Will Warburton's sketchbook

[Lyraina]

The ChoW is lovely, I agree with Nate that it has portfolio potential! Lovely rich colors, magical atmosphere and enough storytelling hints that it makes me wonder about the backstory. And I absolutely know that problem of failing at producing portfolio worthy pieces...

[Warburton]

Doolio - Of course you can sir, and thanks by the way! I'm not too sure what mezzotint is but I appreciate the compliment no less ;)



Ed - Thaaaaanks mate. I try to upload different stuff to different blogs of mine, that way peeps like yourself can see different stuff when you check out my shit on different places ;D
The tifa study took about 6-7 hours so it's one of the longer ones I do. Still feels really off to me but I'm glad you like dude. It's been awesome watching you pump out stuff too, it's been a pleasure watching your style and skills evolve. Hope your well mate and stay strong.

pnate - Your a legend! Not preachy at all and I love direct and blunt crits. Thanks so much man, this means a lot especially coming from someone like yourself with such strong figure skills. Even if I don't get round to finishing this piece I'm going to apply the things you mentioned for sure. Anatomy still kills my brain, especially when combined with foreshortening and perspective >:s
Thanks again mate!

Lyraina - Thanks as always! Ive not finished something I'd call portfolio worthy in over 3 months which is terrible :O Been really wanting to build a new portfolio and start applying to companies but my stuff still feels really weak. It's kinda frustrating lol. Watching your stuff develop so fast as well as overs has had me motivated like crazy to get better at this. Always inspirational seeing your updates. Thanks again for dropping by and for the kind words :)

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, life has got pretty crazy recently and im in the process of trying to find balance again. No complains mind, painting has never seemed so rich and beautiful since all my time has been reduced.

Sorry also if this update is a tad shit, I really want to do some finished stuff again, just need to find something I really want to paint, which matches with what I want in my portfolio and also something I can learn and grow from while doing it lol.

ALSO on a side note, if any of you guys even read this crap I write, do you know of any good resources for the business side of art? Like how to apply to companies, who to contact, how to deal with invoices, receipts, cash flow, CV's etc etc? Finding tutorials for 'how to paint' something are easy and everywhere but finding good business advice is almost none existent as far as ive seen. It's almost seen as a taboo subject and it pisses me off. How do all other artists do this lol? I'm such a noob in this respect.

If the time comes where I become successful at this and build some wealth I'm going to create a channel or thread dedicated to this side of art and give all the info and help away for free, the crimson fashion!
















studies












sketches






<3

[Ignatz]

Hey Warburton,

Nice update as always. With regards to the business side of things, I find myself in the same situation; perhaps we need to start a thread here somewhere so people can post their business experiences, questions/answers etc.

I don't know if you joined artpact but the company review section is pretty useful for sourcing new clients; I've already started making a list of which companies to contact and, perhaps more importantly, which to avoid.

[JakeB]

Looking awesome man. I'm with Ignatz, the art pact site is pretty solid, if only for the reviews. Really sheds some light on the rates that different companies pay. Worth a look if you're not on there already.

Totally agree that it's hard to find stuff on the business side of art. Guess youtube videos of spreadsheets and bank statements aren't quite as interesting as knights and dragons. Ah well. Looking forward to your free website ;)

Pencil stuff's looking solid as always, and that still life came out great. Really like the mix of painterly strokes, and big soft gradients (the plate especially) Super cool :)

Keep it coming man :)

[knokkelmanden]

Hey, just looking around the forum, and dropping a comment, so i have a easier time stalking people, hope you don't mind :) btw some of your character/creature designs are awesome, and it's inspiring to see more "finished" stuff also, i don't really do that myself, cheers.

[Lyraina]

Thank you. It's awesome to hear that me posting helps motivate others!

Not sure if you are more interested in the freelance stuff or the "how to apply for a job" thing, so I'll just dump a few links I have collected in my bookmarks for both... although I guess application is not much different from any other job... so I don't have much for that. I'd say look out for job offerings and apply if something appeals to you.. or look for companies you like and just send an application even if they don't have open positions (don't know from the art field - but in the area I studied, many companies don't even tell anybody they have an open position because they get enough applicants who write them anyway).

