MAGAZINE REVIEW: IMAGINEFX ISSUE 194

ImagineFX Issue 194

When I've flipped through the pages of ImagineFX in my local WHSmith before I buy it in the past, I've always gravitated toward the FXPose section where I could view innovative new art from fresh illustrators who can draw better than me. I was almost always impressed and this time it's Stephen Stark's Animal Handler is a lovely piece of handlers looking after a magical animal, the limited colour palette and chiaroscuro singled it out for me as the sort of image id like on my wall, or as a screensaver on my PC. It's a traditional-looking painting so would be perfect for this. 

Paint Futuristic Portrait Art by Mel Milton

This US artist gives us a step-by-step process to create and develop a portrait from concept to finished piece. Mel, like myself, saw art as a lifesaver during the lockdown and creativity is at its peak in many artists at the moment, whether professional or amateur. His African American female started out life as a cartoon look that turned into a more sophisticated image with more than a passing resemblance to 80's singer, Sade. 

Using Clip Studio Paint Mel renders the image from an ImagineFX layout from the team he can work around to grow his image until he comes up with the perfect cover image. Mel produced an image that is both realistic and painterly.

Interview- Artist Portfolio Gary Evans with Sam Nassour

Sam's big break in animation makes for interesting reading; in his beachwear Sam attends a convention in Dubai where he introduced himself to the guys at Cartoon Network, showing them his artwork on his Facebook page. What happened next both surprised and inspired me. Since then, Sam has worked for the likes of Rovio who made the popular Angry Birds games. 

Sam's character art is colourful, fun and with a large dose of super cuteness that proves infectious. One of the pieces that attracted my attention was his step-by-step illustration of a Viking and his pet dragon. The similarity to his owner is purely intentional. What I got from reading about the artist is a person doesn't have to drag an A1 portfolio to a convention to make an impression, the work can speak for itself just as well on a device.

How to Capture Mood in your Art by Tararreh Karimi

Tararreh's rainforest scene has a girl perched on a branch, sheltering from the rain under a bunch of leaves, a small fire next to her keeps her warm. Two different colour schemes create the mood of contentment and feeling of sanctuary from the elements as she waits for the rain to stop. If the image was a jigsaw it would be deemed as having too much background, but as an image the background is vast, showing how small the girl is in this instant. The artist has captured the size of her world in Photoshop, and like in other workshops, there is a list of resources with the brushes needed to create it.

Create Dynamic Perspective by Mike Corriero

At art college one of the main things we learnt as a budding artist was the importance of perspective in a drawing. For most of us, we used traditional media, but here Mike uses digital media to bring his scene to life in Procreate. This is also part of a video workshop so artists can render an eye-catching finished painting. Mike's effort reminded me of the TSR paintings from the 1980s. 

I enjoyed the tutorials and artwork on show in step-by-step easy to understand ways, so I thought that even though the magazine is aimed at seasoned professional digital artists, even newbies can buy the mag and have a stab at them to see how well they do.