Crimson Daggers — Art forum - DEATHLINE

Learn how to render like the 80's to 00's

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 04:07:56 +0000

Grew up seeing some of the most baller video game and movie art known to man and i just really wanna get a handle on that style of art. Kinda hard to explain, but i just love that art style and i wanna master it.

POV: u r me and a can't get out of bed :')

Thu, 16 Sep 2021 11:22:00 +0000

'aight so I have absolutely zero clue how to phrase and organize this so I'm just gonna do it.

Long story short: I need to get out of bed. Mental health issues and executive dysfunction paired with the fact that I have no school or job at the moment (I'm getting there tho! :D) makes that a difficult task sometimes.

So for the next seven days, first thing in the morning, all I'm gonna do it concentrate on getting out of bed. No stressing over breakfast, how to structure my day, what drawing exercises to do, no obsessing over drawings that didn't turn out good the day before. Just get out of bed.

In an ideal world I would get up at 5-6 am but for the sake of being realistic, I'm gonna shoot for 8 pm and take it from there.

Friday: I am uppppppppp, with tea:)
Saturday: Opps forgot to update when I got up rip BUT am back with more tea and knitting supplies ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Sunday: I'm out of tea :c
Monday: shdfkjsdhf late edit but had dr appointment so had to get up early
Tuesday: I HAVE GOTTEN OUT OF BED BUT NO DRAWINGGGGGG ;-;
Wednesday: IVE BEEN UP ALL DAY, JUST BUSY CELEBRATING ATUUMN EQUINOX
Thursday: 7 DAYS BOIISSSS. Getting out of bed has actually been easier so das good, now I jsut got to get back into the habit of practicing my drawing lmao

New to the forum, need advice on illustration focus

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 17:04:02 +0000

Hi guys!

I found this forum via Mohammed Agbadi's YouTube channel. My goal is to become a professional illustrator, and I haven't really focused on any areas of study aside from portraits. My ideal job is illustrating books like the Dungeons and Dragons guidebooks, and illustrating posters for animation (ex. anime movies, Netflix animation shows, etc.)

Here's what my work currently looks like: www.instagram.com/luciacreatrix

Currently, I paint several hours a day and I take courses on Schoolism. I'm currently studying realistic color/lighting, and practicing dynamic angles and poses on my own. After this, I want to focus more on backgrounds/environments (in the context of character illustrations), and then move onto color and mood (the class that naturally follows the lighting class I am currently taking) and then focus on character design.

As you can see my plans are pretty general, I would greatly appreciate any specific advice you have (video series, art books to read, exercise types etc.).

Thanks in advance!

Creating a fool proof, simple schedule...?!

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 17:06:11 +0000

Hi guys! Reaching out for advice, opinions and thoughts from you daggers!

About every 6 months or so, I assess just wtf I'm doing with my time, look at where I want to be and realise I need to be doing things differently to get there.

I spend a few days with a couple of whiteboards figuring out what I want my art to look like, dividing up all the skills I need to get it there, exercises to practice them all, then try and fit it all into the available hours I have. The longer I spend on it, the more detailed the plans and steps, the more I have to cull, and the more complex the ‘action’ part of it becomes.

When I do finally put it into action... I realise after a while that idk wtf I'm doing, I don't know how to really practice this skill and have given myself tasks that aren't as beneficial as they could be. My plans were needlessly complex and missed out the most crucial aspects and usually end up unmanageable time-wise.

The time stuff is fixable, just be realistic and don't underestimate the time stuff takes or over estimate the time I have available. I’m getting better at that. The other stuff however... I'm really struggling!

For someone who has a grasp on the fundamentals. By no means mastered them, but has enough understanding to benefit more from studying pro artwork directly, rather than going through drawabox or Hampton anatomy again, what are some ways to get the most out your practice time?

The goal is very specific this time. ‘Be able to produce comic art like Karl Kerschl in Gotham Academy’ (here’s a reference so this isn’t just a huge wall of text!)

pic_048.jpg (Size: 1.11 MB / Downloads: 1132)
pic_056.jpg (Size: 1.06 MB / Downloads: 1134)

My current plans are looking something like this:

Schedule in a ‘weaknesses’ slot, maybe one hour per day where I dip into stuff on my list of identified weaknesses. Currently it has stuff like ‘facial expressions’, ‘lower legs’, ‘keeping stuff on model’. I don’t hammer these endlessly, just do an hour study on one then move it to the bottom of the list.

