2DArtist Magazine Issue 076 April 2012
2DArtist Magazine Issue 076 April 2012
2DArtist Magazine Issue 076 April 2012
Interview
Herve Groussin
Articles
Sketchbook of
Herman Ng
The Gallery
Roma Cherepov, Bruno
Hamzagic, plus more!
Dreamscape
Jama Jurabaev moves to the matte painting stage as he continues to
explain the processes he and his team used to create this short movie.
“When I have settled on a
pleasing composition I try to
bring it to life and create a
really strong image. I always
try to capture personality or
emotion in my image”
Contents
Editorial Contents
Welcome to the April issue of What’s in this month’s issue?
2DArtist magazine! You might have 006
Herve Groussi
thought we would have prepared Interview - Concept Artist
an issue full of Easter bunnies, little
018
chicks and all the other cheesy
Herve Groussin is an incredible, multi-talented
concept artist who is proficient in digital
painting, 3D modeling and texturing, as well as
traditional techniques. In this month’s interview
he tells us how he worked his way through the
Sketchbook
The sketchbook of Herman Ng
ranks until he reached the dizzy heights of his
current position at Ubisoft.
this urge and instead given you your 036 Manga Historical Characters
monthly fix of droids, mythological Genghis Kahn by Patipat Asavasena
creatures and manga characters! 042 Dreamscape
Mattepaintings by Jama Jurabaev
On the subject of manga characters we will get the ball rolling this
050 Designing Droids
This month we feature: Xavier Etchepare | Odile van der Stap | Bruno Hamzagic | Andrew Seleznev
Roma Cherepov | DangMyLinh | Pavel Romanov | Yongjae Choi | Ivan Kashubo | Jordi Gonzalez
tutorial
look manga in style, and how to use these features and unique
of these rely on it as much as the games industry!
characteristics to create our own cool illustrations. As you will be able to Project overview by Xavier Etchepare
how to create the technical drawings for a 3D modeler!
tell from the cover image, the quality of the art from this series is really This is more than just an artwork book.
great, and if you like this image you will love the rest of the series.
of published artwork. And they’ve done it
especially for this book!
There are obviously many different styles of art that originate from different countries and cultures around
Myths, legends and fantasy creatures have always been influential when it comes to digital art. In fact, many artists will never really stray too far
I hope you all enjoyed watching Jama Jurabaev’s amazing Dreamscape 090 About Us
3DTotal.com Ltd information and contacts
video last month. In this issue he continues to explain he developed his
storyboard and concepts to create high quality matte paintings to use © 2011 3DTotal.com. Published by 3DTotal Publishing. All rights reserved.
as the backdrop for his imaginary planet. This series is new ground for Editor Layout Content Proofing
Simon Morse Layla Khani Simon Morse Jo Hargreaves
our magazine and is proving to be really interesting. Stay tuned for next Matt Lewis Tom Greenway
month’s issue where Jama will be showing us how he filmed the live Lead Designer Az Pishneshin Richard Tilbury Marketing
Chris Perrins Chris Perrins Tom Helme
footage that he composited into his amazing images.
Here at 2DArtist we pride ourselves on our ability to bring your great I know that you are going to love all of the amazing tutorials in this
tutorials month after month, but every now and then I read a tutorial excellent issue. The influx of inspiration doesn’t end there though; there
that’s a must-read for anyone interested in working in the concept art is also a stunning gallery featuring work from Xavier Etchepare, Bruno
industry. That is the case with this month’s droids tutorial by Jeremy Hamzagic, Ivan Kashubo and many more talented artists, an interview
Love. Jeremy talks us through creating a droid concept for a game from with the jaw-dropping digital artist Herve Groussi, and a sketchbook
the very first phase of creating and refining thumbnail sketches, through featuring the work of Herman Ng.
to developing your chosen design and creating technical drawings for
a 3D artist. He leaves no stone unturned and gives us priceless advice
every step of the way, including information about the amount of time it
should take to develop a project like this. I think you are going to love
this one.
Magazine!
If you’re having problems viewing the double-page spreads that we
feature in this magazine, follow this handy little guide on how to set
up your PDF reader!
