6 pieces - unrelated - book cover - concepts

[sparth]

been a while.
here's a bunch of artworks that were here and there in my drive.
this is the tip of the iceberg though. as there's a lot of corporate stuff that i'm unable to show, as usual.
on the other hand, when my hidden productions will be cleared, it will allow me to double the amount of artworks on my site in just a second!

today's weirdness
http://www.sparth.com/art/stock/sparthwalkingentity-small.jpg

a cover for douglas adam's "don't panic" (co written by Neil Gaiman or something....)
http://www.sparth.com/art/stock/sparth-dontpanic-small.jpg

environments! (2003)
http://www.sparth.com/art/stock/sparth-03.jpg

a rescue (2003)
http://www.sparth.com/art/stock/sub-cf-small.jpg

too much war on tv.... (picked for the daily gallery)
http://www.sparth.com/art/stock/sparth-insurrect-small.jpg

assault! there's a 3d structure in there, for the boat, done by my friend arnaud barros (property of darkworks studio)
http://www.sparth.com/art/stock/sparthassault-small.jpg

hope you'll like these

sparth

[Calle_]

Dude thats amazing. post more soon!!!!

Id really like a "how i work" thingie from you ^^
Keep it up.

Calle

[bbwolf]

Wow, wow, wow and WOW!!!

Nice stuff as always. I especially like the the simpilicity of your stuff.

The two droids with the human on a hoverbike, chased by giant fish is absolutely hilarious. Can you share the storie behind that one, please?

The Typhoon submarine is very cool. Perfect match. Great work. Wanna see more, too.

[TheGreatSlayer]

Also like your work, but is a a coincidence that environments kind of look like they were from the N64 game "Perfect Dark" (as far as i remember correctly) or where you inspired by it?
(dudes, I think I played too many videogames, it ist the second time in a week, I ask someone if his work hast somehting to do with a game :))

[Summer Pudding]

great work Sparth

These are really nice: simple, uncluttered and beautifully framed. I especially like the submarine rescue picture. The treatment of the water is top notch.

I think the outline of the huge waves about to engulf the boat doesn't look quite right, though I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps if there were two peaks instead of three?

A tiny, pedantic point I guess.

Is that a ship delivering Russian Botox btw?
:)

[Matt Smith]

Excellent and very inspirational work. Alittle tutorial would be nice too as someone mentioned earlier. My favorites are the rescue one and the assult one. The waves are so nice and simple, yet have great shape and are very effective. Keep it up.

[dARCKLOWN]

omfg that submarince rescue is one of THE coolest digital art works I have ever seen

fucking top stuff LOVE it

[Nucleardan]

All hail Sparth, the Champion of Book Covers! :)

Dan

[strych9ine]

The environments, "assualt", and "rescue" images have officially given me wood.

Just fucking awesome pieces, man.

[Hazart]

***** - stars!

You are one of the greatest digital painters around.

[mephisto]

your always inspiring. thx for posting.

[Nigel Q]

these are great, i really like the environments.
awesome work.

[Groover McNab]

Awesome! Love the loose quality of the brush strokes.

[bwkeough]

ok, flame me if you want guys, but I much prefer the first two images to the rest. They are to me, the truly "sparthian" images. The environments look like they were overly art-directed, too clean, too neat. Still head and shoulders above the average (even the above the above average), but lacking the life of the art he does for himself.

[LightBrownboy]

Very cool sparth.

I was wondering, for the environments, are you using any reference and is it all done in digital?

Also, for your color palettes, do you use reference to get dramatic lighting(bounce light, refelct light, natural light) or has it become pretty intuitive from studing light in nature?

Thanks for any response and again cool stuff.

-LBB

[AmadorL]

hey those more refined ones are bad ass i specially dig that last one.

-A

[Teknoholic]

I like the first one the best, especially his right hand (our left) for some reason...

[deschamps]

You have such a great blend of realism and simplification in your pieces that blow my mind!

[liquidwerx]

Great work as usual Sparth. I'd like to see "don't panic" rendered a little tighter, like the "assault!" image is. But I don't know the terms of the commission, so maybe they wanted it loose, or weren't paying you enough to get into some tight rendering. Either way, it's still good, great composition and all, just like to see it a little tighter. ;)

Post more! :)

~Malachi

[Erzengel]

sick

[Kambei]

Amazing as always Sparth.

