Im an artist

HeatSeeking HandGrenade

Ive done all kinds of work; grocery, food ind, paper mill, blockbuster, gamestop, fed ex, pizza delivery and now im working at buffalo wild wings.
No matter what i do, i always come back to art. Illustration, character art and everything else creative. I would rather do this than anything else.
Some people called it nuts but last year i went door to door in austin tx. Arkane, twisted pixel many others shook my hand. The truth is my art is cool, its experienced im just not the artist most game companies expect to hire. Ive seen mind blowing work on this forum. Ive recieved great advice, often times the advice i recieve sends me in different directions. Do this. Dont do this. Too light. To dark. Bottom line is illustration is my passion, i might never find welcoming arms in this industry. Ive been a week away from attending fullsail twice to further my education. Been told not to, been told it would be a mistake not to. My whole world, my friends, family and work experience all point to my art. Im just lost. Closed doors, long roads and astronomical expectations leave me, metaphorically, staring at the blank paper in front of me. Wondering, what next? How? Any other artists face this kind of a crossroads? Any adivice? I know as an artist i cant do hotwings the rest of my life. Sitting on the talents God gave me. Real talk, super serious, sounds like crying but just total concern for the future. Im just a dude with a pen in his hand and looking for answers.

DrunkShaman

You are at the stage of learning process where most artists require a push that allows you to see that this is where you take off the training wheels and push your skills beyond limits. It is what I am trying to do right now.

The only way to do this is do massive practice while comparing your art with others to see what are you missing.

ceebee

Only advice: make art, practice art, breathe art, post art, don't make dumb threads. GO!

HeatSeeking HandGrenade

Thanks and thaaaaanks...

Stromberg90

ceebee wrote: »

Only advice: make art, practice art, breathe art, post art, don't make dumb threads. GO!

This is the only way, the other option is quitting and that don't work all to well.
Also really listen to critics, cause when they take the time to critic your work, they only want you well

ikken

there's no lifedrawing in your sketchbook thread here, and work that you've posted largely suggests lack of it.
if you want to do illustration/concept art type of jobs, having a solid observational drawing foundation is a must.
keep whatever job you're employed at right now, save money and hire a mentor who would accelerate your learning process compared to self studying route. visit evening/weekend model drawing sessions weekly. do both gestures and prolonged studies.

alternatively, keep art as a hobby and do it at your own pace, while working elsewhere.

full sail won't really help you much if you want to do something as complex as realistic commercial art work.

HeatSeeking HandGrenade

Oh absoltuley, no way to learn otherwise. Grateful for the positive and negative alike. I was afraid i would garnish a lot of contrary responses.

HeatSeeking HandGrenade

Ive got quite a bit of lifedrawing and portrait contract work under my belt. Im pretty good at that stuff, but its usually bought so i dont have much in my portfolio. It has been a while since my last photoreal piece. I just find it malnourishing and lose interest. I like to build characters, build being the focus. With lifedrawing it is what it is. Your right though, i could give my work a sharper edge by doing more.

fightpunch

Its great that you know what you want to do in general but what is it specifically that you want to be, an illustrator or a concept artist? They are both different disciplines.

If you want to be an illustrator you need to study anatomy way more, your work has a stylized kind of look to it, and not in the sense of stylized on purpose, more that its just bad understanding of anatomy. You have to know what you're drawing intimately to be able to bend it stylistically. Picasso started out as a realist before he went all crazy and did his bullshit stuff the only way to do this is to draw all the time. If you suck at drawing hands, draw 100 hands, from ref, I guarantee you you will be 5 times better at hands by the end of it. This applies to everything. You also need to to have a great knowledge of light/mood/colour for illustration, all of which comes from practice.

If its concept design that interests you then you need to study design more. Proportions, how things work, how they relate to each other, shape psychology, materials, the list is huge.

The bottom line is you have a passion for it which is great, a lot of people never know what they love, but you need to put in a lot more work to get where you need to be, and there is no easy answer or bullshit shortcuts, its all just practice, but since you've already said that your passion is art and creation then practicing should come easy because hey, its what you love right?

Justin3d

As both a professor and industry pro I wouldn't jump right into going to full sail. I don't really like giving people definitive education advice because everyone is a different place and responds to different types of educational experiences. However it's going to be expensive. If illustration is your passion, many community and state colleges have classes for that. I think taking classes is always a good idea because it forces some people out of comfort zones and provides accountability. Even if you think you are too advanced for a basic drawing class, you would be surprised what you might get out of it.
As for your work I would suggest more life drawing as some one already stated. More specially though, gestures. A lot of your poses seem awkward and not well balanced. This is a cool website you can use for that: http://www.pixelovely.com/gesture/figuredrawing.php Just do a lot of really quick gesture drawings trying to nail the poses.
Good luck, keep me updated on your progress!

HeatSeeking HandGrenade

Thanks a lot! Yeah my weakness has always been anatomy and dynamic poses and gestures. I could draw a character in an action pose if im using a reference but having really always drawn my characters all rigid and frozen, its difficult to just pull it out of my head. I find trouble when bending extremities and posing the rest of the character harmonically. Deffinatley a gap in my ability as an artist. Surely these areas are my new focus.

Mask_Salesman

We should get a clicker for all these threads, I'm going to be a dick here but it's almost annoying because the only thing stopping you guys is your mental state. All you need is just some positive reinforcement because there is absolutely nothing else stopping you from just making art.

Treasure that you have that simple amazing ability, stop taking it for granted and Man up son!

Justin3d

No need to be a dick some people just want a little guidance even if it is just to tell them to make more art. Your advice is valid though. Time to man up indeed.

HeatSeeking HandGrenade

No doubt, just make art. All it takes is diving in head first to your weakpoints and strengthening your abilities. However i see this as a place where i can get peer to peer professional advice. My father may say i have what it takes to work on video games but hes a car mechanic, my art to him looks like da vincis sketchbook. I have questions and need guidance and know this to be a great place to find it.
Most of you guys go to work everyday and sit down and make art. Thats what i want to do. Art used to be my primary directive and over time flipping burgers became a priority. I know that if my dream is to come to fruition then all this great advice needs to manifest itself into my work.
I appologise if for some this is annoying and a useless waste of forum space. But hey, i look up to you guys and most of the help ive gotten from the art world isnt much help. New artists like me need a place to ask questions and recieve direction. You guys are truly blessed to work in the coolest industries on the planet and its pretty hard to get a leg up or a foot in.

Ace-Angel

You're Heat-Seeking Hand-Grenade who want's to be an artist, better tell the people who hire you that you have an explosive personality that could go off at any moment, and might be around for too long *bu-dum-tish*.

And no worries, you're not wasting any forum space.