Corel Introduces Corel® Painter™ X

Corel today announced Corel® Painter™ X, the latest incarnation of one of the best natural media centric software tools for digital artists. Painter™ X can now be preordered at Corel and Corel UK . New tools include performance improvements, new composition tools in the form of Divine Proportion and their powerful and innovative RealBristle™ Painting System that provides bristle level control over their organic painting and illustration tools. They've also made substantial improvements to the way Painter allows you to turn photos into works of art.

I've been a long time fan of Painter and looking forward to trying it out. For more information visit Corel. Corel® Painter™ X is available for $419.00 USD or UK£492.33 for the full version and as an upgrade from $219.00 USD or UK£257.33. I think the only complaint here is the relatively high price in UK £ when compared to the US Price and conversion rate.

Sam Haskins

Sam Haskins is a photographer whose work has graced the pages of many fashion magazines and advertising campaigns. A prize winning photographer and early imageer whose work features the human form, still lifes, travelogues, surrealist influences and graphically powerful compositions.

He was one of the first photographers to pioneer the production and publishing of photographic essays. His first book Five Girls - 1962, created quite a stir when it was published in the early 60's. His second book Cowboy Kate and Other Stories - 1964, was so well received it was awarded the Prix Nadar.

Sam has been at the forefront of the creative manipulation of photography and has been especially innovative in his use of non digital techniques. Sam is also a convert to digital and spends many hours working with Photoshop. I've been told he continues to shoot with his much loved Pentax 6x7 and scanning his negatives and transparencies with an Imacon and printing on an Epson 7800. Visit his site and blog for more information.

Marco Djurdjevic

Marco Djurdjevic is one of the current cover artists of Marvel Comics, he also works with Massive Black. His images are both powerful and highly imaginative, however he insists he that all his work is drawn entirely from his imagination. With over 10 years experience to draw from as a freelancer and concept designer, he is an example and an inspiration to many. He has produced covers recently for Blade, Daredevil, Spiderman and X-23. His personal website is currently being worked on, bookmark it, as it will definitely be worth visiting, his blog SIX MORE VODKA is active however. If you look for his work, search on google and you will find features and galleries on ConceptArt, CGTalk and Pen & Paper.

d'artiste—Concept Art, ISBN: 1-921002-33-6

Reviewed by: Mario Georgiou, November 2006
Published by: Ballistic Publishing
Requires: N/A
MSRP: US$55.00 (softcover), US$145.00 (limited edition hardcover)

Many of the sci-fi and fantasy movies being made today, make extensive use of conceptual artists. These artists are extremely talented illustrators and industrial designers, whose understanding of light, color, form and space enable them to bring life to the concepts and visions of writers, movie directors and game creators. As any artist will tell you, one of the biggest challenges presented to them is the creation of art which represents another person's concept and vision. Concept artists created the visuals which helped to sell projects such as Star Wars, Blade Runner and The Matrix to the film studios. d'artiste: Concept Art, like other books in the series, primarily features the work of several prominent artists who work in the industry, in this case George Hull, Viktor Antonov, Andrew Jones and Nicolas Bouvier.

George Hull designed for the second and third Matrix films. Andrew Jones is creative director for the Massive Black Design Studio which he helped form after working at Industrial Light & Magic. Nicolas Bouvier worked on Alone in the Dark 4 and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Viktor Antonov conceptualized for Half Life 2, Renaissance and Skyland. The selected artists are featured with samples of their work and a few step by step examples which showcase their unique way of working. The book is capped with a guest gallery of artists whose work has been chosen and critiqued by the book's main contributors.

The range of media used and styles represented in this book is truly reflective of the range of work being created in this highly imaginative field. The skills required to create these grand visions from the imagination are very similar to those required by matte artists and illustrators. Some of the samples presented demonstrate that the artist has to be more than capable of rendering costumes, buildings, vehicles and other technologies. In many situations the artists also have to be able to make the concepts convincing enough to make believable the artificial world being created. The modern concept artist is required to be fluent in both analog and digital processes; capable of wielding a pen and mouse with equal dexterity.

Thumbing through the book you rapidly gain an appreciation of the range of talents presented therein, you'll also appreciate the love and care Ballistic Publishing has lavished on the books production. The printing and packaging all reflect the high quality that I've come to expect from this publishing house.

