Happy 2018!

2018 has been quite a year. As many of you know, it started with me leaving Pixar after 16 years. Approaching the midpoint of my career, it was time to make a change and explore new horizons, and so I spent the entire year freelancing.

I learned so much from this experience, I learned about working remotely, running a small business, paying for my own health insurance (26k a year for a family of 3 btw). I shifted my work from mostly film to mostly videogame work. My first book “The Story Of Inc” shipped to 500 customers. I started up work on a number of new personal IPs, and resurrected a few older IPs that I feel have potential. I taught a 6 week class in concept art to a local class of art students. And our family asked ourselves a lot of hard questions about where we want to live for the next 10-20 years.

All of these new experiences have given me the confidence and knowledge to move forward with the next stages of my artistic career and life. While it is likely I will do more freelancing at some later point, I will be going back to a staff job in the coming year. I will announce more soon, but I am thrilled to be moving onto an exciting new project with a veteran team of professionals in the videogame industry.

It is time for the next chapter. Thank you so much for following along all these years, expect a lot of new artwork, books and educational materials in the coming year. May your 2019 be filled with positive change and bright new possibilities!

Space Ship 38 Line Sketch

I know, it's not Inktober, but that doesn't mean I'm not doodling the rest of the year :)

Inc God Robot 2 Final Battle 1

Inc and Landis are unprepared for the wrath of the second guardian. This is a good example of an image designed for a book, where the middle of the image is left mostly blank so that the painting would work well on a 2 page spread.

Eden Habitat 2

Experiment 2 showing potential designs for "Eden Habitat", merging architecture and nature into a future utopia. This island has been built up into a futuristic castle of sorts, a giant ant hill with people and apartments on the outside, and an interior geofront for industrial purposes. Decided to go with a semi cloudy day, the sunlit with cloud shadows look is always difficult to do, hopefully I managed to make it feel natural.

Mothership At Sunset Rough

Quick painting inspired by all of the cities in the clouds from my childhood. Started out as a painting exercise, trying to emulate the cloud styles of some of my favorite artists (I always felt my painterly clouds needed work), had so much fun that I kept adding elements until I ended up in a different spot than where I originally intended to go. Tried to keep this one rough and painterly and not overwork it. Procreate & Photoshop.

CGTrader Neil Blevins Interview

The website CGTrader was nice enough to do an interview with me a few weeks ago talking about art, industry trends, etc. Really impressed with how professional these guys were, for those who don't know, CGTrader is a market place for 3d models and other things 3d artists need. Had a fun time chatting with them. Read it here:

https://www.cgtrader.com/blog/cgtrader-interviews-neil-blevins-2018-11

6 Week Class Finished at Sadie Valeri Atelier

Just finished teaching my 6 week class at the Sadie Valeri Atelier in San Francisco. Did a crash course in my workflow for digital concepting from original thumbnails to simple 3d, photomanip and final hand painting. Thanks so much to everyone who attended and all your hard work on the assignments. For those of you who were on the wait list, it's very likely I'll do the class again in the future, so watch this space for news if you're in the bay area and want to attend. And in the meantime, check out Sadie's school, lots of great traditional classes to explore:

https://www.sadievaleriatelier.com/

Inktober 2018 Week 4

Weekly roundup of Inktober Drawings, the final week! Thanks everyone for following along, now back to some painting!

Inktober 2018 Week 3

Week 3 roundup of Inktober work:

http://twitter.com/ArtOfSoulburn

http://www.instagram.com/artofsoulburn/

Foggy Morning At The Abandonned Tower

Haven't done a fantasy piece in awhile.

The Heritage Universe Zardalu

A Zardalu from the Charles Sheffield book series The Heritage Universe.

