Determination

It's likely that you're here for the same reason that I am: improving as a digital painter.  This is a skill that takes practice, technique, and above all: determination.  In today's blog post I'm going to ask you some tough questions about the way you spend your free-time, and how actively you're actually pursuing your goals.  

There's Not Enough Time

When was the last time you told yourself "I'd paint if I had more time"?  We've all got busy lives, and it's easy to let challenging side-projects slip out of the spotlight.  Painting, after all, doesn't start showing positive results right away -- so it's easy to get discouraged.  It's natural to allow your frustration win the battle, and paint less frequently.   "I don't have enough free time" can often be code for "I'd prefer to spend my free-time pursuing fun activities".  It's up to you to manage this urge, and to stay actively involved with digital painting.  

Painting is Hard

There's no avoiding the difficulty curve for beginners.  Painting can seem unrewarding for a year or more before the hard work begins to pay off.  When compared to nearly every other hobby or pursuit, this is a dreadful proposition.  But it will pay off.  That's the key.  Painting is hard, but through determination you will see impressive results.  So how are you spending your free time?  It takes courage and determination to knowingly fill your free-time with an activity that's frustrating.

If You Don't, Someone Else Will

If your goal is becoming a professional artist, determination is essential.  Having recently progressed through a job hunt, I can tell you from experience: Concept Art is competitive.  Making video games, movies, books is an extremely desirable job - and you can assume your competition is dedicated.  If you're looking for motivation to paint, know that your steepest competition is probably doing it right now.  I'm not encouraging you to eat, breathe, and sleep illustration - but it's realistic to know that your competition is extremely dedicated.  If 1,000 artists want to be concept artists, they're potentially fighting over 10 jobs.  With this in mind, it's reasonable that the 10 most dedicated artists eventually win the positions.

Dedication, Not Talent

From my experience dedication always beats talent.  Talent is a starting point, but dedication is the rest of the race.  Even if you love to paint, staying dedicated in the long term (years, not months) is challenging.  But it's all worth it.  The long nights, challenging critiques, and self doubt are all worth following your love of painting.  So stay tough, and remember: you do have enough time. Use it wisely.

Concept Co-Op

Last week I put out a call for interest, and the response was overwhelming.  More than 150 of you are ready to join in on this massive concept art experiment.  I'm so glad you guys are as excited as I am!  With that in mind, I've decided to proceed with the project.  There's much work to be done before we're ready to launch, but know that it's a priority for me.

What is Concept Co-Op? 

Concept Co-Op is now on Twitter!  Make sure to follow for updates.

Concept Co-Op is a giant art club.  We'll tackle large scale concept art projects, focusing on teamwork and inclusiveness.  Beginners and pros alike will be working together to dream up exciting worlds - collaborating, sharing, and designing.  No Pay, No Awards, Just Fun. 

No Art Director

The keystone of Concept Co-Op is teamwork.  Before dismissing this as cheesy nonsense, let me explain it in practical terms.  As a working concept artist in the game industry, I don't have the ability to direct a gigantic project.  Especially if it grows in the manner I'm expecting, there's no practical way to manage it with traditional art direction.   Instead, I'll lay out a prompt and a set of submission rules.  If all goes well, these rules will foster a system in which the art style develops organically .  This is good for practical reasons, and also for experimental ones.  If a huge group of artists can come together and create an online community, why can't they come together and form a concept art team?  Also, this allows me to be a participant - not just the leader.  I can't wait to jump into the trenches with you and start painting!

Coming Soon

A project of this scale requires careful planning, so it's not ready for prime time just yet.  To free up Ctrl+Paint, I've created a Concept Co-Op twitter feed - so make sure to follow for updates.  Eventually we'll have a proper website, but those details will take time to iron out.  So stay tuned, speak up in the comments, and shout out on Twitter!  I'm very excited and hope you are too.  Let's make some awesome concept art together  :) 

World Designers Wanted

The Idea:

We join forces to design a fantastic world.  I'll set the initial prompts, and then we flesh out an imaginary world through 2D artwork.  Landscape, architecture, costumes, creatures: you're encouraged to contribute as much as you'd like to. 

The End Product: 

A big pile of concept art.  Unlike other similar projects, I don't want this to result in a finished, published, object.  Instead, let's make a bunch of paintings for the fun of doing so.  

The Schedule:

I'm busy.  We're all busy.  With this in mind, the schedule would be totally open-ended.  Ideally we'll use an open platform (deviantart group, flickr.. etc) that allows art to be uploaded at your own pace.  No weekly prompts, no due dates, just an ongoing experiment.  

Who Can Participate? 

 Anyone.  Concept art is more fun when done on a team, so my idea is to make this as inclusive as possible.  Ideally we'll have a mix of beginners and more experienced artists.

Who Judges It? 

No one.  I'll create the initial guidelines, and then everyone is invited to contribute.  No art will be excluded unless it breaks the rules (nudity, etc.) 

What's The Point?

Ctrl+Paint has done a great job bringing together artists who are learning to digital paint.  Many of you share an interest in concept art. From my experience, the best way to learn concept art is by working on a team.  Ideas are shared, unexpected things happen.  The problem with most teams is that they exclude beginners.  As an experiment, I'd love to see what happens if we don't exclude anyone. 

Currently this is just an idea.  If it's something you'd be interested in, speak up in the comments.  If there's enough interest I'll move forward with the plan - and begin clarifying the details.   Thanks, guys!

Note:  I posted this a few days ago via twitter to judge the initial interest.  Now I've put it on the blog, and would love to keep hearing comments.  There are many details to be worked out, but I'm very excited.

Dynamic Brushwork

This is a new series available exclusively in the Ctrl+Paint store.

There's a challenging threshold for beginners to cross as they learn to digital paint: dynamic brush strokes.  It's a pretty linear process as you learn to make smooth, crisp, rendering with the basic three brushes.   Taking the leap to active, dynamic, strokes can seem daunting.  That's where the newest edition to the Ctrl+Paint store comes in: Dynamic Brushwork.   Don't expect to flail about with stylus in hand - my goal was to provide a structured framework to achieve expressive results.

Case Studies

Since the technique is a bit abstract, I included three real-world examples to give the workflow context.  Each one begins with a partially completed painting, and adds elements to the composition using the dynamic brushwork method.  If you want to follow along, the PSD files are included!

Custom Brushes

The success of this method hinges on custom brushes.  With that in mind, I included a pack of nine brushes (6 of which replicate natural media) for you to use.  These are the exact same brushes I'll be using on-screen in the videos.  Downloading another artist's brushes can be daunting, so I've included a 15 minute video explaining the intended use of each one.  Ultimately, though, I encourage you to expand from this 'starter pack' of natural media brushes.  

Available Now!

If you want to add a bit of dynamism and energy to your marks, but don't know where to begin, I encourage you to check out Dynamic Brushwork in the Ctrl+Paint store.   As always, this premium series costs $10 - and the proceeds keep Ctrl+Paint alive and ad-free.  Thanks for your support!

