The Broadview Blog

Graphic Glendale

2012-01-06T11:11:00.000-08:00

the latest in the series. still working on doing more with less. meaning, what are the absolute essentials of the scene and still have it represent what's there in front of me. trying to spend more time understanding what's going on and less wrist movement. art is always a translation of reality, always

El Matador

2011-12-30T10:24:00.000-08:00

it seemed fitting to end the year with this location. i usually took my class here for the last day when i was teaching at Art Center. simplified shapes but realistic tonality seems to be what i'm trying lately. looking forward to where these take me in the coming year!

Griffith Observatory

2011-12-20T09:21:00.000-08:00

this weeks Graphic LA entry. these are getting more abstract in that while the shapes are based on reality, i'm pushing them farther than what's in front of me. the color as well. this approach, i have to say , is a lot of FUN!!

more design based!

Valley View

2011-12-13T09:30:00.001-08:00

or near that street anyway. every single shape is altered, pushed and skewed in this one even though it looks somewhat real. had an interesting talk with Robert Valley which lead to this. although my stuff isn't nearly as pushed as his. i really exaggerated the rhythms of the trees, bushes and lawns as well, pushing and distorting them quite a bit while keeping the values and colors on the very real side. the shapes are very simplified and designed. the atmospheric perspective is exaggerated too to enhance the depth of the street. in reality its not nearly as strong.

FALL IN LA

2011-12-01T09:50:00.000-08:00

granted it's not as picturesque as Vermont but LA ha it's own unique palate. concrete and orange. lately i've been thinking a lot more about designed shapes versus sight to size/visual impression. this may seem very "real" looking but i changed/altered ever shape in here. i kept the color and tonality true to nature but really pushed the shapes, even though they may have a realistic feel.

More UNCHARTED 3

2011-11-29T16:50:00.000-08:00

here's a few more concept deigns from Uncharted 3. i was trying out a little more of my graphic look on these.

SCI FI SNAPSHOT

2011-11-22T11:16:00.000-08:00

i say snapshot because it's a very casual composition. almost something you'd see catching your flight to mars or saturn. invented piece inspired by recent travel. going for a retro future, with some Albert Frey influence.

UNCHARTED 3

2011-11-15T12:08:00.000-08:00

enough time has passed i thought i'd post a few of the concept designs i did for U3! i waited a beat because i didn't want to give anything away for the hardcore gamers who played to the end already. and thanks to the fans of the series for the awesome sales so far!!!

Graphic...Altoona?

2011-11-10T08:58:00.000-08:00

I was in Altoona,PA for Illuxcon last week (thanks again Pat and Jeannie for putting on a great show) and I was exposed to an entirely different set of shapes and lighting conditions. I carried a small sketchbook with me and tried reducing the scenes in front of me to just black or white before working out the actual shapes. i'm still using super simple shapes (line tool, square brush, square marquee) to block out the piece. Keeping to a strong, simple, stark, graphic composition makes for a better image i'm rediscovering. Here's the latest in the series of, but no longer strictly Graphic LA.

HOLLYWOOD

2011-10-18T15:28:00.000-07:00

a new Graphic LA painting! it's been too long. Uncharted 3 is safely put to bed and it's time to get back to this thought. an important note (to myself as well) in the very last stages of a painting don't compare it to the subject, look at your mark making and design elements. brushwork, structural thickness, calligraphy...the painting is the final "reality". look at it as such.
blocked it out in as few values as possible in the beginning. added a screen-shot.

Imagine FX Game issue

2011-09-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

imagineFX (great magazine btw) has a gaming issue coming out and i've done an in depth tutorial on the creation of THIS concept for Uncharted 3. thanks to Claire Howlett and Naughty Dog for making this happen!

2011-09-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

well, it's been TOO long since i posted a n y t h i n g . Uncharted 3 has been a bear to wrestle to the ground but it's looking good. had a spar nano second and needed to do a piece for moi. more exploration into the world of graphic realism. i'm trying for a realistic first look made with the simplest most graphic shapes i can make. similar to my LA paintings but an invented landscape.

