03-22-2013, 11:22 PM
Hey Daggers!
Words cannot express how I feel about this community of artists and towards those who have selflessly given of their time and talents to teach other artists. This is my first post on the forums and obviously, the first time I have participated in a Bloodsports. When I read the description of the challenge, I couldn't pass it up because I have been a fan of roleplaying games for almost 20 years now. Man, did I learn a lot just from participating.
To let you know a little about myself, like most here, I have been drawing since I was little and even attended an art school... but like so many have said, it's not about the school, it's about the student. Unfortunately, I didn't understand that at the time and I didn't have this community, else I'd be at a much different level now. At any rate, I graduated and I have done some professional work here and there but hardly any work as a full time artist. Back in October, I jumped into freelancing at my wife's encouragement... even though I had no clue what I was getting into and honestly, was not at a level I needed to be (still working on it) but fortunately, my family of 6 can get by on very little, so I have been working solely as a freelance artist since then and I don't regret it.
In December, I came across Dan LuVisi's brush pack and tutorials and shortly afterwards, Dave Rapoza's tutorials, which eventually led me here. I've been gleaning so much information as I've been doing freelance gigs (which unfortunately, have not been the type of art that I could do to Dagger's level of quality, so haven't had a lot of opportunity to put what I have learned to actual practice) and have been learning so much.
My first 'real' digital painting came shortly after the discovery of LuVisi's brushes. After listening and watching as much as I could, I feel I have progressed so much in a short period of time. Below is an image of my progression from December until now.
![[Image: progress.jpg]](http://www.jeshields.com/progress.jpg)
All of that, being said, this contest has taught me a valuable lesson about studies and thumbnails and all the work PRIOR to a piece and a bit about time management. I'm not where I need to be in the prior work area, but it has propelled me forward for future works and their preps.
So, posted below is my entry. I wanted to work on an area I knew I was weak in, which was mechanical objects, but I wanted dinosaurs... so why not mechanical dinosaurs? So, I went back in time about 60 years and pulled my hero out from that past, a bit of film noir/pulp fiction feel to the character, threw him on a motorcycle (another weak area) and threw him so far forward into an imagined future where robots and artificial intelligence finally realized the failure humanity has been to the world, so they RESET history! I thoroughly hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed creating it.
![[Image: timewarriors.jpg]](http://www.jeshields.com/timewarriors.jpg)
Words cannot express how I feel about this community of artists and towards those who have selflessly given of their time and talents to teach other artists. This is my first post on the forums and obviously, the first time I have participated in a Bloodsports. When I read the description of the challenge, I couldn't pass it up because I have been a fan of roleplaying games for almost 20 years now. Man, did I learn a lot just from participating.
To let you know a little about myself, like most here, I have been drawing since I was little and even attended an art school... but like so many have said, it's not about the school, it's about the student. Unfortunately, I didn't understand that at the time and I didn't have this community, else I'd be at a much different level now. At any rate, I graduated and I have done some professional work here and there but hardly any work as a full time artist. Back in October, I jumped into freelancing at my wife's encouragement... even though I had no clue what I was getting into and honestly, was not at a level I needed to be (still working on it) but fortunately, my family of 6 can get by on very little, so I have been working solely as a freelance artist since then and I don't regret it.
In December, I came across Dan LuVisi's brush pack and tutorials and shortly afterwards, Dave Rapoza's tutorials, which eventually led me here. I've been gleaning so much information as I've been doing freelance gigs (which unfortunately, have not been the type of art that I could do to Dagger's level of quality, so haven't had a lot of opportunity to put what I have learned to actual practice) and have been learning so much.
My first 'real' digital painting came shortly after the discovery of LuVisi's brushes. After listening and watching as much as I could, I feel I have progressed so much in a short period of time. Below is an image of my progression from December until now.
All of that, being said, this contest has taught me a valuable lesson about studies and thumbnails and all the work PRIOR to a piece and a bit about time management. I'm not where I need to be in the prior work area, but it has propelled me forward for future works and their preps.
So, posted below is my entry. I wanted to work on an area I knew I was weak in, which was mechanical objects, but I wanted dinosaurs... so why not mechanical dinosaurs? So, I went back in time about 60 years and pulled my hero out from that past, a bit of film noir/pulp fiction feel to the character, threw him on a motorcycle (another weak area) and threw him so far forward into an imagined future where robots and artificial intelligence finally realized the failure humanity has been to the world, so they RESET history! I thoroughly hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed creating it.