Just a few links to cover today’s news:

• The Hellboy II website is featuring a gallery of concept art for the upcoming movie sequel, The Golden Army.
• The official site of the Conceptart.org / Massive Black workshop, Revelations, is now live. The workshop will run on Jan 4th-7th in Seattle, WA, and has a very impressive list of instructors from the visual arts industries. Artists from the likes of ID Software, Bungie, and many others will be attending.
• Wikipedia has an extensive reference table on the Muscles of the Human Body, complete with detailed photos & illustrations. Helpful for anatomy studies. See also List of Bones of the human skeleton.

It’s Art Magazine has released Vol. #12 of their flagship publication. Inside are interviews and galleries from illustrators Raphaël Lacoste, Benjamin Carré, Nick Harris, Jacek Kaczynski, and Ehsan Dabbaghi. The magazine is available both as a Printed Collector’s Edition or PDF download.

Finding new inspiration for your artwork can sometimes be a frustrating task. Usually it’s just a matter of getting into the right mindset, taking a look at your surroundings, and using the many tools available to us.

In this case, let’s take a look at the satellite photography available from Google Maps. The earth, when seen from space, contains some exceedingly beautiful imagery, both man-made and natural. Such inspiration can be utilized in many ways including texturing, colors, digital brushes, patterns, and so on. The potential for inspiration is nearly limitless. (more…)

Wired has released a series of articles today on the return of the animated series Futurama. Inside you’ll find a behind-the-scenes look at the production workflow of the illustrators and 3d animators.

Also mentioned is respected concept artist Syd Mead, who was consulted for much of the show’s space & Sci-Fi artwork.

Ballistic Publishing today has announced the shipment of the third installment of Exotique, a collection of “the world’s most beautiful CG characters in genres ranging from science fiction, fantasy, anime, to photo-realism and stylized realism”. They’ve included 192 pages of artwork from almost 200 different artists. This coffee-table-worthy series is a bit on the pricey side ($49 for the soft cover and $99 for the special edition), but would make a excellent gift to the artist or illustrator interested in these genres, or anyone looking for some inspiration.

Ballistic Publishing is affiliated with CGSociety, a popular online community for 3d and 2d digital artists, and has a reputation for quality publications.

Welcome to the launch of Sketchfeed! By way of introduction, this first post will briefly explain a few of the goals and ideas we have for this site. While there are several excellent online portals and communities available for digital illustrators, we have noticed that there are few general blogs covering this industry. In fact, beyond individual blogs of artists posting their work, we found this area quite lacking. This is a niche we would like to fill.

What are some of the things we have in mind?

• Industry News & Highlights. Covering the latest news & events related to concept art, illustration, and other digital arts.
• Tutorials, Workshops, Tips & Tricks. Helping to bring artists together and furthering their education.
• Featured Artists. Provide a venue for talented artists to showcase their work and reach their audience.
• Reviews. Highlighting helpful books, sites, hardware, and software related to the digital arts.

We welcome all to contribute news tips, suggested links, or any related material by using our contact form. Thanks for visiting.