"UP" Poster Process

Kevin Tong is an illustrator famous for his poster art. His youtube channel houses many process videos; traditional and vector. His work is stunning and it is a real treat to watch their construction

Ctrl+Paint is a free learning resource dedicated to the basics of digital painting. Each bite-sized video covers a different concept, allowing you to learn complex subjects in manageable increments.

http://www.ctrlpaint.com/

VERTEX II

In this eBook you will find information ranging from modeling and texture workflows to tips on working as or with outsourcing.
This eBook features articles and workflows from studios such as Blizzard Entertainment and Ubisoft as well as tips and tricks from various freelancers in the movie and video game industries.

This is another must read for any artist in the entertainment industries.

download for free at: artbypapercut.com

free web application

Color Scheme Designer (CSD) is a web application designed to easily create set of matching color. Color theory used by artists for centuries was transformed into algorithms to combine color they go best together while avoiding uncomfortable combinations.

colorschemedesigner.com

book recommendation

Two educational books from independent publisher KEEOS.COM, only distributed through their own website:

•Design Sketching was written with the main goal of creating a source of inspiration by showing a collection of different types of sketches. Containing work from over 60 designers, covering diverse fields such as product, automotive and fashion design.

•Learning Curves, whilst also aimed at providing a source of inspiration, has a much stronger emphasis on showing, how one can teach oneself to sketch. Includes basic theory, investigative and explorative sketches from the early stages of projects, explanatory sketches used to communicate, and persuasive sketches done to sell and express emotion. Round off with 6 step by step sketching tutorials.

  www.designsketching.com

concept art online conference

This global conference creates a direct worldwide connection to leading industry veterans, including game, film, and associated trans-media fields. It provides daily keynotes, over 100 speaker presentations, departmental talks, as well as secure greenlight pitch and mentor sessions. The program includes gripping discussion, informative Q&A periods, shared post-mortems and career days too.

Track topics include I.P. Development, Production, Art, Design, Technology, Management, Marketing, Public Relations, Media and Business, This important event is brought to life within an easy, proven, secure, online tool suite that is conveniently available 24/7.

Info and registration at conceptart.org

work in progress

Artboxforum offers a site with samples of sequential art in the field of comic book illustration, showing the different stages of a page from rough sketch and inking to colored pages.


·Storyboard, lápiz y tinta y color por Adrián Fernández.

sneak peek

EXPLORE is an opportunity for artists of any level and discipline to sample the TAD experience - a week filled with live demos, visiting professionals, and advice from some of the star students. For five days this November, The Art Department(TAD) is offering an exclusive sneak-peek inside the virtual classrooms through EXPLORE, an introduction to TAD Interact with the esteemed faculty and industry professionals such as Jon Foster, George Pratt, Sterling Hundley, and others. Registration is $75 per applicant, and is open to participants both domestic and international. A full schedule of events and course descriptions is listed here.

theartdepartment.org

Tutorial

Prepare to embrace the Dark Side of the Force as Darth Maul designer Iain McCaig shows you how to tattoo a Sith Lord and live to tell the tale. Read the full tutorial at imaginefx.com and download the support files (21.86Mb). More at his blog: iainmccaig.blogspot.com
www.imaginefx.com

tutorials

CreativeFan posts daily articles, quality resources, roundups, tutorials and inspiration in creative fields such as graphic design, web design, audio, music, video, computer graphics, and photography. There are plenty of interviews with artists introducing their techniques for concept art and matte painting.

Digital Matte Painting

matte art by Jaime Jasso

scribed.com has published an interesting compilation of tutorials and walk-throughs describing the techniques being used in the process of digital matte painting. There is also a section about photoshop brushes explaining the various settings and their effects. Most of the tutorials have been around for a while and some of you may remember them from other websites. Still most of the information is relevant and worth a look at. scribd.com

Steampainting: Spark

In volume 1, Spark looks at the method behind the inspiration of each subject, and specifically, helps users navigate the comprehensive steps used to create a visual representation of a design, idea or mood. This book reflects the passion and enthusiasm for concept art and offer a glimpse into the artists’ mindset and motivation behind each STEAMPAINT image.

Now available at steambotstudios.com

free tutorials

Best known for his concept work on films such as Star Wars and Transformers, industry veteran Feng Zhu now teaches his skills at FZD School of Design in Singapore. Many of his demos produced during the classes are available for free. Check out the FZD youtube channel here.

Drew's painting technique

Drew Struzan is one of the industry's most recognized talents, having provided artwork for over 150 movie posters, including many of the best-known films of all time.

