Failures

In 2005 I joined the conceptart.org community, right about the time I started studying 3D-graphics at University. It is now but a shadow of its former self, but back then it was the best resource for artistic improvement I had ever come across. Not only did I, for the first time, get a notion of what level of art was expected of me to become a professional, but I was also introduced to the mentalities, paradigms and attitudes which it took to improve at a quicker pace. At the time, the community was built on the fundaments of helping each other grow through honest, straight forward critique. It wasn't about popularity, likes or kindness. It was brutal sometimes, completely ego-shattering, and absolutely glorious.

It was when I embraced failure that I started growing at a faster rate. When counter-intuitively I abandoned the idea that I had to make pretty pictures, I was free to step outside my comfort-zone and actually start improving. For me that's the best advice (besides being prolific), to start making ugly pictures. Obviously that's not desirable in a professional context, we need to be reliable and perform at a high level. But personally, at home, I still try to maintain that attitude, to not fear failure, but rather embrace it as a natural and positive part of growing. I just need to re-iterate that for myself occasionally. In addition, my sense of self-respect isn't closely linked with the quality of the pictures I make, but rather correlates closely with my self-perceived effort at practicing. Sometimes that means making ugly shit.

I'm writing this mainly as a reminder for myself, but also as a piece of advice for beginners (but I ain't no teacher, and I don't eagerly give advice, because of all the misconceptions I feel I still hold). It breaks my heart to see newbies sticking to what they think is good, and most often, the fear of failure overcomes them. I don't want to be like that. Make ugly pictures.

To follow up on these thoughts, I ought to post some really crappy things where I'm venturing far outside of my comfort-zone, but I'm afraid I've mainly done studies of some beautiful women. I'll try to do worse next time (although these are still far from anything resembling mastery).

Original


Randomness-doodles...

And true to form, here are some more unsolicited music-recommendations.







Cheers!

Weakspots

Interior design and architecture are some things I've neglected, and which leave me quivering in my pants. Figure I'd tackle 'em straight on, face my fear etc. Doing the lines and then clean shapes to be used for masks were really time-consuming. If I did this in 3D I would certainly make a render with the important planes color-coded. Can't say I enjoyed these all that much, a bit too technical for me, but maybe they'll get more fun as I improve.

Sooo muuuch tiiiime... Spent 2 days on this, mainly just putting in lines with the line-tool and flat shapes which I could use for masks. Note to self- Next time when doing the shape block-in, turn off Anti-Aliasing. Tried some new brushes which I love now.

Unwinding with some naked girls... Derwent Artist - Sepia and Indigo on A5 Moleskine (The best paper there is imo).


De La Soul!!! Hnnnnnngghhh, so good.


A bit more hard-hitting.. Wu Tang Clan in da house!


Have a nice weekend, lots of love ya'll!

Cartoons

I was born in 86', and was fortunate to grow up with plenty of high-quality cartoon-shows. Transformers, Turtles, Gummi-Bears, Darkwing Duck, He-Man, Chip N' Dale - Rescue Rangers, Ducktales, The Jetsons and The Flintstones to name a few. The most influential for me however, was Batman Animated from 1992. I loved the visual style (especially in the fourth season), the mood and the stories. To this day I am deeply inspired and influenced by that show, and my dream is to work on something equally as impactful at some point in my career.  Some artists I've learned were involved were Bruce Timm (The GOD), Shane Glines (fourth season only as far as I know) and Glenn Murakami. I can think of few artists who are as skilled at shape-design, and as a study, I felt like painting a sketch from Mr. Glines. Check out his art if you haven't, he's a contemporary master :) Also Batman Beyond is really worth a watch, I think he was more involved with that show.

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I like this photo.

Need to practice environments...


Hot darn sweet baby Jesus it's been a while since I shared some classic sketchbookery.. Lines on paper, just foolin' around...

A song most magical...



I discovered Ahmad Jamal's music pretty late, it was like finding a long lost treasure. In my opinion one of the greatest :)

The Apartment

I dedicate today's post to Brian McDonald. His blog, invisibleink and his book Invisible Ink, have taught me what little I know about storytelling, and more importantly, highlighted my lack of knowledge.  I deeply respect the craft, and I feel it's a very important aspect of our work as illustrators. His book is easy to read, informative and cheap. I recommend it.

One of the movies I discovered thanks to Brian Mcdonald is "The Apartment" by Billy Wilder. In it, Jack Lemmon's character, C.C Baxter, chases a promotion by allowing his bosses to use his apartment for various nocturnal activities. Meanwhile Shirley MacLaine's character Fran, an elevator-lady, is having dead-end affair with the boss, who's married, at the same company. Suffice to say, both characters are faced with problems arising from their situations, and need to deal with them :) The movie is a call to integrity, a comment on the hazards of chasing money and promotions, and the down-sides to being an amiable people-pleaser.

I really should stylize and make the shapes sexier.. Damn.



Wise men once asked "What is best in life?". Well, I would be tempted to say spending time with friends and loved ones, making art, listening to good live-music and eating good food. But coffee, it's certainly up there.

Breathe..

Up-Tempo House!! Yeeeeaaaahhhhh!

Practice

 Practice-practice-practice. Starting to tackle environments too..

 
 Original Photo

And here's a work-test in three parts I did for a studio. T'was fun and challenging! I'm afraid I can't say anything more about it.



Some Hip-Hop to brighten your day ;P

Strokes and Stuff

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Cartooned!

A blog I love is http://www.thesartorialist.com/ . They go around the world, taking photos of interesting-looking people and fashion. Figure I'd might as well make a cartoon-study! Trying to translate a photo stylistically is intellectually stimulating and challenging for me. I attempted to be more painterly, more along the lines of what you might see in a color-script for an animated feature.

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So I saw all over the webz how a company called Mondo will be releasing an Iron Giant collectible figure. Being one of my all time favorite movies, and considering the fact that I'm weak at hard-surface designs, I had to do a study.



Revisiting an old character and setting which I like. Needed a break from the studies, so I did something purely for fun, Crimson Claw striking a bargain? Still not pleased with my rendering, but it's slowly going in the right direction I feel.



Here you go peeps, Swedish music! ;)