Editor’s letter

Welcome to… EDITOR’S CHOICE Three of my top

picks this month…

26

Art covers a lot of ground and

many people will have vastly
different tastes in the art they
like to consume and create. For
some, costume design might be
the way to go, and this month Kick-start your career in costume design
Discover what it takes to get started in this challenging
we have a special feature that but exciting branch of the concept art industry.
shows you how to kick-start a
career in this fascinating field. 40
A reader (and team!) favourite in the mag is our
Artist in Residence section. This issue we have the
pleasure of taking a tour around the home studio
of Philippe Gaulier. It’s a fantastic space!
Many of you come to ImagineFX to learn new
skills or to explore fresh techniques. As always, we
have a wide variety of training for you to jump
into. Start off with a tutorial to accompany our
stunning cover art, so you can learn to paint your The art of Gaëlle Seguillon
own fantasy masterpiece with Alex Alexandrov’s Learn how a dinosaur-loving artist explores her creative
help. We also explain how to ensure your colour impulses and passions working in film, TV and games.
paintings are strong and vibrant, plus more!
There’s so much on top of that too, so I’ll leave 92
you to jump right in and explore another fabulous
issue. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Editor Draw a Destiny Guardian in pencil

[Link]@[Link] Ride along with pro artist Emily Chapman as she uses
Prismacolor pencils to create stunning Destiny fan art.

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Your art 10 26
10 FXPosé
A round-up of incredible digital art
submitted by you, featuring our Artist of
the Month Pei Gong, Dusky Woods, Julien
Theo Simon, Egor Shempel, Jitske de Vries
Reilingh and Lera Nyukalova.

News and events

26 How to kick-start your
costume design career
Pro artists explain how you can make
your break in the competitive specialism.
How to kick-start your
32 Artist in Residence:
FXPosé costume design career
Philippe Gaulier
We learn why a library of books and epic
soundtracks inspire the film artist’s work. 40

Features
40 The art of Gaëlle Seguillon
The concept artist tells us about her love of
nature and tips for crafting epic dinosaurs.

50 Sketchbook: Ludo Lullabi

Visit the Battle Chasers artist’s playground
as he explores new character concepts.

Regulars
6 Next month
8 Subscriptions
22 The Rookies
The art of Gaëlle Seguillon
39 Letters
48 Recent editions
32 50
22

Artist in Residence:
The Rookies Philippe Gaulier Sketchbook: Ludo Lullabi

4
 Issue 243

66 70 Workshops
58 Create striking fantasy
concept artwork
Visit an alien world with Alex Alexandrov
as he develops our intimidating cover art.

64 Storytelling in film scenes

Karl Sisson explores his use of rich visuals
in the latest Planet of the Apes movie.

66 Build captivating
Build captivating cities The secrets of colour painting
mixed-media cities
Take a sightseeing tour of the city of
58 Obsidian with artist Jonas Nathanael.

70 Discover the secrets

to colour painting
Charlie Pickard shares his expertise with
the science behind getting great colour.

76 Apply textures
Find out how Eduardo Pena develops the
mystery factor in his science-fiction world.

78 Paint a creepy ghostly entity

Dive into the spooky art of Jolene Yeo
as she shows you how to create ghouls.

84 Find photo references

Go guns blazing with Kerem Beyit and an
action-packed take on a virtual heroine.

Traditional Artist
88 Traditional FXPosé
The finest traditional art, sent in by you!

Create striking fantasy concept art 92 Draw stylish Destiny fan art
Create your own Warlock Guardian in
vivid colour pencil with Emily Chapman.
78 98
98 First Impressions: Etara
The learning journey never ends for the
Italian painter, who shares her story.

GET YOUR
RESOURCES
Paint a ghostly entity

92

1 Go to the website
Type this into your browser’s address bar.
[Link]

2 Click the download link

Find your files ready for download.

Draw stylish Destiny fan art First Impressions: Etara 3 Download what you need…
Save the files or watch the videos.

5
 Next month

Editorial
Editor Rob Redman [Link]@[Link]
Art Editor Daniel Vincent
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Contributors
Dominic Carter, Tanya Combrinck, James Clarke, Philippe
Gaulier, Ludo Lullabi, Alex Alexandrov, Karl Sisson, Jonas
Nathanael, Charlie Pickard, Eduardo Pena, Jolene Yeo,
Kerem Beyit, Emily Chapman, Etara
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9
 2

THE PLACE TO SHARE YOUR DIGITAL ART

Pei Gong
LOCATION: China MEDIA: Photoshop WEB: [Link]

Pei is a video games concept artist with 14 years’ experience

in environmental design. Inspired by Chinese aesthetics, she
has worked with a Dubai-based film company and NetEase.

10 Want to submit your work? Visit [Link]

 4
1 HALL OF TRANSMIGRATION
“Here I experimented with
brushstrokes to capture intricate
details in the architecture. I also
wanted a scene that pushes the
deceased towards the afterlife via
the depiction of the characters.”

2 STREETS OF FIRE
“This piece was influenced by
the art style of Spider-Man: Into
the Spider-Verse. I thought it was
very cool and wanted to try and
emulate that aesthetic.”

3 FAIRY TALE TOWN

“I explored different colour
styles and compositions here. The
sheer amount of buildings was a
challenge. It was the most I’ve ever
done and a struggle to keep the
scene cohesive.”

4 VERMILLION CASTLE
“For this piece, I challenged
myself to create a scene filled with
large architectural structures such
as castles and towers.”

Want to submit your work? Visit [Link] 11

 Dusky Woods
LOCATION: US MEDIA: Photoshop WEB: [Link]

Dusky studied classical arts before moving to the United States. Her art is
inspired by mythology, magical beasts and nature. She also combines her
background in classical arts with a touch of impressionism.

1
1 FIRST FLIGHT
“Living in Texas, I miss
snow sometimes. This is
a little winter tale in one
picture; riding huge eagles,
living with mammoths, and
buildings of stone in
otherworldly mountains.”

2 CONTEMPLATION
“Here I wanted to create
a more intimate portrayal
than you usually get with
Warcraft characters, like a
person taking a break to
clear out heavy thoughts.”

2 3

3 SPRINGTIME
“Spring is a common
artistic inspiration. After I
paid a visit to a forest creek, I
wanted to draw a spiritual
creature as an allegory for
the season’s annual rebirth.”

4 CATCHING DRAGONS
“During Covid, my
younger brother and I got
into Dungeons & Dragons.
His character would try to
pet every monster, including
this baby red dragon.”

12 Want to submit your work? Visit [Link]

 4

Want to submit your work? Visit [Link] 13

 Julien Theo Simon
LOCATION: Canada MEDIA: Photoshop, Blender WEB: [Link]/juliensimon

Julien is a concept artist who focuses on environments. He loves colour and

tries to make it the highlight of everything he creates. Currently, Julien is
working on his personal IP, Anchored, which is themed around pirates.

1
1 DANDE’S GARDEN
“A concept like this goes
a long way when it feels
grounded. A 3D artist can
look at this and immediately
feel as though they can
model and ship it.”

2 WITCH’S HUT
“An older piece, but I
love it all the same. It’s the
catalyst that set me on my
journey of making artworks
that are bright, saturated and
filled with colour.”

14 Want to submit your work? Visit [Link]

 2

3 REBORN
“I spent much of 2023 and 2024
working on my pirate IP, plus bright and
colourful art, so I created something darker
and sinister as a little break!”

Want to submit your work? Visit [Link] 15

 Egor Shempel
LOCATION: US MEDIA: Photoshop WEB: [Link]/magognom

Egor is an illustrator and concept artist who is inspired by fantasy

games and movies. His work mainly consists of character design, and
he enjoys using colours and forms to make his art more captivating.

1 2
1 GARBAGE SHARK
“This character concept is
based on the pollution of the
ocean. This is a necromancer
shark, who is surrounded by
tons of different waste and
moray eels.”

2 MUSHROOM SHAMAN
“This mushroom
character is the keeper of
a forest. Once he was a
human, but he lived in the
forest for so long that he
became a huge mushroom.”

3 NUCLEAR MUSEUM
“This illustration depicts
a museum following a
nuclear catastrophe. The
main character is a guy who
slept in a capsule for a long
time and woke up in a post-
apocalyptic museum.”

16 Want to submit your work? Visit [Link]

4
4 DRAENEI
“This piece is inspired by
World of Warcraft. I wanted
to portray a Draenei paladin,
as it has always been my
favourite race and class
from the game.”

Want to submit your work? Visit [Link] 17

 Lera Nyukalova
LOCATION: Canada MEDIA: Photoshop WEB: [Link]

Lera is a visual and concept artist from Kazakhstan. She has worked on 2D
and 3D productions with Disney Jr., Capcom, Netflix and more. Her work
covers game concepts, visual development and animation direction.

1
1 RED CARDINAL
“This explores the
profound and complex
emotions within us. Delving
into the entanglement of
emotions, hidden truths, and
the intimate connection
between our internal world
and our external facade.”

2 THE UNIVERSE
CREATOR
“A woman at the centre of
her universe in a moment of
creation. She’s surrounded
by a dark forest filled with
symbols of safety, security,
magic and spiritual growth.”

3 PARROT PSYCHIC
“Moon flowers bloom in
darkness, providing hope for
people going through tough
times and giving the ability
to heal. Black cockatoos are
believed to guide the souls of
loved ones.”

4 FOREST SPIRIT
“The forest spirit
represents the delicate
balance of life and the need
to protect our environment.
Her concerned expression
mirrors nature’s fragility and
the necessity of peaceful
coexistence with earth.”

18 Want to submit your work? Visit [Link]

 2

3 4

Want to submit your work? Visit [Link] 19

 Jitske de Vries Reilingh
LOCATION: The Netherlands MEDIA: Procreate WEB: [Link]/nekouhai

Jitske, also known as Nekouhai, focuses on portraying characters. She likes

to play with magic, fashion and emotions, and emphasises colour and flow.
Inspired by Loish and Gretel Lusky, she’s passionate about animation.

2
1 GINGERSNAP
“I love making character exploration
sheets! It’s a great way to practise posing,
2 SUNRISE
“This is actually a redraw of a piece I first
drew back in 2012. I like to make those every
make a mood board of their personality, and once in a while, as I believe seeing your own
have fun with a bunch of silly expressions!” improvement is the best motivation.”

3 COMFORT
“A painting depicting my personal
experience of getting a tattoo, and the
magical feeling of liberation and sense of
comfort that came with it.”

4 PLANT NYMPH
“This piece was originally inspired by
a character from a book. The concept of
an undead plant girl sparked something
inside me, combining my love for both
plants and the macabre.”

20 Want to submit your work? Visit [Link]

 4

Do you want to see your art on these pages? Then email five pieces of your work and a short explanation
about each artwork, along with a photo and a few details about yourself, to fxpose@[Link]

Want to submit your work? Visit [Link] 21

 Discover your potential
with The Rookies; the
launchpad for emerging
digital artists. With The
Rookies, your work won’t
just get seen – it gets
noticed and featured, just
like this! Join a community
where your journey from
hobbyist to professional
artist is supported every
step of the way.

[Link]

Pupillary
YEAR CREATED: 2024 MEDIA: Photoshop

“Pupillary is a project I created during

my last semester studying at The One
Academy. I was deeply moved by the
photography series The Topography of
Tears by Rose-Lynn Fisher, exploring the
beautiful crystallised structures of tears
under the microscope; they resembled
the branches that form our cosmic web.
I thought to myself, ‘What if a universe
existed within our tears?’ Hence, the
world of Pupillary was born.”

