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  • Robert Chang - Digital Illustrator
    Interview by Leonard Teo, 1 July 2003

    When we began searching for Advisory Board members for EXPOSÉ 1, one of the digital illustrators who had made a mark in the community was Robert "Lunatique" Chang. Currently living in Fuzhou, China, working on his animated short film "Promise", Rob plays a distinct role in the community on CGTalk and other digital illustration forums, constantly giving critique and posting his own work in progress for peer review. We took a brief moment with Rob to chat about his artwork.

    About Robert "Lunatique" Chang
    I was born in Taiwan, and immigrated to the U.S. when I was 11. I grew up with Japanese animation/manga, sci-fi/fantasy books & illustrations, comics, films..etc, but I also have a passion for music, fashion, literature, photography ..etc.

    My professional path started in art with comics/freelance illustration at age 18 (1991), and continued into the video game industry in 1998, and that's when I first got into digital art. I was doing textures and concept art for various games, then moved onto art directing. I left the game industry in 2001 for a sabbatical to work on my own projects. Throughout my creative career, I never was satisfied doing just art, I also did music, writing, film, photography, fashion design..etc on the side.

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    Above: Robert Chang is currently residing in Fuzhou, China, where he is working on his animated short "Promise" (promotional poster shown above).

  • About Robert "Lunatique" Chang - cont'd
    Now I'm in the middle of production on my personal project--a 3D animated short film titled "Promise." It's a modern fairytale about love, faith, and sacrifice. I'm the creator/writer/director/artist on this project, and there are some volunteers helping me out on it. The estimated completion time is around the middle of 2005 -- but don't hold me to it. (crosses fingers.)

    Style of Digital Illustrations
    I have a fairly wide range of influences, but when people comment on my work, they generally use words like "dreamy", "soft", "romantic", "beautiful" and "ethereal". I have a tendency to idealize the subject of my artwork, being a fan of ethereal beauty. I'm especially fascinated by feminine beauty -- the kind that is expressed by pensiveness, melancholy, or sentimentalism. I guess if I were born in the 19th century, I would've been either a Pre-Raphaelite or a Neo-Classist.

    About "Mood1" (left)| Tutorial
    I've been trying to paint something digitally that looks indistinguishable from traditional oil painting for a while now, and I think I've finally done it with this piece. I love Painter 7. I used only the palette knife for this entire painting. I was originally trying for that ala prima look again, and someone had suggested that I use a tool that's incapable of producing fine detail, that way I won't render it to death. Well, looks like I still rendered it to death, but with nice results this time. The reference for this painting was a magazine clipping I liked. The model had different face, a much slimmer figure, and a lot less curves. I like 'em a bit more voluptuous, so I gave her some "padding."

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  • Inspiration
    Anything and everything. Could be a piece of music, a particular way I feel at a given moment, a person on the street, a TV commercial, a passage in a novel ..etc.

    For artwork, I'm a fan of a wide range of artists from 19th century painters, to Boston School painters of the 1930's, to illustrators of the 1950's, to anime/manga, comics, sci-fantasy illustrators, 3D artists and more. I could name my favorites, but it'll take half a page. You can find all this useless stuff about me on my website anyway.

    About Scythe Wolf (left) | Tutorial
    Roughly two years ago, a mysterious young girl stunned the Jiang-Hu (martial arts underworld) scene with her lightning fast scythe fighting technique and her ethereal beauty. Many men admired her beauty, yet they also feared her skills. She is aloof and dislikes attention, but despite her petite frame and her avoidance of crowds, her presence is hardly inconspicuous, due to the seven-foot scythe she wields, and an entourage that consisted of a pack of wild wolves. This one was painted in Painter and Photoshop. It took a long time due to the amount of detail. I really ought to switch to a more relaxed style that's not so highly rendered. Her dress was especially hard to paint, and I had to study a lot of satin/silk references to get it right. The wolves took a long time too, but were much easier in comparison.

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  • Melancholic Princess (left)
    This one was done 50% in Photoshop and 50% in Painter. I just kept both applications open and switched between the two when I felt necessary. I was never a fan of Painter, but I've always wanted to get to know it better. After this painting, I feel more comfortable with it, and should be using it as much as I use Photoshop from now on. I originally wanted jewelry, but during the painting, I worked on it without the jewelry, and kind of preferred it more. So, here are both versions.

    Many people mentioned that she looks like Jennifer Connolly. Truth is, I'm a huge fan of Jen. Funny thing is, Jen didn't cross my mind a single time as I painted this. I think that she ended up looking like Jen because Jen is one of my ideal types, and when painting a fictional female character, one tends to shape her into one's own personal ideal. In my case, the Princess ended up looking like Jen.

    An alternative version of the Melancholic Princess. Most people preferred the one without jewelry.
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  • EXPOSÉ
    Robert Chang is one of the advisory committee members for EXPOSÉ 1, the CG industry's premiere art book celebrating the work of digital artists worldwide. Other advisory committee members include Steven Stahlberg (Optidigit), Pascal Blanché (Ubisoft), Alex Alvarez (Gnomon School of VFX), Tito Belgrave (Calibre Digital Pictures), William Vaughan (NewTek), Jeff Mottle (cgArchitect) and Kirt Stanke.

    You can find Robert Chang and many other artists' work published in EXPOSÉ 1, which is now on sale. Also, visit Robert's website to view his full range of artwork.

    Discuss this article on CGTalk.com >>

    Links
    Robert Chang's homepage
    Ballistic Publishing - EXPOSÉ

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