Imagine FX, Issue 126, is all about The Beauty of Black and White. I was surprised how a simple palette can be so intriguing and give so much inspiration.
The article on going freelance vs. studio (pp. 19 & 20) gave some great knowledge into both fields and the benefits and drawbacks found with each. I enjoyed taking a peak into the studio space of Bastien Lecouffe Deharme (pp. 24 & 25) where he keeps taxidermies, a pin board full of reference images, and employes two drawing spaces: a digital and a traditional set up. He says things go from chaos to order and back again between projects and wishes he had a more dedicated studio instead of an office space. He says of his space, "...when I'm 'in,' I'm at work. When I'm 'out,' I'm available for some time off," a motto I'd like to adopt! In the Q&A section I enjoyed three demos in particular: on simplifying a composition with a viking ship (p. 33), on depicting a volcanic scene (p. 34), and finally painting a storm in space (p. 39).
The special section on limited palette greyscale artwork (pp. 40-53) was phenomenal; I particularly enjoyed the charcoal and gold leaf work of Yoann Lossel (pp. 40 & 41), the scratchboard drawings of Nicholas Delort (p. 48 & 49), the digital paintings of Charlie Bowater (p. 50), and a pencil sketch done by Bastien Lecouffe Deharme (p. 53). My favorite tip from the section was from Nicolas Delort who suggested looking at others work for inspiration, he said, "you might think that by not looking at other stuff your own art will be less influenced and more original, but in truth you'll end up serving tropes and cliches you've absorbed unwillingly over the years." Personally, I couldn't agree more so long as that's not all it ends up being, ie. just looking. To take that one step further, be sure the looking has a purpose and move from inspiration to application.
You might think that by not looking at
other stuff your own art will be less influenced
and more original, but in truth you'll end up
serving tropes and chicles you've absorbed
unwillingly over the years.
- Nicholas Delort
The article on award winning fantasy sculptor, Forest Rodgers (pp. 56-59), was fascinating and a nice break from 2D. The inside look into on her process and materials is something I want to keep around for future maquette building projects. Darron Yeow (pp. 62-65) had some masterly, albeit a bit too creepy for me, drawings/paintings featured in the Sketchbook section. It was delightful to look into Charlie Bowater's process on painting this month's cover image (pp. 68-71). As always, her stunning designs and thorough process are inspirational, and my favorite tricks to take away were on using layer masks, clipping masks, and painting semi-transparent fabrics. In the workshop by Brian Matyas, I absolutely loved the idea of creating a mini color palette (p. 82) to keep while painting, he organized the colors from light to dark for each area of the painting, a trick that seems to mimic traditional painting and one I am absolutely going to try! Some noteworthy Reviews were of the versatile digital sketching tool, Mischeif 2.1 (p. 94); a new traditional painting tutorial from concept art legend, Syd Mead (p. 95) available to download at The Gnomon Workshop; and a new Disney book, Pinocchio: The Making of the Disney Epic (p. 96).
Fantasy Illustration was the theme of this month's traditional art section (pp. 99-113). The Figurative Illustrative Workshop (pp. 104 & 105) took me back to the Costume Life Drawing club my friends and I created while I was still in college! By far my favorite articles in this section were the tutorial on burnishing charcoal drawing skills by Patrick J. Jones (pp. 106-111); and the simple yet confidence building techniques shared on drawing animals in action by Brynn Metheney (pp. 112-113).
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