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[Enrichment] RESOLUTIONS 2016.
Iruka
Registered User, Moderator mod
Registered User, Moderator mod
Set Your Resolution.
>>Enrichment Directory<<
This Monthly Enrichment is super simple. Get in here and talk about your goals.
Look, I know it sucks. Sitting down and asking yourself where you want to be next year can feel like you are setting yourself up for failure, but listen, I'm going to try and help you out. I have some talking points for you,
1. Reflect on your growth so far
If you tend to be down on yourself, practice cutting yourself some slack. Look at your work with a critical eye, but also try and carve out the positives, where did you improve this year? Try to take a step back from the emotional investments you had in the moment, and look at everything you did with fresh eyes.
2. State some new influences
You've had a whole new year of lookin' at shit. So, what new things did you see? What new artist have you developed a crush on? If you haven't got something for this, its probably a good time to tell yourself to look at more art, and try to retain more information about things you see.
3. Choose a technical thing to work on
Instead of saying "IM GOING TO DRAW EVERYDAY" or "I WANT TO IMPROVE ALL OF MY THINGS", pick something you know you are weak at and decide to focus on it. Perspective, Light, Form, all of the basic building blocks are intertwined, but sometimes choosing one thing can make it seem less daunting. Focus in on one thing for a few weeks, and then let time do the natural thing of guiding you to the next task.
4. What is something you'd like to experiment in, you know, for fun?
Remember when art was super fun? Art is super fun. Think about some bullshit that you are going to do that is totally unrelated to your career goals and whatever else you do. Trying to become a concept artist? Well, maybe you think it would be cute to knit a beer cozi for a week. Glue some macaroni to some construction paper like a 5 year old. Give your self a few minutes to not care.
5. Make a long term goal
That standard looming resolution. We are all going to make them. Remember that you can plan a trip but you cant predict the weather. Set your sights, work as hard as you can towards them, and do everything in your power to not make yourself miserable in trying to achieve that goal.
That's it!
If you don't want to use this helpful format, that's fine! If you want to do one of those weird deviant art improvement memes you can do that shit too.
>>Enrichment Directory<<
This Monthly Enrichment is super simple. Get in here and talk about your goals.
Look, I know it sucks. Sitting down and asking yourself where you want to be next year can feel like you are setting yourself up for failure, but listen, I'm going to try and help you out. I have some talking points for you,
1. Reflect on your growth so far
If you tend to be down on yourself, practice cutting yourself some slack. Look at your work with a critical eye, but also try and carve out the positives, where did you improve this year? Try to take a step back from the emotional investments you had in the moment, and look at everything you did with fresh eyes.
2. State some new influences
You've had a whole new year of lookin' at shit. So, what new things did you see? What new artist have you developed a crush on? If you haven't got something for this, its probably a good time to tell yourself to look at more art, and try to retain more information about things you see.
3. Choose a technical thing to work on
Instead of saying "IM GOING TO DRAW EVERYDAY" or "I WANT TO IMPROVE ALL OF MY THINGS", pick something you know you are weak at and decide to focus on it. Perspective, Light, Form, all of the basic building blocks are intertwined, but sometimes choosing one thing can make it seem less daunting. Focus in on one thing for a few weeks, and then let time do the natural thing of guiding you to the next task.
4. What is something you'd like to experiment in, you know, for fun?
Remember when art was super fun? Art is super fun. Think about some bullshit that you are going to do that is totally unrelated to your career goals and whatever else you do. Trying to become a concept artist? Well, maybe you think it would be cute to knit a beer cozi for a week. Glue some macaroni to some construction paper like a 5 year old. Give your self a few minutes to not care.
5. Make a long term goal
That standard looming resolution. We are all going to make them. Remember that you can plan a trip but you cant predict the weather. Set your sights, work as hard as you can towards them, and do everything in your power to not make yourself miserable in trying to achieve that goal.
That's it!
If you don't want to use this helpful format, that's fine! If you want to do one of those weird deviant art improvement memes you can do that shit too.
