Neil Blevins' Speed Paintings

**soulburn3d** · May 8th, 2012, 05:10 PM

Originally Posted by Steeliebob

Great work man, especially like your landscapes, simply because the lighting is so strong in them. Love those futuristic city like images.

Thanks, glad you dig the landscapes!

Originally Posted by Velocity Kendall

you do movies? man id love to do that one day. games are cool and all but movies are the real draw for me anyway.

Well, games and films have their own sets of challenges, while I've gone mostly the film route, I'd love to do some games stuff at some point in my career.

Originally Posted by LePush

you have some really neat concepts, but they appear to be "flat". I would suggest trying to define your forms in a way that feels a little more three dimensional, but good stuff, keep it coming!

Thanks for the critique. My day job is making full 3d environments for film, so when I have free time to do personal paintings, I do tend to do stuff that's a little more 2d. But you're right, I should get a little more variety in there, if for no other reason than to practice making dimensional environments using pure paint without help from 3d software.

**soulburn3d** · June 1st, 2012, 01:09 PM

Some quick 15-20 minutes a piece environment sketches, all based on the same theme. Used a few custom Photoshop brushes of my own, and a few from Ben Andrews http://ben-andrews.deviantart.com/

**wilkerson** · June 1st, 2012, 02:42 PM

The city's good but didn't Pao already do that one?
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2mhqCVLwre...concept02b.jpg

**soulburn3d** · June 1st, 2012, 05:16 PM

Originally Posted by wilkerson

The city's good but didn't Pao already do that one?
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2mhqCVLwre...concept02b.jpg

I'm a big fan of that piece by Paul, although my original concept painting I believe predates that painting by a year or more. But regardless, a sunset in a misty environment behind city towers isn't the most unique thing in the world, people have been doing the subject for decades, I'm sure films like Starwars were my original inspiration for the piece.

**NyeAlexandaFrayne** · June 1st, 2012, 06:58 PM

lovely landscapes!

**soulburn3d** · July 13th, 2012, 02:16 PM

Thanks Nye!

Here's several new ones...

**soulburn3d** · August 11th, 2012, 03:48 PM

A favorite beach.

**soulburn3d** · August 12th, 2012, 06:42 PM

A quick weapon design, meant for use on Mars, the M-0908 Submachine Gun is reasonably light considering its size, and the moving parts are well shielded to survive in the harsh sandy mars landscape. This weapon is not meant to be pretty with lots of curves and sleek design, just highly reliable and functional.

A note on the design: Of all the things one can design, I feel that weapons, especially guns, are one of the hardest. There's just so many factors to consider: How will it be held while firing? Is there enough room to properly grip the gun? Will it be for a human or non-human combatant? Is it too big or small? Is the barrel large enough for whatever sized bullet it'll use? Where do the bullet casing come out of? etc. It's like my first architectural design class where the teacher suddenly hits us with all this information: The average doorway needs to be X size so that the average piece of furniture can make it through. The average desk should be X height so it fits the average sized person. The rise and run of an average staircase should be X/Y so it feels comfortable to the average gait. It was crazy, all of this thought had gone into something that I had used my entire life, and yet had never really noticed. Anyways, back to guns, the other factor that makes it hard is how many gun geeks there are in the design community (and I use the term geek with the highest reverence), so anyways, hopefully I didn't screw up too badly

I did my research, but I'm sure I've neglected to think of lots of things. But everyone's gotta start somewhere. Feel free to critique if you'd like, this has certainly been a valuable learning experience.

**soulburn3d** · August 24th, 2012, 01:02 PM

Another couple of new ones...

Abstract color test...

Robot sketch, trying to find a good balance between something that's too sketchy and something that's far too computer perfect...

**Velocity Kendall** · August 24th, 2012, 01:25 PM

good textures on the gun but the design is weird. the t-shaped parts dont read well in my opinion.

to get the ergonomics right, just use an existing weapon in the same size class, firgute out the hard points like muzzle, shell ejection, handles, grips, iron sight or scope placement, and design some cool shapes in between!
as always just my 2c

**soulburn3d** · August 24th, 2012, 01:51 PM

Thanks for the suggestions and draw overs Velocity Kendall!

Originally Posted by Velocity Kendall

firgute out the hard points like muzzle, shell ejection, handles, grips, iron sight or scope placement, and design some cool shapes in between!

Actually, that's exactly what I did. It's just my "cool shapes" was the T-shapes

I've gotten a lot of good feedback on this weapon on other forums, and am preparing a Mark2 version of the weapon. It still has the T shapes, but now they're far more integrated into the weapon. I'll post the result here when I have it, and will consider some of the other changes you suggested.

Thanks for the feedback!

**Velocity Kendall** · August 24th, 2012, 02:10 PM

yeah its tricky to make it look cool but not arbitrary.

im a huge fan of Aaron Becks weaponry, and art in general:

http://skul4aface.blogspot.co.uk/

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BRtMclPYQp...r_gun_1200.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pWATJt2cda...aaron+beck.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fnHjiW4iJA...erialRifle.jpg

**soulburn3d** · August 24th, 2012, 02:15 PM

Yup, I've been a fan of Aaron's for a long time. What I really love is how all of his art has a common shape language, makes it really easy to spot his work. He's a fantastic designer.