‘Developing a process for getting the most out of studies’: Just studying the comics above would only make me a poor imitation of those artists, so the list of artists/art parents that I want to be influenced by has been gathered. Paintings, drawings, layouts, character designs etc. Big ol’ folders full of reference. Now what XD?

Definitely some element of studying, making notes and then applying to my own work is required. As I delve into plans on how to enact this, it all gets muddy and overly complex. Do quick studies and then quick character drawings of my own? Redraw their characters in different poses? Use photo reference for the poses or draw from imagination? With painting studies do them quick then a long one of my own? Long then quick one of my own? Analyse the painting style but apply it in a different type of environment? Try and paint the same environment from memory? The list goes on and on, all seem like useful and valuable exercises, and I end up trying to schedule them all in, or end up with pages of exercises to choose from that’s so big I get overwhelmed and resort to just doing the quickest, easiest ones to set up (2 min gestures from photos… again…).

Then when I do get stuck into it, I start to doubt that what I am doing is really useful, since it was only my own amateur artist brain that thought this up, no teacher or pro said to do it in this specific way and based on past experience of my brain, it tends to make things unnecessarily complex. Sometimes I think a case study type approach would be better… like pick an IP and study the hell out of it, and produce an artwork in that style. Again it feels super useful, but then I worry I am neglecting some character skills if I am focusing on finished illustrations as the final goal.

It all becomes overwhelming and I fall back on doing the same inefficient studies, or pushing ahead with my work knowing it’s not improving cause I’m not learning anything new.

How do you guys study from pro’s? Is there a simple, foolproof method like a ‘Do this, then do this’ type of approach - that won’t cover everything - but will get a lot of it covered, so I can free myself up from thinking about [i]what[/i] I am going to do, and just get on and do stuff, churning out those studies and drawings/paintings and making those sick gains!

I thought about some kind of mentorship or consulting session with some kind of pro artist, but my notes and plans are so long and complicated and my thoughts so unformulated I don’t think I’d be able to provide them with the right info to get the right advice back, and don’t want to just dump pages of disconnected notes on anyone >.<

Yeah! That’ll do for now. Really interested to hear any responses! Guess this was a kind of rant/blog post more than a question, but I appreciate anyone who gets through it all, and hopefully the responses can help other people in similar positions!

Goals for 2021

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 00:40:39 +0000

I'd like to get my form better, render objects in space better, and understand color better.

Form wise I've been getting my chicken scratch under control, but more so understanding the shapes that the human figure is made up of. Arms and hands bug me out, though I feel like it's been clicking lately - I'll post my studies tomorrow on those.

I absolutely love machine making and I have a very hard time making the shapes dynamic and believable in their space. I think it's amazing how people can make all those wires and buttons without it being lost in the rest of the image, which is something I'd like to achieve in my own art. See Nikolay Georgiev for some great shit.

There's also being able to translate space in a perspective, to get across the thickness of your walls, to show how high or wide your room is - also something for me to study.

I've thought about doing Draw-A-Box, though I'll be honest and say it seems intimidating. However I'm finding more and more in my own art that it would be more good than harm. Worse case scenario I get burnt out.

Lastly, color-wise - I'm not great with colored pencils, my values tend to get muddy when shading and honestly I blow when it comes to color schemes. I always stick with split complimentary or monochromatic, so I'd like to get out of my comfort zone with that.

I saw in another thread about making a "dream portfolio", and that sounds like a good idea. I'll upload more to my book later tomorrow.

Is there any similar to COW here?

2021 Goals

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 19:30:41 +0000

Hey there, been on here for quite a while and have been posting a lot more in my Sketchbook than I used to since now I put about 4 to 6 hours a day drawing and been reading books and taking courses (On MEGA)

Basically, I made a picture of my work from 2019 and 2020 to compare them and saw that I did improve quite a bit. BUT, I feel like I could be doing a lot better. So now, since we are coming to an end of a fucking terrible year, I wanted to ask what I should be improving on and what my goals this upcoming year should be. Any suggestions and criticism would be great.

Right now I think I should...