22
 The Rookies

Artist
PROFILE
Tan Jiun Qi
LOCATION: Malaysia
Tan Jiun Qi is a graduate from
The One Academy. Growing up in
Malaysia, he has been exposed to
many cultural settings, reflecting
on his love for all art forms.
[Link]/u/jiunqi

23
The Rookies

The Villages
YEAR CREATED: 2024 MEDIA: Photoshop, Blender

“This the second of four images from my graduation project, Babel.

The scene is the first time the viewer sees inside the tower. I tried to
invoke the feeling of a sprawling, busy place that’s full of life.”

24
 The Rookies

Artist
PROFILE
Jonathan Kiem
LOCATION: Italy
Jonathan is a concept and visual
development artist born in South
Tyrol, Italy. He started learning art
during his high school years with
online resources, and later moved
to Paris to spend two years studying at
New3dge Concept Art school.
[Link]/entries/31990

25
ARTIST NEWS, SOFTWARE EVENTS

AT THE CORE OF THE DIGITAL ART COMMUNITY

A design that Sophia Sophia’s costume

created on completion sketches developed for
of her costume concept her fan art project that
design course with the reimagines The Lord of
renowned artist Phillip the Rings as Asian
Boutté Jr. science fiction.

How to kick-start your

costume design career
Passion for fashion Tanya Combrinck finds out
what it takes to work in the competitive specialism of
costume design and illustration for the film industry
Working in costume design and And how do we make them look Warren says: “Every
film is an illusion, it’s
illustration gives you the chance to intimidating, cowardly, heroic, weak, up to the filmmakers
get your teeth into a unique set of pompous, or gentle with nothing but to use whatever
methods necessary
challenges. You’ll be using all your fabric? How do we show what their to suspend disbelief.”
creativity and imagination to design job is and what their life has been like
fantastical creations that give their through colour, cut and fit?
characters visual pop. At the same “Costume is such an essential part
time, you’ll be using your technical of a character. It tells the audience so
knowledge of garment-making and much about someone at a glance and
human anatomy to draw something I love figuring out how information can
that’s practical to construct and be packed into that one glance.”
comfortable for an actor to wear.
The job is all about problem solving
for the LA-based costume illustrator Costumes are
Sophia Canning. “To me,
that’s what the whole job
made to support
is,” she says. “How do we
show who this character is
and enhance a
through their clothing? performance
26
 A HAVEN FOR TRY A DIGITAL YOUR VIEWS,
CREATIVITY COPY OF IFX! YOUR ART
Concept artist Philippe Discover how you Readers write in with
Gaulier gives us a tour can purchase a digital their art news and
around his studio, and edition of ImagineFX opinions on what we’ve
tells us why a massive so you can take your covered in ImagineFX.
collection of books and favourite inspirational Plus, we feature your
favourite soundtracks art magazine with you art that’s caught our
inspire his creations. wherever you go! eye on social media.
Page 32 Page 38 Page 39

© Marvel Studios

“A big thrill is fitting an actor with a costume that

weeks before was pixels on a screen,” says Warren.

A character artist might have a lot

of freedom in terms of the visual cues
they can use to create an impression,
but as a costume artist you must work
with practical constraints. In this
sense, the work is grounded in reality.

FORM FITTING
A veteran artist who has designed
costumes for heroes like Spider-Man,
Batman and Superman,
Warren Manser tells us it’s
a matter of “merging
aesthetics with function”.
He says: “In live-action
projects, the actors must be able to
perform. If a costume has an awkward
fit or overpowers the performer, the
audience notices. The actor is the
primary expression of the character,
so costumes are designed to support
and enhance a performance.” A costume concept by Darrell
Warner for the Scarlet Witch
There are a few different but from Doctor Strange in the
overlapping roles: the costume Multiverse of Madness.

27
 ImagineNation News

Warren says: “What Barbra’s fan art of Sally

I love most are the from The Nightmare Before
blue sky moments, Christmas, reimagined as a
when anything is macabre seamstress.
possible. Your mind
opens and floods
with concepts
and imagery.”

designer, costume concept artist as is required for the particular

and costume illustrator. “The terms assignment. She tells us how the two
‘designer’ and ‘illustrator’ are less rigid roles differ: “For costume concept art,
than most people realise,” Warren we create design concepts based on
explains. “Design is the organised the costume designer’s or director’s
planning of a costume, and illustration vision, and they have the final say on
is the graphic representation of its the final costume.
aesthetics. The industry has separated “For costume illustration jobs, we
the titles to designate designers as illustrate exactly what the costume
department managers, but in reality designer has in mind, but even this
many designers can illustrate, just requires a designer’s eye to achieve the costume designer, and use your
as many illustrators design.” the correct balance of all the elements own additional research and the film’s
in order to bring the character to life script to build up an idea of the
DRESS FOR ALL OCCASIONS and work as a whole.” character’s personality and style.
Like many other artists in the field, Regardless of the specific role, you’ll “There’s also the factor that the final
Barbra Araujo works as need to communicate effectively and costume has to be physically made,”
both a costume concept apply feedback to your work until you adds Barbra. “So there’s an emphasis
“The final drawing is
artist and a costume reach something that gets approval often the blueprint that on the illustration being used as a
illustrator, and switches from the director. Often you’ll receive the entire costume communication tool between the
department will relate
between working styles research and reference images from to,” says Darrell. costume designers and directors, the
actors, and all the different tailors and
craftspeople who will be making the
actual costume.”
Processes for working as a costume
artist can vary. One of the most well-
known costume concept
illustrators out there is
Darrell Warner, an expert
traditional artist with four
decades of experience in
the film industry. He works in pencil
and watercolour, which offers a “very
different experience” to the designers
he works with.
“I begin with how best to sell the
character by way of nailing a figure in
the form of a pencil drawing without
There’s an any clothing,” Darrell tells us. Next, he

emphasis put on makes multiple photocopies of this

initial drawing. “I proceed with my
© Marvel Studios

using the illustration as design process on those photocopies

seeking silhouettes, shapes, design
a communication tool vernacular,” he says. “It’s a fairly

28
 Artist news, software & events
INDUSTRY INSIGHT
Sophia recalls:
“When I found out
costume illustrator
HITTING THE
was a job, I knew
instantly that I’d
CATWALK
found my niche. I Sophia Canning on the skills you
haven’t looked
back since!”
need to work in costume design

What interests and talents

do you need to become a
good costume illustrator?
An interest in fashion, clothing
construction and fashion history
are so important. Understanding
historical garments, learning the
terminology, and the reasons
why clothes evolved the way
they have is essential not just for
working on period pieces, but
also in designing fantastical new
garments for sci-fi or fantasy.
Knowing where to place your
seams, understanding how the
fabric fits together, and what it’s
possible to construct is vital in
creating a functional illustration.
I compare costume illustration
to architectural blueprints for a
building; someone has to look at
your drawing and physically
construct it to fit a human body,
Darrell tells us that “being organic process, which I’ll share at so it has to make sense and the
an art historian is a boon”
if you want to work in the the appropriate junctures with my pieces have to fit together.
costume design industry. designer for feedback.”
Can you give us an insight to
SUITING UP your own process?
Darrell’s designs are informed by If the audience is the director,
research materials, which are usually producers or executives, the
provided to him by design assistants illustration is an advertisement
or other researchers. “My job is to meant to show off how cool the
offer further visions based on that costume will look on screen.
gathered reference,” he explains. “I Maybe the illustration has a
rarely offer more than three versions dramatic pose and cool lighting
of a particular costume, as by dint of to show off the silhouette. If the
process and feedback I’m able to get audience is the cutter and fitters
to a pretty succinct design.” He notes whose job it is to construct the
that digital artists often offer many costume, then my illustration
more versions, which he finds “mind- might be more technical.
numbing” as too many options can The style of drawing is often
result in a “design-by-committee” the designer’s preference. Some
element coming into play. like fully rendered, photorealistic
Success as a costume artist requires images, others the hand-drawn
a particular set of interests and skills look. In my research phase, I
that combines the traits of a character always put together a mood
artist with a practical knowledge of board based on the script and
clothing. On top of this, Darrell tells us: the costume designer’s vision so
“[You need to be] a very, very good that I can constantly refer to it
communicator, both vocally and throughout the drawing process.
visually. Dialogue and being inside
your designer’s head is paramount.” Sophia Canning is a costume
You should also understand anatomy, concept artist and illustrator
© Marvel Studios

based in LA, and recently

how clothing sits on the human form, worked on the film Twister.
and be able to keep an “open and [Link]
inquisitive mind under pressure”.

29
Barbra’s costume
illustration for The Bride
from Haunted Mansion,
I was fortunate
developed in tandem with
costume designer Jeffrey enough that some
Kurland. Find out more at
[Link]. amazing artists have
been gracious enough
to give me advice and
answer questions

© Disney

30
 Artist news, software & events

Barbra explains that your

technical understanding of clothing
should include knowledge of garment
construction, pattern-making and
fabric science. As well as having good
technical drawing and rendering skills
in your locker, it’s also valuable to
have an interest in costume history,
fashion and styling.

PERSONAL STYLIST
For Warren, an interest in psychology
is a key attribute for a costume artist
too. “A costume designer should
recognise a personality type from
reading a script,” he says. “People will
be funny, quirky, intelligent, absurd,
trustworthy, and so on. A costume’s
look should evoke a feeling from the
audience that reinforces those traits.”
He also values non-linear thinking:
“There isn’t a step-by-step process
that always works for every situation.
Sophia’s depiction
The designers that create the most of English actor Kirby
inspired costumes are usually those Howell-Baptiste fitted
out as a secret agent.
who make inexplicable leaps of logic.”
There are many different ways to
develop the skills you need to work as illustration and took an online class in an actionable and understandable
a costume artist. Barbra worked as a costume at CG Master Academy when process,” says Warren, who also
designer in the fashion industry for 10 she decided she wanted to pursue it teaches character design. He sees this
years, where she developed a deep as her career. as more efficient than having to hunt
knowledge of apparel manufacturing. Although formal education isn’t online for the right materials.
Meanwhile, Warren has a background strictly necessary, it can certainly be a
in industrial design that gave him the helpful base to get burgeoning artists TAILOR-MADE
knowledge of fabrication techniques on the right track. “Technology is Warren’s advice for anyone that wants
he needed when transitioning to evolving incredibly fast and a formal to break into the film industry is to
costume design, which he augmented education is invaluable in guiding a watch as many films as possible, from
with further study. Sophia trained in young artist’s journey into design as every era, and analyse them critically
to develop an understanding of the
Darrell’s costume illustration for MJ
from Spider-Man: Far From Home. filmmaking techniques used. “Find the
© Sony | Marvel Studios

productions that suit your skills and

interests, and build a portfolio based
on their style of product,” he says.
Barbra emphasises the importance
of networking and developing your
connections as a means of getting a
break into the industry, which she did
by volunteering at the Costume
Designers Guild and attending events
such as LightBox Expo. Although the
costume design field is an extremely
competitive one, Barbra’s experience
is of a supportive community. “I got
many jobs by word of mouth when
other illustrators were unavailable,”
she says. “I was fortunate enough that
some amazing artists like Phillip
Boutté Jr., Greg Hopwood, Oksana
Nedavniaya, Imogene Chayes, Luca
A watercolour costume “Characters say and do Nemolato and Daniel Lim have been
illustration by Darrell for unpredictable things. In
Lee Scoresby from His both story and design, gracious enough to give me advice
Dark Materials. character imperfections and answer my questions when I’ve
can be transformed into
© HBO | BBC attributes,” says Warren. reached out to them.”