There is still however only one real weakness with this series of books and that is the lack of any hands on tutorials and the necessary CD containing in-progress versions of the tutorial examples. All this aside, I thoroughly enjoyed looking through and reading this excellent book. The field of concept art is one which creates visual clues for the creators of movies, games and other projects. If you're interested, you can also check out the work of Ralph McQuarrie and Syd Mead, two other famous conceptual artists who have influenced a generation of aspiring creatives.

Cons: No tutorial and content CD.

Pros: Well presented with excellent production values. The artists selected for this book are all top notch. d'artiste: Concept Art is an excellent reference book which will appeal to both amateurs and professionals. It is a must-have aimed at artists interested in the techniques and skills used to create art for movies and games. Highly recommended.

This review has been reproduced in its entirety from Kickstartnews.com

For more information about d'artiste: Concept Art visit Ballistic Publishing

Happy New Year to you all ...

As I've been a little lax in my maintentance of this blog in the last few months I thought I'd create a post with a few sites to provide you with some inspiration for the coming year.

Natalie Shau


One of my favourite Artists from DeviantArt She is originally from Lithiuania, but currently living and studying in London. You can find her dark, but often whimsical work at Natalie Shau and blueblack.

Robert Chang



Another awesome artist whose work has graced the pages of many Ballistic Publishing books and whose work sets a high standard for others to work towards. You can find his personal portal at Ethereality.

Ally Fell

Ally Fell is a 3D animator, modeller and concept artist who lives in Derbyshire in the UK. You can see his work at Darkrising.

Jaime Jones

Another excellent concept and fantasy artist whose images fuel the imagination. visit Artpad, his personal portal.

Henning Ludvigsen and Natascha Roeoesli

A talented norwegian artist who works with a games developer in Greece and a beautiful Swiss artist and photographer in her own right. A couple in real life but individually both very talented artists. Visit henningludvigsen.com and tascha.ch.

Rafi Adrian Zulkarnain


An indonesian based artist whose artwork reflects an interesting mix of cultural influences. Quite beautifully executed. Visit RAZ artWorks! for more examples.

The Fantastic Concepts of Thierry "BARONTiERi"Doizon

Anyone who is a fan of the work of contemporary concept artists are likely to have come across the cool work of an artist who calls himself "BARONTiERi" and whos real name is Thierry Doizon. If you head on over to his online portfolio barontieri.com you like myself will most likely spend a while perusing the 30 or so images in his gallery. You should also should take a good look at his process and goodies page, where there are some informative tutorials. His links page is also cool, with links to many artists whose works I enjoy. His work has appeared in a number of magazines, books and the Devil May Cry comic, it has also appeared in 3 of Ballistic Publishings, Expose books. If you want to read more also visit his Windows Live Spaces Blog.

Art, Design and Photography Emags

I've been finding a lot of free art, design and photography emags lately. Some of which you can download and some which are browser based. The beauty of these emagazines is that they use no paper and that they are really easy to use. I've been able to use mags in chinese without too much difficulty. Only frustration is that you need a computer to view them ... roll on umpc (Ultra Mobile PC).

Some of these mags, even emulate the whole page turning experience. I think however, that as cute as this is, it's only going to be a shortlived feature ... I soon grew tired of "turning" pages. I much prefer clicking in the corner or on a button. Check out 08SHOW, it's in chinese but should be fairly easy to follow.

Once I started exploring the site, I also came across a link to a photoshop weblog in German where there were some really cool articles. It's well worth exploring so here's the link.

Dave Stevens

For fans of Good Girl Art and nostalgic images Dave Stevens is undoubtedly one of the finest examples, and one of my favourite artists. His work has inspired a great many modern comic artists and illustrators. His work includes Rocketeer, Tarzan and Bettie Page. His images are evocative of the pulp comics of the 30's and 40's. His work speaks for itself, visit his website to see more of his work.

Exotique 2 Available for Preorder

Ballistic Publishing have announced the release of EXOTIQUE 2. This annual publication of the world’s most beautiful digital characters features 269 artworks by 168 artists from 38 countries. If EXOTIQUE 2 is anything like its predecessors, then it is a must have for your digital art library. EXOTIQUE 2 is published in 2 editions; a soft cover edition retailing for US$39 and a leather-bound Special Edition retailing for US$99. The first purchasers of either edition will receive 4 posters of Art from this excellent publication. For more information visit Ballistic Publishing.

