04-29-2015, 06:41 AM
Hey Miri, well yes society is like a big blundering oaf with no nuance at all that bludgeons all of us with various messages many of them stupid and destructive. And the people around us all buy in to it in varying degrees, as do we because we are indoctrinated with the same messages. So there is a lot of external pressure to deal with that sometimes enforces the stupidest and most destructive 'rules'. Rules like, you have to have a job to be a productive human being. You have to make money to be a success. You have to be young, thin and beautiful to be liked. Doing more, younger is better than learning to live well. You have to have 'manners' and not be the odd one out even if it goes against the truth of your own integrity. Sound familiar? These are all bullshit, but how many people do you know that live according to these rules? Tons I bet. The majority I would guess, just from observing the state of people around us.
The good news is that artists have a headstart to break these rules, because we have to in the first instance deal with all levels of bullshit about what others ascribe to the value of what we do. Not only that, we also tend to be more sensitive to our environment and observing a bit deeper at things that most people wouldn't notice. Not all artists get this nuance, but the act of drawing itself is one of being totally in the present. This is actually a manner of meditation. Use this to your advantage.
Rather than dealing with the bullshit I think we have to learn to see all that for what it is, so at least we aren't blind to its affects and then be ok with saying 'fuck that' and not letting it influence you. This requires a certain amount of inner strength, integrity, and an unwillingness to just be a sheep following on like a victim as most of us do. Harder to do than say, but it can be done if you give it enough attention.
So the question becomes do you want to play the part of the victim and say "but all these people think like this, therefore I have no power and must be this way" or do you want to take control of your own life and live it for yourself? Don't be a sheep and do what others expect of you according to some bullshit rules! Learn to listen to yourself and what your own instincts are telling you. Not from an only intellectual level, but from a gut level too. Sometimes things you want to do don't make sense intellectually, but they can deliver huge rewards. I quit my job with 2 months of savings and lots of expenses, mortgage etc (still have those) and my head, my parents, my societal programming, my mortgage, was screaming at me to not do it, to not be stupid, to stay with the job I hated because I need money to live. etc. Well I felt it, I refused to be a victim anymore, I said fuck that, and did it anyway. I won't go into how amazing the result has been because that's not the point. It's doing what you feel is right for you that is the important thing here. Note I said 'feel' not 'think'. We often tie ourselves up in knots with way too much thinking. Thinking doesn't always help believe me.
There's some wisdom for you. I know you didn't want 'cliched' wisdom, so hopefully this isn't that, but you have to realise that wisdom has its roots in cliche because it tends to pertain to universal truths and so these are often just easy to dole out by anybody without truly understanding how it relates to their own life. Figuring that bit out and seeing it in practice is where the real wisdom comes. Its in the practice of wise approaches, not the knowing or intellectually understanding them. It's like drawing; you can probably rattle off all the fundamentals without thinking: composition, rules of value and form, perspective construction, anatomy, but does this automatically make you able to draw flawlessly? It's all in the practice. So don't automatically dismiss wisdom as being impractical, it is far from it when applied to your own life with intent.
About your piece, well I think there are issues with the comp. You have cut the composition in two with that big sweeping rock. The perspective on the piece is sketchy, even in the figure, the top half of him seems like we are looking down on him (we can see the top of his hood and shoulders) but the bottom half seems like you chose a lower POV. You have pieces where the perspective is very well done, so it just needs to be applied. The figure is very static and could be made more dynamic to be interesting. Some of the rendering in the rock just seems a bit lazy and flat. I am doing a black and white comp for you to try address some of these, I will post it later. I loved the design iterations of the face. I think design is a strong point of yours and if you enjoy it, perhaps focus on that for your folio and ditch everything else for now, until you have stronger illustration pieces. Always put your best foot forward in order to get jobs.
In terms of definitions of what an illustration is, well I don't want to nitpick, but generally to me and what is most commonly referred to as illustration as an industry seems to deal with completed scenes where there is some form of narrative involved. The pieces are "illustrative" of some text or story.
Characters standing straight up on a white background are most definitely concepts, it doesn't matter whether the skill level on them isn't up to uber pro standards. They are still concepts.
