Neil Blevins' Speed Paintings

[soulburn3d]

Hey there. While I primarily make 3d artwork (for some examples, visit http://www.neilblevins.com), I come from a traditional painting background, and over the past few years have been looking for ways to incorporate the immediacy of painting with the accuracy of 3d. I have also decided to teach myself how to paint on the computer.

At the beginning of November I had the good fortune to take 2 weeks of vacation to do nothing but paint with my new cintiq. The experience was very rewarding, and I feel I've learned a lot, not to mention I got the opportunity to knock out some ideas that had been floating around in my head, some for 2 to 3 years.

The following images are from those sessions, and I'll add new stuff as I get to work on them. I'm going to try to start ever 3d image I do in the future with a speed painting, as a way to grab hold of my concept faster, turning the 3d process into a way to flush out the final design that I start with my painting.

Process wise, each painting starts out with super simple 3d geometry I then paint over. I'm a huge fan of collage, so these images will be part 3d, part photo collage, and mostly painting in photoshop and painter. Each image took about 5-6 hours on a single day, + 1 more hour a few days later. I always find my work looks best if I can get some distance between working on it and completing it, my mind can rest and has a chance to see what really needs to be changed.

Anyways, thanks for listening, hope you enjoy the artwork. I'm just gonna keep moving forward, working on improving with each image.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

Two creatures meet on a foggy morning by the shore, and my guess is they won't be friendly with each other.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

A more experimental piece, I imagine these two weary travelers crossing an unending desert in the burning sun, no rest in sight.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

Depicts a stormy planet and an alien device, producing electricity in an unconventional fashion.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

I was going super 2d graphic for this image, a bit of a departure I know, but hopefully there's still some Neilness to the work. I'm also pretty happy with the perspective on this, I hope he really feels like he's towering over you. Inspired by the finale in Fantasia, the mountain devil in that animation scared the crap out of me when I was a kid, which immediately made me facinated with him.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

A more finished looking painting, completed in about a day and a half. Pretty happy with the lighting on this one, although if I did it over I'd do it from a slightly more dynamic camera angle. I'll probably redo this painting as a full 3d render at some point in the future.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

This was the first image I painted during my recent 2 week vacation. A few days earlier one of my heatsinks started failing, and so the cpu got up to 90 degrees C during the process of making this painting. Thanksfully a friend came over a few days later to help me replace the heatsink (thanks Nick!) The inspiration for this image came from a photo I took while in Vancouver of a hillside and these really tall, thin, burnt out trees. The camera angle, perspective and shapes were really quite beautiful, so I decided to reimagine the photo in a hitech world.

- Neil

[m@.]

Great to see you here Mr. Blevins! always liked your stuff and your cool 3d experimentations and tutorials long ago

Those are cool, maybe somtimes lack a bit of depth though. Keep em coming!

[soulburn3d]

Thanks M@, I like your work a lot as well.

Some of my images I specifically tried to go for a more flat look (such as "The Mountain King" or "Dynamo"), but for the other images, depth is definately something I'm working on.

For example, I'm happy with the lighting on "Leviathan", but I ended up putting the camera angle way too much from the side and it made the image far too flat. I'll probably do a similar image again sometime but do a more 3/4 view to give it more depth.

Thanks for your comments.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

Another new one.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

This image came to me one day when I just just doodling. Some of the blobs took on a form, I refined it, and then explored it in this speed painting.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

Another new speed painting, I had this vision of space stations built onto giant lilipad looking things, and later decided that maybe in the future, what with the polar icecaps melting and all, we'd have to build udnerwater living stations, maybe colonize the marianas trench. Or maybe it's just some sort of scientific research lab.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

Super quick 3 hour painting, I'm pretty happy with how this guy came together. I'm also feeling that my custom brushes are becoming more successful in adding the kind of texture I'm after.



- Neil

[m@.]