Herman Patipat
Ng Asavasena
Herman Ng has travelled from Patipat Asavasena is a
Hong Kong to Australia to study graduated engineer, but he
animation and has worked in decided to follow his passion
the games industry for 6 years. in art. Currently, he’s a full-
He has been around the world time freelance artist living in
getting inspiration and experience and eventually Nonthaburi, Thailand. His work has been influenced
wants to work on big projects in America. by Japanese manga, but also has a wide-range of
www.artbyherman.com styles and is very interested in art, photography and
openanewworld1@gmail.com technology.
http://asuka111.net/
digiemo@gmail.com
Jama Jeremy
Jurabaev Love
After Jama’s graduation as an Jeremy Love is a Freelance
aerospace engineer in 2004 he concept artist living in Australia.
never thought that his life will After leaving New Zealand at
be spent working with digital 19, he spent 10 years working
art. But now he is working as a as a sign writer, graphic
concept artist, and digital art has totally consumed designer and airbrush artist before moving into 3d
his life. He has done a lot of illustrations for animation and finally concept art. Jeremy has worked
advertising agencies in the past and recently secured in games and film for the last 7 years on IP’s such as
a position at MPC in London. Hellboy, Star Wars and Narnia.
http://jamajurabaev.daportfolio.com/ http://jeremylove.com/
jama_art@tag.tj jez.love@hotmail.com
Xavier
Etchepare
Xavier Etchepare is a versatile
artist who in the last few years
has worked in advertising, video
games and events production.
He now works at Ubisoft Studios
after choosing to bring his creativity to the videogame
and animation industry.
http://xetchepare.cgsociety.org/gallery/
xavier.etchepare@gmail.com Would You Like To Contribute To 3DCreative
Or 2DArtist Magazines?
We are always looking for tutorial artists, gallery submissions, potential
interviewees, ‘making of’ writers, and more. For more information,
please send a link to your work to: simon@3dtotal.com
fantastic use of color and the amazing of those that I admire the most. For example, artists that I liked a lot when I was in France and
contrast you achieve. Do you have a Rembrandt, Corot and Turner, as well as I often went to the Louvre to see the works of
formulaic approach to choosing color, like newer artists such as Syd Mead and Ralph Camille Corot.
creating color sets etc., or do you go with McQuarrie. I admire these and other artists for
what feels right at the time? their skills and use of composition. For me this I myself have worked at the Louvre. One
For a long time I started my illustrations in color, is the hardest part to master, but it’s the most summer I often had access to the galleries,
because primarily I am a colorist. But recently important aspect of the image. so I spent the afternoons walking round the
I have been softer with colors and I try to use museum. I also took the opportunity to study the
a simple process. I start in black and white You mentioned that you were a fan of some original work on display. Seeing them in real life
to speed this up. I often return to painting in of the biggest and best-known painters from was completely different to just seeing them in
color very early in the design process as I’m history. Do you ever do traditional art work? books or on the net. It made me want to do paint
comfortable with that. I have basic training in industrial design. I landscapes in oil.
started painting when I was 10 years old. Since
I’m familiar with a lot of painters from the 18th then I have not stopped drawing in all media, My interest in digital art came along later and
and 19th century. I have studied the works whether traditional or digital. I was exposed to I found that the digital medium easier when I
wanted to work on fantasy or science fiction Finally I concentrate on making the image them understand what they cannot see in the
images. Having said that, I miss doing traditional appear as uncluttered as possible. Often in the concepts. I also explain my approach to painting
art and I’m seriously thinking about getting back process I show the progress images to the art the environment so that it is easier for them to
to it. director so he can start to advise the modelers. turn them into a 3D model.
I often work closely with modelers to help
“Even though I work
digitally I still draw on
paper first”
Can you explain a little about your approach
to creating concepts in a professional
environment? Do you get much time to
spend on a piece? How do you balance
quality with time restraints?
My creative method is as follows: I often begin
by using color, but for speed I work in black and
white to show the ideas to the art director. When
I have settled on a pleasing composition I try to
bring it to life and create a really strong image.
I always try to capture personality or emotion
in my image. Even though I work digitally I still
draw on paper first. Then I move on to allow
time to let the concept mature. Later I select one
of my concepts for further investigation. At this
point I re-define the composition and light and
start working on the details.
