(no subject)
Well now, I guess I'll make a real post now, considering I'm at work right now and have nothing else to do. So, about the upcoming Zenimax Job Fair.
You all know that I've been working on my artwork like hell lately in order to get a couple more pieces ready for the Zenimax Job Fair coming up on the 19th. Considering how much time I don't have left, I'm gonna finish up the beheaded twin sisters piece and then that'll be the last one I do before I sit down and put together a good portfolio, because I don't think a simple link to my website is cutting it anymore, seeing as how I hardly update it (even though I upload to it and link to shit from it all the time). It also has a ton of older stuff on it, which I'm starting to think that potential employers are looking at, and then thinking that that is my current skill level, which isn't right at all, because a lot of stuff that I have on there is a few years old, and I know I've gotten a lot better since then. I also know that I need to pick out my best pieces out of there, and give a timelime of about how long it took to do it, and what media I used to create it (like adobe photoshop, corel painter, straight up paints, etc). So yeah, after I finish up that piece, I still have quite a bit of work to do regarding my portfolio. I think I also need to revise my resumé, and tailor it more towards trying to land a job at Bethsoft or Zenimax.
God. Freaking Gary. Haha I'm so glad I met him and to finally have a contact within the industry, but man, now that I'm more in the know, I'm really starting to realize how much work I need to do in order to appear professional, and what is expected of me if I ever want to land a job. I've been emailing him lately, once concerning the upcoming job fair, where he let me in what kind of person the executive producer is for Zenimax Online (his name is Matt Firor, which I already knew, and he's an industry vet of 14 years, his latest game being the MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot). Turns out the guy is a helluva geek, and way into MMO's. Haha Gary's words was that he's an "MMO goob", but that he's a really nice guy. He said that the thing I really want to do is make a good first impression, which I take as looking professional, as well as having put together a great portfolio, that shows that I put some time into it. But then he also said that he thinks what they're doing is seeing what kind of talent is out there locally before looking with a wider range. So here's hoping I stand out somehow. God, I hope I do. The latest email I sent him is regarding a new art position that opened up at Bethsoft, which is for a World Art Intern. I'm asking him if it's paid, what kind hours can be expected, blahblahblah. I'll let you guys know what he says. It might be an internship, but holy hell if I can land a job at Bethsoft, I might just do it. But then again I don't want to take it and then end up in financial ruin. So we'll see.
I'm not banking on actually landing a job after this job fair (although it would be sweet), but having more contacts would make it all the better for me. I know that if I keep working at it, I will eventually get a job in the industry. Which makes me smile a bit, I'm not feeling so hopeless anymore. For now anyway.
I've been trying to take part in more and more activities on ConceptArt.org, where I show some of my pieces and try to get feedback on em, but goddammit, the last piece that I tried to get feedback on was my Farmer's Tan WIP, and no one said a thing about it. I was honestly looking for feedback because something about it was bothering me, and I got nothing. So I thought about it for a while, critiqueing myself (without being overly critical, as I usually am), and I finally realized what was bothering so much. If you look at it in the WIP, you'll see that the reflection on the guy's skin is very bright, indicating that it could be midday, or even in the morning, and here I am showing some messed up sky at dusk, with the redness of it. I say it's messed up, because at dusk, the sky is a redish, pinkish, orangy hue around the horizon, and here I am showing that the redness is more up in the middle of the sky, and not the horizon. I had it backwards. So I just painted over it and I was so much more pleased with the aesthetics of it. It made more sense. And you'll see that I did in fact change that from the WIP to the final product. Self-critiqueing without being ridiculously harsh FTW!!!! I think that's a first for me. I'm really liking how it turned out, and while I still have a few nitpicks about the tree's trunk, it still doesn't look all that bad. If anything, it was great practice. I think the hardest part of that piece was making the guy's face look right without using lineart to show differentiation between his face and the arm to the side of it. That, and the leaves of the tree were a bear. Good lord.