By the way I really liked these character concepts on your folio as well as the other concept sketches. You definitely have a head for design and I think they can get you work with indies now with a bit more polish on the rougher ones or adding newer better ones all the time. The characters are not the standard render photobash style you see a lot these days, so that is a point of difference, and they are very solid in terms of design. The presentation is good, the detail panels are good, and they all look like they come from the same world. This is a good direction!. I would say one thing to work on is your female faces. They all look very masculine, you want to be able to show you can do feminine features as well.
Oh and sorry my folio site is http://monkeybreadart.tumblr.com
The good news is that artists have a headstart to break these rules, because we have to in the first instance deal with all levels of bullshit about what others ascribe to the value of what we do. Not only that, we also tend to be more sensitive to our environment and observing a bit deeper at things that most people wouldn't notice. Not all artists get this nuance, but the act of drawing itself is one of being totally in the present. This is actually a manner of meditation. Use this to your advantage.
Rather than dealing with the bullshit I think we have to learn to see all that for what it is, so at least we aren't blind to its affects and then be ok with saying 'fuck that' and not letting it influence you. This requires a certain amount of inner strength, integrity, and an unwillingness to just be a sheep following on like a victim as most of us do. Harder to do than say, but it can be done if you give it enough attention.
So the question becomes do you want to play the part of the victim and say "but all these people think like this, therefore I have no power and must be this way" or do you want to take control of your own life and live it for yourself? Don't be a sheep and do what others expect of you according to some bullshit rules! Learn to listen to yourself and what your own instincts are telling you. Not from an only intellectual level, but from a gut level too. Sometimes things you want to do don't make sense intellectually, but they can deliver huge rewards. I quit my job with 2 months of savings and lots of expenses, mortgage etc (still have those) and my head, my parents, my societal programming, my mortgage, was screaming at me to not do it, to not be stupid, to stay with the job I hated because I need money to live. etc. Well I felt it, I refused to be a victim anymore, I said fuck that, and did it anyway. I won't go into how amazing the result has been because that's not the point. It's doing what you feel is right for you that is the important thing here. Note I said 'feel' not 'think'. We often tie ourselves up in knots with way too much thinking. Thinking doesn't always help believe me.
There's some wisdom for you. I know you didn't want 'cliched' wisdom, so hopefully this isn't that, but you have to realise that wisdom has its roots in cliche because it tends to pertain to universal truths and so these are often just easy to dole out by anybody without truly understanding how it relates to their own life. Figuring that bit out and seeing it in practice is where the real wisdom comes. Its in the practice of wise approaches, not the knowing or intellectually understanding them. It's like drawing; you can probably rattle off all the fundamentals without thinking: composition, rules of value and form, perspective construction, anatomy, but does this automatically make you able to draw flawlessly? It's all in the practice. So don't automatically dismiss wisdom as being impractical, it is far from it when applied to your own life with intent.
About your piece, well I think there are issues with the comp. You have cut the composition in two with that big sweeping rock. The perspective on the piece is sketchy, even in the figure, the top half of him seems like we are looking down on him (we can see the top of his hood and shoulders) but the bottom half seems like you chose a lower POV. You have pieces where the perspective is very well done, so it just needs to be applied. The figure is very static and could be made more dynamic to be interesting. Some of the rendering in the rock just seems a bit lazy and flat. I am doing a black and white comp for you to try address some of these, I will post it later. I loved the design iterations of the face. I think design is a strong point of yours and if you enjoy it, perhaps focus on that for your folio and ditch everything else for now, until you have stronger illustration pieces. Always put your best foot forward in order to get jobs.
In terms of definitions of what an illustration is, well I don't want to nitpick, but generally to me and what is most commonly referred to as illustration as an industry seems to deal with completed scenes where there is some form of narrative involved. The pieces are "illustrative" of some text or story.
Characters standing straight up on a white background are most definitely concepts, it doesn't matter whether the skill level on them isn't up to uber pro standards. They are still concepts.
By the way I really liked these character concepts on your folio as well as the other concept sketches. You definitely have a head for design and I think they can get you work with indies now with a bit more polish on the rougher ones or adding newer better ones all the time. The characters are not the standard render photobash style you see a lot these days, so that is a point of difference, and they are very solid in terms of design. The presentation is good, the detail panels are good, and they all look like they come from the same world. This is a good direction!. I would say one thing to work on is your female faces. They all look very masculine, you want to be able to show you can do feminine features as well.
Oh and sorry my folio site is http://monkeybreadart.tumblr.com