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Submitted: September 11, 2010
Image Size: 264 KB
Resolution: 1920×1080

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Comments: 48
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Views: 9,949 (10 today)
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Chasing The Stormby *steve-burg

Digital Art / Drawings & Paintings / Sci-Fi

This is a pretty straightforward Photoshop painting. The airplanes are a reworking of an illustration I did a couple of years ago. Their somewhat fanciful (as in "not-especially-aerodynamic") design is somewhat inspired by the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter - but in terms of their function they're probably more akin to the A-10 Warthog.

I only painted one aircraft, and then just copied it at reduced size for the background planes - truly a shameless cheat (but a big time saver)

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The sky was painted using the Smudge/Blend tool to smear large blocks of color together into a cloudscape. It's always fun - and surprising - to use this technique, and see what effects the various brushes have

The lightning was an area grabbed from a photograph, and unfortunately I've had the photo in my files for so long I no longer have any recollection of the source

I wanted to capture the feel of "model kit box art", but with a sci-fi aircraft as the featured item...

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*verseless Feb 20, 2012

"I wanted to capture the feel of "model kit box art", but with a sci-fi aircraft as the featured item..."

and you did, really took me back to my childhood here, you're amazing.

*steve-burg Feb 20, 2012 Professional Filmographer

Thanks very much!

I sure miss those cool model kit cover illustrations - not to mention cool book covers, movie posters and other great stuff that's disappeared...

*verseless Feb 20, 2012

well I thought the book cover for Stephen Baxter's 'Ark' was quite excellent, which was why i bought it, as was Bernard Beckett's 'Genesis', sometimes simplicity and sparse detail makes for all the detail in the world. Like your picture.

*steve-burg Feb 20, 2012 Professional Filmographer

They say "don't buy a book for its cover" - but that's usually why I bought most of them

And of course, it was only a matter of time before i would read them. There are some nice covers around, but I was noticing on a recent excursion to the book store that there are a lot of books with just type and a black cover - or something similar. I miss the stuff that inspired me to start making artwork.

Simplicity is the Holy Grail in my book. I can't say I always achieve it - but certainly I try to

*verseless Feb 20, 2012

Agreed, simple book covers are good, but gimmie some art to show off, that said you've got a lot more E-books now and cover art has been reduced to a thumbnail (sad panda). With my photography I tend to keep it simple, I tend to not use alteration unless the colors are otherwise a wash.

Oh and on a side note...dude you made my child-hood,(I'm 23) Titan A.E is one of my favorites, dated though it is now.

*steve-burg Feb 21, 2012 Professional Filmographer

I have an iPad, and a growing library on it. To me it seems like a "no-brainer" to put a great image as the front end to an e-book. But instead we get a thumbnail, and in full-screen mode, a gray-green rectangle with some type on it. It seems strange considering the nature of an iPad (full color beautiful screen) and what other types of content are doing to make their products attractive in this new mobile medium.

I'm more than 2x your age (yikes!) One thing I'm noticing (from that vantage point) is that the role of art in our culture seems to be drastically diminished compared to a few decades ago. Websites such as DA give us kind of a false impression (it's a great thing, but mainly artists sharing their creations with other artists, so it's kind of a "bubble")

This concerns me; I have been wondering lately if we are moving in the direction of a "world without art". There are islands of creativity around, certainly... but it was once a continent (to make an analogy). I've been extremely fortunate, no complaints. I just hope the kinds of opportunities I encountered will also be there for the new generation of talent.

These are the kinds of thoughts that come to the forefront around the time of my birthday (which was a few weeks ago)

*verseless Feb 21, 2012

This is true, and quite likely most of the art will soon be derivative, with anything truly creative limited to CGI- and videogame pet projects of the artists. While I'm sure you have a lot of freedom to do concept work, i'm sure you still have to work within the confines of at least loose criteria.

This is one of the reasons why I try to stay away from digital manipulation of my work. While admittedly a great deal of it is not on par with a great many of the HDR artists out there, I've always viewed Ansel Adams as my inspiration.

We're not moving towards a 'world without art' in my opinion, but more towards a world where art has been concentrated heavily into different regions. While it may be sad to see happen, the fact is we're becoming more specialized. the world as a whole should certainly start recognizing that.

*steve-burg Feb 21, 2012 Professional Filmographer

Concept art is a source of income, but not much more honestly. That's why I always keep doing my own art.

(1 Reply)

*darkness404 Feb 17, 2011 Hobbyist Digital Artist

You realy captured the model kit box feeling. Love it and made to fav. ^^

~TomFledger Jan 10, 2011

I LOVE THIS. Modern and Futurish. THanks. it'll be one of my favs.

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