the critical difference in creating the animation. When regular animators begin their career, they draw the same art over and over for cels to make animation before they can advance to character designs. They decrease the number of lines to make the characters easier to animate. They may draw silhouettes that don't look very good as a still image, but look really good when animated. That is their particular style. I started out as an illustrator and when Gonzo recruited me, they said they didn't care how hard it was to animate, just to do what I wanted and they'd animate it for me. So I really did design what I wanted to.

I always wondered, "Why do anime characters have such big buttons? Why are the creases in their clothes so deep?" Things like that. And when I designed the characters for Last Exile, I tried to have them wear clothes that could exist in real life.

See for yourself in High-Definition!

With some knowledge of how clothing design works, I tried to draw in the kind of material that would have been used in creating their clothes and try to represent the stitches connecting the fabric. I always try to represent that in my artwork.

After I designed the characters, the animators color it and animate it, so some of the three-dimensional aspect of the characters is lost, and that is the departure point.

The Guild in the Last Exile are from the future, so when I was designing their outfits, I added a more structured and artificial element. It goes back to what their role in the world is, so I keep that in mind throughout the entire process.

How is clothing an extension of an anime character's personality?

Although clothing can show a lot about the character, it really only assists in showing some of their personality. Sixty to seventy percent of their personality is shown in their face, their eyes, their hair and their expressions. So I think the clothing designs only assist in developing their personality. For example, with clothes, you can show what kind of colors the character likes, or how tall the character is.

Samples of Range's toyline.

If it's a female character, you can show a lot about their personality through making her wear pants or skirts. If she's a tomboy, then you can draw her wearing pants. If she's a calmer type of girl, you can convey this by giving her darker, muted clothing. So I think it is only partially possible to show the personality of a character through the clothing. Some anime shows try to go against this convention by drawing a tomboy girl wearing frilly dresses, but I try to approach it in a more realistic way.

Catch more of this interview here: Cosplay Lab

Before I forget, there's this other series Range has helped Gonzo develop, called "Shangri-la", according to the site, it's an "... anime series based on the highly acclaimed novel of the same name which was written by Eiichi Ikegami and won the first place in 2005 Japanese Sci-Fi Novel Award."

The story is another one of those bleak futuristic settings filled with very cute female protagonists. Tell me if the story sounds familiar... "...It's set in a neo-futuristic age, in which Tokyo has turned into the world’s largest “jungle-polis” that absorbs carbon dioxide. A tower city called Atlas houses the rich and privileged, and is the object of yearning of all that are not allowed to enter. But Atlas also has ancient secrets which cause a sudden whirl of events. Festooned by colorful characters such as a riotous teenage girl, a child genius, a juvenile princess, a drag queen, a female doctor, an army major, and an elderly gentleman and lady, SHANGRI-LA’s hard-core world view plays out as an anime action saga."

Great! Another animated show which won't strain my eyeballs at bad design. The world needs more of those! Of course, story is always a concern, but who really watches Murata's shows for that?

I jest. Still, that intro in high definition looks pretty slick...

All hail Range Murata!

Manwha Madness / Artist Profile - Hyung Tae-Kim (Revisited)

2009-12-09T05:57:00.000-08:00

Let's revisit an infamous artist known saucy women with barely-there outfits, twisted anatomy – The one, the classic Hyung Tae-Kim.

Hyung-Tae Kim (born February, 1978, Seoul) is a Korean manhwa artist. He has designed characters for video games such as the Magna Carta series, and the later installments of War of Genesis series. He also's worked on OXIDE series of artbooks.

Get a load of that scapula! And those glutes...

As a manhwa artist, he specializes in a weird deformation technique where the artist disregards anatomical accuracy to achieve a specific feel to the character. This is an interesting point because this is what makes manhwa, well… manhwa. Honestly, despite my being new to the wide world of anime and manga in general, I have yet to see another artist with the style this guy has.

Hyung has also made some stuff for Udon Studios. Notably for the Street Fighter, "Robot" and the "Apple" artbooks. Pretty slick stuff.

According to a fansite, “Hyung-tae Kim designs his characters with perfect structures, including stylish and dazzling outfits.” The exemplary use of colors helps flesh out his characters well beyond most conventional anime-style artists. Hmm... I did see one of Mr. Kim's art pieces where there was a fat guy...

Kim's body of work has achieve such worldwide acclaim that he was even hired for various art commissions in Japan! Can you imagine that?? An artist so good even the Japanese would take notice!

He’s also done some work in a Ragnarok Online art book. For those unaware what I'm talking about, Ragnarok Online is a game that kick-started the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game culture in my home country. I actually haven't seen Mr. Kim's art for this game or the book, but despite his familiar style not being in the game per se, the manhwa art-style is still prevalent, from character designs and to the items, etc. I forget to mention the 'muted' color palette that manhwa artists seem to love so much.

Okay, fine. Let it be known. I've never played any of the Magna Carta games, but that’s just because I've never owned a single console gaming system since ever. But that doesn’t matter, because I've seen some of the stuff from the game, and to tell you the truth, the 3D models and the game worlds themselves don't seem to do justice to Mr. Tae-Kim's beautiful work.

Yeah, maybe his art isn’t for everyone. Maybe some of you cynical artists want an artist prefer more... anatomically possible characters, or they just hate the "anime" style. (a term of derision among many artists) I don’t know, whenever I see this guy’s art, I get all inspired. There’s something to this guy’s style that is just surpasses most other anime artists I’ve seen in the past. Seriously!

The Apple artbook is features some of Hyung's best.

Anyway, It's time for me to end this post, with a video that might actually be relevant this time! My dear, Void, I leave you with the promo video for Blade and Soul. See for yourself if Mr. Kim's designs were translated well to 3D. Go on! Watch if you have nothing else better to do!

The Cute Art of Lokman Lam! (Revisited)

2009-12-05T12:10:00.000-08:00

I'll be honest. I can't say much about the Hong Kong artist known as 'Lokman'. When I first encountered his work all those years ago, it was by simply by accident. Nowadays, he's everywhere in these niche art blogs and online portfolio feeds. His work certainly is interesting... His work is... difficult to put into words... because you just stare at them... If you're a guy...

One might describe this guy as... having a bit of a fetish. Phooey to that! Let the man do what he pleases!

As you can see, he does a whole other range of commercial / personal art that doesn't involve big breasted asian warrior women wrapped up in bondage gear and... and... I...

Aw hell! Perhaps these images are for a new ice cream commercial?

These images indicate Lokman's models are enjoying their cool treat very much. Lokman truly captures the essence of enjoying a stick of ice cream. Naturally, Lokman's creative range extends far wider than this since he's an Art Director for some visual design firm! According to his site, he's working for a company called Imagi International Holdings Ltd. Maybe you've heard of it?

One of the classic Lokman art I stumbled upon all those years ago...

This guy climbed from the bottom, and showed everyone his "wonderful" talent. In 1999, he began as just a comic assistant! Awesome. Then he got promoted Illustrator a year later, then yes, to Art Director.

I wish this guy well. Thank you again, Lokman! Thank you for sharing your unique creative vision to the world! And congratulations to your little feature at ImagineFX!

Why Do You Draw?

2009-12-01T20:52:00.000-08:00

I think I'll do a touchy-feely artist post today. Hmm... Let me scan ConceptArt.org for something I can talk about... Ah! Here's one: "Why do you draw?" Perfect!!

So why do YOU draw? Oh right... You don't respond. But the people in ConceptArt sure do! They're a nice bunch. G A I A originally posted the question because she didn't know drawing was simply a habit or some kind of a addiction that doesn't seem as fun as she would like to believe. I have days like that.

Sebastard said:
"In the words of the immortal Nietzsche, conflict and strife (including inner conflict and personal strife) will shape a man into something better then he once was... Why do i draw and write? To eventually become one of the greatest fantasy/fiction artists/authors this world has ever seen - that simple . No telling if i'll ever achieve this goal, but i believe in setting lofty ambitions because: "Man's grasp exceeds his reach." To me, it doesn't really matter whether drawing is fun or not. Goals do not need, indeed will often not be enjoyable or fun 100% of the time - that's part of the "conflict" bit. To preservere through the times that are harsher then others and may not be as fun :p.

No, nothing is really "just" a hobby to me.

Blackspot said:
It's an itch and I need to scratch it. It gets worse if you ignore it.

Crass said:
Because I want to make my inner worlds come alive, for me and whoever else that wants to see.

Maybe he needs to draw...

The Original [E] said:
Other then because if I don't draw and get my ideas out then my mind will overload me with ideas and I won't be able to focus on much until I get them out.

The other more important reason is, to me art and my creativity is like a muscle, you have to keep working it out and constantly give it stimulation or it will atrophy and die. Thats why I draw and paint every day for hours on hours. Have you ever known a person who used to draw and stopped because of one reason or another?

FranciscoShreds then said:

I guess it's because I have the exact opposite mentality as you. I always want to draw, everything I see in life makes me want to draw, makes me want to reproduce what I see or expand upon it. Only times I feel like shit is when I don't draw and I could have. If I slept in, if I forgot my moleskine or sketchbook and I see something very interesting.

My thoughts:

Wow! Yeah! Cool! I wholeheartedly agree! Saying anything would be redundant. Maybe making a list would suffice. Okay, so it seems artists draw because:

1.) It's fun and addictive.
2.) We're all gonna die sooner or later.
3.) It's a form of escape.
4.) To capture / realize imagination. (Hmm...)
5.) Money (Eh?)
6.) Self-Improvement / Therapy.
7.) I heard this from Artgerm in Singapore - "I just want to draw something beautiful"

And as a very odd aside, I decided to embed several videos of artists and their "moleskins". (Some dating back to 2006)

This one's kinda funny.

Here's a nifty one from a real fine artist.

Buy your moleskin today and feed your art addiction!! (That's a plug right there...)

Artist Profile: Geco Hirasawa / Hira Geco

2009-11-27T19:00:00.000-08:00

I love Geco Hirasawa's work! Why, you may ask? Because it's chock full of eye candy. So much eye candy in fact, that it makes my eyes bleed. And for once, that's a good thing!!

Here's what I know about Geco Hirasawa: She's known as "Hira Geco" in deviantART, and is said to be living in Tokyo, Japan.

According to her recent journal post, she draws her linework in pencil and colors the whole thing in Adobe Photoshop. The whole process takes about two to three days, depending on her mood...

Vocaloid in Space.

Some of her major influences include photgraphers Robert Capa Van Der Elsken (could explain the fascination with perspective?). She apparently doesn't have a favorite artist (besides the obvious Tezuka and Miyazaki) and takes inspiration more from real life (TM), various photography books, and the like.

She's been honing her skill for the past five years, and dreams of becoming a professional illustrator. Unfortunately, she laments that her style doesn't suit the Japanese market that well.

What is the word the Japanese commonly use for times like these? Ah... Ganbare, Hira Geco!!

To see more of Hira Geco's work, check out here deviantART profile! If you like her stuff, then by all means support her!

Featured Portfolio: Nook

2009-11-25T06:15:00.000-08:00

Nook. Great illustrator. Got featured in several magazines including iDN and ImagineFX. Collaborated and produced a wonderful artbook featuring two hundred illustrators (for a cause to boot!). Did a lot of 3D stuff as well which seems to blend the 2D stuff pretty well. Does a lot of commercial work for various companies. Sorry, I'm not in the mood to do a grammar check.

One of Nook's early works in '07, the "Sakura Spaceman"

"Damn Cherry Blossoms!"

The bulk of his illustration work can be found at his profile in Behance, which is cool because he provides detailed descriptions about his artistic process and how he released his work to the adoring masses.

An example of the man's work in progress

Cool diagram for Popular Mechanics

You can read a lot more about his life and work at his blog (http://thehiddennook.blogspot.com/).

Tracing: A Way To Learn?

2009-11-22T14:56:00.000-08:00

A simple enough question. What does the denizens of ConceptArt.org think of "tracing" as a method of learning?

Gocke posed this question in the forum, and noted three ways to look at "tracing"

I read that tracing an image teaches you a lot more than simply referring to the image by looking at it.
Others claim it will hinder your progress and will not really teach you anything about drawing.

the_jos pointed out the uses of tracing:

"First of all is learning your mind that things ain't off when doing foreshortening. I did a foreshortened beak of a bird of prey a couple of weeks ago and my mind complained a lot about stuff being off. It's only at the end that things fell into place and turned out to be ok. When making various partial traces of such an object it's possible to learn your brain that those 'odd' lines are actually ok.

The second usage is for quick setup of things.
If I want to practice values, shading and rendering I could trace the same image a couple of times to try different things.

Last and not to be underestimated. Tracing can learn you to make steady single lines. Doesn't matter on sketches, but when you are going to ink something you might want to have a steady hand..."

Arshes Nei pointed out the possibility of confusion with the subject:

"I refer to what you're talking about "Eyeballing"

Tracing is well actually going over the lines. If I for example, made some pencils and wanted to ink them, I'd get my lightboard and trace over the image. Does that count as cheating?

I want to make that distinction because it tracing and eyeballing are two different things in my opinion. It's one thing to trace over an image using a projector or light board, it's completely different to learn how to see spacial relationships to learn better control through observation and eyeballing.

I think you'll learn better this way..?

It also irks me because n00bs will interchange the term when I'm saying "ok gotta trace this" and I'm referring to my own works and they scream "cheating" when I have to explain to them. No, I'm inking, and I want to keep the original pencils around in case I mess up."

joyproject simply states:

"Tracing is fine for learning, but don't end up using it as a crutch."

OmenSpirits concurs:

With tracing, one can learn about the landmarks on the body.

The rest more or less said its cheating. Still, you can read more at http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=154586 or http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=113058 which is an older thread on the same topic.

My thoughts
So what do I think of tracing? Is it good or bad for an artist's development? Let me put it this way... it... depends.

Many artists believe that anyone caught tracing a reference photo shouldn't even be called artists. That this whole tracing business should be left to kids. Not so for the legendary DC/Marvel artist Neal Adams, who believes tracing is one of the keys to better looking art. According to a section in Neal Adam's webpage, he was quoted saying that "...if they really want to learn to draw better. The first thing you need to do is get yourself a tracing pad and some solid and clear photos from magazines and anywhere you can get them. Trace, trace, trace. Trace some more. Make it a regular part of your drawing process. You will learn more by tracing than anything else. When people hear this their immediate reaction is 'I'm not gonna trace, that is cheating.' It is not. This is how you will learn."

So like I said... It depends.

Artist Profile: Tomer Hanuka

2009-11-19T05:39:00.000-08:00

Do you know Tomer Hanuka? According to the innumerable sites that talk about this award-winning illustrator, he's worked with Time Magazine, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, MTV, among others. He's done a great deal of work in the funny book and fashion industry as well. According to an interview at formatmag, he got hooked on comics pretty early in his childhood in Israel.

The "...whole idea of superheroes, visual icons, worlds within panels" fascinated him in his youth, and that's when he decided to pursue creating his own stories in the medium. After his mandatory service in the Army, he decided to pursue art as a career and enrolled at New York's School of Visual Arts. Mr. Hanuka describes living and studying (and eventually teaching) at New York as the "...ultimate growing experience in the way it’s set up for the young and hungry to become comfortable and still hungry."

His longtime collaborators Lorenzo Mattotii and Nicolas de Crecy have proved most fruitful throughout his career. He keeps close ties with his brother, Asaf, (he's based in France) and collaborated on a number of projects on life in Israel.

Did I mention that he absolutely loves the medium of comics? Mr. Hanuka stated that he drew inspiration from "... art... books, movies, and images." He states "...Can you imagine your life without them? We are all made of other people’s dreams, our memories, a song that reminds us of that girl, a chain link of associations flicker endlessly in our psyche, all fused with culture we’ve consumed at one point and all 100% authentically ours."

When questioned in another interview done by Quiet Color about contemporary illustration, and the trends he has seen in wake of the recession, he believed that "...illustration is becoming very trendy is in advertising, in places that we’re not short of the classic places in terms of the aesthetic space they used to create."

He goes on to state how "...a lot of the corporate world taking street creds from graffiti artists and putting it on sneakers and putting it on billboards to get cool points in a very cynical way. And there’s a lot of like that anti-craft, scruffy, un-digital, unrefined illustration that finds its way into advertising big time." Wow. "Magazines are shrinking, newspapers are shrinking but advertising is growing for illustration… nobody believes photographs anymore because there is so much Photoshop, so a drawn image is suddenly a silver bullet exploding hearts of unsuspected preteens and other desired market shares."