Iruka on
+2
Posts
I've decided to start making activities over on this side of the forum again, and then I will archive them to the A&R side of the forum when they slow down for easy access. I figure I cant force you all to look over there, but I can still encourage participation in activities.
General Enrichment info:
About Monthly Enrichment:
Enrichment activities aim to encourage you to tackle a small but useful assignment every month. They are either multifaceted, or loosely defined, giving you the option to mold it to help you reach previously held aspirations. They will mostly be assignments that you can fulfill in whatever media, and commit whatever time you feel benefits you.
What Do I Gain From Participating?
If I'm at all qualified, I will try to provide crits and support to the people who participate. I hope that people in the thread also engage in a little more cross talk when they are working on the same assignment. I will do my best to not let anyone's work go un-commented upon. I will also try and load the OP with resources for everyone to draw from on the topic at hand.
May I post an old work if it fits into the topic?
You may post work that you are currently working on, or plan to revisit during the month. Don't post old work if you have no intention of touching it. If I spend time commenting on year old work and then you never do anything to it within the activity, I will shun you.
May I post inspiration and links even if I'm not going to really participate?
So long as this aspect doesn't get in the way of people posting work for actual crits, this is a great place to just throw up some art that is related to the topic and you think its helpful. Link the source, and spoiler images so they don't detract from people working on assignments.
May I suggest a topic?
Sure! If a bunch of people have something they want to work on, I'm happy to make that the next assignment. Just try and keep it something that all artists can do (like color studies) and not something that requires materials that are inaccessible to a large percentage of members (like ceramics, or metalwork) If there is something that members would like to do and it has a fairly low material buy in, like sculpey maquettes, I'm cool with that too.
Deadlines
I will pretty much rotate these out monthly without exception. Perhaps if there is a popular one I will let it run for two months.
Previous Threads:
2013
JAN-BrandYourself
FEB-Simple Shapes
MAR-Show Your Work
APR-Color Studies
May-Hands and Feet
JUN-Still Life
JUL-Character Construction
AUG- (off month)
SEP- Perspective and Environments
OCT- Thumbnails and Silhouettes
NOV - NatCoWriMo
DEC - Secret Santa.
2014
JAN- Resolution
FEB/MAR- Anatomy
APR-Color Theory
MAY- ??????
Jun- Finding Inspiration
I feel like I really found my voice as an artist in 2015, both in terms of writing and drawing, possibly as a consequence of going back to my roots in terms of my influences, and looking at the stuff that I have always had a steady enjoyment for.
2. State some new influences:
New influences count Aidan Koch, Sam Alden and Taiyo Matsumoto, people whose artwork seems to flows out of them at no effort.
3. Choose a technical thing to work on:
Drawing full bodies from different angles, without resorting to construction. I'm aiming at becoming all moebius at this shit. Just practice my blind contour drawing and shit like that so much that I'll be able to just fully envision what I'm drawing before it goes on the paper.
4. What is something you'd like to experiment in, you know, for fun?:
I aim to make this question redundant. "For fun" should be implicit in everything I work on, otherwise it's not worth doing. I'm ditching the whole "work hard" ethic, because I feel like if anything that's something that would hold me back. So far I've had nothing but success with focusing only on making stuff that I find interesting or fun to do, and I'm sure that if I added any element or label of "work" on top of that I would grow weary, and the work would become dull. Ah, damn, there I go...
5. Make a long term goal:
I want to have this god damn 40 pager done by August. 6 pages in so far.
1. Reflect on your growth so far
I spent 80% of the last two years trying to get things around me to feel more stable. That is sort of reflected in the work I did, lots of material studies and concepts that were meant to round out my portfolio. I feel like I tightened some of my rendering skills, but I'm excited to keep pushing forward in that area.
I relaxed on technical studies in 2015, but in 2014 I got a major rendering feat done (here) and managed to get some studies out here and there. This year I want to hold myself to taking some classes, as I have some lofty goals for my next project and I need to up some skills to achieve that vision. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the pace I've set for myself, and Im feeling good about setting myself up for fun and improvement.