I think the only feedback I ever got from using CA.org so far was in a personal sketchbook thread I created about a month ago, where a couple people said that my lineart was fantastic, but my coloring could use more contrast, which I agree with and I've been trying to work on since then. And then I added a few more of my latest pieces to it (my puggies one and the farmer's tan one), and no one said crap about em. Damn near 200 views of that thread and only a couple people said anything. So whatever. I'm not going to stress about it anymore, I'll just keep working at it anyway. I figure that if people don't say anything, they can't find anything wrong with it, or they're just jealous. It seems to me like CA.org is starting to attract a lot of deviantart novices, where they don't give any good criticism, or any feedback whatsoever if it's better than the mediocre stuff they show. Gooooo figure. I'm not trying to talk down about deviantart, as I have an account there as well, and while I was getting a lot of attention and quite a few pieces were being favorited by members, I never really got any good feedback on it, and I found it extremely difficult to find a good community to join that wasn't dominated by japanese style artwork (the extremely popular form of Anime and Manga nowadays. Thanks, Pokémon and Naruto for ruining the american art scene.) And while I've done quite a bit of that style of artwork myself, I've never even thought about creating a piece done in that style that I want taken seriously. Hell, anything I do with that style lately is usually in the form of a funny little 4-panel comic, which I've only done a couple of. It just seems to grind against my nerves lately, as it's so dominant everywhere. I find myself hating anime and manga more and more everyday. Which is weird considering I used to really be into it. /endrant
But yeah. I've just been working on it a lot is the whole point of this post I guess haha. Tiff has been doing a great job of making me put down Oblivion long enough to actually work on it, which I'm actually thankful for, because if it wasn't for her, I'd probably procrastinate until the last minute and then not have enough time to do anything. I think that I'm going to have a pretty good portfolio this time around, considering I'll have a total of three very recent, completed, and colored pieces by the time the job fair comes around, which all show a variety of things I can do. The pugs one show what I can do with animals and acrylic paints, The Farmer's tan shows what I can do with an animal/creature thing, a human that shows a good bit of anatomy, flora, and a good understanding of color theory. And then the new piece I'm working on, I'm trying to do that almost completely in cool colors, which should be fun. And then depending on how it comes out, I might or might not try to use complementary colors in there somewhere, which will show even more my understanding of color theory. The whole piece will also show that I can work in different styles. So thumbs up for that.
Sooooo yep. I'm off to scour the intarwebs about Atlantis, because I was just thinking about it this morning, and I might base my next piece off of it. (hint: my next piece will be an environmental piece, which I've REALLY been wanting to do lately.)
Hope you guys had your seatbelts on when slamming into this wall of text :)
You all know that I've been working on my artwork like hell lately in order to get a couple more pieces ready for the Zenimax Job Fair coming up on the 19th. Considering how much time I don't have left, I'm gonna finish up the beheaded twin sisters piece and then that'll be the last one I do before I sit down and put together a good portfolio, because I don't think a simple link to my website is cutting it anymore, seeing as how I hardly update it (even though I upload to it and link to shit from it all the time). It also has a ton of older stuff on it, which I'm starting to think that potential employers are looking at, and then thinking that that is my current skill level, which isn't right at all, because a lot of stuff that I have on there is a few years old, and I know I've gotten a lot better since then. I also know that I need to pick out my best pieces out of there, and give a timelime of about how long it took to do it, and what media I used to create it (like adobe photoshop, corel painter, straight up paints, etc). So yeah, after I finish up that piece, I still have quite a bit of work to do regarding my portfolio. I think I also need to revise my resumé, and tailor it more towards trying to land a job at Bethsoft or Zenimax.
God. Freaking Gary. Haha I'm so glad I met him and to finally have a contact within the industry, but man, now that I'm more in the know, I'm really starting to realize how much work I need to do in order to appear professional, and what is expected of me if I ever want to land a job. I've been emailing him lately, once concerning the upcoming job fair, where he let me in what kind of person the executive producer is for Zenimax Online (his name is Matt Firor, which I already knew, and he's an industry vet of 14 years, his latest game being the MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot). Turns out the guy is a helluva geek, and way into MMO's. Haha Gary's words was that he's an "MMO goob", but that he's a really nice guy. He said that the thing I really want to do is make a good first impression, which I take as looking professional, as well as having put together a great portfolio, that shows that I put some time into it. But then he also said that he thinks what they're doing is seeing what kind of talent is out there locally before looking with a wider range. So here's hoping I stand out somehow. God, I hope I do. The latest email I sent him is regarding a new art position that opened up at Bethsoft, which is for a World Art Intern. I'm asking him if it's paid, what kind hours can be expected, blahblahblah. I'll let you guys know what he says. It might be an internship, but holy hell if I can land a job at Bethsoft, I might just do it. But then again I don't want to take it and then end up in financial ruin. So we'll see.
