Gave myself 5 days to do something. This is what I managed to do. I'm trying to get better at illustrations, but I have patience to work on something for 3 days maximum :(
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Day 4: Star Wars
May The 4th =]
Queen Padmé Amidala in my art style!
First time drawing her and I really enjoyed making this one!
Used watercolours, ink pen, acrylic markers and gold paint for accents on my Canson mix media sketchbook.
I hope you like it!
Thank you! I finally cleaned that up. Meanwhile started 3 more ..I have a habit of taking too long to finish a piece, then I lose interest in it and just start something else. I found 8 from recently i started and abandoned, that are decent enough to not delete, but not finished. There’s also been a number of drawings I felt I “outgrew” - became better before I finished them, and it would be easier to start from scratch than fix them. Anyone else thinking that?
Lady Death Fanart Collectible: Part 6 Polypaint and base
Hi, it’s time to share with you another part of the process to create this fanart piece.
Polypaint
As this is my first collectible fanart I didn’t have previous experience with polypaint so I tried my best and played a bit with it.I wanted to give a ghostly and eerie look to Lady Death, she is beautiful and deadly, but at the end of the day she is a woman that died and was reborn at hell as an avenging spirit, that’s why I gave her skin tone a bluish very cold tone.As you will see I gave myself some creative freedom to deviate from the traditional color scheme that this characater has in comics and illustrations.To add a bit of sensuality by painting some freckles on the face and the chest.
The dark nature of this character was the perfect excuse to gave her a kind of goth make up, very dark shadows around the eyes, blue lips and fingernails. I know that the original character includes sexy red lips but I wanted this girl to have a sexy but at the same time creepy look, that’s why we can see some thin veins emanating from her eyes.
The biggest chromatic change I did for this character is at the hair. Lady Death has a characteristic white weavy hair but in my fanart I decided to gave her a very saturated blue color.The reason behind this wasn’t only an aesthetic choice. I want that the face area strongly pulls the attention of the viewer so this area needed a stronger contrast. Another reason is that I want her to have a more modern look, as I mentioned before, I’m strongly attracted to women with goth/punk look.
I gave myself half an hour or more to analyse the work of experienced sculptors that create collectibles and I discovered that the use of darker values on the skin is often applied to create a greater sense of volume and three-dimensionality. I found that areas with heavy ambient occlusion are the perfect places to paint with darker colors in order to increase the separation between different forms.
Even though she has a bluish skin tone, I used a bit of warmer hues in areas that, in real life, tend to go towards red and pink, this is very obvious in the nose, cheeks, and knuckles. Thinking with a logical mind it’s completely absurd to have warmer tones on the body of a zombie like creature but I didn’t want to limit myself by using only blue tones, it looks boring and artificial. In real life these colors are created by blood vessels in areas where the skin is very thin.
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Scythe
**for her weapon I applied a cool gray with some warmer variations, this color scheme is influenced by the work of H.R giger.
Base
I’d like to talk about the design for the base which, to be honest, I forgot to develop along with the character.My main idea with the base is to show that Lady Death inhabits a very sterile and arid land, at the end of the day she is at hell.You can see a that she walks over dirt and rocks, a sign that she’s surrounded by death and loneliness.
As part of the landscape we can see some bones and skulls to reinforce the idea of lack of living creatures, yet we can see three hands that try to reach her legs.This hands represent that all creatures are subordinated to her power and seek an evil blessing with a simple touch of the princess of the damned.1- The hand with skin burns represents the souls of those who are newcomers to hell, tortured souls that suffer for the sins comitted on earth.2- The hand with greenish rotten skin and pustules is the reminder of the decay that has infected the souls of those who have been trapped and have forgotten their humanity3- Last but not least, the hand of a demon shows that even dark creatures and entities bow before her presence.
The cherry on the top, at least in my vision, are the simese twins that emerge from the ground, this malevolent creatures remind us that in hell there’s only perversion and any trace of innocence is lost.
Thanks for reading till this pointI’m really happy to be very close to finish this creative journey, last but not least it’s mandatory to talk about splitting the sculpture in several pieces to be printed, this will be my last entry before showing the final rendered images.
