ImagineFx_-_December_2019

3

More ideas makes for better images

Make at least nine thumbnails for every image you finish. Sometimes when I mentor students I make them go as

far as 50 or even 100 thumbnails for one piece! When they do it, they often produce better compositions than they

knew they were capable of. So don’t be scared of bad ideas; just keep having ideas until you find some good ones.

1

Read the brief! Then read it again!

Card art has a purpose. It has to convey the

appearance of a character, a specific action or object, or a

location within the universe of the game’s setting (and

sometimes all of these things at the same time). Make

sure you understand what you’re being asked to paint.

Title: Princess of the Sun

Size: 444x300mm (to be printed at 44x30mm)

Due date: November 16

Art Description: A beautiful princess, surveying her

domains. Wearing a long, f lowing dress or gown of some

sort. Her connection to the world around her is a vital

part of her power in the game.

Setting: A natural environment with a sweeping vista

stretching out behind the main figure.

2

Produce thumbnails

Thumbnails are less about making pretty pictures

and more about thinking well. My thumbnails are a bit

confusing for other people to look at, but they help me to

imagine a whole image before I invest the time into

sketching and painting it. I take the time to dump my

ideas on to the page and see how they hold up in reality.

I’ve created art for card

games for nine years

and I want to show

you how to make work

for a card art portfolio.

Card art has unique challenges

mostly to do with just how small the

images appear. The art on many cards

is just 2x1.5 inches! Most details are

lost at that scale, while compositions

easily become muddy and confused.

A painting that looks great at a larger

size can lose all of its impact when

reduced to just a couple inches.

With card art, the key thing to bear

in mind is to start with strong, clear

shapes and to maintain those as you

finish the piece. If you begin with

uncertain shapes or values, you’re

going to end up with a mess.

As you finish your work, you’ll

most likely need to use a lot of high-

quality reference. Choosing not to

use reference is choosing to make

worse art. Using reference is not

“cheating” – it’s just the way

illustration should be done. Most of

the top illustrators use a ton of

reference for their paintings, even if

they don’t talk about it. So get rid of

any silly notions of only working

from imagination, and start using

more reference to make better work.

Noah Bradley

LOCATION: US

Noah launched Art

Camp, is working on The

Sin of Man, and runs the

Reference.Pictures

website with his wife and

fellow artist Rachel.

http://www.noahbradley.com

Artist

PROFILE

GET YOUR

RESOURCES

See page 8 now!

RESOURCES

PHOTOSHOP

I try to keep my brushes
pretty simple. One brush
for textured marks, then
variations on the Round
brush. Keep it simple!

CUSTOM BRUSHES:

OIL CANVAS 2

HARDSOFT

SUPERDOT

HARDSOFT FLIPPED

ROUND

SOFT ROUND

Workshops

REFERENCE

PHOTOS!

60

PLUS