Stroke Economy

By Gregory Manchess

Two weeks ago talked about pushing further, and adding extra polish to your paintings.  In that case, more was better.  More brush strokes, more details, more polish.  Sometimes, though, less is more.  In the case of the painting by Gregory Manchess (right), you can see many large brush strokes.  Arguably the beauty and depth of this painting come from the raw, visible, marks.

Bold Marks

A term for this quality is ‘stroke economy’.  It’s when an artist evokes a rich, detailed, image in the mind of the viewer through implied detail.  Where photographs shine is in their specificity, though paintings offer a different opportunity: simplification. John Singer Sargent (seen above) is a true master of stroke economy.  If you ever have a chance to see a Sargent painting in person, make sure to do so -- the marks are unbelievable up close.

For beginners it’s easy to misread stroke economy as ‘painting quickly’.  The big, visible, strokes seem to indicate a haphazard painting technique.  In reality, stroke economy is only possible after the artist has mastered formal realism.  An artist might first learn how to paint something accurately with 50 strokes - and only after years of practice might approach the same subject with 5 brush strokes.  Stroke economy is a visual reduction on the part of an accomplished painter.  

I encourage you to experiment with this concept.  Is it possible to represent a landscape photo with 10 brush strokes?  You won't be painting a realistic image, but it's possible to capture light, gesture, and color.  More importantly, it demonstrates the importance of deliberate brush strokes - and is the first step on a path of efficient painting.  

Coming Soon to the Store

As a beginner stroke economy poses a conceptual challenge.  The road from basic to intermediate rendering is somewhat linear: you paint what you see.  Add more polish whenever necessary.  Learning to simplify, reduce, and imply can seem like uncharted territory.  On top of that, Photoshop brings its own technical challenges to the table.  For all of these reasons, I’m creating a new series for the Ctrl+Paint store.  It focuses on a technique I use to achieve a balance between painterly, active marks, and careful craftsmanship.   This new series is called “Dynamic Brushwork”, and will be released on Thursday August 29th.  Though it’s not ideal for absolute beginners, I’m very excited to share it with the Ctrl+Paint audience.  As long as you’ve gone through Basic Photoshop Rendering, it’ll be right up your alley.  Stay tuned for a more full reveal next week!

From Squiggle to Breakthrough

Sometimes the best way to come up with a new or unusual idea is to break free of conscious thought.  I'm  not talking about drugs or meditation, but 'automatic drawing.'  My monster heads (right) are examples of this design technique.  Instead of starting with a traditional thumbnail, I've made large squiggle shapes on a blank document.  These shapes serve as the scaffolding for a more detailed drawing.  There aren't many 'rules' for this exercise, but it's important to stick to the initial scribble for the major shapes.  Inside of those forms you're free to elaborate and add details.

Origin of Automation

The idea of "automatic drawing" has its roots in the early 20th century.  The surrealists (visual artists and writers) coined the term to describe their cutting edge creations.  For them it was a way to tap into the subconscious and create unorthodox artwork.  The primary difference between the example I've created (right) and the historical definition of 'automatic drawing' is intent.  My drawing exercise is just that: idea generation.  Used as a first step in a longer illustration process, it simply allows me to come up with unusual shapes and avoid derivative designs.  By sketching in this way I don't need to identify as a Surrealist, but it's nice to understand the historical context. 

Automatic Drawing Monster Heads

Go Make a Squiggle! 

This week I encourage you to give automatic drawing a try.  Especially if you've been in a creative rut recently, this is a great exercise to get loosened up.  When drawing from your imagination it's easy to fall into the trap of repetition: your mental 'library' can lead to stale designs.  Automatic sketching can result in crazy, unusual, and exciting shapes.  They're your ideas -- you just might not think of them intentionally.  Have fun with this!

You Can Go Further

A question you need to be asking yourself with every painting is "how far can I push this?"  From my growing contact with beginner artists, I see a similar problem over and over: incomplete artwork.  Whether it's caused my impatience or self-doubt, it's likely that you're not 'finishing' your paintings.  This week I'll explore the topic of personal limitations, and do so with a personal story. 

My Big Portfolio Reveal

This experience happened early during my second year at SCAD.  I had been painting digitally for the better part of a year, and had a very favorable impression of my own work (read: I was delusional).  With nine or ten pieces finished, I was ready to share my work with the world.  As a regular on the ConceptArt.org forum, this meant that it was time to create a thread in the Finally Finished section.  So I uploaded my pieces, hit 'post', and sat back with a giant grin.  Surely it couldn't be more than a day or so before my work impressed art directors the world over, and job offers would fill my inbox.  As it turns out, I was a bit off base.  Instead of job offers, what I got was an extremely frank portfolio review from one of the artists at Massive Black. 

The Hard Truth

It's important to stress the fact that this portfolio review was extremely articulate.   He addressed the portfolio as a whole, and also critiqued individual paintings.  To summarize, he told me that none of the work was finished.  That's not entirely true - he circled the forearm of one of my characters and said 'that's the only bit of finished work in your whole portfolio'.  There was nothing mean-spirited about his wording.  He clearly stated two pieces of evidence: 1) Your work is not finished.  2) You're clearly capable of better art, but your impatience is limiting your potential.  

My Initial Reaction

I was crushed.  I took it as a personal attack.  Sure, I'd been in classroom critiques before - but this was different.  This was my entire portfolio.   To have it slashed to pieces was akin to having my sense of identity dragged through the mud.  I was ashamed, embarrassed, and hurt.  For a few weeks I lingered in a haze of self-pity and doubt.  I didn't understand what an amazing gift he gave me.  When I finally pulled myself out of the funk, however, it permanently altered my painting career.  

The Long-Term Outcome

He was right.  There's no getting around the facts: my work was not polished, and I was rushing.  Once I was able to begin taking his advice (and stop feeling sorry for myself), everything changed.  I pulled out old paintings and began to add layers of polish.  Surface detail, textures, an emphasis on lighting... more, and more, and more.  The results were awesome.  By forcing myself to push further past the 'finish line' that I was self-imposing, my work took on new richness.  I'd never seen my own potential because I was in such a rush to begin the next painting.  In the years since then I've been extremely careful when labeling artwork 'finished'.  Recently I've been making a habit of revisiting pieces after a month or so.  With fresh eyes it's easier to see the problems, and I frequently add touch-ups to existing pieces in my portfolio.  

Most importantly, this tough portfolio review alerted me to a personal weakness: impatience.  Since it's part of my character, it won't go away.  Instead, I have addressed it like any other technical aspect of painting - targeted improvement.  Over time I've learned to slow down and polish my work.  

How Far Can You Push? 

Patience is a personal weakness for me, but I'm certainly not alone.  I challenge you to push your boundaries.  Take a piece of 'finished' work and spend another entire work day on it.  Force yourself to add details, make refinements, and generally improve the work.  I'll warn you: this will not feel natural.  Leaving your comfort zone never does.  Regardless, it's worth the struggle.  By taking this challenge seriously, you'll push your work to new heights and see your own unharnessed potential.  So put on some good music, and get to it! 