31
 ImagineNation Artist in Residence
A beautiful lithography piece that
was created by my old friend and
talented artist André Palais.

Early concept artwork

for Jupiter Ascending,
depicting the gigantic
planet Orous.
© Warner Bros.

Philippe
Gaulier
Shelves of inspiration
The artist is surrounded
by books at his home
studio space in LA

I’ve set up my studio

in our Marina del Rey
apartment in Los
Angeles. We’re lucky
enough to live walking
distance from the marina, the ocean,
My favourite A3 sketchbook
and the Venice Canals. pad brand for the marker and
brush pen work that I do.
I have a pretty simple setup here:
a PC with two screens, a Wacom
tablet, a scanner, and space for a
printer that’s soon to arrive, plus a
drawing space on my desk for every Among the book collection I use for
reference and inspiration are some
time that I need to sketch with pens, antique art history books from Japan.
markers, or any other medium that
may tickle my fancy.

32
 Artist news, software & events
One of the few concepts I did for Man of Steel
back at Double Negative in London. Superman
is fighting a World Engine!

This panel includes

images and research
for Wrath of the Titans,
Jupiter Ascending, and
Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince, as I bought this years ago and it’s
well as some personal always on my desk; a constant and
and pitch work. useful reminder of the beauty and
complexity of human anatomy.

Some of my favourite pens,

markers and brush pens. I
always carry a selection of
these when I’m out, just in
case a sketching opportunity
presents itself!

33
 ImagineNation Artist in Residence

© Marvel Studios
Pre-production concept art for Ant-Man and the
Wasp: Quantumania. Working on that under the
guidance of designer Will Htay was so much fun!

This book holds a special place in my

heart as it was a gift from Jamie Courtier,
then project supervisor at Jim Henson’s
I’ll never run out of ink or Creature Shop in London. He offered me
graphite, just as long as the book as I left after an interview with
my drawers are here! the creative supervisor. That marked the
end of a difficult period, where I was
seriously considering changing career.

A blu-ray of a short film made by one of

my oldest friends: the super talented
writer and director Yann Danh. I hope the
stars will align in the future and we’ll get
to work together on a feature film of his,
with the same energy and passion that
You find tons of these kaiju we had when we were teenagers making
toys in Japan. I find all their short films and watching all the cinema
designs absolutely fantastic! classics on the old LaserDisc!

Concept art for The Matrix Resurrections.

Relocating my family to San Francisco for
the six-month pre-production process
was an absolute blast! Working with Lana
Wachowski is always special.

My books are a
calming presence,
as well as a source
© Warner Bros.

of inspiration

34
 Artist news, software & events

The sunshine comes

through the window
for a few hours early
each morning; perfect
for a cup of coffee to
kick-start my day!

© Marvel Studios (left screen); Philippe Gaulier (right screen and sketchbook)
Kaneda and his bike, with a
few Syd Mead books in the
background. It doesn’t get
more iconic than that.

Someone needs to come up

with a system that allows easy
access to the second row of
books. Rotating shelves?

35
 ImagineNation Artist in Residence

There are so many great

books and authors out there,
and more to discover too!

Anyone who grew up in

France back in the 70s or 80s
is a fan of Goldorak, known
as Grendizer in Japanese.
This animated series, as well
as Albator (Captain Harlock)
and Cobra, was a massive
influence for me.

An early pre-production
coloured concept sketch
for Ant-Man and the
Wasp: Quantumania.

© Marvel Studios
Typically I tend to work very late,
though I often have early meetings.
work, and I get to spend more time
with the family, my dog included! That
When I really need to get
I’m in the process of changing all that
and trying to start very early instead,
said, I do end up working way longer
hours at times, as I get carried away.
into the zone, nothing can
as I’ve realised, which took me a while, beat original soundtracks
it feels much better this way! OLD TRADITIONS
When I moved my studio from the I grew up surrounded by books, so the passive and more gratifying. For that
office to our home at the beginning of presence of books and artbooks is same reason, many years after I set
Covid, I didn’t imagine that I’d still be something I’ve always enjoyed. They out in this business and despite all the
working from home so many years are a calming presence for me, as well A bit of pre-production software I’ve learned along the way, I
later. I sometimes miss the daily social as a source of inspiration. Also, as concept art for Jupiter still sketch traditionally on a regular
Ascending. Great
interactions as I’m a social animal at much as I spend time researching on memories, despite the basis and, every time it’s possible, for
heart, but I’ve gained a better life the internet, flicking through the fact I had to wake up at my client work too.
5.30am to be at the
balance. I don’t have to commute to pages of a book somehow feels less London studio for 8am. I love listening to all sorts of music
while working, but when I really need
to get into the zone, nothing can beat
original soundtracks. Some of my
favourites are Adaptation, Kundun,
Akira, The Ghost Writer, Passion: The
Last Temptation Of Christ, Braveheart,
Interstellar, The Social Network, Conan
the Barbarian, Macbeth and, of course,
the original Blade Runner.
Philippe is an art director with 25 years of
entertainment industry experience and
currently heads Framestore’s LA art team.
His recent projects include The Matrix
© Marvel Studios

Resurrections, Ant-Man and the Wasp:

Quantumania, and the upcoming Alien TV
series. [Link]

36
 Artist news, software & events

I have sketchbooks of
Personal artwork that I all sizes and purposes
created for my tutorial for – for markers, pencil,
The Gnomon Workshop. watercolour and so on
– but these passport-
sized sketchbooks from
Muji are always with
me. I never go out
without at least one in
my pocket, as well as a
bunch of marker pens,
brush pens and pencils.
They’re fantastic for
sketching on the fly,
and the size forces you
to be more efficient.

This is the Ohmu from Miyazaki

masterpiece Nausicaä, bought
at Tokyo’s Ghibli museum.
I’ve been influenced by
many artists during my
career, but always
come back to the
holy trinity that is
Miyazaki, Moebius
and Otomo.

Over the years, I’ve kept all the

access cards I’ve been given for
the various on-set projects that
I’ve worked on. Here are a few
chosen ones from Avengers: Age
of Ultron, Jupiter Ascending, and
from the latest LightBox Expo. I
hold fond memories of all my time
spent working on sets.

One of two chairs I bought at

Pinewood Studios in the UK years
ago. There was a prop sale from
Oliver Stone’s Alexander, and they
caught my attention! I believe the
chairs were handmade by local
artisans while filming in Thailand.

My imaginary friends. The one

on the left isn’t usually very
popular but I just love it!

37
 GET IMAGINEFX
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38
 Letters

New works that have

YOUR FEEDBACK & OPINIONS grabbed our attention
Contact the editor, Rob Redman,
on mail@[Link] or write
to ImagineFX, Future Publishing,
Quay House, The Ambury,
Bath, BA1 1UA, England
Follow us on X:
[Link]/imaginefx
We had a bunch of Destiny 2 art in our last issue, giving
Find us on Facebook: you a glimpse into the making its latest expansion.
[Link]/imaginefx
Share your artwork via #imaginefx: how you might make changes to your own
[Link]/imaginefxmagazine space. I’m so glad you like this section, and
make sure you check out page 32 to peer
inside Philippe Gaulier’s workspace.

This is my Destiny
I’m a long-time reader and an even
longer-time player of the Destiny games. ArtfullyFaith
I’m not sure how it’s been a decade since @artfullyfaith
Destiny released already, but the game
still feels fresh and I love it, that’s why it
was so good to see my two passions
meet in your last issue. I absolutely loved
getting a touch of backstage insight on
one of my favourite games.
David, via email

Rob replies Nice to hear from a like-

minded Destiny fan! It was a real privilege
Through the keyhole Last issue we took a tour
of illustrator and concept
to get some Destiny content into the mag
I love the magazine and have learned artist Uko Smith’s studio. and I really enjoyed getting behind the
so much over the years, but I think my scenes at Bungie myself. I’m so glad you
favourite parts are where I get a little liked it. Do let us know if there are any
look at more of the behind-the-scenes other games or movies that you’d be Moondance Studio
stuff. Looking through the sketchbooks interested in seeing featured. @mooondance_studio
is always exciting, and taking a sneaky
peek through the door of an artist’s Beautifully bizarre
studio is awesome! I’m a little messy Thank you for the tutorial from Nik
myself and always wonder how other Henderson in the latest ImagineFX. I’m
people go about arranging their spaces, a huge fan of his strange and quirky art,
so I always find these features both so really appreciated seeing how he
interesting and motivational. works and the tools he uses.
Kirianna, via email Sara, via email

Rob replies Thanks for writing in Rob replies Hi there, Sara! Nik’s
Kirianna! It’s always good to hear from our artwork really is wonderful, isn’t it. It’s so
readers. I’m in complete agreement here. full of character and having him make a
While it’s great to learn new skills, tools contribution to the magazine was great, so
and techniques, it’s also great to discover I’m thrilled to hear that you liked it. To this
more about the other influences on our art DID YOU MISS day it still strikes me how there are just so
and your creative environment is right at THE PREVIOUS many different styles and techniques of art Teigan
the top of the list. PACKED ISSUE? out there, and how they can affect us all in @cupsoftei
Don’t worry –
Being able to see other artists’ setups you can get hold such varied ways. We’ll be looking for more
can be a real insight into how their minds of issue 242 interesting workshops for you to explore in If you’ve created art that you want us to
work. That, and all the toy collections and the coming issues for sure, so make sure shout about simply tag us on X or Instagram,
at [Link]/ and use the hashtag #imaginefx
reference books can shed a lot of light on single-ifx. you don’t miss out.

39
 T HE ART O F

James Clarke has a conversation with the dinosaur-loving

concept artist to explore her creative impulses and processes

A
nyone who’s watched the first Guardians of the Galaxy film.
some of the biggest That project launched Gaëlle into a
fantasy, adventure and career working on a number of hugely
sci-fi movies of the past popular movies.
10 years has likely, and Her track record is an enviable one;
unknowingly, witnessed the creative undertaking work for feature films,
fingerprints of concept artist Gaëlle episodic TV and video games. Among
Seguillon. A graduate of the ARTFX her credits, Gaëlle has helped to shape
School of Digital Arts in France, she the visual identity of TV documentary
was soon employed as a junior matte Prehistoric Planet and feature films
painter at MPC in London, working on Ready Player One, Aladdin, Jungle

TOKYO STREETS
The inspiration for Gaëlle’s artwork comes
in part from the colours and shapes found
within the natural world.

40
 Gaëlle Seguillon

It’s all about creating a powerful

composition, having fun, and finding
the vibe from the original sketch
41
Interview
EUROPA TERRAFORMING
Neutral colours are a key
part of Gaëlle’s visual palette,
as seen in this personal piece.

BALAUR BONDOC
Research and reference combine
with artistic interpretation. This
dinosaur’s colours were inspired
by corvids and other birds.

