A love of art sprouted from comics and exploded when Toy Story was released for artist Mark Lewis. His journey to creating a career from his work is similar to many a still growing. Learn more about him and how he's working to help others. 

Tell us about yourself. 

I was born and raised in Scotland and currently live in a small town called Stirling. From a young age I had a talent to create art where I learned to use traditional media such as graphite, charcoals and poster paints whilst at the time I was copying from dc comics which at that point were known as action comics. 

Throughout high school I developed my skills using pencils and moved onto acrylic. At this time I was still looking through superman comics, yet found my interest in art dwindling as I yearned for something more than what I knew. I knew it wasn't any sort of paint or graphite. I think I was looking to use a different tool to create art. 

After high school, Toy Story came out and my mind went nuts! I loved it and immediately I knew, that is what I wanted to do with my career, so I set out to become a 3D artist slash animator.

When I applied to college however they would only let candidates in which had higher Math, English and Computing, I had none of the above for I was only good at artistic studies, physical education and dash of chemistry! I decided I needed to continue my art in some way so I studied an Art and Design NC course at a college in a town an hour and a half away on a bus every morning filled with students. 

I attended the course but felt it was only filling a year due to the fact that deep down I was moaning and deeply disappointed that I couldn't partake in a 3D course.

After college I landed a job at Burger King and learned 3D studio Max and zbrush on my own with hardly any tutorials until I found Lynda.com which helped me tremendously. However when It came to the point to apply for work there was nothing really out there and with no connections my career in 3D took a dive, so I let it go again which deflated me greatly. 

From nineteen to twenty seven I worked in retail and did freelance digital art jobs through upwork.com. Throughout those years I've also been selling my paintings. Last year, I sold enough of my oil paintings to pursue digital art illustration. During Covid19 I felt forced to look at my digital art and pull something out of it that could help teach others how I use color and what illustration can look like with my methods and my  understanding.

When did your career in art start?

That is actually a very interesting question because I don't believe it has truly started. It has been a strong talent which seems to serve me here and there in peculiar ways like selling a few oil paintings and then being asked to do a commission. Because of the strange inconsistency I decided to go back to college to learn computer aided design Autocad, Revit and Inventor and create art in the background.

What made you decide to create a tutorial? 

After seeing my oil paintings sell I looked at my digital art and wanted to fight for its exposure, then Covid19 hit the world and so I was faced with propagating the process of a video tutorial experience for the novice student as well as for the experienced artist which would allow them to view my methods and techniques on how I utilize color, perspective, meaning, light and shadow all within Photoshop to derive an underlying purpose for creating a piece of art known as color therapy illustration. 

The process I touch on can be set out as a journey with no known ending until you get there, for it's the ending which defines the look and visual effect to the viewer. 

For what they are experiencing should be healing and ultimately inspiring.

What would you say is your style of art? 

My style of digital art leans towards blizzard entertainment environment illustration. I love environment concept art and full blown rendered illustration because I feel the colors have such a greater impact on myself as well as being inspiring and collaborative with others in terms of setting a scene and telling a story. 

However in saying that as an artist I have a few styles under my belt. Second would be trying to capture the energy within one’s art using brushes, rollers and all sorts keeps it suggestive thus allowing the mind to explore and be captivated within in instant of viewing the image. One of my favorite artists who speaks very loudly in this type of style is Jeremy Mann.

Why? 

Having an illustration that looks like it tells a story really inspires me to bring my ideas to life. The added dream is that illustration could be brought to life in a movie or a next gen game, although I think it's important as an artist to be able to utilize a number of styles for it shows you can be diverse with your work.

Can we expect to see other tutorials from you?

I'm looking to create more tutorials which govern a similar practice and possibly the use of 3D, such as working within 3D Max, Inventor, Zbrush, Autocad, Substance Painter and Phtotoshop.

Can you tell us what the future holds?

I think the future holds whatever I/we create for it in the present. I know I’ll continue producing work but it will be executed using a wider range of tools in an array of industries. 

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