06-04-2014, 11:47 AM
@Fedodika: By momentum I mean coming back to the study habit; I do plan to dive into a a couple of complex illustrations this year, but I have a concurrent freelance work that won't allow me to start it just yet. It's coming; Hang in there :)
@Dennis: Oh! Thanks man, I'll fix it when I have the chance.
@Lyn: Complete answer bellow really, because this is turning into a big snowball hehe. I was studying enviros; It was before I hit study #20 people said I should stay out of comfort zone and do characters (lol). Things are getting confusing.
@Eve: Thank you :) again, ranting bellow.
Ok, so uhm, let me try to explain this.
I did work with advertising for around 6 years, as you probably know. I have worked on a variety of styles there, since you can't really have a style for the kind of advertising art I worked with. From generic cel shaded images, to realism with fruits, to digital watercolors, to painting things over 3D renders. I can't post them outside of the studio site as per contract, but that doesn't really matter. I worked emulating other people's style for some years, and hm, I can tell how I like to paint by this point.
The work you see on my sketchbook is closest to the way I liked to personally work.
But here is the problem - working so many with advertising got me usual to unusually high-saturated images and stupid levels of contrast, everything had to shiny and plastic and perfect and over-rendered. It's how they work, and after doing that for so long, it's hard for me to lay down an image without adding some stupid highlight that makes everything look plastic.
I have tried digging as far as I could, and the only conclusion left right now is that it is a painting/rendering problem.
The way I have learned everything I have learned so far is to go over the whole process over and over again, to try to pinpoint my problem, and try different ways until I find one that work. So, since I am practicing an rendering problem, this is what I have been trying to go over; The sketching/composition isn't really the challenge here, as you have all pointed out.
The problem is, I am unable to really get rid of this aesthetics problem I have run into; Every time I state I dislike my art, I really bend in fear that it will really sound I am "attention whoring" or that I am "fishing for compliments", when it's not really the case. My rendering looks very plastic and jelly-like to me, but because of the social implication of asking for feedback for it, it's been incredibly difficult to get real feedback on it. I also know by this stage I am doing minor tweaks, so a lot of people don't even notice the difference.
I am deeply afraid to go into "it's a style problem!" area, because every single pro can tell you chasing a style is chasing your own tail and won't lead you anywhere. But you see, I don't have a go-to style guide right now, and when I do, the feedback I get is to steer away from it. I like Warcarft's style - way too popular. I like Dave Rapoza, Charlie Bowater and Katie de Souza - again, way too popular, I should go seeking "my own voice". But, when I sit down and just let me paint things as I am content with - I am displeased with the outcome.
And I since I have limited time to practice, I was trying to solve this aesthetics problem before going into a full fledged illustration again. I want a whole new portfolio, you know? But I want to at least know I am going in the right direction.
In the end, I need to learn to like my art again, or this won't work. I like this faux-realism style, but I don't have a clear goal. I am trying really hard to find it, but I don't feel artsy enough to go into surreal, I don't feel competent enough to go into full realism; My images simply doesn't hold up. I am trying to see if it is a rendering problem, but I'll probably be back studying structure soon enough. I am already feeling anxious about the spectrum submission I AM going to do next year...
And there was the whole edges incident which is lasting way too long. I still get the "too many hard edges" on some pieces (and even the charcoal ones) when they, to me, looks like a pile of out of focus mess. But edges aren't focus Sula, and yeah, I'm too stupid to figure that one out too.
I was going too long working on this freelance without painting anything for myself, which is why I started painting silly portraits again. I just looking into making it useful and not just "working a bit so I don't get rusty", if that makes sense. Doing comic colors hardly counts as any practice for what I want to do, so, I am feeling very rusty.
Anyway, I am also feeling uncomfortable posting this stuff online. It's been getting harder to get feedback; But If I post stuff like this, I offend people who look up to me, it seems. I can't be negative - but heck, I don't feel like I am being negative for being negative. My art is not working and I am having trouble figuring out why. I don't even know where to ask for help anymore, so i'm coming to the conclusion I should probably hide in my cave and do a lot of soul searching without external interference anyway.