Cruise, Jumanji 2: The Next Level, When did you start to recognise that
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and illustration and art could be a career
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, path for you?
while she has also contributed concept I’ve been drawing since I was a kid, but
artwork for video game Star Wars Jedi: I never considered it as a career. I first
Survivor. These are all projects that started to become aware of that when I
have reached vast audiences, and watched the making of The Lord of the
Gaëlle’s visual interpretation of ideas Rings, and they showed the process
is foundational to the visual style and behind all the movies. I found it so
sense of a world audiences eventually captivating that I began to do research
encounter on-screen. about schools available in France that
Her artwork draws from natural could teach you those skills.
history and the visual traditions of I knew I wanted to work within THE GUARDIAN
Natural history and the
science fiction and fantasy. In creating VFX, and that’s when I started to study visual allure of fantasy art
a diverse range of images across genres 3D and the VFX workflow, and later come together frequently
in Gaëlle’s work.
and formats, Gaëlle combines research concept art because it’s more creative. I
and references with imaginative really like the creative side of concept
interpretations of her creative briefs to art and telling stories. of nature. In that vein, I’d also
develop breathtaking images of new mention other Romanticism artists
worlds and stories. Where does the inspiration behind such as Ivan Aivazovsky and Caspar
your artwork come from? David Friedrich.
Artist I’ve always been in awe of the Hudson But nature is really what inspires me
PROFILE River School painters; I love how they
capture the sublime and sheer beauty
the most; the colour and the shapes.
That’s why my images are so natural-
Gaëlle Seguillon looking. I tend to work a lot with really
LOCATION: France
FAVOURITE ARTISTS: Caspar
David Friedrich, Ivan Aivazovsky
Nature is what inspires neutral colours, and strong, vibrant
colours that contrast.
MEDIA: Photoshop, Blender,
3DCoat, Unreal Engine
me the most; that’s why my I think images are more believable
when they’re created with a natural
WEB: [Link]
art is so natural-looking history documentary sort of style,

42
 Gaëlle Seguillon

NANUQSAURUS COURTSHIP DISPLAY

For textural work, Gaëlle applies detail from photos of
animals and enhances with Photoshop, just like these
feathery theropods from the Cretaceous period.

START DRAWING
FEARSOME DINOS
Gaëlle explains her process for creating
concepts of majestic prehistoric beasts
When drawing dinosaurs, most of the time I start from
an existing 3D model that I’ll modify to fit the species I
have to draw. I’ll do some resculpting and texture it
using photos of animals – scales, feathers, fur and such
– that I project onto the geometry. Next I’ll pose and
light it, with maybe some CG environment elements like
the ground, close-up branches and vegetation. Then it’s
over to Photoshop to finish up my painting, using more
CRETACEAN SWAMP photos and occasional brushstrokes to detail the
Details in the environment, such
as this gigantic dinosaur skull, dinosaur and environment. The same process applies
enhance the sense of scale.
when I’m working on imaginary creatures.

WORLD FROZEN IN TIME

For Gaëlle, all of her art is
anchored in storytelling. She
found inspiration for this piece
from a documentary.

43
Interview

WE FOUND THE U.N.S. THARSIS

Combinations of depth of field and
the effect of natural light are key to
Gaëlle’s visual composition.

which is something I like to use in environments. I’m always trying to

my work. For example, in my painting bring storytelling to my images and
Storm Peaks, I wanted to display the that’s what makes an image stand out.
beauty of nature by playing with the I always do a mood board of the
depth of field and what it could look most relevant images that are going to
like with different camera lenses, be my inspiration. When I work with
similar to how I’d take photographs. a client, this is the first step I’ll show
them to see if I’m going in the right
How would you describe your style? direction. If that sketch is approved,
I’d say that my style and aesthetic is then I start to think about how I go
highly realistic and photographic. about making the final image.
Specifically, I like to play with depth of
field and natural light to depict natural How complex and detailed do your PALEO PORTRAIT think concentrating on that results in
Gaëlle emphasises
images need to be? composition over detail
more powerful images.
As I’ve come from a matte painting in her artwork. For me, the challenge is more
I simplify my background, I used to polish my technical than being about finding
images and focus images right down to the tiniest detail.
But now I tend to simplify my images
inspiration. Usually I only have about
three days to create a concept image.
on the composition and focus more on the composition
and overall feel of them, and only add
My favourite phase is the sketching
because it’s the most creative. At that
and overall feel in details where they’re really needed. I point, I don’t think about all of the
technical stuff.
[For the final image] it’s all about
creating a powerful composition,
having fun, and finding the vibe that I
had in the original sketch. It’s not easy
to make it work. I often look at my
image, as a work-in-progress, at a very
small size so that I lose the detail and
only see the shapes and the contrasts.
This helps me see if the image works
from far away.

Could you break down the schedule

that you set for a working day when
ON A SPRING NIGHT you have to quickly turn around a
66 MILLION YEARS AGO concept art commission?
A sense of motion and contrast in
combination help tell the story in a I’ll typically spend the first half of the
series following the balaur bondoc.
day doing research and gather as

44
Gaëlle Seguillon
DRAGONBLIGHT
Creating a powerful composition is
fundamental to the visual style Gaëlle
likes to imbue within her images.

45
Interview
APEX PREDATOR
Blender and Unreal Engine are
two of the key tools that Gaëlle
uses in her creative process.

DRAGONSHRINE
Sci-fi influences and
an otherworldly
setting combine to
eerie effect for this
demo session art.

I’d love to go back to sci-fi, exploring FIRE!

Shape and mood are key, with

distant planets and strange worlds, a painterly look the goal for
this epic personal piece.

while keeping the same approach

much reference as possible to feed When I choose a tool, I don’t want
my visual library and better immerse to get lost in the technical side and
myself in the project. It’s time that’s drawn away from the creativity. More
very well spent and helps me greatly and more, for practical reasons, I’m
later on in the process. also learning about Unreal Engine
I’ll then spend the rest of the day because it can handle bigger scenes,
creating a few sketches from those and the real-time side is absolutely
references, and show it to the client to fascinating for me.
make sure I’m moving in the right
direction. The remaining time will be What’s your advice for emerging
spent refining the approved sketch. artists and young people who want
to pursue a creative career?
Do you use 3D tools in your work? Think about what your goal is. For
Yes! When I discovered Blender, I example, do you want to work within
thought it was so much easier to use video games or movies? And which
than Maya, and it’s getting almost as speciality of the workflow are you the
fast and advanced as OctaneRender. I most interested in? It’s going to help What is the project – for film, TV or
always try to find tools that are the you target the right school. When you gaming – you’re most proud of?
fastest and simplest to use. Going back know where you’re going, I think you I’d say [TV series] Prehistoric Planet
and forth between different software make better choices. Also, the most without hesitation because of the
can be time consuming. important thing is your portfolio. strong involvement I had in the visual
development of the project and how
well it was received. I’m so proud that
it inspires other artists and non-artists
alike, and is already becoming a
reference for paleo documentaries.

In your personal projects, do you

have ambitions to tackle any
particular subjects and scenarios
in the future?
I’d love to go back to sci-fi, exploring
distant planets and strange worlds,
keeping the same photographic and
MOVIE MOOD cinematic approach I’m using on my
Cinematic aesthetics inform
many of Gaëlle’s images, dinosaur images. I adore fantasy and
whether for her own projects science fiction, and it’s interesting to
or professional concept work.
mix the two.

46
 Gaëlle Seguillon

BALAUR BONDOC:
STRANGE STARS
Ensuring the finished
image retains the spirit
of the original sketches
is important to Gaëlle.

DEVELOPING
YOUR SKILLS
Why Gaëlle left her Storm
Peaks project to simmer
The main challenge for my piece Storm
Peaks was technical. When I first had the
idea for this concept, I quickly realised that
I’d have to use CG to get the result I had in
mind for the ruins, especially considering the
camera angle and perspective. But I had no
idea how to tackle it as I wasn’t particularly
comfortable with those skills at the time. I
left it on the back burner for a couple of
years until I felt I had the necessary skills to
create those ruins. I sometimes do the same
STORM PEAKS thing when I have an artistic blockage; I’ll
A Lord of the Rings-inspired artwork
couples cinematic composition and just let the idea mature for a while and come
vivid use of light and shadow.
back to it with fresh new ideas.

47
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49
 Artist
PROFILE
Ludo Lullabi
LOCATION: France

Ludo Lullabi is an
accomplished artist in
comics and video games
and renowned for his work
on World of Warcraft and
Hearthstone. Recently, he has created
cutscenes for games including Ruined
g
nd doodlin
King: A League of Legends Story and

ribbling a Darksiders Genesis, and illustrated the

r sc
yground fo awesome new ideas
iconic comic series Battle Chasers.

e the pla [Link]/ludo_lullabi

k insid crafts
Take a brea Battle Chasers artist
where the
DIGITAL DOODLES
“I enjoy doodling on my graphic tablet. I call
this type of drawing a ‘doodle’ because my
goal is just to relax and have fun.”

SKETCHBOOK
“My playground and
relaxation time. Scribbling in
my sketchbook after a day’s
work just for myself helps
NO IDEA
“When I start this kind
clear my mind.”
of sketch, I usually have
no idea what I’ll do. I like
letting the drawing come
to life on its own.”

My work is mostly
digital now, but it’s nice
to create away from a
screen occasionally

50
 Sketchbook Ludo Lullabi

STRONG ARM
“This robotic arm doesn’t

BACKPACK
really serve a purpose, but
I’m more attached to the
“By doodling, I accumulate composition’s quality than
many ideas that could be the design’s utility. This is a
developed into finished clean version of one of
illustrations. This is one my roughs.”
of those ideas.”

ZELDA
TRIBUTE
“Many know me from my
pencil work on World of
Warcraft comics. My work is
mostly digital now, but it’s
nice to create something
away from a screen
occasionally.”

PROCESS
“This is one of my
many fun roughs that
got a finished version.
Above it is the clean
version before inking
and colouring.”

51
 DEVIL
CLOWN
“Another of my roughs
that got a finished version.
When people ask where
my ideas come from,
my answer is that I
don’t know!”

DYNAMIC
POSE
“I love playing with
camera angles. It helps
me to emphasise the
dynamic nature of
my poses.”

Another way to relax is to

chain together quick sketches
and play with proportions

THUMBNAILS
“Another way to relax is to chain together
quick sketches, and play with shapes and
proportions. Many will stay at this stage, but
some will be developed further.”

52
 Sketchbook Ludo Lullabi

WEREWOLF
“Another traditional
pencil artwork. Here, I
wanted to pay homage
to Universal’s classic
creature in my
own style.”

53
 GALACTUS
FUNTIME
“More good times
VS GODZILLA
“A superhero-versus-kaiju-
in my sketchbook. My themed illustration for a friend
favourite tool is the BIC pen.
SAD
who owns a bookstore. If
I like knowing that I can work you look really closely,

CYBORG
with such a simple and you can also see the
accessible tool.” Silver Surfer!”
“I often use mechanical
designs and shapes in my
personal work. It allows me
to go beyond the realistic
human anatomy, which I
find somewhat
limiting.”

TIRED
“Sometimes I want to
draw in my sketchbook even
I find it pleasant to just
when I’m tired. The result isn’t
satisfying, but often ideas
emerge for something
draw without thinking, and I
better later.”
often get surprising results

54
 Sketchbook Ludo Lullabi

NO
FREE SPACE
“When I’m not inspired,
I tend to fill pages with
anything. It’s pleasant to
draw without thinking. I
often get surprising
results.”

