Transcription Artist Research...

Although I haven't 100% decided what scene I'm doing for my environment, I thought I'd jump into researching what I am sure of. The following artists have illustrated the most unsettling fairy tales from Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson, but their work is always as beautiful as it is eerie, so here are a couple of the images I've found particularly useful so far:

 Arthur Rackham:

Edmund Dulac:

John Bauer:

I would love to recreate their aesthetics in CG, from the washed out colours to their thick black outlines. This will probably change as I start working on concepts but once I get those style rules down I'll be set :D

For Future Reference: Noah Bradley...

While looking for images for Kitsune's influence map I found this artist and I fell in love with his use of atmosphere, light and colour:

It's got that softness that I love but there's some lovely painterly textures too, his website is here. Great stuff! :D

Tamara De Lempicka...

Tom pointed me toward this artist and her style of painting is really fascinating!

I find these paintings really unusual. Some of them feature quite intimidating individuals, some seem really prideful and arrogant and some are just beautiful. The variations between the pure innocence seen in some of young women and the loathing in the eyes of others is really fascinating to me.  Also, the ribbon-like hair seems like it shouldn't belong next to the soft, perfectly lit skin of the subjects in the paintings but it does. Maybe it's the icey eyes that pull them together but whatever it is, it's really amazing.

All of these images were foung at http://www.tamara-de-lempicka.org/

Dynamic Poses in Erte's Illustration...

As I'm edging closer to Ursula become a whole character I'd like to move on to drawing her as that rather than just a study. Phil pointed me towards the Art Deco fashion illustrations of Erte, as they consist of female models in very lovely poses so prepare to be flooded:

Though the statues are replicas of the illustrations, I felt it was quite nice to see some of the women he'd drawn come to life in bronzes.

There's a lot of lovely stuff here, some images I'll use for reference when I come to posing Ursula and some I'll just use for reference because they're great! :D

For Future Reference: Liu Jiyou...

A gorgeous post on Deja View about a Chinese artist called Liu Jiyou. His paintings of animals are beautiful, they really capture their fluidity of movement:

Gorgeous stuff!

For Future Reference: Chun Hay Au Yeung...

I love these! They remind me of a combination of Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell and Transformers. Really gorgeous colours too!

Where the Bloody Hell Was This Hiding?!

By a complete fluke I found this in one of the old posts on the group blog. I've never seen anything like this in animation, the only thing that's close is Echo Bazaar's still images, but I really need to!

Absolutely fascinating! I can't wait to see it!

For Future Reference: John Avon...

So much lovely use of colour and atmosphere in these pictures! Also, his use of perspective is gorgeous in the images with buildings in, it's really something to aspire to! Love them!

For Future Reference: Steven Belledin...

Another illustrator of Magic cards but I really like the different approaches he has to the subject matter, from the very traditional fantasy to soft and painterly. I'm a sucker for a soft glow though, and there's some really lovely uses of it in his work :P

For Future Reference: Jung Park...

Really nice environment design here! I love the use of lighting to highlight certain areas with a fiery or magical glow. The use of atmosphere and emptiness in the scenes really makes them much more atmospheric too. Really nice! :D

For Future Reference: Aleksi Briclot...

A really great variety of styles here, which I find fantastic. I especially love the almost dream-like glow that some of the Spawn panels and concept art has. Really strong, powerful silhouettes and figures, nice! :D

For Future Reference: Veronique Meignaud...

I really love this artist's use of colour in everything from character design to landscapes and it's all so painterly but detailed at the same time. I love it! Really something to aim for in my work (eventually) :)

For Future Reference: Omar Rayyan...

I love theeeessee!! They're a lovely mix of ridiculousness and magic, I just love them, like something John Bauer would've made if he'd been feeling a bit silly, I think. Lovely, lovely, lovely! :D

For Future Reference: Rob Alexander...

I got one of my friends to look through the Magic cards we have and list at any interesting artists I could use and there were lots, so prepare for the best ones, there'll be quite a few :P

Very soft and ethereal! I think I most enjoy the pencil-like drawings of characters and the gorgeous landscapes too.

For Future Reference: Bao Pham...

Now if you don't think these images are beautiful then you must be crazy! I fell in love with these as soon as I saw one. I'm not normally one for soft, sort of photo-realistic, sort of faerie-like portraits but I LOVE these. I think it's the mixture of amazing colours and gorgeous eyes that got me, I'm not sure, but I'm glad it did!

Lovely lighting, amazing use of colour and beautiful faces, is there much more you could want? Well, maybe, but as far as portraits go I think these are the loveliest I've seen! So soft and elegant, I think there are just enough differences in the faces to keep them from being repetitive and every face, for some reason or another, is really striking. If I can get this kind of natural softness in my images, as well as that control of colour, then I will be so set it's ridiculous :P

For Future Reference: Raymond Swanland...

This artist is especially lovely when it comes to the use of depth and movement in his work:

I think what stands out in these images is the use of light and how it draws the eye to certain areas of the picture. the use of light also allows him to suggest shapes in the distance that the viewer can't quite see, perhaps because they're obscured by smoke or atmosphere, creating greater depth and menace too.  The detail in these images are fantastic too, in the image above on the character's head alone there's a plethora of detailed engravings that, combined with the soft light, make her seem ethereal. Lovely, lovely stuff to come back to for inspiration :D

For Future Reference: Marko Djurdjevic...

Another artist with lovely soft work! A gorgeous mix of character design, landscapes and visual naratives too, I love that he not only has the ability to paint photo-realistic images but he can also created much more gestural images, especially in landscapes.

I especially love how his creature design seems to flow, all the creatures look as if they could easily live in the same area because of their matching colours and patterns. I also think that some of the black and white work is more powerful than the coloured pieces, such as his series of masks and the stern looking lady of justice. Also, the way his characters and their costumes are layed out, with the clarity of labelling too. I just love it all really :D

For Future Reference: Glen Angus...

I was going to do a tutorial but I got distracted and ended up looking at lots more artists. Glen Angus was the first and sadly I discovered he died a couple of years ago at only 37 so it was very sad. I'm just glad his work is still available to see!

The sketches that look aged are great example of character design. All of them have great silhouettes due to their poses and it shows how important that is. Also, I love his use of colour adds to the softness of the image, the green image of Loki up above is a really nice example of it and one of my favourites.  I was drawn to the planes with their female counterparts because it reminded me of what Sucker Punch wanted to be (but failed miserably) as well as the lovely figureheads that boats used to have too. Really nice stuff!

For Future Reference: Allison Theus...

Most people know her for her awesome but minimalistic animations for Extra Credits but, not so secretly, she is also a very talented 2D artist. She featured in this months Imagine FX and I fell in love with her marker pen and ink drawings.

It's the detail that really captured my attention. Drawing the smallest muscles and knowing the skeleton and muscular structure of your fictional creature is just amazing to me, I'd just love to be able to have that in my work one day. Gorgeous!

She has many ways of finding here: Her website, blog, deviant art and tumblr.

For Future Reference: Christian Magrath...

Inspired by Frank Frazetta to become a book cover artist, his work is photo-realistic and very soft.

Some of his covers feel like the person has been plonked in front of a lovely background but these few are my favourites. There's something nice compositionally about them as well as a clear tone in each. Very nice stuff!