Here is today's study, trying to mash up a couple of refs into one thing and seeing it works. Rapoza, Jana Schirmer, Gil Elvegren, and the infamous Michael Bay Blue © rim light.
here is hoping this don't explode in my face
@Dennis: Oh! Thanks man, I'll fix it when I have the chance.
@Lyn: Complete answer bellow really, because this is turning into a big snowball hehe. I was studying enviros; It was before I hit study #20 people said I should stay out of comfort zone and do characters (lol). Things are getting confusing.
@Eve: Thank you :) again, ranting bellow.
Ok, so uhm, let me try to explain this.
I did work with advertising for around 6 years, as you probably know. I have worked on a variety of styles there, since you can't really have a style for the kind of advertising art I worked with. From generic cel shaded images, to realism with fruits, to digital watercolors, to painting things over 3D renders. I can't post them outside of the studio site as per contract, but that doesn't really matter. I worked emulating other people's style for some years, and hm, I can tell how I like to paint by this point.
The work you see on my sketchbook is closest to the way I liked to personally work.
But here is the problem - working so many with advertising got me usual to unusually high-saturated images and stupid levels of contrast, everything had to shiny and plastic and perfect and over-rendered. It's how they work, and after doing that for so long, it's hard for me to lay down an image without adding some stupid highlight that makes everything look plastic.
I have tried digging as far as I could, and the only conclusion left right now is that it is a painting/rendering problem.
The way I have learned everything I have learned so far is to go over the whole process over and over again, to try to pinpoint my problem, and try different ways until I find one that work. So, since I am practicing an rendering problem, this is what I have been trying to go over; The sketching/composition isn't really the challenge here, as you have all pointed out.
The problem is, I am unable to really get rid of this aesthetics problem I have run into; Every time I state I dislike my art, I really bend in fear that it will really sound I am "attention whoring" or that I am "fishing for compliments", when it's not really the case. My rendering looks very plastic and jelly-like to me, but because of the social implication of asking for feedback for it, it's been incredibly difficult to get real feedback on it. I also know by this stage I am doing minor tweaks, so a lot of people don't even notice the difference.
I am deeply afraid to go into "it's a style problem!" area, because every single pro can tell you chasing a style is chasing your own tail and won't lead you anywhere. But you see, I don't have a go-to style guide right now, and when I do, the feedback I get is to steer away from it. I like Warcarft's style - way too popular. I like Dave Rapoza, Charlie Bowater and Katie de Souza - again, way too popular, I should go seeking "my own voice". But, when I sit down and just let me paint things as I am content with - I am displeased with the outcome.
And I since I have limited time to practice, I was trying to solve this aesthetics problem before going into a full fledged illustration again. I want a whole new portfolio, you know? But I want to at least know I am going in the right direction.
In the end, I need to learn to like my art again, or this won't work. I like this faux-realism style, but I don't have a clear goal. I am trying really hard to find it, but I don't feel artsy enough to go into surreal, I don't feel competent enough to go into full realism; My images simply doesn't hold up. I am trying to see if it is a rendering problem, but I'll probably be back studying structure soon enough. I am already feeling anxious about the spectrum submission I AM going to do next year...
And there was the whole edges incident which is lasting way too long. I still get the "too many hard edges" on some pieces (and even the charcoal ones) when they, to me, looks like a pile of out of focus mess. But edges aren't focus Sula, and yeah, I'm too stupid to figure that one out too.
I was going too long working on this freelance without painting anything for myself, which is why I started painting silly portraits again. I just looking into making it useful and not just "working a bit so I don't get rusty", if that makes sense. Doing comic colors hardly counts as any practice for what I want to do, so, I am feeling very rusty.
Anyway, I am also feeling uncomfortable posting this stuff online. It's been getting harder to get feedback; But If I post stuff like this, I offend people who look up to me, it seems. I can't be negative - but heck, I don't feel like I am being negative for being negative. My art is not working and I am having trouble figuring out why. I don't even know where to ask for help anymore, so i'm coming to the conclusion I should probably hide in my cave and do a lot of soul searching without external interference anyway.
Here is today's study, trying to mash up a couple of refs into one thing and seeing it works. Rapoza, Jana Schirmer, Gil Elvegren, and the infamous Michael Bay Blue © rim light.
here is hoping this don't explode in my face