2. State some new influences
I read all of riceboy this year and I was super inspired to get into comic making.
My influences have been all over the damn place, but I've been looking towards the classics alot more this year, and in 2016 I hope to do more master studies and improve my painting skills. I read some pope hats and Hologen, really liked those.
3. Choose a technical thing to work on
Form. I need to try and break that 2D feel that my work has. I'd also like to work on composition, and get back into making narrative illustration.
Hey! I did this! I upped my output of more full compositions in 2014, though still a bit slow, I finished two that really fit the bill in two years. This is still more than the isolated material studies I was doing after I graduated. I want to push forward on this, and keep doing illustrations rather than just tests.
4. What is something you'd like to experiment in, you know, for fun?
I think I am going to give sculpey another shot. I have no talent for it, but I like the idea of it.
I was about to say "I didn't do this at all!" but fuck you! I did! https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/30994902/#Comment_30994902 !
I want to make this the year of block printing, for me.
5. Make a long term goal
Finish my NatCoWriMo comic before the next NatCoWriMo.
I didnt finish the comic I was actually talking about, but I did just wrap up a 29 pager this week! I feel pretty good about that.
My Long term goal this year is to make headway on a fairly large project. I'm not sure how much will get posted initially, but I'm excited about it!
My maps jumped a ton in quality this year, and I think i broke out of my rut of making the same things with different texture patterns over and over. That said, using sketchup is juts the begining of where I can go with my maps. I'd like to make them more lifelike, more detailed, and try and make the world I run even more real and immediate.
2. State some new influences
I think the best place I can draw inspiration from right now are the PS1 era pre-rendered RPGS and their lovely, painstakingly detailed backgrounds. Thinking of things like FF7, taking that 3/4ths view angle and making the most out of it... that's what I want my maps to be like. Like looking directly into a world with a camera and seeing a small snapshot of it. I also want to get better and graphic design this year and make decals for my nations, players, and symbols that I can use (maybe something like a guild crest I can slap on some patches and shirts if it is neat enough to want to wear).
3. Choose a technical thing to work on
The next thing I really want to work on is getting shading right within my 3d models so i'm not 100% dependent upon Sketchup Make for my shadow rendering. Beyond that I need to study architecture more and also figure out how best to render natural terrain, specifically hills, mountains, and ridges (which right now I'm fairly crap at).
4. What is something you'd like to experiment in, you know, for fun?
I'd love to start figure drawing again so I can get renders of my player characters and NPCs using my own art. That requires time, which right now is pretty tight with the 20 or so hours a week I work on my maps and writing, but I'd like to find a day each week at least to just work on character designs and costuming.
5. Make a long term goal
I want to have 300 maps completed by the end of the year (aggregate with the 120 I already have) and have each one of those maps feel better than the one that came before it. No throwing a map up for the sake of throwing one up. Every map should be deliberate and quality, and make me proud to have it on my website once I show it to my players.
My sense of forms is finally starting to emerge, painfully, from the paper. That has been my stumbling block above all else in the last year. Progress would be faster if I didn't try to juggle drawing, writing, and GMing for roleplaying games. I would progress faster if I worked more consistently - less 4 hour binges once a week, more daily 1.5 hour sessions. Still, the pencil listens to me instead of flying around the page now. I didn't expect raw manual dexterity to be such a huge factor, but I've been chewing on it well.
2. State some new influences
I probably don't look at enough art. Its mostly nose to the grindstone following the examples of Watts, Proko, or Vilppu all the time. I do have a negative influence in the churned out cartoons, both Eastern and Western. The various K-on! derivatives floating about make me wince with how terrible the animation is, and a lot of the current fashions in western cartoons (Adventure Time, Steven Universe) fall completely flat to me. Its getting a lot easier to see when an animator or artist is phoning it in.
3. Choose a technical thing to work on
Given I'm following a lesson plan, this is easy. Skull phase 1 (gross anatomy), then figure drawing phase 1 (posing, gesture, mannequins).
