Misty Mountains DS sketch

Saw these while at lunch one cloudy. The clouds were trying to hide the peaks of  the mountains. Very cool to see in Arizona.

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Africa DS sketch

Painted while watching 24: Redemption.

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Tired Magician 2 DS Sketch

Just painted this one as fast as possible. Decided to make it into another tired magician painting. What is with me and this tired magician wearing the big hat?

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Where am I now.

I thought I would take just a second to outline some of the things that I've learned or how I changed artistically, so that other beginning artists who might be a few years behind me can use some of these lessons.

When you draw/paint/create everyday,  great artwork is more of a by-product than a goal. You should enjoy the process. Doing it everyday is more about teaching your eyes to see, your mind to let go, and your heart to feel. 

With each new day, I can see a composition in my mind's-eye much clearer and I'm able to paint these with much better accuracy.

"Photoshop is just a tool" has become sort of a  cliche' but it's true. Alot of beginning artists wait until they can afford software, hardware, or classes to create what's in their hearts. No matter what the tool or medium, you should never wait to create. If you can't afford a computer it shouldn't stop you from finding a paper and a pencil. Practice as much as you can and it WILL make a difference. 

Stop making excuses, especially to yourself.  I used to think that because some of my favorite painters use both Photoshop and Painter, than I had to as well. However, there are other painters I admire that only use Photoshop. The point is, I currently don't own Painter so I shouldn't make excuses for why my art isn't as good as someone elses. However, hardware does tend to make a difference. Painting on a Wacom Intuos vs a Graphire is like painting with a whole set of paintbrushes instead of the jagged end of twig. The Intuos has already made a huge difference in my work. 

If you really care about what you do then you'll find a way to afford the hardware/software that you absolutely need. For a while all I could afford was an ibook 700mhz, and a wacom graphire 4x6.  I did some of my first paintings on it. I scratched and saved and was able to finally afford a macbook 2.2ghz, a wacom 6x11, Photoshop cs4 extended, and a Nintendo DS with an R4 card so I can run colors!. It's not the perfect setup. But it is my dream setup. It's the setup I knew I wanted so I focused on it and I did what I could to make my dream happen. 

If you are just a beginner, don't post a message to mattepainting.org or conceptart.org etc etc with the subject "My first mattepainting/vehicle render/whatever whatever. No-one cares. The typical reason for posting this is that you think people will reply with something like "woah! first time? you're good", or something like that. It's not going to happen Unless you're an accomplished concept artist or other parallel artists that wants to dabble in something that you're already pretty good at anyway. Sometimes beginners cheat. They practice for months before posting something. Don't do this either. Other beginners will find a way to composite images together that were easy to composite anyway. I always hate this. If you really want to be good. Do the hard work. More about this next. Start posting on forums by just asking questions that haven't been asked (search !) and post something in the sketch threads. Post some WIPS but don't expect people to be amazed.

When you're a beginner, (painting for 1-5 years. yes years.) Do the hard work. For example, Paint rock textures instead of using photography. When you're a professional you'll need to do things efficiently and use photography as much as possible, but there will certainly come a time when you'll need to paint something you might not be able to find photography for. Paint from scratch. You'll be surprised how much faster you can paint some things than taking the time to look for a photo of it. 

Mattepainting and conceptart isn't your teenage fad. No-one cares how much better you are than the other guy. Matte painting and art in general is a career. Please treat it with respect. 

To my two best friends.

I know you guys would do the same for me. 

Junk World DS sketch

I was inspired by Raxus Prime from the game "The Force Unleashed". Painted on my DS.

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Nintendo hates artists

Ok. So maybe Nintendo has come out-right and said that they hate artists, but they certainly aren't sending the right message when they crack down on Flash carts.

http://kotaku.com/5086747/mother-and-son-arrested-in-r4-piracy-bust

Without a flash cart you can't run Colors! on a Nintendo DS. 

I purchased my R4 card when I heard that Nintendo was starting to crack down on Flash carts. THEN I bought my DS. I bought my DS for the sole purpose of running Colors! on it. If I wouldn't have been able to run Colors! on my DS then I would have never purchased this handheld gaming system. I have never pirated a game. Hell, I don't even know how to. I've run a few homebrew apps  on it besides Colors! but that's it. That's all. 

If Nintendo continues to send this sort of message then they better be ready to give us cartridges with Colors! on it (for free) and give us access to get the colors files off the DS so we can send them to the Colors! website. Otherwise, Nintendo will lose a small amount of sales to Colors! users who will pay for the application to be used on their Apple touch or iphone.

Landing site is 2 clicks away DS sketch

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Another beam DS sketch

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Cliche Beam at Gates DS sketch

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Tired Magician DS Sketch

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first major colors! sketch

FINALLY. Got a DS and an R4 card so I could paint with Colors! on my DS. This is my first major painting with it. I have certainly felt myself get better by using it almost every day. 

snow mountain pass wip

Not really sure if I'm going to finish this but I feel like it's an improvement on my work. I studied a demo of another artists methods and work and I feel like it helped. I also felt frustrated that my work didn't look as great as his but I only put in half the time that he has and he's a professional concept artist. So I shouldn't have any shame.

dark towers wip

Not sure if I'll put any more time into this because I think I might just want to leave it and move on.

New wacom 6x11 and first sketch

Just got my new wacom and this is my first sketch. I worked supersmall. and really went "too" small, but it was a blast and the new wacom will improve my skills by so much. It's so much easier to get the right kind of stroke that I want and It actually changes my perception of scale. More to come. 

Does it read well?

Does it read well? That is the question that you should be able to ask yourself when you look at a small thumbnail of your painting. Tonight I put this together after learning alot from a demo by Marco Bucci . I made a conscience effort to simplify things and also paint within a small canvas. I originally started within a 300 pixel canvas. 

Overall I was pretty pleased. Not anywhere where I want to be of course.

The Bay

 

20  minute sketch. Asked the wife for a theme:

Me: What theme should I do

Her: ...

Her: Bora Bora

Me: ...

Me: oh crap. 

She wanted bugalows over the water but I think I took it too far. Brushstrokes are a little closer to what I want but the colors are a little funky and to me this painting looks a little amaeturish. 

Bierstadt Study

I decided to do a study of Albert Bierstadt's "The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak".  I learned lot from it but was mostly frustrated (a fun and good frustration though) at my brushstrokes and how I can never seem to get that minimal brushstrokes look. I think the Wacom Graphire is holding me back and if I could afford to buy a Intuos 3 I would. 

Over all I think I learned more about lighting, different brush settings and atmospheric perspecive/color. 

"It's essential that they should take a pride in their job."

UPDATE: Songza song removed...sorry!

note: Song was the Main Theme for Bridge on the River Kwai






Work has been rough. Painting has been rough. Just need to keep things in perspective.

clouds

I really need a DS, a R4 Card and colors! . Tonight I saw clouds like this coming home and wanted to paint them immediately. 

So when I got home I started working on these clouds. I utilized a few different methods from a few tutorials and got some pleasing results. I don't think I'll really use this method for anything else but a painterly look and for concept work.  

I still haven't learned alot of the painting methods I've been trying to. I want to use minimal strokes in flat color and building small detail in a larger painting with random looking strokes. (ie: goodbrush.com  John Wallin Liberto )