**Velocity Kendall** · August 24th, 2012, 02:18 PM

Yeah, it all looks like real equipment, but unusual enough to be memorable. I always send my students to it and say LOOK AT THIS !!!

damn there was couple more things I meant to add; try breaking up the object graphically, ie with more definite shutlines, and componants with diffrent textures, angles, colours. adding noise is a great way to make something look like its been roughened to aid grip. stuff like that. and concentrate clusters of detail together, seperated by expanses of plain surface, that stops it seeming flat, but without looking visually noisy.

also i found this pretty handy

**soulburn3d** · August 24th, 2012, 06:32 PM

Love the first image, man I'm happy I didn't make some of those mistakes

I may be new to gun design, but I did try to sort of visualize how the bullet would move through the weapon, and how the hands would grip it. Only issue I realized in that respect was I decided the shell ejection would be on the back, but that isn't terribly practical if the gun is going to be used right handed

**soulburn3d** · August 26th, 2012, 06:30 PM

The Story: After the launch of the MK1, soldiers on the field complained about numerous design problems with the weapon, from getting their gear straps stuck in the opening between the grips and the body of the weapon, to a scope that was too close to the body to provide comfort when in use. Responding to these complaints, the MK2 was created to solve a number of these issues. While not perfect, the weapon proved to be far more successful than the MK1.

Information: After my initial design, I received a lot of excellent constructive criticism on how to improve the weapon overall, making it far more believable and useable. So I decided to make a revised version taking many of these suggestions into account. I'm still very new at this, but it's been a very cool couple of weeks doing research, getting suggestions, and overall improving my weapon design skills. This learning will continue undoubtedly on future weapon designs. Again, thanks to everyone for the feedback!

**soulburn3d** · September 21st, 2012, 12:50 PM

This image came to me in a split second before getting home, in appeared in my mind with such clarity, that I feel as though it may not have been a moment of inspiration, but instead a memory of an image I once saw. But I can't for the life of me remember what image it would have been. Something by John Harris maybe? Steve Burg? Maybe the subject is something pretty common that lots of people have done? I just can't remember. So if you see an image that looks just like this one, here's my homage to that image. If not, then I'm pleased that this came with such ease.

**soulburn3d** · November 16th, 2012, 01:14 PM

Had exactly 1 hour to do a painting on the weekend, so I quickly spat out this experiment (did an extra 30min the next day tightening a few things). Has a very Instagram-my look to it, which seems to be all the rage these days, although Instagram was not used, was done entirely using standard photoshop layering techniques. Anyways, it's not the most original piece, but fun to paint when time at the computer is so limited and I needed to unwind in a creative manner.

And here's a tutorial discussing the techniques I used: What Is Instagram Really Doing To My Image?

**soulburn3d** · December 18th, 2012, 12:58 AM

Bunch of new speed paintings:

Here's the first of a project called "Light And Letters", where I'm working with my buddy Don Campbell. Basically, Don will write a short story and I'll do a speed painting to accompany, or I'll do a speed painting and he'll write a short story to it. Go here to read Don's Short Story.

Go here to read Don's Short Story.

20 Min doodle playing with selection marquee. Decided to end the year with something very un-Neil. It involves things in daylight, and using 2 very saturated contrasting colors. I must have gone insane!!

I promise more monochrome in the new year though. If I ever decide to push this image further, first step is taking the sphere and adding some nice robotic patterns to it, an alien spacepod.

**soulburn3d** · December 28th, 2012, 06:24 PM

So since the world didn't end on the 21st, I've decided to post one last new teaser painting from a series I plan on developing next year called "One World Divided".

**soulburn3d** · January 14th, 2013, 05:31 PM

Here's my latest Tech Floor Image:

**soulburn3d** · January 17th, 2013, 01:55 AM

It was a really foggy morning over the bay last Wednesday, managed to snap a quick inspiring pic. Then got more inspiration from a beautiful painting I saw by Thomas Kegler earlier this week. So decided to do a quick study based on the photo I took.

**soulburn3d** · February 8th, 2013, 02:37 PM

This piece is sort of a companion piece to Tech Floor 8, other inspiration from the classic Star Wars Death Star Trench, and thanks to GrungeTV on Deviantart, who's also been experimenting with my panels technique, I used your "Quadanium Steel" image as inspiration as well.

**soulburn3d** · February 23rd, 2013, 07:07 PM

Much like the first Hive Mind, this was inspired by a thumbnail I saw of a completely different image. The thumbnails for this and that image have some similarities, but the full res images are quite different. This was originally going to be Hive Mind 3, but I have yet to finish the old number 2, so I swapped 2 with 3. Expect 3 (the old 2) hopefully this year. Mostly painted in Photoshop, a few elements are rendered 3d, and other elements are bits and pieces from photos I took over the years of construction equipment.