Resources

If you’re just starting out with drawing and digital painting and want to pursue a career in concept art or illustration, have a look at the following compact list of must-have books and must-visit websites. A more extended list can be viewed further down.

Books:

• Art Fundamentals: Color, Light, Composition, Anatomy, Perspective and Depth – 3dTotal Publishing
• Colour and Light – James Gurney
• Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist- James Gurney
• How to Draw: Drawing and Sketching Objects and Environments from Your Imagination – Scott Robertson
• Perspective Made Easy – Ernest R. Norling
• Figure drawing for all it’s worth – Andrew Loomis
• VISION: Colour and Composition for film – Hans P Bacher

• Ctrl+Paint – Digital Painting Simplified
• Feng Zhu Design videos on Youtube

Articles I posted on my blog:

• Design Principles in Concept Art and Design
• Visual Library: Why you can’t live without it
• Composition 101: What is composition?

• Improve your digital painting skills with photo-studies

 

Books

Art Fundamentals

• Art Fundamentals: Color, Light, Composition, Anatomy, Perspective and Depth – 3dTotal Publishing
• Colour and Light – James Gurney
• Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist- James Gurney
• How to Draw: Drawing and Sketching Objects and Environments from Your Imagination – Scott Robertson
• Perspective Made Easy – Ernest R. Norling
• Framed Perspective vol.1 – by Marcos Mateu-Mestre
• Framed Perspective vol.2 – by Marcos Mateu-Mestre

Environments

• Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes – Jack Hamm
• Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting – John F. Carlson
• Landscape Painting – Mitchell Albala

• The Elements of Landscape Oil Painting: Techniques for Rendering Sky, Terrain, Trees, and Water – Suzanne Brooker
  

Figure Drawing

• Figure drawing for all it’s worth – Andrew Loomis

Publishers

• Design Studio Press
• Ballistic Publishing

Composition

• Framed Ink – Marcos Mateu-Mestre

 

Magazines

• ImagineFx

 

Reference sites

Environments

• Royality Free Reference Photos
• Terra Galleria
• Matte Paint Reference – Flickr
• Environment Reference – Flickr

Vehicles

• Beautiful Warbirds

Figure Drawing

• Kevin Chen Demos
• Figure Drawing Practice
• How to Draw the Head and Face – YouTube

Brushes

• Digital Brushes

Learning and Inspirational

• Bobby Chiu motivational video
• Feng Zhu YouTube Channel
• Learn Squared
• Digital Arts and Entertainment
• Level Up!

Blogs

• Lines and Colors
• James Gurney Blog

 

Plugins Photoshop

• Color wheel

 

Drawing / Painting Software

• Procreate (Ipad App)
• Corel Painter
• ArtRage
• Rebelle

3d Software:

• Blender 2.8

Patterns

• My custom patterns (.RAR file download)
  

This section is updated regularly. The last update was on 3 February 2020.
Do you have any resources that you would like to share and add to this list? Please let me know and I’ll add them to the list.