See yaMay Zbrush be with you
memory
2min gartic phone, used ref
2m gartic, used ref for pose
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The feeling of only getting 1 - 3 likes on a social media post will never not be discouraging. But nothing is discouraging enough to make me quit drawing. I think the strategy of drawing a lot of stuff and waiting a while to post is good though rather than posting it immediately and then feeling that sadness on the next set of drawing
studies
studies
juri study
imagination, how I feel before a speech
imagination
imagination
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something I drew for my presentation
also drew this for my presentation, didn't fix the one hand being bigger than the other
imagination + study
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studies
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study, I need to fix the face a bit
based on screenshot from anime but in my style
study. except for the eye
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study. changed some things tho
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studies, except top right samurai
based on anime screenshot
wolverine studies, changed some of the poses a lil, not very good at all, but first time i drew the character ever.
semi study
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imagination , for first time ever i tried to draw over 3d model for middle pose, I dont like the result tbh, but it makes it much easier than coming up with it from memory.imagination, except right figurestudies
imagination + studies, coming up with action poses r hard, these are not dynamic enough, I will redraw better ones in future.
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imagination doodles except for the two chrollos
imagination storyboard thumbnail, idk if i ever shared this. my storyboards end up being a little detailed since i usually just draw in one layer.
To keep it short, I've been working on digital art for a while now, getting jobs here and there while I work a day job. My health has taken a hit and so did my mobility, which means that I can't count on my previous day job to get an income anymore. I've decided that I would stop shying away from pursuing my art career, and push myself to get a good portfolio. I would like to find professional work, so that I can get an income while accommodating myself to this new disability thing.
I'd appreciate any feed back on the pieces below, and what I will be posting here in the future. My aim is to work in collaboration with people creating Tabletop Games and Video Games. How can I give my stuff that extra push so that I get considered? Are there things that should appear in my portfolio that are not seen here?
I would love to help. I’m about to hit my weekend and can spend the time on a comprehensive dive on these to provide you a professional critique.
While you wait, I need some more questions answered to maybe help you with your professional goals.
Are there any techniques or theories you have struggled with before that you would like help with?
Or looking for Resources about?
Any specific painting of yours you just couldn’t figure out?
What is your bottle neck in your opinion?
Which clients are you trying to do work for goal wise?
Do you have a style guide to adhere too for certain clients?
I’ll start work on all of these and make sure to include paint overs and examples if necessary. When you answer these questions I’ll add them to the critique post. In the meantime please browse some of my other comprehensive critiques in this forum section. Laters
Hi brohawx, thank you so much for your reply! Apologies if some of my answers sound a bit wonky, english isn't my first language.
As of techniques that I've struggled with in the past: I'd say that my anatomy is a bit rusty lately, I should brush up on that. I think perspective and composition are the big two that I struggle the most with. It's not so much about knowing where to place stuff, but more how do I make it interesting. I feel like I'm missing some info on how to give my larger pieces a "wow factor". My work can look clean, but it's boring.
This ties into the type of paintings I struggled to finish in the past: pieces with multiple characters/elements, and a good point of view for those. If you have resources for this, especially book titles, I'd love that!
As of my bottleneck: If I understand correctly, this is which part of my process is the hardest for me? I'd say it's the part where I organize the composition and try stuff for it. The search for references is pretty quick, and once everything is in place and I've picked my colors, I can render somewhat fast. Thumbnailing is probably the most indecisive part for me. Again, composition.
For clients: Ideally, I would like to work with people creating for TTRPG, or making TTRPGs. Trading card games and fantasy video games would be nice, too. Realistically, I would like to test myself with indie developers and work my way up.
I'm fine with commission work for individuals, but with AI and the state of the economy right now, I feel like that's been harder to get. Like the market is hyper saturated for much less clients. This is why I was trying to look for something more professional. I know those factors also apply to multiple industries, but a contract would probably give me a higher pay and a stable position, even if just for a few weeks/months at a time.
I think what I need guidance on about this is: 1) Where to look for more serious projects, other than the obvious Artstation, Cara, and job searching sites? (Those seem out of my league with my lack of experience...) 2) How to present my work professionally? Depending on where I'm applying for, should there be a motivation letter? What should I know about contracts, rates, etc.? 3) How to get noticed better? I haven't kept up much with social medias in the past few years, and I feel like everything has changed and nothing is stable anymore. Are there "for sure" tips for that? I would love to go to some conventions, but I'm from a very rural region and I would need to travel for those... This isn't exactly in my budget at the moment.
Concerning style: I like to create images somewhere between realism and semi-realism. I personally prefer a full render with realism, but I've cut to strong lines with a rougher painterly rendering for clients on a budget before. Realism for me just means putting more time into the rendering. Examples of artists I really like: Ryan Pancoast, James Gurney, John William Waterhouse, Zdzisław Beksiński, Jakub Różalski, Alix Branwyn...
Don't worry, I misspell words all the time because I am completely a right brained artist lol.
I will post this today for you to chew on while I paint over your work and provide examples of the techniques you will need to utilize to make your images seem professional and designed with purpose.
Very observant. We will be covering this.
There are a couple of easy fixes we can throw at the problem with multiple figure composition right away before you have to read anything or buy a class online. One is to first decide if the image needs to be iconic or dynamic.
Is there motion or does strength need to be implied instead? Second is to design with abstract shapes like – big, medium, small – then goup the peoples, objects or actions into those iconic, or perhaps dynamic shapes onto your canvas.
Very interesting. I compare artists studying anatomy to doing mathematics homework, studying composition is like studying world history. Every country has its own past. Every type of composition has its own purpose.
As I started writing 'the big issue' on the (is she tiefling?) the girl with the horns I was able to tell this so I'm glad you recognize it as well and its not a shock.
First – Decide your focal point. Even if it is a multiple figure composition, a certain subject or figure in the composition will be very important compared to everything else in its detail and contrast of fundamentals of shape, value, edge and color. Since you are completing busts, portraits and full characters for table top art as assets it should be a pretty simple fix and I will get into that with the demonstrations.
Clint talks about visibility, mood, and energy. Kevin talks about the hierarchy of fundamentals. How each one can decide drawing shapes, value patterns, edge sharpness or blurriness, and color schemes and their pallets.
If you can count to nine, you can compose. I promise. Those above elements I listed are the building blocks of all of art in it's entirety. Think of them as the sliding scales in a character creator. I have a theory that I am working out that you should come back and check on my blog later – about combining two theories into a easy to remember symbol.
ILLUSTRATION AND FREELANCE
I would assume by what you have shown that you want to make the illustrations for their games. Interior Art, Cover Art, spot Illustrations, and Full-Page art.
Commendable course of action. Here are some of my observations on my own experience down that path.
The speed bump with small companies is where you will meet ones where the creative director, writer, and capital investor are sometimes also the owner. They have a real challenge to communicate to artists without knowing any of the language we speak. They have a hard idea about what they want, or they have no idea. And their idea will sometimes not make sense aesthetically for the application, or mood. Just part of the job. Decide if you want to do development work for them or not. They want an artist – you are an illustrator - but need development work.
Development work is much different. Concept art, mood boards, style guides, visual prototyping, key art, character design exploration, world building art, and iterative feedback. I did some of that but I didn't enjoy it. Those are hourly rates, project based fees, milestone payments, retainer agreements, licensing or royalty agreements.
The opportunity is there for artists in this area to design an entire game and get paid for it. Start thinking and reading some things in terms of Projects, project management and completing projects like a business person. Know where you fit into that aspect and what service you provide for their TTRPG. That is how they will speak and think and talk to you.
Know what adventure modules, source books, core rule books, encounter designs, game master tools, play testing, crunch, fluff, hex crawl, dungeon crawl and point of interests are. Your style is going to fit the Interior Art, Cover Art, spot Illustrations, and Full-Page art for those things.
When those small company types run into artists that know their stuff they will love to talk to you. They will take a lot of your time to communicate what they want, and want to understand the process. There is a lot of hand holding sometimes to make sure they know what they are asking for. So just expect that.
Draw up your own contracts for difference licensing rights – one time printing, exclusive (make that super expensive because you lose your art rights in exclusive) , digital rights (e-book) or marketing rights. They aren't paying for the art, they are buying these licenses. You own the art unless its exclusive rights they buy. Don't be afraid to ask about digital rights, licensing duration, and non-exclusive rights, you will just sound more professional.
Draw up a contract for day rates, and weekly rates and hourly rates. Sometimes clients are cool and loose they have capital to invest. Include in the contract STILL if the work is for one time printing – exclusive, non-exclusive etc. Companies with a bit more experience will just give you a contract and tell you what they want.
Ask them if they have an NDA, or recommend one where you can release the art you made on your social media – even if their project is not published.
Make it super easy for them to see what you cost, what they will get, and how long it takes. And have something ready for them to sign. Indie types will often ask how it works – because no one reads anymore - so you can explain, “you sign this contract, and we fill out the tax forms, then I work on it and give you updates, I finish, I show you pictures – you pay me – I send you your files.”
Hourly rates I typically used for when they had changes.
They will ask you how long the project will take – and you have to know how fast you are for the different assets. Communication took more time than art making and could totally derail you – so I had a cloud folder they could view to take away the email back and forth time – kept all the files super organized. And was available for calls. The communication is always a huge bottleneck everywhere. And non-artist types don't realize how long their requests take. So have that hourly rate ready, and expect changes and tilted heads for final pieces.
Guidance Questions and Passive Income
I'll touch on that in a second. But the simple answer is community discords for studios/companies. They utilize it for community engagement - and competitions and content generation.
