Jason wants someone to put him through his paces

[Jason Rainville]

Every so often I've tried asking people in pm's, either on CA or other sites, if they would be interested in mentoring me. I'm either met with silence or denial, usually because of work responsibilities (which of course I can understand). It's been a while now and I thought I may as well start a thread to try to better my chances of finding someone to help me out.

What I'm looking for:

I'm not asking for a huge commitment from someone else. Although I would appreciate it immensely, I don't expect someone to pop in offering a huge, detailed course for me to go through complete with step-by-step instructions and pages of feedback per piece.

What I hope for is someone who's willing to spend a few hours each week giving me a project or two to work on, then giving feedback afterward. I'd like to be given a study to complete which is relevant to my weaknesses, and once I've completed it receive critiques and direction. Basic, simple back-and-forth mentoring.

Naturally, I hope to find someone who's art is much more.... developed than mine.

What I think I need help with:

Mainly I hope for the mentoring sessions to help me with direction and dedication. On the whole, I know how to get better at art. The problem is I have trouble in identifying what my major areas of weakness are, and worse how best to improve them. You can see my work in my signature to see where I'm at. (best look at my sketchbook to see all of the studies and sketches I do as well) What I usually gripe about is the lack of cohesiveness in my finished illustrations, and my tendency to get far too specific with certain elements. I feel like getting specific boxes me in too early, and the scene starts to feel plastic and static... it's hard to explain.

Other than that I'd appreciate help with any of the basics of art.


So, if anyone feels like they have time to help me I'd really appreciate it. If you think there's a better way of teaching me certain elements then please let me know. Even working with someone for a month or two will give me much needed direction, so I'd be more than willing to learn from someone who can't stay on forever. Remember, all I'm asking for is a nudge in the right direction once a week, critiques on the previous assignment then a new assignment.

Thanks for looking.

[LostFayth]

Something I noticed while I was browsing trough your sketchbook. Your studies and pencil sketches look really amazing. You hit your lines and you render them out very well. When I see a painted version of the same illustration I tend to loose interest. One way or another the magic just disappears. It doesn't happen to your monochromatic painting tho'. Even the paintings with a very limited pallet keep me interested.

It could be because I'm very fond of lines, and good lines too. And you seem to do an amazing job with lines in your sketches and studies. And the lack of lines in the paintings keeps me from getting interested. The paintings where the silhouette of the subject matter clearly stands out look the best to me (Giant worm (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=494766&d=1224347313) and many, many of your character portrait and full body paintings.). One you make a painting where the silhouette doesn't really stand out. I start to loose interest. Like this one. (http://conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=685545&stc=1&d=1243787250)

Just my two cents. Hope it helps give a better understanding of your art from my point of view. :)

[Jason Rainville]

You make a good point. People usually complain about losing the magic of their sketches but still seem to create competent rendered illustrations, but in my case it really does feel like something's off with my digital pics. Like I said it feels to me like I'm getting too specific or something, I just can't seem to find out what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks :)

EDIT: I still do pretty much all of my digital work as a sketch first, but I'm wondering; should I just do more plain sketching in photoshop? Refrain from using large brushes and rely on line for studies? Would this help out with my sense of form etc in the digital world?

[LostFayth]

Thats a bit off my league. I also struggle with my lines in the digital world. I rely to much on my lines rather then to paint and use my lines as a guide. I think starting with big brushes and blocking in the general form and shape is a good way to start. (<- And that what I'm really struggling with)

I think you might be right about getting to specific. In your latter paintings I get the feeling there is a woman and a creature and, and, and...rather than it's forming a whole. Don't get me wrong, it looks good, but it looks like you've render one thing after an other rather then rendering the painting as a whole. Maybe this is where you loose the magic because you're to focused on one thing at a time.

But on another note, please do keep sketching and painting. I REALLY enjoy your pencil work....I even envy you a bit. :P But your paintings also put a smile to my face.

