One world at a time - Environment paintings

[wilkerson]

sketch

[bbwolf]

Wow. I really Love the last one.

[wilkerson]

Thanks bbwolf, blazingdimensions, it means a lot to me.

[wilkerson]

faster painting, kind of a sequel to "Scavengers".






Might continue to work on this if I get some inspiration.

[wilkerson]

Wilkerson's pile of unfinished work, January 2013







I would really love to be able to turn every sketch/wip into something great but its not going to happen.
Here's how you can help: if you like any of these please let me know. Maybe I could even combine a couple into one.
Be as harsh/nice as you like, I hate most of these anyway.

[Overtoom]

Great work, really like the rust floor and the blue lava! Seems you like Thomas Scholes quite a bit too :p

[wilkerson]

Thanks Overtoon. Do you think the blue lava looks like Scholes?

[wilkerson]

This was an old one I put away for 2 years. Recently I started working on it again, fixing and finishing.






My entry for the Environment of the Week Competition:

[wilkerson]

I've started exploring Zbrush, seeing what it can do beyond aliens and monsters. I believe that it has potential for environment concept art not yet realized.
The software is very counter-intuitive for people used to photoshop, maybe thats part of the problem. In any case, I was messing around with 2.5D cubes.



This is a more traditional kind of sculpt, a self portrait I'm still working on.




I had this idea for an image that was made of metallic cubes in rock. It was really hard to get the cubes aligned using just the mesh insert brush, I don't really know what I'm doing. The default materials are pretty good, this was foil I think.
Still a wip, the background needs development and the composition sucks.

[Yemi775]

awesome man work man you perspective works make my jaw drop in a good way keep 'em coming. Thanks for stopping by my page between.

[wilkerson]

I totally forgot to post this bad boy. I'm very proud of it.


















This is a preliminary 3d render of a piece I've been developing in my head and in maya. The plan is to use a metallic material for the blocks and add some figures and other points of interest top right.






I'm taking a class with The Art Department.

some experiments:





white on white thumbnails

[BlackDelphin]

Sweet! The atmosphere in your envos is getting better and better.
I looked at your portfolio/blog. This one is really awesome! It keeps popping into my memory.

And thanks for the help in my sketchbook with those eye studies, I took into consideration
your advice and worked some more on them. Turned out better now.

Keep doing a fabulous job in here.

[wilkerson]

Just messing around with a maya render











I'm designing a series of a guns from a fictitious video game. The plan is to add them to my portfolio to show game companies what I can do besides environments.
Sniper rifle (slightly futuristic)

[wilkerson]

works in progress

[xinranliu]

It's really cool the kind of 3D stuff you're incorporating in your images, especially the abstract cubes images.

[wilkerson]

A self portrait I'm working on for TAD pnt201.
Acrylic on canvas

[wilkerson]

Acrylic paintings for TAD

[wilkerson]

This is a reallllly old one, I think I ripped off somebody just a little bit because I was still learning








I painted over a mandelbulber image one night, not developed, just a quick experiment.



First stage, WIP

[kevin_]

cool updates and good progress, your environments look great!

[cumquat]

oh my gosh, your environment stuff is ah-mazing. Really inspiring stuff; I'm really liking those cloudy mountains you just posted. There's a real sense of mood there.

[wilkerson]

Thanks kevin and cumquat, glad you like it!

[KiBa]

Your environments are suberb! Also, this pattern experiment looks interesting. Maybe a new workflow?

[snatti]

cool stuff man, one thing i noticed when going thro the pages is that you don't really have much clean interior shots, might be something to try a bit more of, can be good addition to your portfolio material but just an idea! keep going!

[wilkerson]

@kiBa thank you! I had to start with an abstract composition for this TAD assignment and I like the high-spacing brushes because they create a very digital aesthetic. From there I just tried to turn the mess into something more coherent.

@snatti thanks! You are totally right, there needs to be more interior environments in my portfolio.



wip









Final

[wilkerson]

[LtPlissken]

You are the true environment master.

[Vulgar`]

It was appropriate that you coughed considering how broody and dusty the atmosphere of this latest piece above is; the eggs/orbs in the trees are pretty cool additions. What's the story here?

[xinranliu]

oh the "throught the valley" piece looks great! very nice atmosphere

[wilkerson]

LtPlissken: thanks you are too kind

vulgar: No definite or specific story there, just a forest in a fantasy world. I imaging the ghostly lady watches the woods in some way. The piece looked a little bland so I added the orb things for some colour and variety.

xinranliu: thank you



One of the things that's not talked about is how making your workflow smoother can help your art.
Every painter using photoshop should customize their keyboard and menus for the process.


Some settings I use:


f1-image size
f2- flip image horizontal
f3- flip vertical
f11- deselect
f12- custom script

l- lasso
A- polygon lasso
i- dodge
o- burn
y-smudge (rake brush)
n-gradient

shift+f4 - smooth selection
shift+f5 - fill
shit+f6 - feather selection

alt+ctrl+f5= unsharp mask

f12 is tied to a custom script which saves a jpg copy of the current image.
Dodge and burn have separate keys: should be default imo.

I paint within lasso selections a lot. I can smooth and feather them very easily now saving a lot of time.

Menus can also be color-coded and rarely used commands can be hidden. Very helpful.

Complex actions can be bound to f8.

[wilkerson]

Small update, fixed the colour.









Step-by-step process










Final