Sci-Fi Design Pack

THE JOY OF TECH Concept artist John Liberto serves up a tasty dish of techniques for Photoshop users who love painting futuristic art

Concept artist John Liberto serves up a tasty dish of techniques for Photoshop users who love painting futuristic art.

The spirit of entrepreneurship is alive and well in John Liberto’s Sci-Fi Design Pack. It’s great to see artists taking advantage of marketing and retail tools like Gumroad to provide affordable training videos for those coming up behind them.

The Sci-Fi Design Pack brings together three of John’s videos, which you can buy separately if you wish, although the Pack represents a $5 saving. All three are provided as highresolution 1080p screen captures with well-recorded audio, and Gumroad makes the purchasing and downloading process straightforward.

The videos all showcase John’s passion for futuristic tech, but present a variety of Photoshop techniques. Spaceship Design spotlights line drawing with a splash of flat colour, while Vecto and Crab Mech cover painting and rendering techniques.

John assumes you have a reasonable degree of Photoshop knowledge already: this isn’t beginner material, but rather, practical inspiration for artists wanting to broaden their skill set.

Above all, you’ll get an insight into the difference that considered details can make to your art. During Vecto, for example, John explores a range of approaches that aim to “reward the eyes”: maintaining interest in every area of the image by varying colours and textures. The decisions he takes are rooted in the reality of the scene, though: in Crab Mech, the robotic design is enhanced in ways that not only convince you that it’s a functioning machine, but also provide planes that catch the light in different ways.

You could argue that the pacing of the videos could be less sedate in parts: perhaps John could have sped up the video capture slightly before recording the voiceover to make the training feel tighter. But that’s a minor quibble against an epic slab of training that will make you a better artist for not very much outlay.

With his Sci-Fi Design Pack, John Liberto uses his considerable concept art experience to show you how to add interest to your artwork. Detailing techniques such as making type look like it was hand-lettered make all the difference. John’s Crab Mech...