some faces are nice, others are ugly, but they are still faces; not candy canes. haha

1st-2nd: live ref / photo ref
3rd: mind
4th: mind, comparing before and after studying
5th: self portrait from reference (line drawing), on wich i painted over from mind.

ahah, ok so i tried to continue on last weeks idea to study a specific topic along with working on concepts.
This week i started the design of a thief from a novel. (the master thief by brothers grimm) Despite the incapacity to generate ideas, - wich brough me now, after a week, to have nothing more than when i started - i found that my faces really lacked realism. So i decided to make it the weeks topic, or at least to do three sketches of faces (ref, mind, both) to see if i would make a progress and how.
I must say that working this way was quite successfull, as i knew what i wanted to get better at and could focus my attention to it. I noticed a much better understanding of what creates realism in a face. I didn´t focus much on values, but more on proportions and features. What makes eyes and noses real, how are they connected, which are the important wrinkles and so on.
The more i study and the more i realize that my skills uniquely depend on my immagination and my ability to see things in my mind. If i have a clear image in my mind, then i´ll draw it with no problem. The times when i draw badly is because i neglect immagination or thought, and just scribble aimlessly on the paper. (which happens actually most of the times).
But not only this: when i have a clear image i my mind, i am sure of what i´m gonna draw, and i say to my self (i really do), that it´s an easy thing to do. What happens is that i do it with no problems. Other times i would start drawing, with no particular idea on my mind, and continue having no ideas, and of course i won´t get nowhere.
The lesson here i think is that, first comes thought, and then comes action. This doesn´t mean that one should never start drawing without nowing what he´s gonna draw, but then you must accept the fact that you´re just exploring an infinite amount of possibilities, and that every stroke you make is a question, you can answer or not answer. Not answering any of these questions will get you a formless scribble. Answering the questions about: what can this mark represent, what can i see in this drawing, getting inspired by the same lines you make, will soon give you and idea of what you want to achieve.
this i think atleas, i´ll try it tomorrow =) eheh

but really, the approach is used by a lots of artists out there, probably by all of them. =) If someone if familiar with andrew jones way of developing his images, might recognize something similar. He basicly throws shapes on the canvas and tries to see things through these shapes. At a certain point he starts seeing something he wants to pursue and commits to it, renders it and so on. But evry time he makes a mark he stops and asks to it-self: is this a good mark, where am i going from here? that´s when he answers: "hell yes", or "fuck no" (everything that is not a "hell yes") =) basicly the idea is to get as many "hell yes" as possible, to get an overall hell yes "image" =)

ahhh it´s getting late, anyway i made another plan of action, simpler than the previous, and i´ll start following it by today. yes!

cheers=)

p.s. here´s the plan heh

1. I am a concept artist at blizzard by 2010
2. I apply at blizzard entertainment
3. I ship a AAA with a game company
4. I apply at a company producing AAA games by april 26th
5. I have a portfolio as a concept artist. By april 25th
5.5. I have 1character 3dmodel, 1 environment 3dmodel by april 19th
6. I have 2 professional looking Industrial design conceptsI by april 5th
7. I have 2 professional looking creature concepts by march 22th
8. I have 3 professional looking envronment concepts by march 8th
9. I have 3 professional looking character concepts by feb 15th

Become an expert in the concept art field:
View other concept artists art, find what can they do better than me, and learn it: atleast 1 every morning
Talk with other people, give critics, and ask for critics: give at least 3 critics a day
Create a sketchbook to showcase my work: update at least 1 a day
Do studies everyday: 2 hours study every day
Do 1 concept sketch a day

here we go again!

ok, so it´s been a month, and i haven´t done much. Christmas time + italy + too much lazyness brought me very little.
I changed my plan a couple of times cause i thought it wasn´t really getting me anywhere. If i want to become a concept artist, then i have to do concept art. Studies will help me explain my ideas, but what´s most important is to have good ideas, to practice concepting and devolping ideas. This is what i think at the moment, but this also implies that every idea must be visualized, and that´s where you´ll understand what you need to get better at, and what you need to study.
The end goal is to explain an idea, so you first need the idea, and then you need the skills to explain it in a clear and interesting way.
As you find problems you then study them separately as you go along.
So, my plan will now focus more directly on concept art, and i´ll do studies to do better art =)
I intend to take some original stories and design their characters and environments. I´m not sure if i should go with many short stories or one big one, but i think small stories with not so many characters will give me more freedom, i will be able to take my time, and eventually do more then one, so revisit the process a few times.

Also i think i found out what is the purpose of studies: you study from life to see what you can do, trying to make it your own; then you do it by yourself trying to master the skill you just learnt from life.
You study in art, as you would study in math: you can´t do something, so you learn how to do it.

this i realized in the last 2 days, but haven´t put it into practice.
the image is a study i did from an indiana jones movies, trying to understand who rocks, waterfalls where shaped in a certain location in the film

composition

1.2.3: ref: i tried to analize some images composition. the focal point who they lead the eye there and how the canvas was divided. also repetition of shapes. images in the first pic are Philip straub´s while those in 2nd and 3rd are dylan cole´s.
4th mind; i tried to invent some environments on the theme: space dementhia. i wanted to define a focal point and guide the viewr there. also i tried to give a sense of mood with composition. mainly chaos, or an unconfortable feeling,
5th both: i used an image by philip straub as a guide for the composition and tried to modify it, then i got some different ideas on who to change som concepts by wathcing other references, but didn´t have the time to refine those ideas.
6th. as i said yesterday i started a project for a flash game iwith some friends and here are some concepts for the main character in the game. should be some exploding guy, if anyone played mario64 for ds, the idea follows that of the bomb minigame.

still alive!

hello,
it´s been a while!
during these 2 weeks i´ve been finishing jumping around finishing a christmas present we´ve been working on since october, meetig with friends, eating with relatives and sleeping eheh
unfortunately i´ve been completely dazed and confused and i lost track of my plans, my goals and all i had started earlier. for christmas i recieved a book on drawing action poses, and since it was the last thing i was studying before stopping i thought it would have been interesting to try and follow the book. I found it very interesting, and well written and these sketches are a sort of excercises done after the book. i´m not completely sure on what to do tomorrow, i have skipped 2 weeks on my plan, the ones on the human figure, and so i should start studying environments, composition and lighting tomorrow. I think i´ll do that, as i really think i´m weaker at environments than i am at drawing figures.
me and some friends have started doing a flash game, dunno if we´ll make it to the end, but i´ll t my best to keep them interested and writing code. i´m the only artist so it will be challanging i think..also cause it´s my first time doing a flash game =) tomorrow i´ll start doing some concepts for the chaatcers and i´ll try to post something.
i also need to spend some time redesigning some existing characters as trent kaniuga sudgested me. i bought starcraft to play, study it and redesing some characters but i didn´t find much time to play xD
sleep now!