Ryan Stevenson Art Blog

Futurepoly Enviro Thumbs Update

2011-08-02T21:40:00.005+01:00

Here's two of my Futurepoly enviro images after some feedback.

Futurepoly Enviro Thumbs

2011-07-31T23:50:00.005+01:00

Its been a busy few months with several projects either finishing or just beginning so I've got some blog catching up to do.

Here's some more work from Futurepoly, this was done during Levi Hopkins week, he's a great artist and if you haven't already seen his stuff you should treat yourself and have a look.

These where made using a few of his sneaky techniques to speed up the thumb creation process, great fun to try out. Next post will be some of the updated images after feedback.

The Deep Calm

2011-05-08T00:16:00.005+01:00

Relaxing at the end of the day with my modbook and photoshop

Futurepoly Week 4

2011-05-06T00:06:00.002+01:00

Futurepoly week 4 was with Richard Anderson. The task this week was to create a book cover image using graphical elements, abstraction and composition.

I gave myself the theme of some kind of adventurer/thief in a large city and began exploring...

Here is pass one

After some great feedback and a paint over from Richard I tweaked the third image from above and worked one some more compositions and I think I produced some really nice results.

I really enjoyed this weeks homework, all of the passed weeks have been fun but there was something about this one that resonated. I'll certainly revisit these to take one to completion.

Robots need polish

2011-04-30T22:05:00.006+01:00

While looking through my wip folder I found a robot image that was so close to being finished I couldn't resist firing up Photoshop, and in no time at all he was ready for the world, so fresh off the production line I give you the Mars G12 Delta.

Futurepoly Week 3

2011-04-30T10:12:00.003+01:00

Another Day and another update From Futurepoly. Week three was with Thomas Scholes and was all about techniques and tricks with photoshop that you can use to speed things up or solve problems. He showed a ton of very interesting approaches which I'll certainly be trying out and seeing how I can incorporate them into my workflow.

The main focus of the homework this week was the use of custom shapes, a technique that was recently made famous on the concept boards by Nicolas Bouvier aka Sparth. I've used this before in my work after seeing Nicolas post but I've never limited myself to solely using it to make thumbnails so I thought this would be a good test.

In my first batch of thumbs I just wanted to do black and white

Whilst doing my second lot of thumbs I added more value changes to create depth, I also started to make more structured shapes.

Finally I played around with some of the thumbs applying a few of the other techniques, such as painting with the smudge brush, sneaky transformation tricks, and custom brushes again for detailing. I didn't stick to my thumb as I wanted to use this image as an experiment so it ended up a bit odd but it was interesting just trying stuff out.

With the next custom shape images I want try just useing custom shapes and gradients and little or no painting at all, should be fun.

Futurepoly Week 2

2011-04-29T21:29:00.003+01:00

Week two of Futureploy was with the excellent enviro artist Matthew Barrett the focus for this class was buildings or vehicles. I decided to work on a building and started the process with some thumbs. The first sheet below was just exploring styff in general but by the second one I had got a nordic style hut in mind.

After the thumbs I decided to concentrate on just the building and produced these sketches to decide on a final design

There was something about 5 that I liked so went with it, but after I finished I felt that I hadn't pushed the forms enough made a few tweaks to emphasize some of the forms.

and with that week 2 homework done :)

Futurepoly Week 1

2011-04-28T20:14:00.004+01:00

As I mentioned in my previous post I've been doing the Futurepoly online course. The first week was with Horia Dociu and was about silhouette thumbs and character design.

The first two images below are my first batch of thumbs of a fantasy warrior character based around the theme of a beast

These next two images are my second pass after some pointers and paintovers from Horia about pushing the design and turning them from guys wearing clothes to characters in their own right.

Adventures with Futurepoly

2011-04-27T12:59:00.004+01:00

I've said before and I'll it again "Learning is fun!"

I've always got time to learn and try something new as the journey is always the most fun for me, so recently I signed myself up for a futurepoly course which is run by a bunch of very talented artist from ArenaNet. It's made me try a lot of different approaches to my work, and experiment so my next few post are going to be homework from the previous weeks classes. I would post it now but I've got homework to do.....I haven't had to say that for a long time :D

Sofa sketches

2011-04-27T12:28:00.005+01:00

Sometimes its nice to kickback and relax on the sofa with my Modbook and Sketchbook Pro and just doodle, here are some some of the random but fun results.

Here's a modbook sketch I did a while ago and every time I see it I think I really should work it up one of these days...its a guy with a big robot arm...and everyone likes a guy with a big robot arm don't they?

What I've Been Up To, Part 2...or BAFTAs and Books

2011-04-02T16:02:00.007+01:00

So where was I? oh yes Kinect Sports....so just how well did Kinect Sports do? Amazingly!!!

The sales have been great and we're the number one Kinect title! We also won a Bafta!.....so not to shabby at all

but look there is a hoodie nicking it!.......yes it me :)

Probably the most exciting thing to happen over the last few months, yes more exciting than a bafta....don't tell the organizers...is that Gorillaartfare have got a book coming out soon and I'm in it. With so may talented artists in the group its an honor to be part of it.

Heres the blurb from gorillaartfare

We have the most exciting news today! Gorilla Artfare and CFSL Ink have joined forces to bring you a wonderful collection of artwork: Gorilla Artbook Vol 1!

The book is hardcover, sized 24×28 cm (9.4×11 inches approximately) and it holds 250+ pages of stunning images by more than 70 of our artists. It will be available for preorder on April 7th and released on April 14th!

