I've always been fascinated by the high-contrast visual style of 40k's illustrations, so I've decided to try and emulate the style. For starters, here a few examples of what I'm talking about:






(sorry for the low quality on some of these; they were the best I could find)

My favorites are always the portraits-- the dark eye sockets, neutral expressions and heavy use of black convey so much gravity, as well as a richness of character. It's something I would like to use for a game when I get the chance... Anyway, here are the first two. They didn't take as long to do as I thought they would, so I hope to update this with new pieces on a regular basis. I don't have a specific plan about what to do with these-- right now it's more of a technical exercise-- though I can see turning it into a more cohesive project. Who knows.





For now I'm going to stick to portraits (what I know best), though when I get a better hang of working in high contrast I might try out some figures as well, we'll see.

Crits and comments are welcome as always. You guys think I'm hitting the mark with these?

Nice stuff! I especially like the second one. I too love the b&w warhammer art. Be sure to check out http://www.karlkopinski.com/ their best artist imo

very nice work, although i think the references have a more gritty, non digital feel to them compared to yours.

Main reason why I like the 40K universe - the artwork that goes with it is outstanding.

I'd say that you may need to tone down the use of the gaussian effect? I think thats what you've used, but i'm most likely wrong. :P

Use harder brushes and start adding in more detail, right now everything is soft and muddy (digital like). And your portraits could be of anyone, there isn't anything that tells me these fellas' are from the 40K universe.

@SyaPed-- thanks a bunch for the link. I've always liked his work, I just never knew his name.

@Unleashed-- yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to exactly hit that 'rough' style. The interesting thing about a lot of 40k art is that it tends to have loose backgrounds but extremely high fidelity characters. I'm still working on getting better edge control, and I think I can still push the contrast a little more.

@Squiggers-- I just used 'add noise' after I put on an unsharp mask. I've toned the noise down a bit on this one, but the reason why I add it is to give the piece some of the grit it would have were it done on paper.

@doeseph-- I'm always fighting the softy digital look; I'm experimenting with some new brushes in Painter to see if any will work better, though I'm reticent to use the actual digital watercolor brushes because of how much they make my computer chug. It may come to that though. As for the characters not looking 40k, I'm intentionally keeping them vague right now so that's not a big deal. The aesthetic is what I'm more concerned with, though I may start doing 40k specific stuff, in which case I'll have to do a little extra research.


Here's the next one. I've spent some more time on it than the last two to try and get something a little crisper. That and because old dudes are harder to paint, what with their craggly faces and all that. A final remark though-- do these guys look interesting? I'm trying to add some richness to their faces, but I don't always want to resort to crazy scars to make them look hard.

Yeah, i thought i might have been wrong, its been a while since i've used Photoshop due to studying unfortunately.

I'd definately say it looks a lot better now - particularly as you've added more defination to the character's face, along with the lighting effects that you've put in, which really adds to it.

Nice job.

I like the new one, it's an improvement over your other two illustrations. I do think having a more defined shoulder/neck/chest would help the character some, right now it's just cloudy black (something like the previous two is fine). That's not really too important though.

I think on the whole they are solid illustrations, so keep at it. Study faces (I'm sure you do) and look for the subtle details that can define a face. Scars can help, but I honestly feel the most interesting character you've made so far is the second illustration in your first post, and he has no scars. He has a look of anger or frustration, staring off in thought trying to control his emotions.

Keep at it.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Got back on Monday from a trip to see some family for the extended weekend, and it took a bit to get back up to speed. That and this next one was a bit of a struggle-- I needed to take an extra day on it, and I think I've been painting too many caucasians as of late, so this next batch will be of a more multicultural variety. I want to get one more at least started tonight, and hopefully I'll be a little more productive this next couple of days.

Also, I used some different brushes on this one, some with a little more tooth, and I didn't blend as much either, so I've got more definition but some of the transitions aren't quite as buttery soft. It lends it a different quality, so I'll have to sit on it a bit before hitting that point on the next piece.

What do you guys think?

