The use of nature and animals is sort of a signature style for 18 year old designer Richard Roberts, a fairly young designer who has excelled in the field of photo manipulation. Richard goes through the process of designing one of his best pieces and urges us not to be so impatient with our art.
1. Welcome to Psdtuts+! Please introduce yourself! Could you tell us where you’re from and how you got started in the field?
My name is Richard Roberts, I currently reside in Milwaukee, WI, United States. I am an 18 year old freelance graphic artist and Theotherstream is my online portfolio. I am also a member of and design for Depthcore, which is a International Digital Media and Modern Art Collective. I have been designing for about four years and I would say it’s my number one passion in life.
My philosophy has always been to be myself when it comes to design and just do my own thing. If I were to describe my style I would say it’s simple yet very strong elegant art. I really have a fascination for excellent composition and flow and I work on those elements being very strong in my artwork. As for the future, I just want to continue being myself as an artist and keep experimenting with different things. When I was about 14 I played some video games and a friend showed me Photoshop and I fell in love with it ever since.
2. By looking at your portfolio, I’ve noticed that animals and nature play a big role in your illustrations. What exactly draws you to using them in your art? And what type of element do they bring to your work that cannot be duplicated by anything else?
I find mixing animals and nature with abstract shapes and other kinds of illustrations very appealing and unique to itself. I find when I mix them in with abstract shapes, photographs, and other illustrations that it brings out a very interesting feel. For example, my pitch for Omega Code’s fan book you can see I mixed abstract elements and shapes with deer antlers that I have flowing through the main symbol. Overall ,I feel this adds to the illustration giving it a unique result.
3. “Girl Meets Nature” is an amazing illustration that showcases some impeccable blending skills. Can you give us a short description on some of the techniques that were used to make the transition from animal to human so seamless.
“Girl Meets Nature” was an interesting project and I really enjoyed illustrating it. The goal of the piece itself was to combine a fashion portrait with nature. I started off by illustrating some antlers above her head and that formed into illustrating some animals to add to the overall effect. I went about doing this by getting some references of a deer and swan and then began to digital paint them using my Wacom tablet. The composition and flow here was very important, I worked on forming a very interesting flow throughout the piece.
My object placement here was key. Originally the illustration was for the most part black and white. My blending here had a lot to do with the fact that I colored everything myself, which lead to good lighting and blending for the end result. When I was thinking about the colors I wanted something that would really compliment the concept I was going for so I chose nature like colors, different shades of browns and tans. I chose a light yellow/tan color for the main light source and transitioned that over to dark browns leading into the right side of the illustration.
4. In your opinion what skill set should the ideal designer posses?
I think the ideal designer really needs to have a lot of patience. I see so many designers who rush their work. Some of the best designers spend not days on their work but weeks even months. In the past I used to stop working when my works were good. But I learned to be patient and work until the work in my eyes were amazing and not just settle for good.
The best advice I could ever give someone is really push yourself to have some self discipline and be very patient with your work. As a good friend of mine said once “sleep on it bro, take a look at it tomorrow when you have some fresh eyes.” That’s probably the best advice I have ever received. Try not to push your artwork, rather let it come to you over a few days/weeks, the end result is always better!
5. You are a very talented designer who has mastered the art of photo manipulation. What techniques should a designer master if they want to perfect this type of art?
There are many forms of photo manipulation’s out there. I would say an important factor in mastering it and being successful is to find your own unique techniques and style. Factors such as: lighting, shadows, colors, blending, composition, flow and depth are all key in designing a successful piece. All of these come with time and practice and a good eye for what looks right.
6. How would you describe your career up until this moment? Has it been difficult or fairly easy for you? And why do you think it has been like this?
I would say things have been going very well so far. I have been doing some commissions and hope to share those projects with you soon, check Theotherstream for updates. My journey so far has had so much time invested into it. I haven’t really viewed it as hard or easy but more of my determination and perseverance for wanting to improve myself as a freelance artist. I have put a huge amount of hard work and years into where I am now. My passion is design and to be a very successful freelance artist and I feel I am on the right path.
7. Your art almost always features some amazing stock photography. Give us some of your favorite websites to grab stocks from. And what exactly makes them so special.
My main source for stock photography is Dreamstime. The images are not free but it’s a very cheap site with very high quality photos at good rates! If you’re on a budget and are looking for great photos, then I would definitely check Dreamstime out.