[surfandsnow]

notan has been bouncing around in my head a lot lately and it seams like it could help here.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=virtualartacademy&view=videos
http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/notan.asp
http://forum.portraitartist.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1857&perpage=10&pagenumber=1

[Lakeland]

Hello Jason.
Ive been watching your developement and Im a big fan of yours to be honest :)
still remember about your mantra?

Obviously I cant help you with the tutoring thing - you are out of my legue. However theres a noticeble quality to your art that another friend of mine has as well.
Your elements are close to perfect. Your compositions however are not.
By composition I also mean the relation between items in your pictures.
When you look at your works that are more complex and made in digital colour, you will see that you keep perfect track on value on objects/characters, but the value relationship between the items within the scene is out of balance.
You render great values with single object or even multiple objects in your sketches, since you work only with two colors b/w. Digital color however distracts you from keeping an eye on the master output so to say, as if you would percieve only objects your brain currently targets not the whole thing.
Also pay attention to your backgrounds, they are usually too close to the subject's value, thus forcing the eye to loose focus. You know the words, you know the syntax, but your language lacks the context.

I only tell you this because its the exact same thing that my friend was told as a crit from our Collage of Arts professor.

As a remedy I can strongly recomend you this tutorial:
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/store/product/185/
you are looking for chapter 5: color

As to tutoring thing.
At your level you are on your own. As I was told only thing one can be taught is the technique - you got that already. rest is self developement and a word from community.
a word like this one, take it or leave it as you please ;)

good luck!

[dcorc]

Jason - I think the advice you've been given here is spot-on - technically, you can certainly draw, and paint - but what we see in your original paintings tends to be rather "busy".

You are losing the sense of big composition, and big forms - the suggestions above are excellent - to think about notan, and value massing in your composition.

Have a read of this thread:
http://forum.portraitartist.com/showthread.php?t=2238
(the whole thread's good, but particularly Peggy Baumgaertner's posts - which explain the concept of value-massing very clearly)

The composition should read easily from across the room.

What I'd encourage you to do is some block-in thumbnails where the shapes are put in with big brushes, not line. Design your use of values, make sure the basic design reads easily, and then as you elaborate the painting make sure you stick with that scheme.

I think you'd benefit from doing these in real paint, actually - not digital, but oil-paints, using big brushes. Two reasons - first, using real paintbrushes is a different experience from working digitally (using a wacom pen is drawing, rather than painting, really, in the sense that even with the brush-size set big, it still encourages a somewhat line-orientated attitude). Secondly, with a physical painting, there's the matter of stepping back from it to get an overview (and I think your not stepping back to look at the large effect, but instead noodling detail, is your problem?).

Hope this helps - your stuff's good already, but could be really great.

(see your WIP thread, too).

Dave

[dose]

Hey Jason

I think in a lot of ways you're beyond the need for a mentor, or at least one that would have time to help you here on CA.org. I think you are at a professional level and would need someone of a very high professional level to be a solid mentor for you, and someone at that level is probably busy working and not post on CA (...probably).

That being said, I'm very interested in teaching someday and I think mentoring could be an interesting way to get some similar experience. I tried mentoring a few years ago but it was right when I had started a new job at a startup + was planning a wedding and found I didn't really have much time at all to dedicate to mentoring. The startup folded in the summer and I've jumped into a bunch of art classes in an attempt to hone some of my skills and go pro, and I find I have a bit more time than I used to.

I actually think I am not at a high enough level to propose being a mentor to you, but I would be interested in trying out working with you on a few things. I agree with dcorc above that your values could be better controlled- both compositionally and in terms of building form- and I also think that you could be controlling saturation to much greater effect. I'd be interested in trying to come up with some assignments that might help you with that and a few other things, or in just critiquing along those lines, or in just opening a dialog along those lines. You could help me by giving some feedback on what, if anything, is helpful to you as I think down the line about teaching.

If you're interested in trying out working together and think I could help you, please drop me a PM or respond here. If not, that's totally fine too. There's a link to my sketchbook & website in my signature.

-Tim