1. Continue to study anatomy
2. Make concept art design sheets for mock portfolio
3. Make some finished illustrations

2019-2020Progress.jpg (Size: 1.6 MB / Downloads: 264)

Rate my skill level

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 03:24:14 +0000

Just a disclaimer this post may not be in the right section but it touch the aspect of personal development so i thought it was in the right place so excuse me in advance if this might be suited to be posted in an other section.

Ok so for those who are here for a few years you must be kinda familar with my work but probably aren't fully aware what i am trying to achieve and i had a few years of exploration and fight with self doubt etc.This fight isn't over yet as i struggling sometime to know what i should put in my ''art plate'' everyday.

I feel like i have a been exploring so much aspect of design that now concept art is probably the default answers people would box me in .I enjoy designing props,creature and character but i don't necessarly feel like i want to specialize in creature anymore .I know i like fantasy also and i don't have a strong lean toward realism but i do enjoy science fiction to refresh my taste bud and keep it interesting for myself but it doesn't necessarly have to be part of what i want to sell as something i am willing do work for money for since i would enjoy mostly fantasy base project.

Now i have a question for those who been following my sketchbook over the years or if you want to look at it.Just click the link

http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/user-3050.html

My question is to you what do you think are the drawing skill and painting skill that aren't up to the standard when you compare it to the table below and what skill level you would put me in in those skill from low,moderate,high?

Seem like a big question to ask and i am not sure it would be advise to ask people outside of myself but i feel like i still need to be honest about where i am with myself and that include going out and getting honest feedback from the community even those i know how much i like to be wrong something and i know it upset the community when i do that because i can feel they do care and wish i could see form there perspective which isn't possible even if i try as much as i can i hope to open the door to my critic and let them poke my ego that need even if fragile a good dose of reality check i will do my best to sit back and not be so defensive like i am use to and if my ego talk well let it be a sign that you might have hit the nerve of the issue.

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My Overall Goals before 2021 starts

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 15:53:32 +0000

Hello, I'm atceterra! I'm an aspiring artist who wishes to create my own animated series.

I'm know that I can't commit that much as a student right now but I guess posting will help me be more accountable of the stuff I do. I guess I'll start small and then go big if I ever exceed it

1) Finish Marshall Vandruff's video course (https://marshallart.com/SHOP/all-product...ng-series/) and go through the How to Draw book as a supplement. Currently going through the 3rd part so that leaves me with 9 more vids to go. Maybe at least 10 mins watching it each day

2) Finally tackle my biggest weakness: backgrounds. Make at least 1 polished fantasy background before new year

If you guys have any suggestion or recs I'd be stoked to hear it! But as of now, I think this will be adequate enough to let me grasp my draftmanship more before transitioning to anatomy then painting.

achievements and new goals for the future

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 14:56:34 +0000

Hi guys,
I'm not very active on this site, I haven't post anything for more than a year.
Since last time I've been really working my butt off and the improvements are quite visible.
But I want more, I want to become better and better every year.
I really wish I can realize my dreams of become a true character design, cause that's what I like to do and, luckely, is what I'm best at.
No matter what is gonna cost me, one day I'm gonna look at some animated movie and I'm gonna say "Hey you see that character? I draw it from scratch".

But first I need to get better, I need to study more and improve in these categories:
- background
- light shading
- need to learn something like blender or zbrush
- digital skills
- collaboration projects

Sooo, wish me luck!
And if I you have some advices please let me now, I wuold really appreciate it :)

My Long Term Goals and my goals for 2020

Sat, 11 Jul 2020 12:39:42 +0000

My goal for 2020 is to establish a practice schedule that works for me, allowing me to work on the skills that I need to at a decent pace. My long term goal is to work in character and game design and also do some comic book work.

Artloader's Goals For 2020

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 21:49:11 +0000

My creative goal for 2020 is very simple:

Put up at least 4 pages of my comicbook onto my website by the end of 2020

To achieve this I am going to use Mini Habits:

1. Write at least 10 words of my comicbook story every day.
2. Make at least 3 art marks every day (pencil lines or paintbrush strokes).

These tasks are so small that it should be quite difficult for me to fail to do them.
If I do them every day then they will build into a habit.
Habits can have a huge impact.

