Michael Komarck for portraits and artwork

[LordCrash]

Hi Obsidian fans and other forum users,

 

there are already some suggestions out there about hiring various artists for different purposes for Project Eternity and I would like to add another one to the list. I've read many fantasy books so far and I'm very interested in (fantasy) art so I thought I share my opinion with you.

Some of the most visually amazing, brillantly performed and adequate artworks, illustrations and book covers in fantasy have been made by the legendary artist Michael Komarck. I would like to propose him for the creation of portraits and other artworks since his pieces are definitely among the best out there in the genre.

 

But have a look for yourself. Enjoy the artworks and please share your thoughts with me. Thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LordCrash]

 

 

 

 

[LordCrash]

 

 

 

 

 

[Sistergoldring]

Wow, those pictures are amazing! I haven't heard of the artist but then again I don't follow fantasy art much but his work is really impressive.

[agewisdom]

Brilliant! Some of those look like screen captures from a movie rather than paintings. Definitely would love to see some of these incorporated into PE.

[Piccolo]

Talented artist, but this style really isn't my cup of tea. For some reason, it really irks me when the faces are too real in fantasy portraits (almost to the point of looking like touched up photos)... especially when everything else, including the background scenery. has a much more painted look.

 

Overall, i'd say better than the Baldur's Gate portraits, but not even close to the same standard as the Icewind Dale portraits.

[LordCrash]

Talented artist, but this style really isn't my cup of tea. For some reason, it really irks me when the faces are too real in fantasy portraits (almost to the point of looking like touched up photos)... especially when everything else, including the background scenery. has a much more painted look.

 

Overall, i'd say better than the Baldur's Gate portraits, but not even close to the same standard as the Icewind Dale portraits.

I know you like Justin Sweet's art since we already talked about that topic in the thread about him. I respect your opinion and your taste and I must admit that Sweet is also a great artist for sure. But claiming that Komarck can't hold Sweet's standard isn't quite fair since they mostly differ in questions of sytle, design and handling of the abstraction level but not in questions of artistic capacity. It's a big difference if you just don't like the style of some art pieces or if you say that they are not performed well. And I won't accept that someone claims the latter without reasonable arguements (I'm some kind of strict here when it comes to art.)

Edited October 3, 2012 by LordCrash

[nikolokolus]

"In matters of taste there is no debate"

[Vin]

It's fantastic art, definitely. But I don't like it. There's something strangely artificial and stiff about it. Like a picture that's been photoshopped too many times. The clothing and armor textures are flat and too smooth. The proportions are... off in a few of them. The composition, too, in most of them feels a little shallow, or cheap. It's great artwork, and goodness knows I'm not nearly as skilled. But it's not a style I can appreciate.

Hope I didn't come across as rude, but when it comes to art, I can't shut up.

[Piccolo]

Talented artist, but this style really isn't my cup of tea. For some reason, it really irks me when the faces are too real in fantasy portraits (almost to the point of looking like touched up photos)... especially when everything else, including the background scenery. has a much more painted look.

 

Overall, i'd say better than the Baldur's Gate portraits, but not even close to the same standard as the Icewind Dale portraits.

I know you like Justin Sweet's art since we already talked about that topic in the thread about him. I respect your opinion and your taste and I must admit that Sweet is also a great artist for sure. But claiming that Komarck can't hold the Sweet's standard isn't quite fair since they mostly differ in questions of sytle, design and handling of the abstraction level but not in questions of artistic capacity. It's a big difference if you just don't like the style of some art pieces or if you say that they are not performed well. And I won't accept that someone claims the latter without reasonable arguements (I'm some kind of strict here when it comes to art.)

Sorry, you're right... saying they don't come close to the same standard as the Icewind Dale portraits did come across wrong. All I meant was, the Icewind Dale portraits are way ahead as far as my own personal preference goes. Not that Michael Komarck isn't a talented artist by any means. I even said he was talented at the start of my post.

 

I actually really like some of his artwork that aren't character closeups, like this one for ASOIAF

Edited October 3, 2012 by Piccolo

[LordCrash]

It's fantastic art, definitely. But I don't like it. There's something strangely artificial and stiff about it. Like a picture that's been photoshopped too many times. The clothing and armor textures are flat and too smooth. The proportions are... off in a few of them. The composition, too, in most of them feels a little shallow, or cheap. It's great artwork, and goodness knows I'm not nearly as skilled. But it's not a style I can appreciate.