BAD
MICRON ANATOMY
PIGMA
“Testing and duelling between
“Often in my sketches, I
don’t care about having exact
anatomy. I prefer that it be
the BIC pen and the Pigma artistically correct rather than
Micron ink pen. For working in anatomically correct. Being
a sketchbook, the BIC pen too realistic can stifle
wins in my opinion.” creativity.”

Do you want to share your sketches with your fellow ImagineFX readers? Send us an email with a
selection of your art, captions for each piece and a photo and bio of yourself to sketchbook@[Link]

55
EXPLORE A WORLD OF VFX AND GIVE YOUR ART A NEW DIMENSION

Digital editions available on desktop, iOS or Android

 GET YOUR
RESOURCES
See page 5 now!

Workshop assets
are available…
Download your resources by turning to
page 5. And if you see the video workshop badge,
you can watch the artist in action, too.

Advice from the world’s best artists

58 64 This issue:
58 Create striking
fantasy concept art
Alex Alexandrov visits an alien
world to concoct a deadly rider
and his beastly creature.

64 Storytelling
in film scenes
Learn how Karl Sisson creates an
engaging narrative for Kingdom
of the Planet of the Apes.
66 66 Build captivating
mixed-media cities
Jonas Nathanael goes into detail
on the development of a fantasy
city for a new board game.

70 The secrets to
colour painting
Fine art expert Charlie Pickard
explains the intricate workings
of getting perfect colours.

76 Apply textures
Get insight on the mysterious
science fiction universe under
76 78 84 construction by Eduardo Pena.

78 Paint a creepy
ghostly entity
Check out a spook-tacular
workshop on horror themes
from artist Jolene Yeo.

84 Find photo
references
Kerem Beyit makes realistic
military hardware for a scene
that’s packed with action.

57
 Workshops

Photoshop
CREATE A STRIKING
FANTASY CONCEPT
Follow along with Alex Alexandrov as he explains his process
for developing an intimidating beast and rider combination

Artist When I’m illustrating you’re feeling uncomfortable with I’ll use all the tricks I can to
concept art, I usually some of the steps ahead, you can rest achieve these effects, such as playing
PROFILE work very messily. I assured that this is just one way to with contrast in values and colour,
Alex merge layers, draw on reach the same end result. guiding lines, and details. Think of
Alexandrov top of things, and Together we’ll be making a cover those tools like a film director; make
LOCATION: Bulgaria
change software mid-drawing, but illustration here. There are key points your set appropriate to the mood,
Alex is a professional will try to control myself for the sake to keep in mind: the artwork should dress your main actor in impressive
illustrator and concept
artist. He has worked in of clarity in the subsequent steps. be clear with high contrast and clothes, and shine the spotlight on
digital art for more than What I’m trying to say here is that vibrant colours, it needs to grab the them to guide the viewer’s eye. Keep
15 years for clients such
the approach and exact steps are attention of the potential reader, and this in the back of your mind at all
as Blizzard, Sony and
Capcom, among others. optional, and personal to an artist. If must make sense instantly. times when you’re painting.
[Link]

PHOTOSHOP
CUSTOM BRUSHES:
SIMPLE RECTANGULAR

Used for general purpose

drawing with texture. A
jack of all trades and not
for anything particular.

SCRATCHY DETAIL

I used this a lot for the

background, as well as to
soften some of the edges
and add texture.

HARD BLOCK OUT

Begin blocking out the character

This one is cool for rocks
Starting sketch 2 Blockout the character and background elements
and hard surfaces. A
little difficult to control
1 This is the sketch my illustration begins with – a in different layers so you can access different planes
but has a sharp edge. rider and his powerful mount! I know it might not be the easily, and play with the values and colours to your
GENERAL SOFT BRUSH deepest plot, but I’m a simple man and this still strikes a heart’s content. This will save a ton of time, so it’s worth
chord with me. It’s also an excuse to paint a powerful doing to dial in the clarity of the image and focus on
beast, which I rarely get to do in my work. Early on, try important elements. Keep the layers separated for as long
I find this a great brush
to keep the shadow and light planes clearly separated to as you can, as it will make your life much easier. Some
for fog, atmosphere and emphasise the forms better. While it could have been people break up every bit of their image like skin, gear,
creating soft transitions better for my piece to put some deeper thought into the and so on. I don’t have that patience, though I do keep
where they’re needed.
design first, I was eager to draw the beast and his rider. my planes separated every time as a rule.

58
In depth Fantasy concepts

59
 Workshops

Make adjustments satisfied with most of the elements at this point, but didn’t let that
3 Adding some colour now becomes easy. I knew that I wanted the bother me since this is a personal illustration and I could play around
composition a bit more alien to fit the character, but didn’t know the and push any changes as I want. It’s great to take time away from the
exact direction beyond wanting crimson to be a big part of the image. art directors and shareholders! As one example, there was a little too
Unhappy with the clarity of the beast, I decided to go for much more much real estate on the forehead, so I placed a Roman numeral there,
contrast, and also changed the rider’s design a bit. I still wasn’t though removed it later as it gave me police unit vibes.

Direct the audience’s attention

4 Be your own art director and experiment at this stage; you can lead the
viewer to any elements you want them to see, for example with a specific light
placement. In my piece, notice how the direction of the clouds and rocks are
leading to the rider. Complementary colours are another great tool that can create
contrast within your image. As they sit opposite one another in the colour wheel
and create the biggest colour contrast possible, complementary colours are great
for pointing out any elements in your work. However, you need to be careful how
you approach the implementation of such a strong palette. I’d recommend doing
it with moderation and in precise areas. I decided to add a complementary colour
to the blue tones on the key points that I want the viewer to look at.

60
 In depth Fantasy concepts

Always take your brief into account

5 If you’re working for a specific brief, always keep it in mind. As this for a magazine cover, I’m going for striking contrast and clarity. I’m
keeping it all fairly calm and muted at this point, but this being a digital piece enables me to work with moderation and pace myself. By leaving
colour intensity until later down the line, I get to work on a calmer image while I draw. I also adjusted the height of the hill in the background to
leave space for any text elements, and subtly teased a planet in the sky to push that alien feel a bit more.

61
 Workshops

Maintain a consistent composition and develop the characters

6 Bring your image to life by creating atmosphere behind your characters, which should be all too easy because we’ve split them into a
separate layer early on in the process. Don’t forget to make sure your characters fit together too! I changed the rider’s design again at this point,
probably going through four versions before I finally got the look that I wanted. I’m trying to at least repeat some of the design elements and
colours across the beast and rider to indicate that they’re a team, which is a key consideration when you’re creating a consistent image.

62
 In depth Fantasy concepts

Be clever when filling out the environment

7 Everything should be clear at this point. There are no major design or visual changes, it’s just about pushing the detail further. For my
piece, I scattered some rocks along the pathway to bring a bit of that white from the beast into the world, which shows that he fits into the
environment, even if only by the colours around him. Keep your work loose and textured, and try to spread any elements evenly around the
composition. You want there to be detail, but not hold the viewer’s attention; they just want to take glance at them and move on.

Add depth
8 Remember that contrast brings attention to sharp
edges, so use it wisely and strategically. Here, I changed Complete the image
the deeper background elements, pushing them further 9 For the final touches and polishing, I adjusted the contrast and brightness to
into the distance by adding more atmosphere and trying try and make it pop, but not be overawing. This can be a long process; sometimes it
to introduce smaller elements. Keeping edges soft or clicks and others you tweak sliders without knowing if you’re improving the image
fuzzy for these areas can help convey that they’re deeper or not. It’s good to take a break from the image, have a snack, take a walk, or just
within the scene and out of focus. get a good night’s sleep, as often that’s when things will become more obvious.

63
 Workshops

© 2024 20th Century Studios

64
Tech Focus Visual storytelling

Technique focus
STORYTELLING
IN FILM SCENES
How Karl Sisson created a compelling narrative
for a shot in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

“In this scene from the model departments. Building on this

recent Kingdom of the to develop the look and feel, I took
Planet of the Apes inspiration from real-world reference
film, our hero Noa like Roman ruins and abandoned
travels alone into the industrial buildings. Next I blocked
forbidden zone, though he’s perhaps in 3D trees and foliage, and then
being watched from the shadows. made lighting choices based on
Set in a world hundreds of years photography of lush river valleys. A
after the Simian flu has wiped out series of rough concepts were painted
most of humankind, only the most and photobashed, and I continued to
resilient structures still stand. The iterate until the mood of the scene
Weta FX art department and I put a was fully established.
lot of thought into how to visually To convey Noa’s emotions as he
express the world director Wes Ball ventures into the unknown, I chose
had envisioned. Vehicles have rusted to place the character small in the
away, and glass and plastics are long frame, bracketed by pools of light to
gone. The looming geometric forms draw in the audience’s eye, while
of high-rises form narrow valleys, surrounding him with the dark and
with the streets below now rendered overgrown remains of the former
unrecognisable by time. human civilisation. It’s the quiet
For this scene, I started with a grey moments like this that give the story
shaded render from our layout and a tangible realism.”

Artist
PROFILE
Karl Sisson
LOCATION:
New Zealand

Karl is a concept artist

from Canada who has
now worked in the film
industry for 20 years.
Throughout his time on
major film franchises like
Harry Potter, Avatar and
Planet of the Apes, Karl
has always gravitated to
creating environments.
[Link]

65
 Workshops

Photoshop & Blender

BUILD CAPTIVATING
MIXED-MEDIA CITIES
Jonas Nathanael develops an intricate bird’s-eye view with a
painterly touch by teaming 3D skills with a perfect paintover

Obsidian is a town random. This also gave me a perfect I usually never do much in 3D
Artist
made for the board opportunity to use the symbol of when I want to create something on
PROFILE game Harbor of Blight. Obsidian and incorporate it into the the painterly side, but for this image
Jonas For this painting, I was architecture of the entrance and it just made sense. This process gave
Nathanael briefed to develop a other places. me the freedom to focus on painting
LOCATION: Denmark
fantasy town that featured a mixture I was aiming for a painterly style, the important elements, rather than
Jonas is an aspiring of Egyptian and Native American while also keeping it detailed in areas spending months trying to polish
Danish-Filipino concept architecture, with an extra splash of of interest given that it was going to every house. For the key buildings,
artist and illustrator who
has recently graduated steampunk in the mix. be used as a map. As a result, I opted I painted in Photoshop.
from his studies at The The biggest challenge for this to go in a more 3D-based route for If you’re interested in finding out
Animation Workshop.
painting was finding a good blend of the commonly repeated details such more about Harbor of Blight, visit
[Link]
all these styles without it feeling too as the buildings and walls. [Link]

66
In depth Captivating cities

67
 Workshops

PLAN OUT A CITYSCAPE

Narrative and
focal points
It’s important to develop
some primary areas of
interest. One of the main
focal points in this town
is the Hunter’s Guild. It’s
a key element within the
board game, so I chose
to highlight the building
with a wall surrounded
by buildings that have
oxidised copper roofs.

GET YOUR
RESOURCES
See page 5 now!

Showing life with

human elements
Often I find it’s best to have some
human touches such as doorways,
windows and people to show the
scale of the scene. In this case, the
market is the best example. Here I
suggested market stalls, humans
walking around, and light from the
main entrance and windows.

3D buildings
When creating buildings
RESOURCES I usually do most of the
sketches in Photoshop,
but I decided to go for
another approach in this
piece and followed a 3D
process in Blender. This
PHOTOSHOP worked to my advantage
as I was able to mix and
CUSTOM BRUSHES:
ROUND BRUSH MIXER match all the different
elements to my liking.

