Loot and community challenges

Loot of the Week:

Swatches- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiU1-5VronbfeScuABAJC4A

Clint Cleary’s YouTube channel isn't jammed packed with videos but the content and delivery of what is there is pretty top notch. He just released a video on making images for Magic the gathering cards, and I felt it was very insightful. I strongly recommend subscribing to his channel and watching what he does have up.

Draw or Die- https://www.facebook.com/groups/drawordie/

This is the group I mentioned last blog, and after having submitted my piece and seeing all the submissions I've reached some conclusions. First and foremost having another creative community that talks and isn't afraid to critique is wonderful. I love that aspect of this group. However I will say, I’m not 100% sure how I feel about the rolling art directors, or how the contest is judged but since there aren't prizes it is hard to really complain if you don’t place well. Not saying I deserved top consideration, just saying in general. I've included my progression WIP below and the final image built from the design thumbnails in blog 6.

Private Sanctuary- http://knowdirectionpodcast.com/category/podcasts/35-private-sanctuary/

This is not art related but for me falls in the bandwagon of providing inspiration. This is all about D&D and Pathfinder 3.5, the role-playing tabletop for those that don’t know. I love pod-casts, when they’re good. I am not caught up on their most recent work, I always prefer to go back to the first posts and work my way forward. However, I have found it immensely entertaining, and thought provoking. Especially considering I just got invited to a Pathfinder campaign and I've yet to have a chance to play it before now.

Progress Report:

Commissions: My knight painting is finished and I’m going to hopefully deliver it this weekend. I’ll snag some photos and throw it up here if she doesn't mind.

‘Parasyte’: I finished her on time and submitted. This was a 3 day paint for me, all said about 15 hours after I had my sketched sorted out. I pushed the face first and then tried to systematically work my way down the figure. Then I just started building up all the elements together once there was enough paint on screen. Pushing/Pulling lights and darks, trying to understand form and keep it interesting. See below.

Intentions and Critique:

My goals right now are working on the next Draw or Die challenge, due Sept. 7th. (Join uuuuussssss). Probably also going to spend a ridiculous amount of time painting my pathfinder character because I fall in love with the creation process super hardcore and I'm also really excited about supply shopping this week or early next week because classes start on the 18th. My productivity will take a forced boost, which should be nice, and of course I will share as much as I can. This blog is really helpful for granting some insight to my motivation/inspiration and understanding my own direction. I’m going to keep learning, pushing and painting so thanks!

See you soon!

A full plate and stopping.

Yo,

Time flies when you’re not looking. So much keeps happening! Lots to say and yet I can’t quite seem to say enough.

Loot of the Week:

Iain McCaig- Visual Storytelling DVD’s on Gnomon. So far, I’ve finished the first part of four, and I have to say I am hooked. The first part of the series focuses on making key frames, or illustrating key moments in a stories progression, and how to tell a story beat by beat. It’s really cool because it challenges a lot of what I thought I might know on the subject. He talks in length about illustrating moments in the character’s stories but not focusing on the design of it all. It’s more about the story at this point, getting it out on paper and then going in and designing how things look and function to support the storytelling. I’m definitely eager to watch the next bits.

Maciej Kuciara- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu6Y550vv9c – A 3.40 hours of workshop talk at Art Institute. Holy shit. 1.5 hour lecture, 1.5 demo and about 40 minutes of Q&A. If nothing else watch the lecture part. If you think you are working hard now, you’re not. There is so much reality in that first hour, and so much more of it than can really shake you up if you've been stalling.

****Personal Loot I can’t share.

The Atelier Experience: I’m not sure if I have talked about it here but before the creation of this blog, and my decision to stay in GA another year, I was hellbent on moving to San Diego to attend Watts Atelier. I made some important, tough financial decisions and here I am. Moreover, I decided to finish out my degree, because getting paid to go to school for a year will allow the most time for self-development at the moment. So I thought, and still do, I guess this blog will help judge that huh?

Anyway, I say all that to tell you that I’ve gotten help from the only painting instructor that really believes in my career choice. He is helping/allowing me to do a directed study in lieu of an advanced painting course and together we will work on replicating an Atelier experience for the semester. I’m beyond ecstatic.

Also, go watch Hercules with Dwayne Johnson. So awesome to see how they took the mythos and expanded on some stuff. Guardians of the Galaxy on Friday and TMNT a week after. Get hype!!!

Progress Report:

Honesty time? Yeah, I feel like I’ve been typing this a bit much lately, but this blog is full disclosure. So, last blog I was cranking out Illuxcon painting for scholarship consideration. I’m going to list out my issues straight forward and then we can decide how much of it is b.s. excuses.

• Poor planning, materials related. Didn't know if I should do oil or digital, and sat on the fence long enough to lose steam.
• Cut my own canvas, primed it and transferred pencils twice. The first time I used an acrylic wash of color to seal in the pencils and scrubbed the graphite away. That was very demoralizing, but I got it right the second time. 
• Painting, however, was an ultra pain. I’m not sure and still not sure why but I could not get juicy paint application at all on that canvas. I used a gambling, no solvent medium, Liquin, and Linseed oil. Nothing seemed to make my paint workable like I’m used to so I got very low and stopped the painting. 

Needless to say that painting has been put on hold, and I will probably revisit it after I get the kinks sorted out a bit more. My only condolence for this is I've started reading Art and Fear, which I'll post a full review of later. There is a bit of the book,early on, dedicated to stopping versus quitting. I've always viewed stopping as quitting and it has always bothered me. The reality there, though, is you can only quit art once, but you can stop as many times as you need to get where you are going.

Outside of that hang up I've done a fair bit of gesture, so design studies of ancient Japanese archers, another portrait club session, some fan-art and started work on a illustration for DRAW or DIE on Facebook. So, that brings us to:

Intentions and Critiques:

Well, August is rapidly here. My intentions for right now don’t extend much beyond getting shit done. I *still* have an oil painting commission, one of the two from multiple posts pack, that is about ready to get dropped off to its new owner. Alongside that, I have what I’ll call “Archer”, “Parasyte” (Draw or Die 3 more days), and some SMITE fan art for their art show on Thursdays. Did I mention school full-time coming? Well, anyway, see you guys in a week with new Loot and Progress to report.