[Archived Class 1] Who We Are

[Gundersen]

I thought it might be nice for everyone to know a bit about each other, so we kind of know the persons we are flameing, hateing and loveing at the same time :) hehe

So here ill go and introduce myself, and I hope the rest of you follow up!

My name is Thomas Gundersen,I am 21 years old. I am atm studying Architecture at Edinburgh college of art. Originaly from Norway, have also studied Architecture for one year in New Zealand. Have about zero experience in makeing concept art, but have always been highly interested in looking at what other people have done. Now i am trying my best to learn :)

[D.Labruyere]

heh, well to join in also.

My name is Daniel Labruyère, 19 years old. Right now I'm a first year student history after a failed year at the art acamady. I do however still draw and paint and started walking the longer road to become better. I wanted to improve my environmental skills, and I imagined this would be a good place to start :)

[Form]

*Stands up sheepishly*

Hi guys... its been *counts on fingers*... 3 weeks since my last drink and I... oh wait... wrong room!

Well, all things considered its probably best to give you guys SOME background on myself. My name is Adam, and I'm 21 and live in Sydney, Australia. I started one degree after leaving school with a good grad mark, but found University here to be very beurocratic and stifling with little room for personal creativity. About 6 weeks into uni I attended the first CA workshop in Amsterdam and met the MB guys, and spent some time hanging out with Kevin Llewellyn around amsterdam - an experience which changed my direction in life utterly and completely. When I came home I quit my uni course and started self-learning and attending life drawing classes and sketch meets.

Followed up attending the Austin workshop and further refined what I wanted to do and why. In 2005 I felt I needed to go back to college and give it a secod shot so I enrolled in a Graphic Design college that offered illustration and design subjects. That turned out to be even worse than my first course, and was an (almost) complete waste of $15000. However it WAS good for networking, and through a friend there I landed a job at a design studio in Sydney who enlisted me to do some concept art work that had been outsourced to them. Being mostly web designers, they had no idea how to produce proper concepts, so it was perfect timing.

2 years on and I'm now creative director at the company who I was doing the concepts before - and I'm (partially) responsible for developing their new IP. I also run a home studio with one other guy working in-house and 4 artists working from other countries. I work 4 days a week doing the IP and the other 3 doing various freelance jobs. Im also heading up a local project to develop a large, open-door space for artists to share and work in for free... because i feel sydney is missing some much needed bohemianism :)

Oh, and im tall dark and handsome and im going blind :P

Thats about it ,whos next?

[warry]

Hello^^

My name is Guillaume Loreau, 17 years old. I'm a student in a french school i'm in "1ere Litterature " with art option . I'm not a very good student so i hope if i have a good portfolio and if i start to draw and paint now , it will be more easy to get a place in a "BTS".

I have a real fear of what I would become, of if I would find a school,a work...

[Agustin Poratti]

i'm agustin. pleased to meet you,

[DanJohnCox]

Lame but funny Agustin!

I'm Dan, I'm 21 and been mindlessly drawin forever. Went into a graphic design program and ended up almost wasting 2 years of my life. Met a wonderful lady and went into 2d Animation. First year was fun and a great learning experience. Then I went to the Montreal CA workshop and coward in corners but learned so much it changed my life and views. and much like Form, came back and realized the animation industry isnt for me and self taught myself for awhile before the next CA workshop in San Francisco. Picked my balls up and learned even more and almost decided to give up everything to go to SF for the conceptart.org atilier. Didn't get accepted anyway but also decided it wasnt for me right now. Immeditaly went into a 3d program (post graduate, only use i got out of the graphic design program) for 8 months. just recently finished and I'm now interning at Pseudo Interactive in Toronto doing 3D. My dream is still to be a concept artist but 3d pays the bills and has many new challenges I enjoy solving to no end.

My biggest issue is finding time for my art on the side. I'm getting married this summer (yep, pretty young eh?) and finding whats truely important to me and what im really willing to give up to be the person I want to be.

