Introducing Rebelle Featured Artist, Chris Lawton, a 3D artist and painter from Scotland. Learn about his art journey interrupted by illness, how painting helps his recovery, and how he combines 3D, sculpting, and painting.
Chris Lawton is an artist from Scotland. He finished his higher education with a Master of Science degree in Media Arts & Imaging at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in 2010. From there, he engaged in a fledgling career as a freelance 3D generalist and animator working mainly in corporate and advertising. In 2011, this career was interrupted by illness.
As part of his recovery, he took to painting using various software from his previous career, until Rebelle outshone everything else on the market. Now he uses it almost exclusively for his paintings, with the occasional use of 3D sculpting and modeling tools. Over the next year, he intends to utilize this combination of tools even more in an effort to paint ideas he has had in his head for a long time. His creative interests lie in realism and the Uncanny.
"The draw toward photorealism as a challenge is tied to my fascination with the Uncanny, which is an area of inspiration that will likely influence all my future work."
Can you tell us about your transition from working as a 3D generalist and animator to becoming a digital painter?
I started working as a generalist doing 3D graphics when I left university. My main focus was 3D modelling, texturing, and sculpting, but I was also working on things like camera matching, rigging, and animation. It just depended on where I was needed on any given job. Back then, my goal was to end up as a full-time 3D modeller or as a texture artist, but this never panned out due to illness.
I was interested in painting digitally back then as well, but it really took a back seat to the work I was doing in 3D. For some reason, I was always better at sculpting/modelling and thinking in 3D than I was at drawing. I think this has a big influence on the way I paint, approaching it as something I can iterate upon and refine rather than attempting to get perfect lines and shading.
The real shift to digital painting didn’t really happen until I was a few years into my recovery after I took ill. At this point, I wanted to do something simpler and more direct, and altogether less esoteric than 3D. It has only been recently that I’ve decided to make an active effort to combine my past skill set with my new one.
How did your illness influence your decision to begin painting, and in what ways has it shaped your artistic voice?
In terms of my reasons for picking up the digital paintbrush, I needed something to help distract me from pain, and also to set myself milestones to meet. It was also a way to pass the time, which moves very slowly when you are stuck away from the world.
Regarding my artistic voice, I honestly do not think that, as of yet, I’ve really been able to explore it, which is why I am now at not so much a crossroads as the entrance of a vast field of potential. Until now, my main goals were to see if I could replicate what I could see in front of me rather than attempting to create art of a specific style (granted, photorealism is a style). The draw toward photorealism as a challenge is tied to my fascination with the Uncanny, which is an area of inspiration that will likely influence all my future work. It is just that, because I am severely limited in terms of what I can get to paint based on licensing photography, this process is always hampered by the composition, etc. of whoever the original photographer is.
In the coming months, I will hopefully be experimenting both in terms of the 3D-2D pipeline, but also in terms of the style I’m painting in to be more expressive and also to suit the subject matter of whatever I am painting.
Was there a moment during your recovery when you realized painting would become more than just therapeutic?
At the start, it really was just a way to help me distract myself and pass the time. It was also because of the desire to do something I hadn’t done in years at that point, to create something again. Then, the challenge of painting more and more realistically became a driving force as well, as it was a way to remind myself I was still able to do something cool, even though my whole life had been taken away by illness.
I’ve not been able to work on anything since the end of last year, having only been able to start getting my head back into 3D a couple of months ago. I would honestly say that this period is when it dawned on me that it wasn’t just the challenge and the distraction that drew me; I’m finally back to where I was twenty years ago, where I actually want to explore art for the fun of it. So I’m looking forward to seeing what I might come up with.
How do you integrate 3D sculpting and modeling into your painting process? Can you walk us through a typical workflow?
I’m currently working on a proof of concept where I am creating a landscape for myself to paint. This starts in a terrain generation software called Gaea 2.0, where a node-based workflow does some incredible things with height maps (greyscale images used to displace 3D geometry) to generate and realistically weather a terrain. After this, it is passed into Blender (both Open Source and extremely good 3D software), wherein all the foliage, textures, other models, etc. are added. Then the lighting and atmosphere are set up, and cameras are used to frame and render out the final images. These images will be the basis for whatever I paint.
One thing I am terrible at is painting lighting from imagination. I’m always hugely impressed by the people who can do it, regardless of whether they are painting realism, illustrative work, or cell-shaded cartoons. My brain turns to mush when I try. But most people who paint realism either take their photographs out in the wild or set up a studio space with models, props, lighting rigs, etc. I will never be in a position to do either with any efficiency.
