Jon Hodgson is a professional illustrator well-known for his fantasy and RPG illustrations. He additionally published the very first digital artwork guide that included ArtRage tutorials. Who are you? What do you want the internet to know about you? I’m Jon Hodgson, I’m an art director and freelance artist residing in Scotland. I work primarily in the sector of desk prime games - boardgames, card games, roleplaying video games. I’ve been a full timer at this for 15 years now. What kind of artist are you? I’m a industrial fantasy artist, known for textural, painterly work, in the previous couple of of years mostly set in Middle-earth. Do you come from a digital or traditional art background? Conventional artwork in the first occasion - I educated as a positive artist specialising in painting. Over my career as an illustrator I made the swap to digital media. What edition(s) of ArtRage do you employ?

Do you use different applications or conventional media? I still use pencils and paint, I additionally make use of Photoshop. How long have you been using ArtRage? Critically, since ArtRage 2. But I dabbled for a while before that. What ArtRage works or initiatives are you most happy with? Are they the ones everyone else likes? Inform us about them! It’s a difficult question. As a result of I take advantage of ArtRage every working day it’s robust to choose. I’ll plump firstly for the cover to "Rivendell" for The One Ring roleplaying recreation. I believe it’s a pleasant change of pace in comparison with the typical recreation cowl. The second one is Mountains Boy. This was a private piece, and I believe it’s most likely my favourite piece I’ve ever made. I don’t always have rather a lot to say in painting of any nice value, however I believe this one stated one thing, and I really like listening to people’s ideas on what it’s about.

It’s determined and joyful, and I feel that expresses one thing about me. I’m unsure if these ones are roughly common than different issues I’ve made. In all honesty? I try to stay away from that form of pondering for my long run sanity. Why do you use ArtRage? It’s a really direct piece of software, and I really like the marks you can make with it, and its depth of flexibility with deceptively simple instruments. The way these three primary sliders interact on the oils is a work of genius. The place does ArtRage fit into your workflow? I’m about 50/50 on sketching in Artrage or Photoshop, with no particular sensible reason for that call. I’ll do 90% of any painting in ArtRage, and export to a PSD for a last polish up in Photoshop where I test and tweak a number of things for print functions. What are your favourite ArtRage options? The oil brush. I take advantage of it the most by such a large margin.

I like the way it puts down colour, and the way colour mixes on the canvas. I don’t make a lot use of the glitter. However I nonetheless quite like it. Do you might have any suggestions for other artists who might want to do the same thing as you? Work laborious, work good. Learn as a lot as you can about painting and painters. Look on the greats of history, not simply your heroes in your personal discipline. Draw from life. Paint with real paint as well as digital paint so that you could learn what actual paint does and doesn’t do. This is a bit of extra specific, however try to follow painting scenes with more than one character interacting. Think of the setting of your painting as a character in itself, not simply as "the background". Have that setting completely engulf your characters and talk with them. Any ArtRage specific tips? Tracing images are a real boon. Make a lightning fast color sketch the same size as your intended final piece, after which use that as a tracing picture to quickly lay down an underpainting. Additionally - spend a while in the ArtRage forums. The enthusiasm is infectious and humbling. There are a ton of great resources and ideas there. Any question(s) you wished we’d requested and would like to answer? Is ArtRage suited to professional artwork? I often hear this. I think the decrease price in comparison to other painting software program makes some individuals assume that ArtRage isn’t appropriate for "pros". It's nonsense. Although ArtRage works otherwise to some other extra nicely established "professional" artwork creation packages, it really works very properly thank you.

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