afk
May 13th, 2007, 10:00 PM
Hello everyone, i'm a long time lurker and admirer of Ca.org, I check the forums regualrly for inspiration, help and motivation. I'd just like to say what a fantastic collection of artists you have here and a great community with some true talent in it. I've decided to come out of my lurking mode because I desperately need a little help and advice and think some of the people here can provide it.
Basically, I am 21 and have just finnished a BA(Batchelor of Arts) Degree in Computer & Video Games at a UK university. I'm now in the process of getting together a CV and portfolio for applying for environmental artist / level design positions in the games industry. I've done pretty well during my degree, and through a lot of hard work, I am looking at getting a first or a 2-1, however I have stupidly completely neglected my drawing skills during the course of the degree, despite knowing how important drawing skills are for games artist jobs.
Just to clarify, i'm not going for concept art positions at all, i'm a semi-competant 3D environmental artist / level designer, but my drawing is totally piss-poor in comparison and most game artists are expected to have half decent drawing skills to be able to communicate ideas properly. Some of the work I completed for my degree can be seen here: http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b117/karloth55/FMP%20%20Environment/?start=all It's a mod I worked on with someone else for the Source engine (I doubt it will be released), all the stuff you can see in those pics is created from scratch by me, the props, environment etc, most of the textures are made from sourced photographs from texture sites, however all the prop textures are done from scratch in photoshop.
When I was younger in school, I used to be one of the best drawers in my class, however I am more of a technical/academic person really and did A-levels in Maths, pyhsics and computing, and haven't drawing consistently since I was a child. As a result my drawing is stuck at a child like level, especially when drawing straight from my head. Bad perspective, proportions, no texture or detail, bad understanding of light, tone and colour etc
I will start applying for positions in the games industry within a few days, and will hopefully get some responses/interest (some other people of a similar skill level on my course have had some already) but in the meantime I am going to take this opportunity to try and improve my drawing skills as much as possible . I'm still highly motivated from just finnishing my degree, I'm learning to use Mudbox as well at the moment, and have 3-4 hours each day (not much by many peoples standards here I know) to contribute to improving my drawing skills. Just to clarify, I realise i'm never going to become anything other than mediocre in the time I have available and because of my not great natural drawing skills, but I am determined to get better at drawing whilst i'm applying for jobs, to increase my chances of finding employment or simply being a better drawer by the time I start work for a company.
So basically, i'm asking for advice on how to go about improving my drawing skills as quickly as possibly, really I just want to learn the basics of good drawing, basic tone, perspective etc resulting in me being able to do a half decent sketch of an idea or something i'm working on. Suggestions on good books to buy are very welcome. Any tips or advice for beginners is very welcome, no matter how simple. I have 3-4 hours a day to spend on this, don't mind buying whatever materials or any books I need, and i'll hopefully post my sketches on here for some crit after the first week (i'm used to posting work for crit with my 3D art so I'll hopefully have no problem doing it with this stuff).
I was thinking possibly of spending 1 - 1.5 hours on a drawing each day of an object or real life scene, 1 - 1.5 hours on a drawing of an environment or scene from a photograph or some sort of reference, and 1 - 1.5 hours a day on either drawing humans / figures (not too important for me as an environment artist but still useful) OR a photoshop painting of something conceptual (I was thinking of using the D20 system from seedlings excellent Concept Art 101). Does this sound reasonable?
Thanks a lot, Mark
Basically, I am 21 and have just finnished a BA(Batchelor of Arts) Degree in Computer & Video Games at a UK university. I'm now in the process of getting together a CV and portfolio for applying for environmental artist / level design positions in the games industry. I've done pretty well during my degree, and through a lot of hard work, I am looking at getting a first or a 2-1, however I have stupidly completely neglected my drawing skills during the course of the degree, despite knowing how important drawing skills are for games artist jobs.
Just to clarify, i'm not going for concept art positions at all, i'm a semi-competant 3D environmental artist / level designer, but my drawing is totally piss-poor in comparison and most game artists are expected to have half decent drawing skills to be able to communicate ideas properly. Some of the work I completed for my degree can be seen here: http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b117/karloth55/FMP%20%20Environment/?start=all It's a mod I worked on with someone else for the Source engine (I doubt it will be released), all the stuff you can see in those pics is created from scratch by me, the props, environment etc, most of the textures are made from sourced photographs from texture sites, however all the prop textures are done from scratch in photoshop.
When I was younger in school, I used to be one of the best drawers in my class, however I am more of a technical/academic person really and did A-levels in Maths, pyhsics and computing, and haven't drawing consistently since I was a child. As a result my drawing is stuck at a child like level, especially when drawing straight from my head. Bad perspective, proportions, no texture or detail, bad understanding of light, tone and colour etc
I will start applying for positions in the games industry within a few days, and will hopefully get some responses/interest (some other people of a similar skill level on my course have had some already) but in the meantime I am going to take this opportunity to try and improve my drawing skills as much as possible . I'm still highly motivated from just finnishing my degree, I'm learning to use Mudbox as well at the moment, and have 3-4 hours each day (not much by many peoples standards here I know) to contribute to improving my drawing skills. Just to clarify, I realise i'm never going to become anything other than mediocre in the time I have available and because of my not great natural drawing skills, but I am determined to get better at drawing whilst i'm applying for jobs, to increase my chances of finding employment or simply being a better drawer by the time I start work for a company.
So basically, i'm asking for advice on how to go about improving my drawing skills as quickly as possibly, really I just want to learn the basics of good drawing, basic tone, perspective etc resulting in me being able to do a half decent sketch of an idea or something i'm working on. Suggestions on good books to buy are very welcome. Any tips or advice for beginners is very welcome, no matter how simple. I have 3-4 hours a day to spend on this, don't mind buying whatever materials or any books I need, and i'll hopefully post my sketches on here for some crit after the first week (i'm used to posting work for crit with my 3D art so I'll hopefully have no problem doing it with this stuff).
I was thinking possibly of spending 1 - 1.5 hours on a drawing each day of an object or real life scene, 1 - 1.5 hours on a drawing of an environment or scene from a photograph or some sort of reference, and 1 - 1.5 hours a day on either drawing humans / figures (not too important for me as an environment artist but still useful) OR a photoshop painting of something conceptual (I was thinking of using the D20 system from seedlings excellent Concept Art 101). Does this sound reasonable?
Thanks a lot, Mark