Ivan Smirnov is Blending 2D and 3D and He can Teach you How to as well
He channels years of experience in art, gamedev and life to help artists old and new expand their skillsets.
Ivan Smirnov is an artist whose 2D painting skills pair incredibly well with his 3D Blockouts. He often uses a rough 3D model to create the foundation to build on. A 3D model just using the most basic shapes will inform your painting at every level, creating a framework for the lighting and the shapes and the perspective. While not for everyone, as a tool in an artists toolbox this is a super useful workflow.
He took 3rd Place in “The Journey”, a 2D Character Art Challenge on Artstation.com. Even as far back as 2016, Artstation was helping artist test themselves, clarify their skills and was clearly showcasing some of the best art in the world. Ivan Smirnov created an awesome, atmospheric raypunk-esque piece for that challenge that is honestly one of my favorite pieces by him.
He has been working within and teaching to the Art Development industry for over a decade at this point. Ivan founded the Smirnov School where he leverages the best artists in the Russian Federation and beyond to create an online learning experience that is curated by some of best minds in the art world. His experience in teaching did not come overnight, he had in fact taught art at several other schools before forming his own, notably RealTime School and Scream.School. He also teaches from the wide variety of industry jobs he has held, from a 2D artist at Playrix to a Concept Artist at Mail.ru, he has seen such a variety of workspaces and worked with such a spectrum of individuals that it is no surprise that he can leverage that into learning experiences for his students.
His characters are super fun and he easily moves between stylized and realistic art as either his whims or design direction of the project he is working on. I often love artists who have such a broad skillset, I appreciate both varieties of art for different reasons and love an artists who I can enjoy regardless of the mood I am currently in.
I instantly fell in love with Ivans work when he first came across my radar and while he posts relatively infrequently (on his artstation at least) I definitely look forward to the time when he drops a new piece on us.
Check out his links below so you can follow along as well!
Don’t forget his Portfolio!
Connect professionally on LinkedIN.
See what he posts on Instagram.
He is pretty active on Facebook, connect there too!