You can read more about the aforementioned interviews at:

QC INTERVIEW: TOMER HANUKA

FORMATMAG: TOMER HANUKA

Be sure to go the man's site and learn more about his current work!
www.thanuka.com
And check http://tropicaltoxic.blogspot.com/ to learn about the man's process.

Featured Portfolio: Contraomnes

2009-11-16T19:51:00.000-08:00

Contraomnes. An American illustrator whose portfolio packs quite a punch! (...)

According to Contraomnes, his favorite artist include Tomer Hanuka, James Jean, Kent Williams, Leinil Francis Yu, Adam Hughes, Alfons Mucha, and many more...

You can read more about his artistic journey at his deviantart!

Visions of Inoue Naohisa

2009-07-02T22:36:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing that I'll always remember after watching Studio Ghibli's Whisper of the Heart a few years ago, its those fantastic dream sequences that the protagonists conjures up.

The guy's work was just so different from what I had seen up to that point. However, it wasn't until a few years later that I would learn the identity of the background artist. Why'd it take so long? I don't know... I guess I was just lazy.

Here's a brief rundown on the guy's life:

1948
Born in Osaka, Japan

1971
Graduated from Kanazawa College of Art.

1985
Comic book, The Tales of Iblard, published by Seishinsha and Co. Ltd.

1994
Collection of paintings, The Natural History of Iblard and published by Cacoosha. (volume II and 1997; volume III and 1999; volume IV and 2003)

1995
Took charge of art in the visionary scenes of “The Story Given Me by Baron” in the animated film and Whisper of the Heart

(A production of Studio Ghibli/Screenplay, storyboard and production: Mr. Hayao MIYAZAKI and Direction: Mr. Yoshifumi KONDO)

2001
Exhibition “INOUE Naohisa - Iblard 2001” (Beltin Poile and Paris)
A picture Book “The World is your collection” by Cacoosha. A collection of picture and story “I heard that in Maze city” by Kodansha.

2003
Exhibition “NAOHISA INOUE Recent works” (Caelum Gallery and N.Y.)
Professor at Seian University of Art and Design

2007
Director: IBLARD JIKAN

2008 - Present
More Exhibits...

The guy's released a bunch of artbooks throughout his career, and has appeared on numerous exhibits. One of Mr. Naohisa's "recent" accomplishments is directing Iblard Jikan, a feature length "film" that brought his original paintings to life. Reception was mixed, but I don't care.

What's Iblard Jikan? According to one of the few websites dedicated to Mr. Naohisa's world, Iblard is described as...

Fragments of forgotten memories... Nostalgic days that are sure to come again... IBLARD is made of such elements.

Beyond that, I have no idea. However, sure looks darn pretty.

If you're starting to get the impression that this post is just an excuse to dump Mr. Naohisa's wonderfully exquisite works, you're probably right. But if these pictures are already worth gazillion words, shouldn't that be enough!? (Excuse me?)

If you're one of the few people who are wondering how the heck did he paint that way, you can go check out a little "How to" he did on his website. If you wanna buy some merchandise... good luck.

And... that's it. Phew! Oh, and like most blog posts about Mr. Naohisa, I feel I have to post a video on that Iblard thing. Here's the trailer. In Japanese.

The Basics of Colors

2009-05-03T05:32:00.000-07:00

Puzzled by how color "works" in some paintings?

Curious as to how light affects objects??

Look no further.

Introducing "The Dimensions of Color" a website dedicated to teaching you nearly everything you need to know about color, lighting and more!

See "The Dimensions of Color" website at:
http://www.huevaluechroma.com/

Disclaimer:
This site assumes you have some knowledge on the basic principles of color!

Thank you, David Briggs!

Manuha Madness / Artist Profile - Benjamin Zhang Bin

2009-02-07T01:00:00.000-08:00

Remember back in the day (around late 2007) when I was salivating over this manhua thing, beginning with artists like Hyung Tae-Kim and later stuff from Imperial Boy? Yeah, those were ... innocent times.

So here I was, looking for the next 'big' art inspiration (or in my case not so big, since I rarely update and thus don't keep up with the times) and lo and behold, I found Benjamin.

I think I will drop my job for a few seconds as I upload some of the most striking, elegant digital paintings/illustrations I've ever laid my eyes on. I've always loved works from artists that manage to elevate the mundane, you know? Put that ol' artistic spin to it and make it look all mysterious, sexy and all that good stuff.

Who is this Benjamin chap? Okay, let's see... according to a number of blogs that talk about this guy (many of which are in French), his full name is Benjamin Zhang Bin' who hails not from Japan or Korea, but from China. He's a Manhua (Chinese Comic Book) artist, and a damn good one too. (Told you Manhwa/Manhua would catch on sooner or later! -Ed)

The French can't seem to get enough of this guy, and a lot of Benjie's stuff was first published there. He's published a lot of stuff over there, and some time in 2008 he began getting stuff out through TokyoPop, the American Manga house. It saddens me that I may never see his stuff translated and released in my country, but at least I get to ogle at these breathtaking covers. Click on the image to get a slightly better look, whydontya?

Some time in March 2008, the entire Manhwa/Manhwa phenomenon got a really big push from all sorts of creative types, with events being held across the globe. There were Digital Art/Manga competitions, conventions held at London and around Europe, and books being published Stateside. Lots of great stuff all around, and for some inexplicable reason, I missed it. Oh right, I live in the Philippines.

So I read one interview with ol' Benjie, and they asked him something regarding his 'style'. He graciously replied:

"Ah? You’re talking about how my illustrations are more realistic, right? Originally my comic characters were even lankier; recently I’m already very restrained. That kind of lanky, exaggerated body is better to draw, producing results quickly. Comics are always rushed and the amount of work huge. No choice. If it’s an illustration, I use sufficient time to pay attention to the human body, to find the aesthetic sense in more realistic proportions."

My thoughts:
I was lucky enough to buy Benjamin's ORANGE manga, (That's how I discovered the guy's work) and he's right - a lot of his stuff is done quite quick, though his skill as an artist makes his rough stylings easily identifiable. He excels depicting his subjects, mostly disgruntled youth-types, in the most beautiful and vibrant manner possible. He clearly uses Corel Painter, which helps sell the painterly effect of his work.

The sequential image shows off ORANGE's dynamic stylings

Looking at these illustrations and even the sequential images, a lot of people might have trouble describing what makes it different from stuff from Japan and other parts of the world.

Yishan Lee, a Chinese UK-based artist, had this to say: "...people probably will realise it is hard to tell what is a Chinese comic just by looking at the pictures. Actually, Chinese comics are so diverse in styles. They have been influenced by European, American, Japanese comics and yet carried on some traditions from traditional Chinese drawings. For individual artists, they have their own preference. It is only easier to tell which one is Chinese Manhua when it comes to the story. Chinese artists do have their own way to look at the world."

Me thinks the guy in the image above is disappointed in what life has to offer...

I don't live in Mainland China, but Benjamin's ORANGE (set in Taiwan I think?) paints a beautifully decadent world where the youth are finding it hard NOT to rebel. An interview asked this question - why are many of the protagonists of his comics a bunch of vain, emotionally distressed teenagers?

"Actually, I find that everywhere, young people are no longer believing in anything, no longer having faith, totally at a loose end psychologically and feeling really insecure. These young people can't cooperate or fit in with society, and especially for those who have had a relatively high level of education, for them this psychological void is even more serious. In most cases, they hardly have any trust in their parents (for someone Chinese that's the absolute minimum of morality) and also don't trust either their partners or friends."

Angry, rebellious teens... in China?? Really? No way.

Whatever the case may be, I'm going to go hunting for this guy's work. I don't care if you say his work might be a tad uninspired. There's just something about the Chinese stylings of the story that makes it feel fresh... and all dirty inside despite being depicted in the most beautiful, stylized way possible. Here's an interesting little snippet from the interview I found interesting:

Do you feel that using this kind of exaggerated comic style expresses your story’s mood, etc. better?

"Readers like this kind of style more actually. I dare say if I use my illustrating style in my comics, all my efforts will only raise questions amongst the readers. They’ll say my comics aren’t as good as before. But I’m just about to take this risk, to draw my comics in my illustrating style…"

Read the full interview here.