Pigeons & Concept Art Secrets

One of the subjects I talk a lot about here on Ctrl+Paint is the importance of reference materials.  Today's post is going to explore a deceptively mundane subject: pigeons - and how a bit of reference material can make all of the difference.

First off, why pigeons?  My wife recently came across a website devoted to 'show pigeons'.  To get a visual, think 'show dogs', and replace it with pigeons in your mind.  You might think that this is an extremely boring hobby - but an unexpected thing happens when you look a bit deeper.  As it turns out, there are nearly a hundred pigeon varieties - and only a handful of them are the boring, gray, beggars that you're envisioning.  Just like national dog competitions, these pigeons represent a huge variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and textures.  Take a look at the images above and right to see some of the more flamboyant examples.

Avoid the Icon

So what does this mean?  It means that the world is filled with weird, strange, variety - and your art should be too.  It's easy to default to your mental short-hand.  If you were to think of the word 'pigeon', it's likely that you'd come back with results much more in line with this clip art (right).  These clip art images are closer to icons than they are to actual imagery.  Sure, this would communicate the idea of 'pigeon', but only in the most superficial way.  To make your work stand out, it's important to be aware of icons.  Just like a writer avoiding cliche, it's your job to add a bit of nuance.

Design + Nature

Let's pretend your next assignment as a concept artist is to design a 'pigeon king' monster.  If you took the time to do a bit of research, including unusual real-world details like the photos shown above would be easy.  More importantly, the audience will probably find the image so much more compelling because they've never come across the world of show-pigeons.  As far as they know, you've just ventured into cutting-edge creative territory - envisioning pigeons like the world has never seen.  Our little secret, however, is that evolution did all of the hard work and you're just borrowing it.   It's not to say that concept art isn't about creativity  - but there are times where your effort is better spent on research than on painting.  

Become a Professional Observer

It's easy to think of painting as hard work, and time spend painting as 'practice'.  I'd argue that keeping your eyes open and experiencing the world is equally valuable.  This sort of observation has to be active - not just walking around while thinking about your to-do list.  The ultimate goal is soaking in the strange details around you, remembering them, and being able to recall them when painting from your studio.  Especially if you don't have enough time in your schedule to paint every day, there's always an opportunity to spend some dedicated time observing your world.  Whether it's photos or your physical surroundings, critical observation is time well spent.

Ultimately, the world is full of strange stuff.  Take advantage, and keep your eyes open!

Design a Pipeline

If you've worked at a game studio, you're probably familiar with the term 'pipeline'.  For the uninitiated, it's a fancy way of saying 'organizational plan'.  In this post I'd like to argue the merits of creating your very own personal pipeline  in order to solidify good working habits, save time, and avoid losing documents. 

Pipelines are created to avoid problems down the road.  When they're designed for a game, it's likely that the game doesn't have many files and documents yet.  A year or two later, however, the game will have thousands of such files - so you can imagine the importance of a well considered organizational system.  The same might be true for you.  If you're a beginner starting out with digital painting, it's likely that you don't have many files saved.  After a few years of painting you'll have hundreds or thousands of files.  Do you have a system in place to keep them under control?  To give you some inspiration, I'll go over my system and explain why I've made certain choices.  

1) Automated Backup

Arguably the most important item on the list, a system of automated backup can help you avoid a really bad day.   To be completely honest, I've only recently purchased an external hard drive with an automated backup... but it's long overdue.  Bottom line: any system that relies on you remembering to backup your art files is not good enough.   Your computer has a better memory than you do.

2) Folder Structure

If you only learn one thing from this post, make sure it's folder structure.  This is where I sort my files into relevant categories, from basic to specific. At the top I separate media: web, photos, personal illustration, commercial illustration.  Almost all of my art-related files fit into one of these categories.  If I could go back in time, I'd add in an additional tier into these folders: year.  Creating a folder for 2012, 2013, etc. inside of personal and commercial illustration directories would have made my life a lot easier.  So if you're designing a system right now, you might want to consider these sub-folder.  Another way to sub-divide might be categorical: characters, environments, etc.  It all depends on what sort of work you're creating.  For a while last year I was doing a lot of daily gesture drawing, and so I made a folder inside of Personal Illustration  called  Daily Gesture.  Each day I might make a number of drawings, so I created sub-folders titled with the date (ex: Personal_Illustration/ Daily Gesture/ 2012_03_10/art.jpg).  Designing your folder structure might take some time, but it's time well spent.  This will serve as an organizational scaffolding for years to come.  

An illustration is never just one file.  With this in mind, each of my paintings starts with a project folder.  I make sure it's named clearly, and generally create a few sub-folders inside of it:

ProjectName_ref is where I throw the photo reference I use for the project.  If I make 2D patterns, stencils, or special textures they usually go in here as well.

ProjectName_working is where I keep my working files.  Psd, Sketchup files, etc.  

ProjectName_thumbnails is an optional one.  If I know the image is going to be pretty involved, I'll often create a folder just for thumbnails. Since I'll probably make a number of these, it's nice to avoid cluttering my working folder. 

ProjectName_export is where I like to put the web-size .jpg files.  Especially If I'm working with a client, the .PSD file is not what they want to see, so this folder is where I put my flat sketches and final images.   

3) Iterative Saving

As much as you might plan, painting is filled with unexpected surprises.  For this reason, I love to practice iterative saving .  This essentially means I'll use 'save as' instead of 'save' whenever I make a substantial change.  The net effect of iterative saving is that you can return to old versions (like a magic time machine) - which can sometimes save the day.  If you've watched any of my premium series you probably know that I start with many layers and eventually flatten down for refinements.  When I know it's time to switch to the flat refinement, I'll save out a new version of the painting called ProjectName_flat.psd.  At this point I'll close my previous version of the file, preserving the layered version in case I make mistakes and need to rewind a bit.  Saving in this way can lead to a pile of .psd files before you're finished, so make sure you're titling them with readable names.  Will you be able to return to these files in three years and decipher the titles? 

4) Naming Convention

If you're working on a team, a naming convention is essential.  For freelancers, it's less important - but I'd encourage it.  The general idea is to have some sort of formula for the way you name your files - a format that you always stick to.  Here's an example: 

demonicCurse_rough_b_red.psd

Let's break down the code.  First is the project name - in this case it's a 'demonic curse'  image.  The next part (separated by an underscore) is the phase of the illustration.  I might use 'sketch', 'rough', 'refine', 'postProcess' or 'final' in this segment.  The next bit of the format is _b, which will help keep my iterations in order.  I like alphabet letters, but some artists like to use numbers (make sure to use at least two digits if you use numbers).  Finally, the last section is the 'note'.  This is just a reminder to me that the image is red - maybe C and D were other colors, and I wanted to know at a glance.  Why is this note at the end?  For sorting purposes.  If I let windows sort my files alphabetically, 'red' will not throw off the order.  The order of the name's format is designed around the way windows sorts file-names.  It might seem a bit over the top to name your files in this way... but it's worth the effort.  Once it becomes a habit, you'll thank yourself years down the road.  

What do you do?

These are not the only ways you can stay organized.  I'd love to hear what special tips you use for organizing your own art files.  Let's talk about it in the comments! 

Art as a Hobby

If you're an american adult, you've undoubtedly asked a new acquaintance 'what do you do?'.  The question actually means 'what do you do for work?' .  This ubiquitous question shows how completely we equate occupation with identity.  If you are interested in art, but don't make it your career, you might find yourself struggling to find an answer to this question.  In this week's post I'm going to explore the idea of art as a hobby - and what it might mean for your sense of identity.

  Some jobs have high prestige like Doctor, Lawyer, and Musician - while other, more common, jobs have lower prestige.  Whether or not these jobs deserve such high prestige is a different topic, but  it's hard to argue that all jobs are seen as 'equally impressive'.  So if you're working in retail or food service, is there shame in only perusing art as a hobby?  No.  Absolutely not.  It's easy to fall into the trap of believing that your art is less important when not overlapping your career -  but this is not a good way to look at it.  There are a variety of reasons that art is equally awesome when pursued as a hobby, so let's take a look at some of them:

1)  Burnout

When art is your job, you're going to do a lot of it.  Whether or not you're having a 'good drawing day', you'll be expected to produce for eight or more hours each work day.  Over years of this pace, commercial artists can begin to get burnt out.  Any activity, when done for long enough, can begin to lose its charm.  Is burnout a guarantee?  No.  Does it happen?  Yes.  I don't have exact statistics to back up this claim, but the average tenure of video game artists is surprisingly low - in the neighborhood of 5 years.  Even though the industry is relatively new, that's an extremely low number.  I've spoken with tons of video game artists, and a number of VX artists, and burnout is be a very real factor.  

2)  Creative Control

When it's your job to produce art, you rarely have the ability to call the shots.  Other than gallery art, getting paid to create generally means strict guidelines.  Some artists thrive with tight limitations, but others find it stifling.  I've heard numerous stories of animators leaving the studio environment to create independent graphic novels.  As fun as the animation work was at first, eventually the lack of creative control outweighed their financial security.   Indie graphic novels and web comics reverse this formula - offering total creative control with significant financial risk. 

3)  Other Interests 

We all hear stories of artists painting with monk-like devotion.  Though these artists exist, most actually have other interests and pursuits.  There's no shame in deciding that you are passionate about art, but also passionate about another field such as science or law.  If this is the case, electing to work as a scientist and create art as a hobby might make a lot of sense.  It's tempting to think of art as a very black and white activity: you're either a master or a nobody.  In my opinion this is an unhealthy frame of mind - it's a total gradation.  Choosing a different profession doesn't mean you're giving up on art, or that you're any less entitled to the label 'artist'. 

Sense of Self

My wife and I often talk about the intersection of art and identity.  When I'm having a bad drawing day, it can throw me into a negative mood.  Likewise, a great drawing can empower me and create an emotional high.  On a larger scale art can become a sense of identity - I think of myself as an artist,  even though I have a variety of interests.   All of this comes dangerously close to the question 'what do you do?'.  I'm not going to claim to have an answer to this issue.  It's something that I, and other artists, struggle with it all the time.  So if you're having trouble separating the two concepts know that you're not alone.  The best advice I can give is to de-emphasize the importance of career labels.  There's nothing wrong with identifying as an artist - in fact, I encourage it - but don't get hung up on the distinction between 'artist' and 'professional artist'.  

What do You Do? 

This article offers more questions than answers.  For this reason, let's open up this conversation in the comments.  I'd love to hear personal experiences dealing with art, identity, and career mindset.  These are big questions, so let's start a conversation!

Your Art Team

Artists could learn a lot from athletes.  I'm not talking about the big muscles, fancy outfits, or the cheerleaders.  Instead, I'm talking about the team.   Unless you work in an art studio you're probably painting on your own.  Especially for learning, this can be a challenging situation.  In this post I'll talk about the importance of community for artists, and the value of peers.  

Even solitary athletes like golfers and runners train on teams.  Sure, the moment of competition might be a solitary challenge - but every bit of rehearsal and training took place with a group of peers and a coach.  The team format confers a great many benefits, but today I want to focus on the psychology of learning.  Painting, like basketball, running, or golf, is a technical skill.  It's hard  to learn.  There are days when it seems like you're destined to fail.  Unlike basketball or running, artists don't often have a coach or teammates - making the hard days much harder.  Some personality types are able to flourish even without the social feedback of peers, but most need a network to succeed.

 If you don't go to art school, it's still important to surround yourself with other learning artists.  luckily there are a large variety of options, so let's take a look at some:

Join a Club

If you're a student, there's probably a community of like-minded artists nearby.  If a club for your interest (concept art, book cover illustration, etc.) doesn't exist yet - start one!  Meeting routinely is a great way to improve your artwork. If you've ever seen joggers training in pairs, there's a reason for this: mutual accountability.  By hosting or attending a club meeting, you're agreeing to bring your best work - and that positive feedback will empower everyone around you.    Clubs can be centered around critiquing work, creating a group project, or simply talking about recent developments.  I spent a year meeting once a week with artist friends to discuss our progress toward various goals.  None of us shared a medium (there were songwriters, play-writes, illustrators and more)  but we all shared a drive for personal improvement.  We were all practicing, training, and creating.  Getting together turned that into a social event!  

Participate in Online Challenges

My favorite is conceptart.org, though there are many sites which follow a similar format.  The general idea is that a moderator routinely offers a prompt with a deadline, and artists are invited to create work and discuss their progress.  Some of these end with a 'winner', though the important part is the community interaction.  These are nice because you're able to see the progress images (sketches, etc) from a variety of artists - seeing different ways to approach each prompt.   Additionally, if you want feedback or critique, the community is generally happy to give it.  And don't just do one of these - make a habit out of it!  If you become a 'regular' in one of these competitions, you'll have a much easier time getting meaningful feedback.  Everyone is making a 'social investment' by participating, and familiar faces are highly valued.  

Attend a Local Life Drawing Session

Sitting in a dim room with other artists and drawing can't be simulated on the internet.  Even if you're not going to art school, there's nothing stopping you from attending a local life drawing session.  Each session is different, but many focus on drawing the nude figure with traditional media.  This is a great way to meet other artists.     

Join an Online Course

CGMA online school

The videos on Ctrl+Paint are my favorite way to teach digital painting, but some artists prefer the student / teacher relationship.  If you're looking for this, but still want to learn on the internet, you might want to check out CGMA, Chris Oatley's Magic Box, or Schoolism.   Each of these offers online education combined with community interaction.  I've not attended the classes personally, but I'm told that they're all wonderful.  

