So... Just got word from Hannes that he'll be joining me along with Janaschi over Skype on Tuesday's Crimson Daggers session to answer questions and talk about studies! Should be a lot of fun, hope to see you all there!
If you don't know them, heres some examples of their work & studies!
Hey everybody! Updating this a little bit later than usual. Devin and I spent the time after the Crimson Daggers and built an awesome monster snow man out back. Its pretty huge, somethin over 6 feet, just wait til I don't show you and it rots in the backyard... Withering away as the glory of spring destroys his monster heart D:.
Check the stream tomorrow
@6pm EST for my Monday night Character Drawing Session!
I'll be taking suggestions from the Chat and it will dictate how the final character comes out!
Anyways heres some of the content we covered during the stream today... Basically a lot of technical questions came up and we often referred to sources online from which we learned. Hopefully you'll give these a read through and learn somethin useful!
Composition! - Be sure to READ through ALL to absorb it!
Other than that I don't have much else to post. Not quite done with my study just yet but I'll try and update when I can :). Hope all that info helps! Keep on studying and seeee my daggers tomorrow!
And as always I got the other supplies I mentioned like the Plaster Cast I was studying today in the sidebar to the right here ---------------->
Hey everybody! Just wanted to throw this up because I thought it was a pretty awesome deal.
I had this up for a bit but it was always $100 and somebody just listed a copy of Loomis' Figure Drawing For All its Worth for $40. Dunno if anybody collects this kind of stuff but I figured I'd drop it on the main blog because Loomis rules. I also make a percent of course, but I've just never really seen it for cheap. Just figured somebody out theres been lookin besides me haha
Hey everybody! Crimson Daggers just ended and I'm getting read to start on work! But before that I figured I'd drop this piece of info for you if interested. I did an interview for Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews the other day and it just got posted this morning.
Also I may be doing something with ImagineFX in the future(not sure exactly what just yet). Will post more as they tell me :D. Or not if they don't want me to haha. Should be cool though, I'm always interested in doing how to's and other workshop style stuff. Hope its cool!
So, until I got some more stuff to post heres a photo study I did today with the Crimson Daggers!
Hey everybody! Wanted to go over something that I think is very important if you're an aspiring freelance artist. I talk about this all the time during my LiveStreams but I've never really posted this stuff anywhere. To some of you this may seem like common sense but... It must be enforced!
Forums
You must always be producing work. Whether it be studies or personal work, you always have to be out there pushing your art around and letting your name be known. Make sure you take part in all the challenges on places like ConceptArt.org, CgHub, etc. These little challenges show that you can meet deadlines and produce quality concepts which is important(and many people follow these challenges, helps bring people back to your sketchbook or wherever you update). Lots of really popular concept artists use this(not just because it gets them popular, they are fun to do :)) and grow a substantial amount. Its always good to work on things outside your comfort zone, each challenge gets you thinking.
Networking
Make sure you're always networking. This can be between forum members or just any sort of artist group you can find. Bobby Chiu hosts his LiveStreams and I'm sure plenty of people link up through there. Same thing happens with the Crimson Daggers group. People will share ideas, inspiration, resources, techniques and tutorials. Theres endless benefits to being connected in the community. Always be willing to ask questions even if you think they're stupid, if you don't know what saturation means... Find out as soon as possible! Also make sure to comment and send messages to members of the online forums to hopefully talk outside the boards. Take advantage of every opportunity to meet new people who work in the field you wish to work in.
Posting
Many artists I know are very weird about posting their work everywhere on the internet. Some don't use Deviant Art because they believe its only for anime people and 'furries'. This is ridiculous. If you're looking to get work, post absolutely everywhere as much as possible. I've gotten plenty of jobs from Deviant Art and I'm not talking about drawing Ash Catchem kissing Brock. I'm talking real jobs like cover work and interior illustrations. Don't hesitate to sign up for every single forum, website, and social networking website. All of these places can gain attention for your work and further help promote the fact that you're looking for a job.
Here is a list of places off the top of my head where you can post work -
If you're a freelancer and you're upset about not getting work. Just check that list and see if you're on all of these updating consistently. There is always more you can do to get noticed.
Create a Web of Links
After you've signed up for all of these websites and have started to post you're gonna wanna make sure you have a central place for people to head to. Something like a blog is ideal. Basically just any kind of homepage you can update often where you can host process work, tutorials, videos, etc. It doesn't absolutely need all that, but some kind of content that is different from the forums, and social networking sites is ideal. You're going to want to find everywhere you can on the sites above where you can post a link back to your central page. Let that be a signature, a post in the finally finished sections(example - my new stuff, got some process shots on my blog here -link-), or within the actual posts in HTML like in Deviant Art(click for example). All of these websites should relink to your blog in some way shape or form. Once they're on your blog you can focus on making content.
Awesome, I'll Hire you, Wheres your email?
