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Visual Style and Inspiration
When asked about his own personal, distinct visual style, Scott Robertson explains that he’s unsure if he has a recognizable style of his own, “As I consider myself a designer first, and a painter second, I spend a lot of time making sure the aesthetic satisfies the client’s brief. Therefore each time I work on a new job, it requires a new aesthetic. I really enjoy this because it constantly pushes my form development and styling skills in new directions.“
“I enjoy very much the process of creating anything original that the world has never seen before,“ continues Robertson. “Whether sculpting, drawing or painting, this process of visualizing an idea and exercising my imagination is what I enjoy most. I will add though, that I always seem to default back to vehicle design as my favorite topic, with environments now coming in a close second.“
As a constant source of inspiration, Scott cites the connection that he has with the larger design and art community through teaching and the internet. “I also have a very strong group of amazingly talented friends who work in the entertainment industry here in Los Angeles,“ says Robertson. With a circle of friends containing such names as Feng Zhu, Ryan Church, (both of whom worked on Star Wars: Episode III), Carlos Huante, Harald Belker (the Batmobile, and the Lexus from Minority Report) and more, one has to wonder if he ever runs out of inspiration. “If one slows down enough to do some meaningful visual research, you will always be amazed by what nature has to provide.“
The Move to Digital
Although Scott continues to draw with traditional media, almost all of his color rendering work is now done digitally using Photoshop on the Macintosh. “I think that with the time constraints put on the professional designer and artist, color work nowadays just has to be digital,“ he explains. “Even if the work starts with traditional media, it usually ends up being scanned and reworked digitally, or at the very least, resized and printed in many formats for inclusion in presentations.“
“The move to digital is probably a good thing for the general quality of most peoples’ images. It has opened up another way, an easier way, for designers and artists to share their ideas with others. At this point, digitally created artwork does not seem to have the same finished visual appeal as traditionally created art. But in regards to production artwork this is not part of the discussion. Just getting it done fast seems to be the goal today.“ |
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Pit Stop
(Above) I like air ships, as most designers seem too. This was another for Concept Design 1. With this piece I wanted to render a see-through skin on a ship, way above the city, and yes, again, water! The air ships in the book were very fish-inspired, and I had a lot fun doing them. When I look back at almost all the pieces in the first book, I want to go back in and spend more time on the designs. But in the end, you do what you can and hope for the best.
Underpass
(Above) In an attempt to explore a fun dynamic perspective with a lot of different elements, I came up with this one, also for Concept Design 1. This piece started life in Photoshop and then I printed it along the way and drew the bridge on tracing paper. After scanning it back in I continued to paint. Somehow I end up with water in a lot of my pieces; maybe the transportation designer in me is drawn to those shiny reflections! This was fun to paint with a ripple brush made for the water. Basically you just squash the height and shrink the size as you paint into the distance to create the illusion of the foreshortened plane. Note from Editor: This looks absolutely stunning when printed on a plotter!
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