Helen Ilnytska: concept artist interview

Hello! My name is Helen Ilnytska. I am a concept artist and illustrator from Kyiv, Ukraine. My primary focus at the moment is digital environment design. Academically speaking, I hold a degree in engineering and had had a fairly successful career in pharmaceutical validation when about three years ago I began my journey in the world of concept art design. The main driving force behind such a career change was my longstanding passion for science fiction, fantasy, and post-apocalyptic art. Simply put, I adore anything to do with portraying new incredible worlds.

Sometimes I make quick sketches in Alchemy without thinking about what I want to depict. Quite often I’d just be drawing spots and at some point start seeing something interesting in them, so next I would concentrate on drawing certain parts to make the general vision clearer. Such unpremeditated “doodling” is so much fun and sometimes helps with finding unusual compositions. Then I’d work on a more detailed sketch in tone to better understand the mood I want to convey.

My next step would normally be creating a 3D base, but with my latest gallery image I skipped this step and after tone moved directly to color. I painted the sketch with gradients, then added photos and, finally, drew the necessary details.

I regularly use Alchemy, Photoshop, 3D-Coat, ZBrush, and Keyshot. I usually start with simple sketches in Alchemy concentrating primarily on the composition. I turn to Photoshop to work on detailed sketches, crystallize the mood, and then create 3D bases. For sculpting I mainly use ZBrush, for hard surfaces – 3D-Coat. My go-to rendering tool is KeyShot. I used this soft to create multiple raw bases of different light and material combos. A combination of rendered layers, adding photos, drawing details, color correction, and adding of post effects happens in Photoshop.

My head is always full of ideas, but free time when I can work on them – that’s the hardest thing to find. Ideally, I’d try to sketch my ideas or, if time is seriously lacking, I’d just write down what I’ve thought of and turn my notes into a sketch at the earliest opportunity. When deciding which sketch to work on for my portfolio, I try to challenge myself by choosing the ones with compositional, artistic or technical intricacy in them. I see the task of keeping my portfolio up-to-date as a quest: I set difficult goals for myself. I work out challenging aspects; I gain new skills and as a result have new portfolio entries I am proud of.

The ultimate ambition is to improve my skills to the level where I could work as a concept artist for the high-end film-making industry. The other goal that I’m currently thinking about is devising and launching a course in digital concept art for newbies. Speaking from personal experience, when three years ago I decided to turn my hobby of drawing into a professional plan and started looking for courses or a school where I could quickly figure out the basics, and from there build my skills up in the preferred direction, I literally found no platform for basic training. As I have a lot of experience in training people in another field, I feel confident I can help beginners who decide to change their profession to digital art to quickly get their bearings. With the digital art industry being so dynamic, people don’t always have time and opportunity for long-term basic art education, I believe.

My favorite artists are Raphael Lacoste, John Harris, Eytan Zana, and Jama Jurabaev. Their art is my main source of inspiration. The atmosphere of their art is so thrilling and enticing, the composition is flawless, the form play just breathtaking. I am also a fan of color choices in the works of Ruxing Gao and Ruan Jia. Paul Chadeisson’s art hooks me with its cool shapes, Florent Lebrun’s work has beautiful compositions. I also enjoy scary stories portrayed in such a great style by Piotr Jabłoński. Frankly, the list is very long. Thankfully, Instagram and other social media platforms give access to works of all kinds of artists, digital and traditional – a bottomless ocean of inspiration.

Hopefully more original works. I will continue to develop my skills and abilities. I`ve recently started a new personal project, which is quite crazy for me in some aspects. A new challenge for me. And I need to tackle a lot of new work, of course. My imminent interests are Terragen and Gaea. Will see how it goes.