But first on a side note -
Do you have a roll 20 account and sell assets there? You can start. Make and design your own projects and assets and sell them straight to the masses. Learn from making the marketing illustrations that you will make. Hell, make your own game! Big companies see that as a serious move. And would be interested in hiring to remove the competition you might create lol. https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/search
This will be a great place for you to practice what type of assets you sell and make. Advertise Hand made, home grown farm to table no AI, full illustration artist supported characters. Lol whatever. But when you can make your own packets and assets for passive income on your down time it will be very important. All of these places below are other avenues of possible passive income. Make all the accounts and make the link tree. Once you read the secrets about your compositions I'm about to give you, you will be in the top tier. Print on demand sights instead of printing at home and investing your own capital.
But we should really look at these as the gig economy for artists these days. If we want the big roles – we have to go to where they are So lets get back to that.
I don't know where you are located – but regardless of that this is the place to be. This is where all of the heavy hitters are. If you are serious this is where you will want to attend every year and eventually get a table once you are popular enough. https://lightboxexpo.com/
They have a discord. Just effing go join it to keep up with everything. Be your professional self and instantly have all the contacts in the world. Post there and join other heavy hitter discords from studios on Artstation. Don't spam the famous people, or directors. Participate in community competitions if you have time - you'll get noticed. I'll see you there.
Just make it easy to see on artstation or your own website. If you have multiple projects or assets you offer to clients, make purpose driven portfolio's on your own website or artstation. No one wants to download huge files, or have to sign into google to see cloud files. Make them load fast, don't make them 10 million pixels. Make sure it looks good on mobile too. Look at it like a consumer would and make it how you would want to easily contact yourself.
If you go to conventions – make your ipad photos or folder -whatever -the only thing to click on the main screen when you unlock it, make it slide to unlock with no password for the day. Fast, prepared. Those people are all friends and networking. They meet you and see your stuff and want to go and show it to 'so n so' over at 'the other company'. Make it easy for them to just quickly do that. It shows that you think and plan ahead.
They want to find people and share it with their directors and co-workers quickly. You just need to have a blurb about yourself and have your contact VERY EASILY seen.
If you are trying to land a full contract job at a place that does – splash art for their games or what have you - to have a secure job (or high level contracts) The art speaks for itself. We talked about the contracts already, and you should know your rates, and not be afraid to ask for what the companies budget or rates are.
I applied for several companies that had an art test – to see if you could follow and prompt and a style guide, just for freelance art.
But mainly - They want to hire people who already make their style of art that they need. It might take you several weeks to work on a portfolio with their intellectual property as say – splash pictures, during your freelance downtime to boot. So it could take months. Include a few of your development sheets if you needed them to develop that portfolio. This is much better than any kind of motivation letter. It shows you are ready, practiced and up for it NOW.
I would use instagram, cara, bluesky, and artstation.
You have to look at these like beasts that need to be fed. The content on them isn't always 'good', they just want content forever and always. And you can always delete old stuff or edit it down for the portfolio folders – or project style folders. But if you utilize them for marketing – you don't want to be sucked into the “obligated” video content maker who just happens to be an artist.
Use one illustration that you are making for the month - and make nine Instagram reels about it – then post those three times a week for the month, or if you get savy – daily instagram stories that go away after 24 hrs. The key is about being consistent and casting a huge net if you need to be noticed.
Those same videos or content – post them on bluesky and cara however you can. You make a painting – record some of the drawing- record some of the set up – record some of the rendering – record some of the final close up moving camera shots.
Where people get caught up is trying to make new stuff every single time post and spending all day doing it and getting 30 likes – and those are the art scam bots.
I am not going to get into how people create their content with camera or phone, of course there are several different ways. Just make sure you use the trending music people use, and utilize every art piece you make like a marketing asset for social media content three times a week, so you don't over do it getting stuck making content for likes. Just make cool posts that grab people that can to go to your link tree in your profile. Use camera pans, or pan shots, or tracking shots that move over your piece – it creats interest that keeps people watching.
If you want a portfolio group file on your insta, or cara do that. This is for your passive income and follower marketing – who will buy your passive income content or ask for freelance work. Maybe you will get noticed bed a hiring director and company.
Just post the same content everywhere for the different audiences. These are also the people who will want to buy your products you might have for sale. They might absolutely love your stuff. Oh you have 20 cool stickers for sale and here's the link where I put in my credit card? Nice! Make it easy for them.
CONCERNING STYLE
Now I see. I was going to refer to this as a sort of comic style in my horned character's Overlay Markup.
I'll dive into some of your art gods there to see whats up but I'll get back to what I notice on your stuff.
I'll re-read this and probably edit something - but for now back to the markups and paintovers.
Mar 26