Prints for Comic Con

2011-06-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

hey all, i've been getting good responses to the Graphic LA images so i'm going to have limited edition prints of 4 of the images. i numbered and bagged them this weekend. these are high end archival giclees on heavy watercolor paper by a professional service (not Epson prints) i'll only have 5 each of the images so stop by early to booth 5555- Tangled Dreams, near hall H if you're at the Con. see you there!

Downtown

2011-06-03T07:47:00.000-07:00

finally, a new one! i noticed that these are taking much longer and getting more detailed, which is fine. it's an interesting evolution when you look back over the posts from this series. i added a few close up too. it's really just a bunch of colored squares :)

the airport

2011-04-04T07:12:00.001-07:00

one crashed hard drive, a corrupt file and one false start later, i finally was able to get to another in my series of Graphic LA paintings. this one was 90% rectangle and line tool. i make a square, adjust the color value and use transform to alter it's shape. working big to small, broad to detail, just like the traditional painting process. i can't wait to do more!

Colorado Blvd, Pasadena

2011-03-03T09:46:00.000-08:00

plus my block in and a close up

Santa Monica Apartments

2011-02-21T09:43:00.000-08:00

the latest in the series of graphic interpretations of LA. i saved out a few steps along the way and added those too.

Gamble House

2011-01-31T07:50:00.000-08:00

it's interesting to see my own evolution as this series develops.

Touch of Evil opening shot location

2011-01-28T19:24:00.000-08:00

i've been curious about this for awhile so..... i did a little reconstruction by watching the film, making a map and looking for landmarks. here's my result !

Downtown

2011-01-24T07:13:00.001-08:00

view from Chinatown

LAX

2011-01-16T21:46:00.001-08:00

Olympic and Beverly

2011-01-09T22:04:00.000-08:00

still working on realistic yet stylized look/process

texture as depth cue

2010-12-21T19:52:00.000-08:00

in this quick 45 minute painting i primarily used the receding texture to give the sense of receding distance, much like Moebius does with his details in this profoundly simple but accurate pen drawing. there are hardly any "details" in my painting but the color/value is right and the few depth cues i've added really push the far plane away from us.

CTN this weekend

2010-11-18T17:58:00.000-08:00

stop on by. i'll be demoing painting on the iPad and talking about vis dev, as well as having books for sale. info here

iPad on the plane

2010-11-15T10:27:00.000-08:00

flew back from Illuxcon last night. best con ever :) painted this to keep myself occupied.

A is for Artist

2010-11-13T06:42:00.000-08:00

a cool collection of artists compiled by Kurt and Zelda on the Tor site. (click on the word TOR)

lovely overcast

2010-10-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

this weekends iPad painting. it was completely overcast for Saturdays class which gives you very consistent light. i tried out a new app called Inspire Pro. very painterly. good comparative color picker, good brushes, nice cross-hair for stylus. 95% painted in Inspire and the other 5% in sketchbook pro for some scatter brush effect.

latest painting and book review

2010-09-28T11:48:00.000-07:00

latest iPad painting AND my book got reviewed

latest demos at ACCD

2010-09-20T11:11:00.000-07:00

the night time is one i did after class. trying to get the right color/value/shape. keep the new ones more graphic, more about getting the right color. the middle one is r e a l l y boring compositional, i know...demo

latest iPad art

2010-09-07T11:13:00.000-07:00

from life

you can order Aspect Ratio through Gallery Nucleus

2010-08-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

click here

more iPad plein aire

2010-08-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

here's this weeks painting plus a snap of my set up

iPad paintings....from life

2010-08-09T14:03:00.001-07:00

BOOKS HAVE ARRIVED!!