Hope I didn't come across as rude, but when it comes to art, I can't shut up.

You should never have to apologize for your personal taste.

 

I think Komarck intends in some of his artworks that the background is some kind of different in style (which a significantly higher degree of abstraction) or even incomplete to put more focus on the characters. The "photorealistic" style for painting human bodies and espescially faces will always be a matter of discussion: some people like it because of its details and realstic approach other just don't like it because of the "too often photoshoped" look you described in your post. Your critics of the flat and not well proportioned armors I can see your point in some of the pictures. But this collection of artworks is made over the last decade and Komarck really fine-tuned his ablities in that topic in the last few years. It's also much more difficult to get that right if you paint in a more realistic looking style which much movement in it than if you paint scene stills which a much greater abstraction. There you can hide these slight errors in artistic interpretation and "purposed imprecision"

[Vin]

It's fantastic art, definitely. But I don't like it. There's something strangely artificial and stiff about it. Like a picture that's been photoshopped too many times. The clothing and armor textures are flat and too smooth. The proportions are... off in a few of them. The composition, too, in most of them feels a little shallow, or cheap. It's great artwork, and goodness knows I'm not nearly as skilled. But it's not a style I can appreciate.

Hope I didn't come across as rude, but when it comes to art, I can't shut up.

You should never have to apologize for your personal taste.

 

I think Komarck intends in some of his artworks that the background is some kind of different in style (which a significantly higher degree of abstraction) or even incomplete to put more focus on the characters. The "photorealistic" style for painting human bodies and espescially faces will always be a matter of discussion: some people like it because of its details and realstic approach other just don't like it because of the "too often photoshoped" look you described in your post. Your critics of the flat and not well proportioned armors I can see your point in some of the pictures. But this collection of artworks is made over the last decade and Komarck really fine-tuned his ablities in that topic in the last few years. It's also much more difficult to get that right if you paint in a more realistic looking style which much movement in it than if you paint scene stills which a much greater abstraction. There you can hide these slight errors in artistic interpretation and "purposed imprecision"

 

I generally tend to add apologies beforehand when I post. Because I'm usually not trying to be rude, but it's hard to convey that through just words on a screen.

 

I understand what you mean. But when I say that it looks too "photoshopped" I'm not speaking of the photorealism. I have no problem with that, besides the fact that I think it maybe contrasts too much with the other aspects of his artwork, which as you've pointed out are more abstract -- and it's a little jarring, especially since the perspective is always wrong. What I mean by his work looking "photoshopped" is that's it's simply very obvious that his paintings are digital, which is in line with my comments about the textures looking flat. It's hard to describe, but I think you know what I'm getting at. Also, your point on it being harder to cover up mistakes with a more realistic style is spot-on. It's always easy to tell more experienced artists from the amateurs, because the latter group will almost always try to hide the flaws in their artwork with style. Which only makes their mistakes all the more glaring.

As I said before, he's a good artist. A developing one, too, apparently. And there's nothing wrong with that. Watching an artist's abilities grow and his personal style change and perfect itself is actually really exciting.

But his style still doesn't really go well with me.

Then again, considering my taste in artwork...

I'd rather have portraits with a more natural look, less squeaky-clean digitalized than Komarck's but not as abstract and disturbing as Justin Sweet's.

Edited October 3, 2012 by Vin

[Shevek]

This guy is good. Its like Alex Ross for fantasy.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Not a big fan of his usage of color and composition, and, as someone has mentioned, the amount of details put on the faces compared to the rest creates an alienating effect.

 

Not an awful artist by any means, but if we really need a guest artist, I'd prefer if someone with a more unique style and a better sense of design and composition was called.

[Shevek]

I really like it. It reminds me of oldschool fantasy book art.

[Aedelric]

He is very talented and I am sure he could do whatever artistic style that is asked of him, but these pieces lack the character and style of Icewind Dale, which is apparently the artistic direction of Project Eternity.

 

Obsidian has many very talented artists, I personally would prefer to see everything handled in-house, this is their baby.

[themanclaw]

Definitely some great stuff, but also take note that some of P:E's universe extends to Renaissance-era styles.