A training roadmap?

Sunn

Hello, for the seasoned veterens around here, allow us to discuss this hypothetical scenario.

Assume that you had a senior character artist position but you were tasked with training a new guy how to make really good art.

We all know that great art stems from grueling practice and development of a keen eye. We also know that deadlines are a thing in this industry.

How would you advise this new guy to start his training, from no art experience (outside of stick figures and refridgerator master works in crayola) to a passable character/prop artist for games?

What does that roadmap look like?

Ex:
- start drawing anatomy and studying planes, light/shadow
- learn the basics of photoshop
- study materials and learn to render them
- learn zbrush/poly modelling apps of choice
Etc.

?

Kwramm

at the very basic level, start with silhouette so people recognize shapes. Move to perspective so they can arrange shapes in relation to each other. Then move to filling the shapes, i.e. shade them so they have volume. For this you need to cover lighting and materials. Until then I'd probably keep it all monochromatic. i.e. no color, using a medium that's fairly easy to control, like a pencil/sketchbook. The advantage is that people can take their work with them and practice everywhere, which is important. Then move to color theory and start introducing color.
(when dealing with volumes, it can help sometimes to bring in some clay or super sculpy. some people find this more intuitive to get to terms in dealing with volume).

Your goal is that people only tackle with one problem with a time and get over the initial bump before they move on. Only after people feel comfortable with shapes, perspective, volume and color, and have a basic understanding, I would move to take this to digital.

My studio has a room for this where people can sketch, paint and sculpt. It's amazing!
My previous studio would also organize sketch-crawls and get together on the weekends for lunch and other activities which also had a sketching part attached. Also nice for team bulding.

Sunn

Thats awesome Kwramm, thats exactly the kind of info I'm looking for, thank you!

Like I was trying to say, practice is of the utmost importance, but what I've learned from playing guitar for several, several years is that practice is key, but practicing the right way and not the wrong way is also VERY important.

Otherwise you instill terrible habits and techniques that only serve to hold you back in the long wrong and cause you to plateau too soon and get stuck far too long.