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Thanks Meat, much appreciated. It is a hassle at the best of times, and I am torn between all sorts of issues at the moment, so yeah, not the best of times. Funny how highs are followed by real lows in life eh?
Speaking of which, If anyone reads this sketchbook thread, I haven't been updating much of late, and been feeling pulled in way too many directions at once. I don't post 80% of what I do, and it is at a point where I don't feel anyone really gets any benefit from watching my sporadic posts, so I think it might actually be time to shut down this thread for good.
It has served me well, and I really appreciate the time that everyone who has followed and commented has taken to do so. I will probably still lurk around CD, visit sketchbooks and do the odd crit , but I suspect I will be a lot quieter than normal.
Go well and prosper :)
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Sad to see you shut down your SB, but sometimes it's best to do that step if it feels like the right thing to do... keep up the great art though! It has been nice to see you grow, and I am sure future will have many awesome things for you in store :)
All the best to you!
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Make sure to have some back ups of old works, if you decide you want to start another sketchbook later on, like I did it's nice to see where you've ended at the time you quit your old one if that makes sense. I also deleted my SB back in 2012/13, but then I regretted it in 2014 it cause I had leveled up so much. >_<
Stay strong :)!
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Yo MB
I haven't been here in a while too hehe <3
WHere is the new art? :p
And whoa, I haven't see those photos from the ceremony :) Congratz again! YAY!
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Lyraina: Thanks, I think it's the best thing to do for me. I think the whole sketchbook thing seeking external approval has run its path, and now I need to focus quietly on my own craft and my own processes right now. The whole recent conversation about engagement in CD really helped me realise how much more time I did put in here for others rather than for myself. I am a bit tired of that grind and need to stop. Thanks so much for your feedback, it has always been on point and very valuable!! Good luck!
Angelique: I might do this, though I doubt I will start another sketchbook again. At least not a grinding one. All my work was stolen a year ago with my laptop, and I realised I didn't care so much. For me it isn't old work that keeps me doing art, or any thrill in seeing or showing others my progress, it is simply the process that really matters to me. I feel stronger than ever! :) Good luck
Sula: haha thanks and I haven't been here in a while either. :P I don't bother posting studies or most things anymore. I will probably restrict my posting to facebook and the various folio type sites from now on. Thanks and Enjoy!!
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What I like about your work is well thought out compositions and you're very playful with colors while keeping all the value range. Lots of variety and storytelling too.
The drawings though seem to be not on the same level as your paintings. I think if you improved your drawing your paintings would have more depth and you could show characters in much more detail.
Keep going, man :).
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Thanks Farvus. Most of the drawings I posted were doodles done at work at meetings but yes I definitely should draw more. I'm tackling the problem of characters now. I generally don't like doing character work as much as light and environment, but I am slowly trying to break that comfort level. Great work on your project again, it is inspiring to see it develop, so keep it up.
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woah i always find your posts very insightful. sad to see you stop.
well its your decision , and i understand your part. i just hope you wont forget us here in daggers.
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Thanks Kurt! I will continue to keep my eyes on a couple of threads, and I will stop in every now and then to see what is going on.
I am busy as heck right now, but if some time opens up I am still thinking CD would be a good place to trial an environment design mentorship course.
Feel free to contact me at any time if you need some specific help about anything. If I can I am always happy to help people, that hasn't changed at all, I just need to adjust my priorities when it comes to time spent on CD.
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Wow nice thumbs and agree what was said above, your composition is taaaastyyyyyyy :D
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Hey man, I just wanted to say that your work is great and thank you about the critiques you did in the CHOW#11. It was really helpful!
:D
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Wow, just scrolling through these pages i've seen a lot of improvement! Love your more stylized illustrative type stuff. I cant really give any advice, i'm not good in that department sometimes. Just keep on studying! Maybe some master studies might help? /shrug
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I thought to myself: That looks like Diablo 3... And lo and behold, it was. Haha, fantastic, awesome work. I hope your kickstarter gets off the ground. And thanks again for your help with my death line.  Keep up the awesome!