I'm not banking on actually landing a job after this job fair (although it would be sweet), but having more contacts would make it all the better for me. I know that if I keep working at it, I will eventually get a job in the industry. Which makes me smile a bit, I'm not feeling so hopeless anymore. For now anyway.
I've been trying to take part in more and more activities on ConceptArt.org, where I show some of my pieces and try to get feedback on em, but goddammit, the last piece that I tried to get feedback on was my Farmer's Tan WIP, and no one said a thing about it. I was honestly looking for feedback because something about it was bothering me, and I got nothing. So I thought about it for a while, critiqueing myself (without being overly critical, as I usually am), and I finally realized what was bothering so much. If you look at it in the WIP, you'll see that the reflection on the guy's skin is very bright, indicating that it could be midday, or even in the morning, and here I am showing some messed up sky at dusk, with the redness of it. I say it's messed up, because at dusk, the sky is a redish, pinkish, orangy hue around the horizon, and here I am showing that the redness is more up in the middle of the sky, and not the horizon. I had it backwards. So I just painted over it and I was so much more pleased with the aesthetics of it. It made more sense. And you'll see that I did in fact change that from the WIP to the final product. Self-critiqueing without being ridiculously harsh FTW!!!! I think that's a first for me. I'm really liking how it turned out, and while I still have a few nitpicks about the tree's trunk, it still doesn't look all that bad. If anything, it was great practice. I think the hardest part of that piece was making the guy's face look right without using lineart to show differentiation between his face and the arm to the side of it. That, and the leaves of the tree were a bear. Good lord.
I think the only feedback I ever got from using CA.org so far was in a personal sketchbook thread I created about a month ago, where a couple people said that my lineart was fantastic, but my coloring could use more contrast, which I agree with and I've been trying to work on since then. And then I added a few more of my latest pieces to it (my puggies one and the farmer's tan one), and no one said crap about em. Damn near 200 views of that thread and only a couple people said anything. So whatever. I'm not going to stress about it anymore, I'll just keep working at it anyway. I figure that if people don't say anything, they can't find anything wrong with it, or they're just jealous. It seems to me like CA.org is starting to attract a lot of deviantart novices, where they don't give any good criticism, or any feedback whatsoever if it's better than the mediocre stuff they show. Gooooo figure. I'm not trying to talk down about deviantart, as I have an account there as well, and while I was getting a lot of attention and quite a few pieces were being favorited by members, I never really got any good feedback on it, and I found it extremely difficult to find a good community to join that wasn't dominated by japanese style artwork (the extremely popular form of Anime and Manga nowadays. Thanks, Pokémon and Naruto for ruining the american art scene.) And while I've done quite a bit of that style of artwork myself, I've never even thought about creating a piece done in that style that I want taken seriously. Hell, anything I do with that style lately is usually in the form of a funny little 4-panel comic, which I've only done a couple of. It just seems to grind against my nerves lately, as it's so dominant everywhere. I find myself hating anime and manga more and more everyday. Which is weird considering I used to really be into it. /endrant
But yeah. I've just been working on it a lot is the whole point of this post I guess haha. Tiff has been doing a great job of making me put down Oblivion long enough to actually work on it, which I'm actually thankful for, because if it wasn't for her, I'd probably procrastinate until the last minute and then not have enough time to do anything. I think that I'm going to have a pretty good portfolio this time around, considering I'll have a total of three very recent, completed, and colored pieces by the time the job fair comes around, which all show a variety of things I can do. The pugs one show what I can do with animals and acrylic paints, The Farmer's tan shows what I can do with an animal/creature thing, a human that shows a good bit of anatomy, flora, and a good understanding of color theory. And then the new piece I'm working on, I'm trying to do that almost completely in cool colors, which should be fun. And then depending on how it comes out, I might or might not try to use complementary colors in there somewhere, which will show even more my understanding of color theory. The whole piece will also show that I can work in different styles. So thumbs up for that.
Sooooo yep. I'm off to scour the intarwebs about Atlantis, because I was just thinking about it this morning, and I might base my next piece off of it. (hint: my next piece will be an environmental piece, which I've REALLY been wanting to do lately.)
Hope you guys had your seatbelts on when slamming into this wall of text :)