Do you know much about modern 3D artists need to understand how all of these strong historical background as they inspire me
techniques and does this help you work different aspects are dealt with from the start. to create imaginary scenarios.
alongside 3D artists?
Before I became a concept artist/illustrator I I noticed that your personal work seems to As you mentioned earlier, France is a
was a 3D artist. Many artists online say they differ in style slightly to your professional country with a strong culture and history. Do
are concept artists and would like to work in this work, in that your personal work seems to you find that this history inspires you when
field, but often they don’t really understand 3D be looser and more painterly. Is this style creating environments?
technology and how to produce a video game. your preference, or is it just that sometimes France still inspires me today and is an
it’s nice to experiment a bit when you get the important element for me. As I said earlier, I had
“I find it a lot less stressful opportunity? the chance to work at the Louvre. By living close
when I do my own I find it a lot less stressful when I do my to Paris and being able to visit this museum
own personal designs, as it helps me to be regularly I was particularly inspired. I learned a
personal designs, as it more creative in my job. It often helps me great deal about the French culture and history,
helps me to be more to think of new ideas so I’m not just looking but I also use the net to research other cultures
creative in my job” at a blank page! I create science fiction or such as Chinese, Thai, and Egyptian. This gives
fantasy environments, although right now I am me access to a lot of information and inspiration
There are technical constraints that must be concentrating on fantasy. I like places with a that I can use within my own work.
taken into account. We must not forget that
we are here to create, assist and support the
production of video games. We create the
concepts and ideas, not the final product. You
must always remember that the purpose of the
concept is to help a 3D artist create the game
and levels within it.
Herve Groussin
For more information please visit:
http://www.nuro-art.com/
Or contact him at:
nurofen_92@hotmail.com
Interview by: Simon Morse
A small selection of VFS Animation & Visual Effects alumni credits include | 2012 | Zeke Norton, Previsualization Supervisor | Jamie Bowers, Texture Artist | Christine Peterson, Digital Compositor | Anuj Patil, Senior Technical Director | Alice in
Wonderland | Ken Kaiser, Animator | Veronica Marino, Compositor | Phan Wiantrakoon, Animator | John Iskandar, Visual Effects Artist | Jacob Curtis Miller, Digital Artist | Geeta Basantani, Digital Matte Painter | Andrew Lawson, Characte
Animator | Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Zack Mathew, Animator | Wilson Mui, Team Lead Animation | Avatar | Michael Cozens, Lead Animator | Tamir Diab, Technical Director | Patrick Kalyn, Animator | Chrystia Siolkowsky, Motion Editor
Ben Sanders, Animator | Alfredo Luzardo, Layout Technical Director | Aaron Gilman, Character Animator | Jami Gigot, Texture Artist | Bioshock 2 | Jacob Palmer, Animator | Bob’s Burgers | Tammy Dubinsky, Animator | Nathan Keane, Animation
WATCHED A
Effects | Jake Biberdorf, Animation Supervisor | Coraline Brian Demoskoff, Animator | The Dark Knight | Gia Sadhwani, Digital Effects Artist | Freddy Chavez, DMR Compositor | Pietro Ponti, Lead CG Lighting Artist | Dead Rising 2 | Fredrick
Fassé, Animator | Dead Space 2 | Wayne Gonsalves, Environment Art Lead | Despicable Me | Justine Codron, Lighter | District 9 | Neill Blomkamp, Director/Co-Writer | Shawn Walsh, Visual Effects Executive Producer | Samson Wong, Matchmove
Artist | Robert Bourgeault, Lighting Lead | Richard Sur, Lighting Technical Director | Paul Copeland, Visual Effects Artist | Julianna Kolakis, Creature Texture Painter | Jelmer Boskma, Modeler | James Stewart, Creature Supervisor | Derek
Stevenson, Matchmove Lead | Drag Me to Hell | Thomas Schelesny, Visual Effects Supervisor | Dragon Age II | Nathan Zufelt, Senior Cinematic Animator | Family Guy | Michael Loya, Storyboard Artist Fast Five Rommel Shamoun, Compositor
Anthony Di Ninno, Animator | Fringe | Bob White, Visual Effects Artist | Scott Dewis, CGI Supervisor | Futurama | Claudia Keene, Prop Designer | Gears of War 2 | Scott Dossett, Senior Animator | Halo: Reach | David Helsby, Animator | Matthew
Turner, 3D Artist | Rajeev Nattam, 3D Artist | Happy Tree Friends | Brad Rau, Animator | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Pietro Ponti, TD Generalist | Gia Sadhwani, Digital Effects Artist | Teh-wei Yeh, Lighting TD | Kieran Tether, Digita
Artist | Harry Mukhopadhyay, Lead Effects Technical Director | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 | Henry South, Digital Artist | Horton Hears a Who! | Brent Wong, Lighting Technical Director | Arun Ram-Mohan, Lighting Technica
BLOCKBUSTER LATELY?