2010-07-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

the dock strike slowed them down but i was able to pick the boxes up yesterday.
cutting it a little closer than i wanted but they're here!!
i'll be at booth #5557 in the illustration area at the San Diego Comic Con.
the book is 134 pages, full color and sells for $20

it's all about the basics

2010-06-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

when i'm working on something complex and intricate i always find it useful to go back to the basics of shape, large forms and light direction. i'll start with shape and really be concoious of design and sihloutte. then what are the main forms and how will light react to them. once that is set in my mind i can add detail but it's always subordinate to the larger ideas. the more i make art the more i discover it's not about which brushes or which trick or technique. it's about the foundation of art. drawing, observation, color...those things

Breakdown of 30 Minute sketch

2010-05-10T12:26:00.000-07:00

enough of you have asked, so here's a very simple breakdown
1. grad for sky and water
2. marquee tool for land shape and basic brush with scatter for texture
3. flip layer for reflection, set to overlay
4. light and shadow, transform to match mass better
5. water, reflection and ripples (basic round, squashed with scatter)
6. waves, soft edges and a little value adjustment

MORE 30 MINUTES STUDIES

2010-05-07T11:48:00.000-07:00

the latest quick studies. the water brush i made worked well. it's just a flattened round with scatter. most of the "custom" brushes just have a little scatter used. in 30 minutes i think perspective is what suffers most but that's not what i'm aiming for with these.

Art of Uncharted 2

2010-05-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

Ballistic releases the long awaited concept art book to the game of the year title. we're all really proud of how well the game and book came out. there's also an interview with yours truly here to tie in with the release. thanks Ballistic! great job :)

PLAYIN' in the sandbox

2010-05-03T12:24:00.000-07:00

I spent a few hours exploring the Sandbox feature in Sketchup this
weekend after reading this book. Sketchup has again shown what a
powerful simple tool it is. Now it's not going to be as robust as
Zbrush or Mudbox but it is a nice terrain modeler with a few hidden
features.
The first is changing the area of influence

but you can also select

points

lines

surfaces

and multiple selections of each.

So, you can model with the circular brush or pick only what you want to shape.

Here's a simple mountain I made. Again, other programs are going to
have a lot more perameters to work with but this , like the whole
program, has lots of hidden power.

Work in progress

2010-04-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a little something I cooked up over the weekend. It's been awhile since I worked on something more design oriented. Kinda nice. I'm really pushing what can be done with paths. Here's a close up of just one section. No deadline on this. Just seeing what can be learned from taking things farther. Which is a lot actually.

30 minute studies

2010-04-06T10:36:00.000-07:00

i recently started doing these 30 minute studies. they are from photos but no photo textures or actual photo images are in the studies. the purpose is to capture the essentials as quickly as possible. i'm trying to get the big impression of realism so that at first glance it seems convincing. as i do more of these i'll publish some comprehensive tutorials on what i'm discovering. stay tuned :)

HIGHWAY BOT

2010-04-01T16:42:00.000-07:00

he waits......but for what? a quick sketch started Sunday night. wish the book wasn't at the printers...oh well, next book :)

SKETCHBOOK FOR COMIC CON

2010-03-15T13:47:00.001-07:00

i haven't been posting as much lately but it's all for a good cause. i've been putting this together! it's in China now. more details as they come =)

Uncharted 2 wins again!

2010-03-15T12:05:00.001-07:00

we've had phenomenal success with the DICE Awards and Game Developers Choice awards. i even got a quote!

Latest Tutorial online

2010-03-09T12:22:00.000-08:00

just finished another informative tutorial for the great folks over at 3D Total. head over to take a look...

2 More OILS

2010-03-05T11:43:00.000-08:00

red rock nevada and altadena california. the brush work on the red rock painting is starting to feel "right"

matte painting on movie magic

2010-03-04T17:40:00.000-08:00

i actually got cable back in the 90's just to watch this show!!!

Recent Oil paintings

2010-02-12T10:26:00.000-08:00

i've been getting out regularly and painting from life on the weekends. here's the latest 2 i thought turned out. i've been experimenting with the sight-size method and i have to say i'm liking the results...a lot !!

CG Unit shout out

2010-02-08T14:19:00.000-08:00

thanks to CG Unit for the shout out. a daily source of visual inspiration!
http://www.cgunit.net/2010/02/robh-ruppel.html
http://www.cgunit.net/

the Future, in black and white

2010-01-25T10:35:00.001-08:00

another sketch. black and white is so ....fun.

more Matte Painting Originals

2010-01-21T17:41:00.000-08:00

in an never ending quest to find the paintings i love so much, i present this.... i think it's a Whitlock. not sure what film but here's the original and a close up.

in Depth Tutorial

2010-01-15T13:52:00.000-08:00

head on over the 3D Total for a look into the making of Steampunk Village.

head study

2010-01-11T11:34:00.000-08:00

painted friday night after work with some friends.
iPhone

holiday iPhone sketches

2010-01-04T10:25:00.000-08:00

i say sketches because most were no more than 10 minutes because conditions changed so fast, especially around sunset. within minutes it's a different set up.

