Editorial
Welcome to Issue 46 (just four stops away from the big 50!). Thanks to everyone who has stuck with us over the past few years, and a huge welcome to those who are just joining us – we hope you enjoy this and many issues to come. Thanks for your support; we can’t do it without you!

OK, so we’ve got two really exciting interviews this month: we interview master of the caricature, Jason Seiler, and it’s been a long time coming but we are exceptionally pleased to have finally hooked ourselves an interview with none other than Jason Manley, for Massive Black. Woo-hoo! So check out the freakishly stunning portfolio of Jason Seiler on p.6 and then join us on a journey with Jason Manley as we check out some of MB’s latest concept art done for the entertainment and animation industries (p.30). Big thanks to both Jasons for these really fantastic interviews; they’ve helped make this one hell of a special issue, and we hope you’ll get plenty out of their words of wisdom, and magnificent art to boot!

Our cover image is by 2DArtist favorite, Carlos Cabrera, who is with us this month to show us how we can create a sci-fi masterpiece from just a couple of boxes and a simple robot design created in the easy-to-use freeware, Google SketchUp, before taking it into Photoshop for some color, texture, and detail work (p.52). Inspired by old school sci-fi movies from the 80s, Carlos knocks up this speed painting in next to no time, giving us all the encouragement we need to dabble in the art of 3D paintovers to help speed up the painting process – and let’s face it, in this industry time really is of the essence! It’s not about cheating, it’s about improving your workflow and getting great results, so set yourself a slot today to try it out and see what it can do for you!

We introduce Mark McDonnell to 2DArtist this month in our dynamic character tutorial series who talks to us on the topic of posing characters, and the importance of dynamic and exaggerated poses in character art. Mark has worked for studios including Walt Disney and Pixar, so if you want to find out how to enhance your character designs then now is your chance to check out some all-important advice from this industry professional (p.78).

Our custom brushes take the direction of special effects for hair and skin this time around, with Kirsi Salonen teaching us how to use the Pen Tool in Photoshop for interesting effects over on p.66. Lots of free custom brushes for all our readers and some great tips and tricks on how to create your own – you’ll have a massive library of custom-made brushes before you know it!

For those of you who are still fairly new to Photoshop and learning the way of it all, join Nykolai Aleksander in the fourth chapter of the six-part Beginner’s Guide to Painting series. This month she shows us how to incorporate a photo into our painting, whilst taking a more in-depth approach to the whole painting process and discussing various blending methods. She has also very kindly supplied some great movie footage to accompany this tutorial, so get interactive on p.88 and enjoy the movies with a cup of your favorite hot stuff!

Our making of has kindly been written for this October issue by Oleg Matsokin on the creation of his image, Imp Vs. Angel-Warrior, an image based on the ever popular theme of good versus evil. Taking an alternative approach to the subject and breaking a few rules along the way, he takes us through the process from conception to final detailing over on p.104.

To wrap things up, please check out our Sketchbook feature with concept artist, Julia (Falinor) Udalova. And in the spirit of Halloween, we love James Wolfe Strehle’s The Twisted Room gallery image; we’re also honored to have work by Hyung Jun Kim and Alex Broeckel, and many others in this month’s gallery on p.40. Enjoy!