Director | How to Train Your Dragon | Tyson Erze, Visual Effects Artist | Jiyoung Lee, Texture Artist | Fredrik Nilsson, Animator | The Illusionist | Yann Tremblay, Senior Animator | Iron Man 2 | Teh-wei Yeh, Digital Artist | Stephen King, Animato
Simeon Bassett, CG Sequence Supervisor | Nicholas Markel, Previsualization Supervisor | Kieran Tether, Digital Artist | Joshua Herrig, Lead Lighting Artist/Look Dev Artist | Ben Sanders, Animator | Allen Holbrook, Animator | King of the Hill
Michael Loya, Director | LA Noire | Upinder Dhaliwal, Motion Capture Data Editor/Cinematics Editor | Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole | Tim Rowlandson, Animator | Mars Needs Moms! | Shraga Weiss, Character Modeller | Kirk
Chantraine, Motion Capture Technical Director | Joel Pennington, Motion Capture Technical Director | Mass Effect 2 | Kolby Jukes, Principal Artist | Brian Sum, Concept Artist | Bartek Kujbida, Senior Cinematics Animator | Megamind | Ran
Naamani, Animator/Character Lead | ModNation Racers | Eric Gabas, Senior Environment Artist | Monsters vs. Aliens | Jiyoung Lee, Texture Artist | Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian | Nicholas Augello, Technical Animator | Adam
Yaniv, Animation Supervisor | Zeke Norton, Previsualization Supervisor | Rex Ahn, Pre-Visualization Lead | Joshua Herrig, Lead Lighter | Ben Sanders, Supervising Animator | Ai Saimoto, Lighting Lead | Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The
ightning Thief | Dave Mah, Animator | Ryan Lim, Concept & Creature Artist | Richard Sur, Lighting TD | Julien Stuart-Smith, Look Development | Jeffrey Burt, Lead Layout Artist | Piranha | Lon Molnar, Visual Effects Production Executive
Christopher Buzon, Tracking/Lighting | The Princess and the Frog | Claudia Keene, Key Assistant Animator | Rango | Cedric Lo, Lead Animator | Scott Jones, Creature Lead | Kieran Tether, Digital Artist Red Dead Redemption Josh Lange, Senio
Animator Rio Graham Silva, Character Animator | Rock Band 3 | Mike Krentz, Artist | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World | Joel Meire, Animator | Shrek Forever After | Javier Solsona, Character Technical Director | Tom Piedmont, Rotoscoper | SpongeBob
SquarePants | Andrew Overtoom, Animation Director | Star Trek | Teh-wei Yeh, Digital Artist | Nicholas Markel, Previsualization Supervisor | Kieran Tether, Digital Artist | Aruna Inversin, Digital Compositor | Star Wars: The Clone Wars | KahJeng
THEN YOU'VE SEEN THE WORK OF VFS ANIMATION & VISUAL EFFECTS GRADS
Cheong, Cloth Simulation Artist | Jim Hatibarua, Animator | Ivy Ho, Lighting Technical Director | Cedric Lo, Animation Supervisor | Brandon Chien-Chia Huang, Animator | Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty | Alvaro Buendia, Cinematic Artist | Sucke
Punch | Ben Dishart, Senior Surfacing Artist | Jeff Tetzlaff, Model/Texture Lead | Tuba Yalcin, Effects Technical Director | Jeffrey Burt, Lead Layout Artist | Ferda Guray Ayaokur, Track/Matchmove Artist | Tangled | Lino DiSalvo, Supervising Animato
LIGHTING TD
TAMIR DIAB LIGHTING TECHNICAL DIRECTOR HARRY POTTER DIGITAL PAINT ARTIST
DIGITAL PAINT & ROTO ARTIST DAPHNE DE JESUS
& THE DEATHLY
LIGHTING TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
DIGITAL PAINT ARTIST
PEDRAM DARAEIZADEH
STEREOSCOPIC PREP/ROTO ARTIST
CESAR RODRIGUEZ BAUTISTA
HALLOWS - PART 2
DIGITAL PRODUCTION ADMINISTRATOR
STEREOSCOPIC PREP/ROTO ARTIST
VISUAL EFFECTS COORDINATOR
RIGGER
ALAN FREGTMAN
JELMER BOSKMA CHARACTER MODELER
Sketchbook of
Herman Ng
My first sketch is of a team who are trying to survive in a
polluted, post-apocalyptic world. Each of them has their own
special power and looks after their teammates (Fig.01).
