Monday, December 28, 2020

Yearly Wrap Up, Goodbye 2020, may we never see the likes of you again!

What a mess of a year! I'm sure I don't have to tell you what a crazy year this has been, we've all experienced it ourselves, and did our best to weather its uncertainty, it's troubles, and even a few of you likely had to battle the virus in person. But it's time for the yearly round up of soulburn art, and 2020 isn't gonna stop me from doing it, so here goes.

In a week I will have been working at Monolith for 2 years as a staff concept artist. We were the lucky ones, the videogame industry is still going strong since so many customers had to stay indoors, many friends in the live action portion of the film industry had a much more difficult year (not to mention all of the front line workers, essential workers, etc), looking forward to everyone moving in the right direction again in 2021. As for our new game, I'm currently on concept piece #633, still awhile before we can show what we've been working on, but leave it to say I have a lot of new artwork to choose from when it comes time to share. Really proud of the entire Monolith team, this game is gonna be crazy cool! 

The main focus this year for me in my side hussle was the Megastructures book. We're about a week away from all the artwork for the book being completed (will do a separate post on that when it is). While a lot of work, really really happy with how the book is going so far, and I think you will be too. And thanks to the awesome guest artists who helped out!

Then 2020 saw the release of V1 Interactive's "Disintegration" videogame, and the release of a bunch of concept art I made for the game. Did my 4th Inktober. Posted a whole bunch of new video tutorials to my youtube channel. No comicons this year for obvious reasons, hope to see that change next year.

So for 2021, I'll be continuing to work on the Monolith game (and may even return to the office mid year after 1.5 years working from home), and the main work on the Megastructures book will be done, and we can focus on publishing, either with a major publisher or kickstarting a self published book.

To everyone who has been following my work this year, thanks you so much for being a part of this journey. May the coming of the vaccine allow us all to focus again on connecting with each other in person. We are social creatures, and this year has made that very hard. So may next year be a renaissance of parties, concerts, and human connection. And may everyone who has been affected by 2020 (whether its sickness, losing a loved one, losing their job) get back on track in 2021!

Sunday, December 20, 2020

Inc Alien Interior 2

An older image from the Inc Book Project, check out the book if you need a last minute Christmas present: http://neilblevins.com/books/inc/inc.htm

Monday, December 14, 2020

Planetary Heart

It's been awhile since I've had the time to do a personal art piece that's not part of a larger project. Our hero discovers an ancient alien artifact on a distant planet.

Thursday, November 5, 2020

Megastructures Update #4 Nov 2020


Welcome to the 4th official Megastructure Book Project Update, a visual encyclopedia of scifi megastructures!

I just passed a major personal milestone on the project, and completed my very last painting for the book! My 32nd painting is done, the Standford Torus, which I had left for last since it was going to be one of the most difficult.

So all the art is done then? Not quite, but we're close. As I mentioned earlier, I have a team of guest artists who are contributing a number of pieces of artwork to the book. All of them are working hard to get those last images done. So we currently stand at 91% art complete, and we're still on track to get all the artwork done by Christmas. Over the next 2 months I will polish the text in the book while I wait for those final images, and then the second rough layout starts in January.

So more progress is being made! Thanks again for following along, next update should be to announce all the artwork is done.

Saturday, October 31, 2020

Week #4 of Inktober 2020!

4th and final week of Inktober 2020. Thanks everyone for following along! 







Saturday, October 24, 2020

Week #3 of Inktober 2020!

 Week #3 of Inktober 2020!







Saturday, October 17, 2020

Week #2 of Inktober 2020!

 Week #2 of Inktober 2020!








Saturday, October 10, 2020

Week #1 of Inktober 2020!

 Week #1 of Inktober 2020!










Thursday, September 24, 2020

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Compositional Weight

Just posted this text / video lesson called "Compositional Weight", discussing how to balance your paintings visually using contrast to draw the eye. Hope you find it helpful! 

http://www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/compositional_weight/compositional_weight.htm

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

What Is A Pitchbook?

Had a bunch of people over the weekend asking me what a Pitchbook was. So wrote an article on the subject. In short, it's a book with images and words you use to sell an IP to a film or videogame executive. The more detailed answer: 

http://neilblevins.com/art_lessons/pitchbook/pitchbook.htm

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Megastructures Lowres Buildings

A bunch of low res futuristic buildings I made as background elements for various "Megastructures" images.