I really enjoy the 4 panels of environments, the atmosphere and lighting are great!

[MindCandyMan]

unbelievably awesome as usual man...you never fail to impress!

[yelahttam]

... any chance of a tutorial? Love your stuff - mh

[Loga4]

Excellent jop,sparth
Enviroments are awesome,they
reminds me on FarCry(EXCELLENT) game,and piece
with ship,too.
Anyway,awesom work,as usual!
Cheers!

[brkofdon]

wonderfull!!! spent some quality time examining your works here and on your site! extremely inspirational, and i want to do some digital paintings...but im in a lab at school, and i dont have my wacom pen on me! grrr. anyways, really fantastic work. really loving your enviornments the most (since im trying to get better at those).....thanks for showing your stuff!

[dusty imp]

Awesome stuff.
The name of the ship in the last image should be mirrored (or maybe the whole picture should be mirrored?), its the other way around.

[Theo]

Wow man! your environments keep getting to me, I love this stuff. The color and lighting, man you pull it off like crazy... This is the kinda stuff that keeps me going, wanting to keep on pushing on.

Good job. inspiring.

:chug: theo

[young paddy1]

amazing stuff you truly are a super trooper of the art world, the only thing that spoils the entire run is the guy being rescued.
and Yutani's right, I'm guessing it roughly means the vostoka

[sparky | emily]

How do you make the curves so clean? Is there a particular technique? I always have trouble making large curved objects look like they have a smooth curved edge.

[dusty imp]

Actually it means "Spirit of the East" and reads as "duh vostoka"

[tegehel]

cire600 said it best.

Wow! so inspiring! so moody...

"the colors, children, the colors, mhgiah" (frink)

...wonderful stuff.

C.

[RAMÓN]

very cool

[sparth]

so many replies from all of you. it's a pleasure to read your feedbacks. many thanx for your support.

bbwolf: this is some sort of imaginary scene taken from douglas adam's crazy universe. (arthur dent, zaphod beeblebox or something, and marvin, the paranoid android..... don't remember all of these with details, as i've read the four books in 86 or something)

TheGreatSlayer: never played that game. but i must have liked it if it looks like my own creations.

Summer Pudding: thanx :D yes, the waves might appear a bit odd in places.
concerning the boat, to be honest i don't really remember the scenario. but yea, it must have been pretty close to what you've just said.

Matt Smith; i should make more tuts. but it takes time... i'll see what i can do.

bwkeough: hehe yes, i'm sometimes forced to hide my true original stripped spirit, in order to stick to general themes. some sort of dilema.

LightBrownboy: my true mistake is that i don't use refs enough. as i'm convinced that we already have a lot in our owns heads already. but .... that is a false comment, as refs
are amazingly useful.
no i never use refs for any renderings, i guess it becomes intuitive after a while. i think it's really a matter of steps within an illustration. as slowly you realise that while building your piece, you suddenly realise that lights in areas could be tweaked, improved, and so on. afterwards, you add more dynamic lights, more reflections, but it all comes naturally.
refs are interesting, but if it doesn't come from your soul first, then it can't be that original right? :)

liquidwerx: i've just realised that this is not the final version for this cover! dunno where the latest version is.
there are so many elements left undone here and there, it struck me, and realised it was not at all the final cover.
slap me.
ty mate

Yutani: the thing i do best in digital painting, is FLIP FLIP FLIP.... i always flip my images. after an hour, i can't even remember which which side i began with. sometimes, i even keep images with my signature reversed, forgetting about it.
to give you any idea, i flip my images every 3 minutes or something. as it is a fabulous way to rectify your mistakes while creating.

sparky | emily: hardness: 100%
other dynamics: on (pen pressure)
smoothing : on
shape dynamics: off
try with these settings, it might help.

young paddy1, Yutani: whatever it means, i'm happy to know it now. :D

Calle_, dARCKLOWN, Nucleardan, strych9ine, Hazart, mephisto, Nigel Q, Groover McNab, AmadorL, Teknoholic, cire600, Erzengel, Kambei, MindCandyMan, yelahttam, Loga4, brkofdon, Theo, tegehel, RAMÓN: THANK YOU!