You will be seeing more and more of me! (Saying this creates added pressure for me to draw and post more often, and stay on the ball).

Anyways, I've been a spectator far too long with the daggers, more years than I care to mention. I'm sure many of you can relate to my story. Doing the bare minimum, letting the praise of family, friends, even art school teachers be enough, laziness and mediocrity winning the daily battles.

I'm 26 now, and it's very easy for me to be hard on myself for the time wasted, I catch myself saying "imagine how great I could have been if I started sooner!" Well, I seem to only learn from my mistakes, and it took everything I learned about myself getting to this point to realize how bad I want to improve my art, health, and life. (I feel cheesy and preachy saying some of this, but if that's the attitude I need to be more motivated, then oh well, its worth it.)

So many of you are doing such great things, and many of you are so young! I feel privileged to be among you.

Keep an eye out for my sketch book I will be starting it later tonight after some studying, I want it to be an inspiration for those who need it, just like many of you have inspired me.

Til next time, I leave you with a few finds that keep me going:

Making this my homepage has helped banish the time-vampires of the internet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGRJrkapOkI

A great song that is fun to draw to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWD7k6TrJ-g

So I joined this forum after reading on conceptart the shenanigans involving not paying artists through TAD. I had a sketchbook there but I mostly lurked because something about the layout and the sheer scale of the website bothered me. I joined Crimson Daggers because to me it represents something, as people and as professionals we should all have on us - tough skin. The industry has had seismic waves rolling through it lately because the business world views us as a naive source of labor to take advantage of, but without us they wouldn't have blockbuster movies, logos, illustrations, etc, they would be literally helpless without their marketing and eye candy which is us. Crimson Daggers speaks to me in this way, the name makes me think of it as an assassins guild, and I would love to see more material or threads created about not getting screwed over and how to bitch slap parasites that refuse to pay, or how to resolve issues like that.

It's hard to believe artists have gone from being seen as having a divine gift, like during the Renaissance and before that, to being considered sweatshop laborers, this needs to change and we all have to be in it together. If I see any artist working pro bono or for an 'internship' or for crowd sourcing websites like the abomination of 99designs, I want to fucking gouge their eyes out with a spoon and throw them in a concentration camp - doing these things ruins the rest of the industry.

As for more about myself, I grew up in southern Alberta and I have a bachelors of Design, specializing in character design/illustration. I do many things, from watercolour and oil painting, to digital. I'd like to get more into sculpting with sculpy clay and exploring 3D programs such as Modo and Zbrush, for that is the future. Soon I will have a sketchbook thread up.

Getting this out of the way: I'm not new to the Crimson Daggers. Beforehand I was a much different person with some problems (some self-inflicted like laziness and others not so much, like...life? Only feel like going over that when prompted) keeping me from being a part of the study group in all it's various forms, the same being said about other places and communities over a very long and trying time. Despite all of that I've always wanted (in what feels like many cases seemingly like I needed) to draw competently and tell really good stories in the process. To that end, I hope my re-introduction suffices while I put things to right.

And so...

I'm Jayme, aka Tyrus. I want to become a Freelance Artist.

I come from a non-artistic and somewhat independent background, of which that has granted me an affinity for computers, exploration, and lore-houndery. All three have led me to my nerdy vices (Star Trek, Magic: The Gathering, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure...you name it, chances are I love it) over years of accumulation and immersion, to wit I take immense pride in such. This might also be why I prefer using digital over traditional materials (but not giving them up entirely).

I was doing art (in a non-serious way, drawing a specific subject matter) for about a year before, just as I was exiting high school. I found the late Keith Parkinson's works on display at an exhibit and that was one of the only times I had been exposed to 'real' art at the time. I had seen his artwork before, but never like this; with full/large paintings of made with insane amount of detail, from the visuals and sense of scale to the minute strokes one could follow if they moved their fingers over the paint, with bright colors (using REAL paint) and great composition spanning nearly ever single piece of work. It was breathtaking and crushing at the same time, looking at how my art just didn't measure up in terms of quality or ability to tell a story without having to say a single word. Pictures like [this] showing that good art can be more telling and vibrant than I ever thought (that one not being my favorite, but you get the picture).

It was there that I decided I was going to get 'serious' with my artwork, however long it'd take (though I was shooting for sooner, rather than later). Over that time I've come to learn about art in general, with my horizons expanding and my list of 'artists to respect/follow' growing as well. Many of those artists and their work/techniques/work ethics becoming more noticable as I travel deeper down the rabbit hole, influences and ranging from all over the world (from Frank Frazetta to Hirohiko Araki), standing to grow the more I learn.