Herman Ng
For more information please visit:
http://www.artbyherman.com
Or contact him at:
openanewworld1@gmail.com
Lily
Odile van der Stap
http://www.oneiric-elegance.com/
info@oneiric-elegance.com
(Left)
Kimiko
Yongjae Choi
http://indusconcept.com
indus@indusconcept.com
(Right)
Carnivorous Plant
DangMyLinh
dangmylinh-art.blogspot.com
DangMyLinh.laputa.ml@gmail.com
(Above)
Polina
Ivan Kashubo
http://ivankash.blogspot.com/
ivankash.art@gmail.com
(Top Right)
Enemy
Pavel Romanov
http://pavel-romanov.blogspot.com/
emperors13@gmail.com
(Bottom Right)
Introduction
My name is Patipat Asavasena and I’m a
freelance artist living in Bangkok, Thailand. I’m
really influenced by Japanese manga. You can
visit my website www.asuka111.net to see
my work in full. In this tutorial I’ll show you the
process I used to create my image of Genghis
Khan in a manga style.
Rough Sketch
I then decreased the thumbnail layer’s opacity
and created a new layer on top. I developed
the image into a more defined rough sketch for
inking by drawing on the top layer. It’s a bit like
tracing on a light table (Fig.05).
Inking
I would highly recommend using a pressure
sensitive brush. I used a default Hard Round
brush (10 – 15 pixels in size) to do the inking.
You may have noticed that I used various line
Canvas Preparation
Next I created the layers for a character in the
foreground, a flag in the middle ground and the
mountain and sky in the background. I used the
Lasso tool and Fill command to fill the area of
each layer with a color. I tried to make sure that
each layer had different tonal values to give the
image a sense of depth. I arranged the lower
value (the darker area) in the foreground and
higher value (lighter area) in the background.
This developed a backlighting effect and brought
a more dramatic mood to the image. Then I
used a soft brush to overlay the simple color on
each layer to match the thumbnail (Fig.08 – 09).
Touch-up
At this point I created some adjustment layers
so I could do some fine-tuning (e.g., curves,
brightness and contrast, color balance etc.).
This is a non-destructive method of editing an Summary provided you with some inspirational ideas or
image and allows you to come back to it later Finally, my version of the great Genghis Khan in helpful information. I encourage you to create
and change or remove some of the adjustments. a manga style was finished! This took me about your own masterpiece. Thank you very much
You can see this in Fig.15. 10 to 13 hours (Fig.16). I hope this tutorial has and I hope to see you again in the next tutorial.
I then changed the overall color palette to match Following the same process as described here, I just photo manipulation and technical drawing.
my initial mood sketches (Fig.11). created many other pieces as backdrops for my There are many great artists that use this
animation (Fig.13 – 18). technique, and the quality of their art proves
At this point I had a good base established so I the merits and potential of this method. Good
started adding the smaller details. Overall it took Matte painting needs serious time, patience examples of these artists are Dylan Cole and
me about five days to finish this piece (Fig.12). and knowledge. I believe that it is far beyond Yanick Dusseault.