For all those who have wondered about his secret painting techniques there are a few tutorials of the master online now. A DVD for the making-of the Hellboy Poster is available at Reelideas.com and a step by step for Star Wars here: page 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

www.drewstruzan.com

Tutorial

DrawingStudio is an inspiring and educational website offering drawing videos and tutorials for both beginners and advanced students. For drawing samples visit the gallery - or subscribe to the guestbook to receive more info and tutorial updates.

The Practice & Science of Drawing

Harold Speed's introduction to the classic approach to the dynamics

of drawing with insights and practical advice on line drawing, mass drawing, visual memory, materials, and much more. The book's 296 pages, 84 plates and diagrams reinforce Speed's clear presentation. Though written nearly a hundred years ago, the lessons taught remain up-to-date.

Available from Dover Publications, or read the e-book (for free) online now at archive.org

car design sketching

For those interested in the rendering techniques of the automitive designers, designertechniques.com offers a database of information, tutorials, designer interviews, product reviews, and a visitors gallery. More tutorials can be found at carbodydesign.com and mileswaterhouse.com

brushes, tips & tutorials

If you are a web designer or someone who works in the designing arena, smashing magazine is the ultimate stop for all that skills. With about 200,000 subscribers and many more stats, its a website which is full of great information matters to all the designers. Forum with job offers included.

Fudgegraphics can be described as a design inspirational blog. It is a source of freebies such as photoshop brushes, textures and vectors, aiming to improve quality the highest possible and provide free resources for like-minded people.

Vectortuts+ is a blog of tutorials, articles and more on all things vector! Tutorials on techniques and effects help to make vector graphics in programs like Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape. The authors work all over the industry. Most of the content is free, but a premium membership will get access to extras and source files for tutorials.

Pixey is a blog for web-designers and graphic artists. On a regular basis you will find news, tutorials and links to helpful resources. Many freebies are available in the download section such as photoshop brushes, scans and vector graphics.

more tutorials

characterdesigns.com and cgarena.com both have various tutorials online. They are a 100% free of use and cover traditional and digital working techniques such as 3ds Max, Photoshop, Maya, After Effects, ZBrush etc.

www.characterdesigns.com
www.cgarena.com

Painting Process/Peter Popken

For those who are interested I uploaded some pictures showing a step by step painting process:

(1) I started off with a drawing I had done a long time ago. A simple marker sketch showing some basic proportions and an idea for a costume design. After opening it in photoshop I duplicated the background layer and set it on “multiply“.


(2) Underneath, on a third layer I started blocking in warm colors using a low key palette.

Sometimes it helps to look for color reference before starting on a whole new picture. Open it in a new window and pick the colors you like.




(3) I wasn’t really happy with the face so far and while fliping the image back and forth I realised that some of the features were slightly out of place. I decided to paint it all new and continued painting while constantly fliping the image and work either on the regualar or the mirrored image. Then I established a few cold colors in the reflections of the skin and hair.



(4) I did the same to the dress and the sword: cold reflection from an imaginary window above and warmer ones from the light reflected from the floor. As you can see I also started to change the proportions of the whole figure by cutting and pasting parts I felt were too long or too short. Also the silhouette needed some more refinement.




(5) To give the whole picture a bit more dimension I thought the figure might cast a shadow on the wall behind. Further I had to check my values to not loose the silhouette of my character. I wanted the focal point to be around her face, collar and a few accents on the belt and sword. Thats why I saved the brightes tones for excactly those areas. The same goes for the amount of detail. Areas close to the center would get more attention than those further away. Some highlights and makeup are added to the face but the surrounding is treated more rough and blurry almost unfinished.

(6) To brake the vertical symmetrical composition I added a few diagonal shapes suggesting shadows casted by a light from above. In this case I put composition over realism and not trying to find out what is right but what looks good. Again lighter and warmer areas in the foreground and cold/dark areas in the background add a sense of depth to the image.



(7) Once the character was set up I decided to add some texture to the background. I chose an image of an aged wall I found on one of the various sides on the net, pasted it on a new layer with “overlay“ setting. The textures on the dress were painted with a simple round brush with “opacity“ set to “50%“.




(8) The trickiest part for me was her hands. I didn’t want to give them too much attention but then again they needed some more refinement since they play a big part in a characters personality. I changed the positions a couple of times and treated them like the face by fliping the image constantly. Keeping the allover value down helps to draw attention away from them.



(9) After turning the background layer on again I cropped the image, merged the layers down and played a bit with the contrasts.

See the all of the tutorial at Peter's blog:
http://peterpopken.blogspot.com/
more info on his websites:
http://www.peterpopken.com/
http://peterpopken.jimdo.com/