4. What is something you'd like to experiment in, you know, for fun?
My original conception back in 2013 was that I would spend a month or two brushing up on those old fundamentals and then launch into a silly comic about alien construction crews that would mainly serve as a more structured form of practice. Well, turns out art is hard. When I want to relax, I mostly do quick figure invention and then reference those against reality.
5. Make a long term goal
My long term goal is to get to the point where I can draw humans and environments recognizably. A man, woman or child in a given place doing a given thing. No cute anime symbol shortcuts, no hiding feet behind the drapery or faking two point perspective. I can't decide if that goal is underselling myself or establishing an aim that will take 10 years to come to fruition.
From studying illustration in 2015 I learned a lot, and learned even more about what I don't know. My perspective drawing has taken a big leap, but I still have trouble loosening up, as well as drawing more organic things like figures. This year I'm going to be studying independently and working part time, so I just need to find the motivation to keep progressing on my own.
2. State some new influences
Before my Illustration course last year I was mostly interested in drawing, but because of my colour and light classes, as well as dipping my toe into the Watts Atelier online classes, I've started to develop a much greater appreciation for traditional painting and some of the old masters I never looked at before.
3. Choose a technical thing to work on
My main goal at the moment is to work on figure drawing and anatomy. Even though I desperately want to be able to draw characters, it's my weakest skill, so it's going to need a lot of work. As part of that I'm also going to have to improve my observational drawing, and my line confidence.
4. What is something you'd like to experiment in, you know, for fun?
It's really easy for me to be hyper-critical of my own work and talk myself of practising anything beyond the fundamentals. This year I'd like to occasionally splash out with some digital landscape paintings. Even if I don't know everything yet, there's no sense waiting until I'm 'ready' to do them if I'm going to keep being too nervous.
5. Make a long term goal
My long term goal is to build a concept-art portfolio. That's a pretty nebulous goal, and right now I have no idea where to start, so a large part of that goal is going to be figuring out how to approach it in the first place.
Regarding Photography: I'm extremely critical of my personal photography. That, in turn usually causes me to not post at all. So my goals are to become less judge'y of my work, and post more. I also want to start experimenting with illustration over - or in my photos. I really miss doing creative portraits so I'm going to work on doing more of those this year as well.
As far as drawing goes - I spent a lot of time just drawing off the top of my head this last year, since I'm on the road mostly. But at times I lacked the basic structure and fibbed a little too much to make up for that. So, I'd like to do more studies; specifically human anatomy/animal anatomy and perspective to improve the bones of my drawings.
2. State some new influences
I really liked a lot of the nature photography I've been seeing lately, wild animals and whatnot. Over the last year I've tried to shoot my photos from what I think a painter's perspective would be... or how he/she would paint the landscape in front of me. I'd like to transfer that knowledge over to shooting nature in it's environment, maybe even some strobe shoots on owls or whatever I can do safely in the wild.
I specifically spent time studying James Balog, he was sort of the innovator for the whole "white background with wild animals in front of it" look. He's also presently associated with his photos of icebergs which led to the documentary "Chasing Ice" in which he documented the melting of icebergs over years of time. I've also really been digging Joel Sartore's photography documenting endangered species in the "Photo Ark" project.
3. Choose a technical thing to work on
Haha, should have read all the questions before reading/answering one at a time - I think I answered this above?
4. What is something you'd like to experiment in, you know, for fun?
This sounds really silly, but people seem to like photos of my dog and he's basically my shadow when I'm not working so he's very easily accessible. And... well basically what I'm saying is I'm going to be a weird dog person and take more photos of my dog this year.
5. Make a long term goal
I talked to my boss about work impeding on my personal life, made adjustments to my schedule, got him to hire a new guy to take some of the load off of both of us. He told me to keep on him about keeping my schedule reasonable, so now if I take on too much work it's more or less my fault. Hence, it can no longer be an excuse. OH, also - not as many excuses.
I really want to collaborate more this year. Since I don't have an office to get that creative, group energy going - it'd be nice to meetup with some friends and bounce ideas off each other.
That's it!
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