Enjoy!

Here is the YouTube video of the last one:

Inspiring as hell, Christ, I get tinglies just looking at this:

Yesterday night, I wanted to take a break and did this as a 1/2 hour break and recorded a sketch and finished with this:

If you’d like to check out the video process from start to finish, see it here at youtube:

Today, I went to sketchgroup and did a sketch of a demon’s head, it was fun:

Anyway, I look forward to getting some decent time to do some personal work after this week hopefully, I need long stretches of time to do any decent art dammit! I don’t want to keep just doing sketches! I want to do something nice and polished!

Hope you’re all keeping well in Internets land.

D-man

Life is too short to stress out over such things, you will die early if you stress out like this! So smile and be happy =)

I’m not earning a hell of a lot of money as I am spending a lot of time on a personal commission that is time consuming but very important to my client, so I want to do a very good job on it as I know it means so much to him. I’m treating it as a fantastic opportunity to also practice my charcoal and graphite which I have not had a chance to use for a while. I’m hopefully going to finish this off by this week.

I am also going to be doing a couple of indie title box art pieces this week and I’ve also started to regularly teach a few people privately which is lovely fun. All great people of all different ages all wanting to learn art, it’s really enjoyable. I am looking forward to doing more personal art work in the coming weeks as well as having the time to solicit more personal and commercial jobs heh.

I’ve become really interested in delving into my cultural background as of late seeing as I have never done that before, so I have purchased some books on Chinese and Japanese art and I am tearing into it so that it informs my work a little bit more. Also, I have become a little more interested in Buddhist teachings and mediation.

Sketchgroup has been going really well, we’re having new people join all the time, seen new faces just about every week, been pretty awesome, recently had some new dudes turn up, they’re great artists and great people too, I have a feeling that they will become good mates.

When someone of their own free will comes to me with a question that will potentially shape a large part of their life or help them to choose a path to travel, I consider it a real honor. So I do my best to give them an authentic point of view that is my own, as opposed to a lukewarm limp wristed politically correct answer. It may grate some people, but I am unapologetic about it.

That isn’t to say I tell them they have to do anything I talk about – that they must do this or else they will fall into a pit of acid and go to hell. That’s not what I’m about.

In fact, I do like to start with a disclaimer, and that is to take anything that anyone says with a healthy pinch of salt. This includes anything I say as we are likely to be very different individuals, the opportunities opened to me may not be present for you, just as there are opportunities present to you that may not have been around when I began.

Things change so fast in this technologically dependent age that, if I can make an analogy…recipes can lose their flavour very quickly.

As I am in the field of concept art and illustration, logically, the bulk of the questions that come my way deals with that path and what it entails.

Just recently, I was sent a lovely email by a young woman who is contemplating her life journey, or at least a very big chunk of it.

It is a similar question to many that have come before it, so I asked her permission if I could post it here to my blog where it may hopefully help some of you out. I have of course changed her name and other references to institutes, but other than that and a few logical and syntactical alterations, her email and my subsequent reply are pretty much intact.

I hope you get something out of it.

Her email:

Hi Darren,

I just read your initial sketchbook post at ConceptArt.org, and wow… that was the most inspiring thing I’ve ever read. Ever.

I’m currently a second year undergrad at Greyland University, Computer Science major, Asian parents, the works. My parents never even had to tell me that art wouldn’t be a lucrative direction; I think all Asian kids just know that instinctively.

I’m also currently interning as a computer engineer and I recently found out that the woman who moderates our meetings (who is not an engineer herself and seriously does fuck all for a living) graduated from Greyland Art Academy.

It made me so depressed to think that even a talented artist who graduated from such a rigorous art program could still wind up doing absolutely nothing down the road, taking notes for a roomful of socially awkward men on a daily basis. The entire prospect of someday building a career in art just dimmed to faint flicker.

So I’m going to stick with CS for now, but your story has given me so much hope for what else I might be able to achieve as long as I keep working on my own to improve as an artist.

My dream is to do just what you’re doing now. I want to make baller games and eventually be able to teach others what I’ve learned. But I need to get so much better, because I haven’t studied nearly enough to produce concept art for real.

