Last year, when I was thinking about the art for Dead Earth Gods, I was planning on developing the style I used for the Nights of the Crusades covers; a sort of hyper-real/dreamlike/photo-illustration style. It must have been after reading the ABC Warriors compilation, illustrated by Clint Langley, and my attempts at using Blender (free 3d software).
Before deciding on putting stylus to tablet, I went through my collection of Imagine FXs and trawled concept art on Pinterest. I was attracted to the impressionist style of guys like Sparth and Justin Sweet and it was refreshing after fighting against the esoteric interfaces of 3d software (which I stupidly thought would speed up my workflow, rather than being an almost entirely new field outside of illustration). Also the photo-illustration style seemed restrictive in comparison – and was also time-consuming, relying on (and sourcing) an extensive library of photo-reference.
Below is a character in two styles. I gave the first image a self-critique after taking a break from it for a few days and absorbing the concept art of the pros. It definitely needed some loosening up and freedom from detail. The second piece is definitely on the right track.
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