One world at a time - Environment paintings

[wilkerson]

Its been 2 (edit 4) years since I rededicated myself to artmaking so I thought it time to start a new thread. Much older stuff can be found in my other thread. link


My education: a Bachelor of Fine Arts and certificate in 3d. Neither one helps much with my current work.
I use photoshop almost exclusively with brushes from m@, inetgrafx, and myself. The main ones are chalk and soft/hard rounds but when doing landscapes I use a lot of custom brushes; trees, leaves, ground textures, clouds, rock, etc. Those are invaluable for quality and time-saving.
I get inspiration from artists here on CA and elsewhere. My favourite concept artists are Ryan Church, Feng Zhu, Sparth, and Levi Hopkins.








old stuff

[MathiasDK]

it's great to see a collection of some of your best environmental paintings! I would really like to hear more about what program and brushes you use and more about where you find inspiration and such.

[wilkerson]

I use photoshop almost exclusively with brushes from m@, inetgrafx, and myself. The main ones are chalk and soft/hard rounds but when doing landscapes I use a lot of custom brushes; trees, leaves, ground textures, clouds, rock, etc. Those are invaluable for quality and time-saving. Sometimes when you can't find what you want you'll have to make your own, ie, bubbles, fish.
I get inspiration from artists here on CA and elsewhere. My favourite concept artists are Ryan Church, Dylan Cole, Feng Zhu, Carlos Huante, Sparth, James Clyne, Pao, and the guys from MB. I also collect A LOT of reference photos.

[Diarum]

I love your stuff on here, its so cool, I hope to be at this level of awesomness I guess you could say lol, I didn't know how else to express that level at which your work is at.

[wilkerson]

photostudies and originals

[Zweit]

Egads our group has shrunk a fair bit. I'm not even sure I understand why Leo left. :/

Well regardless good work. The new thread's off to a strong start. I'll try and get my own thread humming again and we might be able to salvage the group.

[wilkerson]

some old drawings from my sketchbook to update the thread















drawings

[Leo Ki]

Yep, new thread!
The way you render rocks and mountains is savory, and the yellow plain and range under deep blue sky has a particular presence.
Glad to see some line art again. Lines so clean invite coloring.
The outer walls of the base on the latest picture look very low and poorly defensive where the terrain is higher.
HTH

Egads our group has shrunk a fair bit. I'm not even sure I understand why Leo left. :/

I left because I failed at updating again (was my PM that unclear?). The group needs fresh blood.
But I'm still around to read your threads. See, I'm there!

[wilkerson]

some portraits








based on Sir Thomas Lawrence's "Portrait of Klemens Wenzel von Metternich", 1814-19

[Dahami]

I am incredibly impressed with your environments... Both the mundane landscapes and the sci fi scenes. Your figure studies and portraits are great too.

[wilkerson]

thanks, but I take exception to the word mundane.


here's something I did yesterday for practice

[Zweit]

Real nice work there. Grats.

Regarding the mars-base looking thing you posted, it's good but the base itself is so clean and featureless I initially thought you had just painted some dunes around a 3D geometry render with ordinary lamberts applied. I really like the way you painted the horizon and all that though.

Edit: sorry for the inactivity again. I'll explain in detail when I update my thread, but I should have some new stuff coming around the bend in the next week.

[FightingSeraph]

Excellent environments, Wilkerson.

[wilkerson]

These are so old...but I remember them fondly
ships by smokinmonkey and coxxon I think







some things I did with Lunarcell. Good for quick renders but not the most realistic. Still I thought I would show them.

[michaeljared]

My favorites are your landscapes you did by themselves, really nice work.

[in2eternity]

wow, great environments! You can create an unique athmosphere on every of those

[wilkerson]

tried some new things would appreciate some critique on this one

[wilkerson]

I'm going to do more studies of certain types of environments. With this one I stayed very close to the reference to learn as much as possible. I used some textures in soft light mode for the hieroglyphics.

[Leo Ki]

Uh, the base disappeared?
Nice varied skintones on #11, they call for polishing.
On #17 the leftmost tower looks out of tone - maybe because of its darkness?

[wilkerson]

I signed an NDA so you will not see that base or anything from that project for a while.

He's a speedpaint 1hr


P.s. Screw deviantart they don't appreciate things that arent shiny and artificial.
CA is much better!

[wilkerson]

I worked on this one some more because I realize now that it is not finished.

[wilkerson]

[Jesus Food]

nice work in here man, yaaaaaay pudding!!

[Zweit]

Environments are looking strong as always. Can't argue with your choice of subject matter either in regards to that A-10 Warthog (I loved those as a kid). The highlights along its nose kind of make it look pointy and beak-like rather than torpedo shaped. Sorry for the nitpick, aircraft have always been a point of interest of mine.

[aiRaGe]

Some great stuff in here! Looking forward to seeing more environments. The last ones are dope!

[wilkerson]

Thanks guys.

[wilkerson]

[NickyBeats]

hi man, great sketchbook! its funny before you listed your favorite concept artists, i was thinking you must be influenced by ryan church, and feng zhu. (by the way we have a very simialar taste, i love all those dudes you mentioned, especially carlos huante!) the environments are looking really good, but now that you mentioned huante, i wanna see some painted up mutants or aliens. the line art is great, but hard to see, its kind of light on my monitor. but, anyhoo keep up the great work man.

[wilkerson]

I draw creatures from time to time but I've been very busy with environments, anatomy, and design. Its hard to find time for everything I want to do but I will do more monsters in the future.

Heres a fix to the previous painting. I'm satisfied with the result.

[wilkerson]

2hours