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*Goodoo yoo voodooo yooo artus bazinga
*Resurrection spell
I don't know why, but I had an urge to resurrect this thread a little. It just eats up more of my time but the urge was there so figured there's a reason for it.
But this time instead of pages of study grind which I see no point in posting, I thought maybe I'd do something different and post some freelance stuff (process shots) along with some of my thoughts/learnings so people can also get a feel for what entry level freelance might be like. Like the secret freelancer's diary.
Obviously, can only post stuff not under NDA.
Hopefully, I can also get people to keep me accountable to any issues I have in my work as well, but yeah no expectations there.
I'll backtrack a bit and post a few old things from when I first got started, but for now here is a sketch I did while I couldn't sleep a couple of nights ago. Trying to do more character stuff...and fucking faces.
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hey!
it is nice to know that you will post some work again here on your sb :)
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Awesome sketchbook dude! I really love your environment pieces. It's great that you've decided to update some - looking forward to more :).
“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” -- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
CD Sketchbook
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iamorim Thanks man!
Piotr definitely!
Artloader Thanks a bunch. Will see how it goes!
Client: Storium Games
Cost: Can't remember, about 400 or 600 USD for all of them.
Kill fees, and 50% up front. Their contract was a really artist centric one. They paid quickly. These guys were without a doubt my best clients at the time, and I was also doing work for FFG and an animated movie at the same time.
This gig was probably the third client I got when I first started; I had done one banner piece for them earlier (the scrapjacks piece earlier on in this thread with the two figures running towards the ship in the hanger)
The process for that illustration was awesome, I was only a couple of days late, and the AD loved it. So they asked me to do 10 character avatars for the same storyline.
"What could possibly go wrong?"
I had spent almost 2 years doing pretty much 80% on environments. To say I failed hard was an understatement. I had at least a month and a half, I took almost 3 months to complete it
Value sketches: Felt relatively ok at this stage.
I just wasn't happy with any of it. Perfectionism caused me to go nuts with this. I repainted the characters at least 3 to 5 times over, each! And my discipline slowly tanked. Already weeks too late, I provided the client with half assed half done colour wips
Feedback, meant repainting some others again, but also they weren't that happy with some of the worse ones. Fair enough. They even offered to get someone else on board to help me at this point because I was clearly faililng. I declined the offer and started to heavily use photo reference at this point. Eventually two months too late, with not enough contact, I delivered a product that took way too long, looked pretty shit, and blew their deadlines out of the water. I think they probably even had to get another artist on after me to fix up the worst ones. This entire process actually made me seriously consider quitting freelance, it was that hard and frustrating. And right on the heels of a process that went very smoothly and was so much fun, on the same IP!
So, did I get rehired to do all the tons of work they had up and coming? I'll let you guys guess.
I still like a couple of these...probably the trader one the most of all, and possibly the ambassador, but yeah pretty shit otherwise.
Major learnings. - Perfectionism is fucking idiotic and a total waste of time if you let it control your better judgment, especially for client work. LET the client decide what is good or not good enough.
- ALWAYS deliver on time...no exceptions no excuses.
- It's a good thing to tell clients you are having problems early on that will affect your ability to deliver, and be honest (first with yourself) and then with them. Clients want the work done, so they will do whatever they can to help you...it's not like you are submitting homework to your crabby nasty english teacher or something.
- It's a good idea to challenge yourself in areas you might not go yourself, but be wary of optimistically biting off more than you can chew.
- Properly using photo ref saved my life when trying to do everything from scratch out of some stupid principle failed.
- Practice faces more you asshole before accepting money to paint them!
- As a result of this I did way more face studies, and I'm now more comfortable taking on character gigs and see them through but I still need a lot more work to bring them up to standard of my enviros
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Keep up the awesome!
