The Environmental Art Of Yamada

(Via)

Yamada is a Japanese illustrator with an emphasis on environmental art, and he does it pretty damn well. While his work seems to reside in a more stylized realm, he occasionally ventures out of his comfort zone to pull off surpising pieces like Was there ever a time this kind of shop flourished (pictured above), which have an awesome sense of narrative and a more realistic rendering style.

A lot of Yamada's work is centered around more diorama-esque environments, capturing a small slice of a world and everything going on in it. This results in some visually rich, dense pieces packed with detail that are fun to look through. There's one piece in particular (After the break) that needs to be seen in full resolution to be believed, featuring a few hundred characters going about their lives in a massive, colorful castle. You can check that piece out, among his other work after the break. Enjoy.

The Art of Ville Ericsson

(Via)

I'm seriously smitten with Ville Ericsson's work. There's no other way of putting it, because this guy is phenomenal. The body of his work is a beautiful marriage between his deft painterly style and his detail-saturated subject matter.

Space stations, cyberpunk rooftops, bipedal battle mechs and lovingly rendered scenes from Frank Herbert's Dune. This guy is pushing all of my buttons. It's like Robotech meets Greg Broadmore, with a dash of Syd Mead environmental flair.

Ericsson currently lives in Sweden and studies full-time at Atelier Stockholm. His self-described focus lies at the crossroads of painting and drawing and collaborating with other artists to bring products of the imagination to fruition. Check out more of his work after the break.

The Awesome Environments Of Zhichao Cai

(Via)

Art director Zhichao Cai (aka Trylea) uses no tricks or photocomping in his amazing, ridiculously vertical compositions, featuring incredibly pushes perspectives, impossible architecture and a plethora of detail to scour for in his incredible digital painted illustrations. As an art director at the Hangzhou, China based Gamecox, his emphasis is on creating striking worlds via his knack for environment painting, which he's really damn good at.

Zhichao uses personal narratives to give thematic direction to his pieces, including crafting lore including projects like his personal set of paintings titled Legend Of Yunzhong, featuring five kingdoms based off of 5 elemental powers (All after the break). If you're in the mood to gawk at some impossible, fantastical landscapes, you'll get your fill with this incredible art. Enjoy.