This topic is one of the biggest problems when it comes to being an artist. Finding motivation is hard enough but staying in that state is even harder, to stay motivated it take practice and sacrifice and is not easy.
What can take away from being motivated...anything from friends wanting to hang out, to family, or just life, these are things that can easily distract you and will take time away from you spending time honing your craft, thats not to say that you have control of all these situations particularly life, but trick is rolling with whatever is happening and just pushing through and doing something everyday whether it is a sketch or life drawing, or just quick doodle just as long as your getting your ideas out as much as possible.
A good way to start is making drawing or painting something a habit and part of your daily life, once you get to a point like this it will become easier to make sure that your motivation stays at its highest plus your getting any idea out and after a while idea will come easier and faster.
sources:
Lieu, C. (2013, November 5). Ask the Art Professor: How Do You Stay Motivated After School?. The Huffington Post. Retrieved December 1, 2013, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/clara-lieu/ask-the-art-professor-how_2_b_4216235.html
Monday, December 9, 2013
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Doodling and its importance
Doodling is one of the best ways to build your abilities and try different techniques, the post below is an example of myself doodling.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
gesture drawing
Gesture drawing is a good start to get used to drawing the human form and animal forms, it is useful for getting comfortable with the human form and for getting used to three-dimensional space.
Gesture drawing is one of the foundations for figure drawing, it is the basis and where you should start, it helps by getting comfortable with the human and animal forms as stated above, but also just getting you drawing and trying to draw different things like hands, feet, faces, full figures, etc., another topic it helps with is your visual library which quite important to develop as a concept artist as this where you will draw your reference from and gesture drawing is a good way to learn this as you can ease into drawing something complex and instead of trying to dig into the complexities of the form of a person or animal.
Gesture is the best for practicing different techniques like going from a realistic style to a more cartoon or anime style. Gesture is also good for as stated above exploratory drawing such as anatomy study, and really just trying to draw different things and staying loose, with gesture if you mess up its no big deal. The best way to start really getting into gesture is take an action figure like a gi joe or other toy and just try to do 1 minute sketches of it and see what you can capture in that minute, if you have a friend that has the time, get them to pose for you and for every sketch have them switch to different poses and see what you can get then you could move onto hand and feet then the face and just remember to just stay loose and don't focus on the details, just draw.
sources:
Gesture Drawing as a Learning Skill Part 1: Introduction. (n.d.). Gesture Drawing as a Learning Skill Part 1: Introduction. Retrieved November 28, 2013, from http://www.mmwindowtoart.com/gesturedr
Gesture drawing is one of the foundations for figure drawing, it is the basis and where you should start, it helps by getting comfortable with the human and animal forms as stated above, but also just getting you drawing and trying to draw different things like hands, feet, faces, full figures, etc., another topic it helps with is your visual library which quite important to develop as a concept artist as this where you will draw your reference from and gesture drawing is a good way to learn this as you can ease into drawing something complex and instead of trying to dig into the complexities of the form of a person or animal.
Gesture is the best for practicing different techniques like going from a realistic style to a more cartoon or anime style. Gesture is also good for as stated above exploratory drawing such as anatomy study, and really just trying to draw different things and staying loose, with gesture if you mess up its no big deal. The best way to start really getting into gesture is take an action figure like a gi joe or other toy and just try to do 1 minute sketches of it and see what you can capture in that minute, if you have a friend that has the time, get them to pose for you and for every sketch have them switch to different poses and see what you can get then you could move onto hand and feet then the face and just remember to just stay loose and don't focus on the details, just draw.
sources:
Gesture Drawing as a Learning Skill Part 1: Introduction. (n.d.). Gesture Drawing as a Learning Skill Part 1: Introduction. Retrieved November 28, 2013, from http://www.mmwindowtoart.com/gesturedr
Saturday, November 23, 2013
contour drawing
Contour drawing is drawing with just line, no shading, just line. This along with learning gesture, our some the best ways to learn and advance in drawing, the difference is unlike gesture which is very quick and details are not generally captured, contour is generally slower as you are trying to capture details and form with just line. Contour drawing is when you focus on outlines and edges of objects and using line weight to build a drawing.
What makes contour drawing useful for building drawing skills is you will build the ability to utilize line weight and create drawing and create mass with just line. Learning line weight and building the ability to draw completely in line is a useful tool have.
