Help Needed to Move Forward
polycounter lvl 2
Hi everybody!
I'm a 27 year old, self taught artist in need of advice. I never went to school for art (couldn't afford it) So I worked really hard to improve on my own. I would really like to become a 2D concept artist some day.
I've come a long way, yes, but I have a very long way to go. Particularly with digital painting. Here are some of my pieces:
https://danamariesketches.wordpress.com
I'm now at a point where I hear and understand what the videos and books are saying, but implementing them into my artwork has gotten so difficult lately. Everything I do looks very amateurish. Because of this, I'm wondering if school is the best option. I'm in debt after a failed attempt at a comic book trade-school so I have to be very careful what school I choose if I do decide to go. I've tried to ask questions and I tried to do research, but I either got "Sorry, it's not my field" or "If you want advice you need to donate to my Patreon or other". Both very understandable, but a little frustrating in my position.
I guess what I need advice on is whether school is the best decision, what school, if there is a better alternative, or if I should find a new occupation altogether.
Sorry if this sounds like I'm rambling. It was difficult trying to put this into words.
Thank you!
I'm a 27 year old, self taught artist in need of advice. I never went to school for art (couldn't afford it) So I worked really hard to improve on my own. I would really like to become a 2D concept artist some day.
I've come a long way, yes, but I have a very long way to go. Particularly with digital painting. Here are some of my pieces:
https://danamariesketches.wordpress.com
I'm now at a point where I hear and understand what the videos and books are saying, but implementing them into my artwork has gotten so difficult lately. Everything I do looks very amateurish. Because of this, I'm wondering if school is the best option. I'm in debt after a failed attempt at a comic book trade-school so I have to be very careful what school I choose if I do decide to go. I've tried to ask questions and I tried to do research, but I either got "Sorry, it's not my field" or "If you want advice you need to donate to my Patreon or other". Both very understandable, but a little frustrating in my position.
I guess what I need advice on is whether school is the best decision, what school, if there is a better alternative, or if I should find a new occupation altogether.
Sorry if this sounds like I'm rambling. It was difficult trying to put this into words.
Thank you!
Replies
here is how I would approach this moving forwards:
1) use artstation not a wordpress blog. it will give your work more exposure and as you improve your skills help build a following/network. even if you think you suck shit, just do it, you can always audit your older work out of it later on as you improve. there is literally no downside besides your own fear of your work being seen and judged. go all in and say fuck fear
2) go on artstation, search for gumroad concept art tutorial. find some artists who's style you like and spend anywhere from 10-200 bucks on a few different process/tutorials. the biggest mistake beginners make is not wanting to spend money to shortcut their learning curve. huge mistake that wastes your valuable time. If you don't have money to invest in tutorials/yourself.....go get a part time job you can use to funnel your income into investing in yourself and skillset. Don't be afraid to pay for knowledge, that 200 bucks on a few tutorials could turn into a 50-100k career in a few years if you are consistent and thats an insane return on investment. think like that and you will start to win and improve extremely fast. not only that you can scale your input for minimal costs vs having to lump sum pay for school, and you are learning from actual industry artists, not random art school professors who may or may not be experienced. spending 30 bucks to learn for an hour or two of recorded footage from a pro with 10 years experience is hilariously cheap.
3) how many hours a day are you putting in towards your goals and dreams of being a concept artist? If you think school is the best option because it is going to force you to put in time you would otherwise be spending watching tv or playing video games..its not going to help and this probbaly isnt the right career for you. There is only one thing that will get you industry ready and thats hours and hours of sitting down and creating new art. execution, not theory is what will make you an amazing artist. Audit what you are doing with your free time and put things in perspective. Might be time to sell your ps4 or unsub from netflix if you are spending more time on those than attacking your goals. Just ask yourself how badly you want to be a concept artist and map your actions to that. maybe you are cool with spending 2 years to get really good and love playing video games, in which case thats cool. but if you say you desperately want to be a concept artist and thats your dream, map your actions to that.
if you are painting for 2 hours a night, up that to 3 for the next week, then 4 the next. 10x your output, 10x your results. school is going to put you in a groove of producing only what is expected in a drawn out timeframe of 1-4 years. I have seen artists get amazingly good in a year or so by simply making art every day and saving 20k on art school fees. Right now it kinda sounds like you want to put the responsibility on a school to make you get good and if you are already in debt, I would say thats a bad idea. take ownership and responsibility of your own goals and output.
4) have patience. Developing any skillset takes time and a hell of a lot of effort. how long have you been at this? Impatience in the short term to get to actually get to work producing art is great, but patience in the long term of the journey to getting industry level is required.
5) post your work in progress in the 2d section here and get constant feedback. apply said feedback from more experienced artists and if you do that consistently people will go out of their way to help you. constantly saying "ill keep that in mind for my next project" when someone gives you critiques that could be readily applied and improve a "finished" piece is one of the quickest ways to have people give up on helping you, so consistency and following through is key. build relationships and find mentors by having people rooting for you because they know you will actually take action.
I could go on and on but I don't have much context to your output or situation as this is the first post of yours I have seen, so take those ideas and run with them
As for the idea of going to school, I'm ashamed to admit that after people kept telling me school was the way to go, I ended up believing the idea, that I wouldn't be able to improve without that kind of environment. It's embarrassing and I acknowledge it's something I need to work on before I even consider going into any industry. I draw everyday for a handful of hours, and if drawing longer than that is what I have to do, I'll do it. What you've stated about the purchases of tutorials, I actually have some. I've even used them and they have done wonders in a short amount of time. I also have an Artstation. There isn't much, but I will definitely get more active. I will take your advice and post my progress here and utilize what I need to to get better.
@Brian "Panda" Choi Thank you for responding. I have, mostly with the human anatomy. Admittedly, I don't put equal time into environments (I really love drawing the human body so I tend to neglect other skills). I've started sketching my town lately. It's frustrating, but I know I'll overcome that hurdle eventually. The hardest thing for me to draw is mechanical objects that require sort of measurement (cars, robots, etc.) So I have definitely neglected that specific skill. If you mean everyday however, I draw bodies or body parts everyday (hands, feet, torsos, etc) Throughout the week, I try to set up some sort of still life pile and draw that.
Thank you both for your time. I truly appreciate you taking the time to give me tips on bettering my art and my work ethic.
At inital read, it looks like half-finished illustrations mostly. Your strongest piece to me is the ink looking one at the bottom because the mood and evocativeness comes through the strongest.
I want more pieces proving you're doing visual exploration and concepting. Breakdowns of characters clothes. thumbnails. Alternate sketch designs of a single idea. "A Skillful Huntsman" is an excellent example book about that, where a group of students straight up do the concepting previs for a hypotehtical movie about the Grimms fairytale.
I don't see a concept artist yet, and doing more actual concepting will help with that.
So if interested more info can be found by scrolling down the page and opening up a topic titled "Traditional art schools/courses" , browse the links which are a mix of conventional institutes and a highly rated selection of online alternatives plus it's also worth checking out this board's industry resource sticky and/or for that matter PCs wiki as well.
Of further note let me just say, top tier educational web pathways in terms of content delivery do not necessarily reflect unfavorably when compared with their academic counterparts, mainly due as described above they commonly list accomplished working professionals as their instructors.