Neil Roberts Illustration (Update: comics covers page 2)

[Harry_Palmer]

Hello All,

I've finally found time to post my work here on Conceptart. By day I'm a Character Artist for Free Radical Design, by night I'm a freelance artist, primarily for Black Library Publishing.

I'm currently the cover artist for their 'Horus Heresy' novels, they've got me working on books that won't even be out until 2009. Which is a long time to wait to see your work in print.

Anyways:
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg11/Harry_Palmer/Horus_PREVIEW.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg11/Harry_Palmer/Galaxy_in_Flames_PREVIEW.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg11/Harry_Palmer/Magneto_PREVIEW.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg11/Harry_Palmer/GreenLantern_PREVIEW.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg11/Harry_Palmer/DoW_Asc_PREVIEW.jpg


All done with 3DSMax, Zbrush and Photoshop - most of the time is spent 'dirtying' up the 3D in Photoshop to make it less clean.

Regards,

Neil

[dustorian]

Holy Crap this stuff is great. Wow man you can do this stuff well. Love Magnetobut the green dude looks abit gay....lol
Props on your stuff man.

[Matt Dixon]

Great to see some new stuff from you, Neil. Hope all's well!

[Brightdarkness]

i love ur book covers i own the books to and i think ur illustrations capture the excitment of the books thx for great art :)

[nephilim]

nice work,

getting the weird proportions of a space marine to work in 3d must be a nightmare, but uve pulled it off well.

only crit is that they could still use a bit more dirtying up in photoshop. They still retain that very 3d look, and could use, based on Kopinki's and Daintons paintings, a bit more of a painterly look.

[Lone Wolf]

Great compositions on these pieces. You really capture the feel of the Horus Heresy.

[Karl Kopinski]

good to see you on here youth! Well done, genuinely love the stuff I haven't seen before you've got a good eye for it all matey!

[MRPLOT]

hey man really good work...is so cool
i was working at free radikal design a few years ago..at the second sight!!
said hello to Ben!!!
keep posting ..i love your magneto..amazinggg
are you use Mudbox?
byehttp://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=55053&highlight=mrplot

[Hive_minD]

I've love your work. You're the reason I buy the books! :P
-you and the authors ;) But you are still the one that forced me to focus on the book. Great works, show more please!

Chris

[tgentry78]

I've admired your book covers since I first saw them. Very cool to have you here .

[grey]

I've been reading the Horus Heresy books - your artwork captures the feel of the 40K universe better than the writing at it's best, great stuff!

[qabas12]

Why is the Green Lantern white?

[El Jeremie]

Sorry for the lake of originality but :
I love

[Aly Fell]

Hi Neil! Glad you're posting your work here! Fabulous! Hope things are OK with you.

[formazero]

WOW! It'll be very interesting if you post a little tut on your modelling tecnique!!

[BurntUmber]

Do you use any 3D models at all?

[mysteryofalbesila]

warhammer, nice :D

[oishiiniku]

Hey there, Neil! Good to see you on the boards! Great job on the covers - you're 'Comin' Up Trumps!'

Toodles!

Ta, Nick.

[Elwell]

Do you use any 3D models at all?
Ahem...
All done with 3DSMax, Zbrush and Photoshop - most of the time is spent 'dirtying' up the 3D in Photoshop to make it less clean.

[DevinLovecraft]

I love me some Warhammer. You did Excellent on capturing it!

Free Radical Design! Really? Excellent one of my life goals is to get a job their, even if its as secretary.

P.S. If you have the contacts tell them to make more space in mapmaker for Timesplitters 4 :P lol

Great work though!

[Harry_Palmer]

Thanks for the responses, people. It's always good to get feedback.

Matt, Poshspice: hope things are well with you, loving your work as always :)

Nephilim: You're right, I need to dirty them up more, I'm aiming for something between a painterly, loose style and the crisp sheen of traditional airbrush art (Jim Burns/ Chris Foss/ 70's sci-fi - my fave)

Karl: Keep churning out those great pics, you make it all look so effortless.

qabas12: I based Green Lantern on Hal Jordan.

formazero: I've got WIPs for all the covers I've done, I'll crank out a step by step sometime.

oishiiniku: Keepin' it real as ever, man. Get that kettle boilin'

I'll get some more of he artworks up here sometime (I can only post commissioned artwork once it's been published) and I'll see about getting a a step-by-step/how-it's-made if anyone is interested.

N

[pixelherder]

hello from internet! (and in a few hours time, from about 3 feet away)

just milk thanks

p.s. nice p1x d00d!!!!
:asslick: :asslick: :asslick: :asslick: :asslick: :asslick:

[Hive_minD]

yea! It would be so great seeing how you work!
Please post those wips, and hopefully, if you have time, also post explanations :)

Take care, Chris

[Mark Bot]

space marines are FTW.

excellent job really capturing the warhammer events. that's a lot of 3dsmax... how long does it take to render one of those?

