I've been searching around the last 15 minutes and I haven't found anything really so I've decided to make a thread on the subject.
My goal is to be an environmental artist and I need to buff up my drawing skills as I only have a basic understanding of simple perspective drawing at the moment. I'm wondering if there are any good resources that could help me expedite my learning process or if I just need to start drawing a lot more.
If you know of any good resources (Books, online tutorials, video DVDs) for environmental concept drawing then please share them. I've been looking around and some of the Gnomon DVD's seem like they might be useful but they seem like they're for artists who already have a better understanding of drawing and they're somewhat expensive.
Thanks!
Replies
Also, it might be worth heading over to ConceptArt.org to steal some of their leet techniques..
Good luck!
I can't recommend this book highly enough. Also hi zip
Added these to the wiki, plus a couple others.
http://wiki.polycount.net/CategoryEnvironment#EC
The techniques of Dylan Cole, Introduction to Landscape Matte Painting. It's a Gnomon DVD. Nothing too fancy in it, not tons of custom brushes or fluffy crap, he uses the same simple techniques to create a range of environments and he really beats those techniques into your head. AMAZING dvd.
I might hold off for a while on the Matte Painting and such though because I don't have a tablet yet. I suppose I could do it with a mouse but I've tried doing simple drawing with my mouse in Photoshop and it's just awkward. By the time I get a tablet hopefully my drawing skills are improved enough that these Gnomon DVDs won't be too tough for me to jump into!
Also Hey Marks!
http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/tech10.html
I've got a few Massive Black vids, check out Carl Dobsky's perspective vids... They are pretty rad, but need a few views to fully understand as they get pretty tech.
Whit Brachna has some nice enviro stuff, and I've picked up a few nice tips here and there and you get his brush set with his vids too which are really fun to play with and have made their way into my brush rotation.
This has a lot more practical and useful information http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=140
Week One - Linear Perspective
Week Two - Atmospheric Perspective
Week Three - Theories of Colour
Week Four - Principles of Design
Week Five - The Effects of Time and Weather
Week Six - Encorporating Architecture and Aesthetic Style
Week Seven: Texture
These aspects as Emil mentioned are required knowledge to becoming a good painter!
Think of 3d for instance: you wouldn't put in fine mesh or texture details before you have the main shapes perfected, would you? It's a similar process with concept art: you create the main forms and shadows that support them, then build features on top that describe the forms even further. As you progress the details you incorporate get finer.
Do you draw/paint? You need to learn those types of fundamentals. I personally think its better to learn that stuff as soon as possible so it's instilled in your mind forever. Look at most mediocre paintings/drawings, they usually lack good perspective or lighting.
argh, this reads like an art tutorial written by a programmer. I guess he's using the 1 picture = 1,000 words exchange rate.
Jackwhat- Are Scott Robertson's DVDs on Gnomon?
Crazyfingers- I'll check out that DVD! Learning a few simple techniques sounds like a good starting point.
Emil- I'll check out those videos. I could use some good painting brushes. Right now I only have grunge/scratch brushes that I use for texturing.
Chaos- Thanks for the link! Once my skills have advanced a bit more I'll try that out!
Kessler- I'm not exactly on a tight budget, I just don't have a job right now which means I don't have that much expendable income. Once I get a job though it'll be no problem picking up a few Gnomon DVD's or something. Those Massive Black videos should help out until I can order some though.
Zac and Sayanora- Thanks for the perspective links! I'll probably try out Zac's first because Sayanora's is about 50 pages long but I'm sure going through it all would help out a lot once I have a stronger understanding of perspective and drawing overall.
I've been thinking of taking some classes at Gnomon in a year or so but I'm not sure if I need them if the DVD's are training me enough. One thing I've been wondering about taking classes though is if the DVD's are the same quality/amount of content as the in person classes at Gnomon. An example of this is Color Theory. Do you think the Gnomon Color Theory DVD would be good enough to explain the concepts or do you think it would be better to spend the $1500 to take the class in person?
Basically classes and dvds can be hit or miss, you're approaching this the right way though, ask around see which ones are worth your time and money. DVD's are awesome though, if they're not working out you're not stuck in a class wasting time for months on end and they're MUCH cheaper. Classes keep you on task, gotta find the happy medium of learning to teach yourself and getting out there, networking, etc, etc.
Specifically addressing your color theory question. Color theory is good to have a general knowledge of at the start, but it's something you're going to pick up over time, a LONG time. Don't expect to take a color theory class, or watch a DVD on it and never have to struggle with what colors to use again. Chances are if you're doing commercial art, you wont even be worrying about it, someone else is going to come up with a color scheme and you'll simply be emulating it. The Dylan Cole DVD i recommended earlier actually has some very practical suggestions for using colors that addresses a lot of noob mistakes including oversaturating stuff and picking a pallete that's too all over the place.
That and googling the heck out of something is kind of fun. (: Bit more hands-on digging up of information than just paying for some lessons. Depends on what you're after!
Good call and good luck!
Thanks! Hopefully it won't take me too long to pick it up. I've been using the Source Engine for various projects for nearly 5 years but I've only recently started getting serious about becoming an environmental artist.
I was thinking that same exact thing about going to Gnomon. If I don't get some more base skills and try to improve a lot more on my own before taking a few classes I think I'd be VERY confused and overwhelmed. I think this is the best decision at the moment. My only concern about taking this path is not having a degree but hopefully they won't be a requirement by the time I try to get into the industry.
Google shopping is how I bought my Intous 3 on the cheap. Just got to take a bit of a risk with the less known sellers.
http://www.google.com/products?q=wacom+intuos4+medium&hl=en&aq=3&oq=wacom+in
There's also ebay, there might be some good deals on used tablets.
http://www.buy.com/prod/wacom-intuos4-medium-pen-graphics-tablet-8-8-x-5-5-5080-lpi-mouse-pen/q/loc/101/210904541.html
I personally got mine from here with a student discount
http://www.provantage.com/wacom-ptk640ac~7WACM19N.htm
this is 310 $
those are nice finds ZacD
Anyway there was an awful review about the Intuos 4 on Amazon. I'm fairly certain it's not as bad as he says as most of the other reviews were great, but I can't be sure. Have you guys had any problems with the Intuos 4 series?
http://www.google.com/products/seller?cmi=32728911112306688&zmi=buy.com&q=buy.com
Buy.com has a lot of decent review, I wouldn't be worried.
There's always a few awful reviews on any product, my intuos4 has held up great, I kinda throw it around a little bit (I actually broke the usb cord and messed up one of the usb ports, but that was my fault, stupid cord + spinning chair, but there's 2 usb ports and any micro usb cable works).
Anyway I guess I'm going to order an Intuos 4 sometime over the next few days. I'm not going to let one bad review change my decision. There's not really anything else I could get anyway.
Have you ever watched any [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MghiBW3r65M"]Bob Ross[/ame] videos? This guy was amazing!
Check out his bases first and then see that all the tools he uses have equivalents in Photoshop
*sorry if that sounded all upside down and inside out, I'm in a rush!