If you have a website, post the email huge at the top of the website. Also put it in all your forum signatures. Make it very very easy to contact you. People are lazy and you have to make sure you compensate for that laziness.
I Love This Image... Who's the artist?
Post your website on the images you produce. Don't wanna leave any mysteries!
Stay Consistent and Don't Dissapear
A lot of people I know that I follow for their work tend to disappear for long periods of time. This is because of course they're way too busy to ever post and most of their work is buried under contracts... But until you're at that point, make sure you're everywhere(if your goal is to get those jobs anyways). I mentioned this before already but I can't stress it enough. I'm not saying you have to produce a personal illustration every day, but at least do some sketches, do some study, or just do anything to keep on moving. The main focus is to become known as a striving force. People follow those who lead vital lives. It gets them excited to follow along and keep watching your work. A vital life vitalizes. Just look at Hannes' work(check back to the beginning and watch the dates of each post and see how daily studies help) on ConceptArt.org. But really you should be studying daily anyways, and I don't mean to get all bootcamp about it until you're just hating art. I mean to just make it a habit to do just something. Anything to learn.
Portfolio
When sending out a portfolio make sure its geared at whatever company you're applying. Don't send paintings of dogs to Wizards of the Coast. Make sure it fits within the universe of whatever brand you want to work within. Also, make sure that when you send the emails to put as little distance as possible between the Art Director and your work. I would suggest the you attach the samples directly to the email. Most AD's are really busy and you want to make sure they don't have to take a lot of time to scout around links for your artwork. There shouldn't be too many to attach anyways, just send around 5 images that are your best. It also doesn't hurt to look at their best artists and try to figure out what qualities it is about them that you enjoy. Figure out what exactly sells for that brand and try to incorporate it into you own work. When I applied to Wizards I was looking at all my favorite WotC artists. I didn't copy them but I wanted to make sure I got the general idea of that world and atmosphere in my own work.
Giving Back
Once you are working, make sure to always give back as much as possible. Provide a blog or whatever else you can think up to create tutorials or give tips to artists(couple times a week or more if possible). If you want to stay relevant and make sure you don't just drop off the map, then you'll have to stay involved. Use whatever name you've made for yourself and start helping other people. You get everything you want out of life by helping others get what they want. And that, to me, is totally true. This will help you in many surprising ways, I can tell you first hand that many awesome things have been happening since I started the Crimson Daggers. Its very beneficial in many ways to keep giving back. I don't hide the fact that it helps in promoting my work. Because it totally does and I know that it works for anyone who does it. Just make sure you're 100% honest about everything and it'll all be totally awesome. Totally promise.
So! That about does it for now... Just wanted to get that out there and off my chest because I always talk about this stuff and people who don't watch the stream just never hear it. Hope it helps!
Hey everybody! Just wanted to get it out there that I do have the whole Online Store thing under control now. The only thing is that instead of $1 downloads I'm gonna have to charge like $3 to cover everything. Hope thats not too bad, I figure its still cheap enough for HD videos. Big thanks to Bryan Cinman for helping me with the store!
Anyways, thanks for everyone's emails and support! I truly appreciate everything the Crimson Daggers have done to help me!
Hey everybody! Been having a lot of fun with the LiveStreams and have been asked a good amount of questions. Most of which are about problems I forgot I used to have myself. Thats the real benefit of talking to people in real time who are going through a lot of the beginner troubles with photoshop. I always want to put out videos and whatnot but often forget what people are looking to learn.
So...
If you have any suggestions for further videos please drop me a comment!
Just let me know what you'd like to see and I'll do my best to produce some content! Basically what people asked me that sparked this was... How do you flip the canvas like that? As in without touching the menus. So if you ever have questions during the LiveStreams feel free to ask because I'm sure other people wonder the same.
Hey everybody! Getting back into the swing of things now :)! Started on my first download tonight on the LiveStream. I was hoping to have it listed for $1 but am slowly finding out how much it actually costs to host videos/use the pay services for downloads. I'm trying to figure out how to use Paypal to possibly host it(not sure how everybody else uses that service?). Of course I'm very new to all this so I have no idea what I'm talking about haha.
I'd love to get some super cheap stuff out in HD but am having a lot of trouble figuring out how to do it.
Anyways, I'll be updating more often with good questions I encounter while on the LiveStreams and will do some long answers! I'll also be posting up a pretty lengthy interview I did for a blog in the next couple days. In the meantime though... Check out this cropped preview of the goofy character I worked on tonight(half in LiveStream and half on my own recording in HD).
I've been asking around about the downloads and hopefully soon I'll hear something back. I'd love to get this stuff out there as soon as possible. Gonna wrap up this guy in the next couple days and am hoping to be able to deliver on the video.
If all else fails I'll just have to try another avenue or maybe somebody can help me figure out how to setup a shop haha. Wish I wasn't such a novice at all this technical stuff :(.