The Art of Phil Noto

As a fan of comic art, there are many artists whose work I enjoy and collect. Phil Noto is a perfect example of just such an artist. He's produced covers interiors and illustrations for most major characters. His work on Danger Girl, Batman, Beautiful Killer and other characters has a very unique look. The illustrations are for some reason reminiscent of the 60’s and indeed very cool. I like his style, because, it, like many of my favourites, stands out and is immediately recognizable. His work fetches good prices in the auctions and is well worth a look. To see more of his work please visit notoart.com.

Character Designs - An Artists Resource

For the commercial artist, the search for resources and reference material is an unending process. Character Designs is a site I came across in one of my regular searches for resources. Hong Ly, who created the site, describes Character Designs as a "nexus for aspiring artists and professionals in the industry of design for movies, gaming, and animation." The site features interviews of professionals, galleries and plenty of reference material including; figures, textures for 3D models, and tutorials. I do like the fantasy and oriental focus of some of the character reference and photos. Drop by Character Designs today and take a look.

Barry Windsor Smith

Like Michael Kaluta and Jeffrey Jones, Barry Windsor Smith is an artist who I was introduced to through an artbook called "The Studio." His art is very distinctive and is heavily influenced by celtic and PreRaphaelite art. His treatments of wolverine as Weapon X and Conan have remained some of the most admired works in the field of comics. For examples of his work please visit barrywindsor-smith.com.

Braid Media Arts

Rick Berry and Darrel Anderson are digital artists whose work I have enjoyed for a long time. They both work in a style which features a strong technorganic quality. Rick Berry is an award winning artist whose illustrations have featured on the covers of many comics and fantasy and science fiction novels. His work can be found at his personal portal Rick Berry Studio and has been featured in books by Stephen King, William Gibson and Steve Perry.


Darrel Anderson is an artist whose digital work was introduced to me via the Atari where his digitally painted screen resolution images came to life. His work has always been innovative and pushed both artistic and technological boundaries. Both artists have contributed to many Movies, Role Playing Games and have even collaborated on some very interesting 3D Software called Groboto. Give yourself a treat and head on over to Braid Media Arts.

Intuos3 A5 Wide Reviewed

As an artist, working on the computer can be an especially frustrating and non-intuitive process. I know many of you have wished for a more natural interface and until you can afford to buy a Wacom Cintiq or they improve the responsiveness of Tablet PCs, I highly recommend looking at a graphics tablet like the Intuos3 A5 Wide from Wacom. I've just finished a review of this excellent unit and I found it quite impressive. If you wish to find out more, read my full review at Kickstartnews.

d'artiste : Digital Painting

If you've had an interest in learning the art of Digital Painting, then this volume in the excellent d'artiste series from ballistic publishing is the book for you. I received earlier volumes in the d'artiste series for review and thoroughly enjoyed the information they imparted.
Like all books in this series, Digital Painting follows a similar format and features some of the works and also tutorials from several talented artists in this field. It also features selected works at the end of each guest artists section in which the artist comments on the piece being shown. This volume features digital artists Linda Bergkvist, Phillip Straub, John Wallin and Robert Chang, all of whom are Masters of this medium. The tutorials are well worth the investment as are the guest galleries ... visit Ballistic Publishing for more information. d'artiste: Digital Painting is presented in Slipcased and Limited Edition versions.

Painter - The World's Finest Painter Art

I recently bought a copy of "Painter" a book from Ballistic Publishing, which collects some of the best examples of digitally painted art and all which has been created using Corel Painter. All I can say is Wow ... talk about impressive. Upon opening the book I spent hours looking at the work which was selected to appear in this collection.
With the book broken into sections like Character in Repose, Character in Action, Portrait and Concept Art amongst others, there is plenty to keep your interest. I was blown away by several pieces in this excellent book, one in particular by Bruce Hamilton Dorn called Dancers in Repose features Two dancers painted in a very expressive style, it is a piece I would very much enjoy owning a print of.
The book features work from many artists and almost as many countries ... with artists like Jason Chan, Aleksei Briclot, Todd Lockwood, Robert Corsetti and Wu-Huang Chin, the last two of which I hadn't heard of before this book, there is plenty to enjoy. PAINTER is presented in a high quality volume consisting of 192 pages and is available in a leather-bound Special Edition and Soft Cover. If you are a collector of digital art books or an artist looking for inspiration then pick up Painter you won't regret it.