How to price your work / Freelance / Money related:
Freelance rates and salary: http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryGameIn...ance_Rates
http://www.cegur.com/Pricepages/IllustrationPrices.html
http://www.katsbits.com/articles/how-muc...g-work.php
http://zero2illo.com/figures-to-help-you...-projects/
Contract templates: https://www.docracy.com/doc/showalltagge...=freelance
Infos about freelance related things by Noah Bradley (not free): http://www.theartoffreelancing.com/
Sample contracts (and more): https://www.artpact.com/
Graphic Artists Guild Handbook (I do not own this so I don't know if it is any good): https://www.graphicartistsguild.org/hand...practices/
Freelance living general things http://daverapoza.blogspot.de/2010/02/fr...iving.html


Portfolio and finding work
getting a job as game artist: http://www.cybergooch.com/tutorials/page...rt_job.htm
What Does A Successful Concept Art Portfolio Look Like? http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthr...p?t=178548
General advice & linklist how/where to find jobs and clients: http://artanecdotally.tumblr.com/post/17...art-advice
Overview over game developement companies worldwide: http://www.gamedevmap.com/
http://howtonotsuckatgamedesign.com/2014...ncept-art/
9 Steps to a Better Portfolio: https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=...87h4T7JFJA

Edit: Just stumbled over one more link about writing a resume etc:
http://blog.illustrationcastle.com/2007/...on-resume/
http://blog.illustrationcastle.com/illus...resources/ (a few more nice articles)

[pnate]

I think we definitely should start some kind of thread here for those of us starting to dive into the freelance stuff and we can learn from each other's mistakes :) I joined PACT recently, and it's pretty cool to have those company reviews from other artists and the sample contracts (although you can get the sample contracts for free), but there isn't much in terms of how to deal with taxes, invoices, etc. (Btw, awesome links Lyraina)

[Jaik]

Loving that last update man, especially the very last piece. The forms look great.

All of that practice with the heads really seems to be paying off as well. No crits this time round for me. Just delve in to those links Lyra put and get that portfolio together so you can start getting work! :D

[Craig Paton]

Amazing progress, War. Your drawing skills are crazy good.

[Warburton]

Ignatz - Maybe that would be a plan dude, your stuff is awesome too man, I cant imagine you having a great deal of trouble finding work ;) I'll have to sign up to the pact site, it sounds pretty useful. Cheers for stopping by man.

knokkelmanden - No problem man, and welcome to the daggers! I haven't finished anything properly in ages but I appreciate the thoughts. Also, finishing stuff is super important so don't slack from doing it if your not yourself! How can you ever know your limits if you never push stuff to a point where you can see them :p

Lyraina - Wow your awesome! Thanks a ton for all these links, you legend! These are super useful and will be really helpful so thanks again! I guess a lot of this comes from practice and experience like everything else but it's just making that first step which is difficult. I get work but it all comes to me so I'm a bit clueless really when it comes to business :p Thanks again Lyraina <3

pnate - I agree man, maybe a bunch of us should start a stream or something together and we can share all our experiences and knowledge that way, or on a thread or something? I'll give it some thought, thanks for sharing your ideas and thoughts man.

Jaik - Thaaanks mate as always. I tried to consider your last crit when I tackle forms now, It seems to help in piecing them together. Working on the folio now so hopefully i'll be ready soon to apply everywhere. Thanks again mate!

Craig Paton - Cheers mate, I'm glad you think so! Still got a long way to go and a ton of stuff to learn yet though ;)

HHmm, interesting to see there's a demand for more business stuff here. Maybe that would something worth pursuing. We could open a thread for it and maybe even do some livestream sessions or something with professionals who were willing to talk about certain stuff like invoices, rates, contracts etc etc. Maybe I'm getting abit ahead of myself, though if any of you have any further thoughts or ideas I'd for sure love to hear them.

Quick dump, things still crazy on my end of life. I think I may have overdone it at the gym or something because Ive lost a small part of my vision in my left eye because I caused internal bleeding in my eye 0_o oops. Gotta go to specialist and stuff but apparently it'll heal itself with rest, though there might be scarring which means it'll never be right. I still have one good eye though so it's not all bad :D Here's some shit.
studies











loish study



mind practice



Ive found I like drawing creatures/monsters way more than anything else, so I'm really strongly considering becoming the 'creature' dude instead of characters which seems to be oversaturated with talent at the mo.
mind fart






my idea of what Howland Reed would have looked like during the days he was best buds with Eddard Stark. Seem's like a cool as fuck char but you never see him.



urgh 5 mins



aaaaand recent portfolio piece im working on. Inspired by swamp elder CD bloodsports thing but I guess it's more swamp shepherd now lol. Having a ton of fun with it regardless.

[JakeB]

Howland Reed looks sweet man. You ever go down the rabbit-hole that is 'ASoIaF fan theories'? Finished the last book kinda recently and sunk so much time reading up on them. Some awesome stuff out there. Re-reading them now with all these crazy ideas floating around lol.

