It feels like it's been forever... once again. I've been super busy and haven't had a lot of time for deviantART, which really bums me out. It feels like a lot of the community has migrated to Facebook for interaction and networking, so that's kind of where I've been, so feel free to add me [link] _{(Although, fair warning, I'm reluctant to add people that have either nothing I can see on their page or any mutual friends.)}

Hey guys, wanted to let you know I'm still alive and kicking. I've been super busy lately working on the new Wachowski film, so it's hard for me to pump out any personal work. Things are going great though, and I can't wait for you to see everything the team has been doing. It's gonna be a while, but the talent on board is crazy.

Anyway, in the mean time, you can find me on Facebook if you want, just search Reid Southen or click this link.

Hope everyone is doing well, and I hope to be more active here soon. Take care!

Just the other day, I discovered a super quick and easy way to create reference sheets for digital painting. So, instead of having a ton of documents open all at once, slowing down your Photoshop, or spending a half hour to create your own sheet, you can use Picasa to create one for you in just seconds.

Below is a video I made to show you how. There are some other tips in there as well, so take a look if you're interested!



Take care!

I found out this past week that I'll officially be moving to Chicago for a couple months to continue work on the Wachowski's Jupiter Ascending. I move Monday actually, and I'll be without a home computer for about a week until I can get a new workstation built, so I'll have to put the Photoshop guide I talked about in the last journal on hold for a short while.

It's actually pretty much written in full, but I need to put together the screenshots and actual file still. I also might be working on a detailed matte painting tutorial for PSDTuts+ soon, so I'll keep everyone updated on that.

In the mean time, take care! And for everyone who made it to Comic Con and saw the Elysium footage, I hate you

Hey everyone! Just wanted to give you a heads up that I'm working on a super long, detailed guide to maximizing your workflow efficiency and file/layer management in Photoshop. There are also a lot of other assorted tips and tricks in there as well.

The reason I wanted to tell you is in case anyone had any other ideas that might be well suited for it, or if you had questions that might give me an idea of more things to include. Some of it will be obvious to some of you, but I've realized over time that things that I assume everyone knows end up being largely unknown by a lot of people.

Currently, here is a portion of what I have:

Groups
Color Coding
Layer Masks
Lock Transparent Pixels
Clipping Masks
Adjustment Layers
Smart Objects

Merging Layers
Multiple Versions
Locating Layers

Spacebar Move
Alt Color Picking
Fullscreen Mode
Background Color
Multiple Windows for Same Doc
Brush Resizing Shortcuts
Reference Sheet
Groups for Textures
Stroke Selection
Saving Selections
Flip Canvas
Value Check
Wacom Radial Menu
Coolorus

It's by no means a comprehensive list, but it's basically a run through of the things I personally use that help me greatly. However, because I do these things everyday, it's easy to forget some of the really obvious ones, so like I said, if you have any input, let me know now so I can potentially include more info.

Thanks!

I was in Australia until just a few days ago, and when I logged onto the site on June 1st over there I noticed I had received Deviousness for this month!

I really never expected it, and I'm honored that the community and site have recognized my hard work and willingness to help out whenever I can. I know I haven't been around as much lately, but I hope to spend more time on the site in the coming months. I've just been really busy and most of the work I've been doing I can't show yet.

But, I wanted to thank deviantART for being such a useful and vital platform for my art and my career, without it I certainly wouldn't be where I'm at today. I also wanted to thank everyone for their kind words, and while I can't respond to all the messages, please know that I definitely read every last one. You guys are fantastic and I'm so glad to be a part of the community with you.

Take care, and keep arting!

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I wrote an update on what's going on with me, so I figured I'd do it now!

As of the past few weeks I've been working on the new Wachowski movie Jupiter Ascending, thanks to some help from my friend and awesome artist  *JonasDeRo. The team working on it is fantastic, and all super nice, so it's been great. I might be moving to Chicago temporarily as well to continue helping with the production design, which would be a lot of fun. I'm really honored to be working on such a cool movie, I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

And in about 2 days I'll be traveling to Australia to visit my beautiful girlfriend for a couple weeks. We'll be traveling the outback on kangarooback with our Koala sidekick, Sir Snuggleton, as well as fighting great whites and cuddling wombats. Well, none of those things, but I'm crazy excited to visit such a cool country.

