Turning Over a New Leaf

I have decided that I will do everything in my power to become a great digital painter.

If I want to get a job with Bethesda Softworks or any gaming company, I don't need to do well enough just to get by. I need to impress my employer with a solid and relative portfolio. This means, achieving the status of the prodigies on ConceptArt.org.

It will be a long journey, but in the next three years, you will see me go from mediocre to MIND BLOWING.

STEP NUMBER 1 - Stop sucking at digital painting by creating embarrassingly bad still life pieces.After these six paintings, I've come to realize that color is my biggest weakness. Everything is unsaturated and muddy. I have to use purer colors and create shadow and light with color other than just value. If anyone would like to offer help, my ConceptArt.org sketchbook is here.

Update

These pieces range from the beginning of spring to now. Oldest to newest. All from either Figure Drawing II or Painting I.

Art Has No Boundaries - Amazing, Innovative, Weird, Inspirational - JUST LOOK

I was browsing my favorites on my YouTube account and felt that some of these videos just need to be shared. Be aware of all that you can do with art... Find your niche and GO FOR IT.

The Redline

If you're like me, plenty of work you do never sees the light of day until the moment it is finished and published on an art site (e.g. ConceptArt.org or DeviantArt.com). In short, THIS IS BAD. If you are the only one who looks at your work, you will never realize your mistakes until 10 years later you look back and say "Oh, this arm is out of place".

Show your work to other people even if it is an online community that takes weeks to critique your piece. You'll be glad when you receive one and you'll be even more ecstatic when you receive one of these:

Introducing the "Redline". When an Anonymous donor on one of my favorite critique sites plopped this on my lap, I was struck by lightning. "HOLY COW, MY DUDE IS IMBALANCED." I thought in my head. While I appreciate word-of-mouth (or typed) critiques, nothing is ever so satisfying than this online treat.

What is a Redline?

A redline is a drawing on top of an original drawing, usually done in the color red (hence the name). Someone was kind enough to save your work onto his desktop, open it up in Photoshop, and draw over-top of it while retaining your original idea. This is generally a good thing unless it is obvious the person doing it doesn't know what the hell he's drawing.

What a Redline DOES:

1. Brings attention to proportion issues - It makes a note of various lengths, widths, and volumes of whatever you are drawing.
   
2. Shows mistakes in anatomy - For example, it shows you the correct structure of the face, nose, eyes, mandible, etc.
   
3. Helps a character stand correctly so the center of balance is convincing
4. DEMANDS YOUR EFFORT - You can't just take a redline at face value. You have to recognize your mistakes and shortcomings and use the redline as a guide and not something to be traced or even copied.

What a Redline DOESN'T:

1. Draws your piece for you - Once again, don't take a redline at face value. You shouldn't trace over top of the redline blindly, but understand the structure and ideas the redliner try to convey to you.
   
2. Automatically teaches you every mistake in the original or any drawing you make - Be aware of your mistakes and recognize when you make the same one again in another drawing. That is how you learn from a redline.
   
3. Give you permission to ask for more redlines - Redlines are like unicorns in that they are a rare sight and are majestic. Treasure your one redline out of hundreds of drawings.
   
4. Guarantee the one who drew the redline is correct - Not everyone knows what they are drawing and just like to pretend they are helpful. Use your common sense to judge a good redline from a bad one.

So, where do I get a Redline?

Hell if I know. This one just popped out of the blue.

http://icrit.org
Post your image and - if you want to - ask politely. Don't expect a hasty response.

That is all.

How to Clean Gesso out of your Mother's Carpet

(There is no way the title of this post can be a double entendre.)

I AM GESSO, THE BANE OF YOUR EXISTENCE.
NOTE: The lids pop off of these suckers more easily than they seem.

Step 1 - Don't panic. You've lived a life of honesty and trust so far with your parents. This is just the same as that time you tore off the front bumper of your car against a barrel or that time you punched a hole in the wall with your tv set.

Step 2 - Scoop it up. You know how expensive that shit is! Put it back in the container where it belongs!

Step 3 - Call Mom. Perhaps she'll know what to do what with her experience of being as big a klutz as you (i.e. falling off of a ladder while trying to lean on a wall).

Step 4 - COLD WATER. Use multiple crappy rags soaked in water and scrub, Scrub, SCRUB away. Switch rags when they're covered. Don't fret. You have tons of rags you can toss away.

Step 5 - Vinegar. When the white of the gesso has started to fade away, grab vinegar. Vinegar will dissolve the acrylic in gesso. Scrub away.

Step 6 - Repeat steps 4 and 5 until the gesso is 100% less noticeable than when you first dumped it.

Step 7 - Mourn your wallet. Especially if that was high quality gesso you bought the other day.

Step 8 - Sleep. God, that scrubbing took all of the energy out of me. Sorry, doggies, no walks for the next month.

I began digitally painting about a week ago. I got a brand new Intuos 4 Wacom tablet for my birthday and have been using it nonstop.

Here are a few things I've done with/without life reference:

First Oil

A piece I did in my Painting I class. Apologies for the blur. This was my first color oil painting. My professor is Ed Ahlstrom and he was quite surprised when I told him I have never done an oil painting before. The extent of my painting skill goes as far as one 24" x 30" self-portrait. I have, however, had experience with Sennelier brand oil pastels. They color in a similar way to the paint I was using, but Prof. Ahlstrom said they don't count.

A Monet copy I did during a Fall quarter at SCAD in 2009.