/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

First off, Atey Ghailan has solid painting and drawing skills. There's no doubt about that.

However, he claims this illustration is 100% painted from scratch, no photos involved at all. If this is the case it's pretty damn impressive because that kind of controlled randomness that you can see in the props is very hard to conjure up from the imagination. Going by how most people in the industry work nowadays, I would have guessed that the messy desk and props were overpainted photos. His process videos always have a "now draw the rest of the owl" kind of vibe where there are big leaps between crucial steps.

Steps:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rPPk6

Process vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE-Co55c-sQ