Jeff Brown (Interview)

Originally published on CG Hubs on November 26, 2014.

Welcome to CGButterfly: Interviews. This week’s artist is Jeff Brown.

What brought you to CGButterfly Hubs?

I was invited via Google+ by Ciprian Popescu, I am glad to be here!

Do you design as part of your employment, or is it a hobby?

I love to design, and other peoples’ ideas a reality. I spend about 95% of my time painting on professional work. It has been really fun and I have had some great clients.

Do you have any special preference, such as texturing, painting, lighting, modelling, etc?

I love painting, I use photos in my workflow to speed it up and provide inspiration, but my true love is to paint. That is where I spend most of my time and get lost in the work.

Do you have a favourite piece of art?

My favourite piece is called “Mesopotamia”. It is an older piece now, about a year and a half old. I had done a piece 5 years ago as a commission with the same brief, it included a ziggurat, river, bridge, dunes, and a small city.

Do you have screenshots of your progress? Sketches, mock-ups, drawings, etc?

5. I have a couple, an image, and a video. The video is a sped up process of a 2-hour painting, and the image shows a simple progression.

Can you provide a summary of your creation process? What is your workflow from the idea to the finished design?

I generally start with a brief explaining what the client is looking for. My favourite is when there is little information provided and more freedom given. From there, I will imagine it all in my mind and look up photos for inspiration. I will sketch out the idea really quickly in about 30 seconds to get the general shapes in the right places, and get a composition I like. From there, I will go into my photo library and get a few low resolution photos to give me some colour and mood. Once I have the basic colours there, I will paint for about half an hour to get the basic idea clear. At this point, I usually send the image to the client for approval. Once I get the thumbs up, I will add in some textures to simplify the detailing, then paint for a few more hours until I have the piece where I want it to be, occasionally dropping in a needed photo texture.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Most of my inspiration comes from photos, I spend a lot of time looking for emotion-provoking images that are really moody. I use these colours and values in my images quite often, but the photos themselves don’t actually make it into the final images. I also get inspiration from audiobooks, podcasts, music, and of course nature.

What is your current project? What are you working on right now?

I’ve got about 10 going on right now, most of those being single pieces, but I have 4 longer term projects on the go. I love to have the variety of clients and themes. It varies from sci-fi Europe to ancient Greek mythology to high fantasy. One project I’m proud to be a part of is called Monstrous.

Is there anything you want to share with our community?

None of my projects are selling anything at the moment, but I would encourage everyone to check out the link I posted for Monstrous above.