Im a 3d artist that wants to be a 2d artist and need advice!
Hi,
Im seven teen and all ready interning at tow small studios, as a 3d modeler.
I am pretty good at 3d art and rendering, but my true dream is to be a consept artist.
The only problem I have is that I never drew from age eleven about.
I know I have talent because I have loved to draw and am really good at modeling things.
I all so have many amazing ideas that are just stuck in my head and by the time I model them or sculpt them they start to "disappear" so I really want to learn to draw to create sort of a "reminder book" for my ideas. I lately got really inspired by Level Up! Session 39 with ANTHONY JONES.([ame]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5srV2s1ukE[/ame])
But I have no idea where to start, I don't have any art course or something in my city and at school im learning programming and the only other class they have are in subjects such as engineering and so on.
I have been looking for a tutorial series that starts from the real basics and goes all the way up to more advance things.
Could anyone give me some advice a link to a good tutorial maybe or anything at all that you may think could help me out?
Thank you!
Immanuel
Im seven teen and all ready interning at tow small studios, as a 3d modeler.
I am pretty good at 3d art and rendering, but my true dream is to be a consept artist.
The only problem I have is that I never drew from age eleven about.
I know I have talent because I have loved to draw and am really good at modeling things.
I all so have many amazing ideas that are just stuck in my head and by the time I model them or sculpt them they start to "disappear" so I really want to learn to draw to create sort of a "reminder book" for my ideas. I lately got really inspired by Level Up! Session 39 with ANTHONY JONES.([ame]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5srV2s1ukE[/ame])But I have no idea where to start, I don't have any art course or something in my city and at school im learning programming and the only other class they have are in subjects such as engineering and so on.
I have been looking for a tutorial series that starts from the real basics and goes all the way up to more advance things.
Could anyone give me some advice a link to a good tutorial maybe or anything at all that you may think could help me out?
Thank you!
Immanuel
Replies
The first and more common, and also not very efficient way is to copy images and references and try and apply it to your own work, in a very A-B self criticism way. This is ok and it tends to get hard working artists to professional levels eventually.
The benefits of it is that you start making images of cool things quickly, and it will feel like the faster of the two. It's easier to keep up motivation and we have proven results from hundreds of working artists.
The second is the less common, Which is to analyze what core skills drawing requires, break it down to it's most essential components, and build a foundational skill tree.
So for example.
Drawing on paper is an optical illusion of depth. So learn how to draw cubes and primitives in perspective. First using planning, and then moving onto free hand. Ignore drawing anything too complicated until you can draw simple box shapes in perspective comfortably.
Then move onto more complicated shapes, like compounds of the primitives and mechanical shapes. Once you have that down. Work out how to break the body down into simple shapes and up the complexity as soon as you become comfortable with each level.
If you approach each of the major skills with this style of analysis and learning you will have an amazing basis to learn and grow from.
I would structure the order to learn the base skills roughly like this. (of course you will be doing more than one at any one time.
Motor skills (making nice lines, freehand circles, confident marks ect)
Perspective construction
freehand perspective
proportion
Lighting simplified down to cell shading(actually learn how light works)
Lighting with added gradients
Basic anatomy forms
The skeleton
the muscles
ect. You get the idea.
Now if the second approach sounds tedious, and boring, then the approach you should go with is the first. But hopefully that is some food for thought.
I would suggest looking through all the level up for techniques or info muzz has mentionned, and as far career advice, just start building a portfolio right now and get some crits, either from here or the level up hangout as that is what will make you progress the fatest.
Just going for it and start working with people and free or paid projects and start getting that ball rolling!
Freelance isn't easy tho at first, so I would suggest finding people to work with on the side of your current 3d job and at one point you will be able to just swap your income from 3d to 2d.
Best of luck!
Only way to learn is to draw something every day. Starting from simple subjects to spare yourself from discouragement and mocks.
I would rather start with chalks and fingers before pencil and lines. Same for computer programs. Just a technique where you would work more with general shapes rather than precise line contours.
One thing to keep in mind is that concept artist is not very highly payable job from what I saw. Ability to draw is not very unique talent. Just a plus to your C.V.
Fundamentals are very important when learning to draw, ctrlpaint has a good series on that with a lot of what I learned in school.
And just like 3D art, when it comes to digital art or digital painting, learning how the software can meet you needs and help you work faster is important too. But that takes time.
Drawing from photos usually isn't recommended if you're just focusing on practicing your actual drawing skills (photos tend to flatten out perspective, it's already composed etc.)
Of course there is nothing wrong at all with using photos for references when you're focusing on producing artwork, nobody really works from just inside their head when it comes to producing professional work except an exceptional few. Usually multiple references are gathered and used, and some artists will go out and shoot their own references, some make mockups such as making miniature models of what they have in mind to help with perspective and lighting for example, or have models pose for them. (really varies, and obviously some are more time-consuming and expensive then others)
Some artists even block out concepts in 3D and use that as a basis to paint over. Some people create collages of elements in photoshop, some paint everything out digitally, some create their work traditionally and then scan it in for more alterations, etc. So yeah, lots of different ways people go about producing concept art. Basically what they have most in common is they all mastered the fundamentals of color, perspective, composition, anatomy, etc.
Books
The Skillful Huntsman
Andrew Lomis
George Bridgemen
Practice those as much as possible.
Feng Zhu playlist on youtube - https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL58A62B98F9FB2AAE
Check this thread out, x2 sketches every day for a few years ends up a master. !http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php/870-Journey-of-an-Absolute-Rookie-Paintings-and-Sketches
Location drawings when you can, go out for the day once in a while and just sketch, try to fill a page in 20 minutes and do the same building, view, tree or what ever from three angels, it used to help me no end before getting out the pastels/ paints. My father was an artist so that helped just hanging with him when I was a kid, so maybe go out with another artist as it may help you keep it as a regular gig.
I wish you all the best on your quest.
Thank you for the helpful reply's !
I will look in to the books and links you guys posted.
I really appreciate it.