This brush gives an

amazing oil paint feel
and is good for painting
over a photobash.

MIXER BRUSH
TEXTURED

I use this brush for

adding some texture on
surfaces. Commonly
used for foliage.

BRUSH HAIR MIXER Breaking up repetition

To make sure the city didn’t become overly boring
and monotonous, I prioritised creating districts that
serve as narrative elements, but also create more
This one is good for interest for the viewer. Some of these districts are
grass, but I also use it to wealthier and others are poorer, but about two-thirds
add details to objects of the city is predominantly made up of the same
with painterly strokes. buildings and districts of average wealth.

68
 In depth Captivating cities

Create scale with

cloud shadows How I create…
Most of the time, repetition is
enough to create the illusion of
scale. However, sometimes we
A BELIEVABLE
need that little extra. In this case,
I added some shadows from the
clouds. When a big shadow is
FANTASY SCENE
extremely soft around the edges,
our brain tends to automatically
assume that it’s from a big cloud.

Preliminary sketches
1 I first make exploration sketches and thumbnails,
and gather references. The references were vital, as I
had little knowledge of Egyptian architecture. Before I
got ahead of myself, it was important to plan the city’s
layout and the general value structure in the painting.

Building process Prepare the scene with Blender

Some of the buildings in the scene
might appear intricate, but in reality
2 After figuring out the layout and architecture, it
they’re just instanced boxes placed was time to prep the scene and buildings. For this, I
on top of other boxes, with some
interesting patterns for the textures.
made sure that I created different districts and points of
Just like working in 2D, the more you interest, and added basic materials before scattering the
overlap shapes, the more you begin buildings. Instanced collections and texture atlases are
to create the illusion of detail.
your best friends when making large cities in Blender.

Architecture and Paintover in Photoshop

shape language 3 The paintover process is important for breaking
I wanted to make unique features
for Obsidian, and the city’s symbol up repetition with special buildings and shapes. On top
has some key characteristics that I of this, I ended up changing the walls to make them look
could borrow. If you boil it down,
they are essentially banana and
more interesting, as beforehand they were too square
circular shapes. With this in mind, I and didn’t fit well with the Obsidian symbolism. This was
tried to incorporate each of these also a perfect opportunity for photobashing.
elements into the architecture.

69
 Workshops

Artist insight
THE SECRETS TO
COLOUR PAINTING
Fine artist Charlie Pickard shares his top tips for how to achieve
strong and vibrant colours in your paintings and illustrations

Artist Colour and the way most powerful tool to communicate topic, as colour can be viewed as
that it interacts with form, how does colour interact with largely subjective. Many schools of
PROFILE form within a piece is value? There are many rules for thought leave it at that.
Charlie an area that’s often proper values within painting, but However, I believe that the more
Pickard confusing for students this clear tuition often ends where we can understand the rules of what
LOCATION: England
when they first approach creating the colour begins. So are there not it is we’re seeing, the better we can
Charlie is a classically full-colour artworks. There’s the old similar rules for how our colours powerfully and effectively bend
trained fine artist and
illustrator who works,
adage of ‘paint the values right and change over forms? them to our own expressive ends.
exhibits and teaches out the colours will not matter’, and this Teaching generally comes short of The collection of pointers here are
of his studio in London. is somewhat true. describing how this interaction simple yet powerful ideas that I’ve
[Link]
However, while proper and correct works. Often you’ll find teachers are discovered about colour on form in
value relationships will always be the hesitant to delve too deeply into the my own career.

70
 Artist insight Colour painting

1 COLOUR IS INHERENTLY
A PROPERTY OF LIGHT
The first element to understand is
that colour is primarily a property of
light; that means without light, there
is no colour. Although this may feel
like an obvious statement, the
implications of the general theory
behind it reach far and wide.
We all understand that in a pitch-
black room we wouldn’t see any
colour. However, what’s less often
understood is that if you installed a
dimmer switch in the same room
and gradually turned down the
light, the colours would steadily
begin to lose their chroma and
become closer and closer together,
finally converging on the pure black
of the room with the lights off.
We can see this exact experiment
in this image here. I took these at
different levels of a dimmer switch
so that you can see this effect in
action. Note how the colours of the
spheres gradually lose their colour
identity as they get closer to black.
This is the most fundamental idea
of colour to understand.

2 INCREASED VALUE, The primary principle of modelling form is The most common error I see in this
INCREASED CHROMA that as a plane faces towards the light it must relationship in paintings is the tendency for
This fundamental relationship between value increase in value, and as it turns away it must artists to continually add white to brighten
and chroma is the first and most important also decrease in value until it drops off into a value until the chroma can no longer
thing to understand when we’re painting shadow. Following this principle, chroma increase. However, doing this results in a
colour on forms. In general, chroma should must increase as a plane faces the light and chalky appearance in the lights, as seen in
increase as the value increases. This is the decrease as it faces away. Remember too the image above. The way to avoid this issue
principle that most realist painting follows, that the most chromatic plane should be the is to always make sure that your lightest area
generally speaking. one most directly facing the light. is also the most chromatic.

71
 Workshops

3 SATURATION ILLUSION
An interesting element of the
connection between chroma
and brightness is the way that
our eyes overestimate how
colourful dark things are. Our
eyes compensate, so we’re
subject to optical illusions.
If we look at this image, you
can see the light squares in
shadow on the right side of
the cube are exactly the same
colour as the dark square in
the light on the left side of the
cube. We can see this if we
isolate the two colours, as
seen above the image.
This illusion is hard to dispel,
so its no wonder we often
have difficulty painting this
stuff – our eyes are playing
tricks on us! To mix the colour
on the shadowed side, we
must aim for the colour on the
lighter side, going generally a
little greyer and darker than
we might expect.

Colour is primarily a property

of light; that means without light,
there’s no colour to be seen

4 HIGHLIGHTS ARE BREAKING THE RULES In fact, if we isolate out the colour of this highlight, we can see that
But of course, this pure relationship of chroma to value isn’t the entire it sort of breaks our initial rule of colour and is much less chromatic,
story when we’re representing form. If we take a photograph of a even though it’s almost directly facing the light. So what gives here?
sphere of the same colour, as pictured above, we can see something This single area of the lighting is one of the biggest culprits when it
that messes up this whole idea immediately and confuses our simple comes to confusion in the basic principles of lighting. If that’s the
relationship. That is of course the famous highlight! case, then how can we understand it?

72
 Artist insight Colour painting

5 MATTE VS SPECULAR chroma increases in tune with the light on a A general rule you need to remember is:
In order for us to explain what’s going on form. We’ll name this brightest and most Matte lighting: These follow the colours
here, we need to first explain exactly what a chromatic plane the form highlight. of the form.
highlight actually is in a material. And for this Specular is the least talked about material Specular lighting: These follow the colours
we need to explain the concept of specular as it’s uncommon in nature, and more often of the environment.
materials and matte materials. seen in human-made metals. How specular
Matte materials are the easiest here to materials work is that they are essentially In real life, few objects are purely one or
explain; they are the type of material that mirrors of their surroundings. They’ll reflect the other and most objects will display some
pretty much every drawing tutorial focuses back an image of whatever surrounds them amount of both types of lighting. That said,
on. They are the source of ‘the more light- in their immediate environment. What we’re one or the other type may be dominant on
facing, the brighter the plane’ rule, and also seeing when we see a highlight in this case is the particular form that you’re depicting, so
what we’re talking about when we say the actually a specular highlight. check over your subject.

6 ISOLATED MATTE
While we won’t generally see these effects in
perfect isolation in our everyday lives. There
are ways we can isolate the effects using
polaroid filters. This is the effect captured in
these two photographs. The top image is
how the setup looked naturally, and below is
the image with a polaroid filtering out the
specular highlight. Interestingly, we can see
that without the highlight, our relationship of
chroma moving with value is pretty much
exactly what we observe! Think of this as
occurring underneath the highlight.
Now we know the highlight we’re seeing
isn’t actually breaking our rule at all; it’s just a
different type of lighting. Here the specular
information is so weak it only displays its
most prominent feature: its brightest point,
which is the reflection of the light source. As
we know, this specular highlight is reflecting
the colour of the light source. In most cases
the light is roughly white, so this specular
highlight is less chromatic and brighter.
The general rule of thumb here is:
Specular highlight: These will have peak
brightness, and low chroma.
Form highlight: These will have peak
brightness, and highest chroma.

73
 Workshops

7 HOW WE BRING SPECULAR HIGHLIGHT

IT ALL TOGETHER FORM HIGHLIGHT
We’ve learned about how the light
moves over form, but how can this SHADOW
help our painting? In general, this
means we must treat the specular
highlight separately from the form
highlight, as we’ve learned they are
drastically different colours. We’ve
also learned that many of the values
on the form are decided by matte
shading, and therefore simple in
their general relationships, getting
more chromatic as they brighten and
then less chromatic as they darken.
What this means for us is that
within the matte surface information,
we can blend things together quite a
bit without disturbing our overall
relationship. Blurring or smudging
from the specular highlight, however,
will damage the relationship as it’s a
spike of lower chroma (cooler)
colour. Blending out directly from
the specular highlight is the most
common error I see in student art,
and the main cause for the chalky
colour effect we described earlier.
In general, look for the chromatic
form highlight to be on the opposite
side of the specular highlight from
the shadow. If we can maintain these
relationships, we’ll get a believable
sense for colour on the form.

As always,
these ideas won’t
make sense until
you give them a
go for yourself

8 FRESNEL EFFECT specularity the shallower a position

One final, important, and more we observe it from. This happens in
subtle note about the way colour all objects, and as we spoke about
interacts with form is the influence before, the specular information is a
of the surrounding environment on mirror reflection of the surrounding
an object. Light has a tendency to environment. Thus, it will follow
skip along the shallow planes, and whatever colours the surrounding
we often see the colour influence of information takes on.
the background the shallower a This shift would be incredibly
plane gets to our eye. subtle in most environments, but we
This is due to an effect called the can see it clearly in more chromatic
Fresnel effect. I don’t have enough ones. In the image to the left, we can
time to delve into all the technical see just how strongly the top plane
reasons why this happens, but in of the box takes on the colour of the
general any object will display more different backgrounds.

74
 Artist insight Colour painting

9 THIS AFFECTS EVERY effect this is if we take these facing planes remain largely
SHALLOW PLANE objects out of their proper consistent in colour.
This effect is subtle, even in this context by flipping which cube This effect is one of the most
strong chromatic environment, is in which environment. powerful tools in our arsenal
so you can imagine just how It’s interesting to see how out for properly situating an object
subtle it gets when dealing with of place they both feel. We also within an environment. The
more natural and achromatic notice that while the shallow object is never separate from
environments. However, we can planes are obviously and wildly its environment, and we must
see just how powerful of an differently coloured, the front- always think of them together.

