06-24-2016, 08:07 PM
Hmm, you know what I've always felt about you man since all those years ago at the sketchathon is that your skills have always been way way in advance of your mental game. And that's not an insult, but I mean, it seems like you are swayed too much by this notion of needing everything to be perfect before it is worth anything. You seem to want everything to line up, including your own "motivation" or passion before you consider it a worthwhile endeavour. It just doesn't work that way.
You do SO much awesome study and work, and I\m pretty sure you are capable right now of doing amazing finished work...I mean it's so obvious to anyone looking at your work, but the thing lacking is conviction and succumbing to this self-doubt way too much. I'm not going to say any more on that, because I've already written essays on other people's sketchbooks about the mental game because I know how important it is. Just be aware that perfectionism can be beneficial on the skills development side up to a point but after that point it becomes totally debilitating. Being objectively critical of your own work is fine, but it should never get you down to the point where you think nothing is worth finishing. I think you reach that point too soon, get discouraged/bored and end up abandoning things early.
From what you said, to me it sounds like straight out concept design is WAY more your thing right now, than illustration is. It lends itself to that "getting bored quickly" tendency you have. It means you can bust out 10 ideas well enough without having to go too far into render polish. Alternatively you can do what I did about two years ago, when I realised I had the same problem, and that was to force myself to finish just one single illustration to as high a polish as I could. I fucking hated it...but I learned I could do it. The next time was easier, and I actually liked it! Now I have to do it for every piece, and boredom doesn't even factor in. it's just part of the process. Before I was trying to be a "concept designer" now I realise illustration is probably more my thing, because I take pride and joy in the process and the finish...not just banging out ideas. But even then....like don't worry about just doing one thing for a while...and then switching streams for a while...just don't bounce often between wildly different things I guess, since a bit of focus is a good thing.
Or perhaps you need to just do more concept work, and concept work that is tied together into one related project. That way you can do Enviros / scenes /vehicles and characters but still have them feel like a cohesive set, that you can present in your folio that will get you lots of work. A personal project is very fulfilling as well, so if you can find something to work on, I definitely recommend it. I'm actually curious about your folio, do you have a link?
I agree that with your characters, you tend to make them all about the anatomy. Even that minotaur for example....very neat man, but it's pretty generic. Just start to add things to it...accessories, tattoos, weapon inscriptions and design: basically the next step. What you are doign is cool for study, but start to add more design for sure. You only learn design by applying it, so if you keep not trying to do finished designs and abandoning them, you will only learn half the lesson.
That would be my suggestion, on top of trying to take things to a stage where regardless of the technical finish, they actually feel like finished ideas.
*Edit. One last thing I forgot to mention: That thing about using reference and shooting your own, etc. I have no idea why people feel there is some sort of greater merit involved in drawing representational things from out of their head rather than using reference. It's frankly a ridiculous notion. All the great artists used reference. Gurney always uses reference, would you see him as some sort of lesser artist? Leonardo, Sargent, Zorn...I mean anyone really except some savants I guess! Even Frazetta who may have been a genius with imaginative figure creation, certainly didn't get that way without using no reference at all in his development. I'll bet he would still use reference if he was having issues. Granted when you get to a certain level you may not ever need it (eg Kim Jung Gi) but essentially I think they are actually still using reference...the visual reference in their heads. What difference does it make if all things being equal, it's in your head or it's from a model? None at all to the final product, in only matters to the process. Generally the only people that care about your process is yourself, and maybe a handful of other artists interested in learning from you. The wider world doesn't give one crap about it.
You do SO much awesome study and work, and I\m pretty sure you are capable right now of doing amazing finished work...I mean it's so obvious to anyone looking at your work, but the thing lacking is conviction and succumbing to this self-doubt way too much. I'm not going to say any more on that, because I've already written essays on other people's sketchbooks about the mental game because I know how important it is. Just be aware that perfectionism can be beneficial on the skills development side up to a point but after that point it becomes totally debilitating. Being objectively critical of your own work is fine, but it should never get you down to the point where you think nothing is worth finishing. I think you reach that point too soon, get discouraged/bored and end up abandoning things early.
From what you said, to me it sounds like straight out concept design is WAY more your thing right now, than illustration is. It lends itself to that "getting bored quickly" tendency you have. It means you can bust out 10 ideas well enough without having to go too far into render polish. Alternatively you can do what I did about two years ago, when I realised I had the same problem, and that was to force myself to finish just one single illustration to as high a polish as I could. I fucking hated it...but I learned I could do it. The next time was easier, and I actually liked it! Now I have to do it for every piece, and boredom doesn't even factor in. it's just part of the process. Before I was trying to be a "concept designer" now I realise illustration is probably more my thing, because I take pride and joy in the process and the finish...not just banging out ideas. But even then....like don't worry about just doing one thing for a while...and then switching streams for a while...just don't bounce often between wildly different things I guess, since a bit of focus is a good thing.
Or perhaps you need to just do more concept work, and concept work that is tied together into one related project. That way you can do Enviros / scenes /vehicles and characters but still have them feel like a cohesive set, that you can present in your folio that will get you lots of work. A personal project is very fulfilling as well, so if you can find something to work on, I definitely recommend it. I'm actually curious about your folio, do you have a link?
I agree that with your characters, you tend to make them all about the anatomy. Even that minotaur for example....very neat man, but it's pretty generic. Just start to add things to it...accessories, tattoos, weapon inscriptions and design: basically the next step. What you are doign is cool for study, but start to add more design for sure. You only learn design by applying it, so if you keep not trying to do finished designs and abandoning them, you will only learn half the lesson.
That would be my suggestion, on top of trying to take things to a stage where regardless of the technical finish, they actually feel like finished ideas.
*Edit. One last thing I forgot to mention: That thing about using reference and shooting your own, etc. I have no idea why people feel there is some sort of greater merit involved in drawing representational things from out of their head rather than using reference. It's frankly a ridiculous notion. All the great artists used reference. Gurney always uses reference, would you see him as some sort of lesser artist? Leonardo, Sargent, Zorn...I mean anyone really except some savants I guess! Even Frazetta who may have been a genius with imaginative figure creation, certainly didn't get that way without using no reference at all in his development. I'll bet he would still use reference if he was having issues. Granted when you get to a certain level you may not ever need it (eg Kim Jung Gi) but essentially I think they are actually still using reference...the visual reference in their heads. What difference does it make if all things being equal, it's in your head or it's from a model? None at all to the final product, in only matters to the process. Generally the only people that care about your process is yourself, and maybe a handful of other artists interested in learning from you. The wider world doesn't give one crap about it.