Expose 4 Review

Expose 4, edited by Daniel Wade and Paul Hellard
ISBN: 1-921002-29-8
Reviewed by: Mario Georgiou, June 2006
Published by: Ballistic Publishing
Requires: An interest in computer graphics and digital art
MSRP: US$49.00 (softcover)

As an avid collector of art, design and photography books it has been my pleasure to own many excellent publications over the years. Every year I look forward to collections from several of the very best in fantasy and comic art but only recently has this included volumes which collect the very best of computer graphics (CG) and digital art. Ballistic Publishing is a company which has done a fantastic job of putting together collections of the state of the art in this field.

Exposé 4 is not about teaching you how to illustrate or render. It will not walk you through the step-by-step process of modeling, rendering and sketching or show you how to use the tools which facilitated all of the works featured in the book. It is however pure inspirational eye candy, food for the imagination and something which will hopefully inspire many of tomorrow's artists to create a body of work that is featured in future editions of this book and others like it.

What I particularly enjoyed was that the standard of work in Exposé 4 is high indeed. The grand master selected for Exposé 4 is Stephan Martiniere, who is one of my favorite CG illustrators. His work displays a luminous and techno-organic quality which is almost sketch-like.

I was really bowled over by the architectural exteriors and interiors sections. The quality and depth of detail in the renderings is such that I defy anyone to tell me that they don't find them convincing. I also found the standard of the painted portrait division was incredible. Many of the pieces featured here would compete with traditionally produced art in the same genre. Whilst the figures in the rendered portrait division still, by and large, have that artificial look to them, there were a few which you will swear are exceedingly good photo manipulations.

As I went through each section there were a great many surprises and best of all was the realization that the book contains a truly international sampling of talent. There were a great many artists whose work I was familiar with and there were equally as many whom I felt the urge to look up on the internet after I'd finished my first couple of passes through the book. This search was aided by the URL's posted next to the artists’ names in the index at the back of the book.

Cons: Price might scare off a few folks. I'm going to have to wait another year till the next title is out. In my opinion, one of the selections for an excellence award was a bit of a stretch as it looked like a poorly cropped and processed Photoshop image, but this was really the only exception in an otherwise amazing presentation.

Pros: Excellent production values. The artists represented in this book are all first class. Exposé 4 is a publication aimed squarely at collectors of CG, fantasy art and illustration. This book is a must-have as it sets the bar for what is currently accepted as the state of the art in the field of digitally created art and computer graphics. As I've stated in previous reviews, Ballistic Publishing has consistently produced publications which hit the mark. If you are an artist who wants to see the best examples of what is possible in your craft, a fan of digital illustration, or just want to look at some amazing art, this book should be on your short list. Highly recommended.

This review has been reproduced in its entirety from Kickstartnews.com
Expose 4 and other excellent books can be purchased at the Ballistic Publishing Website.

3DM3.COM

3DM3.COM - 3DM models creation is an online resource for information on Computer Graphics and Animation, and features the news, interviews and information on high-end 3D design. The Site was founded in March 20, 2001. I spent some time reading several features, which are linked to from the site, and particularly enjoyed one which covered the de-aging of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen for X-men 3. The site also hosts the excellent CGFolks forum and online galleries, which feature some excellent CG artists.

d'artiste: Concept Art is released

Ballistic Publishing have announced the release of another in their excellent d'artiste series. d'artiste: Concept Art, features the techniques of leading concept artists Viktor Antonov, George Hull, Andrew Jones and Nicolas "Sparth" Bouvier. In this masterclass tutorial book, these four artists showcase concept art techniques which are used to create environments, characters and machinery for film, television and video games.



From what I can see it looks like they've come up with another excellent educational resource for Production Designers, Concept Artists and Imageers. If the page gallery is anything to go by the book has a variety of styles presented in it and it looks like it would appeal to Illustrators, designers and artists alike. d'artiste: Concept Art is published in 2 editions; A Leather Bound Limited Edition, and a Slipcase edition. For more information about d'artiste: Concept Art visit Ballistic Publishing.

d'ART - FINE-ART.COM

FINE-ART.COM is an enormous art and resource site where you can find contributions from thousands of artists, collectors, and dealers. Fine art.com features a listing service, a web directory and even facilitates art research through its forums. you can use the listing service to list and find art. Search the directory to find specific types of artistic websites. Critiqueing or researching an artist is easy, simply visit the artist forums.