One of the 5 main alien races in my Space Baroque IP (pending name change), wanted to explore some quick costume ideas based off draped cloth and cloaks. I'm not much of a clothing designer, but I'm sure someone could take these rough brainstorms and create something even better. #scifi #spaceopera

A demo video of several example files showing how to scatter object in Blender using Geometry Nodes. Covers a basic scatter, scatter by image, and aligning scatter objects by surface. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNtq... #Blender3d #b3d #gamedev #animation #vfx

This #ThrowbackThursday a re-occurring nightmare as a child led to a whole series of "Reaper" paintings over the years, one eyed malevolent (sometimes cloaked) figures. Hope to release the whole series one day. #scifi #horror

Beautiful High-res images of the moon flyby directly from NASA: www.nasa.gov/gallery/luna...

This case-study discusses a design challenge I faced on a job, and how I took my own reference photography to help solve the problem. And hopefully it proves the point that taking your own reference is sometimes the best way to go www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5X1... #photo #arttip

Another camera angle on the royal palace from my personal project "Space Baroque". This is going to be my next book project, it's going to take a few years, but will share along the way as I continue to work on it. #scifi #spaceopera

Oh man, this super short #Pixar short is excellent, well worth the 3 minutes, check it out! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx6U...

Spotting in Animation is where one department later in production uses scripts, storyboards and/or concept art to identify the assets it will need to make. As this is a new concept to many students, decided to post a short video explaining it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kQ0... #animation #vfx

Happy to leave @bsky.app if too much AI gets integrated. Always looking for more sites to remove from my daily list, spring cleaning can come anytime!

Posted new video on creating "Clean Topology" in 3d. A complex topic, since different media (games, film, etc) have different requirements, but hopefully I've managed to cover my favorite rules and then places you want to break those rules depending on your needs. www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6IK...

A recent demo I did for my class showing generating spaceship silhouettes, 3d block out in blender, refining the shapes in Procreate, then adding photomanip and hand painting in Affinity. #spaceships #starship #scifi

Oh no, didn't know that comicbook artist and writer Sam Keith passed away last week. The Maxx, etc. His work was brilliant, I loved how messy and expressive his work felt. RIP.

Another painting in procreate while on an airplane. This was inspired by a sculpture I saw at the Palm Springs art museum by Howard Smith. I've got to turn everything into a robot :) #droid #robot #bot #mech #mecha

Posted this text essay last year, now revised and posted as a video on youtube, what's the difference between General and Specific patterns when making materials for your 3d objects, and why split them up this way? www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyRR... #texturing #gamedev #animation #vfx

Just saw Pixar's Hoppers in theaters. What a great movie, it deserves it's 97% on rotten tomatoes. It feels both very Pixar and very non Pixar at the same time, some of the gags are so absurd and unexpected. Congrats to the whole team, checking the art of now...

It doesn't happen often, but fuck me, I've just spent 90 minutes drawing on the wrong layer.

Look what just arrived! Thanks @ianmcque.bsky.social & Jim Rossingnol for the great book, the print quality is excellent and I can't wait to read it all the way through in the coming days.

Originally recorded in 2014, this 3 part video tutorial on designing an epic starship is available for the first time for free on youtube. Same technique I use to make my starship hull images. Check it out: www.youtube.com/@ArtOfSoulbu... #arttip #spaceship #starship #photoshop

Had a great time at Emerald City Comicon, thanks to everyone who dropped by the booth and said hi or bought a book or print. Between chats, did plenty of robot doodling, here's a sample: #robot #bot #mech #mecha #droid #doodle #eccc #eccc2026

Day 1 of emerald city comicon #EEEC #ECCC2026 in sunny Seattle. Come by my table 22001 with the comicon islanders, say hi, get a signed book or print!

Posted a video on the topic of designing characters and vehicles using everyday objects, this is an enhanced version of a written tutorial I posted last year, check out the upgrade! #arttip #conceptart youtu.be/8LROdlxL4r0

Apparently my new thing is painting robots on my ipad while on a plane. Here's the latest procreate creation, see the timelapse of the painting here: youtu.be/BOIbUznxvtw #robot #bot #mech #mecha #droid #doodle #illustration #sketch #scifi

Next week I'll have a booth at the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle #ECCC #ECCC2026 Will have my new Robot sketchbook for sale, an assortment of prints, and the second to last batch of physical Megastructure books (the finals will be sold at Lightbox this year). Come on down to say hi!

Buddy of mine made a great little live action short film, love to see more of this stuff being done up here in the Seattle area. www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2dS...

