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Neil Blevins

@artofsoulburn.bsky.social

2.6K followers 120 following 560 posts

Art Director & Senior Concept Designer in Film, Games, Books, Tech. Builds Scifi Worlds. Professional Work: Pixar Alum (16 Yrs), Blur, WarnerMedia, ++

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · Oct 18

Looks like we have another influx of people coming to bluesky, so a quick intro post, my name is Neil Blevins, I'm an Art Director and Senior Concept artist for films, games and books. Worked at Pixar for 16 years, +Blur, WarnerMedia, etc. & I post lots of personal artwork, hope you follow along!

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 1d

"we basically sold Disney a film that we had no way to make" kinda feel that's how all films work these days :) Although now it's about how to get that many fx for such a low budget :D

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 5d

So awesome. More, more!!!!

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 5d

Come see me at #LightBoxExpo for my talk on how to Create, Finance and Publish your own Artbook. If this has always been your dream but you don't know where to start, this talk will go through all the self publishing steps in detail! lightboxexpo.com/schedule/lis... #lightbox #lightbox2025 #LBX2025

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 9d

Today for #ThrowbackThursday we're doing #PurpleArt Considering my love of the color purple, I'm surprised I don't have a ton of purple artwork. Something to fix in the future #scifi #art #painting

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 10d

I do not. May look into it, have some other books I want to pick up first though.

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 16d

Seems Bungie, at least in the past was more hands on. But maybe they can outsource it to the publisher this time around.

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 16d

Prefer the slightly more desaturated one you have on artstation personally.

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 16d

Ya, not to mention with a smaller company now, they likely have fewer people to work on a book. Game first, see how it fares, then I suspect a book after that.

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 16d

Even in a world with a billion youtube videos, I still get many questions on what books do I recommend for learning how to make art. So here's a list of some of my favs and why you should consider getting them: www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/... #arttip #artressources #artlessons #arteducation

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 17d

I assume you've seen this guy's work? www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/46...

Artist draws spaceships inspired by household items

Artist Eric Geusz only needed some art supplies and a quick rummage through his kitchen drawers to create these interstellar artworks.

www.bbc.co.uk

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 17d

My wife jokes that the style is called "Wired Magazine from the 90s" :) Would love an artbook, obviously though with a very careful process to make sure the stolen art is removed. And I hope they compensated that artist for what they did.

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 18d

By killing off Optimus Prime, he was responsible for teaching me how a cartoon could stir real emotions in people, it wasn't just pure kids entertainment. He will be missed.

The Spaceshipper 🚀 @thespaceshipper.com · 18d

RIP screenwriter Ron Friedman.

“Hasbro didn’t recognize that Optimus Prime was the heartbeat of the Autobots. You cannot pass that over and have any hope of duplicating the success you had. Once you establish an icon, you’re a fool if you don’t try to preserve it.”

He was 93.

Ron Friedman, Screenwriter Who Killed Off Optimus Prime, Dies at 93

A former architect who got a career boost from Danny Kaye, he wrote for comedies, dramas and animation, where he created a backstory for G.J. Joe.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 18d

Haha. That one is based on a primitive mask from Oceania, but yes, it also has foundation vibes as well :) Glad you like the sketches!

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 19d

Loved this series of paintings, hope it comes off the backburner. I have a space mech series I've been developing off and on for a decade as well, hopefully I can get back to it.

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 19d

Here's some more doodles from the last few weeks, including one from September's Workshop Academy drink 'n draw. All these sketches and more will be included in my "Sketchbook Vol 2" paperback book to be released early next year #robot #bot #mech #mecha #droid #doodle

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 20d

I've always seen the terminator defined as the 90 degree spot, so if that's the definition we're using, the terminator never shifts even if the light leaks through. So I'm going to keep that definition, & add some extra info on the fact the terminator may not be the exact location the shadow starts.

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 20d

Might be worth setting up a real world lighting example sometime and show some real world results. May do that in the future.

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 22d

That's actually one of my inspirations, along with countless procedurally generated patterns (You can see some examples here, make sure to scroll horizontally): www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/...

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 22d

Ok, so sounds like your biggest issue was the fact that if the material had any subsurface to it, you'd see light past the terminator, and this of course would be confusing? That's a good note, I'll add it to the tutorial.

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 23d

This #ThrowbackThursday are my starship hull tests, fun little abstract paintings showing the hull plating of giant alien motherships. Collected them all into a pdf book available here: artofsoulburn.gumroad.com/l/ndqhx For those who love the #greeble !

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 23d

Would love to hear your perspective on the terminator, of course, there's never 100% alignment in the art community on such things, but happy to improve the lesson if there's other info / opinions to be added.

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 24d

A new written tutorial that discusses shadows, combining century old traditional 2d practices with a few thoughts on how this applies to modern digital 3d. Will be using this for my upcoming classes. www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/... #arttip #lighting #shadows

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 29d

Thank goodness. Glad it still has the viewership to continue, I'm really enjoying it (Hope to watch the season finale this weekend and avoid spoilers).

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · Sep 11

This #ThrowbackThursday is #faceyourart also known as #facetheartist where I show off some of the faces I've made over the years. Of course mine are mostly #robots and #aliens :)

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · Sep 9

The budget will go way up when they need to hire VFX artists to fix all of the bad visuals, just like what happened with the Wizard Of Oz Sphere film.