Yeah. so like I was saying - beautiful. Hmm... I wonder how many times have I described his work with that adjective..? Ah, it doesn't matter. One of Benjamin's goals in life was to be that of a world-class painter. That and to travel the world. Great guy, great art - I'll be watching.

Oh, if you can spare two minutes, maybe you can watch this video showcasing this Manhua/Manhwa craze. Which I missed in 2008. Just watch it, okay?

Also, check this article/interview about Chinese Manhua. Good read.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Art Cliches

2009-01-08T19:37:00.000-08:00

While it's been a while since I've posted on this blog, I managed to stumble on a topic at ConceptArt.org that demanded my attention... Yes, it's everybody's favorite topic - the cliches of science fiction and fantasy art!

The topic today is brought to you by J Wilson. He asked:

"which design elements in sci-fi/fantasy art are you just sick of seeing? Or at least want to see someone do a new take on it if they are going to do it?"

It's not that he hates all these generic ideas! On the contrary, these so-called generic ideas are a great starting point to create something inspired, possibly original even! But as J Wilson pointed out, he's "...just tired of seeing them as "go to" design elements, showing a certain lack of real inspiration. They can be done well, and done in an exciting way, but 90% of the time if I see those elements I groan and kind of roll my eyes."

So, what designs are people tired of seeing? Let's see what the good people of the forum have to say:

J Wilson goes first, declaring :

"I'm getting tired of seeing generic looking gun arms. Or the one big powerful arm. Tribal tattoos. Forest or jungle scene with large stone heads overgrown by the jungle."

Young, impressionable artists such as myself can't resist recycling old favorites in their respective genres... Are we really bankrupt creatively?

Flake, another discerning member of the board, throws in his thoughts:

Giant Space Boots
Swords 8 feet longer than the user / hand held artillery
Bikini armor / Stealthy ninja chicks in heels.

My thoughts:
I don't get his second one, really... Did this whole 'sword bigger than the user' trend begin with Final Fantasy? I'm not too familiar with this enduring trend in young artist's design. Never really liked it actually.

Tomwaitsfornoman shares his peeves:

Massively over sized boobies...
Rob Liefield cliches
Scantily Clad Women in snow (I am guilty of that one myself)...

Thank you, professional concept artists of old, for giving the public what they want in the first place, but somehow in retrospect seem to regret...

Mirana declares her annoyances:

Most clothing choices for gals, usually a variation of the bikini or a plug suit (Damn you, anime shows like Evangelion! -ed) Laaaaaaaaame. I'd also like to see variety in body types of women AND men.

Amaranth goes straight to the point:

"Female supermodel soldiers. I highly doubt Paris Hilton or a female with double Z breasts can wield a huge sword or gun in full-fledged combat even though they look good. If functionality and looks are both considered, they could at least look like Gina Carano. Of course, I can't say I am absolutely sick of this, just slightly annoyed."

Practical.

...Bikini armour. This one I'm sick of. It looks good but I think it's too much of a "go-to" design to make females in armour look good, not to mention it completely sacrifices any functional purposes. How is it hard for anybody to just slash the stomach area of the female?"

Zirngibism comes up with a perfectly worded rant:

That same old floating city where underneath the city is sort of a long upside-down mountain of earth. Yeah it's been done in some popular video games, and yeah it's kind of a cool concept, but aren't there other ways to make floating cities without that giant mountain of dirt under them? How about spheres with their own gravity and the city radiating around them? How about floating water instead of earth with steel "bubbles" inside as the buildings?

Epic, right? Blimps? City from Lord of the Rings? Floating rocks? Mix all together and what do you get? I'd rather not say...

Desolated, bombed-out post-apocalyptic cities

Post-Apocalyptia done right with the 'Fallout' game franchise. Great concept work can be found here.

Jetsons-style cities (I really love futuristic cities in illustration, and they're my favorite when approached originally.) I feel like a hypocrite because so many cities are in my deviantArt favorites folder, but hey...
Big blobby monsters with arms coming out of their stomachs, possibly plants growing out in random places, with flabby sagging bits. I've seen some really awesome drawings of these, but the concept itself is getting old to me.
Gunners with visored masks.

Most Space Art... you know, often-desktop art where two planets are colliding and there's all this swirly stuff from brushes people downloaded from deviantArt... It all looks the same. Sure space is cool, but not that kind of art when it's all the same. It's like Thomas Kinkade, just in space. Go to dA, you'll see what I mean.

Spider mechs (one of Masamune Shirow's favorite design fallbacks), nearly all heavy bipedal mech designs known to man, and much, much more!

Mech warriors that look like so much like Gundams. Sure, as humans we identify with bipeds. We like stuff that reminds us of us. But that's not really a great design when it comes to machines. Especially when they're SO top-heavy like some of the designs I've seen. How about multiple legs (like that "bigdog" robot they're developing now), or or the use of both wheels and legs?
Just about 95% of sci/fantasy illustration I see features people ages 18-25. Sure, I understand why this is. We don't usually see 60-year-olds fighting battles and what not (unless they're a male wizard, often cliched). But in a place and time where magic or technology play a key role, I would think people could transcend the limits of age. By the way,I think older people are awesome, there's so much more depth to them. I plan to try to feature them in my own illustrations. I guess the audience of such art tends to be in the younger range and identify with younger characters... but still.
Little children interacting with large, ugly monsters in friendly gestures, like they're a friend. The child might be giving something to the monster or touching it. It's a neat concept and I've seen some great work portraying it, but seeing a lot of the fanboy art using this concept makes it seem a little old now.
And I've got to agree with everyone about the bikini armor being one of the biggest ones. I don't know, I'm not a guy, but don't you guys get BORED after awhile, even if you're attracted to the girls in that art? Don't they start looking the same to you?
Tribal Sci-fi. I still think they are cool when done-well, but it's getting kind of generic.

My thoughts:
I can't believe he doesn't like gunners with funky visored masks. It's a good thing for some that the generic cyberpunk era died in the 90's... although a revival could always be around the corner. As for the rest of her statements, I think they're spot on. That's all I can say really. Totally agree with the first statements though, I can't help 'fave' well rendered generic floating city art!

sodAP gives his views on:

Derivative of the derivative. Some guy who has no idea how real XV century armour looked like, so he draws what he thinks it could have looked like (why research?) and then there's the other guy who has no idea how real XV centruy armour looked like so he bases his work on the work of the first guy. There's the third, fourth, and fifth guys, and then World of Warcraft tier 6 armours appear. Oriental+Occidental. Guys with full plate, a bandana and a katana... facepalm.

I'm going to say... inspired. And sexy.

PsiBug goes on with his own caveats:

1) a lone timeworn robot standing among the ruins of the civilization that created it. (Wall-E, Laputa)
2) a close-up of an embryonic creature gestating in a bottle of bubbling fluid
3) a skeleton in a space suit... often with an alien weapon or plant sticking out of it
4) an old lady chasing a cat down the street with no bra on (What? -ed)
BrightDreamer has this to say, which is pretty interesting:

Impractical anatomy: the overly-musclebound barbarian who should go down with his own weight, or the DDD-chest-size woman who thinks she can run, let alone fight, without a bra.
The Brooder. You know the one. Crushed by the weight of their own soul in a dark and unforgiving universe, they stare darkly inward whilst pondering the void of their reality. They often wear dark capes and/or trenchcoats, sometimes some manner of hat (to cast moody shadows over their moody faces), and most need their hair hacked off, or at least brushed out of their eyes. While I understand that many sci-fi/fantasy characters have good reason to brood, I get sick of watching them do it so incessantly, especially when they seem to pick such impractical places: the edge of an impossibly high skyscraper or craggy, storm-torn cliff, or even in the middle of a gory battlefield.
The Generic Epic Quest. A gathering of vaguely Tolkien-esque humanoids in a range of sizes and shapes and vaguely medieval outfits travel through a Vast Landscape, more often than not passing Grand Ruins and Soaring Spires. A side-cliche I find overdone is the Generic Epic Quester, someone on some manner of generic epic quest who might as well be on a nature walk for all their posture and expression conveys.