And to that end, I hope that in my time here I learn a lot, use what I learn abtly.

Hi thought I better do one these, I haven't really posted anything yet, but have been lurking in the background for quite awhile, mostly been on conceptart.org, but I like the community spirit here a lot better seems more friendly atmosphere (not knockin conceptart.org tho still good site)...

Any ways heres the dating site intro, I'm 29 live in Australia (Tasmania little island below it) Ive been into programming and game design since I can remember, but art has always been my passion, I didn't follow it tho (the age old hey kid painting wont make you money till your dead , thanks dad) but I think its about time I gave it a shot, so trying to study hard on the fundamentals when I can ( in the mornings with a little help from Dan (yeh im the mp3 weirdo) ). I have 4 kids from 3 months to 6 yrs old ( gets boring in tassie not much todo ;) ).

I been working on a sort of game engine with my friend since we were 14 constantly changing and learning a side hobby as its all self taught stuff, but while I was looking at rendering side of things I came across feng zhu's youtubes and the spark reignited and have been devouring information anywhere I could since, Dan/Daves livestreams and interviews especially the freelance talks have been some of the best motivation I have come across in a long while.... so thanks guys and I hope one day to be a positive contributor to the site.....

Peace out ;)

Hi there Crimson Daggers,

I'm Sarah and basically no illustrator or artist. I'd like to be part of the community, though. I earn a living from writing in all different kinds. And I want to become awesome in it! So I guess I will fit here in, too.

I got registered because Melanie told me about this new thing, the Gyms'n Daggers. Apart from my goal to become an awesome writer creating thrilling fantasy, I have a goal to lose about 150 lbs in 2013 and 2014. That's why I'm also here.

In addition, Melanie is my beloved partner. I am closer to an artists lifestyle than you might think :-).

So, let's get awesome.....


Sarah

Hi, my name is Ricardo I´m from Portugal and I´ve been following the daggers for sometime now, and finally decided to be more involved with the community. I currently have a job that I don´t really care about and concept art (art in general) is something that I always been interested in but never thought I could pursuit as a career. I have much respect for all the amazing artist that help encourage people like me following this dream, I hope I can join you in this journey and try to be more active and try to learn more each time with the daggers. Also I think we should wear jackets and start wondering the streets together =)

Hey everybody, my name is Anthony Devine. I'm from Stirling, Scotland. I've been teaching myself Art and Design since 2009. I decided to join Crimson Daggers as I've recently began to beef up my illustration portfolio so I'm looking to learn more, share my work with others and hopefully help other peeps with their own work + I just want to meet a whole lot of new friends :) Besides Illustration, I also have 2 years experience as a Matte Painter and Concept Designer in Film Entertainment...albeit on small projects so far lol

Hello everyone,

I was recommended this forum by Jonathan Powell and am happy to be here. I'm turning over a new leaf with my artwork and improving my digital stuff. I'm an adult student who basically decided to go back to school for 3d (and 2d) and am finishing up this semester. Am really excited to try new PS painting techniques and have been poring over a lot of the artists' work on FB as well as CGHub.

Happy to meet everyone :)

Hey people.

I'm Mike. In Concept Art I am Line, in everything else (DA, CGhub etc) I use my name like here.

Basically I'm a semi-pro, learning more about painting and picture-making, trying to make it to
where I wanna be on my own, no formal training or anything (there's none available here).

I had no idea about the forums here, I knew about the live streams, my eye never caught a
'forums' link.

Anyway, it's good to see some familiar people in here.

Hiya folks, my name is Nathan Seabolt. I'm one of those guys who abandoned art for a while and is now trying to make up for lost time. I make mini comics, draw and paint, and my goal is to break in to the world of professional illustration. I'm also a big fan of concept art and character stuff, so expect to see what might pass for some of that from me.

I've enjoyed the 'streams for a while now, and learned a lot by watching. Now I feel it's time to get serious and start gathering critique on my stuff so I can focus and get better.

Speaking of critique, let me just put this out there up front: I don't mind harshness at all. The way I see it, critiques here are for the benefit of the artist, so anything goes! You guys say whatever you think needs to be said, and I'll try my best to use what people say to make the work better.

Looking forward to learning with you!