Jama Jurabaev
For more information please visit:
http://jamajurabaev.daportfolio.com/
Or contact them at:
jama_art@tag.tj
de lin g, pa n oramas
p late s, set mo
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Textur e ns G rid An alysis a
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New Advance
youtube.com/SynthEyesHQ
Meet modo.
Digital art has it place in many industries, but none
of these rely on it as much as the games industry!
Obviously games are made of many elements, but you
could argue that the most important element of any
game is the characters. In this tutorial series our artists
will be showing us how to design droids as if they were
doing it within the games industry. This will involve
them coming up with the design and showing you how
to develop it to the point where they will even show you
how to create the technical drawings for a 3D modeler!
Designing Droids Chapter 3: Medi Droid
Chapter 3: Medi Droid
Software Used: Photoshop
Introduction
In my opinion, the most important things to learn
when working for a game developer are how
to follow a brief, and how to develop a style or
closely follow an existing one. A concept artist’s
job is not only to come up with something
visually appealing, but, more importantly, it’s to
create an asset that is functional, scientifically
viable or at least believable and which is based
on the parameters of the game’s plot. A process
needs to be followed that enables the art
director (AD) to give ample feedback throughout
the development and that also makes the 3D
modelers’ jobs as easy as possible. The more
information supplied to the modelers, the faster
the model moves through production. The Day One: 9:30am – Brief In terms of design, the droids should be
concept artist has a huge responsibility early on, The AD has requested a medical droid for the futuristic, but not too slick and curvy, and still
hence the importance of following a solid design front line level of our game. The setting is Earth, in-keeping with current military designs. Some
pipeline. approximately 2050, and a variety of droids organic shapes should be present for specialty
assist military efforts on the front line. The areas, but they need a mostly hard and solid
I’ve written a short brief similar to that which an medical droids are used to assist injured troops construction. Special metals and hard plastics
AD would supply. The following steps are based and they have GPS and communication abilities should be used.
on a pipeline that – in its most basic form – can to locate injured soldiers. Every soldier has an
be found in any game company. This method encrypted tracking device that links them with You can’t always hope for an in-depth brief, but
is one that has worked well for me. I’ve also the medical droid and this device is activated basically the more information you have up-front
added approximate times for a typical work day when needed. The primary function of the the better your design is going to suit the game,
as a rough guide to what is expected. Some medical droids is to locate and assist the injured therefore hugely cutting down on revisions and
artists are slower and some are faster, but this is soldiers and, if need be, operate on location and even do-over’s.
roughly the pace I work at. safely transport the injured back to base.
Day One: 10:00am – Research
Research is the part I really enjoy. I learn about
all sorts of subjects I would never usually read
about. It’s also the best place to start. To assist
you in your research, it’s a good idea to first
break down the brief into key words. That way
you will cover everything in your design.
• Year 2050
• Front-line military medical droid
• Some curves, but mostly rigid construction
• Main appendages protected with high
density composite cowling
you know it, two hours have passed. The panic down and the lead is happy for you to continue,
of a deadline sets in and productivity drops. When working in a games studio, it’s common you can add some detail and better define the
for leads and ADs to be watching your progress shapes and surfaces.
There are many methods of starting thumbnails, from their own desks over the network. It’s
from blocking-in silhouettes to using random handy to add little notes to reinforce what you A method I use a lot when I’m painting digitally is
to first break the object into readable chunks of
light and dark values; light being the main chunk
or section of an object, and dark being the
recessed area in between (Fig.03). I do this by
using the Polygonal Lasso tool (L) to mask an
area. Using a large flat brush I then lay in some
basic values, similar to that of a base 3D model
with global lighting. I then invert the selection
using Shift + Control + I and block in the darker
areas. At this stage I’m working at 33% zoom.
dark areas contrast with each other. Any closer To add highlights I like to start with a flattened To finish off it’s always good to add some notes
than this and the detail is largely pointless as layer. Select all (Ctrl +A), then Copy Merge if you haven’t done so already and label the
thumbnails are often only viewed all at once on (Shift + Ctrl + C), then Paste (Ctrl + V). I do this thumbnails with letters or numbers. This makes
a screen or printed onto an A4 page. No one is because I use the Dodge Tool for highlights and it easier for the AD to let you know which ones
going to be zooming in to look at detail at this I like it to affect all of the layers. are preferable (Fig.05).
point. Thumbnails are about the basic design.