Wickeddiana has thing to say... which I unfortunately agree with *sniff*:

Pretty much everything from Heavy Metal Magazine. I am totally sick of seeing this. Probably the biggest cliché in erotic fantasy art.
Ethereal fairy-like females in some kind of magical environment/forest. They are usually very beautiful, almost goddess-like and they are gazing dreamily out into the distance. I have to admit that I am guilty of having done this myself. But I just get really tired of seeing it.

Raaawrrrr! Which reminds me, I have to do a piece like this for my portfolio. Bye!

Mr. Kev Ferrera throws his hands down and declares boredom over:

96% of the covers to Heavy Metal.
Post-Apocalyptic Beach Bodies.
Main figure strikes and holds an iconic yet undramatic pose for the camera.
Huge swords. Overly pointy armor and helmets.
Over-rendering of incorrect or meaningless anatomical detail.

Volchiha throws in some new ideas: (or old depending how you want to perceive this thread)

Incorrect cultural references - including no knowledge of the mythology or symbolism used, appearances (vikings didn't wear horned helmets to war), political stereotypes, and especially the use of writing in random ways!
Making vampires and werewolves mortal enemies. In a folklore sense, they have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

Right...

Opillione finally closes out this post with an all-encompassing reply:

"I take the opinion that everything's been done in some form before. It's not what the content is, but how it's executed. "

In Conclusion:
The question now is, how do you create fresher ideas? With every idea known to artists taken and exploited, what is left?? I leave that to you, or maybe to me, if I find the time to make a post about developing new ideas for well worn concepts. In the meantime, I suggest you guys stay away from adding scars over you over your characters eyes. It's been done before, trust me.

Art Talk: The Practical Artist

2008-12-07T17:24:00.000-08:00

"No Art Director Ever Asked To See My Diploma"

Article by: Daniel Pelavin

The education of many a successful illustrator takes place quite handily outside the bounds of any certified program or academic course of study. The most important, perhaps only credentials of any significance in this field are the portfolio. While a portfolio of student samples may be quite handsome in presentation, it is rarely an accurate indicator of one's ability to effectively solve actual problems, under true deadlines while the exigencies of real life intervene. It is no wonder that school work is quickly purged and replaced by assignment work as soon as possible in the portfolios of those fortunate few to get work. If the ultimate goal is to distance oneself from all traces of "school," something more than a diploma must be offered to those who intend to work in the field rather than simply go back into teaching.

An online portfolio template. "There are thousands like it..."

An honest appraisal of the odds might be a good place to begin. Although it might not be the biggest boon to enrollment, letting people know just how competitive the field of illustration is would certainly help sort out those who potentially have other or better options. Illustration as a career is most successfully pursued by those to whom no other option is acceptable. It takes that kind of motivation to overcome the inevitable and constant stream of obstacles. Some frankness about the nature of the illustration market and the people an illustrator will have to work for would go a long way in discouraging all but the most foolhardy and desperate from pursuing this glamorous and enviable career.

Good luck! This artist gig better be what you want...

Every illustration student should know that even the most brilliant art director, say one who can dial an entire phone number including area code without having to look it up again, actually believes he could do your job if he wasn't so busy. While fostering the ideal of creativity, perhaps we could also foster the reality everybody remotely involved with your illustration feels perfectly comfortable taking credit for it.

This next item may seem like a very odd notion for institutions of higher learning but, how about showing some respect for students and some recognition for what they already know. Rarely will a nascent illustrator have arrived at college age without already having worn out his share of pencils. Don't treat him like he just hatched and for heaven's sake do your share to put an end to this myth of "artistic talent" which fosters such deep contempt among the lay public for those "gifted" souls who appear to have it so easy. True artistic talent is the ability to pursue your goals and not give up until you succeed, whether it is on the second or seventieth try.

"The Poor Poet" by Carl Spitzweg (1808 - 1885) Click the image to learn more about the hidden symbolisms that depicts the so-called "Starving Artist"

While we accept that most people can be more or less literate with enough effort, we are still rather behind in recognizing that the same thing applies to visual expression. A little less emphasis on inspiration and more on perspiration would seem to apply here. While it seems that working illustrators would be the obvious choice as illustration teachers, the axiom "those who can do and those who can't teach" may have actually been invented in the illustration field. Rarely do you find an illustrator who actually has teaching skills, can find the time and regards students as more than just potential studio interns. All too frequently what you get are semi-illustrators with too much time between jobs and underfed egos.

This image was taken from popular art blogger/critic Irene Gallo regarding one the 2007 Annual Scholarship Competition

The gruesome result of this ill-advised practice is the annual scholarship competition, where we honor the "best and brightest" for their pitiful imitations of illustration styles of the past. The crowning irony of this grotesque spectacle is the mention of these instructors in the exhibition credits, ostensibly, I guess for doing such a laudable job of helping students deny their own individuality. The next generation of great illustrators will come into being despite this circus but, it would be far less degrading if we didn't treat them like little monkeys.

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but, ethics aside, it is primarily the province of bottom feeders in the illustration field. Give a student the ability to imitate Bernie Fuchs and you've given him a good shot at the CA Illustration Annual for 1974, give him skills to negotiate, promote and run a business, and he may actually be able to make a living. Enough with this baloney about oil washes and techniques of the "great masters."

There is a great deal to learn from the history of illustration but, it ought not be confused with technique. True style comes from within not from copying someone else. It is not disposable nor a fad of the moment, ie. the fashion industry.

A good device for remembering what's really important here is the three "D's," drawing , drawing and drawing. Drawing from life, drawing from memory and drawing from inspiration are good. Tracing over photographs doesn't quite get it and plays you right into the hands of those who have no respect for honest effort in the first place. Illustration is a business, not to be confused with fine art, which is also a business (only a much more complicated and ugly one.) Those who commission illustration aren't "benefactors of the arts," they are skilled negotiators with a clear vision of the bottom line.

I gotta get me a life drawing class...

An understanding of usage, rights and how to determine fees does not hamper creativity, it gives an illustrator the freedom to be creative. Techniques in marketing and promotion change and evolve as quickly as illustration styles. You haven't taught promotion by telling students to send postcards. Ask any art buyer how many postcards he receives daily, before you suggest that direct mail even gets noticed any more.

Norman Rockwell's "Art Critic" (1955)

If you don't recognize illustration as a business and concentrate on the required skills, you are shortchanging those foolhardy enough to believe in you and after all, they don't really need that diploma to get assignments any more than Dumbo needed his lucky feather to fly.

My question:
Do you agree with this article?

Ralph Bakshi: Tells It Like It Is

2008-09-13T02:52:00.000-07:00

Ralph Bakshi... Now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

I was introduced to Bakshi's work when I saw the 1978 animated version of Lord of the Rings animation on VHS. All that rotoscoped animation (see: animation that is literally traced from live action movement) was a pretty cool gimmick, but it sort of wore thin. Since then I haven't paid much attention to the guy until recently.

Fire and Ice, a movie which where Ralph Bakshi collaborated with fantasy-art master Frank Frazetta

On a whim, I decided to check the Bakshi since I was getting tired of hearing folks reference his infamous 1972 animated feature 'Fritz the Cat'. I haven't seen Fritz yet, but I've seen some of his shorts, such as the 1981 animated short 'American Pop'. Try it, it's pretty interesting.

Youtube describes American Pop as "The story of four generations of a Russian Jewish family of musicians parallels the history of American popular music in the 20th century."

One video that really got me riled up was this passionate rant by Bakshi to the artists of 'this' generation. Meaning US - the young, impressionable artists who possess all these fantastic tools at our disposal. Go out there and do something!

It doesn't matter what you're into - whether it's traditional, flash, or #D animation, digital art, game design, whatever. Ralph Bakshi tells it like it is. Get out there and get creative!!

Manhwa Feature / Artist Profile - Imperial Boy

2008-08-11T05:19:00.000-07:00

ink everyone has said everything that could be said about the god-like landscape artist, Imperial Boy...

Face it, his work speaks for himself. I've said it before so I may as well shut up. Besides, I've spoken about the guy in the past. I probably said the same thing too.

This was the very first piece by Imperial Boy that I saw. I wasn't that into art as I am now, but this image certainly made an impression on me. I recall the book which had this image saying Imperial Boy wanted to evoke cramped avenues of Hong Kong or Japan, and give that weird rush people get when they go to these seedy joints.