We will share more info on pricing and where you can buy it real soon! Update: Some more info + a small preview of the interiors here! For now, feast your eyes on these previews of the cover (illustrated by Clo, Devin Platts & Tom Scholes, designed by Victoria Maderna & Federico Piatti):

Now thats just what I call a top post :)

What I've Been Up To, Part 1

2011-03-30T22:38:00.006+01:00

So its been a while since my last update and boy i've been busy, lots of things have happened some good some sad but all adventures, the next few post from me are going to be some of the highlights.

The first thing was the game i've currently been working on came out, Kinect Sports for the Xbox 360. I worked with the talented Ryan Firchau (yes another Ryan, and we shared an office so it got a bit confusing) crafting sports venues and sport related odds and ends, in the end we got pretty good at it if I do say so myself, it's a shame London 2012 is already sorted or we could have stepped in to create some crazy constructions.

Here's some of my concepts from the project

How well has it done? I'll come to that tomorrow :)

Modbook Fun

2010-11-08T12:36:00.007Z

I've been really enjoying my modbook recently, combined with Sketchbook Pro it becomes a great digital sketch book. Here's some sheets of heads and pose maniac studies using the setup.

I've had a few people ask me about the modbook so if I get time and people are interested I'll do a little review.

Modbook life drawing

2010-09-07T16:20:00.000+01:00

More Life drawing using my Modbook, I think its one of my favorite uses of it...though there is one problem, last life drawing session I forgot to take a my Wacom pen ...Doh...I think I need to order a spare pen.

Watercolurs

2010-08-26T22:00:00.000+01:00

Its been a busy old time recently for me with lots of different projects, one of which has been using watercolours for some outdoor landscape paintings. Using a traditional medium is always a challenge when your use to digital but its very rewarding and I'd definitely recommend using watercolours.

Dr Sketchy

2010-07-14T19:41:00.001+01:00

The last Dr Sketchy Nottingham was great fun and I even won twice! As much fun as it was I felt my work from the previous meet up was far superior so I've posted up two from that session instead.

Traditional Life Drawing

2010-07-13T21:26:00.001+01:00

Here are some more traditional life drawings done with a simple pencil......ok a mechanical pencil so not that simple.

Dragon Hunter Mini Project

2010-06-18T12:06:00.000+01:00

Here's the start of a little mini project I've been toying with. I really enjoy doing these and I'm working on more already.

Two Different Life Drawing approaches

2010-06-17T14:00:00.000+01:00

Heres some more life drawings, the first two were done with a china graph pencil in my sketchbook and the the next two were done on my tablet mac....yes i know, digital life drawing! I'm such a philistine!

Photos from a fancy camera

2010-06-16T17:00:00.000+01:00

I've got a bit of a love of cameras particularly the old polaroids and cheap plastic fantastic ones but for a long time now I've been feeling the urge to get a fancy DSLR but I've always thought they're just too big and beefy and not retro enough for my tastes. So i resined myself to the thought of no fancy camera for me....then I saw the sexy retro Olympus pen range. I've now had an E-P1 glued to my hand for the past few days and I love it...well as my rule for this blog is "less talk, more pictures" here are a few from today.

Sketches from Dr Sketchy Nottingham

2010-06-15T22:06:00.004+01:00

Hi, the blogs been lacking posts recently, I've been away from my normal computer set up but that doesn't mean I have been sitting around. My sketch book has been getting alot more love and I've been really enjoying life drawing including going to...Dr Sketchy Nottingham

which has another event coming up this weekend on the 19th of June.

Here are a few of my favorites from previous sessions.

Studies...again

2010-04-14T14:10:00.000+01:00

Here's another batch of the studies, hopefully i can internalize the information i've picked up whilst doing these and use it in my personal work.

Studies

2010-04-13T14:02:00.003+01:00

I’ve been doing a far amount of studies recently....up until i hit DIY hell...and I thought I’d post some up here to log my progress, and push myself to get back to them now I'm through the DIY and have a bit more time, they're a mixture of photo studies and still life’s

Life Drawing

2010-04-12T15:55:00.005+01:00

I've really enjoy life drawing recently and was pleased with this one from my last session. I'm trying to get better proportions and a more solid form at the moment so I've slowed down a lot but I think it's worth it.

Here Be Dragons

2010-04-08T12:36:00.003+01:00

Just finished tweaking this the other day so I thought I’d post it up. I had a great time working on it so I plan on more in the same style soon.

Sketch Gang

2010-04-06T22:26:00.005+01:00

I had a great time sketching at the weekend with Aidan, Jake and Mya.

Here’s a few environments sketches I did whilst enjoying there company, I’m eager to work one or two of these up soon with some new approaches I’d like to try.

Featured on CGHUB

2010-04-06T09:57:00.006+01:00

What a way to start the day! I'm featured on the front page of CGHUB...in the top row!

It's a great website with such a high calibre on work and artists on it that it's a real treat to get featured. Thanks CGHUB. Here's the link to my CGHUB page if you would like to have a look around...ME ON CGHUB

EDIT: The kind people of CGHUB also just gave my pic a Gold award. Cheers Guys.

Website Sneak Preview

2010-03-31T21:57:00.011+01:00

I’m just putting the finishing touches to my Portfolio website, which will feature some of my concept from the games I’ve worked on over the years and should be up soon. In the mean time I’ll post a few images from it as a sneak preview to get the art ball rolling. The first one was for Viva Piñata, its called Piñata Cascade and won me a place in “Into The Pixel“ 2007. Next is a Christmas card that I did for work (RARE) whist working on “Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts” which leads on to the last image from the same game.

Lets Get Started

2010-03-31T21:55:00.001+01:00

Hi my name’s Ryan and I’m a concept artist. I’ve worked on a ton of games the most well-known of these is the Viva Piñata franchise which was a blast to create. This blog is a place for me to put all those images that normally never get to see the light of day, hope you’ll find it interesting.