Using an airbrush with the range set to Mid- End of Day One – Meeting with AD
Once the basic shapes are defined, I can then tones, I drop in some quick down light. I then
suggest detail with quick lines and break up change the range to Highlights and use a Day Two: 9:00am to 10:30am -
the panels with joins and creases. It’s good to smaller brush to pick out high contrast areas. Finalize Design Choice
use a few simple colors to hint at decals, glass I like to add extreme light right next to shadow By this point the AD will have looked over
and artificial light sources. I then lay in shadows areas, which emulates a trick that light plays on your roughs and hopefully made a selection;
with a large flat brush using complete black at the eye. If the objects are looking too washed either one particular design with possible
100% opacity. If you don’t press too hard, you out here, I create an adjustment layer set to amendments, or a combination of thumbnails.
will achieve a nice shadow effect with single Selective Color. I then set the colors to whites For example, he might like the top of A, with the
strokes. The standard Round Flat brush does a in the menu and slide up the black until the bottom of D and the arms of E. For the purpose
good job for this, but I find that textured brushes balance is right, maybe introducing a little bit of of this exercise, D was chosen as a suitable
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Myths, legends and fantasy creatures have always been influential when it comes to digital art. In fact, many artists will never really stray too far
from these sorts of themes and ideas. In this series a selection of stunning artists will be taking this popular subject and exploring some of its more
diverse and lesser known characters. Throughout the series each artist will be given a brief for a character which they will need to interpret and
turn into an illustration. To make things a little more interesting this will be done by not one but two artists, one using Photoshop and the other
using Painter. This will not only show some of the differences between the two pieces of software, but will also show how the same brief can be
interpreted in two different ways. This month Andrei Pervukhin and Simon Dominic Brewer tackle the Mamalarang.
Painting Creatures From Mythology Chapter 4: Mamalarang
Chapter 4: Mamalarang to mangkukulams, who only inflict pain or my references next to me I painted a few fast
Software Used: Photoshop illness. Mamalarangs use a strand of hair from sketches to help me choose a pose for the witch
their chosen victim and tie it to the bug or worm and to position her on the page as the focal
The mamalarang is a mythological creature that they will use as a medium, almost like a point (Fig.01).
from the Philippines. She is a witch who uses voodoo doll. When they prick the bug, the victim
insects and spirits to enter the body of any immediately experiences the intended effect. Then I went on to develop the composition of my
person she hates. Mamalarangs are ordinary selected sketch and added some of the basic
human beings who use black magic to torture When I started this painting I did a Google details. Working just in black and white at this
and kill their victims, by infesting their bodies search of Filipino clothing to help inspire me point I started to develop the main character and
with insects. Although similar, they are different throughout the painting of this character. With the background. It’s easier to work in black and
As you can see in Fig.08, I added more detail To conclude I created a new layer and filled it
to the witch, her stick and jewelry. I also added with a gray color (it was simply a 50% gray). I
objects on the table in the foreground. I did all then applied a Noise filter and set it to 400%. I
of this in a single Normal layer and then added also added a layer, which I adjusted by going
warmer colors to reflect the light coming from to Filter > Stylize > Diffuse, and set it on the top
the bottom right of the image. of the image in Soft Light mode, lowering the
opacity to 15%. I would like to thank everyone
Once I was happy with the witch I turned my for reading and hope you have enjoyed the
attention to the background and started to add article and it has proven helpful.
some detail and texture. In a separate layer
on top set to Normal mode, I added some Andrei Peruvkhin
highlights to the witch to integrate her into the For more information please visit:
scene. Then, using an Overlay layer on top of http://pervandr.deviantart.com/gallery/
the image, I started to emphasize the colors that Or contact him at:
I wanted to look stronger (Fig.09). earfirst@gmail.com
Chapter 4: Mamalarang
Software Used: Painter
Introduction
A mamalarang, so I’m told, is a witch who uses
insects to infest the bodies of her enemies,
eventually resulting in their death. She is of
human appearance and her power lies in her
insect magic. The mamalarang ties hair from her
intended victims around a bug, and by jabbing
the unfortunate creature with a pin she tortures
her enemies with all sorts of insect-based
nastiness.