Hey everybody! Got the confirmation a minute ago that my Artist Sketchbooks iphone App just got released! I'm super pumped, so if you got an iphone please check it out and support a David in need!
So yea! I'm really happy with the way my illustrations look small :)! Nice and crisp! Hopefully enough of you guys actually have an iphone and can pick it up. I'd really appreciate it! Maybe sometime in the future if this sells well he'll ask me again.
I'll have a lot more stuff up soon, try and post some of the revamped unfinished images I worked up for the App. Basically went through my old posts and grabbed a bunch of sketches and polished em. Was cool to go back and fix the stuff that was bugging me.
The team over there at Imaginism are sending me some promo codes for free downloads. I'll try and find some way to give them out in the future! But yea, waiting on that email and in the meantime gonna spread this around like wiiilldd fire :O!
Again, thanks to everyone who picks it up! Really appreciate the support!
Hey everybody! Just finished up another Crimson Daggers stream this mornin. Feeling really good today, veryy alive! Got myself all pumped up yesterday talking to my friend Janaabout work and what shes been up to. So we're sorta feeding off eachother's energy and hopefully I'll be able to push myself to another level. Really excited to see how this turns out! But you wont know til around fall when the work is released(we're both working on the same project).
Heres my tomato from today!
Talked a bit about the supplies column I got on the side here---->
Basically its a program Amazon runs where your website can be associated with their product. If you click and buy the product through my blog then I make a % of the sales. At the moment its only 4% but I guess after awhile it can go up to 15%. Pretty good deal if you ask me! Hopefully it'll help and hopefully I'll provide stuff you need.
So I asked people from Crimson Daggers what they'd like to see me host as far as products... And the main suggestion was to host good anatomy books! So heres some I searched out after the stream that are awesome. Just remember that you have to read it! Don't just copy mindlessly... Make the time you put in worth it!
Glenn Vilppu -(couldn't really find a good source)
George B. Bridgman -
Theres some good ones to get started with. Just make sure, like I said before, that you really read and try and figure what you're doing when you study. Don't just copy without thinking.
Hey everybody! Just started using blogger yesterday, trying to get settled in with my new layout and whatnot. I already like the look of this one a whole lot more than the previous.
I'm also trying out ads to hopefully bring in some kind of extra money. Currently Chelsea and I are planning a move to Seattle this summer and are having a hard time with the funds. Trying to get that goin as much as possible. Need to be around the people :D! No more desolate forest living... Moved here in order to make myself improve my art(as in I couldn't afford to live here when I moved here so I had to get better work) and have happily made the transition into more reputable freelance jobs!
Pressure is a great motivator for me. Sometimes it may seem like a crazy idea to just jump into the fire and basically just try as hard as possible to grow. But in the end its all worth it, or thats my opinion anyways. I've been doing this sort of thing to myself for the past 2 years or so. When I started I was living at home and just jumped right into an uncertain job position in Illinois(I was residing in Massachusetts at the time). I figured that even if the position fell through that I would have to go right at freelance as hard as possible in order to make the rent every month. Of course the position fell through and I ended up doing just that :(.
Now I'm living in New Hampshire and have been for almost 2 years. Still working at that pressure but have finally started to settle into some good freelance. My couple years in solitude gotta come to an end, can't just live in my house 12 hours a day everyday anymore! Driving me crazy haha. So Seattle it isss!
Anyways, if you do find yourself in a position where you aren't satisfied and are lacking motivation... Always remember that you can use pressure and fear to just force it out! You may not want to do this for a long time as stress is a killer... But whatever works!
If any of you are having trouble studying or whatever else, feel free to drop be the Crimson Daggers study group! We meet everyday @9am EST, 2 GMT!
and heres a random image I did to test how Blogger uses image uploader!
Hey everybody! Droppin in again after some crazy deadline action :O. Life has been very very hectic for me the past few weeks. I know I say something like this almost everytime I update... But this was especially hectic. Got 10 illustrations to finish! Gotta push harder than ever! Still keeping up with the studies though. Also, jumped on a new diet without any carbs from bread and generally limiting carbs to 125 grams a day. I have to say... I feel about 200% better now that I'm on this diet. Never did I realize that carbs just totally make me feel like crap. Feeling really awake, aware and excited again.
Other than that I got some good stuff comin(I hope its good :O)! Bobby Chiu asked me to do an iPhone app with him and soon it'll be released for purchase on the iphone app store. I'll be part of his Artist Sketchbook series! It was really to go back and collect personal works(a lot of which I finished specifically for the app) and create new illustrations exclusive to it. Below are a couple preview images! I'll update again when it becomes available :D. Then you can help support this David in need.
So heres the cover and a couple pages! -
I'll be posting regularly again soon! Finally getting through the rough patch!
