The Start of Something New
In this blog I will be documenting my relationship with art, my own and others, as well as my growth in what I’m doing. Currently I am beginning an exploration into a workflow that I’m not so familiar with and would like to keep track of it, while also writing about it as I dive further in. The other day in my journal I wrote to work for the long term and I think that this page will help me stay on track. Mainly, I am looking for a place away from social media to share my thoughts and victories, big or small, as an artist and creative.
Even now, writing this on August 1, 2023, I am seeing that this could be a way to keep track of visual art, as well as music, however we’ll see what ends up here.
As mentioned before, I am delving into a new workflow that comes from Marc Brunet. I am looking to work toward a style that is better suited for concept art and character design, which brought me to this workflow. I don’t hope to completely abandon the style I’ve previously worked in (I think that’s impossible), but using new techniques will allow me to put together a more developed result in terms of rendering, setting, and concept.
For the past two days I have worked on the first three steps of this new process: linework, main lighting, and ambient occlusion/base shadow. This flow is new to me in a digital sense because it begins by developing the piece using just black and white under your linework. I enjoy the finished quality of Marc’s work, so I figured I would give it a try and see what I learned.
Throughout the beginning stages, I have realized I want to do more studies of things that will frequently be in my images. These include but aren’t limited to: hands, portraits, shoes, random objects. While working on the main lighting stage, it struck me that I don’t have a very deep knowledge of the way that light interacts with certain objects. In some cases, even just basic structure is proving to be an issue (damned shoes). In the process MB emphasizes working without reference as much as possible to further develop your skills. By doing smaller studies, I will be able to more confidently produce what I want, when I want in the process.
After completing the first through third steps, I could feel how different it was to me, but also could feel myself slowly getting used to it also. My current work with it is pretty rough, but that’s okay! It’s my first full try. I do also like where it’s headed, so I’m not worried. The same overall character is there, but the look/quality of the drawing is completely different from what I would normally do. Painting with a soft brush and being more aware of opacity is not my natural inclination.
This step back into the pool is making me excited again. For quite awhile now I’ve been floundering with art, but I can feel that this will make difference. Working out big things while doing small studies is where I will start.