I'm also excited to announce that I've teamed up with the Lamp Post Guild & Pathwright to create an interactive version of Digital Painting 101.   Launching today, this course is my first collaboration with LPG, and I'm excited about what the future might hold.  The Pathwright system is extremely cool - it takes the Ctrl+Paint content and powers it up with quizzes, assignments, and community interactivity.  The digital painting 101 course is free, but the other LPG courses are definitely worth checking out!  

What Will You Do? 

I've given a few examples here, but there are many more options.  What will you do?  This is a topic I'd love to see discussed in the comments, because we're all in the same boat.  Learning online is... hard.  Hopefully we can share some good ideas, and figure out good ways to find our art team , both online and off.  

There's More Than One Right Way

We talk a lot about realism on this site.  Traditional painting and drawing generally has a foundation on painting what you see, and capturing it realistically.  Sometimes it's nice, though, to push the boundaries.   The wonderful thing that painting has over photography is style  and mark-making , so it's important to expand your comfort zone from time to time.  In this blog post I'll show you some contemporary digital artists who prove that there's no 'right way' to paint.

Arash Radika  (Click to enlarge)

Before we get started, though, I want to give a quick disclaimer about personal style.  The short version is this: don't force it.  Being versatile is crucial for commercial art.  The more you paint, you'll begin to develop a personal point of view - but it can be very dangerous to adopt someone else's personal style as your own.  My personal approach is to study a variety of styles, copying bits and pieces as I learn.   With that in mind, let's take a look some artists who showcase wildly divergent brush technique.

Loose & Energetic

This piece from Arash Radika (right) has wonderful energy and dynamism.  Though it's impossible to know exactly how the piece was created, the final result seems effortless and light.  I'm especially drawn to the brush technique.  Radika balances hard and soft with his edges and shading.  Some areas jump out at the viewer with high contrast, sharp edges, and visible brushstrokes - while other areas recede into the distance in a haze of atmosphere.  It looks 'finished', though has the spontaneity of a sketchbook doodle.  

Jeon JongUk    (Click to enlarge)

Balancing Realism & Expression  

Jeff Simpson   (Click to enlarge)

Both of these artists are painting 'realistically', though neither strives for a photographic level of polish.  In the case of Jeon JongUk (left), his painting exhibits extremely realistic colors.  When you squint at the image, it appears photographic.  Upon closer inspection the brush strokes are quite visible - creating an expressive looseness.  The painting to the right by Jeff Simpson is also realistic, though uses a large graphic white background.  This choice flattens the sense of space into poster-style cutout, but the surface treatment is still 'realistic'.  It's easy to think of realism and style on opposite ends of a spectrum, but these paintings show that great art often features both aspects.  Expressive painting doesn't need to look like a Saturday morning cartoon.

View fullsize

Andrew Ley  (Click to enlarge)

Implied Detail

Andrew Ley (right) distills a complex outdoor scene into simple shapes with this illustration.  It conveys a sense of realism through rich textures and accurate colors, but the objects are streamlined for the sake of composition.  It's simultaneously detailed and simplified.  Painting in this way invites the viewer to imagine details which are not present - activating the space through implied detail.

Make it Your Own

Clearly each of these examples are from accomplished painters.  It's unreasonable to expect a beginner to reproduce images like these.  But as a painter (beginner or experienced), influence is important.  Seeing these images shouldn't make you want to be the 'next Andrew Ley', but it should open your eyes to new possibilities.  As you learn to paint and hone your technique remember to push the boundaries.   Be inspired by other professionals, and weave that inspiration into the tapestry that is your personal style.   Go to the museum,  sites like Cghub.com, and simply keep your eyes open!   Each artist solves visual problems differently, because in painting there's always more than one 'right way'.  

The Opposite of Speed Painting

If youtube viewers (in general) have decided that speed painting is awesome, what must the opposite be?  Is painting slowly a waste of time?  In this post I'll argue that painting slowly not only saves time, but creates much better results.   

The Allure of Speed Painting

I've talked about this particular issue in previous videos, so I'll be brief here.  In short, speed paint videos create a very unrealistic expectation for art-making.  Art takes time.  Period.  Not only are these youtube videos showcasing a sub-optimal painting method, they're also speeding up the playback to an absurd degree.  It's totally understandable that a new digital artist might feel disheartened at the slow pace of their own mark-making after watching such videos.  So if you're in this boat - you're not alone.  The video below elaborates on this issue, as well as painting 'silhouettes' (and other visual development shorthand).  So if you haven't already seen it, I encourage you to watch! 

To visit the artits' shown in this video, check out http://www.myamada.com/ and http://www.vyle-art.com/ For additional free videos, custom brushes, worksheets and more more check out www.ctrlpaint.com

When Paint Had to Dry

Before Photoshop took over, most commercial artists used actual paint for their work.  This lead to an interesting phenomenon: planning.  Since paint has to dry before it can be layered on top of, an artist with deadlines needed to do all of her problem solving before actually touching brush to illustration board.  Sketches, studies, color samples, and other preparatory drawings would help prevent making mistakes with paint.  This lead to, in my opinion, fewer abandoned paintings.  Now that we're working digitally, it's easy to skip the planning phase and jump right into paint.  After all, it's completely malleable - so why not? Any mistake can be endlessly revised and tweaked.   Is it possible that all this 'speed' has lead to more wasted time?  If you're anything like me, I'm sure you occasionally find yourself pushing colors and shapes around a digital canvas for hours - designing your painting into a corner.  If it were real paint, an image like this would be an inch thick (were it to ever dry at all) due to the layers upon layers added in this indecisive loop.  Maybe painting the slow way was faster after all. 

Learn to Slow Down

 Everything about modern life is fast, so it's no surprise that the tempo of painting has accelerated in recent years.  It's reasonable to ask 'what about professional deadlines?' - and to this I would say 'start slow'.  If you were learning a new song on an instrument, you'd never approach it at full speed the first time around.  You might set your metronome to a slow speed, carefully analyze the new notes, and eventually build your confidence.  The same exact principle applies to painting.  If you're learning a new technique or subject-matter, give your brain a chance to soak it in!  Given time (years, not days) your speed will naturally increase.  If you are impatient and paint faster than your ability allows, bad technique is sure to follow.  Bad results are sure to follow.  In all likelyhood, a bad mood is sure to follow.  To rest on a cliche, this really is a tortoise and the hare situation -- slow and steady makes a better painting.   

Enjoy it

Finally, remember to enjoy the act of painting.  For something we're all so enamored with, what's the rush?  Making marks on a page to slowly create the illusion of 3D form is somewhat like magic.  It's a subtle, challenging,  activity.  To rush this process is to invite failure.  Whether you're a total beginner, or are an industry veteran - remember to have fun.  It's not a race.  

Go outside!

As a digital artist it's easy to feel tied to your computer.  Having recently driven across the entire US, I've remembered how amazing  the outdoors can be - and why artists ought to venture out of their computer caves now and again.  It's a bit of an exaggeration to say I'd forgotten that nature is beautiful, but it's astonishing just how big  this landscape truly is.  Driving from east to west, Iowa was my first 'wow' moment;  the rest of the trip continued to up the ante.  