So I have a question: were you able to study art and improve while you were in college?

If so, how did you find the time, and how did you keep yourself motivated in the midst of all the parties and life, etc. I get distracted SO EASILY, but I really want to capitalize on my time at Greyland, because it’s the most inspiring and motivating place I’ve ever been. I’m afraid of wasting that inspiration by being lazy.

Anyways, thanks for the story, thanks for the hope, and I hope to hear back from you. (OMG and sorry for writing so much!!)

Best, Linda

My response:

Hi there Linda,

It was lovely to get your message, thanks for that and the kind words about the stuff I wrote.

Connecting with others who have a similar life story, who perhaps aren’t as advanced in experience or helping to give them a word or two of encouragement when all they have known is doubt and fear yet still inexplicably are drawn towards the creative energies of their life is completely the reason I wanted to write that up.

Call it an exorcising of past demons too if you will and a basis for any redemption that needs to take place.

Your story seems very similar in a lot of ways to my own and a lot of others out there, so I guess the first thing that is reassuring is that you’re not alone.

You’re not the first to experience your questions, fears, aspirations and doubts…just as you will not be the last.

Now, before you read my advice, please take it on board that I give it from the stand point of someone who is in a very different place from you, mentality and experience wise, not that that is anything unique, everyone is different, but what I am getting at is to take my advice with a grain of salt as we’re not the same person. What works or worked for me may not necessarily work for you.

Also, I tend to be a bit more spiritual these days, so please excuse if some of this seems really vague or Zen like.

Okay, in reference to your comment on a lucrative career direction, that in itself is, I feel a dangerous point of reference, in that it implicitly denotes that money is something to strive towards and will establish some sort of baseline happiness – something most people are looking for.

I feel it is important to understand that happiness comes from within, especially from what you think, as opposed to what you have or may have, which is what money is – a token that allows you to delay attaining a physical good or service.

I’m not against money at all (and I’m not saying you’re all about money either), I personally like a lot of the finer things in life. But if that is your major point of focus, you’re better off going into some other industry like finance.

Money is of course needed for daily survival, but as I grow older and I question things a lot more objectively, I find that a lot of what makes many of us unhappy – lack of money, relationship issues, envy, etc stem from the world around us telling us through media such as television, newspaper, radio, consumer magazines and other people perpetuating this thought pattern that you “need” all of this to be happy.

House, marriage, cars, designer wardrobe, exotic holidays, thinner stomach…you really don’t, to be honest, I consider them to be what Greg Manchess refers to as “Golden handcuffs”. There’s nothing inherently wrong with striving for any or all of these things, but be aware when they really begin to affect your “true happiness equilibrium”.

For me, as I’ve grown a little older, I’ve found that the less I worry about these things in an “OMG! I’m going to die if I don’t have that new shiny material good!” the happier I become.

When I walk down the beach near my house and look across the beautiful, expansive ocean and hear the waves lapping gently against the pier struts and I breath in the fresh salty air while the sun shines on my face, I know peace and happiness. And the price was simply opening myself up to enjoy these things that most of us take crazily for granted.

An interesting side effect is that as a result of unlinking material gain from my artwork, the pressure to make my artwork conform to other people’s expectations diminishes, which paradoxically unshackles me to do better work which strangely meets client expectations in a higher way. Once the external pressure is off, you’re free to really ask yourself “What the heck is it that really makes me tick?” you become internally driven and suddenly nothing a client or employer can ask is daunting because you ask of yourself greater and greater things – which I must mention you may not always succeed at.

So on this point, in a very roundabout way, if you spend energy worrying that it will not be a lucrative career, it probably won’t be. If you free your mind from that, relax and do the work because it is a part of what makes you complete as a person, you’ll be much more likely to succeed – and it’s almost pre-requisite to be like that in this field. You have to love it so much you’re willing to do it in your own time for free. Experience, especially early on in your career is the currency you should be most focused on.

