TIGAER-DESIGN.COM_.v5 – Digital Art by Christian Hecker

After a small feature in the german edition of the advanced photoshop magazine i got invited to the uk version, with having a picture on the cover of their celebrated 50th issue of the magazine. A congratiulation to the makers of the magazine and a big thank you for the invitation! It’s quite a nice feeling to have your artwork on a cover of a professional magazine. Even if it’s only filling a small part of the cover. A brilliant idea, well executed. I enjoy it and hope the readers enjoy this great cover as well. :)

Beside that i want to say there were not much submissions to the site lately, but i promise to upload some new stuff soon. I have a finished painting, another addition to the comcept series, and another big one almost done. The first one is sci-fi’ish, techy and the second one more landscape based because it’s the result of an extensive vue render test i did a few weeks ago. I’ve also tried myself a bit in vehicular design. Spaceships, fighters and stuff. =) Finally learned a technique that really helps me with stuff like that. These will find their way into the concept art gallery hopefully sooner than later.

Oh and by the way, the picture featured on the cover is named HELL, and can be found here.

New stuff ahead! Stay tuned! Thank you very much.

Regards

Some of you might know the ‘advanced photoshop’ magazine from the UK. Two months ago they started to produce a magazine version for the german area too. It’s something i waited for quite a while now. Finally a magazine that covers the digital imaging interests i have. In germany, so far, there were only the usual photography magazine (tons of them) and digital production magazines… mainly thought for super professionals and very expensive. Alright the adv. photoshop magazine isn’t a cheapy too, i admit that. But it’s much more my taste than the dull/uninspiring others.

Oh yes. Almost forgot. There’s a small feature and interview about me in the 2nd issue of the magazine. That was fun!

Regards

MISTRAL COAST

This project started as a commission and ended as a personal project. I had some wonderful photo plates i started to fiddle around with. Then the client jumped off and i continued on it myself. No big story behind it actually. Just another scene that i would love to witness with my own eyes… ‘for real’ so to say. I have had this ‘big alien monolith’ kind of theme in previous paintings too… and i guess it follows me. Let’s just say we colonize other planets and happen to find these huge structures. Scientists are trying to analyze them. Soon they find out that they’re some alien relic. They emit some sort of energy to the planet atmosphere. But what exactly is happening? It could end in a surprise…

Maybe a bit inspired by the mass effect game again. But it was more the opening sequence of wing commander III. There was this huge spaceship crashed into the sea and the name of the place was ‘mistral’. I always liked that name and the idea of a beach scene on another planet.

Technically i worked with digital matte painting techniques to get it done. I wanted to have a photoreal look for it. I did not do a photoreal painting in a while… so i wanted to have something done again. Stocks used for the beach, own photo material used for other elements. The monoliths and some vegetation done with vue. All combined in photoshop. I took myself some with this one so the work took place over a period of two months. Maybe 40hrs of work in it.

intuos3 – 40hrs – 5800px wide – photoshop – vue

Print Detail // Progress Viz

Regards

Johne Cook from raygun revival magazine emailed me a few weeks ago for a short interview and the permission to use some of my paintings. I took myself some time to gather some info about the magazine and came to the conclusion that i really loved the idea/concept behind the magazine. Much like the ‘amazing stories’ magazines from the 50s and 60s this mag gives unknown science fiction and fantasy writers a plattform to publish their stories. Issue 46, beside the stories, also features some of my work and a short interview. Check it out if you are interested!

Regards

Comcept 5

This one represents a piece from my concept series. Therefor not a really meaningful title there. These pics are quickies. Just made to roughly nail down an idea. Or generally just for fun. Training to refine certain techniques.

Original Specs:

3000px wide – 6 hrs – vue – photoshop

Regards

THE SHIELD

This one was an idea i had in my head for the last few weeks. I took it to refine my skills using vue and photoshop to create some cool concept arty like stuff. Much like the ‘chase III’ piece, which i finished a few days before this one, i wanted to show a pretty desolate place. The sci-fi background story ‘could’ be something like mining corporations that try to drill for very rare materials on extremely dangerous planets. Due to the atmospheric conditions on that planet some very rare materials could evolve there. Of course there are companies that would risk everything to get those. To work on mines like the ‘shield mines’ is definitely not comfortable. The atmosphere outside consists of floating fires that could burn a man within seconds. It’s as dangerous as it is beautiful. Only special equipment makes it possible to go outside. Of course no one really ‘wants’ to go outside. In the end you can only hope for a cool breeze. =)

Original Specs:

3600px wide – 15 hrs – apophysis – vue – photoshop

The artwork on:
Deviantart – Artstation – Drawcrowd – CGSociety

Regards

THE CHASE III

The primary thing i wanted to accomplish with this quickie was to define a dangerous looking world. The fact that it turned out to be a ‘chase’ piece developed very late in the making. When i had the landscape close to done i saw that the canyon somehow looked perfect for a typical ‘chase’ scenario. So i took the chance. Technically i used a rendered vue plate to nail me the lighting and atmosphere. The vue picture is surely overpainted 99%. The final looks very concept arty and dirty. Exactly how it was intended. Love it!

Original Specs:

3400px wide – 8 hrs – vue – photoshop

Regards

STORMHAVEN

Stormhaven was in, kind of, production for surely 2 months now. Every now and then i did a bit on it. Tried tons of things. Not everything worked out as expected. Nonetheless i hope the long time did not hurt the overall impression of the image. At first i made the environment fit together with a nice lighting. Rather in the end i added this city like element which is kind of a haven for all kinds of flying vehicles. It’s clearly fantasy and i like the wideness of it. Pure photoshop work this time. No help of 3d elements.

Original Specs:

5500px wide – countless hrs – intuos3 – photoshop

print detail here

progress viz here

Regards

Here i have a small collection of pics regarding the exhibition that started 2 weeks ago. The bitterfeld wasserzentrum is a complex built off an old water reserve structure. Now it’s a well known place for schools to visit because they transformed it into a place of learning. Now you can learn everything about water, how we can handle and what we can do with it, there. Lots of great experiments you can try yourself at. A fun place! Like i earlier said, exhibition wise, it’s a nice thing to talk to people who are interested in what you’re doing and what you have to show. It can be quite a motivation and i had a nice time explaining my stuff. And, as far as i can tell, people enjoyed listening. All in all a very satisfying experience for me. And i think everyone who attended had a nice time too.

Regards

A few weeks ago i mentioned an exhibition. Which is exactly opening this weekend in my old hometown bitterfeld. It was quite some work to get the pics up there. Now everthing is prepared and i hope it all works out nicely. I’m not overly excited but nonetheless it’s nice and i’m glad to have the chance to see the printed pictures in good size. Among the pictures, which were sponsored by ORWO pixelnet, are examples from all through the series. A bit from everything. A colourful mix. Now lets see if i can get something out of it. I hope i can post some pics when i’m home again. The heat is killing me here and i need my own bed desperately! For now a thanks to everyone who was helping us pulling it off.

*Wasserzentrum Bitterfeld

*Pixelnet

Regards