The swamp dude looks pretty solid so far, really like the palette you've got going on. :) You could maybe try panning out a bit/changing the crop a little, so we can see a bit more of the swamp water. Atm, it kinda looks like he's disappearing into the water right on the edge of the canvas, whereas with a little tweak, you can paint the water lapping up around his clothes. If nothing else it's a pretty cool effect, and kinda fun to paint lol. Looking forward to the final. :)

Hope your eye gets sorted out. Maybe, you know, take it easy at the gym for a little bit? ;)

[Warburton]

Jake - Yeah man, I have the audio books which I was lucky enough to buy cheap from some random dude on ebay, so I listen to them while paint. Is there some Howard Reed theories floating about? The one thing which I thought was cool was how only him and Ned Stark came out alive from his trip to the tower in his dream from the first book. Plus the theory behind lyanna's 'promise' to Ned is a pretty awesome one.

Thanks for the crit on the swamp dude too man! I completely missed that and it helped a lot. Cheers again dude. And yeah, I'm layin off the gym for a while lol :p

Finally finished something! 0_o Swamp shepherd for the portfolio. Hope you guys like, though if you don't feel free to tell me why ;) I wont be coming back to this one but any lessons I can learn for future pieces are always greatly appreciated. <3




and some wippies for any who are interested ;)

[Lyraina]

Uh oh. Hope your eye is better by now?
Love the warm colors on the swamp sheperd and the contrast with the cool surroundings :) Only thing that bugs me a bit is the rim light, can't really tell why.. but it looks off, on the sheperd as well as the trees. Maybe because it is so smooth and really white while the rest of the image is quite textured/detailed, so it doesn't really fit together.. also feels a bit randomly placed. I guess you wanted to only place it on important parts, but a light as strong would probably also show up somewhere on his pockets, hand etc. Anyway, till a really nice piece! Thanks for sharing WIPs, always love seeing the progress :)

[JakeB]

Yeah the audiobooks are awesome, so good for just zoning out and painting to. I think there's a couple of Howland Reed ones kicking around. There's something for pretty much every character I think. Ranging from totally plausible (like the Lyanna one) to completely batshit insane lol.

The swamp guy came out awesome btw. Love the bags and stuff round his waist, the materials look great. Don't know if you saw this article when it was first out, but it's a pretty good checklist/reminder when you're trying to assess a painting. http://muddycolors.blogspot.co.uk/2014/0...nting.html

Keep it coming man, awesome stuff recently :)

[pnate]

That swamp dude came out great! That should be a strong piece to add to your portfolio, way to go man. The only thing that stands out to me is that he looks very tall because it looks like he's on the same plane as that tree on the right. Also, I think it would have been cool to push that light a little bit more, with maybe some beams of light showing to emphasize the heavy atmosphere of the swamp. The materials, colors and rendering all look awesome though, you are gettin buff and beautiful.

I just started feast for crows, so maybe I will get to learn more about this Howland Reed...I'm assuming he's Jojen and Meera's father. NO SPOILERS

[Flo]

hey man,

just wanted to drop by. I haven't been here in ages. Sorry for that.

I hope all is well. You seem to push yourself which is great to see. The only thing about the swamp shepperd thing that is not to me liking is that I didn't get, what the piece was about until I read the title "Swamp shepperd". The thing in his hand looks to much like his eye, but then again not exactly. Also maybe add some more eggs in the pond and in his pockets to make it a bit easier to understand.

Other than that, great piece and worth a portfolio entry.

You have me impressed over here.

[Warburton]

Thanks for all the crits guys, I really appreciate the shit out of them! I feel bad not going back to that piece and revising it based on what you've said but I need to move on. Gonna be sure to make the next ones better than the last though >:o

Lyraina - Thanks again, your totally right, I really need to spend more time researching my light sources and how they react with textures and stuff more thoroughly. Always appreciate your crits, thanks again ;)

Jake B - Yeah I went back and read a few theories after you mentioned them :p And want the winds of winter to come out so fucking much. Wish that dude would hurry the fuck up and finish it already xD
And thanks for the link man, I'd not read that article before and it was very interesting. Thanks again!

pnate - Argh fuckin perspective came back and ruined me lol. I really need to study up on that but it bores the shit out of me so much D: Thanks for the crit though man, I see what your saying now you've mentioned it.
And as far as GoT goes, you should go back and re-read the first book if your not sure on who Howland Reed is :p He was a close friend of Ned Starks and lord of the crannogmen of the Neck. I painted him because very little is really known about him and he sounds like a cool character, as are his kids ;)

Flo - Good to hear from you again man, I'm guilty too of not spending enough time in others sketchbooks so don't worry about it mate :p
Thanks for the crit also, your spot on and I'll keep what you mentioned in mind for my next piece. Narrative is super important after all!
Cheers again man.

Felt bad about not posting anything but only have crap to show :(

Couple of studies






And just crap between being ill and commission stuff.

[Mr. Toodles]

Dude im loving it, in short, You gotta big D warburton.

[Wardy]

nice sketchbook, my fave has to the portrait underneath the dog muscle studies, just stunning.
keep going man!

[crackedskull]

Really nice value control going on in the sketches.