Quick Work - Team Chow!

I'm all alone this week! Gah, my girlfriend just left with her family to travel across europe for 10 days(2 days per country! haha, doesnt sound too relaxing). I can't wait to take some time off and travel :), only I'd rather sit in one spot and take in the culture and whatnot.

So anyways, since I'm alone this week I plan on really digging into my work. I got a lot of client deadlines looming! But I'm not stressed... I'm focusing on the steps I need to take to finish each piece rather than looking at the whole deal as one mass. I find that this helps me keep calm in the wake of a ton of deadlines haha. Stress doesn't help, thats for sure!

When I'm going through the steps I'm constantly asking myself what I know about composition and how to make things pop. How light falls and how to bring focus to one central part of my image. If I get caught up thinking about what other art it needs to resemble(previous work for the same company), or what I think theyre looking for, it ends up terrible. The main thing I'm trying to do is apply the basics of what makes a good image and what my strengths are.

Thats not to say I can't break away and do something different to learn... But when I do client work I have to realize that they hired me based on my personal work... Not on the fact that they think I can mimic another artist. I used to always try to be what I thought they wanted rather than what I was. Which I believe is true for most people starting out. It seems like when you do things like fantasy illustration it is exactly what you love... But its not exactly you.

In my work I always try to make my characters have a attitude about them. I often make them screaming and freakin out with drool flyin haha. Thats because I love metal and I love speed/intensity. Tense muscles and fast moving pissed off creatures. So when I approach a character thinking about exactly what it is I enjoy most it often comes out super quick. I never try and force myself to draw something I dont have any attention towards.

This of course changes when I do studies and all that. And from time to time I'm forced to draw something I have no appreciation for in my client work. Even though I don't really like certain aspects of it I do try to apply an attitude or body language thats along the lines of my own art. Anything and everything I can do to make the process as enjoyable as possible will lend itself to the piece. Its always best to just really pin point what it is about life that you truly enjoy most... Because it'll really come through in your art and seperate you from the crowd.

Whoa, huge tangent! But I figured I'd get that off my chest.

heres more work done for the team chow! Just a really quick sketch of the previous bird character.

All Caught up!

Lately I've been really focused on my art and how I spend my time. Also on whats important and what gives me more energy. I find that if I do the studies in the morning, work til around lunch then go out and do whatever for a little bit I can come back to my art with a much better mindset(and a more confident mindset). I know thats kinda common sense but sometimes its really hard to wrap your mind around it when you feel like  your schedule wont allow time off... Not that I'm going out for hours, but just down the road for a hike or a swim. I used to just go all in totally focused on my goal and would do nothing but. Now that I'm really paying attention to the results I can see how my mind really approaches art and how a healthy mind creates.

Also as I do this I can see how much more I get done with a fresh energized mind as opposed to sitting all day staring at a piece. But its hard to force yourself to know when its time to quit hanging out and go all into work. Going out always puts my mind into active mode haha, constantly thinking about how I should skateboard more and all this. I'm really trying to just switch that part of myself off as soon as I sit down to avoid distraction. Mainly though my focus has been on keeping my inspiration and really trying to find out how to recreate that feeling all the time. So this routine works for creating that inspiration for now... Hopefully it'll continue on!

So heres some quick concepts I've been doing for the team CHOW over on conceptart.org.

(click to enlarge)







Some Thrash classic !

Heavy metal maniac!