[Agustin Poratti]

you pretty much described me, man.
glad you're getting married

[robmorfin]

My name is Robert, I'm 34, I'm an Architect, later on studied bronze sculpture classes in College for two summers, studied the Environment design class at G n o m o n, after that I took one trimester of Digital/traditional painting as well as Tonal Drawing at the Watts Atelier, I've gone to 3 G n o m o n workshops and gotten advice from some of the best, my background is too technical and I have really been strugling to make Concept art, I know most of the steps on how to do it, but somehow I am missing how to put them together, so this will be a great opportunity to be pointed in the right direction.

[Gundersen]

My name is Robert, I'm 34, I'm an Architect, later on studied bronze sculpture classes in College for two summers, studied the Environment design class at G n o m o n, after that I took one trimester of Digital/traditional painting as well as Tonal Drawing at the Watts Atelier, I've gone to 3 G n o m o n workshops and gotten advice from some of the best, my background is too technical and I have really been strugling to make Concept art, I know most of the steps on how to do it, but somehow I am missing how to put them together, so this will be a great opportunity to be pointed in the right direction.

:O :O :O Everyone has so much experience compared to me

/Me gives up :P hehehe

[robmorfin]

Gundersen, to create art you don't need experience, my experience has not lead me to good concept art yet, actually the technical side of my experience is killing the artistic side, I learned to think with the left side of the brain, later on I tried with the right side of it, Environment design is a combination of both and a stuggle to me, I can't stop fighting it, but I am trying and will get there sometime hopefully soon, I think it is great that you are combining both as you are studying Architecture at this moment, you will not have the same problem I'm having right now.

[Agustin Poratti]

yes, that, and me feeling a lot better knowing i'm not the oldest guy around.

[ender62]

Ok... Aside from my one tiny little post, I've remained a true "lurker", and I guess it's time I changed that. This post is my official commitment to getting involved in the lurker thread for week 4 (I know, it sounds like classic procrastination, but I have a lot going on in my life at the moment and things will be slowing down a bit next week).

I'm 21 and I have just completed 4 long grueling years of pre-medical sciences and taken the MCAT- all towards the eventual goal of going to medical school. I've recently come to a point where I'm worried that I have been headed in the wrong direction for a long time, and I am giving myself some time to mature as an artist and see where that takes me. I'm new to photoshop and tablets, so we will see what I can do next week.

[Gundersen]

BTW PEOPLE this is not a thread to post in to find new friends ...

its for the people that takes this course :) ehhehehe

[Agustin Poratti]

ender, dead pedal, welcome guys... please, sit, do you want to drink something?

[chaosrocks]

Ender and deadpedal please post in the lurker thread or the classroom forall. any furthur posts in this thread will be deleted.. Sorry

and if you are new to CA yyou might want to cruise around some more before you settle

Anyway
I've been lurking since I helped Form set this up
I put most of my bio in the assignment thread
all thats relevant anyway
and Im older than all of you
so we won't go there

[D.Labruyere]

damn, I think I'm the youngest :x

*feels small*

*starts searching for his teddybear*

[Agustin Poratti]

*rips off teddybear from labruyere's hands* NO way! off you go to your room, and do your homework!
...i've been talking with Proffesor Form about your.. behaviour, young one...

[D.Labruyere]

I thought we were supposed to call him master Form? Or was it Inquisitor Form?

*grabs back Fluffy the teddybear, goes to his room and starts on his homework*

[Agustin Poratti]

his Abstract Majesty for you....

[Gundersen]

Lord Form...

[warry]

Lord Form looks good :p

[Agustin Poratti]

who let you out of the lair, warry?

[Earendil]

"Hello, my name is Luke."
"I'm a huge geek"
"It's ok, we're all geeks here."

I originally went into college to learn art, but the teachers wanted tin-can-on-stick, and I was interested in drawing boring landscapes. :) I've taken a year of music theory, computer science, japanese, and film but I'm still not sure about a major.

Most of what I've learned about storytelling, film, computers, and editing, I've learned on my own, and that includes drawing. Been drawing since I was 9 and I've just drawn a lot of little landscape pieces over the years. It hasn't been until the last few months that I realized a career could be made out of this. Now I'm 23, and I just want to push myself and try to overcome my own "brick walls" (thanks Randy Pausch!).

