Glen Southern

Analogue-to-digital Explore the jam-packed studio that’s an evolving workspace for this English artist and tutor, who works in 2D, 3D and 3D print.

My studio has gone through lots of major changes as my type of work has changed over the years. When I started it was a mix of analogue and digital drawing spaces. I had a traditional A0 drawing board and all the associated pens, pencils and paints. I also had a full digital setup with a large Wacom Cintiq for the heavy-duty drawing and 3D work.

As the years rolled by I started dabbling in VR art with programs such as Medium and Gravity Sketch. Then my clients started to ask for 3D prints of the 3D models, so I started investing in my own printers. I also started to use an ipad with apps such as Procreate and more recently

Nomad Sculpt, which meant that I was much more flexible with my day and didn’t need to have as much dedicated space for the digital side of things. That enabled me to mix things up a bit.

Social media has had a massive impact on my studio. Last year I finally decided I needed to set up a dedicated Youtube channel. Covid-19 had hit us hard and we were forced to stop training other artists in-house. The idea of the Youtube channel was to let people know that we were still here, helping people create in new and innovative ways – but it was all going online. That meant that the former training space would need to evolve into a green-screen studio and edit suite, and have equipment dedicated to those tasks.

MAKING CHANGES

Adjusting to the restrictions that the virus imposed on us meant constantly reconfiguring the studio. I went from being a freelance artist to running my own studio with a team of six in a few short years. The studio was always chaotic and I was never sure that I was using all the space to its fullest potential. Then, suddenly my team were all working from home and most of them had their own workspaces already set up. We now don’t think we’ll ever fill the studio space again, so my new, better, optimised setup is here to stay.

I still love analogue drawing and painting, but most of our work is now 3D related and often in VR. I draw every day and my studio space will always reflect that. I have an area that is 100 per cent dedicated to physical

I still love analogue drawing and painting, but most of our work is now 3D related and often in VR

modelling and painting. I keep my airbrushes and airbrush compressors in there. I also keep a drawing desk with my Copic collection, which is my pride and joy. Jobs will often start in pen and pencil, move into digital and onto 3D in some way. They then often come back to the physical world in the form of a 3D print and they need cleaning, preparing, undercoating and painting. It’s quite amazing that we still need all those analogue skills in a very digital workplace.

Glen runs Southerngfx, a small Cheshirebased studio specialising in character and creature design with clients including Sky, Nike, Lenovo, Logitech, LEGO and Wacom. See more at www.southerngfx.co.uk.

I work closely with a company called Mackinnon & Saunders, which is a world-class puppet maker. I helped it with some digital sculpting training and I asked the sculptors from Corpse Bride to sign my studio poster. I have a habit of wanting to own all the colours in a set. This gets expensive with things like Copics, but they really are worth every penny. Some time ago I realised that watercolours weren’t for me. I switched to acrylic for a while and now only use gouache. I like to paint light over the top of an image. Not a week goes by when I don’t get asked to create a dragon of some type. A huge part of our work is now done in VR and as such the studio is full of VR headsets. These shown here are the Oculus Quest 2.

I’m a graphic hardware junkie and try everything I can in the sector. Last month I was test-driving the Spacemouse range from 3Dconnexion. I have a few large Wacom devices in the studio, but in the past four years I’ve gravitated to an ipad and Procreate for a huge amount of work. And I now sculpt on the ipad every day. I started a Youtube channel to promote my art classes and as this article was being written I was in the middle of soundproofing my studio. It’s now a hybrid art studio crossed with a recording booth. Every desk has a microphone now. We’re moving to full-time content creation soon, so the change of studio reflects that. My studio is full of 3D prints and sculptures made from clay, resin, wax and even plasticine, like this four-armed critter.

We created a Game of Thrones dragon piece for Sky to use on the side of a bus. We were sent a six-feet wide print of the approval artwork and this now has pride of place in the studio. This is a huge HP Lovecraft-inspired sculpture. It’s one of my favourite characters called Nyarlathotep.

I still love my physical books. I collect a lot of art books and often buy a few each month. They’re great as a reference for me and also for anyone I’m training. My office is full of resin MSLA printers that print productionquality models in a range of materials. It blows my mind that I can be sculpting one day and holding my sculpt the next. I have had a few projects this year relating to dinosaurs, hence why you see them everywhere in my studio. This is my Wacom Cintiq, which sits at the heart of my studio. I do most of my large-format work on this screen and it’s on a huge metal arm to give me maximum flexibility.