It's really, really big. 

So what does this have to do with art?  Scale.  My usual experience is photography - all of the reference material I use comes from the internet or my digital camera, and so my sense of the natural world is often restricted to pixels.  Though this is incredibly convenient, it doesn't tell the entire story.  Being in Wyoming, for instance, one can't help but marvel at how big the landscape seems.  Instead of looking at a glowing rectangle on my desktop, I was a spec in the middle of the huge expanse of buttes and rolling hills.  On an interstate highway carved out of pristine countryside, the lack of scale objects made my surroundings alien and impossibly large.  In short, I was blown away.  As a concept artist one of my roles is to impart that sense of awe and amazement through scale in an illustration.  Painting what you know is much easier than painting unfamiliar subjects, so experiencing Wyoming will certainly help my future paintings.  I'd argue that experiencing Wyoming was significantly more impressive than looking at photos of the same area, and will have more impact on my future artwork. 

Specific Details

One great outcome of experiencing the natural world is seeing strange details.  Details that you can file away in your brain for future paintings.  Farm fields, I learned on my trip, look a bit different than I remembered.  Picture an expansive field of brown soil broken up by rows of short green plants.  Seen from eye level, I had assumed that these rows would appear as stripes stretching off into the distance - brown, green, brown, green.  In actuality, I was only able to see three or four rows of dirt directly in front of me, but everything in my peripheral vision quickly turned into a mass of solid green.    If I were going to paint this scene from my imagination, before the trip I certainly would have misrepresented the rows of crops.  Now that I've been there, I won't ever forget the particular way that the rows merge into a large mass.  Does this one detail make a huge difference?  Probably not.  But there's clearly something to be said for experiencing a scene instead of simply looking at photos.  

Painting Outdoors

There's an activity called plein air in which you take your paints and canvas outdoors, and paint what you see.  Unlike working from photos, you're experiencing color and light in it's fullest form - and doing your best to quickly record it on a canvas.  Since digital is my primary medium, I've never done this - but some of my favorite artists frequently do.  Photographs have a way of flattening color and depth, while direct observation leaves a much more vivid, weighty, impression.  Even though this practice, plen air painting, is largely done with traditional media - some digital artists have taken up the practice.  The Digital Plein Air Society is a group of Southern Californian artists who regularly cart their laptops, chairs, umbrellas (and a variety of other gear) into the wilderness for outdoor painting.  Using wooden box to cut down on glare, these artists are creating beautiful landscape paintings directly from the source.  

What Can You Do?

If digital plein air is a bit elaborate for your taste, consider taking a sketchbook to the nearest nature you can find.   Sit in the middle of a park or field and soak in the experience.  Even if you're only sketching with a pencil, make sure to take notes on what you're seeing.  The old masters, after all, would often do their paintings in a studio hidden away from their actual subject.   Beforehand they would venture out into nature to do studies and take notes - carefully observing the effects of natural light and color.  So even if you're a digital artist, you're always able to learn from the outdoors - even if you do your painting indoors.  I'd love to hear how / if you guys paint and draw of the house - so let's talk about it in the comments!  

Project Scope

Tell me if this story sounds familiar: a Kickstarter project gets off to a great start, it exceeds the initial goal, and then the stretch goals begin.  As the group excitement grows, the stretch goals get loftier and loftier - and then the project fails to meet its deadline.  Even if the goals were made with the purest of intentions, I've seen many popular kickstarter efforts over-promise and under-deliver.   Today I'm going to discuss the danger of project scope, and the importance of task completion.

Finish Something

In my opinion a completed, humble, task is better than an ambitious and unfinished one. Let's envision an indie video game as the product for a kickstarter campaign.  One option would be to promise more and more additions to the game as stretch goals - risking a delayed launch due to the extra production work.  An alternative might be to promise episodic content as the stretch goals -- downloadable add ons to the game available after the initial launch.  This second scenario favors task completion: the core game launches, and then add ons are available later.  Players get to enjoy the game sooner, and the developer hasn't scheduled himself into an impossible deadline.  

Kickstarter is one example, but this phenomenon extends into all aspects of our lives.  Have you ever started a diet only to lose focus a week later?  What about a daily exercise routine that was destined to fail?  Everyone has moments of excitement where anything seems possible - sometimes turning them into impossible obligations.  Learning to  temper this impulse with realistic expectations is an important life, and art, skill.

Scope, Scope, Scope

If you're learning to paint, it's tempting to give yourself a list of assignments to practice every day.  In the past I've attempted daily practice of gesture drawing, portraits, photo studies, etc.  Without fail, daily obligations like these don't manage to last more than a month or so.  I don't have the research to back up my theory, but it seems like routinely failing challenges like this sets a dangerous personal precedent.

With all of this in mind, I recommend starting small and working larger.  Like downloadable add ons to a finished indie game, think of a small 'core' to your new habit or project.   Make sure your core is realistic, and has room to grow.  If my new project was a redesign of the 'Little Red Riding Hood' fairy tale I might start with a small set of designs.  The wolf, little red riding hood, and one location (maybe a section of trail?) would be reasonable.  Even if I stopped now, the project would be complete.  If I wanted to continue, the next tier might include additional locations, props, or even some storyboards.   In this manner, the project is both realistic and open to expansion.  

Train Your Brain

Working from completion to completion is much more satisfying than working from failure to failure.  Developing a sense of personal accountability will allow you to confidently approach larger challenges.  Once you've experienced a long string of completed projects, the next one seems much more attainable.  The real challenge becomes breaking large projects into smaller, stand-alone, components.

What's Your Story?

I'm sure you've had your own run-ins with project scope.  If you're willing to share them, feel free to do so in the comments!  We can all learn from the pitfalls and successes of others, so join the conversation.

Self Portraits

​When was the last time that you painted or drew a self portrait?  If the answer is anything other than 'last week', I hope this post serves as a motivation to do so.  Full disclosure:  I haven't made one for a long time, though made many during art school.  When they were routine, however, I improved quickly with my facial anatomy.  As artist it's easy to avoid self portraits: maybe you're not into drawing people, faces are hard to paint, you don't have a mirror handy... the list goes on and on.  From my experience, though, painting self portraits is beneficial enough to overrule these obstacles - and I'll outline some of the reasons in this blog post.  

1) People, Especially Faces, Are Challenging

If for no other reason, people are hard to paint because we're so familiar with the way people are supposed to look.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  If you do a self portrait, you'll be extremely ​familiar with the way you look - leading to a very challenging subject.  Is that the exact reason you're avoiding it?  Give it a chance.  It's these challenging subjects that we need to aggressively practice, otherwise we'll never improve.  

2) You Are Very Convenient Reference Material

As long as you have a mirror or camera, your face is a very convenient subject.  It's often challenging to find a piece of reference material on the internet that's just right​ - but you have complete control of your own body.  Maybe you're looking for a specific angle, or a certain type of lighting.  It's even possible to use your own face as reference for non-human characters, or characters of the opposite gender.  After all, reference is almost always more effective if you're not copying directly.  To give your Orc a certain type of smirk or to envision a Troll's head from a particular camera angle your face is a surprisingly effective piece of reference.  So whether you're making a self portrait, or just need some specific reference, your face is hard to beat.  

