From rising stars
to art legends...
Catch up For 11 years ImagineFX has led the charge for digital art.
Beren Neale talks to the artists who’ve been with us on the journeyIn February 2006 Jon McCoy was in
his first year of Transport Design at
Huddersfield University. Although his
course provided plenty of challenges,
it was seeing his art in a new digital
art magazine that energised him to
continue with his chosen path in art.
“When I was featured in issue five of
ImagineFX, back in 2006, I was at
the stage where I think artists mostly
need encouragement
combined with clinical,
constructive feedback,”
Jon says. “It’s a stage
where many habits are
formed and tastes developed.
ImagineFX gave me a lot of
encouragement in featuring me as
a Rising Star, and really helped push
me to practise and develop more.”
Last year Jon was a concept artist
on Rogue One – the latest in a long list
of big films he’s worked on, including
the forthcoming Blade Runner 2049.
For the ImagineFX team, it doesn’t
get any better than stories like this – to
hear that we played a part, no matterhow small, in an artist finding clarity,
getting inspired, and eventually
achieving their goals.
And it’s always been this way. The
magazine launched at the time of a
burgeoning online scene filled with
passionate artists of all skill levels, and
has grown with them over 11 years.
Issue one came out on Having identified a friendly online
26 January 2006,
and for artists like
Jason Chan, made
them feel “legitimised”.Jason would go on
to paint one of the
four covers for issue
18 – along with
Andrew Jones,
Loïc Zimmermann
and Mélanie Delon.A Rising Star in issue five, Jon McCoy
recently worked on the new Blade
Runner film... though we can’t
take all the credit!Cover artist Loish’s
style today – varied
and masterful.community with sci-fi and fantasy art
as the common thread, we aimed to
reflect them, to champion art legends
and encourage those starting out.
Around this time, a certain Nicolas
Bouvier had moved from Montreal to
Dallas, Texas, joining id Software for
the development of its new game
RAGE. “This was back in 2005. At
that time I was still
experimenting a lot with
custom brushes,” says
Sparth today. “It was truly
a magical era where we
had the feeling of being like pioneers
in the concept art world. Today, a lot
of the industry has settled down – in
a good and a bad way – but again, this
feeling of discovery was pretty intense
around that time. I think ImagineFX
was embracing that early spirit, a great
translation of what was going on.”HealtHy obsession
In the second issue of
ImagineFX Mike Hill, today
the founder of Emmy
award-winning design
studio Karakter, was a
19-year-old gamer taking his first steps
into his career. “I was still learning the
basics of illustration and 3D,” he says.
Fascinated with Halo, he was also
driven to learn the trade, “so I could
visualise my adolescent obsession
with the game as illustrated stories.
All in all, it was a largely healthy
obsession because I soon started
contracting in the industry for Killzone
developer Guerrilla Games.”Artist news, softwAre events
At the core of the DigitAl Art community
18 August 2017