Race Concept Illustration [RPG]

[LeeSmith]

For the last year or so I feel like I have really struggled to find a style that I am comfortable with and can produce efficiently. I am amazed and inspiried every day by the brilliant work of others and unfortunately this has caused me to chop and change styles every time I see a new illustration! Well I think I've gone full circle now and after trying my hand at everything I liked about others work I'm pretty much back to where I have started and come to the conclusion that perhaps this is 'my style', and just because I like others work doesn't mean I should produce similar work.

So with that in mind I present my latest concept illustration and would appreciate opinions and comments on any aspect of the illustration. Should I settle with this as 'the art of Lee Smith' and concentrate on enhancing it? Please give me all your thoughts as I really would like to form a general opinion of my work and the style, thanks.

http://www.shawawa.com/bbrack/d12/mrahk.jpg
(image ©BBRACK Productions)

Tell me what you think,... please :)

[GhostofMacbeth]

Looks pretty good. The leg could maybe use a little more smoothing.

I also wanted to comment on the style thing. I sort of lost my style for a bit because I was having to a lot of illustrations in a shaort peiod of time for a newspaper I worked for and I had to be all things: Cute fuzzy illustrator, editorial, product shot recipe thing etc. It got to be that I would start a piece and go "what style should it be?" good for versitility but sucky for "self."

The point of my little thing is this (I am sorta stealing parts from George Pratt and Brian Stelfreze): Just draw, don't think abot it but just draw and draw some more. You wear your influeneces on your sleeve and they will show somehow, whether you like it or not. And your style will come from that and your shortcuts and mistakes etc but let it come from yourself.

Anyway, end of little verbage spill.

Pretty nice work again, I might try a fade on the brushes of the leg so it blends a little more but tht is just me. Need to get back to my own junk .. deadlines, ugh.

[tegehel]

as a general advice: never settle, always improve. Your "art of lee smith" will improve with you, over time. Don't take the easy road.

C.

[LeeSmith]

thanks both of you for stopping by to give me your thoughts, you both make good points :) Perhaps my first post wasn't worded the best way but when I said 'Should I settle with this..' I didn't mean that I would continue at this level and not aim to improve. Of course I will try to grow in skill and experience within the style and hopefully the style will evolve to be just as good as the artists around here I admire.

Thanks for pointing that out though Tegehel, I'll be sure to continue to strive to improve :) BTW your posts in the job discussion section are very informative and helpful, thanks for sharing!

[tegehel]

you're welcome :)

Let me add to my little paragraph: YOU will know when you reach the style you like. Noone else can or should really tell you to stop and concentrate on a particular way of drawing. Your style is so entrenched within you and so personal that, unless you copy some other artist, you are the only one who can be comfortable with it. I can tell you that my "style" is still being refined as we speak, that is, I'm learning constantly and have been doing colors seriously for 6 months only. Before that, I was never comfortable with colors, so I would just avoid it. One day, I decided that it was now or never and that if I don't try it, I never will. In the beginning, I sucked. Now, I'm better. By comparison to other artists here, I still suck, but I am improving. What does that mean? that means that my style is never static and that I don't decide on a particular way of drawing and improve on it. Rather I try to improve a range of skills that I use a certain way: this is what define my style...the way I use my knowledge acquired over time.

Hope it's clearer.

C.