My goals for 2020

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 20:01:39 +0000

New decade, and new goals! It is time to get back into some good ol-time GRINDING!
My goals for 2020 are as follows:

Art goals:
* Finish one new portfolio piece every month and update my artstation/Deviantart with it.
* Post an update to CD forums and my FB site atleast once every week, no matter how small (studies or sketches)
* Finally Finish studying from both of Scott roberstons books.
* Finish the other 5 art classes I got on my computer at the moment and do all the exercises included.

Networking/community/financial goals:
* Attend every scheduled sketchmeet in my city (it happens reguarly once a month).
* Increase my friends/contacts on Linkedin from 300 to 500.
* Get my FB friend count up to 2000 from about 1450 at the moment.
* Reach 200 followers on artstation (from 77 at the moment).
* Make atleast 2 crits/overpaints and 1 update post on the CD forum every week.
* Start my own art page on FB and get atleast 100 followers.
* Start an instagram account and keep it updated with atleast one art related post every month.
* Have atleast 1 years worth of living expenses on my savings account when the year is over.
* Increase my income from art with atleast 50%
* If my income is increased, donate atleast 100 euros to CD forums.

Fitness goals:
* Keep up with intermittent fasting for the rest of the year (fasting for 24 hours every saturday).
* Only two cheat meals a week (junk food or "sweets session").
* Get into the best shape of my life (lowering my bodyfat bscly).
* Increase my strenght to a personal best.

Other goals:
* Not visiting a procrastination site like reddit/twitter and similar for the entire year.

All of theese goals will be pursued while working full-time at a game studio for atleast the first half of the year (hopefully, this will be extended to the ENTIRE year and beyond). Wish me luck guys!

Alright that's it

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 15:38:30 +0000

No more fucking around. As of this moment I am making a promise to myself, that I am going to dedicate whatever free time i have to gitting gud so that I can live a more meaningful and fulfilling life. Otherwise I'll finally make use of the pullup bar in my garage and hang myself from it.
I'll post tonight after work.

New Here! (Kind Of)

Sun, 26 Nov 2017 15:05:38 +0000

Hi everyone!

My name is Sam, I'm 22 and I thought it would be a good idea to start utilising crimson daggers for self improvement. As much as i'd like to say I'm new here, it is not so! I joined here about 3 maybe 4 years ago now and was active for a while, participating in some of the contests and joining in with the community, also watching Dave Rapoza's videos and Dan Warren's videos and trying to soak up as much information as possible. I guess as time went on, life just seemed to drift me away from Crimson Daggers. I really wanted to be a concept artist & Illustrator when I joined crimson daggers, all those years ago and I still do now.

I was studying lots back then, probably in the most harmful way possible to myself by not really taking things seriously and not applying my studies, coupling this with going to University which had I known what I do now about Art education for concept art and illustration in Universities in the UK, I would not have gone and would have gotten my act together way back then and studied from home. But shit ... what're you going to do, I knew jack about what I really needed to do to Improve. So I graduated University and got my degree, finding myself once again back at home and feeling a little lost as to where I was, Who I was and what I was going to do.

From then up until now it's been a rocky road filled with basically feeling shitty and not knowing how to improve and doing different things, not finishing them. Finding a new path and then finding that the path fizzles into darkness and then finding another path and losing that one too. It's been really hard to stay motivated while that was happening, I felt like I had lost my knowledge of how to study, or what to study or basically how to learn things and improve myself.

Then cut to now, I feel like I have found it again! I got back into watching some of Dave Rapoza and Dan Warren's livestreams again on Twitch. This time really listening closely to what they have to say on learning, this time with a maturer 22 year old brain as apposed to naive 16 - 17 year old Sam. Things really started to make sense now, and I realised that I have been really overthinking and over complicating things for the past few years, what they were saying seemed to resonate with me so much more. So since now I have a day job which I have to work, I've been making a schedule for myself to study from in the evenings after work and on the weekends pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday. Not to mention finishing at 2:00pm on Fridays so I get those too.

I work as a product designer for a gothic giftware company, so its not so bad being paid to design and paint still, but really in all honesty. I hate the place, a year in working there and I can tell its just crap, especially with the office politics that go on. Anyway I won't dwell on that. The point is, thanks to Dave and Dan's wisdom I feel now I am somewhat on the right path, I feel like I have found what it is to learn again and feel what its like to have information going into my brain. Which is really a nice feeling to have, I know its not going to be like this all the time as its a bloody long road to go down, but I feel at 22 years old I am finally ready to put in the work.