[Agustin Poratti]

i believe gundersen to be the geekiest we have around.
try to act casual if you see him..

[Gundersen]

i believe gundersen to be the geekiest we have around.
try to act casual if you see him..


haha Augustin :) /me throws a tomato at Augustin

I have always been a geek, but i am still stunishingly looking and you could never guess that i am a geek, so i am slightly undercover ;)

[Earendil]

haha Augustin :) /me throws a tomato at Augustin

I have always been a geek, but i am still stunishingly looking and you could never guess that i am a geek, so i am slightly undercover ;)

Roiiight. :^^:

[Gundersen]

>:{>:{>:{>:{>:{

hehe

[Gundersen]

Lets spam a bit here guys.

Anyone else then me strungling with getting Photoshop to paint the way you want to?

I have these issues
- It does NEVER get sharp enough what I paint
- It always looks cartoony!

grrrr

[Agustin Poratti]

ok, i baptize this thread as our common room

gunnie, i'll try to share with you what i know about edges, crispness and such, but gimme some time, i'm in over my head

[Gundersen]

ok, i baptize this thread as our common room

gunnie, i'll try to share with you what i know about edges, crispness and such, but gimme some time, i'm in over my head

sounds great, look forward til that post :)

[Earendil]

So what kind of brushes do you guys use? I use hard round and soft round, but I'm interested in some of the speedpainting brushsets used. Is that cheating to use special brushes? I dunno, but they sure seem like they'd help speed up workflow.

[Gundersen]

When it comes to brushes i am very fresh to say it like that :)

BUT i normaly start with a big round black brush with pen presure on oppacity. I block in the main objects, the perspective and so on. Then i keep changing the size of the brush as i work up the image. Sometimes i use custom brushes to get some details as brush strokes and so on, but i find custum brushes very hard to use well, cause if you have a brush that create clouds you get a repetativ cloud normaly, so its easier to paint it yourself.

I would like to learn more about brushes for sure!

[jodali]

the brushes I use are those rounds to put down quick values and colors, then i bust out my customs to get some textures and details that i dont want to put in by hand. I dont think that using sets is cheating, as long as you use your own textures and pics for your brushes, when you start using people stuff that haven't been designated as public property thats when it gets into the cheating category, if you guys want I can show you how to make your own (in PSCS2) but most of mine you need to have a tablet with pressure, tilt rotation.

[Agustin Poratti]

sharpness is associated with edges i guess. the best is always to work with reference. the more reference you use, the more your brain gets used to materials and textures.
texture always comes after value and general colour, i think. you can't get carried away with adding detail if the value behind it is mediocre.
if you need to paint a rock, look at pictures of rocks. if you need to paint metal, try to find metal. preferable a picture of the object in space, not a 2d texture.
i use 2 brushes, big har round opacity, and big hard round size. i use S and D to soften and harden to edges of this brushes.
i dont really care about custom brushes for now. all i want is to get cemented how to work with value in my head. if you cant master these 2 basic brushes, it's no use to start adding the custom ones / natural ones.
some times people thinks detail, value or interest lies in hands of the software/tablet/brush. wrong. it's in your brain. you have to work out foundation, value , colour studies. etc. so then, you can reflect it back into your personal work.
when you paint, paint with your brain. don't let your pen run freely. make that extra effort in every brushstroke, you'll notice great changes. before your stroking your digital canvas, think why are you doing that, what are you trying to achieve, and how can you make that happen with what you already know. as you practice and practice you get used to this mechanism and it becomes more automated...
my personal experiences, man. hope it helps...

this is something i drew today. i was trying to show you how i build stuff. it's from my mind. so i'm only relying on my brain.
w9BpEN4YnVg

this is a horse painted from reference. i put my own colour palette, tho.
A5A7AXIP6dU

[Gundersen]

Augustin I loved the videos, especialy the painting of the head. Realy like how you worked it up with colours, shadeing and light. I see now that i need to start to use smaler brushes, have gotten to stuck on big brushes. Cheers mate!