He has a way of drawing his characters as well. They're not exactly the musclebound anatomically accurate human figures of Da Vinci, but they do the trick. They're kind of cute actually! :-)

If you click on this image, you will note just how painstakingly detailed every area of this image actually is. It's not just crappy photomanipulation and cheap Photoshop tricks, mind you. Every art trick in the book can be seen in his stuff.

It's got High Dynamic Range Lighting, perspective, cute anime characters, muted color palette, 3D references, and a whole lot of other technical jargon nobody cares about. A weird gimmick Imperial Boy uses in the Robot artbooks are these pieces, where they scream "Look at all my overly complicated detail!!!!!" or at least, something to that effect.

The guy likes making these fully realized fantasy worlds. Staring at some of his images makes you just wish you were there. His beautiful cityscapes and impossible architecture defy any kind of sense, but who cares?

You don't think when you look at these images sometimes. They're cool and fun to watch, but inject any kind of logic to some of his stuff and you might as well just hit yourself with a sledgehammer. There's one image in one of the Robot books which is literally a school, where each classroom is hung in one giant ferris wheel. Now that's... weird.

Featured Warhamer Artist: Clint Langley

2008-08-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

I am the last person you should ask about the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I haven't read the Horus Heresy novels, and was only mildly entertained by some of the comics I found on a bargain bin. I haven't played the pricey tabletop games, nor do I plan to any time soon and I unfortunately avoided all the PC games. Why?? I don't know!

But if there something I've always like about Warhammer 40K's universe, it's those blasted Space Marines, and nobody seems to illustrate them better than Clint Langley.

There's suprisingly very little that can be said about Clint Langley's work, other than than that he's superb when it comes to rendering the facial features of his subjects. I've browsed through "The Art of Clint Langley: Dark Visions from the Grim Worlds of Warhammer" and his stuff is pretty photorealistic. To a point where it's kind of creepy-looking. Think of renowned comic-book artist Alex Ross' stuff, where you can almost imagine some beefy model making a weird uncomfortable pose, while Clint's painting. Yeah... kind of like that.

The guy primarily works for role-playing game stuff, having done Battletech, the original Warhammer fantasy franchise. I did read a while ago that he did stuff for the infamous Britisgh comic company 2000 A.D. Most notably "Judge Dredd". Too bad my only memories of Judge Dredd are from the silly flick by Stallone back in the 90's. Wow!

Of course, with his kind of skill, he worked on stuff for companies such as Marvel as well. Man, his covers are just gorgeous. Makes me almost wish they were in a higher resolution, so we can appreciate it in all its glory.

And now since I've got nothing better to say about dear ol' Clint Langley, I think a video is in order. Perhaps one relating to Warhammer 40k?

Art Makeover: N i c o's Robot

2008-08-01T17:53:00.000-07:00

Welcome! Let's talk about art again! (What else?) You might not be asking: What are paint overs?

It's when... It's when when some newbie artist would post his or her fugly art piece on a blog or message board asking for comments or suggestions, and a more experienced artists would come along and start painting over it to point out mistakes. And no, I'm not talking about directional arrows and notes on where to improve (though that's technically a paintover itself) - I'm talking literally painting OVER the piece, changing colors, adding figures, changing poses, and essentially ruining any chance for the 'student' to learn anything valuable to add to his artistic repertoire.

Anyway, I wanna start this weird new segment here where I'll spotlight certain art pieces from ConceptArt.org and show how they transform into masterpieces (or technically proficient art). I know, I know! It would be so much better to show MY OWN art pieces getting makeovers, but that'd be too much work. HAHAHA!

Uh... let's begin?

Nico's original "Robot" piece

Nico: "Hi everybody, this is an image i'm working on, i would like to hear comments & critics from you about the image in this current version Right know i'm only working on values, i will work on colors later ( The robot will be in reddish tones, and the set will probably be in brown & green tones ). I will also add some rust to depict a dirty set, and some smoke on the ground. Some modifications that i will do: the foreground will be a little bit more readable, and a soft light from the right will highlight the foreground and the robot, also the black outline of the whole image will be more overpainted"

So if you have any suggestions to improve the image and correct some mistakes, don't hesitate"

My thoughts:
Wow!! I wonder what this guy has in store... This piece already looks very promising, but the comments are right - it is a little hard to read what is going.

I do not understand what is going on in this image really...I have a robot thing that I think is getting interrogated or something...I think if you attached some sort of narration you would get a better response...

ConCrete
The values and edge control are gorgeous though...I would toss some mids in the lower right to give the eye something to look at in that corner.

So Nico explains that the story is about how "..the little robot is imprisoned into the engine room of an hospital, where experimentations are made on robots. He is daily tortured, and what we can see in the image is that his torturers are coming back ..."

ChrisBennet gives Nico's piece the benefit of a doubt, stating:
"There is nothing really wrong with this at all apart from a tiny ambiguity concerning the robot's right arm: The big nut he is wearing as some sort of bracelet (I think) is not recieving the light in a way that puts it far enough away from his elbow - if you see what I mean. Other than that marvelous!

Can I ask you a question: How do you proceed with the colouring phase - do you just tint everything with glazes or do you paint opaquely over everything? Perhaps you use a combination of the two?"

So Nico explains his process:
"I understand what you mean about the bracelet, but it is intentional that it looks this way because it is supposed to be this big.

About the colouring phase, my method is not the best: i fill the screen with a medium colour, and then i add shadows and highlights and finally i paint over the dark line which i should not have work so precisely because we won't see it in the end

As someone in the Cgtalk forum told me, the highlights were not consistent, so i correct them and gave more contrast to the shadows and highlights of the robot ( the robot is a bit more shinny in some parts ). I've also added the shadow of the buzz saw on the cylinder. This is the new version:"

My thoughts:
The change is very subtle, but effective nonetheless. ChrisBennett eventually states that "It's not the size that is causing the problem but that the way relates to the robot's shoulder in terms of lighting making it look nearer to your eye than the shoulder itself. This then thows the elbow out of kilter because assuming the forearm and the upper arm are the same length, the fact that the bracelet nut is nearer than the shoulder doesn't make perspective sense in this instance."

Nico acknowledges this, and takes on the challenge. The results are marvelous:
"This is another version, not the final one as everything is subject to change. What has changed from the previous version, apart from colors:

Some smoke between the robot and the big cylinder ( this is a rough smoke taken from a low-res version of my image, that's why its shape is different from the robot profile ).
The backlight on the robot
Some contrast to the foreground lighting
A test for the rust ( or blood ) on the big cylinder
Some dust glow on the left of the image
The tiled floor
The blur on the foreground chain

On a previous version, the robot was more shinny, i will try this again. As I am searching for colors, if you have any critics about this current version, i'm ready to read them, thanks !"

Above is another quick try on colors, i've replaced the blue with a green to depict a sick environment. I've also inclined the camera, please tell me if it's a good idea or not, thanks !

My thoughts:
Brilliant! The top version is amazing! The blue and red version now makes me want to hurl. Who knew changing a few values can change the entire mood and narration of the piece? Bah. Of course you knew this. And that's it for now! Be sure to check out the thread if you want to see what happens after - but definitely this artist is someone to watch!

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=132517

Using Stock Photos In Drawing People

2008-07-14T06:16:00.000-07:00

"...From a standpoint of taste and content: I photograph whatever pleases me. Consequently, this gallery may contain things that don't please you."

Excerpt from Marcus Ranum's Stock Photography site

Can't draw the human figure? Feel a sense of inadequacy when you realize that you fail to understand what has to be the most essential skill in art? In understanding the lights and darks and all that value study stuff?!

Well, you needn't fret so much! You'd be surprised how a lot of talented and professional artists USE photos as reference when drawing people. A lot of budding comic and digital artists would often use themselves as models and pose on photos when drawing and painting. Believe it!! (Eww) Some would say using stock photos helps you figure out the perspective of the figure without wasting all your time with "fundamentals". (Whoever said that deserves a medal -ck)

I would assume classically-trained artists hate this sort of thing. They prefer artists today should know how to render a realistic a figure, and sometimes use real life models in art workshops. Some argue that part of the problem with using photos as reference in art is that it tends to look flat. Whether that is true or not sometimes depends on the artist I suppose...

Stock Photos?

Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes. Setting the debate aside, here's what I have to say for this post - Many thanks to ImagineFX, the pricey digital art magazine I buy on occasion, which led me to discoverd this rather odd photography site. It's run by Marcus Ranum, a photographer with... interesting tastes.

Rendering photos on canvas is only as good as the photo reference, and Ranum certainly doesn't disappoint! He's got really neat stuff here, stuff I feel would be perfect for fantasy and sci-fi artists looking for a particularly pose and can't quite nail em since they never bothered to take formal figure drawing classes. :)

Yes, you can draw a Slave Girl!

You can see how light would affect certain fabrics and materials. Perfect if you suck at that sort of thing. You can see women doing strange sometimes tasteless acts in some of these pictures. Priceless, right?!

Ah, but never fear. There's some neat classical nudes, if all this weird stuff makes you think funny thoughts. These nudes are great, and if you can stand staring at the monitor while drawing, then good for you! I highly recommend you check out the site! (Link below)

Did I mention Ranum's site's got Cat Girls? If you ever fantasize of rendering realistic looking "Neko Gals", then this is your one and only chance.

Visit http://www.ranum.com/gallery/index.php for meow--more details. Damnit!

The "Negative Space"

2008-07-05T08:04:00.000-07:00

When you're really studying art and stuff, you may have come across this term: "Negative Space".

What the hell is Negative Space..? No, not the weird Negative Zone from the comic books. It's... I don't know. That's why I go to the place that has all the answers. No, not Wikipedia! ConceptArt.org!

Seedling, a longtime forum-goer describes the "Negative Space" as the the white space that surrounds the silhouette of a character.

Armando goes on a little more by defining "Negative space as a result of drawing a shape on the paper. Becoming aware of it initiates you into composition. One of the elementary things to do in drawing is to separate figure and ground, figure being things(people, cups,shapes, whatever), ground being the air that surrounds them.

On your piece of paper say you draw a square, the paper contained within it's contours is solid, all the paper outside of it is negative space. By moving the square around you'll find that you can change the shape of negative space: a rectangle with square hole in it, an "L", a "c".

Positive and negative space are ambiguous until they are defined by some cue, usually in our work the cue will be recognizable things like people and whatnot.

A very important and elementary way to seperate the two is by using convex contours. Basically our minds interpret the area contained within convex contours as solid, areas contained within concave contours appear as empty space. Research visual intelligence, and visual perception, for more info on that, I don't think much is said about it in art books."

My thoughts:
Wow! With all this free data on the net, why waste a fortune on artbooks and all that jazz?? Ugh. I have no idea. Since I have a day job, and have got some cash to spare (since this is my hobby after all) why not? Why waste money buying a new cellphone, or electronic peripheral when can survive with the old one?! Anyway, going back to the topic at hand...

Here's a picture and then the same picture with all the negative space filled in...

Notice how the negative space makes the figures (the positive space) more silhouetted and "readable" from a distance. This "posterization" adds graphic power/pop and clarity to the picture.

Armando then points out this lil' tidbit: "Whatever is not intended to be a solid form is negative space. Take some steps back from the screen, or change the zoom level and you should see that the silhouette is clearer on the white background.

Basic composition, there is more contrast between black and white, than gray. Notice how the muscles form convex bumps. Even if you didn't know those were ape men, you would know they were the figure and the white the ground, even if you were to make them white and the background black the relationship would be the same.

When we first start drawing we only pay attention to the shape we enclose within the lines, ignoring that big shape that's surrounding it, but it's all just dividing the picture plane. Sketch little frames on a piece of paper, add simple shapes within them, but instead of looking at the area contained within the shape look at the area that surrounds it.

Sometimes positive and negative shapes become ambiguous, modern art tends to take advantage of that, it adds dynamism and complexity because there are mutiple ways of looking at the picture."

My thoughts:
You get it right? Do you get it? I'm asking you, Void. Answer me! What? Kev Ferrera has provided examples of excellent use of Negative Space? Coo!

Orignal Images:

Edited by Kev to highlight interaction of silhouette with "Negative Space":

So cool. As Armado would later say: "Now that the question "What is negative space?" has been answered, I'd like to ask, How does negative space become expressive? I can see the negative space in the examples, but I find myself paying attention to the subjects in the picture, the subject carries the expression, the negative space just seems like coincidence."

More of my brilliant comments:
Alrighty then! Thank you, Armado! Does anyone dare to step up into the plate?? How does "Negative Space" become expressive?

Ah... what's this? I see... oh! I see Mario. Mario, what do you have for us today?

"Negative space (in painting/illustration) is known as whitespace (black type has a white background) in typography/graphic design. That could be useful for finding more information although it has a different meaning for macro and micro typography.

Negative space, like most other compositional elements, depends on contrast (or lack thereof). You can use contrasting values to amplify or similar hues to unify something and all the hues depends on each other for effect.

I wonder what those silhouettes are?

The same goes for negative space and it works with the values in your painting. High contrast values (black silhouette against white background) create negative value while softer transitions reduce the effect of element separations. And if you have very similar values then you probably will have a hard time finding anything that looks like negative space.

So how does it become expressive. Not at all. It is part of a composition and creates a desired effect with the rest of the painting. It only appears in combination with the rest and is not an isolated something.

You could as well ask how does some hue influence mood in a painting. This only happen because each element depends on the rest to function properly.

All these properties are relative to each other and not independent. You have to just see it as another part of the composition that you can manipulate to get the desired effect."

My thoughts:
Good! Good! That clears things nicely. But hold on, lets hear what Kev Ferrera has to say about the topic - this one's good:

Kev Ferrera: "The main use (of negative space) is to clarify the pictorial statement... that is, to help the viewer "see" or "read" the actions of the figures easier. Clarity is important in storytelling.

There is also a boldness to the strong use of negative space. Graphic boldness is part of the tone of a picture. Color contained in negative space often appears stronger than it would normally (a stained glass like effect).

Shapes *always* have meaning... Every shape has expressive meaning (artistic handwriting, shape-character as well as metaphoric reference). It is possible to tell one artist's work from another by use of negative shapes alone. For instance coll and Frazetta have a very different kind of character to their negative shapes, than Dean Cornwell or Leyendecker or Brangwyn or Fechin or Shiele or Klimt or Rembrandt.

And of course, all of them are different than artists who aren't even aware of the expressive power of negative space shapes. Often artists who aren't aware of the expressive potential of negative space aren't aware of the power of shapes in their works in general.

Negative shapes also, like all shapes in a composition, lead the eye. Quite often negative shapes are triangular in a good figural composition, and point to the head of the figure (or point along an eye path that leads to the head eventually, or supports the movement of the eye along the flow of the gesture)."

My thoughts:
Well well. Come on, folks. Lets give these people a warm round of applause. Great stuff! Great stuff.

Okay. Back to work.

Art Talk: Who Needs Social Life?

2008-07-02T03:36:00.000-07:00

With the dissemination of digital art tools among today's youth, breaking into the commercial art industry has become that much harder. Look at it this way, there's only so many artists Marvel or DC will hire as inkers, or colorists. There's only so many publishers willing to higher new talent to create book covers, or posters, or what have you.

It's a desperate race as young artists struggle to match the speed and artistic skill of professional artists. They're putting just about everything on the line for the sake of art. So what is the first thing that tossed away in this lifelong pursuit to be the next Ryan Church?

Is having a glamorous social life all it's cracked up to be? I was inspired to write this post after reading an innocent little thread on the well of artistic ideas, ConceptArt.org. The topic began when a young member named Mescher, gave her thoughts on the issue of "Art vs. Social Life":

"Lately I've been finding myself having to choose between art and a social life a lot more. I'd just rather be drawing. I either feel like I'm neglecting my friends for art, or neglecting my art for my friends.

I'm hope this will get better when I start at CCAD (Columbus College of Art & Design -ed) and meet some people who actually like art. But am I just supposed to kiss my current friends goodbye until then?

I mean I like them and all...I just can't take another round of guitar hero. They all have the "it's summer and we should be hanging out and doing nothing EVERY DAY till school starts" mentality. Am I being selfish? Anybody else have this problem? Please tell me it gets better!

Pleeeeease...I can only watch Donnie Darko so many times!"

