Some of my work 8-5-06

[Charlie_2.0]

Ahh sweet....saving them as we speak (or as I speak), terrific work (hmm..never used that work in a reply before, must have something to do with being crazy 'bout the pics )

[Cthogua]

HAHA! Incredible work...I've been wondering who did that piece on Offset's front page for a while now...and just the other day a coworker and I were talking about it and I said "whoever did that MUST be a matte painter." Just out of curiousity is matte painting something you intentionally studied or did you just arrive at it through contact with collegues? If it was something you intentionally directed yourself toward what kind of stuff did you study specifically? Obviously landscapes, form, and light, but was there any type of study or advice that you felt really improved your skills? Anyway, thanks for posting your beautiful work...I have a feeling I'm going to be looking at these alot.

[Aerythes]

These are all fricking stunning. And inspiring. Stunning and inspiring! I'm at a loss for words...

[Gavin Hargest]

Amazing, absolutely fantastic.

[|[ k ]|]

truly inspiring. pls do post more often.

[cobaltx]

OMG....amazing work!!

[dymrus]

speechless

[bwkeough]

ah nuts! great inspiration, the lighting is especially nice.

[Daniel Bragg, Jr.]

These are sick....off to paint now

[glynn james]

sweet, the volcano scenes remind me of mustafar of star wars.

[Infinit]

wow
...nothing more to add

[danica]

Man...0_0 that's just the awsomest backgounding EVER!!!

[Mecha Hate Chimp]

Wow... incredible work. I love the last one with the underwater environment. Beautiful.

[s_messing]

Thanks for the comments. I really appreciate it.

rWDrk and osgoon- Sorry, I have not done any tutorials. Maybe when I have more time but I dont really think I am at a level to be offering advice.

Cthogua- Throughout school I was very focused on matte painting. I dont know the best way to improve but I think studying photography, perspective, and landscape painting is a good start. I learned a lot by doing a ton of small, quick paintings. It forced me to problem solve rather than worrying about technique. I applied what I learned in these small paintings to my larger pieces.

If you haven't picked it up already, "The Invisible Art" is a great book. Take a look at Mark Sullivan, Michael Pangrazio, Yusei Uesugi, Chris Evans, etc... these guys are incredible. There are also some great dvds by Dylan Cole and Dusso.


-Steve

[michael see]

those are amazing

[skvv]

you're making project offset look that much better, any chance we could get a higher res version? i'd love to set a couple of these as wallpapers, i'm sure i could stare for days.

[Gbball]

wow, very nice work S_Messing, I look forward to seeing more

[pablo vicentin]

wow, Awesome!!

[Ragnar X]

...pro

[Sugarbyte]

Wow! All of these are fabulous.
The last one looks SO much like the town where my family is from in Germany.. Tubingen! *insert nostaliga here*
Great work!

[Cthogua]

Thanks for the tip on the book and those artists. I've seen The Invisible Art advertised but haven't picked up a copy yet...goodthing payday is tomarrow

Also thanks for the advice on the on the small studies. Coincidentally enough, I've been doing alot of what you said recently...small studies of mostly landscape photos ususally focusing on a particular aspect of it. Atmosphere, foliage, composition, whatever. Its weird how sometimes you'll be focusing on a particular aspect of it and you have a realization about a connected but separate aspect. I was painting a study of a hilly landscape with a single tree in it (before Photoshop crashed on me ), and I was looking at the way the light was catching on the various planes of the hill in the photograph, when it occured to me that the arcing shape of the pattern of light on the ground was a major player in the composition, and it was like a light went on in my head about using light and not just objects and boundaries to direct a composition...now if I can just remember that the next time I paint

[James Kei]

Fucking beautiful man.

-JK

[Oddo]

Trully nice work .

May I ask, how long do you usually spend on them ?

[flaptraps]

Gangster!!!!! go NCsoft!!!!!!

[TARGETE]

R u Blade runner?

Glad to see you finally post man, I'm actually surprised you did,

I knew that project offset piece seemed familiar , awesome as always man.

How are things at Matte world? you must be learning tons.

It's hard to hold back talent like yours, very proud and happy for you dude, congrats on that gig.


JP

[Yoshi's Island]

Great stuffs. I want to do more of landscape now after seeing those great paintings. Thank for the tips. I'll have to get that book you mention now. Also, I have DVDs of Dusso and Dylan Cole. I'm watching Dylan Cole's DVD right now and he is really an amazing matte painter and a great teacher (my favorite matte painter).

In d'artiste Mattte Painting, he says he graduated from UCLA (it's not even an art school) and he had to teach himself to paint. He does some 3d too, I think, in Cinema 4d ("Maya is overkilled" LOL).

[Riddick]

I really like the concept page, all your work around these landscape is really great!
Nice colors and atmospheres.

[Rebeccak]

Massive respect! This is some of the best work I've seen.

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

[tokaru]

wow this is very cool dude, i love it, the volcano fire is just wonderful,

[s_messing]

Sorry for the late response.

Skvv: I am not really comfortable posting full res images on the net. Maybe sometime in the future.

Cthogua: You might take a look at a plein air painter named Matt Smith. He is brilliant at indicating the effects of light on the landscape. http://www.mattsmithstudio.com/Paintings-1.html He teaches workshops a couple times a year in arizona.

Oddo: I spend anywhere from an hour to weeks for more complex matte work. It can vary quite a lot depending on the type of shot. None of the work I have posted here is really a "matte painting." These are a bit more stylized compared to my work in film.

JP: Thanks! I hope to visit you guys sometime in the next few months.


I appreciate the comments everyone.

Thanks again,
-Steven