René Aigner's Sketchbook

[ReneAigner]

More portfolio stuff. Some initial concepts/sideviews of alien spaceships. Normally I'd flush these out in a hurry, but I want some ideation/ concept variation stuff in portfolio that looks halfway decent, so here we go.

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Jackal, thanks alot for the in-depth critique!

Again, have you seen my video? I do talk about all that stuff you mention!

To your critique;
Your points are spot on and crazy as it may sound, I am aware of most of them- it's a really interesting topic as well. I'm finding it really, really hard to divorce myself completely from the form and design language of my "teachers" (meaning people I study), Robertson being one and Feng Zhu another (see the latest image... that's not intentional- the sparth inspired piece was intentional, I wouldn't put that into my portfolio anyway though). I've seen it in the work of many graduates from FZD as well, many look like Fengs work at least in some respect. I've seen the same with people who study with Shaddy Safadi as well. Crazy that you can pick that sort of stuff up only by watching vids and looking at artwork, but it does happen. I guess it just takes time to break away from those influences and build your own voice. I think my illustrations- being more than just bare-bone design- don't betray as much influence as my pure design stuff.
Which brings me to your other point about me not knowing what I want, which is absolutely true. I guess I slightly favour illustration which is why I've mangaged to develop more in that area and break away from teachers' influence, but I also love to build and design forms- plus, most in-house jobs are more about design than illustration, too.
I think that tighter specs are a good idea (although the specs for the vehicles on the last page were petty tight, the concept just doesn't read as intended, will have to revisit that before it goes into the portfolio), but how I'm going to loose all the influence that fast I don't know. I guess one might even construe that in my favour though, after all I'm not looking for a post as a lead concept designer, so emulating a given design language isn't bad per se.
if you have any literature or other resources about that specific topic (finding one's own design language), plase let me know, I've never come across anything like that.

Thanks again!


/edit2 ah yes and a good tip about the URL at the bottom of the images, I'll size that down in future images. It's there because I noticed a while ago that my images were being re-blogged/tweeted etc., often without mention of my name, so I put the URL in the images themselves.
edit3/ actually, that whole topic got me thinking and I leafed through some of Fengs work that he did on design cinema... discovered a feng zhu painting that looks pretty close to this (only much better of course). Must've watched the design cinema episode months, if not more than a year ago and it still pretty much looks like I was emulating it consciously. Guess it's not suited as portfolio work after all. God, this is hard! :D
So, the sureillance vehicles need to be redone in some aspects and the last piece gets thrown out. \o/ :D

[ReneAigner]

Ah man, I think you're doing me a bit of an injustice there ;) I tell people not to watch to many videos as well and if you look through my sketchbook you'll find life studies, studies from photos etc. in plenty.
Also in terms of technical subject matter, there are plenty of studies from references, none of which (at least to my knowledge) were designed by Scott or Feng. Why the influece comes through more in some paintings then others I can't tell (I found the damned feng painting myself a few minutes ago, see my edit^^).
I suspect that it actually has less to do with design itself and more with technique. The technique I used for the last piece was the same Feng used (I guess that's what I got from the video) and applied to the same subject matter you get that horrible copycat effect. I think that's something I'll need to avoid. You can see that with other people's work as well, someone does in inside-outside contrstruction of a vehicle in ballpoint pen? Looks like Robertson! Only not as good of course. I'll have to see how I can rid myself more from that.
I guess what I'm saying is that technique does influence design, and mostly on the surface layer. If you're no carfeul enough (like I was with the last piece), the surface layer of the design looks too close/very derivative.
Your point about how to take cues from nature is valid as well of course.

[Jackal]

I really don't mean to do you injustice. I think you have great potential and that you could produce stunning original designs tomorrow if you change the way you study nature and how you use those studies.
As I said, you do study from nature and that's great, but you don't let it influence you enough (I did two edits myself in my latest post to explain what I mean). I got drawn into the whole concept thing by Feng and Robertson myself and I fell into the same trap for a while as well. There is nothing wrong with using their techniques and I don't believe those techniques will actually bring you their designs. They themselves picked up those techniques from other artists, but there were no other artists before them that look like them.
Really try out the writing thing! Think wildly, with free associations! I think in one of the videos feng said the bounty hunter ship in Star Wars used to be a lamp somewhere in a bar in the US. That's what you need to be doing.

[ReneAigner]

Thanks again man, I actually got those points and I agree that I don't do that enough. I've also focused too long on the pure technical side as well I fear.
I was just trying to make the point that the piece looks so extremely derivative not only because of the design language but also because the exact same technique was used which makes the copycat effect that much stronger.

I'll revisit the vehicles first and then try and put your tips into practice more. Thanks agaiN!

[Jackal]

No problem! I actually learned a lot about myself by criticizing your work. Maybe I will really do the owl pilots on tomato planet myself, it's too stupid not to be done. Will need to practice a lot before I can start it though xD
But beware, I will stalk your future posts to see if you get away from the artist influence and into the nature influence :D

[rioriorio]

i saw your work in my FB news feed, damn...you are amazing...
your alien spaceship has kind of kekai technique..or it is just my feeling..

[ReneAigner]

Thanks rio!

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So, I went and redid the ships. I guess it was a bit of a blessing in disguise, I think I actually like these more, more variation in forms and I think sufficiently different not to feel too derivative now;

[ReneAigner]

[ReneAigner]

[ReneAigner]

[Prabu]

OMG Rene, You are killing it.

[ReneAigner]

Thanks prabu!
I should be working on my portfolio really, but I'm in kind of a portrait vibe now for some reason:

[rioriorio]

nice colours...how do you sharpen it from step 1 to step 2?

[ReneAigner]

Thanks rio! Not sure what you mean by "sharpen". I put in the main masses and colours in step one and I just refine them with smaller brushes in step 2. It's all just straightforward painting.

[Tygerson]

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! I just love the portraits! No time to comment enough to do them justice, but I just adore them! So lifelike!

The ships are such cool funky shapes--I like how it feels you can almost see some inner workings through the gaps.

[Kaffer]

Supremely awesome work there.. the necklace part on the girl.. was it done with a mixer brush, if I might ask?

[ReneAigner]

Thanks a lot Tygerson!

Thanks Kaffer! I painted one of the pearls and then just copied it, or do you mean the other necklace? That I just painted by hand.

[rioriorio]

thank your for responding my question, wow..your portrait is very beautiful, how to make the lines brush effect like in the face in last portrait? do you paint the lines one by one?

[ReneAigner]

Great! Seems like you have decided on what you really like the most :)

Where d'you get that from? :D I just tend to have these phases where I favour one subject matter over the other, doesn't mean I've settled for portraits or anything. I'll probably be producing vehicle design non stop in a few weeks from now, who knows.


Thanks for your crits. Edge control is a lovely topic and love experimenting with hard/soft edges. But to be honest, my biggest problems with these (as my own critic so to speak) have more to do with structural deficiencies in the actual faces. In fact, I really like the crisp look that the sharp hair on the woman with the (non-leaf) crown and the beard on Javert give the images and I wouldn't want to take them out. The leaf-crowned girl could use more hard edges in the facial area, that is true. Having sharp edges / local contrasts in the eyes/ the face generally is certainly a good rule of thumb, but imho it'd make for a very boring image if there weren't other hard edges and contrasts.

edit/

rio: I have a brush that I use for those faint lines. It's basically just 3 small dots next to each other.

[ReneAigner]

Tried to be a little more organized/selective with hard edges as you suggested on this one: