Environment Painting & Design – Gilles Beloeil

This advanced course with Gilles Beloeil is all about leveling up your environment painting. Over eight weeks, you’ll move past the basics and get into the nitty-gritty of what makes a painting work: values, lighting, composition, and color. The goal is to create portfolio-ready pieces that tell a story, just like the pros do for video games and feature films.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Master value design to create mood and form without relying on color.
• Apply classical composition rules to build stronger, more dynamic images.
• Understand how light behaves and how to paint it on complex forms.
• Use color theory and techniques to enhance narrative and emotion.
• Develop a complete environment painting from initial sketch to final polish.

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Advanced digital painting and environment design skills, or completion of prerequisite courses like Environment Concept Design.
• Tools: Photoshop (any version), Wacom tablet or equivalent.
• Hardware: Minimum 16GB RAM, dedicated GPU.

📝 Description

This isn’t a beginner’s course. It’s for artists who already know their way around Photoshop and a drawing tablet but want to break through a plateau. Gilles Beloeil, a veteran from the Assassin’s Creed franchise, breaks down the core pillars of environment painting in a way that’s practical and direct.

Each week focuses on a single, critical topic. You’ll start by understanding why values are more important than color for creating a strong image. Then you’ll move into composition, learning how to use classical rules to guide the viewer’s eye and create drama. The course then tackles lighting and color, not as abstract theory, but as tools you can use to control mood and tell a story. You’ll even get into advanced techniques like glazing and edge control. The final weeks are dedicated to putting it all together, painting an interior shot with multiple light sources and then finalizing a complete painting. The weekly assignments are designed to be challenging, pushing you to apply each new concept immediately.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Advanced digital painters looking to specialize in environment concept art.
• Artists who have completed foundational environment design courses and want to refine their painting skills.
• Professionals in games or film seeking to improve their lighting, composition, and color theory application.

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Gilles Beloeil is a Senior Concept Artist who has been a major force in the video game industry since 2007. He dedicated much of his career to the Assassin’s Creed franchise, shaping the look of its iconic historical worlds. His work has been featured in “Digital Art Masters” (Volumes 7, 8, and 9), and he is a co-author of the acclaimed book “Art Fundamentals” published by 3D Total. His experience gives him a practical, no-nonsense approach to teaching.

🏁 Final Result

• A portfolio of refined environment paintings demonstrating mastery of values, lighting, composition, and color.
• A complete, polished interior environment shot with complex lighting.
• A final, finished exterior environment painting ready for a professional portfolio.

📢 Guys, this is a Group Buy campaign, check the GBC forum thread to get access

You can find the course preview in the download section below.