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

New Photobash Pack from Utah

Added a photobash picture pack from Arches National Park in Utah to Artstation and Gumroad. Great for concept art, matte paintings and general reference. 

http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/photobash/Soulburn_PhotobashAssetPack_UtahArchesNationalPark_1.htm

Used these photos extensively for many of my "The Story of Inc" artwork.

 

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

What is a Tangent? And How To Solve Them

A tangent simply is an area where two things in an image are nearly touching or actually touching, and in doing so create a visual mistake that the human eye doesn't like. It can lead to confusion in the viewer, like it can draw the eye to a part of the painting that's unimportant, it can just feel wrong or strange, or it can confuse the viewer as to the relative depth of the two objects. This lesson explains in more detail what a tangent is, and the best ways to fix them in your own artwork.

http://www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/tangents/tangents.htm

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Wrting A Concept Brief

A Concept Brief is a document that a client / art director makes for the concept artist to explain what they'd like them to design. It includes information like what the object / character is, what format the art should take, reference images, etc. Watch or read this short lesson on how to write a good concept brief, or if you're an artist, what things you should expect from one.

http://www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/writing_a_concept_brief/writing_a_concept_brief.htm 


Tuesday, August 25, 2020

New Photoshop Brush Pack

Added a Photoshop Brush pack of Tree Silhouettes to artstation and Gumroad, great for far away trees and super closeup trees that don't need any interior details.

http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/brushes/Soulburn_BrushAssetPack_TreeSilhouettes_1.htm

And here's a painting I did many years ago with these brushes, along with a tutorial discussing how to make your own tree brushes

http://www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/tree_brush/tree_brush.htm

 

 

Sunday, August 23, 2020

Revised and New Assets Available On Gumroad and Artstation Marketplace

Began the process of moving over my art assets to their new home on Gumroad / ArtStation marketplace. https://gumroad.com/artofsoulburn or https://www.artstation.com/artofsoulburn/store

Each pack contains a mix of previously available assets, updated assets and brand new assets. Hopefully you'll find the new stuff worth the $1-2 I'm asking for each pack.

First up is my texture pack, now with 15 brand new high res textures. Metal, Concrete, Paint, Rust, Cloth, Leather, Marble, Weathering. Check them out here http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/textures/Soulburn_TextureAssetPack_Variety_1.htm

Next is my robot material pack. If you use 3dsmax and vray, everything you need to make a good rusty and worn industrial robot. http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/materials/Soulburn_MaterialAssetPack_Robots_1.htm

Used the robot materials to do all the texturing on my "Inc The Robot"

And here's a video tutorial showing you the best way to use these materials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogqAWmFTYck

Third pack is my material variety pack, 32 materials including Concrete, Pottery, Plastic, Marble, Clay, Fabric, Leather, Glass, Metals, and Test / Utility materials.  http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/materials/Soulburn_MaterialAssetPack_Variety_1.htm

And finally, once you've applied the materials to your models, you'll want some neutral lighting rigs to test out your materials for consistency. http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/env/Soulburn_EnvAssetPack_NeutralLightRig_1.htm 

And here's a tutorial discussing the value of a good neutral lighting rig, and how to make your own: http://www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/neutral_lighting_rig/neutral_lighting_rig.htm

That's it for now. And I have 4 more packs of all new assets in progress of reference pictures, brushes, previs models and spaceship textures that I hope to have ready in the coming weeks.


Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Concept Design For Games Vs Film

Having now worked for almost 3 years doing concept design for games (after a 16 year film career as a digital artist), wanted to write an article about some of the differences I've noticed between concept for film vs concept for games...

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/concept_design_for_games_vs_film/concept_design_for_games_vs_film.htm

Saturday, August 15, 2020

Update To My Painting Starship Hull Tutorial

People frequently ask me "Can I use an image like your Starship Hull as a texture?" The answer is no, not as is, but with some alterations they can be. For a more details, see the update to my "Painting Starship Hulls" lesson: neilblevins.com/cg_education/s

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Exhibiting at Lightbox Expo Online 2020

No in-person https://lightboxexpo.com/ this year unfortunately, but I'll have a virtual booth in their Online Expo along with 100s of awesome professionals in the entertainment industry. Got a sneak peek at the expo format and it looks amazing! So join us Sept 11-13th!