Shard Twenty-Two - Evolve/Advance

Let's talk art. (or specifically, talk about it in more detail than I normally do.)

Lately I've been noticing a lot of things about my own art. I don't know what exactly to attribute this to; perhaps it's the deviantART chatroom I've been hanging out in lately, perhaps it's connected to the changes I've been making in my style, or maybe it's just the weird mood I've been in. (which itself may be attributed to the long nights I've been having over the past few days.)

But whatever the reason, I've been having an easier time sitting back and looking at my art; not my artwork, but my art in general. my style.
One thing I've always been striving for is speed, as a matter of fact. My goal has always been to get comfortable enough with my artistic talents to be able to just sit down with an idea in my head, and within the day, have a finished piece of artwork. A result that I was actually happy with.

But looking back, I noticed a trend. Yes, my artistic talents keep getting better and better. More details, less mistakes, better quality in general. (nowhere near perfect, but progressing nicely.)

But I've also been getting slower and slower as a result.

<<><>>-------------------------------------------<<><>

It's brought me to re-think my goals a bit. Why am I getting slower, even though I'm getting better? It's my nature.

I'm learning new techniques time after time, and with every new tip I gather, I turn them into tricks to apply to my work.
And I've built up a pretty good pile of tricks.
Now, sure, I could probably emulate some of my older works even faster than ever. But it's not in my nature to "waste" my skills. So when I work, I apply all my tricks.
Now don't misunderstand me here; I'm quite happy with my style, no matter the speed. A few years back, I wouldn't have guessed I'd be working at this level. I still have even loftier expectations, but it is human nature to constantly want to be just a bit better than you are.
But the end result is, I have more skills. And I use more skills. And I take more time.

<<><>>-------------------------------------------<<><>

So here comes the re-thinking.

It's just not in my nature to learn skills and not put them to use. And for me to realistically just get faster, I'd need to not learn new skills, but simply master the ones I have.
Which is a great option, but not for me.

It isn't my style.

I'm constantly learning new techniques. Evolving my style, morphing it. My latest art project is an image of Myrkr-sefa; I've been working on it off/on for about two months now, and my art style has already changed halfway through the project. (I'll probably end up going back and re-doing some of the earlier sections as a result.)
And I wouldn't trade that advancement for anything. It's why I enjoy art. The feeling of learning something new - that sense of accomplishment when you stumble upon a new technique - it's pretty great. So what if it means your three-layer Photoshop project now has five layers in it, and takes an extra three hours to finish. (on that note, my Myrkr image currently has upwards of five layers, per finger, per hand, and a total of probably fifty-plus so far.)
The results are worth it. When you can put the final touches on a bit of artwork, sit back, and say, "this makes my last project look like crap in comparison."
And sometimes you can't top your last project that easily. But that just makes the next best artwork feel that much more rewarding.

So what are my goals now?

I'm not sure.
It's certainly not speed anymore. Sure, I want to be more comfortable with my style; but in the meantime, I'm perfectly happy with spending a few extra hours - or weeks - on a project to make it that much better.
I guess the one goal I had before, and still keep, is to just keep getting better.

And really, do I need more?

<<><>>---------------<<>>

ĜЄΘ.>

Shard Sixteen - Still Alive

Ah, how wonderfully that "let's post at least once a week" deal worked out, eh. Last entry was what, over a month ago?

Apologies. Let's try to get some updates rolling...

<<><>>-------------------------------------------<<><>

Well, in some personal news, I've cleaned my room a bit. "But Geo," you say, "that's not special at all! Lots of people have rooms, and most of them clean them every so often!"
To which I'd have to respond, firstly, that you shouldn't say such things so carelessly; think of all the people who don't have rooms to clean! For shame.
And secondly, this is mildly special, if you've ever seen the state my room is generally in; even now, post-cleaning, I have boxes of random stuff piled around the bed, cards on everything, and dust on everything else.

But yes, aside from that, it's not all that special. I just wanted to mention it. Moving on...

<<><>>-------------------------------------------<<><>

My Fragmented Infinity storyline has actually made some progress recently; almost an entire chapter's worth of writing is saved on my computer now, although unfortunately, it's almost all of the final chapter in the Vynaiocc arc. So it's sort of the end of the start of the story (I'd like to think the story doesn't really start until that point).
Of course, it's a huge spoiler in the storyline, and offers absolutely no insight on the backstory whatsoever, so I can't even preview it for anyone. But it's still a bit of a milestone to actually have that much of the story written down. Even more of a milestone in the fact that I haven't felt an overwhelming urge to completely re-write it yet. Could I have possibly gotten it the way I wanted on the first try? We'll see.

However, this does help cement the story in place a bit; I have the part leading up to the part I just wrote, finally coming into focus; that will introduce three new characters (one of which was originally a main character, then a side character, then cut from the story, and now re-introduced as a side character again). We'll also see some good "action" sequences perhaps. Not sure how well I can write a fight scene in there, but we'll find out.

