(Source: http://hethesrodawa.blogspot.com/)
Hethe Srodawa is a professional concept artist who lives in San Diego. Currently he works for Rockstar Games, but he has also done work for Trion Worlds, Inc., Brain Tangent Entertainment, and Superscape. Being a video game concept artist, he has done work for several well-known games, including Grand Theft Auto V, LA Noire, and Red Dead Redemption. I did not know he worked on video games when I came across Hethe's work in a Google search, but it would explain why I am drawn to his work. Even the work he did not do directly for a game reads like a concept art piece - and rightly so, given his career as a concept artist - and I am heavily inspired by such work.
(Source: http://hethesrodawa.blogspot.com/)
I'm hoping to create tension in my next piece, in contrast to the relaxed feel of my first project, so to see both outdoor landscape work and interior environment work that both embodied the sort of feeling I'm hoping to encapsulate naturally drew me to Hethe's work. The colors are largely subdued, brighter or more bold when the eyes ought to be drawn to a particular part of the piece but otherwise allowing the viewer to take in the landscape as a whole, getting used to the environment over time. I really admire this in an environment piece. Whether peaceful or tense, immersion is super important in creating a successful environment, drawing the viewer in and making them wonder what might be around the corner if they could walk around inside.
(Source: http://hethesrodawa.blogspot.com/)
While I would not call Hethe's work realism - his work is often of clearly fictional landscapes or environments - They certainly have enough of a realistic quality to them that they COULD be real, if that world was the world we lived in. (This is true of his character art too; though I have not included those pieces here due to his landscape environments having more relevance to my own work, I will be including a link to his blog at the end of this entry should you be interested.) The lighting and colors of the pieces are often someone stylized, but at the same time the pieces are very down-to-earth, the shapes a bit rough around the edges which just makes them that much more believable.
(Source: http://hethesrodawa.blogspot.com/)
I am heavily inspired by video games in almost all the art I do - The project I'm working on right now is inspired by a few, including Amnesia: The Dark Descent as far as ambiance - and to see the work that a professional video game concept artist does is very enlightening. The feeling of the scenes I have included in this post in particular are relevant to both the work I am doing and work that I hope to do in the future, a tense atmosphere that isn't in-your-face scary or intimidating but the longer you look at it you can sense a dissonance in the air, as if the order - or disorder, as it might be - that you're seeing isn't the whole story. It draws you into the piece, and I hope to combine this sort of ambiance with sound to produce a full piece that has a good sense of immersion and atmosphere.
Hethe's Blog: http://hethesrodawa.blogspot.com/
Hethe's LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/hethesrodawa
Another cited website: http://kotaku.com/5866552/the-dusty-concept-art-of-red-dead-redemption/
Artist #2: Feliks
(Source: http://fel-x.deviantart.com/art/Over-The-Stream-390667641)
I could not find a last name for this artist, as every source I found for his art only referred to him as Feliks aside from some signatures on his art that I could not read properly, so the information I could find on him is limited. What I do know from his DeviantArt profile is that he currently lives in Southern Poland and that the art styles he enjoys most are realism, comics, and abstract art. While his pieces are not reminiscent of comics in any way not particularly abstract most of the time, realism plays a large role in his personal work.
(Source: http://fel-x.deviantart.com/art/brook-331214515)
What drew me to Feliks' art first and foremost was the amazing lighting he utilizes in his pieces. As an artist who is both interested in working on landscapes and who struggles with light in her own pieces, I am blown away by how real the light and shadow in Feliks' work is, creating scenes that look three-dimensional and real enough that I could almost walk right into them. Though the pieces are not quite photographic in their realism - the colors are just that much crisper and the textures just a little more smooth than reality - I don't think they need to be. The environments within each piece are still absolutely breathtaking.
http://fel-x.deviantart.com/art/mountain-landscape-299142250
Feliks uses realistic colors and shapes in his pieces, but even so they aren't quite as subdued as the colors one would see in a real landscape. The greens and floral colors of the flora are brighter and clearer, the figures of both the natural and man made features of the environment are smoother and cleaner, and the view of the horizon is bolder and easier to see than in reality, creating an environment that is, arguably, more enticing than a real place. Not only does it look like a place you COULD step into, it looks like a place you would WANT to step into and walk around for hours, not necessarily going anywhere but simply appreciating the beauty of the place. It creates an opportunity to daydream, even for a few moments in passing, before moving on to another piece and another environment to mentally explore.
http://fel-x.deviantart.com/art/Lake-300432406
As I have already mentioned, landscapes and other similar environments are something I like to explore and my work, and these realistic yet whimsical pieces that Feliks creates serve as a model that I can strive to one day emulate. By seeing the way he uses light and colors, I can better understand what goes into a piece to make it truly look like a landscape and not just a picture on a screen. I hope that by looking at these pieces and trying to understand them as environments, I can better my own work and move towards creating pieces that look like a place you could explore. I hope to combine such landscapes with my growing experience in soundscape design to create truly dynamic landscapes that draw the viewer into them through multiple senses.
Feliks' DA: http://fel-x.deviantart.com/
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