As for my Hunger Games concept work, I'm still trying to get a hold of Lionsgate so I can post that stuff. I haven't heard back yet, but I'll keep trying. Usually you can post that stuff as soon as the movie releases, but I was informed I had to talk to the publicity guys first.

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well, I'll catch you all soon!

I visited my old college earlier this week to catch up with some instructors, and I managed to walk in on my anatomy teacher talking about a trip to a university cadaver lab. He was handing out directions and times, and when he spun around and saw me, he goes, "You need to come!"

So, I totally went.

Going in, I didn't know entirely what to expect. I was both nervous and excited, given that I'm very much a nerd and I love almost anything dealing with science, whether it's anatomy, astrophysics, astronomy, biology, evolution, etc., the list goes on. I read up on all that stuff, all the time. I've just never been privy to view a dissected corpse in person, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to learn.

It was a very sobering experience to say the least. We were shown groups of muscles, the bones, and organs of a older man who died of pneumonia, and a woman who died from lung cancer, both who donated their bodies to science. It was strange to see the inner workings of a human body, and how fragile it all seems. It's just a collection of soft tissues, supported by hard structures, controlled by a bunch of fatty tissue called a brain.

It was also weird to think that the collection of tissue and 'meat' on the table were people, like any of us standing around and observing. It could have be any one of us, and inside we're all pretty much the same. What makes us different on any real level is what's going on in our brains, which made it even more weird when I got to hold one.

In my hands was the remains of everything that person once was. All their dreams, experiences, the feelings for everyone they ever loved or lost, the record of everything they ever did was in the palm of my hands. Of course it's not really in there anymore, but on a fundamental level, I held that person's entire worldly experience between ten little latex fingers.

There's a lot more I could say about the experience, but it's definitely something you have to see yourself to really understand. I can understand a lot of people being grossed out, but I was totally fascinated.

If you ever get the opportunity to witness such a thing, I would definitely recommend it. It really does change your perspective on life as well as our individual places in the world. For an inquisitive mind, it's pure gold, and I really respect the people who are willing to donate their bodies to further human knowledge. Simply amazing.

I feel like I've addressed this before at some point, in some other journal, but I find myself either discussing this with people a lot, or coming across people who on their work proudly claim to have "used no reference."

The biggest problem, and misconception, regarding references is that people feel like it's cheating or that it somehow cheapens their work. While I can understand the sense of accomplishment coming from using no reference to finish a painting or drawing, people who consistently do it are only hurting themselves in the long run. So in short, no, reference isn't bad.

Artists have been using reference since the days of the old masters. They would reference life, whether it be landscapes, objects on a table, or models standing in a studio. They would even reference their own sketches or other people's work in order create convincing paintings.

For some reason, a lot of people today seem to think that in order to be a good artist, they have to be able to do things without referencing photos or life. Unfortunately, to be able to understand things such as perspective, lighting, anatomy, and color especially, one NEEDS to use reference. There are far too many subtleties and details in real life that are nearly impossible to reproduce without directly viewing them yourself.

While I'm often impressed by people who claim to have used no reference and still do a good job, one of two things usually cross my mind. Either 1) They're lying, or 2) It would've been better if they had used reference. This doesn't apply as much to speed painting type images as it does to more finished illustrations, but it's still worth noting.

Any big shot professional artists you see doing amazing paintings, whether it be digital today, or someone doing awesome illustrations and paintings anywhere from 50 to 250+ years ago, they all used some sort of reference. The illusion here is that they make it seem so effortless that people begin to assume they didn't need reference, but rest assured they busted their ass on it and observed the world around them in one way or another in order to accomplish their work.

When I said that one of two things cross my mind when I see a claim of no reference used, I actually lied. There's a third thing that sometimes crosses my mind, and it typically applies to veterans of the industry who've been working for 20+ years, and that's usually, "Holy shit, that's awesome." But the reason it works for them is they've spent half their lives observing things already and painting their asses off. They can recreate things fairly accurately without reference, but you're talking about people who've quite literally spent thousands of hours creating art, or have done one thing so many times that they no longer need to directly use reference for everything. Comic artists are good example.

