Tabla de contenidos para December 2025 en ImagineFX

There are times when you can let your imagination run wild and paint whatever’s in your head. Then there are those occasions when you need to nail the fundamentals and strengthen your core skills. Anatomy is one of those art disciplines that even the casual viewer will pick up on if not done right, so ensuring you’re on your A game is important. That’s why, this issue, we’re covering both parts of the creation process. We have our usual wide variety of stunning art across galleries and workshops, but we also have some key training on how you can get the most out of your next character-driven piece, with some fantastic insights on drawing and painting the human form. If you’re here more for inspiration then check out our feature…

Nikola Matkovic LOCATION: Serbia MEDIA: Photoshop, Procreate WEB: https://nikola_matkovic.artstation.com After a five-year detour into 3D and mobile games, Nikola is back to creating things that go bump in the night. With a gritty, traditional approach to digital art, he hopes to help others find beauty in the dark places too. 1 LORD OF DUNES “This early piece was a turning point. It led to collaborating on projects that little me couldn’t even dream of. Crazy how one painting can change your life forever.” 2 USHI-ONI “Growing up in a mountain town steeped in folklore made mythology a key part of my identity. Putting my own twist on creatures like Ushi-oni remains an absolute creative joy.” 3 FROSTBOUND EXILES COVER “Created for an upcoming solo RPG by Blackoath Entertainment. We obsess…

What skill set and aptitudes do you need as a concept artist in the film industry? Learn to use industry-standard software, both 2D and 3D. Know what a client wants and always ask questions if you are unsure of anything you’re being asked to do. Be willing to take constructive criticism and don’t get too precious about your work. Believe in yourself and never be afraid to discuss ideas when the time is right. What made you want to do the job? Although I had posters of Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston’s concept art on my wall as a kid, I never realised that I could do this as a job. This changed when I happened to come across Ryan Church giving a talk on concept art for the Star…

The artwork on this month’s cover is an example of one of the studies and sketches I do every morning to better myself as an artist. I drew this figure with the goal of working on my values and lighting. I enjoy going back and forth between doing colour and black and white portraits. Both hone different sensibilities. If you’re just starting out with painting, I advise working with black and white first, which will help you learn how to organise your values, understand the basics of lighting and get you comfortable with working with paint before adding the complexity of colour. Having a specific skill set in mind that you’re keen to focus on with your studies will go a long way in speeding up your learning and help…

Designing with light and shadow is one of the most powerful tools I use to bring my figures to life. It’s more than just copying what I see. I use light and shadow to shape the form, guide the viewer’s eye, and create mood and feeling. When used with purpose, light and shadow also help design the composition by adding structure, movement and clarity to the drawing. There are two aspects to the process of designing light. First, I take a moment to observe quietly and with purpose. I look at the light, the pose, the background and anything else that sparks an idea or inspires me. Then, once I have a clear picture in my mind, I move on to the next phase: crafting and shading. Shading is not…

“Nova is a character who’s part of a bigger personal project of mine and she was designed with the aim of making her fit into this world. I started by sketching silhouette shapes to experiment with body proportions and shape languages that could communicate her personality. The colour palette was inspired by astronaut suits, and I added a huge gun with a glowing element, which is a recurring theme in my work. Starting with a strong backstory helped Nova’s futuristic design to come together. It also guided my creative choices and made the character feel more alive.” Artist PROFILE Moritz Cremer LOCATION: Germany Mortiz is a senior concept artist for video games who loves bringing imaginative worlds and characters to life through shape language. http://bit.ly/45aHmgL…

Gabriela Niko LOCATION: Poland MEDIA: Sketchbooks, alcohol and acrylic markers, graphite and coloured pencils WEB: www.instagram.com/doodle_traffic Gabriela’s love for sketchbooks led her away from a design career toward a more intuitive, joy-driven art practice that embraces imperfection as beauty. 1 ARIEL (IN BETWEEN) “A coloured pencil fan art of Ariel, combining the animated version with the live-action reinterpretation. I imagined her floating between both: soft, selfpossessed and a little timeless.” 2 SOFT ARMOR “They say women barely flinch or complain during tattoos. I liked that quiet toughness. This portrait mixes softness and stillness, drawn with alcohol markers and coloured pencils.” 3 FIRST STAR TONIGHT “Drawn with coloured pencils and markers, inspired by my love of stars and quiet moods. I like capturing that in-between mood when a character looks calm, but…

Inside a comic artist’s lair Jerry Gaylord’s studio is chockfull of sequential art inspiration Create a dynamic dyno-styled duo Mix ZBrush with Procreate to render drop-dead character art with Entei Ryu NEW SECTION! 3D ART & ADVICE Experts reveal new workflow techniques, plus pro tips, galleries and much more! ISSUE 259 ON SALE 21 OCTOBER IN PRINT & DIGITAL…