Another Award from 3D Total !

2009-12-21T10:44:00.000-08:00

thanks again to 3 D total for their award of excellence. i've made a step by step tutorial for the Steampunk Village and am working on one for this image as well. i'll let you know when it's available and posted on their site!

alley way

2009-12-14T14:09:00.000-08:00

painted after my class at Gnomon. pretty quick because the sun kept dipping in and out of the clouds.

yesterdays iPhone art

2009-12-11T10:13:00.001-08:00

yesterdays iPhone art. just a few things in front of me. the first was at breakfast and the other was after work. values...close values.

This Weekends iPhone Paintings

2009-12-08T11:07:00.000-08:00

i took advantage of the overcast weather this weekend which always makes the lighting very consistent for a long time. meaning it's easier to paint outside without the shadows constantly shifting on you.

it's never about the details

2009-11-30T16:22:00.000-08:00

i've been painting more recently which always makes me in awe of the mastery of Sargent. drawing, edges, tone...everything. i did a quick block in as i imagine he would (Harold Speed oil painting book) . the details are not what's important. it's the large planes and tones that need to be established first. once this is working and the edges are rich then the details can be added but not till the shapes and tones are w o r k i n g. this is reminder for myself as much as anyone.

iPhone sketches from the weekend

2009-11-30T11:06:00.001-08:00

more doodles from Sketchbook Mobile. the first is Devils Gate Reservoir and that's the actually dam. the second, a street near cal tech as the sun was going down. very rough but some of the color notes and values are true.

iPhone paintings

2009-11-18T16:43:00.000-08:00

i've been painting some color studies from life on my iPhone. i bought and tried all the apps and liked Autodesks Sketchbook Mobile the best. it's like having a tiny pochade box in your back pocket. i'm using the pogo stylus as well.

3DTotal Excellence Award

2009-11-11T15:24:00.000-08:00

the nice folks at 3D Total gave my Steampunk Village painting an Award of excellence. thanks 3D Total !

Invented Landscape

2009-11-05T11:02:00.001-08:00

a look into my working method. i usually do several pages of thumbnail ideas, refine one by working on the silhouettes shapes in as few values as possible and then use those layers as my template for the final painting.

Emilio Ruiz del Rio

2009-11-02T11:29:00.000-08:00

i first heard of him when i was reading an article on Ray Harryhausen and Ray said he used a Spanish matte painter who worked on cut out aluminum. at first i thought it was a typo. cut out aluminum? much later i found his site and sure enough, he painted in camera mattes on site with aluminum. sadly he passed away this year. here's a few pictures of his work and a documentary has been made on him that i can't wait to come out on DVD.

STEAMPUNK-update

2009-10-28T11:46:00.000-07:00

based on the quick demo i did at Gnomon. worked on it over my break...and yes, i consider that relaxing. i want to take more paintings even farther than this one. just scratching the surface. added my block in for anonymous

NEW WEB SITE !!

2009-10-19T12:17:00.000-07:00

i finally redid my site ! if you go to www.robhruppel.com you'll see a whole new site with new images !!! it's redesigned, refurbished, renewed, relaunched, reestablished, remade, reset and re calibrated.

more U2

2009-10-15T13:44:00.000-07:00

Uncharted 2

2009-10-12T15:11:00.000-07:00

it was a long and exciting project but we can finally share with the world what we've been doing here at Naughty Dog for the past 2 years! the game is available today and we are all extremely proud of the hard work that went into it!

Sketchup Workshop

2009-09-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

i'll be doing a workshop at the Concept Design Academy on October 17th. i'll be covering how i use sketchup as part of my design process both in my personal art and Uncharted 2. click the link to learn more. see you there.

REFUELING

2009-08-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

the transport hovers as it takes on fuel...

