My Enterprise NCC-1701 Predator Concept Painting

Posted onMay 6, 2013May 15, 2013

Here is the final painting for my Star Trek Enterprise ship design. I’m calling this the NCC-1701 Predator since the design looks a little more like an attack ship. This was painted in Photoshop with the 3D render at the bottom layer serving as reference. The current state of the painting is a little rough. I can spend a couple of more hours to tighten everything up but that’s probably not necessary as the design I wanted is pretty much there. And it can be a grueling process to to clean up and paint details on hard surfaces, especially when you have to keep all the perspectives in check. Anyhow, it was a hell of a lot of fun to get to this point. You can click on the image for the full resolution. Painted with the Cintiq 22HD.

The Initial Painting Stage and the 3D Render as Base Image

This is an early stage of the painting process. To get rid of the harsh lines and angles in the 3D model render, I use the smudge tool. Most of the process is painting right over the image using a square brush in Photoshop. I do like the square brush over the default soft round brush in Photoshop for these hard edged paintings. The square brush gives it a nice hard edged effect.
Enterprise NCC-1701 Precator Concept painting step 1
Here is the 3D render of the Enterprise concept model that I built in Maya.
Enterprise NCC-1701 3D Model Concept

Using 3D Modeling for Concept Art

Posted onMay 2, 2013May 15, 2013

I’ve recently wrote about using 3D models for concept art in my 3D Modeling Blog. It seems to be a growing trend for concept artist. As stock photos and digital photography is the norm for getting references, concept artist no longer have to paint everything from scratch. Having reference or “base image” is the new workflow. Add to that the abundance of 3D packages and their friendly user interface with an easy learning curve, you now have another set of powerful tools for creating original art. Here’s the post that I’ve wrote on my 3D modeling blog, 3DModelingHero.com. Thought you might find it helpful.

Speed Up Your Concept Art with 3D Modeling

It seems that a lot of concept artist are adding 3D modeling into their arsenal. They are not interested in being a modeler, but they’ve realized how useful it is to be able to render out a quick scene that will lay the foundation for their concept work. Whether you’re creating spaceships, architecture, or environments, 3D modeling can assist in the process. Say you are looking to do a realistic architectural environment. You can lay in your perspective lines and start sketching out a scene. But better yet, you can build boxes in 3D to represent buildings and render out a quick scene for your perspective foundation. Maybe mess around with camera angles and focal length to get some extreme perspective. You can even quickly add some lighting in your 3D scene for shadow references. It is so incredibly easy to do in 3D. Trying drawing on paper a dome shape with a wide angle perspective. What a pain in the butt that is! In 3D, it is just a click away.

I don’t do much concept exclusively. For my previous projects with Disney Imagineering, I’ve created concepts as needed. Since most of the final images are rendered in 3D, jumping in and doing concepts in 3D saves me time as I’m combining two stages of production into one. Below is an example of doing concepts with 3D models.

Star Trek Enterprise 3D Concept Mock-Up

Here is something that I’ve done just for fun. Being that the Star Trek Into Darkness is coming out soon, I’ve had this image in my head for an Enterprise ship design.

I started with a quick sketch on paper, then it was off to Maya for modeling. Once in Maya is where the real fun begins. Sketching in 3D is so liberating. You can play with proportions almost as quickly as you can think of it. The best part is being able to spin the camera around and see it from different angles, and that visualization, in my opinion, leads to better concept designs. Here’s what I created in 3D in about 45 minutes. Half of that time spent was thinking of the design as I model. It’s a fun process, you should try it if you haven’t. Click on images below for a larger view.

Final Render and Ready for Painting

Here is another shot of the Enterprise concept ship with some more lighting. I’ve also tweaked the model a bit for better proportions. This 3D render I will use as a base layer for my painting. The 3D shapes are crude but it is more than enough to provide some crucial guidelines. The design might ultimately change during the painting stage, but regardless, having this base images makes the painting process much easier.

Final 3D render for concept painting for the Enterprise

Portrait Painting – Geisha

Posted onApril 29, 2013June 2, 2014

Here’s my latest soft-airbrushing painting. Referenced from a subscriber (Kay Dawkins) to my Facebook page. I love the look on the photo. The make-up and hair style had a Geisha feel to it, so that’s what I called it.

You can click on the image for the actual resolution that it was painted at. This was painted in Photoshop with the Wacom Cintiq 22HD.

Painting Step by Step

Here is a series of snapshots from my painting video. It’ll show you the basic steps of the soft airbrushing technique for this Geisha painting. I love this simple painting technique because it’s quick to paint, and the portrait seems to get lifted from the paper as it progress.

Steps 1 and 2

Start with a grey background in Photoshop (or any other painting software) and set your brush and flow opacity to 25%. The first step is to lay down the darks. Don’t go too dark, just enough for you to see the form. Then go in with the whites and pull some of the major shape and highlights out. Again, not too light.

Steps 3 and 4

Now we’ll switch back to black and add in more details. Usually, I start in the eye as those are generally the darkest areas. Repeat with white. These steps are similar to the previous steps, we’re just pushing the lights and darks to another notch and using smaller brushes to add details.

Steps 5 and 6

At these later stages, you’ll start to see the forms come alive. It is also here that I’ll start to see where I’ve make mistakes on the values. Most of the correcting happens here. Keep repeating the process until you have what you like. When you want to stop and call it done is your choice. That’s really more of an expression of your own. I tend to like to leave some surrounding areas undone in order to add more focus to the crucial areas in the face.

Just remember, the whole painting process from beginning to the end is similar to seeing an out of focus image through the camera lens and you slowly turning the dial to put the image into sharp focus. Hope this helps.

Speed Painting Video

To see the video, please check into my youTube channel page for this Geisha Portrait Painting.

Pretty Girl Portrait Painting

Posted onJanuary 14, 2013

Soft Airbrushing a Pretty Face

This is my latest portrait painting using the soft airbrushing technique. I’ve consecutively painted about 5 or 6 of these types of paintings and usually I would have been bored already. But somehow I’m drawn to this painting technique. Because the painting process goes from large details to smaller and smaller details, it feels like the portrait is emerging from the grey background that I start with. It’s a neat feeling. Just check out the speed painting video below.

There are endless ways of creating digital paintings. Before this soft airbrushing technique, I tend to paint with hard edges and then use the smudge tool to blend the two areas. That works well too, but feels mechanical at times. I like this free-flowing airbrush technique better, especially for portrait paintings.

I’m learning something new every time I do a painting using this technique. Once I have the technique nailed down, I’ll create a more professional and instructional video for this soft airbrushing technique for anyone interested in learning to paint this way. It’s a simple painting process and I think you can pick it up with ease. There are just some major points that needs to kept in mind when painting this way. I’ll talk more about that later on. But for now, I’ll just show you the captures of my painting process.

Sexy Girl Portrait Painting Video

Korean Singer Ailee Painting

Posted onDecember 27, 2012December 27, 2012

Ailee Painting (Amy Lee)

Here is a soft airbrush painting of another Korean singer. Her name is Ailee and she can really sing. With so many singers out there today with just a cute face, Ailee is a standout with her great vocals. I didn’t know that until I saw some of her youTube videos. It’s rather refreshing.

Like my other soft airbrushing paintings in Photoshop, this one took about an hour to complete. More to come, thanks, -Wei

Category: Art Post