Underpainting
I merged my outline sketch and my value sketch
together so I had a single layer and a blank
canvas. I created another layer in between the
two and quickly painted my color scheme onto
it using a pressure-dependent Artists’ Oils brush
with 50% grain. I often use color sets as my
main method of selecting color. However this
time I used only the Temporal Color palette,
which I assigned to the \ key using Edit >
Preferences > Customise Keys and choosing
the Toggle Temporal Color Palette option under
Other Shortcuts 9 (Fig.03).
Loony
For reasons I didn’t fully understand, my
mamalarang was looking more and more like
a lunatic with every passing minute. I made
a note to address this very soon. Meanwhile
I continued to add rough color detail and
flipped the image every so often to gain a
fresh perspective. During these stages I wasn’t
bothered about getting my colors to blend. It
was more about keeping true to the original
values and ensuring the colors were fitting and
didn’t clash (Fig.06).
Facial Detail
I zoomed in a bit on the face and add some finer
detail. In addition to my standard Artists’
Oils brush I used a circular grainy brush set to
Grainy Soft Cover. I set the Color Variability on
this brush to H: 11%, S: 1%, V: 1%. This meant Changing the Expression bridge of her nose. I then brought her eyelids
that each dab would vary quite a lot in hue Then it was time to deal with the witch’s crazy closer together and made the lower eyelid
(color), and very slightly in saturation and value. expression and make her a little more focused almost horizontal against the eye. This gave the
This gave a faint mottling effect, which was well in her madness. I brought the eyebrows down impression that she was creasing up her face in
suited to skin, especially the witch’s (Fig.07). and together, which pulled them in towards the spiteful anger rather than surprise (Fig.08).
Realistic Skin
As well as using the circular brush with Color
Variability I also blended the skin using my
Artists’ Oils blender – essentially the same
brush I used for painting, but with the amount
set to 0. I was careful not to blend too much and
also to leave some of the creases sharp edged,
otherwise I would have ended up with a fuzzy
mess. I also added some more highly saturated
Painting Metal
I wanted her brooch to be metallic, so I used
mid-gray as my base color. Bright specular
highlights helped reinforce the metallic look as
well as reflected light from the witch’s skin and
clothing. To finish off I made very sparing use
of the Glow brush, set to a highly saturated
low value orange, and dabbed it around the
brightest highlights (Fig.13).
Adding Contrast
One method of accentuating the lighting on
your piece is by using an Overlay layer. Here I
wanted to make the sunlight on this character
brighter and more striking. I set the Overlay
layer to around 70% and painted over the
sunlit areas with a bright, slightly orangey
brush. When I finished I dropped the layer to
the canvas and tidied up with the small circular
brush (Fig.17).
Adding Bugs
I only added these bugs when I’d fully rendered
my character and his immediate surroundings.
I did this because otherwise it would have been
too time-consuming to paint around them. I
could have used a separate layer for the bugs,
but with the exception of tweaking I like to paint
directly on the canvas. I included a great cloud
of flies and beetles swarming out of his mouth
just for fun (Fig.18).
Painting the Forest Floor overgrown environment. Stones, grass, plants When I had a patch of shadow I quickly painted
Take a walk in the woods or indeed anywhere in and tree roots are sometimes impossible to tell some leaf edges, but I didn’t go so far as to link
the countryside and you’ll see that nature is not apart. For this reason I tried not to think in terms them together or attempt to paint the network of
particularly orderly. It’s difficult to tell where one of individual bushes or plants, but concentrated branches and stalks that connected them. In this
plant ends and others begin, especially in an on the values and the gross shapes. way I hoped to achieve a more random, natural
Contrasting Elements
The big beetle is a key element in the image
so I wanted it to stand out. I achieved this by
keeping the color values on its legs very dark
where they overlapped the forest scene. The
bright distant haze contrasts nicely with the dark
legs and pushes the beetle into the foreground
(Fig.20).
Majid Esmaeili
3D Character Artist
Gallery Artist
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Articles
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