Christopher Blossom study

2009-08-18T17:42:00.001-07:00

Marine artists have the perfect blend of painterly and well drawn detail and Blossom is one of the best. just had to do a quick study to soak up the juiciness.

Nomad

2009-08-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

....wandering in the marketplace early on a sunday before it opens.

Gnomon Demo

2009-08-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

spent about 3 hours spread over two sessions

air processing plant

2009-08-07T18:50:00.001-07:00

...or something like that.

weekend sketch

2009-08-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

filling the artistic well :)

value sketch

2009-07-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

a little sketch of things to come.

more Matte Painting goodness

2009-07-14T11:08:00.000-07:00

too busy at work, so no new art from me but here's some more from my favorite photo impressionist "movement".

Close Up - Al Whitlock

2009-07-08T17:03:00.000-07:00

I have been a huge admirer of the artistry of Al Whitlock. He was a master matte painter and brilliantly understated artist. i recently had the absolute pleasure of viewing some of his original paintings and they were more impressive than i hoped. Solid drawing, controlled tone and amazingly real without being rendered or tight. My favorite style of painting.

Every Day is Halloween

2009-06-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

i've got a very small painting hanging in this upcoming group show. it's fun to pull out the old "traditional" paintings now and again and marvel at the lack of the undo button. the opening is this Saturday 7-10 PM, see 'ya there.

a funny thing happened on the way to Wrightwood

2009-06-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

they reopened the 2 highway to Wrightwood recently after a five year closer so i thought i'd drive up and do a little painting Sunday. packed the laptop but forgot the "Black box" that blocks the screen from the sun. a crucial part of digital plein air. so i drove back and painted this from imagination instead.

ice and rock

2009-05-28T10:32:00.000-07:00

i drew so much ice and rock on Brother Bear it's like second nature now. a quick study over the weekend.

20 minutes

2009-05-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

done while waiting for an approval on a design......

close values , matte painting and realism

2009-05-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

one of the main ways that paintings can look "real" is the conservation of value and keeping value areas consistent. here's a great example. it's a matte painting by Peter Ellenshaw and you can see how narrow the value change in the distant background really is. by modeling within this narrow range the reality of the whole image is maintained. it does take great skill to do this and the smallest value change will be enough to indicate a difference.

more invented land

2009-04-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

(updated with block in) i think i'm getting the "scrubby bush" look on hills to work better now. it's 85% form and 15% texture. gotta get the form first, major planes then minor, then sub forms....then texture. all invented, no photo textures. spent more time on the initial block in and silhouettes. makes all the difference..

Sunday Sketch

2009-04-13T10:12:00.000-07:00

(updated:fixed top left of mountain and added brush) another invented landscape. the focus on this one was trying to get a brush that helps with the dense broccoli like trees. need some more refinement on that idea still i think.

Custom Brushes

2009-04-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

this image is entirely hand painted. it was an exercise in mimicking the impression of photo reality but without any actually photo textures. i looked carefully at each area and made a brush that best mimicked the visual noise. the clouds were the simplest. it's just a chalk brush with a little scattering because that's the impression it gave. the foliage generally needed a few brushes. the block in took only about 20 minutes but the rest i did spend hours on. mostly thinking and planning and not so much wrist time.i hope to do more of this because it was so educational.

VUE 7

2009-04-01T16:04:00.000-07:00

started playing around with Vue again the other day. here's something built and rendered in Vue and then touched up in photoshop. clouds are real. hope to do more soon.

Saturday evening sketch

2009-03-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

just trying to make time for more of these. i always learn something when i do. completely from scratch btw.

matte paintings from Gone With the Wind

2009-03-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

for fun i went through and captured all the matte paintings that jack cosgrove and his crew did for GWTW. there's probably more but the these were the most obvious candidates. and yes, that's my idea of fun :)

new cover

2009-03-16T10:13:00.001-07:00

Pat Wilshire is putting together a book on several artists. Myself, Mark Zug, Paul Lehr and Justin Sweet to name a few. finished the cover over the weekend. all made up, no reference, all digital

it was a dark and rainy week

2009-02-18T15:51:00.000-08:00

so i painted another soft light oil. so many close values.

