Nick Pugh is a concept artist who has done character, vehicle, prop and effects designs for movies like The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Ring 2 and Serenity.
He is lead concept artist for the effects studio Rythm and Hues which also does concept design for high-end theme parks.
Pugh has a particular interest in concept vehicles and as well as pursuing his work in the entertainment industry. He designs concept cars for individuals, delivering a photo-realistic rendering in which the vehicle illustration is matched with a photo of the individual. He also designed his own concept car, the Xeno, that made it to a full-size version.
The Entertainment Design portion of his site contains pre-production illustrations in a variety of media, from sketches on vellum, mixed media, digital renderings and sculpture.
I particularly enjoy the monochromatic images in which he plays with disorienting juxtapositions of walls, streets, water and other visual elements of normal scenes in Escher-like impossibilities (image above). Unfortunately, I don’t know what project or projects they’re for. (I assume it’s a theme park installation.) If anyone knows, I’d love to find out.
In addition to his own site, I’m giving a link below to the Nick Pugh gallery on the Gnomon Workshop site, where he is an instructor. The page includes links to several of his instructional DVDs.
thanks for the kind words, as you thought the images you like are from a theme park installation from back in the 90s. i dont think they were ever built. I know my site is a bit ‘enigmatic’ it was intentional but I should probably have a simple blog too :)
Thanks, Nick. Actually, the post was from 2006, and my comments referred to an older version of your site. The new one is much better, and a nice reminder that I should do an update post on your new site and more recent work.