10 LOOK OUT FOR THE approach to this, for planes facing

BACKGROUND COLOUR us the colours are that of the object,
Now let’s look at how this effects while the colours of planes facing
our approach to actually painting a away from us are influenced by the
subject. What we’ve learned is that if environment colours.
we want our subject to properly sit If we can try to observe these
in the environment painted around general principles, we take a huge ARTISTS’ MASTER SERIES:
COLOR & LIGHT
it, we need to pay attention to the step towards understanding some This article is an excerpt from the Artists’
shallow planes and try to shift them of the ever varied and interesting Master Series book that Charlie wrote in
partnership with 3dtotal Publishing. In the
towards the background colour. effects that we see in front of us in
book, he delves into this and many more
As you can see in all of these nature. As always, these ideas won’t topics in greater detail, with in-depth
paintings, the shallow planes lie in make sense until you give them a go tutorials from other artists featured.
To carry on learning, check it out at
a mix of the general skin and the with your own hands, so try it out for [Link]
background colours. As a general yourself. Happy painting!

75
 Workshops

Technique focus
APPLY TEXTURES
Eduardo Pena creates visual depth in his personal
project to help build a mysterious sci-fi universe

“These images are colour to enhance the visuals and

from my personal match the storytelling.
project, which follows My workflow here repurposed
a cosmic scavenger architectural elements into unique
called King Zolido as forms, and applied textures from
he harnesses the residual energy street cracks and torn walls to add
from abandoned civilisations using visual depth. I used KeyShot due to
his CUBO, a hypercube-like device. its simplicity, but this can also be
I created the mysterious, abstract and achieved in Blender. The final piece
inviting world in black and white explores space and visual storytelling
due to its high contrast and shape through abstract techniques and
language. Sometimes I explore innovative approaches.”

76
Tech Focus Visual depth

Artist
PROFILE
Eduardo Pena
LOCATION: Singapore

Eduardo is an art director

with over 17 years of
experience. A specialist
in worldbuilding and
storytelling, he currently
works with the Japanese
digital animation studio
Polygon Pictures.
[Link]

77
 Workshops

Clip Studio Paint

PAINT A CREEPY
GHOSTLY ENTITY
Jolene Yeo teaches you how to create spectral ghouls and
place them into an appropriately eerie horror atmosphere

Artist Horror is a hugely Ghosts, ghouls, spirits and souls Colour, light and atmosphere all
popular theme and are some of the most commonly play a huge part in bringing a creepy
PROFILE spans from creepy featured beings we find in horror image to life, so this tutorial won’t
Jolene Yeo creatures through to media. Ghosts can either be invisible solely focus on painting the entity
LOCATION: Singapore
psychological horror, or barely visible, or can even be fully itself, but also provide other ideas on
Jolene currently works sci-fi and found footage among an formed and almost tangible. They how to make the overall image more
as an illustrator. She
paints in a wide variety
expansive list. In this tutorial, we’ll also sometimes take up different effectively eerie. Here are 15 steps
of styles and has also focus on the supernatural aspect of forms, so what’s haunting you may that will hopefully help you create
worked on creating the horror genre, specifically ghosts. not always be humanoid! something spooky!
colouring books.
[Link]

CLIP STUDIO PAINT

DEFAULT BRUSHES:
G-PEN

For sketching and lines.

Used to add hard edges
Initial ideation
and specular reflections.
1 To start off, think about the sort of ghost you want
SOFT AIRBRUSH
to draw. Is it a sad, lonely spirit? Or perhaps a malevolent Location and setting
one? Is it humanoid? Experimenting with different spirits 2 Now moving on to the setting, even just a dark,
Good to paint skin, soft
and expressions can be great during the brainstorming vacant sky with barren ground can help set the mood of
colour washes, ambient portion. Keep your sketches loose, flowing and fun, as it the illustration, instead of leaving the canvas blank with
occlusion and light glow. brings out the character more. I was inspired by Chinese the ghost floating in the middle. Some other common
HARD AIRBRUSH ghost marriages for this piece, and in my sketches I tested but effective horror settings are dark corridors, forests,
out some ideas before settling on a sorrowful ghost bride dilapidated buildings and abandoned houses. While the
with a sinister ghost groom. Reading about the different location doesn’t always have to make sense, it’s a nice
This is a great brush to ways ghosts are interpreted across a myriad of cultures touch when it does. This image would probably turn out
paint clothing and parts can be great in expanding your ideas beyond the typical very differently or be hard to interpret if an ancient
of the background.
wisps we’ve become so used to seeing. Chinese marital bed wasn’t used as the location.

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In depth Horror scenes

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 Workshops

Clean lines and base colour

4 During this stage, I like to polish up the lines and
fill base colours. For detailed pieces, I’ll split everything
into different layers and folders so I can manage each one
better. For example, not just splitting the background
Visual storytelling from the ghosts but even elements such as patterns and
3 Details are great when it comes to visual storytelling. It doesn’t have to be prints. I find this useful because if I feel like a specific
over the top and extravagant all the time, subtle details such as a little blood trickle area needs tweaking, the rest of the image isn’t affected as
or a slightly uncanny facial expression can draw viewers in. During this step, I I can zone in on that. For ghostly entities, consider using
decided to add some bloody tears to the bride’s face as a subtle touch, while the more desaturated shades that you’d normally avoid if you
groom was fully beheaded and holding his head in his hands. were creating a live human being.

Primary light source Accent light from candles,

subtle and weaker than
the primary light source Accent light
(glow from spirits)

Rough lighting setup

5 I like to roughly sketch a lighting guide at this stage so I don’t get lost in the
details and rendering. I usually do it using the Multiply blending mode for shadows
and Colour/Glow Dodge or Screen modes for light. At this point, I also use pure
shades of grey without any colour tints. Establishing the primary light source is
also useful to prevent getting overwhelmed during the rendering process. Strong
downward or upward lighting is great for the horror genre, and in this tutorial I’ll
be using strong downward lighting to help set the tone I’m looking for.

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 In depth Horror scenes

Primary light source

Develop mood with colour

6 Colours invoke different feelings and emotions;
they can make us feel peace and serenity, or horror and
fear. Red is a colour commonly associated with horror,
and it also happens that Chinese weddings love using
strong shades of red, which made it a great focus for me,
so I amplified it. Not only will the primary light source,
the lantern, emit red light, but the ghost’s outfits are also
red. Contrast doesn’t just affect lighting; it plays a part in Primary light source
colour. When you look at the colour wheel, what you’ll + shadows
notice is that the colours directly opposite each other are Paint the ghosts
complementary colours, as they amplify each other and 7 While painting the ghosts you can follow a similar method to how you paint
help to bring out their intensities. In this case, the humans normally, establishing light and shadow. You can make shadows deeper
complementary colours for red are green and cyan, both and the light even brighter to bring out certain features. This doesn’t always work
of which work great in horror settings as well. well for live humans, but it does for our ghostly characters.

Spine-chilling blood
8 Now it’s time to add some blood to our painting. As
the blood in this piece isn’t the focal point it may be a
little hard to see zoomed out, so I’ve enlarged it as well as
drawn a few samples below. For flowing liquid, blood, it
helps to first establish the direction and amount of blood
you need. Controlling your pen pressure is crucial here
to create a natural look. From there, add shadows and
highlights that bring out the form even more. For blood
splatters meanwhile, try to keep the shapes irregular and
random, with some speckled flecks of blood as well as
longer streaks to add to the look.

Liquid/dripping blood

Splatter

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 Workshops

A B A B

C D
C D

Creepy mask and eye details

9 While this is how I painted the mask, the same technique can be used for
other effects like face paint or creepy makeup for your ghost. Create a new layer
and clip it onto your ghost, set it to the Multiply blending mode, and get creative
from there! Do note that the Multiply mode makes things very dark, so you may
need to use a slightly lighter shade than you expect. To create the glowing eyes, I 10 Gory effects
If you’re painting gore, it’s great to look at some
painted a base colour for them first in red, before enhancing it with a new layer set visual samples like special effects makeup and movies,
to the Colour Dodge/Glow Dodge mode to make the eyes pop. which are a great source. Small details work well here.

Glow and aura

11 Now we can give our ghosts an otherworldly touch. For this, I used various
colour modes, including Hard Light and Soft Light. First, I created a new layer on
top of the ghost and set it to Hard Light, and using a wide, soft airbrush I painted a
light cyan around the edges of the form. Afterwards, I created a new layer set to
Soft Light behind the ghostly entities and painted some cyan light in with the same
brush. To create the aura effect, I set yet another layer behind that and painted in
some foggy texture. These can make your ghost look more mysterious and eerie.

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 In depth Horror scenes

12 Create a translucent effect on the ghosts

You can make your entire ghost translucent – simply done by setting its opacity lower – however, I wanted to make mine mostly tangible
and fully formed, just with a slight blurring of edges. To get that effect I applied a layer mask onto the ghosts and using a soft eraser to lightly
brush close to the edge, which makes the edges see-through without affecting the rest of the ghosts’ forms.

14 Extra details and final adjustments

Adding in little details like smoke emitting from the candle flame and some
wispy, ghostly streaks can add even more atmosphere to your painting. Tweaking
Refine the background the colour balance levels, level correction and curves are a great and easy way to
13 At this stage, I painted in the details for the add finishing touches. Another reason why I like splitting my layers up is because I
background. As I used a strong, vibrant red for the ghosts, can adjust each layer individually at this point; this wouldn’t be possible if
I painted the background in more muted colours with an everything was done on just one or two layers. I also decided to play up the cyan
underlying green tone to complement it. colour more to complement all the green and red in the image.

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 Workshops

Technique focus
FIND PHOTO
REFERENCES
Kerem Beyit explains how he used a little
assistance for his dynamic action scene

“This is a commercial make her more interesting and build

piece that I created for up the realism. Ultimately I settled
an FPS game. The on a crouched pose to meet the brief,
client provided 3D which needed to have a landscape
renders of the in-game orientation and full-body art.
character, and my job was to depict For the tank, gear and weapons, I
them in an impressive action scene used photo references. These are a
that could be used in promos. key factor in creating any modern
The 3D reference model was very military illustrations. I’d advise you
basic, so I was left with some room against drawing an assault rifle from
for creative licence that I used to memory unless you’ve been drawing
introduce plenty of combat gear to them for years already.”

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Tech Focus Photo references

Artist
PROFILE
Kerem Beyit
LOCATION: Türkiye
© MadByte Games. All Rights Reserved

Kerem is a freelance
digital painter who has
been working in the
game and publishing
industry since 2004. His
clients include Disney,
Wizards of the Coast,
Blizzard and Sony.
[Link]

85
 GET YOUR
BINDER TODAY!

FEATURING
ARTWORK BY
LOISH

This sturdy binder, featuring cover art from our 150th issue, will store and
protect 13 issues of ImagineFX. Prices start at £13.99, which includes delivery!

ORDER ONLINE: [Link]/BINDER

86
Traditional Artist
Inspiration and advice from the best pro artists

92 98

This issue:
88
88 Traditional FXPosé
Discover this month’s selection
of the finest traditional art,
which has been sent in by you!
92 Draw stylish
Destiny fan art
Break out your coloured pencils
and create a vivid Guardian.
98 First Impressions:
Etara
Find out the artist’s mythological
inspirations and future goals.

87
 Traditional Artist FXPosé

SHOWCASING THE FINEST TRADITIONAL ARTISTS

Mate Jako
LOCATION: England MEDIA: Pencil, acrylics, ink, airbrush, gold foil WEB: [Link]

Mate is a creature and character designer, illustrator

and fine artist. His work is characterised by darkness
and horror, with a touch of classical beauty.

2
1 MIDNIGHT’S KISS
“The final kiss. So full of horror, and yet so
poetic. Is it a curse being broken or simply
dinner? Only the viewer knows.”