3) Painting From Observation is Valuable

Photo reference is great, but learning to paint what you see is even better.  Landscapes lose large amounts of information when captured with a camera lens, but a Plein Air painter ​knows that colors and atmosphere are best observed in person.  The same is true when you're looking at a face: colors and details are much more vivid when painted from direct observation.   With this in mind, using a mirror on your computer desk to paint your own face is a worthwhile challenge.  If you've never done this, get ready for the frustration of drawing moving subjectmatter.  Unless you've got perfect body control, you'll slowly change your pose throughout the exercise.  This is one of the challenges of painting from life!  though it is frustrating, it will help train you to freeze the image in your mind's eye and paint with a combination of memory and direct observation.  This is a skill that transfers very well to other observational drawing like gesture sketching at the park or drawing portraits on the subway.

4) It's Easy to Measure Your Improvement

Painting technique does not improve overnight.  As a result, one of the mental challenges with art is to carry on even when you are seemingly treading water.  If you make a habit of painting self portraits, you will be able to compare them to one another directly.  Unlike other subjectmatter which is less directly comparable, your face only looks one way - so a year of self portraits will make your progress obvious.  Of course you shouldn't only ​paint self portraits -- just throw them into the mix now and again to serve as milestones.  

What Are You Waiting For?​

Get out there and paint a self portrait!  Whether it's from direct observation (a mirror) or a photo, you'll learn a lot in the process.  Also, feel free to practice styles other than strict realism -- this is a fun way to experiment and push your boundaries.   Also, if you know of any good examples of contemporary or classic self portraits, let's hear about them in the comments!

Color Restraint

Painting in grayscale is a great starting point, but eventually you'll want to break into the realm of color - and this can be frightening.  Beginners' paintings often lack color unity.  In my opinion, this stems from a deceptively simple source: choice.  Choice is a subject frequently addressed on Ctrl+Paint: having more options sometimes leads to fewer ideas.  In this post I want to talk about color, and how a little limitation might be all you need to build confidence and experience.  

Color Schemes

A color scheme is simply the range of colors that reside in your image.  I've created these previous videos (here, and here) dealing with basic color schemes, so make sure to watch them to get a bit of background.  The simple act of picking a color palette before beginning your painting will help you avoid color discord.  What it does is eliminate choices.  ​Now you're not allowing yourself to choose colors from the entire color wheel, but limiting yourself to a certain sector of it.  Hundreds of years ago a painter might have limited his palette because of the expense of certain pigments - though clearly Photoshop removes that particular restriction.  These painters benefited, however, from very unified palettes.  Now that the computer gives you infinite color options, it's up to you to enforce artificial limitations on yourself.

Extreme Limitations

Whether you're just starting out with color, or simply want a change of pace, limiting yourself to a very narrow palette can spark creativity.  What if you only allowed yourself to use a blue / orange scheme for an entire month?  At a first glance this sounds very boring, and that the results would be monotonous.  The truth, though, is that you'll push yourself to utilize color in entirely new ways due to the strict limitations.  A month is a long time, and boredom will prevent you from repeating the same composition over and over.  Below are some abstract examples of blue and orange used in varying proportions and with varying intensity.  Clearly these are only sketches, but can begin to see the range of possibilities.​

Less is More

The real danger with painting in color is using too much of it​.   I think it all goes back to drawing with markers as children  - we're conditioned to think in terms of full saturation hues.  One of the simplest pieces of advice I can give is to tone it down... reserve high saturation for small elements of your composition.  Much of the natural world is gray and brown - even objects that we think of as colorful as not as vibrant as crayola markers.  Vibrant Colors is a video I made about this exact topic, so make sure to check it out.

Why so Many Rules?​

A strict color limitation might seem contrived, but remember: commercial art is all about following rules.  As a concept artist in the game industry, following a strict color palette is very common.  If you look at some of the art I made for Despicable Me you'll see what I mean.  The challenge then becomes how​ to use those colors.  In order to make interesting designs, I had to manipulate the color relationships, proportions, and intensities.  Imagine for a second that you're a concept artist designing creatures that live in a frozen wasteland.  The landscape already has a set of colors - would it make sense to design rainbow colored creatures?  Probably not.  The creatures would seem much more realistic if they match the environment that they come from - just deer and squirrels in the forest.  In short, there are many reasons to work with limited palettes - and they're not just for experimentation.   So get out there, and limit your colors!  Do you have what it takes to paint for a whole month with only a few colors?  Also, I'd love to see some examples of illustrators working in a narrow color palette, so feel free to post links in the comments!

Are You Remembering FMB?

Depth is crucial to paintings.  Even in the most simple scenes, using overlapping forms to create a sense of depth and space helps your viewer understand the painting.   A simple rule of thumb is F, M, B -or 'foreground, middle-ground  background'.  If you have three major planes in your image, you'll give your viewer a nice sense of scale.  This is not limited to large, outdoor, scenes!  Any image you make that involves a background should have three planes.  In this post I'll talk a bit about depth and atmospheric perspective, and you'll see how much value is added with an emphasis on FMB.  ​

Human Scale

Using a human in your foreground (or anywhere, really) is a great way to emphasize scale.  This image by ​Kekai Kotaki is a great example of the 'tiny human in the foreground' principle: you know the middle-ground object is HUGE by comparison. Especially since there's a fair amount of atmospheric perspective in this scene, it's clear that the adversary in the middle-ground is considerably larger than the dragon-riding warrior in the foreground.  The background in this image is the sky, though it still adds a nice sense of scale.  If you're familiar with fantasy art, this might be a familiar composition.  A small hero in the foreground facing a large baddie in the middle-ground tells the viewer "this is epic".  If the middle-ground character were on its own without any foreground scale reference or overlapping, it would not appear so obviously huge.  To learn more about this concept, make sure to watch this older Ctrl+Paint video from the Principles of Design series.  

Atmosphere

​Screenshot from Hawken

"Atmospheric Perspective"​ is a term describing the visual impact on objects seen from an extreme distance.  This screenshot from Hawken is a great example of the concept - you can see that the background tower is very low contrast, while the foreground building is much higher in contrast.  Both are receiving direct sunlight and have cast shadows, but as the objects recede into the distance they lost their definition.  Additionally, outdoor scenes generally add a bit of the sky color to objects in the distance (in this case, blue) which visually separates them from the foreground.  So the tricks to remember for atmospheric perspective are simple: distant object are lower contrast, less saturated, less detailed, and take on the color of the sky.  

​"The Hunt" by Thrax

Guide Your Audience

​

I love this painting on the left by Thrax because it's almost like watching an animation.  There's a set of similar characters moving from foreground toward the middle-ground which helps explain the sense of scale.  More than that, the characters are each in different poses, explaining to the viewer a large range of motion - almost like a set of stills from the famous Eadward Muybridge photos.  The audience is compelled, when looking at an image like this, to envision the 'in-between' actions.  

