Film lover Kevin McGivern celebrates Alien’s 40th anniversary by painting Ripley as she’s about to turn the heat up on the xenomorph…
I’ve been a subscriber to ImagineFX for many years, so being asked to illustrate the cover was a great thrill for me. Films are a huge inspiration for my work, so when I found out that the brief was to paint Ellen Ripley from Alien, I was over the moon!
In this workshop, I’ll go through my entire process, documenting every step of the way, answering many of the questions that have been asked in the past about my workflow. I’ll take you through the stages of laying down the initial sketches, to creating a tight drawing, making color roughs, my painting process and those finishing touches.
I’ve found throughout my career that the more organized I am at every stage, the better the piece turns out in the end. At this point, I’ve developed a pretty solid painting process, which I’ve found is important to give your work a consistent look and feel.
The first thing for me to do is to re-watch Alien films. It’s important for me to do this because I want to gain a sense of Ripley’s character, and the feel and mood of the first film – which is 40 years old! It also gives me the chance to look for subtleties in the character that I may have missed when just watching the film purely for enjoyment.
1 Create a handful of initial sketches
The brief from the ImagineFX team was quite straightforward. I had to illustrate the “iconic Ellen Ripley from the first Alien film” with the background of the USCSS Nostromo’s interior having a loosely sketched or hand-drawn look to it, so not as to overpower the cover. The drawing may be my favorite part of the process so I allowed myself to have some fun with some different poses for Ripley. The main criteria I gave myself was that she had to look iconic and strong.
2 Create a mood board
Esta historia es de la edición May 2019 de ImagineFX.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición May 2019 de ImagineFX.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Jan Wessbecher
Dominic Carter talks to the visual artist about creating his own comic and why sketchbooks are great for creative experiments
Kyounghwan Kim
The Korean character concept artist speaks to Dominic Carter about staying open to ideas and the value of drawing regularly
Slawek Fedorczuk
Dominic Carter talks to the concept artist about what keeps him motivated and the advantages of using physical sketchbooks.
Raquel M. Varela
Raquel is inspired by magic, fantasy and fairy tales. She loves designing female characters from distant worlds. \"My greatest reference is Loish's art, thanks to her I learned to draw the movement and fluidity I like to convey.\"
Estrela Lourenço
Estrela is a children's book author and illustrator. Her work is influenced by her background in character animation and storyboards for clients such as Cartoon Network, and she channels comic strips like Calvin and Hobbes.
Daria Widermanska
Daria, also known as Anako, has been drawing for as long as she can remember. Inspired by Disney and classic anime, she loves creating new characters and often finds that a single sketch can spark a unique story.
Allen Douglas
Allen has been painting professionally since 1994 for the publishing and gaming industries. Inspired by folklore, he distorts the size, relationships and environments of animals, and calls his paintings 'unusual wildlife'.
Thaddeus Robeck
Thaddeus has been drawing from the moment he could hold a pencil, but it was the 2020 lockdowns that gave him the time to focus on honing his skills.
DRAW FASCINATING SYMBOLIC ARTWORK
Learn how JULIÁN DE LA MOTA creates a composition from his imagination with a focus on crafting figures, volumetric modelling, and light and shadow
First Impressions
The artist talks about his journey into the mythological world