Once I noticed the error it became odd/messy and distracting to me. Awesome work on these so far, very dramatic and cool lighting.

i think one thing to note is that the games workshop illustrations have alot more midtone value to them, more like your first two images, the latest two are pushing the extreme ends of light and dark mostly. I really like the brush strokes of the latest but comparing to gamesworkshop it still feels 'different', but very cool regardless!

@ZacD-- what error are you referring to? Or are you talking about the different rendering technique on this one? Please clarify.

@Unleashed-- Both good points. Either on this one or the next one i think I'll try with a set of digital watercolors to mimic the effect more accurately. Failing that though I'll just divert into a new style

ear not error, they kinda sound the same, I dunno why I typed that :P

Is that Brett Rogers?

Originally Posted by e_x

Is that Brett Rogers?

what that guy asked

The painting on these is simply awesome! Nice job. I have to say though, the things going around the neck on the second two seam out of place. It looks like you made a real portrait then added that in last minute to say "see now its a space guy". In other words, I don't like the sci-fi bit being an after thought. I feel like in the first two you were more subtle with the sci-fi clothing, and it made them much cooler because of it.

I think on the next one you should show much more of the body (or suit) and really get creative with it. Nice Work!

It is indeed Brett Rogers. Personally I'm not a big MMA fan, but the fighters make for fantastic reference, and for some reason there's a ton of MMA related photography floating around out there. All Elbows is one of my favorite sites to use, as they post a lot of hi-res stuff http://allelbows.com/

@BradMyers82-- thanks, and you're right about the 'space guy' bit. I had spent 95% of the time on the face, and when it was finished I just had a black silhouette for the shoulders, so I threw on the 'sci-fi collar'.

I'm about to start the next one-- have to run some errands, but I'm going to try for a larger portrait.

So, here's a sneak peak of the next piece. Normally I don't post WIPs for shorter projects like this, but I'd like to share something I just caught in the drawing.

The combination of crude, childlike expression with a handlebar mustache really did it for me. Or maybe I've just been staring at a computer screen for far too long. Either way, I haven't been able to stop laughing since.

that needs to be a lego head!

So, this one's still a long way off. I'm not sure if I want to stick with these facial expressions, but they'll do for now. In the mean time I need to give some love to the rest of the shot. Trouble is, I'm pretty good with faces, and I'm ok with clothes/armor when I have direct reference, but inventing clothing or armor is like pulling teeth for me. Which of course is why I need to work on it, but knowing that doesn't make the task any easier.

Anyway, I'd like to hear what you guys think, and am glad for any tips/advice you might have.

New update. I'm getting the overall forms more resolved-- hands aren't white blobs anymore, or at least are better defined white blobs -- but I'm still not sure where I want to take this, particularly whether I should 'futurize' the portrait to differentiate it a little more.



In the mean time though, I've been hunting through reference of ruins to pick the right backdrop. Here's some of the images that have piqued my interest.

...and back to this thread. There were other projects and things that took higher priority, but now I'm back to this one. For some reason doing these portraits has an almost therapeutic quality for me, so I think I'll be doing these off and on for a while.

Anyway, here's my start on a new one. It's by no means done, I just figured it'd be fun to show what one of the portraits looks like 30 minutes in. I'm definitely going to finish the pair of soldiers, probably after this portrait or the next, so stay tuned!

aaaaaaaand mostly done. Or done. Depends on whether I want to go back and screw around with the shirt and cigarette again. This one was a joy to work on though, so I'll definitely do a couple more like this in the near future.

Lotsa fun.

The bearded guy and the black guy are seriously badass. I'm no illustrator, so I can't offer critique, but I'm an admirer.

What's up with this latest one? It doesn't come close to matching the caliber of your others.

Dude. That is amazing! Great work! What I love most is that your illustrations truly tell a story. I feel like I am looking at old WWII photographs! Now, I know this is 40k, but you get what I mean. I really get the feeling that those are photos taken during great wars. Phenomenal!
Keep up the great work!