Inktober 2018 Week 2

Week 2 roundup of Inktober work:

http://twitter.com/ArtOfSoulburn

http://www.instagram.com/artofsoulburn/

Inktober 2018 Week 1

So another October means another Inktober, this is my second year participating. I'm posting daily on my Twitter and Instagram, but will post a weekly roundup here for those interested.

http://twitter.com/ArtOfSoulburn 

http://www.instagram.com/artofsoulburn/

SoulburnScripts Updated Sept 26th 2018

Updated 10 older Maxscripts:

cameraFromPerspView: Added ability to place the newly created camera on a new layer.
cameraLensPackager: Fixed an issue where button tooltips wouldn't update properly.
groupWithPoint: Added ability to place the point at the lowest point instead of centered. This can be helpful when the object is sitting on the floor and you want to have the pivot point on the floor as well.
imagePlaneMaker: Layer is places the templates is now called "_imagePlaneMaker" so it appears at the top of the layer stack.
objectReplacer: Now you can keep your user properties as well when copying.
snapShoter: Newly create objects remain on the layer their original started on.
soulburnAssetLoader: Changed the name of the Environment layer to "_EnvSAL" so it always shows up at the top of the Alphabetical Layer list.
splinePainter: Fixed a bug that would crash the script if you tried loading some presets.
texmapPreview: Fixed some code so the script now works with vray next.
twoDPlanView: Cameras are now placed in a "_Cams" layer.

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/scripts/3dsmax/soulburnscripts.htm

Thanks to everyone for your support.

Half Moon Troop Transport

Rough spaceship painting. Tried to keep it rougher than my usual rough, but it's always just too temping to add more and more details and tweaks. Inspired by a tree hopper insect, the spaceships of star wars, and a half moon.

Alien Spider Walker

Digital ink doodle, an alien spider walker.

Smash Giant 2

A giant robot I designed for a short film code named "Smash" my wife is working on. The simple 3d model was passed to her to begin previs / layout, then I painted this concept of the final modeling and texturing of the robot over top of the lowres 3d model. When the film reaches a point where it'll need a final model, I'll replicate the concept in full 3d. Inspired by the original transformers, many older animes such as Mazinger Z, Gundam, Patlabor, and of course the more modern Pacific Rim.

"The Story Of Inc" Reviewed in 3D World Magazine

Second book review of "The Story Of Inc", this time in 3D World magazine. They also gave it 4 out of 5 stars, saying it's "beautifully constructed" and "the art is stunning". Check out the latest issue of 3D World for the full review (a million thanks for including us!), in bookstores now!

http://www.neilblevins.com/books/inc/inc.htm

Megastructures 11 Rungworld 4

Inspired by the photography of ISS astronaut Alexander Gerst, this is a second painting depicting the megastructure known as a Rungworld.

"The Story Of Inc" Reviewed in ImagineFX Magazine

Thanks to ImagineFX magazine for the first book review of "The Story Of Inc". They gave it 4 out of 5 stars, saying it's "well produced" and "the high quality of the story absolutely matches the quality of the artwork". I've actually had a subscription to the magazine for years, as it always has lots of interviews with inspiring concept artists and tons of tutorials, so we're honored to be included in their 164th issue. Check out the magazine at your local bookstore, and grab a copy of the book if you haven't already: http://www.neilblevins.com/books/inc/inc.htm

Concept Art Course with Neil Blevins at the Sadie Valeri Atelier

For anyone who lives in or around the Bay Area, I will be teaching a course at the world-class Sadie Valeri Atelier on my process for making digital concept art. The 6 week class (once a week for 3 hours each) will focus on mixing simple 3d, photobashing, and hand paint techniques to make compelling digital imagery. There is 1 last slot open in my class of 12 students starting September 20th, so come join me, it's going to be tons of fun! And check out the other classes and workshops in traditional painting and drawing offered at the school, some fantastic courses to take. Hope to see you there!

https://www.sadievaleriatelier.com/classes

Space Ship 19

Sketching with my kid this morning. This is some sort of cross between a snow speeder and a cylon warship I guess

Nuthin Buch Mech 4

So Lorin Wood has gotten the band back together and is releasing the 4th "Nuthin' But Mech" book. Robotic artwork from dozens of professional artists, and I am lucky enough to have a new piece included in the collection. Pre-orders here: 

https://www.amazon.com/Nuthin-But-Mech-Various-Artists/dp/1624650384/