[Roumoco]

Join to community- exellent job no words, no comments)

[Badaboom]

Hi there, Neil. I also like your work quite a lot, but perhaps because I liked the novels so much. The feeling you give to the pre-Heresy Astartes is great, quite personal but, may I give you some crits?

What I see in the complex compositions of the covers, with all those elements, is that you sometimes give too much detail to background elements, such as explotions, architecture, dust clouds or even rockets (I´m refering to the first picture of the post, mainly). This is probably because you´re using a lot of photo reference, trying to achieve a high level of detail. The result is obviously good, but I think that taking care of the detail hierarchy I´m talking about would give more deepness to your pictures. Hope it helps, and congrats for your work anyway ;)

[Harry_Palmer]

Hello all,

Thanks for your comments, they're always appreciated.

Here's some more works for you. An interior piece from the new Grudgelore book and the wraparound cover for Flight of the Eisenstein:

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg11/Harry_Palmer/Grudgelore_PREVIEW.jpg
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg11/Harry_Palmer/Flight_Eisenstein_PREVIEW.jpg

I'm hoping to broaden my portfolio further, I'd love to get some WoW/ D&D work under my belt and it'd be great to work with publishers like Tor and Del Rey.

For all those interested, I'm working on a simple step-by-step that I'll post up in the next few weeks.

N

[JailHouseRock]

Frikin cool man,
love your work

[Thujon]

Cant wait to see your step by step .....jipiiiii thx a lot!!

[alti]

ah space marines, one of my guilty pleasures,
love the work, looking foward to the step by step.

[Farsh]

Those who do not love space marines have no heart. Awesome work, really epic.

[Hive_minD]

Love the guy with the plasma-pistol!
Looking forward to the step by steps.
Wish you good luck on broadening your portfolio!

Chris

[PhatDad]

Harry, I don't suppose you were at the Free Radical xmas party were you? If so I probably saw you. How small is this world.

[cakeypigdog]

Ace mr roberts, good to see you here you sexy old bastard!

[Smoke]

The Eisenstien is the best cover you have ever done in my opinion.

Great work.

[plantman]

Great stuff here! I bet you'll have some more when Haze is released in a few weeks.
I was working there for a few months very early on in the project. Hows the gang? Is Russell still on the environment team? Mr Bamford still in slow motion? I remember Dan E. made a cool piece of concept art then....it had wacky perspective like an MC Escher piece but he put loads of neon lights and signs in. Best wishes to you and the team :)

[mysteryofalbesila]

Love updates! :D
keep it up!

[alicat08]

Nice Work!

[Harry_Palmer]

Hello again,

Well, time has flown and now I'm fully freelance - it's time to post more work!

A few portfolio pieces - Luke Skywalker, Eating Las Vegas and a quick 3D sculpt of David Tennant (the current Doctor Who):

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg11/Harry_Palmer/LS.jpg

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg11/Harry_Palmer/ELV.jpg

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg11/Harry_Palmer/DT.jpg

I've been working with Privateer and Catalyst on some new and exciting projects - when they're published and manufactured I'll be certain to post them up here for all to see. Also, I'll add more Horus Heresy stuff soon.

Cheers everyone,

N

www.skinnyelbows.blogspot.com

[Harry_Palmer]

Hello,

Here are a few finished sketches I've been working on in my spare time:

First up: the SS Indomitable - an intergalactic strike cruiser:

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg11/Harry_Palmer/SSI_002.jpg

And a trans-system haulage craft:

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg11/Harry_Palmer/ST_002.jpg

Doing this kind of stuff helps to keep the brain ticking over.

Cool - see you around!

Cheers,

N

[newman]

nice stuff neil!
hope the freelance works out for you

:seethes in jealousy!:

[Bingo]

Mate, awesome stuff ... the space ships remind me of inspirational images I used to look at when i was a kid back in the 70's ... :)

How's it all going? Have you moved yet?

[Duman]

Your Warhammer 40k illustrations are awe inspiring. It is incredible to see the 40k universe come alive in such a way. Each and every one of them is an epic masterwork that tells an incredible story. I can't wait to see what the future of the Horus Heresy has to show us.
The Emperor protects.

[Harry_Palmer]

Yo Everyone,

It's been a long time and I've been a busy chap - here are a couple of my Judge Dredd Megazine and 2000AD covers:

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg11/Harry_Palmer/JDMeg288_Iron_Justice-1.jpg

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg11/Harry_Palmer/2000AD_Prog1656.jpg

Cool - see you later!

[henryz_jetsam]

awesome!