The best artists are coming out of China imo. Fenghua Zhong, Ruan Jia, and Tianhua Xu.. just to name a few.
I'll name a few leading figure too then Kim JunGi for line art Craig Mullins in digital painting There's a few other but my connec lag like hell so I can't find them .-.
Kim Jung Gi is a freak of nature. That's someone who's spent probably half his existence sketching from imagination. His visual vocabulary is absolutely insane, the sheer amount of detail he can load into something he generates from his head blows my mind.
Btw you also mentionned feng zhu earlier in the thread but most of my teachers warned us about this because he cram way too much detailed in his art, wich doesn't help at all for comprehension, tough it's good to show off
Eh. It's a stylistic decision, his purpose is to generate ideas to sell to clients. If additional detail helps to get that idea across, or sell people on the concept. The 3D artists probably don't appreciate it, but he's not doing turnarounds normally, he's generating concepts. His work just happens to employ a lot of detail. He's been working in the industry for years and is able to generate that much detail in a very short amount of time, normally that much detail is frowned upon because usually detail=time, the sheer number of techniques and shortcuts he uses means he can generate an image, with a ton of implied detail, without spending tons of time. As beginners, or people just breaking into the industry, all the detail he has in his images is superfluous, it's just polish and doesn't have anything to do with the overall idea. But he's able to add that polish easily and quickly, and that polish does help when trying to sell a concept to a client. Plus, if you're doing an illustration detail is a huge part of the final product. It's not essential for concept work, but it is for illustration as it's part of the finishing process(depending on the result you're going for.) There are no absolutes in art, especially once you get to a certain level the "rules" become guidelines, and eventually just fall away because you're good enough to do whatever you want. Plus, detail's fun! Who doesn't like noodling?
traditionnal work ? everywork he does are done with paint, pencil, etc.. you can just check his website, and see for yourself x) www.mikebutkus.net Every time I check his website I can't help laughing on his homepage x)
Dan Dos Santos works traditionally as well, and you'd probably recognize a ton of his book covers. He's one of the go to guys over at Tor. Mike does some sexy ass anatomy, love how grotesque his muscles are.