First #ThrowbackThursday of the new year. This one is focused on artwork that contains industrial #pipes. #scifi #illustration

Met a robot buddy in Palm Springs. Mid-century modern he was not.

Posted a little Video Essay on how your digital art tools might overly influence your design choices, and how to combat that / use it to your advantage: www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1Hu... #arttip

I just got the horrible news that artist Chris Stoski has passed away. As well as working at some of the biggest named companies in FX and animation (ILM, IMD, Matte World Digital), we were so lucky that he agreed to contribute to our indie book project "The Story Of Inc" back in 2015...

New short video up on youtube about what are Visual Design Pillars, and how to use them to craft your projects www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDk_... #arttip #artdirection #productiondesign #gamedev

Happy 40th to #Pixar, which was founded on Feb 3rd 1986. So privileged to have contributed to its legacy.

Another Procreate painted doodle of a robot head, this one painted on a plane between San Francisco and Seattle #robot #bot #mech #mecha #droid #doodle #illustration #sketch #scifi

Trying to decide if this weekends double feature of Iron Lung and Melania should be named “Ironania” or “Melalung”.

Been interviewing GenZ artists about visual trends, how the generation consumes art, where they go to find it, what styles speak to them, etc. This articles goes over some of my early findings. www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/... #arttip #artist

Here's a robot doodle from the Workshop Academy first drink 'n draw of the year. #robot #bot #mech #mecha #droid #doodle

We don’t have to have this future. It is not inevitable. Yes AI will never go away, but how the AI is used, that is where we the people can say NO.

New Video discusses a challenge I gave my students, paint a landscape in 30 Digital Brush Strokes, and how doing exercises like this can help you with composition and form. #illustration #painting #thumbnails #art #arttip #artist #landscape www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTaC...

Another from my Space Baroque IP, showing Venrusi pilgrims visiting the crystal caves of the Zylolyz homeworld. #scifi #caves #illustration

Something a little different (can't rightfully rant ALL the time)... ...just looking through the archive drives, and found this cheery fellow back from a game project that was inspired by Diablo. So many errors, but damn it, I still like this guy :) #characterconcept #conceptart #oldwork

Procreate painting meant to emulate an oil painting. Didn't just use oil paint brushes, but tried to pick a subject and visual style that would lend itself to the medium. For a first try I think it works, more to come as I continue to experiment #procreate #painting #digitalart

Had a great time on Saturday as a judge in the Seattle chapter of the Visual Effects Society (VES) Nomination event. Our job was to help narrow down a list of 100s of entries & produce the short lists, final awards will be voted on in Feb! Thanks to everyone who submitted, so much excellent work!

Dear God. So here's my current Instagram feed: Post from someone I follow Suggested For You Post from someone I follow Suggested For You Ad repeat... 40% content I want to see. Can we please as a community agree to move off that platform? I don't want to leave but too many people only post there.

A Procreate painted doodle of a robot head, started with a silhouette and then went to town. Helmet kinda reminds me of a mushroom, or maybe that bonnet that Strawberry Shortcake wears #robot #bot #mech #mecha #droid #doodle #illustration #sketch #scifi

First new Educational video of 2026! This tutorial is on creating a simple toon material in Blender, using either a facing ratio or the grease pencil, and then adding extra features such as varying the outline width by illumination. www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7FL... #blender3d #toonshader #anime

Here's my top 9 for 2025. This has been a very difficult year both personally & for games / films as we saw even more job losses. But it's time to stop waiting for my future to find me, & it's time to make my own future. More to come soon. In the meantime, I wish everyone the very best end of year!

Shall we finish off the year with some #GreenArt ? Happy holidays! #scifi #illustration

This is true even beyond AI. Use primary references for your mood boards, try and always go back to the source, you will discover new and creative things. Keep existing art/film/games ref to 10%. Don’t use games of thrones as a reference, use what inspired game of thrones as a reference.

Two quick tutorials, one on the difference between General and Specific patterns in 3d software www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/... and the 2nd some example files doing scattering with Geometry nodes in Blender (video coming 2026) www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/... #3d #texturing #blender

The sketchbooks are starting to arrive to customers! Thanks Robert, and everyone else who's bought them already www.amazon.com/Neil-Blevins...

Big thanks to RenderRam for doing an extended interview with me on the olden days of 3dsmax, my shift to Blender, the SoulburnScripts, GenAI, and so many other topics. Hope some of you find it interesting, & subscribe to Vjekoslav's channel, he's got some good stuff! www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCLH...

The holiday shopping time is upon us, and maybe a dual dose of sketchbooks would be a gift for your scifi loving friend or family member? Check them out here: www.amazon.com/Neil-Blevins... and www.amazon.com/Neil-Blevins...