In reference to a second point that you mention, regarding your moderator having gone to a reputable school and not doing anything of note with it, that’s an interesting point, but one that you really shouldn’t be too concerned with. It is of course natural to look to others for inspiration, but be weary of who you do look at as we tend to digest and then reflect much of what we see in others, and even more so at a young age when we are especially perceptible to being influenced by others who we deem more “experienced” or “intelligent”.

Now, in playing devil’s advocate for a moment, I’d also like you to think of not judging that woman so harshly, you only see her for a fraction of her time, yes she may be languishing in a dead end job which has nothing to do with what she studied, she may do that for the next 50-70 years and pass on with regret for not chasing the opportunities in abundance out there.

Or.

She could be working her butt off in the time you don’t see her, toiling away at her job as a moderator in order to pay the bills while developing herself as an artist. Jack Vettriano worked as an engineer for years, toiling away at his art for decades before becoming an “overnight sensation” at the age of 35. His paintings, which take about a day for him to do now sell consistently for six figures.

So, try not to judge people so harshly (it’ll give you more wrinkles than you know what to do with), better to turn that energy in on yourself to work to make your art better, and look at people in the field you aspire to who have “made it”, read about their trials and tribulations and understand that if they made it through alright, there’s no reason why you can’t do the same.

Now, if you’d like to become a concept artist, I’d say great for you! It is an exciting field, the job is almost never the same and you get to work on your art skills all day in a creative fashion. It’s also one of the most competitive fields to get into because of the skills required, the sheer number of people who want to become concept artists and the comparatively small number of positions and jobs out there for such people.

So if you’re not looking to become one of the better artists, you either won’t last long, or you’ll languish on uninteresting jobs that kill the soul. With that out of the way, don’t at all feel discouraged, I do that for a living and I don’t think there is anything special about me, nor a lot of the other concept artists I know. But there are some vital ingredients that I personally feel are responsible for me doing okay, that I’ve learnt that I possess along the way.

Now I’m not saying you need to possess these, just that I possess them:

1. I love what I do more than anything. Including significant others, family and friends. If I had to choose between all of that and art, there would be no contest. Harsh but true. And I am one of the happiest people you will ever meet, so I’m not some depressive type who cut’s himself.
2. I am learning to improve in some way with every stroke I put down on paper or tablet, if you’re not learning, you’re either stalling or moving backwards. There is no room to be lazy if you want to become great at what you do.
3. I ask good constructive questions of myself…bad questions are ones like “Why do I suck!?” Good questions are ones like “How do I improve the description of form?” Good questions, mean good answers, which means knowledge and growth.
4. I have persistence. Stupid mule like persistence where if someone were to say “You can’t do it.” I say fuck it and do it anyway and either prove them wrong or fail. Then try it again. And again. And again. Until it works.

You also mentioned a few other things that I deem important to look at and understand that in professing these points, you already hold some of the answers you are looking for:

“I haven’t studied enough to produce concept art for real.”

Firstly, if you’re coming up with things from your imagination, you’re already a concept artist, that’s the basis of the work, that you can conceive of something which does not exist and to put it on paper, no matter how rough a form. So congrats, you’re already doing what you want, perhaps not professionally,  but you are in essence producing concept art “for real”.

What I believe you meant, is that you haven’t studied enough to translate those ideas into a workable form that is presentable to others in order to sell your concepts to them. There is a difference and it is important to understand that this difference exists.

In response to studying, my answer is that I did not study art at all during my college years, becoming an artist was the furthest thing from my mind and all I was worried about was going to the gym, hanging out with friends and chasing girls haha.

I only found out about concept art after college and was working full time, so I guess my schedule was even tighter than if I had studied art at university.

When I did however find out about this and wanted to make a go of it, I disciplined myself to come home from work every day for 6 months and teach myself from DVDs and books, every night and on weekends too. I made a commitment to cut off just about any contact with friends and family members and probably alienated a bunch of people by doing so, but that is how I taught myself art.

I’m a 150% type guy, I don’t tend to be able to do anything half way, nor do I like to, if I don’t want to do something, I’ll quit. If I do, I’ll work my ass off to deliver more than is required.