Horay for writing stories backwards.

But once that is in writing, perhaps I'll have something I can preview for you all, eh. If not, I'll at least be able to get the start of the whole story going; then we might see some actual released story for your reading pleasure. (or displeasure.)

<<><>>-------------------------------------------<<><>

On the subject of artwork, I've got my main Fragmented Infinity character group shot coming along well; the project's sort of on pause currently, as I try to finalize Myrkr's outfit, but the picture is far enough along that it will be finished eventually. (too far in to quit now.)

I've also got a basic style set up for general character pictures; these pictures will eventually be finished for every character's profile page on the Fragmented Infinity website. None of them are done yet, but I've gotten started on them; the nature of the images makes them a little simpler to make, so I'm hoping they won't take too long to get underway. Jayael (a character from farther along in the story) seems to be the closest one to paper so far.

A few non-F.I. artworks still on the back burner as well, in various stages of completion; I might have to get one of those finished up if I get totally stuck on my F.I. artwork.

<<><>>-------------------------------------------<<><>

And a final note on my guitar status, for anyone who's curious. (if I remember correctly, it was the main subject of my last entry.) I still wouldn't say I can actually play the guitar, but I'm certainly closer then I was last month; I can do some simple chords freestyle now, although I haven't gotten the hang of strumming single-strings consistently yet. (fret finger positions are tough to get, and it's hard to strum just one string without hitting the adjacent ones.) But hey, I'm getting a feel for it. I don't expect to become any sort of rock star, but getting some basic rhythms and tunes memorized doesn't seem far off. And chances are, if I get into music creation, I'll be doing a lot of digital work with samples, so that could work out great.

<<><>>-------------------------------------------<<><>

That's it for now. I think this entry came out a little long, but that might at least make up for the month of silence a little bit.
I'll try to stay more active from now on. No promises, but I'll certainly try.

Keep an eye out for some more artist features, by the way. I'll be doing at least one more soon, I hope.

<<><>>---------------<<>>

ĜЄΘ.>

Shard Thirteen - Getting Stuff Done

Heya everyone.

Alright, no excuses in this post. I'm not keeping up with my goal of an entry a day. But hey. I'm certainly keeping more active then I was before, right?
And I've got some good content upcoming. I plan to start "interviewing" and featuring fellow artists here, along with my normal rambling posts. Those should be fun; for me, at the very least. I've already got one almost finished, that will be Shard Fourteen when it's done. Look forward to it.

<<><>>-------------------------------------------<<><>

Alright, let's cover a fun topic now. That is, my art.

More importantly, my art process.
This is a first for me, but I've promised to post this sort of stuff already, a while ago, I believe. For those of you who don't know, I use a strange process now when I'm creating an image from scratch; I first make a rough of the image in DAZ|Studio, in full 3D. That allows me to adjust and mess about with the pose before I start drawing, and also serves nicely to circumvent my horrible grasp of human anatomy drawing. Don't get me wrong, give me enough time and I can draw a proportionate picture of a person, but I spend so much time erasing and re-doing body parts, it's just not worth it for me. Not yet; the hope is that with enough work like this, I'll get better at drawing.

Anyway, the rendered base image looks a bit like this one (click on the image for a larger view):
<<><>>-------------------------------------------<<><>

<<><>>-------------------------------------------<<><>

...that's quite detailed and good looking on it's own, but it's got very little "personality". (do note that the 3D models do actually have realistic textures, I remove those in favor of blank white textures to make it easier for me to use it as a base.)

And image such as this one gets shipped off to Photoshop once it's rendered and I'm happy with it; in Photoshop, I start the actual drawing process, generally right on top of the base render (seperate layer of course, and often with the opacity on the base image turned up so the lines are easier to see).
The drawing now can be a few different styles, based on what sort of result I want. I generally sketch roughly with my tablet for the image, but I generally come through later with the eraser to clean the lines up. In some cases, I'll use the Pen tool to make vector-based lineart instead, although this is generally time-consuming, and I'm not the most patient artist. (from previous experience, I tend to get bored of the project before it's done if I take too long.)

As you may have noticed, the base image is sans-clothing; there are 3D clothes for these models, but generally not specific enough for me to use, since I'm attempting to design my own outfits for my images. I draw the clothing in later from scratch; once the figure has been drawn, it's not too hard to draw the clothing in over the figure.

Once the lineart is done, I color it using my usual style. I haven't quite got a coloring style set in stone yet, so I can't really explain that part; but perhaps that will be a good topic for another post, yeh?
I'll try to remember and take some "in progress" screenshots of this image in particular, and perhaps make a more detailed blog entry on that when it's finished. I'm sure that'll be a fun one.

<<><>>-------------------------------------------<<><>

Alright, and that's it for now. Look forward to my next entry, which will be my first featured artist; of course, all the artists I plan to feature are artists I like, but this guy in particular is quite deserving of a feature, I'd say.

<<><>>---------------<<>>

ĜЄΘ.>