8. Thanks again for providing Psdtuts+ with this opportunity to interview you. Any final thoughts for our readers?
Never let anything get in the way of your goals. If you put in enough time and effort and you really want something, you can get it. Be yourself and try to form your own original style. Thank you for interviewing me, the pleasure was mine!
Where to find Richard on the Web
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damn, amazing artist
Very Nice!
nice work
good
Interesting style
Good work!
very nice realy
Wow I love this guy’s work
I like evolutiona and sweetest life pictures…
Great work……
Again a young designer
18 years old…..
Talented guy!!
Good stuff!
very interesting images
This stuff is pretty cool. The use of triangles scares me!
I really like the last image!
It’s great to see interviews with successful people in the field. We need to see more of these.
Amaing Work and Funny hhhhhh
very nice! indeed
Nice
Nice Interview & Nice Work..
Really Great
what is in the top!
A new ad??
It would seem Adobe have an advert on this site now. That’s a pretty big advert to obtain. Wonder what the rates are? : p
yeah! the rates are too high than other!
but why Adobe come here for ad??
why do you think????
Just to know what the rate is?
I think there is a contract between Adobe and TUTS, the ad is free? (maybe)!
yeah..what is this ad…please don’t broken this page of top…look at my screen shot http://p13.freep.cn/p.aspx?u=v20_p13_p_0904061531006223_0.jpg
i can’t see home link….o my god~
Wow stunning work
whats with the pyramid?
It was a pleasure to be interviewed. Thanks for all the comments so far much appreciated. As for those asking about triangles/pyramid shapes, i would never usually use them in my work as i feel there very trendy. But I was required to use them in my omega code piece as there logo consists of all triangles.
Nice interview bud.. Great exposure.. Keep up the awesome work.. chat laters
-An1ken-
WOW! I’m extremely impressed. I can’t believe he is a year younger than me…and I couldn’t ever imagine producing work like this…well if I listen to his tips, maybe some day. This really gets me motivated to try something and see what I can come up with.
@Sirwan, that pyramid is the omega code. It came from a movie…not sure if it has an origin prior to that but I find it most recognized as coming from the movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Omega_Code
Naturally he’s from my home city: Milwaukee!
He’s got a really cool style, nice work
Superb, these graphics are really worth watching. Great Work!
Incredible!
nice works
“I think the ideal designer really needs to have a lot of patience. I see so many designers who rush their work.”
Firstly let me say I believe this whole-heartedly. But, maybe I’m turning into a jaded old design fart, because this just doesn’t work for a lot of us anymore. When we were young and had the luxury of time, patience and taking your time was a beautiful thing that led to beautiful work. Now that we’re all grown up and perhaps a bit cynical , the fast paced world of agency life doesn’t really allow for this. Fast fast fast, now now now now, “Why does your agency take so long?”
Oh how I long for the old days of taking my time. But now I have bills to pay, a salary I’m scared to give up because the world economy is crapping all over my sector.
Patience, take your time, do this while you can and build yourself up so you don’t have to be in abattoir agency life.
Pretty cool!
test
HI GUYS….
what happen !!!!!..psd.tutsplus.com …..look at this picture~~
the page has broken of the top
http://p13.freep.cn/p.aspx?u=v20_p13_p_0904061531006223_0.jpg
if so are you. Reply my comment..PLZ
A NEW AD BROKEN THE TOP. I CAN SEE where is “home” link?
very good
Great Work?! Cmon guys…
I don`t want too hate and i don`t want to claim that i could do it better BUT:
Taking a closer look to the work-part of these pictures show lack of perspective, not so great lightning and average composing (all centered – not very creative).
I have to say, that it`s very talented work and has a big creative approach. It also shows pretty good photoshop skills but i have to repeat my statement, that it´s NOT great work.
Sorry for that
but .that is a great work for me .hahah
test test
Yeah, i see nothing spectacular there.I could find much better works on Deviant art. Maybe i just don’t like this style but most of the recent interviews have been lacking in “wow” artist.
agree with you, nothing great works here. not admire. but this tells young designer can do it lol
Really impressive artwork. The use of animals in the illustration, adds another dimension to the work. My favorite piece is “Give me my golden leaves” its so effective and beautifully executed.
Simply impressive…
Very impressive, a lot of these are very strange, but beautiful and I like the natural elements like tree branches and animals. Lovely!
cool works…. Very nice…
nice color..good job…well done
testststs
has nobody seen the triforce in the second image?