01-15-2021, 10:35 PM
Great thread Jon, and something I recognize a lot myself. What I'm about to say may not apply to you, but it is something that has helped me a lot in my own studies recently.
I have spent about one decade now studying art and trying to become an artist, and I just don't feel like I am where I should be. I always dreamt back in the days that I would become as good as the artists I looked up to in no-time if I just kept grinding away with classes, studies, and such ... But it just hasn't happened! I have come to realize that I need to make drastic changes this year if I want my art to evolve and become drastically better.
I really recommend the book "Mastery" by Robert Greene. One of the key takeaways from that book is that we tend to over-study what we are already good at. In my case, I tended to study drawing lineart and figure drawing over and over, because I am relatively good at it, and it stroked my ego to make good figure drawing. This, of course, is NOT what I need to focus my time on! Maybe that is something you recognize in yourself? You have a lot of stuff you want to learn but you fall back into studying "the basics" or stuff you already know well because it enables you to produce stuff whit little effort (Not saying this to be mean, it's simply something I recognize in myself).
This year, I have decided to devote all my time to my personal project "The Secret Valley" to become better in all aspects of Game Art. It has forced me to study a lot of subjects and software that I am not familiar with, and it has been very rewarding to break down this huge project into many, many small tasks that all come together into one solid product.
In your case, you probably need to break down your goal into many small tasks and then tackle them one by one. It's gonna TAKE TIME, but that's just how it is! Nothing comes overnight.
By looking at your reference, I can see that the artist is using a lot of cool techniques in terms of drawing, composition, the use of color, painting techniques, etc ... So maybe your first task is "learn how to draw the figure from hard camera angles". The second is "Read and study comic composition". The third is "learn how to paint those backgrounds and how to properly use a color palette like my reference" and so on ... You need to treat it like a scientific project! What software can you use? What classes or resources do you need? Maybe you need to jump to tutorials constantly on youtube to research stuff? Expect this project to be a long road!
These are my thoughts, I hope they make sense. I wrote it all out in one sitting! :)
I have spent about one decade now studying art and trying to become an artist, and I just don't feel like I am where I should be. I always dreamt back in the days that I would become as good as the artists I looked up to in no-time if I just kept grinding away with classes, studies, and such ... But it just hasn't happened! I have come to realize that I need to make drastic changes this year if I want my art to evolve and become drastically better.
I really recommend the book "Mastery" by Robert Greene. One of the key takeaways from that book is that we tend to over-study what we are already good at. In my case, I tended to study drawing lineart and figure drawing over and over, because I am relatively good at it, and it stroked my ego to make good figure drawing. This, of course, is NOT what I need to focus my time on! Maybe that is something you recognize in yourself? You have a lot of stuff you want to learn but you fall back into studying "the basics" or stuff you already know well because it enables you to produce stuff whit little effort (Not saying this to be mean, it's simply something I recognize in myself).
This year, I have decided to devote all my time to my personal project "The Secret Valley" to become better in all aspects of Game Art. It has forced me to study a lot of subjects and software that I am not familiar with, and it has been very rewarding to break down this huge project into many, many small tasks that all come together into one solid product.
In your case, you probably need to break down your goal into many small tasks and then tackle them one by one. It's gonna TAKE TIME, but that's just how it is! Nothing comes overnight.
By looking at your reference, I can see that the artist is using a lot of cool techniques in terms of drawing, composition, the use of color, painting techniques, etc ... So maybe your first task is "learn how to draw the figure from hard camera angles". The second is "Read and study comic composition". The third is "learn how to paint those backgrounds and how to properly use a color palette like my reference" and so on ... You need to treat it like a scientific project! What software can you use? What classes or resources do you need? Maybe you need to jump to tutorials constantly on youtube to research stuff? Expect this project to be a long road!
These are my thoughts, I hope they make sense. I wrote it all out in one sitting! :)