To start Contour drawing find a simple object like and apple or an orange or a cup and try to draw the object in five minutes and see what you can get in that time, once you get comfortable drawing simple objects move to more advanced objects also go see what you can get in five minutes, now if that gets to easy move to people, if you can try to find a friend to pose for you, as stated before see what you can get in five minutes. Now if all of these things get to easy you should move onto blind continuous contour drawing which is the same thing but you look only at the object you are drawing. when you start blind contour drawing try to see what you can get in ten minutes but as progress move back down to five minutes.
sources:
South, H. (n.d.). An Introduction to Contour Drawing. About.com Drawing / Sketching. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from http://drawsketch.about.com/cs/drawinglessons/a/contourdrawing.htm
What makes contour drawing useful for building drawing skills is you will build the ability to utilize line weight and create drawing and create mass with just line. Learning line weight and building the ability to draw completely in line is a useful tool have.
To start Contour drawing find a simple object like and apple or an orange or a cup and try to draw the object in five minutes and see what you can get in that time, once you get comfortable drawing simple objects move to more advanced objects also go see what you can get in five minutes, now if that gets to easy move to people, if you can try to find a friend to pose for you, as stated before see what you can get in five minutes. Now if all of these things get to easy you should move onto blind continuous contour drawing which is the same thing but you look only at the object you are drawing. when you start blind contour drawing try to see what you can get in ten minutes but as progress move back down to five minutes.
sources:
South, H. (n.d.). An Introduction to Contour Drawing. About.com Drawing / Sketching. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from http://drawsketch.about.com/cs/drawinglessons/a/contourdrawing.htm
drawing from life
Drawing from life is an important part of advancing as an artist and it something you will will be doing your entire art career. Life drawing is exactly what it sounds like, draw things from life. Life drawing helps you as an in many ways for starters it helps build visual library which is quite important as an artist in particular a concept artist. visual library is what concept artist use to create there amazing works of art and having a good visual library can help in understanding form, having the right proportions, and finding balance in a piece, which can only be obtained thru drawing from life.
Just like with gesture and contour drawing, to start life drawing start with simple objects like a cup or orange and see what you can get in ten to fifteen minutes once you have gotten comfortable with simple object move onto harder object like animals or thing lots of detail like fire hydrant and see what you can get in fifteen or twenty minutes, after this it would be time to move onto long life drawing sessions.
Long life session can take anywhere from thirty minutes to four or five hours, These types of sessions are meant to take time and capture whatever it is your drawing. They will be quite long but as you progress you will find that your speed will increase and increase and you will notice thing that would have taking you 2 or 3 days to draw may only take 2 days and so on, the best thing is just patience and dedication.
Sources:
Long, G. (n.d.). The Importance of life drawing for the serious visual artist. St Ives School of Painting. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from http://schoolofpainting.co.uk/the-importance-of-life-drawing-for-the-serious-visual-artist/
Zhu, F. (2012, May 4). // How to Build up Your Visual Library by Feng Zhu. // How to Build up Your Visual Library by Feng Zhu. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from http://www.3dtotal.com/index_tutorial_detailed.php?id=1529#.UqAbLmRDvfY
Just like with gesture and contour drawing, to start life drawing start with simple objects like a cup or orange and see what you can get in ten to fifteen minutes once you have gotten comfortable with simple object move onto harder object like animals or thing lots of detail like fire hydrant and see what you can get in fifteen or twenty minutes, after this it would be time to move onto long life drawing sessions.
Long life session can take anywhere from thirty minutes to four or five hours, These types of sessions are meant to take time and capture whatever it is your drawing. They will be quite long but as you progress you will find that your speed will increase and increase and you will notice thing that would have taking you 2 or 3 days to draw may only take 2 days and so on, the best thing is just patience and dedication.
Sources:
Long, G. (n.d.). The Importance of life drawing for the serious visual artist. St Ives School of Painting. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from http://schoolofpainting.co.uk/the-importance-of-life-drawing-for-the-serious-visual-artist/
Zhu, F. (2012, May 4). // How to Build up Your Visual Library by Feng Zhu. // How to Build up Your Visual Library by Feng Zhu. Retrieved November 23, 2013, from http://www.3dtotal.com/index_tutorial_detailed.php?id=1529#.UqAbLmRDvfY
Friday, November 15, 2013
Getting started: pt1.
To begin your start as a concept artist you need to start drawing or painting, so let's start with materials you will need to get started. This post will go over materials for those that need materials in a pinch and for those that have a little excess money to spend so lets get right into it.