2 GOD INCARNATE
“I’m a giant fan of monsters. After
watching Godzilla Minus One, I decided to
give the King of the Monsters an updated
look that used design elements from my
favourite interpretations of the character.”

3 ADMISSIONEM
“Admissionem is the Latin word for
admission. A contemplation on how we face
adversity. No adversary that we face is as
powerful as our own selves.”

4
©Mate Jako/Sideshow Collectibles

4 AMBUSH
“I have a fear of water. And
yet it’s the unbroken surface that
5 RED
“Sideshow commissioned
me to create my own Little Red
hides things from us, the surface Riding Hood. She’s a heroine
dwellers, which intrigues me.” facing the world head on.”

88 Want to submit your work? Visit [Link]

 Inspirational art

©Mate Jako/Sideshow Collectibles

Want to submit your work? Visit [Link] 89

 Traditional Artist FXPosé

Nadezda
LOCATION: Spain MEDIA: Oil WEB: [Link]/twistedmatter

The main focus of Nadezda’s artwork is the exploration of raw, intuitive

imagination. She depicts this by creating worlds full of fantastical events
populated by creatures and characters inspired by her deep creativity.

1
1 A FAIRY AND A GRID
“A piece from my solo
exhibition Once There Was,
Once There Wasn’t, which
opens at Modern Eden in San
Francisco this September.”

2 ONCE THERE WAS,

ONCE THERE WASN’T
“Daydreaming, listening to
the voice within, letting the
inner worlds unfold.”

2 3

3 LITTLE WINGS
“Hands of the creative
heart. Flutter. Feathers
4 ANNOUNCEMENT
“This piece features lots
of characters, including two
smooth like oat milk.” pieces of bread in love, The
Naked King, The Midnight
Opera Singer, Nope, Babbits,
Stickies Trio and more.”

90 Want to submit your work? Visit [Link]

 Inspirational art

Want to submit your work? Visit [Link] 91

 Traditional Artist Workshop

Pencil

DRAW STYLISH
DESTINY FAN ART
Experienced coloured pencil artist EMILY CHAPMAN shares her
personal process for creating a Warlock Guardian from Destiny

T
his Destiny Warlock was MATERIALS Next, I’ll demonstrate how to layer
so much fun to make. I and blend colours to achieve the
PENCILS
absolutely love the fantasy Prismacolor Premier
iconic smooth and vibrant look that
vibe it gives, and with the Soft Core will bring your Guardian to life!
galaxy background it was Caran d’Ache Further on, I’ll show you how to
so satisfying to see it come together. Luminance white add highlights and intricate details
In this workshop, I’ll walk you H2 and HB graphite using a white gel pen, enhancing the
through my process, sharing insight PENS overall depth and realism. Those fine
to help you create your own piece. Sumiiro ThinLINE liners will also come into play for
We’ll cover the essential techniques black brush pen outlining and defining textures and
for using these pencils, integrating Uni-Ball Signo features, ensuring crisp, clean edges.
other tools like white gel pens and white gel pen Throughout this tutorial, I’ll also
fine liners, and the importance of Arteza Inkonic pens share tips on everything from how
Gold Posca paint pen
in-game screenshots as references. to stay organised, to recognising and
We’ll begin with a basic sketch. MISCELLANEOUS applying correct lighting. By the end,
Paired with directly observing our Winsor & Newton A4 you’ll have an overall understanding Emily is a freelance creature
mixed media paper
reference, this initial step is crucial of my rendering method, as well as and character concept artist
Tissue paper
for establishing proportions and hopefully the confidence to create and illustrator, working in a
Photoshop
capturing the dynamic pose. Don’t your own video game masterpiece. range of mediums such as
worry if your sketch isn’t perfect; it’s Let’s get started and bring your traditional drawing and digital painting.
just the foundation we’ll build upon. artistic vision to reality! [Link]/emilymeganxart

92
In depth Stylish fan art

93
 Traditional Artist Workshop

2 Sketch from reference

1 Compile your reference materials
Once you’ve chosen your Guardian, armour and weapon, go ahead and
Studying our reference, we sketch our character
and background element using simple graphite pencils
grab a high-resolution screenshot from either the in-game character selection and a ruler. I like to use a light H2 pencil to start as this is
screen or character viewport. Make sure you choose whichever angle, lighting or easy to erase. This phase will take time arranging and
view you like the most! Import the screenshot into Photoshop, cut them out, and testing proportions and shapes to closely resemble our
figure out a composition that works best in front of a background feature. Here reference image. Once we’re happy, we can then draw in
I’ve chosen a Warlock logo filled with a nebula-styled image. more detailed and confident lines using an HB pencil.

3 Lay down coloured line-art to the paper

When we’re satisfied with our pencil drawing, we’ll move on to the line-art phase. I usually use Arteza’s fine liner pack as they have a
range of hues and shades. Pick out a collection of pens that closely match the overall colours of your Guardian. Begin at the head and work
your way down, alternating the pen colour to correspond with the hue or shade for that area.

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 In depth Stylish fan art

4 Prepare for colouring

Once the line-art is done, erase all the graphite
pencil that you can see on the page. Now study your
reference image again, and carefully select every
5 From dark to light
There are a handful of ways you can work with these particular pencils, and
coloured pencil you think you’ll need for the first half one method here is from dark to light. However, the area will dictate what’s best.
of your guardian. I always like to concentrate on small For this instance, I cover the grey area in a mid-dark shade with very light pressure,
sections to fully complete at a time, otherwise the piece creating a slight base for the next shade to blend, applied with a harder pressure.
would get overwhelming to draw all at once. Be sure to study the design of the reference as a direct guide.

6 Highlight with gel pens

Once we’re happy with the rendering of our first
section, we can now go in and apply the highlights to
give it a boost of realism. I like to use a Uni-Ball white gel
7 Develop textures and patterns
Continue using the methods we’ve outlined so far to carry on rendering the
pen for this. Looking at our reference, we’ll only copy next section of our Guardian. Don’t be afraid of the medium, as these pencils are
exactly where those highlights are seen, as if we start quite forgiving and you can colour over most of them to fix small issues. To create
adding in highlights that aren’t in the right place, the your textures or patterns, you can draw over a fully coloured plain section with
image can end up looking overdone. dark and light pencils to give the illusion of textures in fabric and so on.

95
 Traditional Artist Workshop

9 Halfway observations
At this point I like to take the time to review my
drawing, and double check my reference to make sure

8 Cast shadows with colour

Most shadows aren’t jet black or a shade of grey; they often reflect bounce
everything looks believable and readable. If there’s
anything that needs improving or altering, we can usually
light from either a bright light source or the environment. I wanted to elevate the easily colour over areas since the pencils’ consistency is
realism of this piece by incorporating a hue to the cast shadow of her arm. Since quite soft and waxy, and therefore can be manipulated
the magic in her hand is blue, and I’m imagining our background element will be on the page reasonably well. Always have your selection
similar colours, I’ve decided to go with a dark blue shadow. of coloured pencils close to hand.

10 Use a brush pen for creating blacks and lines

Some areas of our Guardian will have ultra black due to ambient occlusion, and I also like to outline some textures and objects in black
to make them pop and be more noticeable. For this, I choose to use a fine line brush pen, as regular fine liners tend to get clogged and dry out
after drawing over the coloured pencils, so the brush pens work out much better for this job.

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 In depth Stylish fan art

11 Light to dark blending

Now that we’ve completed our Guardian, it’s
time to work on the background element. Tidy away the
pencils you’ve used for your character, and now pick out
the pencils you’ll need for your nebula. I always like to
keep my galaxies as bright as possible, so I start layering
12 Add contrasting details
Once we’ve blended our first section softly with light shades, gradually
a light blue base and plotting my darker colours with adding slightly darker colours with more pressure to polish and build that smooth
light pressure. Slowly build up these areas by blending look, we can add in areas of interest. For example, we could draw a much darker
the lighter relative shades in between. cloud in the middle of a brighter section to push the realism and add contrast.

13 White pencil
We can be a bit more lenient with studying our
reference for this background element as nebulae and
galaxies are natural, so we have a bit of artistic liberty. I
14 Make final touches
Not forgetting that the magic in her hand interacts with the background,
like to make up some cloud sections and shapes here, we need to remember to blend the lighter blue shades around the magic with the
while still keeping within the rules of the nebula. Using gradually darker blues going into the background. Once all the colouring has been
my Luminance sharpened white pencil, I can carve in finished, we can now have some fun adding in stars. I like to keep them dispersed
the layers of clouds to suggest depth and detail. in the darker sections and more clustered in the lighter parts.

97
 Traditional Artist Interview

First Impressions
Etara allowed me to practise a lot on
The artist reflects greater control and management of
colour shading. When I look back at
on an everlasting my old works and compare them to
journey of learning this one, I can see that I’ve achieved
several milestones, but just as many
await me in the future.
Where did you grow
up and how has this What character or scene that you’ve
influenced your art? painted do you most identify with?
I grew up in a quiet I always try to include something
area of northern Italy, that reflects my being or way of
and I think that’s influenced my art thinking in each of my paintings.
and the way I look at it. I want to All of them have been important to
convey a sense of tranquillity and my personal and artistic growth.
calmness, trying to make people Most of my characters convey a
forget, even for a moment, the feeling of nostalgia, often with a
hustle and bustle of their lives. gaze that absorbedly looks away.

What, outside of art, has most What are your painting rituals?
influenced your work? Before starting, I thoroughly clean
There have been various influences, my work surface, and clean and put
but I think the biggest came from each brush back in place. I remove
my interest in mythology. I love any superfluous objects from view,
everything related to folk myths; as this helps me clear my mind and
the telling of fantastic creatures that make room for new ideas. Once
belong to folk culture and tradition, that’s done, I can start §painting.
with particular attention to the
bond created between natural and Is creating art as a career all you
supernatural elements. My interest OPHELIA the first time I remember feeling a thought it would be?
and studies over the years have With this painting, I wanted to sense of fulfilment; I was thrilled Like any work that has its focus on
focus on the facial shading and
travelled from Northern Europe to create a more silky effect. that someone appreciated my work one’s skills, it’s taken years to be
the Far East of Asia, and all of this so much that they wanted to hang able to achieve good results, where
has gone, even indirectly, to deeply it. That was several years ago, and the main elements are practice and
influence my art. over time my skills have improved. perseverance. Although it feels like
My painting style has matured and a somewhat circuitous path in the
What was your first paid attention to detail increased. beginning, with the right time and
commission, and does it stand patience one can find great personal
as a representation of your talent? What’s the last piece that you satisfaction. In addition, the artistic
My first commission was a portrait finished, and how do the two community is large and varied, so
painting with a floral theme. It was artworks differ? once you choose your niche, it’s
There are so many differences that I much easier to find a large audience,
THE HUNT OF ORION wouldn’t know where to start. With especially through social media.
This piece takes inspiration from
Greek mythology, and narrates experience and time, I’ve gone on to
the huntsman Orion’s pursuit
of the Pleiades.
modify and improve every possible What does the future hold for you?
element, starting with character I have lots of projects in mind, but
design, composition and balancing. I’ve always wanted to create an
Recently I’ve been working on a artbook that collects most of my
portrait, Ophelia. This painting has works. It would be a challenging but
truly rewarding experience.
I was thrilled that someone Etara has exhibited her paintings in
several international galleries. Her work is
appreciated my work so much focused on acrylic colours and specialises
in the representation of surreal female
they wanted to hang it figures. See more at [Link].

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