What I can do, though, is create my virtual studios and locations. I can make my own 3D props if needed, but much like how large studios make films, hire hundreds of people to make the thousands of assets they need for a production, the internet and open source software like Blender have made it possible for 3D to be a team sport for the little guys, too. Much like how if I needed an umbrella for a real-world photoshoot, I would buy one rather than hand-build it, there is likely a high-quality umbrella someone has made that I can buy and use in 3D if the need should arise.
The temptation to try and make something is always there; however, my goal is to create my own virtual studio to paint in, and I know my time is severely limited, so I’ve opted to only make the things I need that I cannot find anywhere else. You can even get very realistic character models these days that are extremely customizable, should the need arise for models for a virtual photoshoot.
"Find something you enjoy, that you can do with whatever limitations you have, and don’t stress about it. Start doing it for fun, for yourself."
Your paintings look very realistic, almost like photographs. How do you achieve that?
If you see any of the time-lapse videos of my paintings, they always start ugly and remain that way for a long time. Unfortunately, this takes way longer than I would like, which is one of the reasons I’m looking at beginning to paint more expressively while still maintaining a level of realism. If I can only paint 8 or so images a year, I don’t get to explore the ideas I would like to.
The general process, though, is to create the initial sketch, then block in the most basic colours, and then double-check my work and refine. Then check again and keep on refining. I constantly need to remind myself to check that I am painting what I’m seeing and not what I think I’m seeing. It continues like this until I reach the end. The guidelines feature in Rebelle is a totally invaluable tool for someone attempting realism. I’m always amazed at how off I can be when I check something I was sure was correct, only to find it is skewed, or off-centre from where it should be. The guidelines keep me right. I hope you put in a clear all option in the future because I can end up with tons of them requiring manual deletion. It is still the best reference tool I’ve come across in the digital painting sphere.
How has your background in animation influenced the way you think about composition or movement in still imagery?
I can’t say too much regarding composition given the limitations of painting from other people’s photographs, or animation impacting still imagery for the same reason. My background working on creating textures and in digital sculpture has definitely impacted how I think when I am painting.
The texture work both made me interested in painting different materials and textures in my paintings, and also led me to picking images which had textures that interested me as subjects. Sculpting led to the process I mentioned earlier regarding how I paint, just block it in and keep on refining.
How do you see the role of digital tools evolving for artists like yourself in the next few years?
I really don’t know where things are going to go next. In terms of 2D painting, frankly, Rebelle is massively ahead of the curve when it comes to simulating realistic paint. There really isn’t anything else like it. One thing I would be interested in seeing is implementing ways to add and subtract from the height/depth maps, both to allow paint or ink to pool in channels carved out of the 3D paint and also to bring in height maps from 3D software for similar purposes. Also, to be able to export said height maps, too.
On the 3D side of things, watching the constant improvement of Blender gives me great hope for the future. There are tools available now, like the node-based geometry nodes toolsets, that have allowed people to generate their own tools in ways I could only have dreamed of back in the day when I was working in 3D.
Once we get past this dreadful era of Generative AI, I think that Artificial Intelligence (not Generative) will likely lead to some fascinating new tools and creative discoveries too.
If you could advise artists who are rebuilding their creative lives after hardship, what would you say?
Find something you enjoy, that you can do with whatever limitations you have, and don’t stress about it. Start doing it for fun, for yourself. Do it for the distraction, and for the joy of expressing yourself and exploring your ideas and what you can do.
Once you get in the groove of it, try and push yourself. Don’t worry about doing it for anyone else, just do it for you to see if you can. Set small goals that you have a chance to beat, and when you do, set another goal. If you don’t want to show anyone, then don’t. Eventually, you might change your mind, and if you do, the internet has made sharing your creations easier than ever before.
One final bit of advice, for any artist, is that if you are like me and get hung up on things needing to be perfect, and this need is going from a driving force compelling you forward to a deterrent holding you back, spend a half hour doodling every time you sit down at your computer. Every time you finish a doodle, take a minute to sit back and appreciate it, whatever it is. Then delete it. Don’t show anyone, don’t record anything. Do it for you. Do it to remind yourself that this is supposed to be something you are enjoying, that nothing is permanent, and that the reward is in the process. Works for me.
Thank you, Chris, for your openness to talk about the influence of your illness on your aspiring art career. Thank you for sharing your story. We are happy to hear that Rebelle can bring joyful moments in your recovery.
Happy Painting,
Escape Motions Team
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Learn more about Chris Lawton: www.escapemotions.com/featured-artists/chris-lawton