Fine Line or Automatic pencil
Lead holder or Mechanical
Wood Encased
Lets not forget about erasers types:
Peel-Off
Sharpen-able pencil
Gum
Kneaded
Pink standard
Blu-tac
We will go over painting and what you need in part 2
sources:
Rutledge, J. (n.d.). Having different types of erasers in your drawing toolbox will be needed to produce realistic drawings.. Different Types of Erasers are used by Artists to Achieve Realistic Drawings.. Retrieved November 15, 2013, from http://www.easy-drawing-lessons.com/types-of-erasers.html
1.pencil and paper. This first thing you should get to get started drawing and making the step to start you path to get into concept art, the question now is what type of paper or pencil to get, as there so many thing you could get. The cheapest thing you could get and that will get all the bang for your buck would be a regular pencil and printing paper, its cheap, you can get these supplies anywhere and they serve multiple purposes, it a good way start drawing without having to buy more expensive art supplies like art pencils and sketchbooks. Lets talk about sketchbook and more specialized drawing supplies, a sketchbook is a good start if you have a little extra to spend, not say sketchbooks can break the bank but can definitely be more pricey than printing paper. The good thing about sketchbooks is they come in various shapes, sizes, paper textures, color, and can be made for specific purposes so you should try any type you can get your hands on, now on to pencils. Just like with paper there various types pencils you use to draw with the most common are wood pencils or mechanical pencils which once again pick which ever pencil you find comfortable, I will provide links of the various types of paper and sketchbooks and pencils you can use at your disposal.
Ok lets get into some of the big types paper that you run into your local art store.
paper types:
So there are six main paper types that are used, now there are various paper types that are in between these six types but each can put within the six main types.
Lets move onto pencil types:
Fine Line or Automatic pencil
Lead holder or Mechanical
Wood Encased
Lets not forget about erasers types:
Peel-Off
Sharpen-able pencil
Gum
Kneaded
Pink standard
Blu-tac
We will go over painting and what you need in part 2
sources:
Rutledge, J. (n.d.). Having different types of erasers in your drawing toolbox will be needed to produce realistic drawings.. Different Types of Erasers are used by Artists to Achieve Realistic Drawings.. Retrieved November 15, 2013, from http://www.easy-drawing-lessons.com/types-of-erasers.html
Guest blog
Hello, my name is Michael Smeltzer. I am a 3D artist as well as the author of the "A Modding Start" blog. Today I am going to go over what concept art means to a 3D artist like myself. While I don't know much about concept art, I fully realize how important it is.
For a 3D artist, the concept artist is a guide. As Nick mentions, it is the concept artist's job to give form to the art directors ideas. Once the concept is complete, the concept artist turns the design over to the 3D artist to be created for a game, film, or commercial.
The way a concept for a single object is presented determines the difficulty of the job for a 3D artist. If the concept artist only draws the concept from one angle, it will make recreating the concept in 3D difficult. For the sake of accuracy it is best to draw a concept from the three flat angles, a top view, a side view, and a front view. Depending on how symmetrical the concept is, you may need to draw two side views, a right and a left. While it isn't always necessary, a 3D view never hurts either.
For a environment concept, the principle is the same but the presentation method is a little different. The environment must be build around you, instead of the other way around. For example, if the concept is a room, it must be drawn from 4 directions, North, South, East, and West. Additional views like a bird's eye view don't hurt either.
While it is not a 3D artist's job to be a concept artist, it is important that they have a good understanding of concept art. Knowing why certain lines are or aren't drawn, or why you shade an object a certain way, helps the 3D artist to see in 3D. This reason is probably one of the greatest reasons why concept art should be taught in all art schools, including UTDallas.
For a 3D artist, the concept artist is a guide. As Nick mentions, it is the concept artist's job to give form to the art directors ideas. Once the concept is complete, the concept artist turns the design over to the 3D artist to be created for a game, film, or commercial.
The way a concept for a single object is presented determines the difficulty of the job for a 3D artist. If the concept artist only draws the concept from one angle, it will make recreating the concept in 3D difficult. For the sake of accuracy it is best to draw a concept from the three flat angles, a top view, a side view, and a front view. Depending on how symmetrical the concept is, you may need to draw two side views, a right and a left. While it isn't always necessary, a 3D view never hurts either.
For a environment concept, the principle is the same but the presentation method is a little different. The environment must be build around you, instead of the other way around. For example, if the concept is a room, it must be drawn from 4 directions, North, South, East, and West. Additional views like a bird's eye view don't hurt either.
While it is not a 3D artist's job to be a concept artist, it is important that they have a good understanding of concept art. Knowing why certain lines are or aren't drawn, or why you shade an object a certain way, helps the 3D artist to see in 3D. This reason is probably one of the greatest reasons why concept art should be taught in all art schools, including UTDallas.
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