[Earendil]

Wow Augustin those vids were great!

How do you capture the video of you drawing? Fraps only works with Direct3D, do you use an actual capture card?

Please critique me! *kneel*

[Gundersen]

Wow Augustin those vids were great!

How do you capture the video of you drawing? Fraps only works with Direct3D, do you use an actual capture card?

Please critique me! *kneel*

Dont kneel young padawan, or the mighty Lord Augustin might see you have dusty on your clothes!

[Agustin Poratti]

earendil, gunn, quit talking crap, and get to work.

ear: i like the atmosphere your creating. maybe he figure could get more colour from its surroundings, and be less "local"? also, how about adding more colour? right now the overal palette is about blue and pink,.. study old masters further

gunn:yeah dude. use smaller ones :)

[Agustin Poratti]

camstudio opensource

[Gundersen]

Agustin you are replying in the wrong thread :) hehe No one is showing there work in here :P

And hell yeah i am working..

[Earendil]

earendil, gunn, quit talking crap, and get to work.

ear: i like the atmosphere your creating. maybe he figure could get more colour from its surroundings, and be less "local"? also, how about adding more colour? right now the overal palette is about blue and pink,.. study old masters further

gunn:yeah dude. use smaller ones :)

I wasn't part of that conversation! :^^;:

Thanks for the critique. I was thinking about that particularly when it came to the shadows of the trees. If the trees are brown, but hit with blue and pink light, what would help make the best transition? Well, I'm going to study those paintings more.

[rvdtor]

augustin those videos aren't available anymore....ah well so is life.

anyway hey everybody my name is ARVID im from central america tho im studying multimedia and animation arts in taiwan. i've always been lurker around here but jumped at the chance when form announced that environment thing. so now im here doing my best.

[Gundersen]

rvdtor welcome abroad the flying Dutchman! :)

Doomed to sail with this art class for several months.

Yeah his movies where pretty ok! (dont talk to much nice to him or he will take over the class) :)

hehe

[Gundersen]

Whats up guys?

[Gundersen]

Why is our Lounge area dead?? :)

I got a nice deal on some used DVDs the other day in a second hand store in Munich.

All are thegnomon workshop:

- Feng Zhu Volume 3: The fundamentals of shot design for environments
- Syd Mead Volume 1: Thumbnail sketching
and a strange one ...
- Iain Mccaig Volume 1: Anatomy of a story

Havent seen any of them yet, gonna suck em all up during the holliday i guess :)

[chaosrocks]

mostly I hang out in IRC. I dont really get any holidays and I need to spend them on what ever the master comes up with next . ANd LMS andMedusa
join us ?

[Gundersen]

Medusa has already ended or is at an end, where on irc are people hanging? I am an old time nerd of IRC. I might consider EOW next week

[robmorfin]

Form changed the subforum name to just "Environmentoring", I wonder why?

[Gundersen]

haha cause his name doesnt fit into any sentences .... stupid nick choice maste r :) hihi (upps girly giggling)

Guys i recomend all of you to do the Enviroment of the Week every week just as practice. Dont even need to finish it. But its good to do more then one piece a week and the topics are very interesting. You also get the chance to test all the skills you learn by our master

[chaosrocks]

GOOD IDEA
hope to see you over in EOW. Im cooking up a really different and , I think fun 2 part Eow for next week. and until the master resurfaces.... (and even after) I d love ya'll to come visit over there.

[chaosrocks]

irc irc,whatnet.net
/join conceptart

its a little quiet atm cause of the ws

chaos

[RokasButkys]

EDITED: deleted all the text. Sorry im confused.
---------------
-------------....

EDITED: this month is going to be very busy, so someday im really going to join the class.

[Gundersen]

you are posting in a class thread, have Form added you to our class?

[Form]

i didnt change the forum title, someone else did. not sure who or why. maybe someone got irked by my nickname being on the main page. tho im not fussed, i just liked the pun :)

[chaosrocks]

heheh
wasn't me.. and I can't change it back... I can't change subforum's. sry I tried
when are we getting back in gear?

anyway. if ya'll are bored and need practice, EOW is waiting........
:P

[robmorfin]

I'm ready to jump in as soon as you start the one about pirates, aaargh.