My advice on distraction is to firstly develop in your mind what it is you really want, tell yourself this dream 10 times a day every day until it crystallises in your mind, so that you can hold it in your hand, turn it around, see all the facets of your dream.

When it becomes something tangible, when you realise that the only thing between you and that dream is hard hard work, you’ll work hard. Don’t even worry about talent. “Talent” is the word invented by people who haven’t made the effort to find out the real story behind why some people succeed and why most don’t, so they put it down to some inexplicable force. I don’t conform to that theory, I believe to a large degree that we are all naturally inclined towards certain pursuits, but that we have a more powerful force that can be developed – and that is self determination.

The reason you perhaps don’t work at it as hard or consistently, is probably because you’re not sure it’s worth it or that you can attain it or that you don’t really want it, but it seems like a nice dream anyway so you keep it around like pet dog that you can tell people about.

Wanting and doing are worlds apart, and the chasm that lays between them is hard, difficult, soul searching work and that is why most people do not become artists – because they are not willing to sacrifice, to pay the price that is required.

My hope is that this email make sense, didn’t come off too harshly and that you get something from it =)

So, long email huh? I hope you find something useful.

Peace, Daz.

I had just woken up after another crazy late night working till 5am – which I love by the way, so I’m not complaining, and I was checking out my emails and any new interesting Facebook updates so I guess I kinda discovered it by accident since I don’t really pay too much attention to people posting vids.

Most likely it is because I have grappled with such issues in the past, regarding creativity blocks that I really enjoyed listening to this alternative method of dealing with success and failures.

It’s similar to some of the sentiments and ways of thinking laid out in The Artist’s Way, but delivered with some good natured humour, warmth and emotion that is difficult to get from the written word.

Hope you enjoy it and if you wish to discuss it or comment about it, please feel free to use the comment section below.

Stay chilled.

D-Man

We have part of the design in our minds and this can often cause us to stop short of creating sketches that mean anything to anyone but ourselves.

This situation would be fine if the work we are doing is only for ourselves, however, most often the art we doing isn’t just for fun, it’s because someone is paying us to deliver.

These people need to understand what we are thinking at every step of the process to reduce the likelihood of going in the wrong direction down the line – it saves them time (and money) and it saves you the frustration of having to do major rework.

So this is a very important consideration to keep in mind (important enough that I am reiterating it) – as commercial artists, we NEVER operate in a vacuum, our work is generally part of a greater whole, in editorial enhancing the writing or as concept art which precedes the asset building phase of game or film development.

In short, we need to share our ideas effectively with other people, and most often with people who are not artists.

Cleaning Up

In the above example, I chose to clean up this design because I felt the character had a certain amount of potential for experimentation – it was also the least developed and would demonstrate the process between a rather abstract image built of large shapes and how you would begin to add in the design elements gradually.

In this case, I also increased the resolution to 1221px by 657px so that I would be comfortable while adding the details. I’d also like to mention that in most of the concept art positions I have worked, the bulk of this kind of work is done as a rough guide for the 3D artists who tend to work with dual monitor set ups, so print versions were not really required. If however, you need to generally print off your work, stick to working on at least A4, this will allow you sufficient detail to print off on A4 sheets.

Silhouettes

Like everything else in art, ideation is a fluid process that does not always take the same route. Indeed I would even go as far as to encourage you to constantly venture upon the path less travelled in order to derive new processes, new styles and new ways of thinking.

Creating silhouettes are simply another form of visual shorthand, a tool that can be used as a fore-runner to a fully fledged design besides line and tonal sketches.

As you can see from the above example, creating a silhouette is designing the character from the outside in, you are determining the features that directly influence the extents of the character and blanks the rest leaving your imagination to fill in the details.

In the example, you can again see the use of duplicates, allowing me to fill a page of silhouettes very quickly by the copy-paste method. This will free up your time to work on making sure that each silhouette receives your attention regarding their individuality and unique qualities.

