Tutorial Review of Matthew Zikry’s How to Draw Interiors the Easy Way

by Hector Ruiz | Dec 11, 2015 | Reviews

Matthew Zikry Tutorial Review

This week ending 12/12/2015 we are providing you with another tutorial review series. If you have been wondering about purchasing this Gumroad tutorial or would like to learn how to concept interior environments, check this review out and you’ll be better informed on whether or not this would be a good investment.

Source: Video (Gumroad)

Topic: Environment Interior

Skill Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Software Used: Adobe Photoshop

Web Address: http://gumroad.com/matthewzikry

Paid/Unpaid: $5

Tutorial Presentation: (Quality)

This tutorial has pretty audio and displays a pretty good image resolution. The steps and process were presented in chronological order starting with researching all the way until the finished concept.The tutorial goes over the topics that include:

• Researching brief
• Collecting good reference
• Choosing a good environment for a character
• Setting up mood and reference boards
• Creating the initial idea with quick sketching
• Cleaning up the sketch
• Drawing from foreground to background
• Supporting the environment with story elements
• Layer organization
• Creating basic values to reinforce foreground to background elements

The tutorial comes with the final image in JPEG.

Educational Value: (How well the Information is presented, length of material and depth, pacing, etc.)

This easy to follow tutorial runs just over an hour long. Matthew Zikry does a good job explaining image research techniques while providing several examples on how to use images to your advantage with environment design.  He also reinforces the story of the the environment design with a good design language.His demo is prerecorded, but his voice over follows along with the video as he adds other tips and tricks for environment creation.

Instructor Insight: (How unique is the advice, process, and techniques offered by the instructor)

Matthew Zikry talks about several drawing techniques useful  for environment design and illustration before focusing on the use of images to start a design. He introduces Carapace as a perspective tool when he effectively draws out perspective lines for the environment. Matthew starts with a base drawing in order to plan the scene before dressing the rest of the space with other elements. One thing important to know when designing is to envision the action of the characters that will populate the environment. Matthew Zikry stresses the importance of creating visual notes with the initial drawing and idea before cleaning up the lines. He also touches the topic of organizing and naming layers to make the work go by faster and not committing to a certain design until the end. An interesting technique Matthew repeats for the environment design is drawing elements that can be changed with the perspective tools and can also be repeated throughout the space in order to reinforce the design language. He also explains how line weight can affect object placement and readability of elements. Finally he goes into basic values in order to separate and reinforce foreground to background designs.

The Final Verdict:

We think that Matthew Zikry’s How to Draw Interiors the Easy Way from his Gumroad page is a must have for artists who are looking at good and fast techniques for creating an interior environment concepts. This tutorial can be used by beginner to intermediate artists.

You can purchase How to Draw Interiors the Easy Way from his Gumroad page as well as the Brainstorm School tutorial page.

Want to help us grow our resources section? If a resource has helped you greatly please e-mail it to me or any suggestions 
to: me@eliottlillyart.com. I will be keeping this list updated as I discover new entries. Thank you--