Book Cover Illustration

andyc · 10 Apr 2009, 11:23

Just finished a fun little project, and got permission to post it here...
Brief was for an illustration for a book cover: a landscape including a viking settlement, but with evidence of previous, pre-historic settlement on the same site.

I was given this reference photo for the type of environment required:

I then modelled the stuctures in SU:

These were rendered in MAX:

And heres the final piece. You'll see that I extended the supplied photo with a mixture of hand-painting and additional photo reference. The sky was replaced with several new photos and a few hand-painted clouds. The standing stones came from several other photos, with additional texture hand-painted, as were the shadows to 'sit' them into the landscape. Because the final piece was to be monochrome, I could get away without matching colours too precisely, as long as the tonal-ranges matched.
The composition looks bit odd, but keep in mind that the left-half of the image is the back-cover of the book, with a lot of text etc to be added, and the right-half of the image is the front cover, with the title and author name to be added.

And a little close-up view...

Thanks for looking ...

A.

Mike Lucey · 10 Apr 2009, 11:36

That's brilliant work Andy. You have produced a result that addressed and answered the brief perfectly.

Mike

PRSS · 10 Apr 2009, 11:55

Wow, very good. Not only the model but also the Architecture and style.

With best regards
PRSS

derryatlanta · 10 Apr 2009, 13:13

Tremendous work again, Andy.
I always look forward to what you are working on.

Great techniques in Sketch Up and PhotoShop. I'm assuming hull and/or skin rubies were used for the roofs?

Quick query, was the fence/stile meant to remain in the picture to contribute to the timeframes concept?

Reminds me of many a visit to the Mussenden temple and Bishop's Palace at Downhill, Northern Ireland. Can almost smell the air and feel that strong horizontal wind that would skin ye!

Cheers,

Nigel

solo · 10 Apr 2009, 13:26

Andy

Thanks for exhibiting your recent work, I always take pleasure in your work as well as a degree of envy for your skills.
I lurk in the Concept artist and CG artist websites and have such a yearning to learn digital painting, I even bought an Intous tablet a while back in order to learn but could not find any decent tutorials for a non PS user (Paintshop pro guy)

Keep up the great work and maybe one day you could accumulate all your masterpieces to create a fully illustrated coffee table book.

marked001 · 10 Apr 2009, 14:08

i'm with solo.... love this type of stuff and would love to be able to do it...

this is seamless....wouldnt be able to tell it wasnt real

andyc · 10 Apr 2009, 14:27

Thanks guys - always appreciated.

Nigel (derryatlanta) - no rubies used. Just built the roof profiles by eye, and hand-stitched it all together. (only built a quarter of the roof, then copied/mirrored it around). The fore-ground fence was a bt of a dilema. Ultimately, we decided it didn't look too specifically present-day, and having something real in the foreground helped to sell the whole illusion. I did paint - over a few posts that looked to perfect and contemporary.
The photo was actually taken in Wales about 10 miles from my home, but you're right - the wind up there cuts right through you!

A.

pbacot · 10 Apr 2009, 15:18

Wonderful work. Very Artful. It is so realistically rendered, that it is a little disconcerting. It looks like a photograph has been taken in ancient times, or in a fantasy world where one doesn't expect photography.

teofas · 10 Apr 2009, 19:40

wow! very nice work bro!!

gaganraj · 10 Apr 2009, 21:31

so cool! looks really good.

there are some great digital painting dvd's from gnomon. anything by scott robertson, james clyne, or mark grnr are really good. If you're in the area i'm teaching a digital painting class there also.