In this workshop, I’ll show you how I create my artwork using my own photos, 3D models, and custom brushes. The workshop uses ZBrush and Keyshot for creating 3D models and rendering. Most of the image’s shape and composition is built in Photoshop with blends of images, textures, and brush strokes.
This process starts with simple shapes that are repeated, flipped, and rotated to build out the artwork and find more abstract shapes to fill in the composition. I start in ZBrush, making basic spiral shapes that resemble organic elements such as horns and branches. I then render these in Keyshot with three layers to create light, depth and shadow.
These iterations are then saved as Photoshop files with a transparent background, so they can be dragged into the main composition to build up the overall silhouette.
Once I’m happy with the overall shape of the composition, I’ll bring it into Painter and use blender brushes such as Fractured blender and Stencil oily blender to break it up into an abstract painting on multiple layers. Once I’m happy with the overall textures and abstract shapes here, I move the image back and forth between Painter and Photoshop using masks and adjustment layers to finalize the shapes, tones, and details, bringing the artwork to completion.
1 Finding inspiration at home
My son Luke has become one of the main inspirations of my personal work, and I often shoot images of him early in the morning when bed hair and morning light make a great combination. The main elements I use to start one of my personal works are a strong subject, stock photos of props, abstract 3D elements, and images of textures and particles that I create myself.
2 Prepping the image
Esta historia es de la edición October 2020 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 October 2020 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