TUTORIAL 2: INSPIRATION - FROM CHAOS TO ORDER

People often ask me about where to get inspiration from. I don't want to go all Zen but ideas, inspiration, and stuff like that can really be found everywhere! I could be in the most picturesque place in the world and still couldn't give birth to a masterpiece if I am not in the right mind, time, and visual trance. Likewise, you could be walking back from a part time work at 2 am in the morning through your university alone and suddenly that "DING!" finds you in the most common place ever - a CCA stall for orientation week. Anyways, here's the second tutorial inspired by one of Feng Zhu's design cinema episode and hopefully it helps all those out there who haven't got all the time to patiently watch his 40 mins tutorial everyday. This is the end result that we are going to achieve:

Step 1: BASE PICTURE

I do not lie to you. It IS from a CCA booth I came across when walking home at 2 am. Yeah I know right, such a waste of electricity to lit up the place. Anyway, take it with your phone, camera, or whatever, you don't need a high resolution for it. This is going to be a base picture and I chose it because I see some interesting color and perspective going on there. 

Step 2: TWEAK THE PICS AROUND. 

Flip it horizontally, change the hue and saturation, and let yourself loose. At this point I have not had a clear idea what the end result is going to be. For this painting, I simply flip it vertically and added a layer of cyan that has been changed to "screen". It is as simple as that, but the change in color affects the overall mood of the painting too, hence more visual stimulation for you to work with. 

Step 3: DAB THE PAINT

At this point, try to overcome the fear of getting stuck by rules of composition and perspective. Simply let yourself lose by dabbing paint around with your brush tool (press command + B for hotkey) while simultaneously using the eyedropper tool to keep picking color. One advantage of using a photo as the base picture instead of starting from scratch is it already acts like an instant palette. So it's easier to pick up color instead of having to choose one by one again from the color wheel. 

Step 4: TWEAK IT AGAIN

I added more details and decided to flip it horizontally again. In the world of art and entertainment design this chaotic order of work can produce what we often call a happy accident. Again, I am beginning to see stuff here and this should be about 20% done. So it should not have a very finished look at this stage but it contains the major elements that I am going to work with. 

Step 5: START BLOCKING

If you notice, I cropped the picture from step 4 to simply get the long horizontal section that becomes my main focus of attention. Try to zoom in and zoom out to figure out what can you possibly make out of the picture. It is definitely going somewhere, and the elements you add can differ with different types of people. Some might see it as a boat, a seashell, or even completely out of the world stuff! Remember that one of the task of a concept artist is to see what can't be seen by others and help them to visualize it. So in this case, I decided to make it a tree house with various Asian elements in it because Chinese New Year is approaching and I longed to be back in my hometown so badly. 

Step 6: LAYERING

Now that I have set the direction of my painting, I will have to make decision on what elements to put in. What this means is to figure out what shapes can fit in and do research about it. Ergo, if you are planning to put a tree, don't just cook it up from imagination. Try your best to source for texture and the overall look of the branches to give it a more realistic look. In my case here, I looked for coral reef pictures to give it a more surreal look. Remember to put new elements in new layers too so that you can revert back to the original, unless you are really confident in being able to salvage the piece later on. 

Step 7: DETAILS 

It is that important. The little things you put in will help to guide the viewer to see the historical context or other message the concept artist wants to get through to the audience. In my case here, I want it to be a hidden village that offers warmth and protection amidst the coldness of the forest. Don't be afraid to use textures from the internet as long as the finished look differ from the original (for example the orange rooftop there). Adding lights and particles also gives that finished look that contributes further to the depth of your painting. As the saying goes, small things go a long way. 

Step 8: FOREGROUND 

Now that al the background seems to be set, adding a foreground of a man standing on top of a tree bark simply increases the value range of your painting, meaning more depth for the human eye to perceive. Flatten down the image and add more particles using customized brush while also highlighting the bright areas using dodge tool (command + o for hotkey). Your concept is now done and ready for use!

Isn't too bad, is it? It might seem like black magic at first but once you get the hang of it, turning a very chaotic piece into order is really all about handling your brush right. All these takes about 5 hours and very minimal tools were utilized (only brush, dodge, burn, sponge, and simply changing hue and saturation of the layers.). Hopefully this helps to get your inspiration running and ciao for now!