Based in Paris, Marius Villard is a concept artist who focuses on worldbuilding, visdev and general environment. With a love of black-and-white photography, he cites the Iranian photographer Abbas Attar as a perhaps unusual inspiration for a digital artist, but this influence can be seen in the expressive spontaneity of much of his work.
Marius also admires the work of Sergey Kolesov and Adrian Bush, who have influenced his world building. “My art is dynamic and tainted, like a failed paradise," Marius tells us.
Marius tends to work in Photoshop and Blender (see our picks of the best digital art software and the best 3D modelling software). Below, he talks us through four choice pieces.
This first piece is called Moment in Space. “This was my love letter to graphic design and trying to break from the formula of traditional illustration,” Marius says.
For We Built the Tracker, Marius says: “I challenged myself to push graphic shapes and enhance the rendering, all while preserving the base.”
This Bom Dia interior design explores Bom Dia’s home, inspired by Deathloop, Half-Life 2 and City of God.
Finally, this piece is called Sky. It began as a training exercise with a friend, Jonathan Kiem, but evolved into mood pieces for a personal project.
You can see more of Marius's work at his profile on ArtStation
For more inspiration, see Moritz Cremer's feature on how to create a strong sci-fi character and how artist Alexander “Minze” Thümler experimented with a different style for his graphic novel. You might also want to see our roundup of other digital artists' work.
This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions available.