Discover your potential with The Rookies, the launch pad for emerging digital artists. With The Rookies, your work won’t only be seen, it gets noticed and featured – just like this! Join a community where your journey from hobbyist to professional artist is supported every step of the way.  WWW.THEROOKIES.CO The Nutcracker YEAR CREATED: 2024 MEDIA: Photoshop “The Nutcracker was developed as my final project for the Animation Concept Art Program at Vancouver Film School. In this retelling of Tchaikovsky’s ballet, Clara journeys through realms like Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty to recover her prince’s shattered heart after he’s transformed into a Nutcracker. I focused on colour, light and atmosphere to capture the wonder of ballet, while adding my own dark fantasy twist.” Artist PROFILE Naomi Iwadare LOCATION: Canada Naomi is…

“Mobile developer Supercell asked me to create an illustration to celebrate its 15th anniversary. The brief was to capture five games, 15 years and countless screaming barbarians. I was given total freedom except for one rule: I had to create the artwork using its IPs in my art style. I was already a fan of Supercell’s games, so my goal was to showcase the craziness of the developer’s worlds in a playful, funny way, using its sense of humour. For this piece I wanted the viewer to travel through the artwork, discovering little stories along the way – just like you would in Supercell’s games – all while enjoying the characters it’s created over the years.” Artist PROFILE Germán Reina LOCATION: Spain Germán is an artist in the videogame industry, with…

“This piece is an experiment – I wanted to explore an art style for my graphic novel. I started with a thumbnail sketch to capture the idea and quickly establish the composition and lighting. After refining the drawing and blocking in local colours, I added cast shadows and ambient occlusion on Multiply layers. For the light areas, I used Color layers and Adjustment curves, separating them from the shadows with masks. Additional Normal layers enabled me to paint reflections on metal, skin and other surfaces, as well as indirect light in the shadows. To avoid time-consuming rendering, I decided to keep the line art.” Artist PROFILE Alexander “Minze” Thümler LOCATION: Germany After working as a concept artist and illustrator in the entertainment industry for several years, Alexander is now focusing on…

Price £200/$200 Company Corsair Web www.corsair.com RATING Corsair’s SSD distinguishes itself by not only being pretty fast, but with a magnetic MagSafe ring on the back it puts itself in the sights of iPhone filmmakers and social media professionals. The Corsair EX400U SSD is fairly conventional, taking the shape of a square with rounded corners. There’s a single USB-C port to break up the edges, and a white LED that indicates activity, tucked away by the USB port. The magnetic ring underneath the SSD has a couple of potential uses. The most obvious one is to attach the SSD to the back of an iPhone. The two pieces of tech snap together very firmly. It’ll stick to the back of an iPad Pro (with its useful USB4 port) too, though…

Creating your own characters is one of the most gratifying things you can do as an artist. It’s a great way to solidify the various thoughts and concepts that can be churning around in your mind when dreaming up some exciting new creation. Drawing a character pin-up brings together different disciplines and challenges that can be frustrating to encounter, but rewarding to overcome. Here, I’ll explain how I tackle this process, in a way that blends a healthy amount of pre-planning to achieve a solid structure, but allows for enough spontaneity and freedom to keep the drawing energetic, exciting and fun. If I could emphasise two particular points above everything else, it’s to be patient with yourself, and draw lightly. It’s easy to get frustrated when things aren’t going the…

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The work of a concept artist in the film industry goes well beyond the dreaming up of fantastical creatures, machines, costumes and environments: at heart, you’re a storyteller and a problem-solver. Keith Christensen, a concept artist who worked on both Dune films, The Batman, and Avatar: The Way of Water, tells us he has always had a strong urge to make images that are driven by story: “A landscape is nice, and a landscape with a cabin is better. But the overgrown, burned–out ruins of a cabin with someone – or something – crouching in the shadows: that’s the kind of thing that’s fun for me.” Good concept artists, says Matt Hatton, whose recent projects include Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, have…

Contact the editor, Rob Redman, on mail@imaginefx.com or write to ImagineFX, Future Publishing, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA, England Follow us on X: x.com/imaginefx Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/imaginefx Share your artwork via #imaginefx: instagram.com/imaginefxmagazine Delightful doodles Hi ImagineFX. Just read your latest issue and I’m in love with it. I’m an aspiring concept artist and hope to one day work in the games industry, so seeing such a massive range of sketches is a huge inspiration. I enjoy vehicle design most and Gavin Manners’ work really stood out to me. I hope to see more of this in the future. Dale, via email Rob replies Hi Dale. It’s fantastic to hear you got so much out of our sketchbook special and I agree whoeheartedly about Gavin’s work. It’s interesting to…

1 Lay down a sketch I focus on the aspect that has the most impact on the viewer and will be the fundamental for the artwork: composition. The answer is in front of me: go isometric. This mirrors the POV of Supercell’s games, enables me to build up multiple tiny scenes and prevents any visual hierarchy among the different IPs. It also gives me a visual framework to start assembling the world. 2 Refine the line art This stage requires patience and a lot of references in order to build up the line work of different characters and props from the developer’s games. The process here consists of drawing over my sketch in Photoshop. What’s crucial is making sure that the poses and proportions of the characters look good. The isometric view…