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Neil Blevins

@artofsoulburn.bsky.social

2.6K followers 120 following 560 posts

Art Director & Senior Concept Designer in Film, Games, Books, Tech. Builds Scifi Worlds. Professional Work: Pixar Alum (16 Yrs), Blur, WarnerMedia, ++

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · Oct 18

Looks like we have another influx of people coming to bluesky, so a quick intro post, my name is Neil Blevins, I'm an Art Director and Senior Concept artist for films, games and books. Worked at Pixar for 16 years, +Blur, WarnerMedia, etc. & I post lots of personal artwork, hope you follow along!

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 1d

I grabbed a copy, so should you :)

Nathan Fowkes Art @nathanfowkes.com · 2d

The KickStarter is live!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/190...
Our big fat beautiful book, Designing Imaginative Environments is a deep dive into the world of
environment design for storytelling.

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 1d

Looks like another #PortfolioDay Showing off some personal favorites and maybe a couple of portfolio pieces that are a bit more obscure

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 1d

Yup, the next book I do will have to be more expensive even if the tariffs go away.

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 2d

So assuming a $40 cover price that's $10 per book to pay the writers, layout artist, royalties, etc. Now with the tariffs on china, I'm sure the whole economic model is thrown on its head. I suspect making these books is not as profitable as one would think.

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 2d

I don't know profit margins, but I do know a little about sales numbers, artbooks for major films sell on average 20-50k copies. Only a few top movies inch past the 100k mark. You can print these books for approx $10 each (at these volumes). Book store gets half...

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 3d

Hopefully. The Avatar art books have always been a bit of a mixed bag. That first book was anemicly thin, like a total after thought. The second book was great. Would love a more regular schedule and 250+ pages every time :)

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 3d

I’m actually quite surprised they haven’t mentioned an art book yet. Of course there’s the Dylan Cole book and there seems to be an art /making of book with bits from all 3 films, but no dedicated avatar 3 book announced yet

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 5d

"we basically sold Disney a film that we had no way to make" kinda feel that's how all films work these days :) Although now it's about how to get that many fx for such a low budget :D

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 9d

So awesome. More, more!!!!

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 9d

Come see me at #LightBoxExpo for my talk on how to Create, Finance and Publish your own Artbook. If this has always been your dream but you don't know where to start, this talk will go through all the self publishing steps in detail! lightboxexpo.com/schedule/lis... #lightbox #lightbox2025 #LBX2025

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 13d

Today for #ThrowbackThursday we're doing #PurpleArt Considering my love of the color purple, I'm surprised I don't have a ton of purple artwork. Something to fix in the future #scifi #art #painting

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 14d

I do not. May look into it, have some other books I want to pick up first though.

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 20d

Seems Bungie, at least in the past was more hands on. But maybe they can outsource it to the publisher this time around.

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 20d

Prefer the slightly more desaturated one you have on artstation personally.

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 20d

Ya, not to mention with a smaller company now, they likely have fewer people to work on a book. Game first, see how it fares, then I suspect a book after that.

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 20d

Even in a world with a billion youtube videos, I still get many questions on what books do I recommend for learning how to make art. So here's a list of some of my favs and why you should consider getting them: www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/... #arttip #artressources #artlessons #arteducation

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 21d

I assume you've seen this guy's work? www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/46...

Artist draws spaceships inspired by household items

Artist Eric Geusz only needed some art supplies and a quick rummage through his kitchen drawers to create these interstellar artworks.

www.bbc.co.uk

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 21d

My wife jokes that the style is called "Wired Magazine from the 90s" :) Would love an artbook, obviously though with a very careful process to make sure the stolen art is removed. And I hope they compensated that artist for what they did.

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 22d

By killing off Optimus Prime, he was responsible for teaching me how a cartoon could stir real emotions in people, it wasn't just pure kids entertainment. He will be missed.

The Spaceshipper 🚀 @thespaceshipper.com · 22d

RIP screenwriter Ron Friedman.

“Hasbro didn’t recognize that Optimus Prime was the heartbeat of the Autobots. You cannot pass that over and have any hope of duplicating the success you had. Once you establish an icon, you’re a fool if you don’t try to preserve it.”

He was 93.

Ron Friedman, Screenwriter Who Killed Off Optimus Prime, Dies at 93

A former architect who got a career boost from Danny Kaye, he wrote for comedies, dramas and animation, where he created a backstory for G.J. Joe.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 22d

Haha. That one is based on a primitive mask from Oceania, but yes, it also has foundation vibes as well :) Glad you like the sketches!

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 23d

Loved this series of paintings, hope it comes off the backburner. I have a space mech series I've been developing off and on for a decade as well, hopefully I can get back to it.

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 23d

Here's some more doodles from the last few weeks, including one from September's Workshop Academy drink 'n draw. All these sketches and more will be included in my "Sketchbook Vol 2" paperback book to be released early next year #robot #bot #mech #mecha #droid #doodle

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Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 25d

I've always seen the terminator defined as the 90 degree spot, so if that's the definition we're using, the terminator never shifts even if the light leaks through. So I'm going to keep that definition, & add some extra info on the fact the terminator may not be the exact location the shadow starts.

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 25d

Might be worth setting up a real world lighting example sometime and show some real world results. May do that in the future.

Neil Blevins @artofsoulburn.bsky.social · 26d

That's actually one of my inspirations, along with countless procedurally generated patterns (You can see some examples here, make sure to scroll horizontally): www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/...