ArtStation Marketplace Success Story: Le Vuong

By Sierra Mon - November 27, 2018

Le Vuong is a freelance artist who specializes in fantasy illustration for games and book covers.

When the ArtStation Marketplace was released, Vuong was one of the first one to test it out by applying to be an Alpha seller. He uploaded a simple video of his painting process along with the brushes he used as a bundle.

Not only did his first product immediately make it to the Trending tab, it shortly after made it to the top of the Best Selling tab and has been there ever since.

“I didn’t think it would be that well-received. Mostly, I just want to share it [with my followers] and test the functionality of buying, selling, paying and linking to my bank account. I did not expect to sell so many. All the features work very well and I have not encountered any problems through the whole process. ”

On choosing the ArtStation Marketplace to debut his products, he says:

“The maker of a product always wants their item to be sold in the largest and busiest market. The ArtStation Marketplace is that market. The strength of the community is the biggest difference I’ve noticed between the ArtStation Marketplace compared to other platforms. It’s easy to find products from artists you follow directly on their portfolio.”

Check out Le Vuong’s ArtStation Store >

Transitioning from Traditional to Digital

Vuong studied traditional painting at the Vietnam University at Fine Arts. In 2009, he came across artwork by Ruan Jia and was inspired to start to start moving towards digital painting.

Since there was no formal training available in his country at the time, his transition to Photoshop needed to be self taught and was a struggle.

“When I started practicing digital painting, I looked at a lot of artwork by pioneer digital artists and I was always curious about what brushes they used and how they painted. I learned a lot from their video processes. I studied their process of creating artwork and how they controlled value, color and composition. It inspires me a lot.”

He goes on to explain that the biggest drawback for young artists who are still learning is that they do not seem to know what to do while painting or have a weak workflow. The illustrator recommends that in addition to studying anatomy, color, perspective, values and layout, it is a good idea to watch the process and workflow of artists so you can learn how to use the tools.

Creation Process & Workflow

On his ArtStation Shop, Vuong shares his videos and brush collections in hopes that he too can inspire aspiring artists to learn. Below, he shares his basic process for creating a painting.

1.Sketch: “My main concerns at this stage are shape, mood, lighting and composition.”

2. Color Sketch: “Here, I establish the color palette in the picture and am trying to create the best mood for the plot in mind.”

3.Big block processing: “Based on the direction of light defined from the sketch, I edit the shapes and add value to each object, not too concerned about the detail. I only care about the general shape of objects.”

4.Refine Details: “I adjust the color of each part to keep the mood I have built in the color sketch and refine all the messy details. Always observe the whole picture to make sure it is on the right track as I originally planned.”

5. Add material effects: “Use the material brushes to enrich the detail.”

6. Add Effects: “Effects can help catch the attention of the viewers and help lead their eyes toward the main objects of the painting.”

In addition to more painting videos, the artist shared he was currently working on some tutorials on digital painting techniques with subtitles.

Follow Le Vuong for updates on his latest posts and products.

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