As Simple as 1,2,3

One way to harm your painting is to add too many elements.  Simplicity is a powerful tool when it comes to composing images.  If you keep in mind three distinct levels of depth - F, M, B, you'll avoid a confusing image.  This is not a 'rule', but it will come in handy when you're creating thumbnails.  With each sketch you make, ask yourself: "do I have a foreground, middle-ground, and a background?"​  

What's Your Space Opera?

As you're working to improve your painting technique, one huge roadblock can be subject-matter.  What should you paint?  While you're actually painting, ​you're making progress... but sometimes it's hard to get going.  One piece of advice that I give to artists all the time is to create a space opera.  Is space not your thing?  Then design your own fantasy epic.  The point is that a structured personal project will give you an endless list of things to paint - leading to more time painting, and less time asking 'what should I paint today'?  Even if you don't aspire to become a concept artist, this is a practical way to streamline the idea generation process.  Also, it's a ton of fun!

Design ​A World

The painting at the top of this post is one of my most recent sci-fi landscapes, but I could think of it as the start of a larger project.   I could pick individual aspects of this street scene to design on their own in greater detail.  It's full of characters, signage, architecture - on and on.   Any of these elements could be examined further - creating at least a month of painting.  If you think of yourself as a world designer, there's no end to the depth you can explore.  What does the government iconography look like?  What type of cars do they drive?  What is the energy grid like?  The idea is to envision a world that makes you excited to discover more.  When done correctly, you'll find yourself daydreaming about this imaginary place - filling it slowly with rich details.  Then when it's time to paint, you'll have an overflowing list of subjects to choose from.  

How to Start

I've got two favorite methods: a single painting, or a written overview.  If you have a single painting that transports you to another place, start there!  It doesn't need to be a sprawling cityscape - it can be as simple as a portrait or creature design.  As long as it makes you ask 'what else?', it's a good starting point.  More frequently, though, I like to start with writing.  Even if you don't like creative writing, it's still the most efficient way to organize your thoughts and brainstorm.  Spend a week imagining your epic or space opera, taking notes as you brainstorm.  Make sure to write down natural features like weather and landscape details as well as man-made features like architecture and technology.  Once your ideas begin to take shape, it's easier to fill in the specifics.  After a week or so, you'll have plenty of material to begin sketching and painting.  

Great Examples

​Lexxy Douglass - Cloud Factory

If you keep your eyes open online, it's hard to miss personal projects like these.  Recently I've been watching the Penny Arcade reality TV show Strip Search, which features the illustrator Lexxy Douglass.  Her new project 'Cloud Factory' is a great example of this sort of project (right, below).  Sure, there are characters and landscapes  - but how often do you think of illustrating plant varieties?  Potions and herbs on a shelf?  These everyday objects really bring an imaginary world to life.   Other great examples are the books published by Design Studio press such as The Skillful Huntsman or Alien Race.   If you have any more examples, please tell us in the comments!  

​Lexxy Douglass - Cloud Factory

Thumbnails: The Most Crucial Stage of your Painting

This post could be quite short.  The title says it all.  But I want to elaborate with some of my personal experience, and share some links to well written blog posts on ​this deceptively simple aspect of illustration: thumbnail sketching.  If you're not familiar, I'm talking about the quick preparatory sketches created before an illustration.  Varying in style from artist,  the only constant with thumbnails is that they are planning images. Often crude and loose, they serve to collect your thoughts and make composition decisions. 

My Struggle With Thumbnail Sketches

A proper illustration, concept design, or graphic layout begins with 20 or more thumbnails.  This forces you to try a variety of options and eliminate all but one.  Ever since I made the switch to a digital process, I've found myself  occasionally skipping the thumbnail sketching phase of my illustrations.  Not always, and not for any particular reason - it's just been happening recently.  The real danger that I've discovered is wasted time.  It might seem like I can save time by skipping an entire portion of the illustration process, but the net result (more often than not) is an illustration that's hit a 'dead end'.  A dead end is when I realize my composition is broken, but I've already spent hours and hours working on specifics: anatomy, rendering, texture, etc.  A dead end painting is often not worth fixing, and a totally fresh start has better odds at solving the visual challenge.  

Something Missing

I've explored the possible reasons for skipping thumbnails, and my best explanation is that digital art is 'fluid'.  There's no fundamental divide between lines and paint - just a few keystrokes.  A small image can be turned into a large image just as quickly.  What this means for me is the temptation to transition from a 'thumbnail' straight into the final image simply by opening 'image size' and adding more resolution.  This method has its positives, but ​it eliminates a potentially critical step from the natural media process: review.  When I used to make large pages of thumbnail sketches in a sketchbook, I was forced to look at all of them next to one another and select the best one.  Next I would enlarge this image (usually manually) onto high quality paper and begin the tight pencil sketch.  I always thought of this process as a nuisance, one streamlined through the digi-ficaiton of my workflow, but now I'm not so sure.  

A New (Old) Approach

My new idea is to go back to the old way.  Not necessarily with paper and pencil, but with the same fundamental concept: lots of ideas generated quickly.  Since Photoshop is my medium, I'll need to figure out a way to keep the spontaneity found in 1.5"x1" pencil drawings.  The primary main problem with my digital thumbnails, historically, is a tendency to over-polish.  My new (old) approach will combat this problem by focusing on a short list of guiding principles:

Quantity.  At least 20 images, ideally all on a single page.
Simple Media.  To keep my ideas flowing, I'll limit the tools to a single brush and single eraser.
​Work Small.  Drawing physically small on-screen might help me avoid overworking them.  No zooming in.
B & W.  Even though I love color, I'll keep that for the second phase of the process.  

Composition Basics: Sketching thumbnails-  by Dan dos Santos-  Dos Santos is an amazing cover illustrator (you've surely seen his work), and does a great job articulating his digital thumbnail process in this article.  I especially like his artificial limitation of '4 gray-scale values'.  

The Thumbnail!  By Jon Foster - ​Another amazing illustrator, and if you've seen his work it all seems effortless.  This post exposes all of the planning and scrutiny that leads to such dynamic final paintings.   It all starts at 1.5" tall.  

Part 4: Pteranodons / Hatchling Sketches - By James Gurney - ​The only thing I love more than Gurney's work is his thought process.  His blog is a gold mine of insights, and this article on the thumbnail / art direction process will not disappoint   

Tips From Other Illustrators

Clearly this is an important issue, and my mistakes should not be your only study materials.  To the right is a list of fantastic articles on the subject, created by a variety of working artists.  If you know of any other blog posts on the subject of thumbnails, please post them in the comments!  

The Bottom Line

Thumbnails aren't beautiful, but they are critical.  Every time I spend my time with them I'm pleased with the final painting.  If you're new to illustration now is an important time for forming good habits, so please - please - ​make thumbnail sketching a part of your routine.