03-14-2013, 03:43 AM
Hey monkeybread,
About that... I already decided a long time ago not to do anything unless it satisfied those 3 things, but guess what, I still get e-mail from certain developers asking for free work for some kind of no-budget game trying to clone a big name. Of course I'm gonna work for nothing because most of those games won't even make it and if they promise I'm going to be featured when they launch, then I've just worked for fun.
But what happened a lot of times, especially when I had to do character commissions, is I just hated the final result of my work, I wouldn't even put my name on it... and I just couldn't figure out why.
I took a 4 year break, trying to figure out what segment of art I want to approach, not doing anything else than painting all day long. No jobs, no money, no going out, no nothing. Mother was bothering me every single day, telling me I'm just wasting time and that I must get a job. This made me work even harder and by wishing to evolve faster I might jumped some elementary steps.
So right now I'm still struggling with the workflow, I just can't seem to prepare my canvas and think about every element, where is it going to be placed, how far, how close, and I can't put every element on a layer because it would be too much, so my work becomes clumsy, unreadable because sometimes not even I can tell what's going on in there, what's in the front, what's in the back. That's because I just paint what I see, and I improvise a lot. If I have an idea and suddenly I see something else between some shapes and textures, I just paint it over.
I totally agree with you, if you made it to a decent level where you can take out commissions and do decent work, then the projects will definitely start coming.
I don't think I'm there yet. Sometimes I get great work, sometimes I get crap that I don't even bother posting.
The point is I gotta get to that decent level and the only way I can do that is to figure out the steps of my work process.
Here's a concept done for that kind of company I was talking about, no money, no hopes for this game, but I still tried to do my best, taking it as a test, to see how well I would do on a real commission.
And although I like it, I still struggled with depth and contrast.
About that... I already decided a long time ago not to do anything unless it satisfied those 3 things, but guess what, I still get e-mail from certain developers asking for free work for some kind of no-budget game trying to clone a big name. Of course I'm gonna work for nothing because most of those games won't even make it and if they promise I'm going to be featured when they launch, then I've just worked for fun.
But what happened a lot of times, especially when I had to do character commissions, is I just hated the final result of my work, I wouldn't even put my name on it... and I just couldn't figure out why.
I took a 4 year break, trying to figure out what segment of art I want to approach, not doing anything else than painting all day long. No jobs, no money, no going out, no nothing. Mother was bothering me every single day, telling me I'm just wasting time and that I must get a job. This made me work even harder and by wishing to evolve faster I might jumped some elementary steps.
So right now I'm still struggling with the workflow, I just can't seem to prepare my canvas and think about every element, where is it going to be placed, how far, how close, and I can't put every element on a layer because it would be too much, so my work becomes clumsy, unreadable because sometimes not even I can tell what's going on in there, what's in the front, what's in the back. That's because I just paint what I see, and I improvise a lot. If I have an idea and suddenly I see something else between some shapes and textures, I just paint it over.
I totally agree with you, if you made it to a decent level where you can take out commissions and do decent work, then the projects will definitely start coming.
I don't think I'm there yet. Sometimes I get great work, sometimes I get crap that I don't even bother posting.
The point is I gotta get to that decent level and the only way I can do that is to figure out the steps of my work process.
Here's a concept done for that kind of company I was talking about, no money, no hopes for this game, but I still tried to do my best, taking it as a test, to see how well I would do on a real commission.
And although I like it, I still struggled with depth and contrast.