Yes, this one is great, definitely my prefered one of this page. Great graphical effect of the brushes on the upper half of the pic, and great depth and texture on the lower half with the atmospheric effects on the legs. Nice light too!

[marioucci]

damn Neil!!!

your 2d work is really interesting too. the last one has some elements that reminded me of the death star. But my absolute favourite is the 2 creatures ready to fight on top of the page.

wicked stuff man..

cheers

Mario

[soulburn3d]

Yes, this one is great, definitely my prefered one of this page. Great graphical effect of the brushes on the upper half of the pic, and great depth and texture on the lower half with the atmospheric effects on the legs. Nice light too!

Thanks M@. Late last year was my first serious stab at digital painting, and I feel the images really let me learn a lot.

My hope this year is to really focus on depth, texture and light, and to find out how to stop before my painting gets too refined. Many of my speed paintings last year I felt got a little too "finished" looking, even though some of their fundementals (like perspective and depth) still needed some work. Like a cake with too much icing. I do a lot of 3d work, and I sorta feel if I want something whose end product is very straight edged and refined, I might as well make it in 3d (with 2d enhancement, of course). So I hope to keep a certain looseness to my speed paintings, and focus on getting the compositional fundementals right.

- Neil

[DARAF]

Very cool stuff man, I like it. Keep posting.

[soulburn3d]

Your 2d work is really interesting too. the last one has some elements that reminded me of the death star. But my absolute favourite is the 2 creatures ready to fight on top of the page.

Thanks dude. I have some brushes to "greeble" surfaces up, although I'm trying to use them to create form and mass (as well as detail) by painting outside the lines, if you will. Definately something I want to keep pushing.

Ya, I sorta like the 2 creatures fighting as well, I'd adjust the lighting if I could go back, but I'm pretty happy with the design of the creatures and how they work well as a fighting pair.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

Part 2 in my king series. I was originally going to do a full 3d render of this guy, but decided to keep him 2d for the moment. Lots of custom brushes, photo collage and hand painted stuff.



- Neil

[soulburn3d]

- Neil

[vigostar]

holy crap.. that last one is stellar!

[undergroundsean]

cool picture ~~ great atmosphere~~

[soulburn3d]

Thanks guys, glad you liked it.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

Finally some new Paintings, this has been a difficult year, especially healthwise, but I'm happy to finally be back in the swing of things, and doing a little more painting. Here's 3 new ones, more on the way.

Here's my sequel to the first cattle image, this is a little closer to my original idea...

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

Here's a piece that started out as an unused tshirt design.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

And a super quick painting of a sketch I did for a new 3d image (the 3d image is almost finished, and will be called "gas walker 1"). A little more graphic than I normally do, but it was a fun experiment.

- Neil

[soulburn3d]

Last year I started this speed painting, but evolution took over and it ended up looking very different in the end. So this year I decided to revisit the original concept and see if I could get something closer to my original vision. The painting makes strong use of custom brushes for the mechanical stuff, and my usual gassy treatment.

- Neil

[BlightedArt]

Excellent work. I love the charred outskirts of your silhouettes. While I love your art I'd hate to see someone with your talent be stuck to one kind of style, so I'm going to suggest this:

How about you show us some cheerful, happy, lighter pictures instead of the more morbid/serious/post apocalyptic pics you have here? Just so we can see what you come up with! Keep up the awesome work.

[soulburn3d]

Excellent work.

Thanks, glad you like it.

How about you show us some cheerful, happy, lighter pictures instead of the more morbid/serious/post apocalyptic pics you have here? Just so we can see what you come up with!

Hehe. Well, chances are you've seen my happy work already, on The Incredibles or Cars, and if you decide to see Pixar's upcoming films wall-e and Up, you'll see even more of it. So after a long day's work, there's nothing I love more than to come home and work on something truly dark and ominous

- Neil

[Joatley]

Happy artwork is like happy endings, they are kinda blah, so stick with what flows. And there is much, much darker work out there.

Great textures, you have a definite style going here.