We were really pleased when Le Snoot Gallery contacted us recently, telling us about an up-coming show featuring Blake Bradley. First of all, if you are anywhere near Savannah, USA then Le Snoot looks like a fantastic place to see local creative talent.
Here’s a little about Blake’s show:
“Magical creatures roam this earth, both good and evil, unseen by most as they search for a place to call home. Blake Bradley has pulled back the thin veil separating our world from theirs, bringing to life a showcase of bewitching and demented creatures that have finally found a spot to rest.
Featuring a mix of razor-sharp talons, distorted figures and flowing line work, Blake’s work is a juxtaposition of hideous beauty and ethereal decadence.
Make the journey to Gallery Le Snoot’s exhibition, “A Creature Fix”, on February 8th to discover Blake Bradley’s world, and to view and purchase the best of his work.”
Our friends at 3DTotal have just launched LayerPaint, a great new resource site dedicated to 2D digital painting. It is already filled with resources, tutorials, and inspiration galleries. here is what 3DTotal had to say about their latest venture,
LayerPaint allows you to browse the gallery, interviews, news, tutorials and products all dedicated to 2D digital art. On top of that, we have included a free custom brushes library that is available to all our LayerPaint audience.
We wish LayerPaint to be a definitive resource for digital painting, creating a friendly and educational environment that not only helps budding and experienced CG artists alike, but also showcases some of the best computer generated artwork in the world.
You can also keep tabs on LayerPaint’s updates by following their Facebook and Twitter page.
In other news
We had a great response from January’s Giveaway, so a very big thank you to everyone who entered. We have announced the winner. We are now working on this months competition and will be posting it soon, so stay tuned!
Thank you to everyone that entered last months Olly Moss Christmas giveaway. The winner has now been announced.
This month we are giving away a brilliant large Ghostbusters print by graphic designer/illustrator Andy Fox aka 88Fox. Printed on 508mm x 406mm high quality heavyweight Fuji photographic paper. Satin finish with strong, vibrant colours.
For your chance to win, you must simply do two things:
1. Firstly you need to follow either our Facebook page or our Twitter (if you are not already following us).
2. Secondly you MUST answer the following question by either writing on our Facebook wall or on Twitter using our tag @the_loungers.
Question:
Who designed the famous “No ghost” logo?
All answers must be in before the 31st of January 2013. A winner will be selected at random and announced on the 1st of February 2013 and contacted via Facebook or Twitter.
Explore the digital advent calendar by Shape Design Studio! Open up a different illustration (and download if you wish), every day until Christmas. 25 illustrators from around the world have been asked to illustrate a shape in their own style; talents include Brandon James Scott, Timothy Joe Reynolds and Lydia Nichols. Visit ‘It’s a Shape Christmas.’
Thank you to everyone that entered last months 3DTotal giveaway, we had such a great response and really appreciate the support. Thank you to the the 3DTotal team! The winners have now been announced.
Olly Moss has quickly become, according to Slashfilm, one of the most in demand and influential pop culture artists today. For his simple but brilliant first book, Olly has put his own twist on the Victorian art of silhouette portraits. While this gorgeous gift volume might look as if its from the 1890s, its pages contain todays favourite cult characters from movies, TV, comics and videogames.
For your chance to win a copy, you must simply do two things:
1. Firstly you need to follow either our Facebook page or our Twitter (if you are not already following us).
2. Secondly you MUST answer the following question by either pasting the your answer on our Facebook wall or on Twitter using our tag @the_loungers.
Question:
The cover of Silhouettes From Popular Culture features a features a very famous Hollywood character, what is the name of the actress who played her?
All answers must be in before the 31st of December 2012. A winner will be selected at random and announced on the 1st of January 2013 and contacted via Facebook or Twitter.
We will be giving away two sets of these sought-after books, and all you have to do to be in for a chance to win simply RT and follow us on Twitter, or like and share us on Facebook
All entries must be in before the 30th of November 2012. Two winners will be selected at random and announced on the 1st of December 2012.
Good Luck!
The Review:
Elysium – The Art of Daarken
Elysium – The Art of Daarken is the first art book from illustrator and concept artist Daarken. It opens with a personal and rather funny foreword from fellow illustrator and personal friend kekai kotaki. Daarken then takes the helm to explain, in short, his journey to becoming an illustrator. The book is broken up into four main sections—Illustration, Concept Art, Fine Art, and Painting Workshop—and Daarken pops up now and then giving a little background and thought process of certain pieces.
For those of you unfamiliar Daarken’s work, he has illustrated for card games such as Magic: The Gathering and Duel Master, and video games such as Dungeons & Dragons and World of Warcraft. His Professional and personal works are all presented in this book, which creates a wide range genres and styles. To Daarken’s own admission he does not really do speed painting, which does leave an abundance of fully rendered and polished pieces. For those, like myself, who like to see more sketches and workings from an art book there are some great thumb sketches throughout the Concept Art section, as well as section dedicated to his sketches in the Fine Art section.
Daarken has been working professionally since 2004 and in that time has built an extensive portfolio as well as loyal fan base. I feel this book does do a great job collating that history, and pedestalling the skill involved in creating such illustrations. The book is 200 pages of inspiration and testament to Daarken as well as digital art.
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Beginner’s Guide to Digital Painting in Photoshop
Beginner’s Guide to Digital Painting in Photoshop is comprehensive introduction to digital painting. Aimed at the complete novice it begins with a step-by-step tutorial about working in Photoshop, explaining preferences, workspace, configuring your tablet properties and goes into useful details about creating bushes and setting up your canvas.
Following the set up there are a few pages on art theory—colours, composition, and perspective—which tie in with the Photoshop tutorial, elaborating on certain tools and features. There is a section on “Art Fundamentals” which cover subject like lighting, portraying emotion, and storytelling. This section and some of the tone they employ when explaining certain things is perhaps my only gripe with the format of the book. Assuming you are a practising illustrator wanting to learn about digital painting, it may feel a bit of a waste to have colour theory and portraying emotion explained to you. However, of course I see their relevance for students or people coming from different disciplines.
About half way is where the good stuff begins in a section title “Complete Project”. This section has a process breakdown for creating a digital painting. It includes the thought process, planning as well as techniques to use to get certain effects. It does a good job of explaining the tips and tricks needed to make you image truly impressive.
In all Beginner’s Guide to Digital Painting in Photoshop is trove of very useful information and advice. With inspiring examples to learn from. It may take a few reads before you are putting into practice all of the tricks, but it definitely has all you need to feel confident to pick up your interactive pen start digital painting.
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For more information about 3DTotal please go to www.3dtotal.com and follow them on twitter – @3DTotal
A short while ago I was introduced to a restaurant/diner called Meat Liquor. Upon entering the establishment I was taken back by the wall to wall decoration. Every inch of every surface was covered in collages and illustrations. I spent most of the time with my burger in hand and my mouth wide open just looking around in an attempt to take it all in. I made a note to self, “must find out who is responsible.” Imagine my delight when I found out it was none other than illustration and design supper-team ilovedust. Check out the making-of video above, it really is sterling to see their techniques and process. Keep up-to-date with more exciting project from ilovedust over on their blog.