My ultimate goal will be to work as a Concept Artist in the Game or films industry and be able to some day work on
some of the types of Game and film that I like. Be it in a studio if that gets my foot in the door or freelance. To be able to reach the levels of some of my favourite artists and feel that I have improved is also a big goal. AS long as i am learning and applying my studies and seeing an improvement from now on I'll be very happy!

This is also why I've come back to crimson daggers. I feel like I need to get more critiques on my work and have it torn apart so I can work on my weaknesses.

Sorry for the long message people, I have wanted to get this all off my chest for a long time.

Thanks very much all ! Nice to meet everyone.

-Sam

Mari [Level 0]

Thu, 20 Jul 2017 15:34:40 +0000

Credit to BadWoolf for this gamification idea. I've tweaked it to suit my goals.

My name is Maria, or Mari, if you prefer, and I while I have been drawing as a hobby since I was a child, I never took it seriously, and for the most part, it was just something I did when bored or for fun. With that being said, I always had a dream of turning it into something more, getting better, and I'm finally wanting to put in the time and dedication to making my dreams come true. I might not ever be a professional, but I've always wanted to be able to come up with a concept in my head, and have my finished product actually represent my vision. If I could really express myself in my art, I would be happy. So, without further ado...

Aims:
• Create a portfolio with at least 15 finished pieces.
• Improve art quality through consistent study, trial and error.
• To complete a physical sketchbook.
• To stop negatively comparing myself to others.
• Embrace failure.

Rules:
• Any action that results in progress towards your portfolio gains XP.
• You must gain XP to level up.
• Each level must be started at 0 XP, unless you have XP that rolled over from the previous level (e.g. you needed 50 XP to progress from the last level, but gained 100 XP for an action, giving you a 50 XP head start on the next level).
• Each level XP amount must be fully earned before moving on to the boss fights.
• Boss fights do not earn you XP.
• You will gain extra XP for paintings which include a subject matter which is not yet represented in your portfolio (See list)
• Going out of your comfort zone is encouraged will be rewarded with extra XP (See list).
• To level up, post a breakdown of your XP gains for that level and a jpg of your boss fight in the thread.
• To "finish" a challenge, you must either start from scratch or complete a WIP.
• If an action or boss fight requires you to study/paint for [x] hours, it doesn’t have to be completed in one session.

Ways to Earn
• Study for one hour. - 100 XP
• Finish an illustration. - 100 XP
• Complete a master study. - 100 XP
• Complete a self-portrait. - 100 XP
• Complete a still life. - 100 XP
• Fill a page in your sketchbook (Digital or otherwise). - 50 XP
• Post work online for feedback. - 10 XP

Bonus XP Challenge
Earn an extra 100 XP for finished work that contains any of these unfamiliar subject matters, or 50 XP for simply studying them:
• Reflective surfaces (metal, glass, mirrors, water, etc).
• Machinery/Cars
• Sheer clothing.
• Varying facial expression/emotion.

Not Yet in Portfolio
• Life Drawings
• To be written.

‘Storytelling Elements’ Bonus XP:
The storytelling bonuses only apply to illustrations.
• 50 XP for implied interaction between two characters (e.g. looking at each other)
• 100 XP for actual character interaction (e.g. fighting, kissing, chasing), each extra character, clear character motive (the viewer can tell exactly what the character wants), clear character history (the past, profession or class of the character are obvious), and each prop which supports the story (magical artifact, weapon).
• 500 XP if your illustration has a dual narrative – ie, characters in the foreground are interacting in one way, and characters in the background are showing something else happening in the scene.

Levels:
Level One: 1,000 XP           Boss Fight: Finish any painting
Level Two: 2,000 XP Boss Fight: Study for 5 hours
Level Three: 3,000 XP         Boss Fight: Study 25 thumbs, then create 25 of your own.
Level Four: 4,000 XP           Boss Fight: Finish any painting
Level Five: 5,000 XP            Boss Fight: Finish an illustration
Level Six: 6,000 XP Boss Fight: Study for 10 hours
Level Seven: 7,000 XP         Boss Fight: Finish any two paintings
Level Eight: 8,000 XP           Boss Fight: Study 50 thumbs, then create 50 of your own.
Level Nine: 9,000 XP            Boss Fight: Finish an illustration
Level Ten: 10,000 XP Boss Fight: Finish two illustrations