Don't make the mistake of trying to do that before you've put in the hours. And guess what, those vets STILL use reference most of the time.

I guess my main point here is that reference isn't cheating, it makes you a good artist. There's a reason art schools force you to do a lot of studies, take a lot of photos, and reference those images and live models. Without absorbing what real life is like, how can anyone hope to recreate it accurately? Don't let your pride get in the way of progress, because you'll be hurting yourself and your art.

And remember, there's a difference between referencing something and copying something. Borrowing a palette, a pose, or style isn't cheating, you learn from those things. You just want to avoid copying something wholesale, unless you're doing a study.

At the end of the day, you should do what makes you happy, but hopefully some of you who weren't convinced earlier will now see the value in using reference. Simply put, art mimics real life, so make sure you put real life in your art!

Take care!

Hey guys! A new Hunger Games trailer was released which finally shows some of my work on the film. I took a screen grab from the trailer which you can click below to make it larger.

I spent 3 months last summer helping to design the look of the control room as well as the holographic elements and desktop interfaces you see in action. I'm excited to see the full sequences and find out how much of my design the final FX ended up retaining, but from a quick glance I can see quite a lot which is really cool. You can see it a the 0:19 mark in the video below as well.

It's that time again where everyone writes a contemplative journal about their year and personal experiences contained therein. Some people had a good one, other's a bad one, but I'm glad that I can honestly say this was the best year I've ever had.

Two of the biggest things to happen to me this year are things that'll shape the rest of my life. The first is that I both finally met and started dating one of my best friends, and it'll be no surprise to her when I decide the time is right to propose.

She's from Down Under, and I'm Stateside, but there's no lack of determination to make it work. I had the time of my life with her, and I know I'll continue to for years to come. You're the best, Clancy

The second thing is my work on the Hunger Games movie. I'm sure many of you already know I had a hand in the design on that movie, and I'm eternally grateful to `DanLuVisiArt, his friend Stephan, and Stephan's lovely girlfriend for helping me get on board. It was a big step forward for me and I look forward to what 2012 holds.

I'm also grateful for all the new friends I've made and all the good times I've had with my best friends, especially `DanLuVisiArt and my BFFL Ana. There's far too much stuff to list, but it was a brilliant year and I love everyone who had a hand in making it such, including you guys here on dA. Without your support, being an artist wouldn't be half as rewarding, so I thank you.

My resolution for this year is to be far more productive. It's too easy to get lax with personal work, especially with the existence of Netflix, so I'm going to make this a year where I put out a ton of new work and really push my limits. It's funny how often one can rediscover their love of art, and I'm going to make sure I really utilize that feeling this go around. I hope you guys enjoy the ride as much as I will.

Here's to an awesome 2011 and hopefully an even better 2012.

Happy New Year!

This past week has been AWESOME in terms of movie trailers being released, and 2012 is shaping up to be an outstanding year for movies. In no particular order below, you have some of my most anticipated films of next year.


As much as I'm looking forward to The Dark Knight Rises, I think the Hobbit and Prometheus trump it for me. They both mark the return to the classic franchises that helped kickstart and define the careers of Peter Jackson and Ridley Scott and I can't wait to see what they've come up with.

If you're like me, you might have gotten lazy when it comes to practicing figure drawing. Sometimes it's difficult to find decent photos to reference, to do gestures or otherwise, so it's easy to do a couple drawings for practice then throw in the towel.

Well, there are a number of sites out there that I've come across over the years that help with that sort of thing. They pull stock images and such from different sources and give you a randomizer and timer and other features, or show anatomical structures that you can manipulate. Below I'll list some of the ones I've come across that might help you. Some of them have the same images, so you can probably just pick a couple favorites.

Pose Maniacs

An oldie but goodie. I've used this site for ages and it's only gotten better. On it you'll find 3D models of poses that you can rotate around, and they all show the musculature. You can browse the poses, or use the random viewer, or the timed viewer that you can set yourself that randomizes the poses and lets you do quick gesture drawing.

Artsy Poses

A relatively new tool, this one is similar to Pose Maniacs in that it lets you browse the images and use a timed drawing tool, however it uses real models and has some other options. No rotation available on this one, but it boasts over 2000 images. Give it a shot. There is nudity on this site though, so it's NSFW, but you can browse only clothed models if you want.

Pixel Lovely

This one has less features than Artsy Poses, and it doesn't let you browse the images yourself, but it does have a "take a class" tool, and a random feature, so it's still worth checking out as it might have images the others don't. Also nudity here, but like Artsy Poses you can turn it off.

Love Castle Drawing Script

This one probably has the least amount of features of the bunch, but it still randomizes for you and lets you set a duration. It has nudity as well, but you can toggle it.

Anyway, I hope you get some use out of these and they help you with your work, take care!

I've been meaning to write about this for a while now, but recently a video popped on up Ctrl+Paint about the same topic and it encouraged me to finally talk about it. It's a practice that's been misconstrued and misunderstood for a while now, so I wanted to help people get a proper understanding on the subject.

Speed painting has been something of a fad for 4 or 5 years now, even back when I was first starting digital work. Like many artists out there, I thought, "Sweet, I can do really cool work, really fast!" And like many artists out there, in the back of my head I was probably thinking, "This is easier than learning the normal way!"


Well, here's the main problem in regards to speed painting. Any of those really cool, realistic and well done speed paintings you see are done by professionals who have been painting for years and years. These are people who learned their fundamentals the long, hard way. Things like perspective, color, lighting, anatomy, etc. Using a perspective grid transformation trick isn't much good unless you understand how perspective actually works.

These pros have a solid grasp of those fundamental concepts, and from years of practice have the ability to paint quickly while adhering to them. In essence, speed comes with skill and knowledge, not the other way around. Speeding through paintings will not increase your skill, nor your knowledge because you'll never fully understand why any of it works the way it does.

Perpetuating the misconceptions are "speed painting" videos you YouTube, where a really awesome painting is shown being made, and the thing is sped up to last 5 minutes, the duration of a song they put to it. What they often don't mention (or do sometimes, if you look in the description), is that the painting took 25 hours, not 45 minutes.

Obviously that's not a speed painting at all. Many of my fully finished works take between 15-25 hours, I'm just not speeding them up for YouTube and putting the wrong label on it. It's a painting shown quickly, not one done quickly.


Another thing that many people don't understand is that speed painting is most often a means to an end. In other words, in a production pipeline on a movie or game, concepts very often need to be done super fast, where someone doesn't have 15 hours to spend on a concept. This forces them to use their artistic knowledge to get the gist of an idea down in as little time and as few strokes as possible.

Many people think that doing a speed painting means working as fast as your arm will let you, and putting down really quick, rough strokes, but that's not it at all. In order to do a good job, an artist has to make a lot of smart choices and make deliberate strokes to convey what they need to. It can often be a trial and error process, even for pros, but they know how to utilize that experimentation properly. Hell, I don't even bother with speed paintings anymore because I don't feel I'm up to that level of understanding yet.

There are a lot of fantastic artists out there that can do great speed paintings, but if you take a closer look, you'll see that the best and most successful speed paintings are done by artists who can also draw and paint the 'normal' way as well. These are people who didn't set out to do speed paintings, they are people who gained the ability to do them through hard work and practice.


There's nothing wrong with speed painting, I think it's a fantastic means to get an idea onto the canvas. Concerning oneself primarily with light and shapes as opposed to small details can be very important and artistically rewarding. It's just that it's easy to get the wrong idea about what it is, why it's done, and when it's a good idea to do it.

I don't want to deter anyone from trying speed painting if they're curious, but if you're going to pursue that, make sure you spend some time really learning those fundamentals. Take some time on your paintings, have a little patience, and you'll see the quality of your work increase pretty substantially over time.

I wish you all the best of luck with your work, and if you have any questions about the subject, feel free to ask me and I'll do my best to answer. Take care!

They finally released the new Hunger Games trailer this past Monday, so I thought I'd share it with everyone! Unfortunately, none of my design work is in it, but I think that's due in part to the visual effects nature of what they had me doing, and that my scenes were filmed towards the end of the shoot. I'm sure they're working hard on it as I type this so I wish them luck! The visual FX tests I saw a couple months back were already shaping up, and those were ultra rough.

In either case, I think it looks pretty cool, and I'm excited to see the finished film which is out in March!

I managed to put together a video review for the new Cintiq 24HD if anyone is curious to see it in action! I absolutely love the thing, but there a few tiny cons that I talk about in the video as well. Also, there are wicked cool special effects.

All my equipment is pretty outdated at the moment. It all runs great, but my Cintiq 12wx is roughly 4 years old now. It's losing it's lustre, and just doesn't provide me the real estate I need to work. My 20.1" monitor is feeling a little cramped as well.

So, having worked really hard the past few months, I'm super excited that I was able order a few things I really needed. Yesterday I ordered a brand new 24" IPS display to replace my 5 year old LCD, and today I managed to find a place selling the Cintiq 24HD's before they make a wide release, so I ordered one of those too!

It's all pretty pricey, so I'm lucky that these things will probably last me half a decade. That's the fortunate thing about working digitally is that you can get away with buying 'supplies' once every few years typically. It's going to make working so much easier and more fun, so definitely expect new art soon!

How is everyone else doing?

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Ctrl+Paint, but it's been around since the beginning of the year and has built up a vast number of tutorials and information for those who want to learn how to digitally paint. Everything from the basics, to advanced tricks and managing workflow as well as utilizing Sketchup in your work. The creator Matt Kohr adds like 2 videos a week now, and even for people familiar with digital painting and Photoshop, there's still stuff to learn.

I'm sure many of you are aware of the Art4Love.com drama floating about. How this Chad Love fellow stole the works of many artists from here on deviantART, including myself, and was selling them for ridiculous amounts of money, claiming they were oil paintings, even shipping them with a certificate of authenticity.

Anyway, there seems to be some ridiculous responses going around to this. I'm not going to call anyone out by name, but a certain deviant has taken it upon himself to ask for donations in order to hire 'the best copyright lawyer' and pursue a 'class action lawsuit'. This in my opinion is a bullshit move, as any copyright lawyer worth his weight would probably take on something this big and blatant for a percentage with no upfront fees to begin with. It's pretty clear cut copyright infringement on a massive scale.

I personally think this deviant jumped the gun and instead of taking a moment to think about the situation, figured he'd get everyone riled up and paying for his lawyer. At the end of the day, even with a class action lawsuit, there's no guarantee that the people who were wronged will get anything, and if they do, you're probably only looking at a few Burger King value meals worth per artist.

That's not to say the deviant in question is some evil mastermind looking to steal your money, I just think it's a bad idea to give it to him, or anyone else for that matter. Any way you cut it, the word is out and Chad Love will get what's coming to him eventually, you don't need some hotshot artist to take up the reigns. And lets be honest, I sincerely doubt he sold much of anything off that site, and what are the chances your few pieces of work were among what was sold out of thousands of images?

That's not to say it isn't a big deal, it's a VERY big deal, and very serious. Just trying to put some perspective on it.

Anyway, take care guys, and hold on to your pocketbooks.

Me and `DanLuVisiArt got a bunch of our stuff stolen out of his friend's car via smashed window last night. Best part about it is that San Diego police wouldn't even come out because we don't live there. No matter that a crime was committed, they just don't fucking care.

There goes about $1500 worth of stuff between the two of us, including a bunch of clothes, ipods, Dan's iPad and my signed WETA book. We had no idea our friend would be parking the car in a secluded garage instead of on a crowded street. Even though we concealed our bags under the seats, it was a dumb move on our part, but fuck its irritating.

So, fuck you San Diego, especially your joke of police department.

At least I can laugh knowing when they opened my bag their first impression was a hair brush, boxers, and toiletries instead of a laptop. Oh well, I'll be back home Tuesday, minus my loot.