Monday, October 8, 2012
working working
haven't posted in a few days but this Friday we were learning how to draw from the torso down, or at least getting the coordinates right by using the direction of the patella/knee cap. Very interesting stuff. I burned out my burnt sienna progresso pen so Richard gave me another ivory one but it's not quite as cool as the burnt sienna one :)
Also, we started Vis Comm class. I finished the homework already but I'm going to do the homework every day so that I get as much mileage as I can for the class. I seriously have to work on making the back of my boxes smaller, not wider (as is my tendency...maybe because I grew up in a culture where wide rear ends are appreciated? Hahaha. Anyways, not good for boxes in perspective! I'm also starting a head drawing class on Thursdays.
I am SO excited. The school I am going to is only a few months old but it is already a gem of a school and in Little Tokyo so I have an excuse to eat red bean boba twice a week :). At my other school, one prof didn't name names but he said that one person was let go because an art director took the artist into his office and told him what he wanted, and gave him a sharpie to crank out ideas. The artist said that he could take notes and then go back to his computer and do it. The art director said "but I gave you a sharpie and paper...what's the big deal?" and then the artist confessed that he only knew how to use Photoshop so that was the end of his usefulness to the company. Ouch.
I think it is great that some of the top artists that I admire have such breadth to their knowledge. They can draw, paint, sculpt, use marker technique, use photoshop and even some 3D. I really aspire to be like that. Neville once told me that you could render in a way that visually communicates almost everything (except maybe colour) in black and white. It's an analogy to a good foundation. The 'black and white' is like your key to understanding everything else, and it's a shame that people (myself included) often rush to all the 'cool stuff'. I've really been interested in 1800s oil painting these days, as well as learning about how gothic and renaissance buildings were actually built in their day. Currently reading a book about the Brulleschi dome. Good stuff!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'm confused, what kind of art do you want to do "in the end," or at least, what medium do you want your art to be implemented in?
ReplyDeletemovies. Means that my ideas have to be absolutely clear.
ReplyDeleteWhich means I have to be able to draw/paint/sculpt etc really well.
Which means I have to have a solid fine art background.
Video games tend to be a lot looser. Everything in movies
have to be built so it is a lot closer to industrial design and
tends to need more hyperrealism. What you guys are learning
is more illustration. A guy I asked for advice recently told me
that your sketch in movies is seen by at least 2000 people. It cannot
be a squiggle on a page and he recommends a lot of fine art training. So
that's what I've been doing, along with the ID stuff. Hope this helps.
Movies tend to have a lot of variety in terms of genre, are you talking more akin to this: http://www.dvdactive.com/images/reviews/screenshot/2010/8/road6_original.jpg than this: http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/8/2012/01/08295de98cfb553b4e0c42137a349cd6.jpg? More like WETA work perhaps?
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're taking a LOT of classes?
I currently work in movies, and typically what they need is very much like set design for theatre (in fact, many production designers have also worked in theatre. My friend who did props for Mirror Mirror (and was recruited for the new Avatar sequel) came from the world of theme parks and worked for WDI (walt disney imagineering)...they are often looking for superb draughtmanship. I also have a friend who works at WETA (workshop) that I graduated college with. Incidentally, he was an art major (as in fine arts; he was learning sculpting and drawing and also shot some movies and did theatre).
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the work of people like George Hull or Andy Chung, it is
a lot about the visualization of the idea moreso than a 'cool fancy drawing' (unless you are pitching with a director.New Deal Studios does a lot of design digitally in this vein as well. I'm not taking that many classes...in college I did a heavy major, two minors and
was working three jobs so this is nothing comparably. :)
also, check out Mike Butkus and Ankaris (aka Wayne Haag). Haag just came off the new Wolverine movie. He still paints in gouache, and my friend who worked at WDI also still paints in oil and board. Photoshop by itself can only take you so far, especially if you learn it having never learned traditional drawing and painting. But a good foundation/ draughtmanship, coupled with a good design sense is really rare and will take a person far (that's just my opinion). One of my concept friends teaches at LAAFA and doesn't consider a person 'advanced' until they have a strong foundation in anatomy, perspective, etc. I absolutely agree and it takes time but it's the difference between the amazingness of people like Ryan Church (who incidentally was using all marker rendering and gouache at Art Center before transitioning to Corel (which is very painter-like) for Star Wars..and a casual person who thinks they can just 'pick it up' in PS :)
DeleteAbsolutely, projects like those need art that can be used to actually implement an asset for use. Do you feel like Red Engine isn't doing that right now or? Though the term, at least for me, 'visualization of an idea' seems kinda strange since art already does that as a whole, no?
ReplyDeleteAre you working on anything that requires a lot of pre-vis at the moment? My game development team might be looking for more artists who can do 2D and/or 3D.
I actually do like Steve a lot, and he has been quite supportive of me from the very first class so I won't say anything negative about the school (he's a great great guy and fantastic teacher; I took two classes with him; incidentally, he says when he uses PS he thinks about it in analog...every tool he uses he thinks of what it is in real life...the lasso tool is a stencil, cutting and pasting is like cutting and pasting, etc, because that is how he learned it. In character design class he said that they taught him to think about Photoshop like real painting (how he learned it at Art Center; which is why they often will want students who can paint really well...Zbrush is similar...I sat in a class next to a guy who didn't even know how to save a file or plug in his cintiq but he was a traditional sculptor. Within three weeks the professor said the guy could have been teaching the class because his skills as a traditional sculptor translated digitally).
ReplyDeleteIn Art Center, it is no coincidence that they spend an entire first year on just drawing in perspective and Vis Comm classes. They make models (either by kit bashing or sculpting) and observe how objects work in real life (not photos) and it helps them to visualize how it would work conceptually so they have an entire solid reference library (again, not just photos) by the time they are painting in third and fourth year.
I think that this is the part that is missing from the curriculum because it is often difficult for a student to get to this point just from opening photoshop or looking at a photo of an image. In my figure drawing class, the teacher was explaining every bone with a skeleton and diagrams and by drawing through the human body, how it moves and how the muscle and skin folds over so that we can not only draw what we see, but draw from our imagination.
This past Friday my teacher was explaining that the angle of the knee cap dictates or constrains the angle or direction of the foot. We measure everything out so that you can doublecheck yourself and know when something is 'off'..so even when it is off it's not off by much (of course I'm still learning...a LOT)
My friend at LAAFA says that concept is about doublechecking yourself; you draw draw draw and then when you feel comfortable, you try a character. When things look wonky, you go back to your foundation (ie anatomy and figure/life drawing) and see what is wrong, and focus on that, until you're ready to try again. He says that this should be etched in your mind so that when you draw without reference, it's still pretty accurate (Charlie Wen does this quite easily with characters..he hardly uses reference anymore).
Visualization of an idea (as a sketch) and drawing it to visually communicate (that is a refined sketch that people can interpret) are often two different things. I think Scott Robertson is teaching a sketching class that shows this in the upcoming weeks (at his studio in Culver city).
I'm always happy to help out but I am also learning. It is realy nice to hear from you and I appreciate your hospitability. :)