Inspiration
Things have been pretty quiet around here recently, as my new position at Gecko Animation has been pretty demanding of my time. Hopefully I’ll be able to show off some of our work sometime soon, but in the meantime I wanted to keep the blog alive with something. Since I haven’t got anything of my own to post I thought I’d put up some links to some arty folks/stuff I think are awesome. Thankyou to those of you who take the time to read my site regularly enough to wonder whether I’m still around. Enjoy!
Benoit Paille (photographer) 
My favourite photographer, I love the amount of texture and colour he brings out in his portraits, and the beautiful simplicity of his work. He does some fantastic post-processing to bring out such amazing colours from his photos and whenever I’m working on a character render I look to his work for inspiration. The best places to ogle his work (depending on how you like to follow people) are DeviantArt and Flickr. You can also follow him on twitter.
James Gurney – Artist 
James Gurney is the fantastic painter behind the Dinotopia Books, who also writes about art in books and on his blog – Gurney Jouney. His blog in particular is a favourite of mine, as it combines some fantastic tips on art theory and various bits of Gurney’s work with a frankly inhuman frequency of updates. His watercolour sketches are always a joy to look at.
Selwy – Sculptor 
One of my favourite sculptors, and one who often posts some great resources on his site. In particular I recommend you check out his post and time-lapse video for his sculpt titled “Disunion” (pictured). It’s a fantastic thing to watch. he also has a great skull you can download from the downloads page of his site.
McBess (Illustrator)
Look at his drawings. LOOK AT THEM. He has a blog and stuff that you should read.
Aaron Diaz (Author, Dresden Codak)
Aside from producing my favourite (through until lately frustratingly slow to update) webcomic, Dresden Codak, Diaz also writes a fantastic blog on comic book art theory and character design that is always a great read. His superhero redesigns in particular shine out as an example of genuinely well thought out character design. Well worth a read.
Alchemy
I came across Alchemy while watching David Leroy’s fantastic speedpainting video of a piece of Durian concept art. It’s a really nice way of generating some chaos to help inspire your drawing. The interface is mininmalistic and intuitive, and to tools create some really interesting shapes whilst also allowing a decent amount of control for once you want to start picking out specific forms. I’m not the greatest painter, but I think I managed some interesting results, starting with alchemy and then moving to GIMP to do the main part of the painting.
Soldier Sketch
Drawings based on random forms