Adhering to the principles of creating silhouettes is important for a number of reasons:

1. Removes the temptation of spending too long on the minutia: not being able to putter away endlessly on infinitely small details expedites the process and forces you to think of the big picture.
2. Enhances the amount of thought given to an object’s recognisability from a distance: so a character is easily recognised from far away.
3. It lets you concentrate on one aspect of design at a time: you don’t need to worry about anything else other than the overall shape of the silhouette, the emotional response from the viewer and whether that response is the desired effect based on the design requirements.

Of course, once the external shape of the character is agreed upon, it’s time to fill in the internal details, this involves the reconciliation of external shapes, with associated internal objects which also serve a functional purpose for the character in question.

Below is a video I recorded of myself doing some silhouettes.

There’s no real ‘right’ way to go about this, but a good rule I try to keep is to concentrate on the larger shapes before going into the minute details, it’s a very fluid natural progression when you think about it.

So here is an example of how a character’s silhouette is taken from an abstract silhouette to a cleaned up concept sketch, showing form and some design.

I chose this particular pose because I liked it’s dynamic nature, I felt it had a lot of possibilities to explore and so I increased the resolution and began by working in the large shapes roughly using the same basic brush that I began with.

When I was happy with the overall shapes, I began using a soft edged air brush in order to give the shapes form and roundness and envisioned the light source from a frontal raised position.  Picking out your light source will answer many questions regarding form so always keep this in mind early on in the rendering process.

Below is another video I used to show how to define form after the silhouettes are created:

Variations

The advent of digital art making has many boons; the ability to revert to a prior state; the efficiency of automation; the ability to paint full colour pictures without waiting for paint to dry nor having to inhale fumes from solvents.

In the field of concept art, a very time efficient advantage is the ability to non-destructively create numerous versions based on the same idea, as I have eluded to in the earlier parts of this article.

You can see from above that the base image is the same, however, because I have duplicated the image twice, I negate the requirement to think of new poses and the proportions of the figure have already been taken into account with the first character on the left. This means for the two characters on the right of the original, there is less to think about, and more effort can be put into things such as the accoutrements of each.

As you could imagine, the advantages are huge and very economical if you want to create a large number of variations based on a single silhouette or body type.  All that is required is the duplication of the image layer you want to work with and simply painting over the top of it.

Mentality

I’ve always been one to insist that what goes on in the head of the art maker is equally, if not more important than what happens at the business end of a pencil.

While I’ve alluded in various places during the tutorial what I am thinking, here, are some of my thoughts on what you should try to keep in mind while you are exploring your ideas on paper:

1. You are creating many tiny inconsequential pieces of art, the more you create, the higher the likelihood that you will have within those drawings the elements of the final design.
2. You are unbiased towards any one design because murphy’s law will almost always guarantee that the design that least excites you will be chosen by the art director.
3. Every single sketch, thumbnail, silhouette or scribble is valuable, don’t erase them.
4. Any idea is a good idea, within each sketch holds a key that could open another door which may eventually lead to the final design.

So here you are at the end of my write up, I’m sure you’re itching to get to some thumbnails underway if you haven’t already.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my tutorial and hopefully picked up one or two pointers. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to reply in the comments section below.

Keep artin’

Daz

For myself (and undoubtedly many of you reading this) there is no comparable experience of diving stylus first into an alternate reality, indulging our coolest ideas and dancing the tango with plain old creativity.

However, speak to any artist and I’m sure they’ll vouch for the fact that it is also an activity that can drive many of us to the heights of frustration. This is especially true if we don’t have battle tested procedures and processes that we can rely on when inspiration and a loose brush alone aren’t enough.

This topic delves into the very heart of the creative process, the initial flowing of ideas onto paper when we feel our ideas are strongest and also gives insight into work flows you can rely on when your art director comes back to you and says “give me something more!”

Now, before we begin, I’d like to point out that even though these ideas are easily incorporated into casual or fine art making, my focus (and my experience) is that of a commercial artist – specifically concept art and as such this is the audience my writing will probably speak most clearly to.

With all that out of the way, let’s get started!

Before you sketch…

If you know me, then you’ll know what I am going to begin with – do your research!