My thoughts:
Honestly now. This is really a painful subject to discuss. Rather than elaborating my thoughts on this matter, lets hear what other people have to say about this! Perhaps their opinions will mirror my own:

Tugelbend has this to say:

"I'm in the same situation actually. Right now I'm "losing" my friends because we don't share the same interests anymore. I rather work my butt off than just "hanging around" though it's not like I don't see them anymore. I still go out for a beer about once or twice a week with them but I find less and less to talk about. My head is filled with art unlike theirs and I see where this is leading to.

But whatever, art has top priority. You know, they can waste their time as much as they want.. but without me. I just hope that I will meet other people like me in the future and until then I'll run around friendless. sounds pretty emo lol"

My thoughts:
Hmm... I won't say I'm losing my friends because I love art. In fact, I'm pretty sure my friends don't even know I do all this weird art stuff during my free time. I know it sucks now to have someone to really relate to when it comes to this stuff (except for my brother maybe). There is a definite feeling of alienation when it comes to talking about my hobbies and stuff.

I talked about this before, but join a sketch group! If you can't find one in real life, go online! That way you won't feel like such a loner when you hone your artistic skills

A member named Wheezy offers his own thoughts on the matter, something I think is quite nice actually:

"Take your sketchbook with you for some life studies, maybe get some ideas on something bigger to do later. Draw them playing guitar hero. If they are really your friends, then they already know you are into art etc. and will be cool with you doing that. Don't shut part of your life out because of art, let them help enrich your art even more by expanding your perceptions of what is around you."

My thoughts:
I probably shouldn't mention the time I desperately felt the need to paint or draw something while I was chilling on a white sand beach. Yeah, good times.

But here's something interesting, a member and artist of some skill named Naomi offers her own unique 'guidelines' on this subject. I made it sorta bullet point-y since it seemed to fit that way:

"I've said goodbye to a lot of "friends" over the years. Especially people who don't teach you anything, who keep complimenting your art but never actually buy any.

Get rid of these people fast. Do not hang out with them do not do free commission work for them.
Get rid of non-artist friends who put you down.
Now if your friend is an artist you have an advantage by working together and improving your art. there is no reason to neglect your chit-chat and shoulder to lean on duties there.
Also get rid of boyfriends or girlfriends who don't support your art dreams, or people who think you're worthless because you do art.
This includes family. No matter what they say, your family can always be cut off. If they are bringing you down get rid of them.

Another thing I must say, is if you find yourself spending more time with your friends than with your art, maybe you should think about ditching them as well."

My thoughts:
The deeper I get into this topic, the um... stronger these young artists opinions get! Ah, but from where I live, I can sort of see where her frustration is going. Everyone always asks... how do you hope to make a living as an "artist"? Is it possible to quit your day job just because you started selling commissions to aficionados at deviantART? Hmm. I guess you have to really ask yourself what level is your passion for this sort of thing. Can you survive living alone, honing your art skills in a tiny flat, eating non-fat crackers and drinking water? Ah, who knows? But if you found Naomi's views to be interesting, why not check her portfolio out? Check out her sketchbook too!

Moving on... If you are one of the lucky few who actually got into an art college, than lucky you! This is probably the one of the few places on Earth where you'll find people your age who share the same interest and viewpoint in life. A member named Space Sprayer offers his experience on the matter:

"I had to make this sacrifice. Unfortunately it doesn't ever stop, although it does get easier. I lost touch with all my mates during college, but then they were a group who had very different goals in life anyway.

Now that i'm at uni studying for my Bachelor of Arts, surrounded by people who have the same interests and aims. As a social event instead of going out and getting pissed like my old mates did, we might go sit in the park on a nice day and draw the people that pass by, or the scenery around us etc. I still have to forgo the occasional social event because of work, but my mates here understand that."

My thoughts:
Sacrifice - for the sake of art. Ah, what a compelling notion...

On the subject of finding like minded people, why not try to find out if your area has any kind of artist's convention or something like that? Back in 2007, I traveled all the way to lovely Singapore to attend the CG Overdrive event - and that literally changed my mindset on art. I talked to folks like Michel Gagne (a great FX animator) and the boys of Imaginary Friends Studios. A very memorable experience.

I would have loved to attend future CG Overdrive events, but I didn't like how it focusing squarely on 3D art. All that Zbrush talk, rigging, character modeling doesn't interest all that much. I know that having basic knowledge in 3D modeling can have such a massive impact on one's portfolio, but hey, I already have trouble drawing a person - what makes you think I'll have an easier time makin' one in the third dimension??

Sorry, got a little carried away there. But out of all this, what has Mescher have to say about Art versus a Social Life?

"Now that I think about it, I don't really like my friends as much as I used to. That's probably part of the problem.

My boyfriend doesn't mind letting me draw him all day, and he's the only person I really care about. He actually said he'd go to the zoo with me so I could do animal studies. I think he has nooooo idea what he signed up for!

I guess I'll just have to get used to keeping a balance (and figuring out what I actually want.) I can't have my cake and eat it too, right?"

My thoughts:
That's the spirit! Why should you let one aspect of your life run you like that? Try to find a healthy balance so you won't feel like a total shut-in. If your love for art can't be helped, then at the very least try to accommodate your real life friends from time to time. You could be a happier person knowing you have a life beyond your self-absorbed world of art. Just throwing my thoughts here... :)

Ah, but this member... Jushra, offers a very unique point of view:

"There's a book I had read entitled The Virtue of Selfishness. The title is a bit of a put-off it seems to most, but inside there was a wealth of knowledge to gain.

Nobody can tell you how to live your life except for you and nobody will bear responsibility for any of your actions but you.

Don't try to control your peers and don't let them control you. You have to keep what you value close. Choosing your values is another story though. Don't sacrifice yourself to others, nor sacrifice others to you. You have to sometimes trade-off for balance, but make sure it is done for the right reasons."

My thoughts:
I have to admit, that statement is quite empowering. Well, it really depends on the person I guess. What do you value more in life? Are you willing to sacrifice one for the other? The thread goes on explaining a little more about that. People start offering their own wacky point of views and anecdotes. You can see the full thread here.

The person who started this thread would later make it clear that she isn't saying that you should get rid of your friends just because they aren't artistically inclined. For her, the problem arises when your friends start becoming needy of your time, and simply take the time to understand what you are doing and why. Ah... well. I get that. Hmm... What do you think??

The Future According To Franz Steiner

2008-06-21T18:54:00.000-07:00

At the time of this writing, 854,811 souls has clicked and seen the future in Franz Steiner's online portfolio.
What is so alluring about this "certified" digital artist from Germany? Well, lets see shall we...

What the... what the heck is this? Why is that super hot model dating that creepy plastic dude? Hold on just a second here! I know Apes are going to rule the future, but what is this future German digital/3D artist is trying to convey?? That smart, independent and (very) beautiful women in the future would spend millions of dollars/Euros on these things and use them...

Huh. Who would'a thought? These German designers are an enterprising lot, aren't they? Anyway... Franz Steiner. Art director of Blutsbrueder-Design, a design company that creates a lot of funky concepts for fashion mags, ad agencies, you know the drill. To tell you the truth, they've got a pretty impressive client list!

I sometimes wonder why the future seems to look and feel like this, when the reality is that most urban cities more closely resemble the visual styling of Los Angeles in Blade Runner. Yikes.

This ultra-clean, organic looking design is already a well established concept, but for the light of me, I'm not sure where it started. Was it from the Jetsons? Did the Tom Cruise thriller Minority Report start this visual trend, complete with "future cliches" like digital roll-over paper, and computers that require you to stand up while waving your arms around like some raving loon? (And I thought the Nintendo Wii made me look funny)

But hey, I can't complain. So while some of these images depict a future which might seem a tad cliche now, I still love the twisted sense of humor going on in some of these shots.

Franz Steiner himself describe these images as a depiction of life with personal robot assistants. They're made to do day-to-day business, as well as "entertaining" women.

Entertainment, eh? If its a metaphor, or an irony about society or something, I don't wanna know. I guess I've rambled enough though.

Franz Steiner, thank you for these delightful images. I hope to see more of your work released to the public in your portfolio! I apologize if my post is not very in-depth about your work, or your company's work, but I was a little lazy to do some actual research. Now, how shall I end this post...

Oh my! Dear God No!

Franz Steiner's Portfolio