Snowbound

2009-02-12T10:01:00.000-08:00

the most recent morning sketch. i'm really liking the open ended nature of these sketches and seeing where they end up. this one for example, not sure if it's surfacing from a frozen lake or some futuristic snow plow.

Morning Sketch

2009-02-06T10:48:00.000-08:00

i'm reading this great book called the Power of Less and in it he talks about having a morning routine to do things you want to do more of so i'm using it to paint more sketches. this is the first.

Jan 14 entry update

2009-01-29T09:58:00.000-08:00

updated scan with one that is closer to painting!

last weeks oil

2009-01-25T08:47:00.001-08:00

Latest oil

2009-01-14T12:37:00.000-08:00

here's the one i did over the weekend. went to El Matador and was the first one there. i thought it came out really well with a good variety of brush and knife work. i ended up making the sky half a value darker than my block in and it sat it space much better after that.

Soft Light and Oil Paint

2009-01-11T08:59:00.000-08:00

over the break i did a lot of oil painting. i used what i've learned teaching the digital class and reversed engineered it for traditional. this was my favorite.

Game Informer Cover

2009-01-05T09:48:00.000-08:00

it's still out on the stands. the most complex illustration i've done. 2.5 GIGABYTES. some game assets, some sketch-up models, a little of everything and a lot of actual painting! here's the sketch as well.

Devils Gate

2008-12-28T12:46:00.000-08:00

well, i didn't see any devil but i did paint an image with a lot of lost edges.

Malibu Creek

2008-12-22T14:03:00.000-08:00

this is for an upcoming article in Advanced Photoshop magazine. it's painted from life (of course) and in the magazine i'll walk through a very thorough tutorial on my process. should be good. not sure when the issue comes out but will keep you posted when i know. happy holidays!!!!

The Broadview Blog

Graphic Glendale

El Matador

Griffith Observatory

Valley View

FALL IN LA

More UNCHARTED 3

SCI FI SNAPSHOT

UNCHARTED 3

Graphic...Altoona?

HOLLYWOOD

Imagine FX Game issue

Prints for Comic Con

Downtown

the airport

Colorado Blvd, Pasadena

Santa Monica Apartments

Gamble House

Touch of Evil opening shot location

Downtown

LAX

Olympic and Beverly

texture as depth cue

CTN this weekend

iPad on the plane

A is for Artist

lovely overcast

latest painting and book review

latest demos at ACCD

latest iPad art

you can order Aspect Ratio through Gallery Nucleus

more iPad plein aire

iPad paintings....from life

BOOKS HAVE ARRIVED!!

the dock strike slowed them down but i was able to pick the boxes up yesterday.cutting it a little closer than i wanted but they're here!!i'll be at booth #5557 in the illustration area at the San Diego Comic Con.the book is 134 pages, full color and sells for $20

it's all about the basics

Breakdown of 30 Minute sketch

MORE 30 MINUTES STUDIES

Art of Uncharted 2

PLAYIN' in the sandbox

Work in progress

30 minute studies

HIGHWAY BOT

SKETCHBOOK FOR COMIC CON

Uncharted 2 wins again!

Latest Tutorial online

2 More OILS

matte painting on movie magic

Recent Oil paintings

CG Unit shout out

the Future, in black and white

more Matte Painting Originals

in Depth Tutorial

head study

holiday iPhone sketches

Another Award from 3D Total !

alley way

yesterdays iPhone art

yesterdays iPhone art. just a few things in front of me. the first was at breakfast and the other was after work. values...close values.

This Weekends iPhone Paintings

it's never about the details

iPhone sketches from the weekend

iPhone paintings

3DTotal Excellence Award

Invented Landscape

Emilio Ruiz del Rio

STEAMPUNK-update

NEW WEB SITE !!

more U2

Uncharted 2

Sketchup Workshop

REFUELING

Christopher Blossom study

Nomad

Gnomon Demo

air processing plant

weekend sketch

value sketch

more Matte Painting goodness

Close Up - Al Whitlock

the dock strike slowed them down but i was able to pick the boxes up yesterday.
cutting it a little closer than i wanted but they're here!!
i'll be at booth #5557 in the illustration area at the San Diego Comic Con.
the book is 134 pages, full color and sells for $20