Whether you know or understand the subject matter intimately or not, you need to fill your consciousness with new information on a consistent basis in order to provide fresh ideas/reminders for your images or risk growing stale and creating highly derivative art.

What does this mean in a practical sense? Well, in today’s age of blogs, online articles, image archives, forums and the like this essentially means jumping on the Internet and using your favourite search engine to source out some visuals to kick start your engine.  Some of my favourites are listed below – it certainly isn’t exhaustive, but these are typically all I need to find good reference:

Online:

1. Google Images
2. Flickr
3. Art Reference Sites (eg. www.FineArt.sk)
4. Stock Photo Sites
5. Pose Maniacs

Physical:

1. Live Models
2. Books (eg. Buddy Scalera books/CDs, Specific Subject Books)
3. Travelling Overseas
4. Art Galleries
5. Museums
6. Good Architecture.

If you don’t have the Internet (in which case I’m not entirely sure how you are reading this in the first place!) then it means a little more leg work, going to your local library, picking up a newspaper, magazine, trade journal or watching a movie, shooting your own image references and stock piling your mental arsenal from there is a good start.

Whichever resources you choose to draw upon, just make sure you use it as inspiration only and don’t plagiarise the work. That would be unscrupulous and does not help your skill level grow; indeed it will more likely lower your confidence in your own abilities as you begin to rely more and more on this as a creative crutch.

Thumbnail Sketching

So you’re given your brief, you experience that irrevocable moment in which you are delivered your design task and the synapses start firing off instantly and a myriad of images start flashing through your mind.

Now what?

Well, the best thing to do is to start getting your ideas into visual form whether that be on paper or digitally, don’t talk about it with other people, we’re not professors of literature, there’s plenty of time for discussion later just get your pen moving and don’t stop.

Should you warm up I hear you say? Should I practice something to get the blood flowing through my fingers you ask?

Nope, don’t sweat it.

You know what? The first few will probably be really bad, just accept it and have the confidence to know that the more little sketches you do, the better they will be as you go along.

It is important to understand that how it looks right now is of little importance at this early stage, they are representational shorthand ideas for yourself that will lead to more developed ideas down the track. It helps to imagine yourself as a documentary agent, trying to capture the images that are flashing before your mind’s eye.

As the name would suggest, thumbnail sketches (or simply ‘thumbnails’) are very small scribbles, designed to be fast, putting down what you feel, emptying your mind of your current thoughts so that they may be replaced by more ideas and by jotting these ideas in quick succession you are aiding the velocity of the process.

If you are wondering what sort of sketching you should use to document your ideas or how much is too much or too little, then you’re most likely not alone. The answer is that you should use as much information as you need, but as little as possible, if you feel you can sketch a character using just plain old line work, then so be it, if you need to put in some value to bring out the form then do that. There is no single answer for everyone and so you should document your ideas using what you feel comfortable.

Don’t be afraid to go crazy at this stage, every thought is fair game to be plotted on your sheet, in fact some thumbs will simply be filler used to dirty up the page.  I don’t know about you, but a blank sheet staring me in the face is intimidating, its saying to me ‘I dare you to dirty me up…oh no, actually I double dare ya!’

To which I usually reply by throwing down a few incoherent lines to get past that initial “Clean Sheet Syndrome”. Once that page has been violated with scribbles, it is no longer as imposing to draw on and a mental barrier is broken allowing your sketches to flow more freely.

As you can see from many of the sketch images I have posted, I am not coy about creating “dirty” marks on the page. Whether I work digitally or traditionally, I think that a bit of dirt and texture helps give life to an image. It is particularly important for digital artists in my opinion to incorporate some texture into their work, to break that computer illustrated look that so many digital art beginners seem to fall into.

Digitally, I tend to work with very simple brushes, or brushes that come standard with the program I use which is Photoshop – mostly a combination of soft air brushes and harder edged air brushes with reduced spacing so as to mimic continuos tone. I tend to use these brushes as a high tech version of a pencil or a block of chalk, typically starting by laying large areas of tone onto the canvas before cutting back into the shapes with white.

