Ryan Church is a concept artist, illustrator and art director whose film credits have to be among the most impressive in the industry. I first wrote about him in the rearly months of Lines and Colors, back in 2005, and again in 2006. Since then, he has continued ot add to his long list of film concept art and art direction credits, as you can see on his website. Church works with a combination of 3D rendering and digital painting to create the designs for some of the most iconic sicence fiction, fantasy and adventure film scenes in recent memory.   ..read more

Rudy Siswanto is an Illustration Craft Lead at Riotgames; which basically means he leads a team of illustrators and concept designers who help craft the look and feel of particular games. I’m not a gamer, so I don’t recognize the games for which these images were created, but many of them involve animal characters that Siswanto has portrayed in exaggerated, stylish and dramatic fashion.   ..read more

The March/April issue of The Artists Magazine is devoted to imaginative painting and magical realism. The cover and lead article feature the beautiful painting by James Gurney shown in the images above, and a step-through of his process in creating it. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this particular painting in person, and it’s a strikingly beautiful example of Gurney at his best in combining the styles of the Victorian painters with modern fantasy subjects. (Imagine if you will, Lawrence Alma-Tadema painting dinosaurs!) This is a very good issue of a good magazine. Unfortunately, the Artist ..read more

Christophe Vacher is a French painter and concept designer who I first wrote about back in 2007. He has worked for studios like Disney, Dreamworks, ad Universal, and his movie credits include titles like Dinosaur, Hercules, Tarzan, Treasure Planet, Enchanted and Dispicable Me. On his website, you will find examples his personal and professional work in both traditional and digital media, as well as sketches and preliminary designs. On the “Technique” page, you will find a step-though and process notes for the panting shown above, bottom. In addition to his imaginative design and refined rend ..read more

Nicholas Kole is an illustrator and concept artist based in Vancouver, BC. His clients include Disney, Dreamworks, Hasbro, EA Games/Waystone, Riot, Axis, ReelFX, Mattel, 38 Studios and Spiritwalk Games, among others. Kole’s style is energetic and cartoony, with just enough rendering to give his characters an appealing dimensional aspect. For the past few years, he has been working full time in Procreate on an iPad Pro, including a year on the road. Kole has a personal project called Jellybots — which I believe is both an art book and a comic — that he is supporting through Patreon. He also h ..read more

Justin Gerard is an illustrator based in Georgia who works in the publishing, gaming and film industries. I first profiled him in 2009, and pointed out my admiration for his richly imaginative dragons. Since then, in the midst of his other work, he has been creating a series of equally imaginative “Monster of the Month” illustrations. Gerard’s monsters are wonderfully over-the-top and beautifully rendered in the fantasy art/concept art vein of dramatic imagery. He can somehow make them simultaneously gruesome and visually charming. There is a portfolio of his work on the GalleryGerard websit ..read more

Since I last wrote about illustrator and concept artist Chase Stone back in 2014, he has created a new website, and has posted new work there as well as on the site of his artist’s representative, Richard Solomon. Stone works primarily in the areas of fantasy and science fiction, his dramatic highly realized approach bringing a visceral presence to both genres. I particularly enjoy his illustrations for the Magic The Gathering set: Amonkhet, which are an imaginatively stylized take on Egyptian gods. He also paints great dragons, as well as dinosaurs and pterosaurs. His website galleries are ..read more

The March/April issue of The Artists Magazine is devoted to imaginative painting and magical realism. The cover and lead article feature the beautiful painting by James Gurney shown in the images above, and a step-through of his process in creating it. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this particular painting in person, and it’s a strikingly beautiful example of Gurney at his best in combining the styles of the Victorian painters with modern fantasy subjects. (Imagine if you will, Lawrence Alma-Tadema painting dinosaurs!) This is a very good issue of a good magazine. Unfortunately, the Artist ..read more

Christophe Vacher is a French painter and concept designer who I first wrote about back in 2007. He has worked for studios like Disney, Dreamworks, ad Universal, and his movie credits include titles like Dinosaur, Hercules, Tarzan, Treasure Planet, Enchanted and Dispicable Me. On his website, you will find examples his personal and professional work in both traditional and digital media, as well as sketches and preliminary designs. On the “Technique” page, you will find a step-though and process notes for the panting shown above, bottom. In addition to his imaginative design and refined rend ..read more

Nicholas Kole is an illustrator and concept artist based in Vancouver, BC. His clients include Disney, Dreamworks, Hasbro, EA Games/Waystone, Riot, Axis, ReelFX, Mattel, 38 Studios and Spiritwalk Games, among others. Kole’s style is energetic and cartoony, with just enough rendering to give his characters an appealing dimensional aspect. For the past few years, he has been working full time in Procreate on an iPad Pro, including a year on the road. Kole has a personal project called Jellybots — which I believe is both an art book and a comic — that he is supporting through Patreon. He also h ..read more