There isn’t an artist in history who didn’t draw inspiration from the creative giants that preceded them. Being exposed to (and studying) the work of past and contemporary artists is a critical step in any young artist’s growth.

By analyzing great artwork you begin to form an idea of what works and what doesn’t. It’s one of the easiest (and most enjoyable) ways to learn some of the basic rules of composition, lighting, and design.

While looking at pretty pictures isn’t going to teach you the technical side of computer graphics (CG), it will help you make the most of your tools and software.

Industry Legends

Before we get to the guys who are working in CG today, here are some of the leaders that have helped shape entertainment design into what it is today:

  • Will Eisner & Jack Kirby - Perhaps the important progenitors of the comic book genre.
  • Frank Frazetta - One of the greatest fantasy painters of all time. Certainly the most famous.
  • Frank, Ollie & The Nine Old Men - The legendary animators of Disney’s golden age.
  • Jean “Moebius” Giraud - One of the most imaginative visual minds that’s ever walked this Earth.
  • Syd Mead - Blade Runner & Aliens—what else is there to say? Oh yeah, he’s probably the greatest futurist illustrator of all time.
  • Ralph McQuarrie - The man that designed Star Wars. It really doesn’t get any more legendary than that.
  • Stan Winston - The god of makeup and monsters.

Concept Design/2D Artists

This list reflects an interest in environmental design but it’s still worth exploring if your own interests differ.

  • Adam Adamowicz - Recently deceased Bethesda concept artist behind Skyrim and Fallout 3. He had a style all his own.
  • Noah Bradley - Environment artist with a knack for dramatic lighting.
  • Ryan Church - Environment and vehicle design.
  • James Clyne - Mechanical and environment design.
  • Dylan Cole - Another top-tier environment artist.
  • Thierry “Barontierie” Doizon - Generalist—very painterly.
  • Cecil Kim - Environments.
  • James Paick - Environment design.
  • Dave Rapoza - Character artist with rendering skills right up there with Frazetta himself.
  • Scott Robertson - Industrial design, vehicles, mechs.
  • Andree Wallin - One of our favorites. Mostly environments and mattes.
  • Feng Zhu - Absurdly prolific environment artist with a cool, loose style.

3D Artists

Alright, here’s the main event! Obviously, there are thousands of professional 3D artists out there, so it’s impossible to list even a fraction of the good ones. Some of these guys are among the most widely known artists in the industry:

  • Alex Alvarez - Creature sculpture, founder of Gnomon, and one of the individuals directly responsible for the wealth of good online CG training we enjoy today.
  • Allesandro Baldasseroni - His piece, “Toon Soldier,” is wonderful.
  • Pedro Conti - Really fantastic stylized work.
  • Marek Denko - One of the reigning gods of photo-realism.
  • Cesar Dacol Jr - Creature Sculpture.
  • Joseph Drust - Insane hard-surface ZBrush stuff.
  • Scott Eaton - Classical anatomy sculpture, ecorche. His anatomy style is probably our favorite in the industry.
  • Tor Frick - A low-poly/optimization artist. Recently made waves, creating an incredible game level with a single 512px texture sheet.
  • Hanno Hagedorn - His work for Uncharted 2 is mind-blowing.
  • Andrew Hickinbottom - CG pinups galore!
  • Kevin Johnstone - Extraordinary Gears of War environment artist.
  • Ryan Kingslien - Anatomy instruction.
  • Stefan Morell - His industrial environments are stellar. Also, he’s a pretty great texture artist.
  • Mike Nash - Lot of impressive hard-surface pieces. (NSFW)
  • Neville Page - Concept sculpting/character design (Avatar, Tron, Star Trek).
  • Scott Patton - Concept sculpting/creature design (Avatar, John Carter). He and Neville pretty much paved the way for ZBrush as a design tool.
  • Victor Hugo Queiroz - One of the best toon modelers out there!
  • Wayne Robson - Mudbox and environment artist, plugin writer, and FXPHD instructor.
  • Jonathan Romeo - Really lovely character work.
  • Rebeca Puebla - Stylized models rendered really realistically.
  • Jose Alves de Silva - Also one of the best toon modelers out there! (Seriously, it’s impossible to choose between these two guys).
  • Manano Steiner - His Richard McDonald study from a few years ago is one of our favorite ZBrush pieces ever.

Traditional Artists/Illustrators

And just for good measure, here are some wonderful artists who like to do things a bit more traditionally:

  • Max Bertolini - Fantasy illustration, very much in the vein of Franzetta.
  • John Brown - Maquette sculpture.
  • James Gurney - Fantasy Illustration, Creator of Dinotopia, and author of two very good art books.
  • Stephen Hickman - Fantasy & Sci-fi Illustration.
  • John Howe - See above (Lord of the Rings).
  • Alan Lee - Fantasy illustration, key Lord of the Rings designer.
  • Richard MacDonald - Wonderful, wonderful classical sculpture.
  • Jean Baptiste Monge - Whimsical fantasy illustration.
  • Jordu Schell - Traditional maquette sculpture/mind-blowing.

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