Check out this video I recorded for myself to see what I mean:

In order to facilitate this quick process I mainly use my stylus, the spacebar to grab the canvas and the “alt” key to color pick the tone’s I want from previous laid down strokes. When you get use to it, this is a very quick method of working and allows you to put your ideas down very quickly.

You may notice on the above illustration that there are some images that look very similar to each other – herein lies another of digital media’s advantages, the ability to create variations simply by using the marquee tool and creating a new layer using the existing illustrated layer as the source. This will then allow you illustrate over this image, creating a variation side by side to the original, the beautiful thing is that it frees up your inhibition to experiment and can be done infinitely.

With the image, I created a relatively small canvas on screen in Photoshop – roughly 400px by 400px at 72 dpi. Now, this is a fairly small size, nowhere near print quality, but because this is the digital medium I am using, that does not really affect me as I am able to upscale at any time and with a bit of clean up can come up with something printable in a short period of time.

Another practicality is that the canvas does not chew memory, at such a miniscule size your brush strokes can be as free and wild and quick as you like with no danger of lag. Of course with today’s increasingly fast computers, this tends to be less and less of an issue, but I still like to start off at a small scale so as to resist the temptation to jump into the details immediately.

Try different mediums

One other point I wanted to mention, was that I tend to like using lots of different mediums, different mediums require different workflows and stimulates the creative juices in varying ways allowing new ideas to flow forward. So experiment! Go out there and try oils, charcoal, pencil, pen, whatever. Create and be happy =)

Okay, this sums up the first part of this tutorial lesson, hopefully you get something out of it. Any questions, leave a comment here and I’ll get back to you =)

Keep your eye out for the second part tomorrow =)

Cheers,

Daz

Keep in mind these are not client projects but personal ones I’m working on, which I’ve always found harder to commit to than paying gigs!

I notice that usually accompanying this mix of sleep deprivation and insane levels of inspiration to create, my mind races a fair bit more to work out some truths and be more philosophical…okay, maybe that’s being a bit presumptuous and pompous…my mind retrospectively states the obvious in a more succinct manner.

This, then, paradoxically encourages me to delve deeper and make it complex again in order to logically disassemble and re-arrange the information in my mind.

This morning was one of those brain fart moments.

I’m lying in bed and I think it is the closest I get to lucent dreaming, although instead of doing cool shit like flying and moonwalking on an army base dodging bullets, I’m actively debating with myself what I think, regarding a completely random topic. It’s like watching the Kennedy – Nixon debate, but with less hair wax involved and no audience.

Today’s brain fart moment is that everything in life is a teacher. Riveting stuff.

So anyways, everything in life – people, circumstances, hardships, greatest joys, books, movies, music, whatever…are all teachers that we carry with ourselves for the rest of our lives. Teachers who give us advice and ways to act and behave in every type of circumstance.

Sometimes, the advice that each of our teachers give us is conflicting.

This inherent conflict comes, not only from each one of our teachers having different backgrounds and their own set of experiences and personal principles that precede them to aid them in the decision making process, but also from the way our experiences and principles intermingle with our extrapolation of what we think they would do in such situations.

In such circumstances, we are forced to become decision makers, the decision to act on combined knowledge and experience or to freeze up making no decision, which is the worst decision of all. Yeah, I just used the word decision 4 times in that last sentence.

I don’t know why, but this mental image of me with an entourage of advisors somehow instills a sense of calm in me, kinda makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

You know that movie “Hearts and Souls” with Robert Downey Jr who has those ghosts that give him all sorts of advice and argue with each other? Yeah, a little like that. Only my ghosts are not film stars but an eclectic mix of people from my childhood through to now who never age.

Note sure there was a point to that post, but dammit, I felt like writing.

Maybe my brain just realizes in advance that come October when Fallout: New Vegas is released, I’m not going to have much spare time outside of smacking people with golf clubs, so it’s trying to get me to do more work now!

Stay philosophising (Yeah that’s a word…I just looked it up on Wikipedia).

Dazalingus