I got my copy of James Gurney's book on Adolph Menzel! The man lived by his motto "Not a day without a line." and sketched and painted everything all the time (as does the admirable James Gurney, one of our best living artists), his commitment was extraordinary! My hope is that that all of us digital artists will follow his inspiration and improve through observational study. The book has helped me redouble my efforts, It sits next to my desk and is frequently perused as a constant reminder of what the attitude of a real artist is. I highly recommend it, get your copy at James' website.

Jungle Birds!

The Prince of Egypt!

Another of my scenes from The Prince of Egypt. Still can't believe my career began with such an opportunity and hope the same for you.

City on a Hill

Office Window, Digital

About 13 years ago I went through the transition from traditional painting for animation to digital. It was really tough. I prided myself on my brushwork but had to transition to tap tap tapping on a wacom tablet, no cintiq existed.
So to practice, I continued my habit of painting the view out my office window but now with digital tools. These are some of my first digital paintings.

Rio2 Concept Art

Here's a set of concept art roughs and the finish from the animated movie Rio2. It's the confrontation between Blue the Macaw and the tree cutting machine. We went with the less saturated choice because it allows the bird to be the main focus of the moment.

The idea is to carefully control the value contrast, hue contrast and saturation contrast to properly emphasize the story moment. I also have the ground plane tipped to add drama.

If you'd like to learn more you can checkout the new inexpensive subscription program http://www.schoolism.com/school.php?id=22 for my online concept art classes.

How to Train Your Dragon Production Process

Here's some work done for How to Train Your Dragon during high production on the show. It's not general concept art but rather it's created specifically for the 3D modeling and texturing departments for reference to create the final set.

We Begin with a rough Maya model (not created by me), and find useful angles and take snapshots to use as layout.

Then we find appropriate photo reference to help us give a believable surface quality to the location. I'm personally hesitant about photo bashing for concept art but here it can be a help to the texture Department.
The scene is then painted and worked out in Photoshop as a work of reference for the rest of the production team.

To learn the entire process from start to finish for an animated film or game design you can take my Environment Design course for an inexpensive subscription price at: http://www.schoolism.com/school.php?id=26

Puss in Boots Concept Art: Bleak Township

I previously posted an idyllic version of this scene but later in the story the town falls on hard times.

Day and Night

I did a bunch of townscape exploration sketches for The Legend of Puss in Boots, here's a day and night take on it.

Puss in Boots Old City Painting

Painting for the flashback sequence of The Legend of Puss in Boots.
This was hugely collaborative with the layout by Ron Kurniawan and character design by Patrick Mate.

Back From China!

Great trip to Beijing China where I did a week long design workshop for the Create Change forum sponsored by my alma mater, Art Center College of Design.

 

Portrait Drawing Book Now Available!

It's up!! Available NOW on amazon for pre-order. https://www.amazon.com/Draw-Portraits-Charcoal-Nathan-Fowkes/dp/1624650317/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468346064&sr=1-1
We're so proud of the book and are confident you'll enjoy it. Please share the link if you'd like to support it.

Charcoal Portrait Drawing!

This is one of many drawings that will be featured in my soon to be released book, How to Draw Portraits in Charcoal.

 

Practice Study

Rome!

I recorded the painting of this study, it will be included in my online landscape painting class found here.

Revisiting the Puss in Boots Beatboard

I've posted a few bits of this here and there but here's a group for you:
(some collaboration here with the great layout artist Marcos Mateu-Mestre.)

"Spirit" Studies

 These studies were painted for the animated movie Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron. They're look development for the "camp" location.

The quick and simple one below was one of many sketches to find the right color palette for the scene.

Sketches of Hawaii

Remembering a painting trip to Hawaii from many years ago...

Jungle Falls!

Waterfall scene done for the animated movie Rio2.

 

 

Hoatzin Bird in Watercolor

Blog readers have identified this for me as a Hoatzin, it's painted in watercolor on hot press watercolor paper.

Puss in Boots Beatboard

This is the "beatboard" from The legend of Puss in Boots. Myself and Marcos Mateu Mestre were the first artists on the show and our first move was to review the script and identify key moments to sketch out. We call these "story beats" hence the term "beatboard". This was our process to get the ball rolling and work toward finding a "look" for the show. It's a collaboration, Marcos sketched out the scenes and I painted them.

Our most important skills at the studios are to layout scenes for best storytelling effect, then use color and lighting design to create mood and emotion. Marcos has a wonderful book for layout called Framed Ink and my tutorials are at Schoolism.com

Portait Book Images!

My portrait book is done and ready for the printer! It should become available end of summer. Here's an image for you: