Interviev with Robin Olausson

Интервью взятое сайтом 3DTotal у Robin Olausson. 3DTotal: Hi Robin, you’ve graced the pages of 2DArtist for many an issue now, so it’s a pleasure to finally chat with you. Could you tell us a bit about yourself and also what peaked your interest in digital art?Robin: Thanks, Chris. I`ve always been interested in art but never really started doing it until after my first year at university. The school wasn’t anything for me so I quit and started educating myself in art while working part time in a factory. It was hard going but if you want something badly you’ve got to put the effort into it. I´ve just finished studying at another school here in Sweden called School of Future Entertainment - mostly 3D-related stuff here and not much of an art school but I did get some time to work on my 2D here as well.

3DTotal: You mentioned that you taught yourself art. How did you go about doing this and what advice would you give anyone out there that wants to go down the “self taught” route?

Robin: Anatomy-wise I studied from books like, George B. Bridgeman’s Constructive Anatomy, Richer Hale‘s Artistic Anatomy and Burne Hogarth’s Dynamic Figure Drawing. There is other good stuff out there for other topics as well, like the Gnomon workshop DVDs. I strongly recommend getting out on forums like Conceptart.org and posting your work for criticism; it really helps you push it to the next level and keeps you motivated. I would also suggest trying other mediums like paper and pen, sculpting and painting etc. It helps the creative part much more then you think.

3DTotal: Looking over your portfolio your artwork has progressed from a very loose illustrative approach and developed a controlled concept style which can be seen in some of your latest pieces. Is this the way you see your artwork heading in the future or are you just trying to develop a wider repertoire?Robin: I think this is a matter of what knowledge I possessed during that particular time. I started out doing a lot of research and studying technical stuff relating to art. At the same time, to relax and paint something completely different, I did lots of very loose paintings straight out of my imagination. It’s hard to paint something creative when you are into the technical stuff so that was my way of hanging in there, I guess. Nowadays I’m working my way into the area of art that I’m really interested in: more realistic concept art.

3DTotal: Concept art you say? That’s funny as I’ve just been looking at your image Dungeon, which you created for an upcoming game demo. Am I right in saying that you would like to head down the game art path or would you like to work producing concept art for films as well? Robin: That’s right. My first goal is to head into the game industry, but I won’t limit myself to anything and in the future I hope to try as much as possible.

[img] http://arttalk.ru/forum/files/image_06_mythology_106.jpg[/img]

3DTotal: You’ve painted a lot of really interesting scenes/environments, each one different from the next. For instance one of my favourite images in your portfolio is Yeah; could describe the idea and inspiration behind it?

Robin: I’m glad you like it, though I’m not very happy with it myself. It’s funny that you ask the idea behind it or where the inspiration came from because I do not really know the answer myself. Like many of my paintings I just started out painting in the middle of the canvas without having any idea of what to paint, then I start seeing shapes and whoops, an idea was born. This image is actually a milestone where I learned a lot of new things. I started out playing with textures and lightning in a way that I had never tried before and I learned a lot doing so.

3DTotal: From doodling in the middle of your canvas to a finished piece, how long an average do you spend on a piece before you class it as finalized?

Robin: That depends on how much detail and how polished the piece is, but on average a picture takes around 4h hours / 1-2 days depending on the level of detail in it.

3DTotal: What has been your most accomplished piece of artwork to date?

Robin: My two personal favourites are Discovery and Got Us Cornered. If I have to chose one of them, I would say Got Us Cornered.

3DTotal: So why Got Us Cornered over the other pieces?

Robin: I’m pleased with how the action of the scene turned out; you can almost feel how heavy the mech is and how fast he is spaying those bullets. I also feel like the colour palette in this one is pretty successful.

3DTotal: On your CGSociety blog, you mentioned you’re working hard at studying anatomy (though this was posted a few years back). How has this been going and have you become familiar with it yet? Robin: I do not update that blog very often and that statement is really old, as you said. At the moment I don’t study anatomy much, but yes, during that period I learned a lot. But anatomy is something you’ve got to keep up and keep studying and you never get complete really. I have much more to learn.

3DTotal: I’ve just been given a book on anatomy myself for my birthday, are there any tips that you can give me that you picked up whilst you were learning?

Robin: Good choice! Try to understand the structure of the bones before moving on to the muscles; otherwise it’s easy to do “rubber figures”. Keep everything simple, simplify the major muscle parts in the beginning and start out with Andrew Loomis stick figures. When you study the muscles keep in mind where they attach (both beginning and where they end). When you know roughly what the bone structure looks like it’s much easier to attach the muscles to their correct place. Compare where they attach from front, side and back view to get a gasp of how they actually look in 3D.

3DTotal: Well it has been a really pleasure talking with you and I wish you all the best for you future endeavours.Robin: Thank you very much; it’s an honour to be featured in your magazine! Keep up the good work.

Источник: http://www.3dtotal.com/