[chaosrocks]

HEY ENVIRONMENTALISTS!!!!

nuthing better to do?
post holiday blahs?

Ws let down?

try this
EOW NEEDS YOU!

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1603294#post1603294

[robmorfin]

Thanks Chaos, great idea to add a map for it, I'm sketching already.

It's going to be a fun EOW!.
:skull: :pirate: :skull: :pirate: :skull: :pirate: :skull: :pirate: :skull: :pirate: :skull: :pirate: :skull: :pirate: :skull: :pirate: :skull:

[chaosrocks]

if you are looking for something to do. Working alongside Jens Color studies mentorship could be very helpful
we could post over here and crit each other. Form claims he's coming back.

[Gundersen]

I saw that some of Jens images where taken from National Geographic. So i went searching around, and found this Gallery (http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photogalleries/nature-weather) of Nature and Weather from National Geographic, OMG REFERENCES!!!!!!!!!!

[robmorfin]

if you are looking for something to do. Working alongside Jens Color studies mentorship could be very helpful
we could post over here and crit each other. Form claims he's coming back.

What a great idea Chaos!, let's do it!, I already downloaded the images from Jens reference, but if you guys think we should use some from Gund's link that's fine too, I guess as long as we post the original next to ours it will be way easier to crit or give advise to each other.

By the way, should we post here or create another post inside this subforum?, I think another post would be cool.

[Form]

hey guys since you seem to be gathering here ill post a note - if anyone else from the class asks please pass on the info.

Class will be resuming with new curriculum and changed lesson formats as of next tuesday 22nd.

Sorry for the delay, but xmas, thunderdome and the workshop got in the way. Im hoping the new 'formatting' will help some of you who are beginning to push forward to challenge yourselves further, and will allow for better assesment and a more direct path to producing a portfolio.

Cheers guys
Oh and hope you had a great festive season and did lots of horrible, immoral mass consumeristmas shopping ;)

A

[Earendil]

Cheers guys
Oh and hope you had a great festive season and did lots of horrible, immoral mass consumeristmas shopping ;)

A

I'm offendz0r by your use of "istmas". Zat supposed to be like...CHRISTmas???? omg I sue. kthx

:mittenbop:

[Gundersen]

xmas is a very common way of writing it actualy :P

Look forward to it Form. Hopefully not to many people have dropped of in the break

[chaosrocks]

study 1
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/chaosrocks/jens-color1w2.jpg
45 minutes

[Form]

hey chaos i think you were holding your finger over the camera in the top right corner - oops!

[Gundersen]

rofl

Chaos, the painting looks very soft and blurred out. Its mountains, they are "As hard as rocks"

[chaosrocks]

pfft.. at least Im doing somethign

well hmm how does one ballance the distant focus, withthe sharp edge dicotomy of mountains?i actually kinda tried to put edges on em. Ideas?
balance aerial perspective with hard edges.... the camera give a harder edge to everything than the eye does.. since it focuses the entire field of view.

hehe
and the top right corner was under the pallete....oops I didn't notice till I posted it.

[chaosrocks]

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/chaosrocks/jens-color-2w2.jpg

the next
better i think

[chaosrocks]

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/chaosrocks/jens-colorstudy3w.jpg

and a nother
vaguely less fuzzy

[chaosrocks]

hey guys... while we are waiting for form to get back
how about we go challenge alti?

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=116377

talk about putting your head in the lions mouth. but it might be fun.

[jodali]

hope its ok to post this here..
for any one who cares:

my new-ish computer

$499.85 US

OS - piece of shit vista
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+
4GB RAM
320GB hard drive
standard keyboard and mouse
DVDR
and a huge cooling system
CPU runs at runs around 28*C, 83*F
hopefully I will be able to overclock it

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m120/jdlfx/CPUsm.jpg

to some it may seem old and outdated but compared to my old 1ghz with 256mb RAM and 30gb hard drive, its lightyears ahead