Then the girl said: Less art, more chocolate. (Journey of the 1st CA student)

[Oblio]

Teach me to draw, please! - this is how it all begun.
I guess i have to do this.
My name is Andrei Fantana - here is my little journey.
I've seen Conceptart.org by accident in its first days and i suddenly wanted to draw and paint like all the front page guys. What followed was a trip i wish for everyone - a journey into myself and towards brother-like friends, the exploration of what most of you love probably as much as i do.
So Jason said - ok - we'll teach you. I reminded myself that i should be a complete retard to miss such an opportunity.
I went the very same day and bought myself a wacom, a scanner and drawing tools.
He said then:
- Do your Self Portrait.
- Wait... I've never done this - shouldn't we start with a cube or a sphere or something like that?
(but then again who was i to speak back? and hey, what Andrew was doing - the self portraits thing - had turned my head completly. brute inspiration )

LESSON 1


that was so hard - but i was happy. they said it somehow good

the lessons if i remember correctly were like one week assignments.
next week Jason tried to show us (more had joined me and we were already a few) how it's supposed to be like.

LESSON 2

i don't know about you but when i saw it the first time i was about to quit
luckily i've spent all my money into wacom and all - there was not much room to turn back. You have there my pathetic attempt - but hey - they said it was good

Well... next lesson was MASTER PAINTING

LESSON 3

I've spent some time on it - meaning few hours (around 8 hours in more sessions)
I'm always lacking time - with a sort of 2 jobs and lots of other projects
Well... for once i was quite amazed by what i was doing - remember - this was probably less then a month after i've started to draw. I'm sure you know the feeling of a compliment - but when my mom got to see it by mistake and she said it was nice... it sounded too strange.

LESSON 4
well.. this is where things got sentimental and all.
My brother had a terrible paragliding accident. He was a mess - couldn't move at all.



My assignment changed - i started to draw him everyday. It was really painful to look at him - i do have some pictures but seeing them now just messed me up again.
He's the extreme sports kind of guy - being in bed isn't him - i was happy i could mix the drawing with the brother time spending. The schedule was already tight. I guess those are bad drawings with good feelings in them. I really tried.
I've started to spend more time drawing - long nights and all - got myself 2 casts and tried my hand at it.





here - a motocentaur - i think my first concept - for a friends game concept.


and these are probably the first drawings out of my head - and the first contest at conceptart: bugs concepts!

i kept on drawing - on self portraits - EVERY DAY and tried to do some extra drawing too.

here - the 1st concept that got into a game:





In the end i've lost my job.

portraits follow

[MrFrost]

welcome to life using the right side of your brain....it's a great adventure that youve started.....showing amazin strides as well!!! sorry to hear about your bro....but keep up with the drawing, and keep us posted!!!

[arghmisfit]

these are awesome oblio

cant wait to see more

[Groover McNab]

Hey Oblio, thanks for sharing!

Glad you started this thread here.

[rollb82]

great work, keep it coming!

[Delta 1]

Those are amasing for your first steps! You can definitly see the improvement as you scroll! Keep drawing all the time, it reliefs stress...really it does. Sorry to hear about your bro, and your job, life can really suck sometimes-yet it will always get better Hope things get better for ya. Anyway those are great, Keep up-dating alot! Great Stuff there man, keep cranking them out!!!

[el coro]

atta boy frate! i am very proud of you my freind. you have come so far...im truly amazed. keep it up man. dont stop, you have stumbled onto the secret of how to become an artist, hard work...i am truly proud to know you dood!-c36

[emily g]

I want to hear the rest of the story!

[Erik]

Frate!

It is good o see your drawings and how far you have come already, funny thing to see first concept made in the game ;-)

The images of your brother show feeling and compassion, something i see in you and have much respect for.

Keep going forward Frate! Sorry im not so MSN-able of late :/ busy busy

What's with the job thing???

E.

[Jaku]

Hi Oblio
I´ve to thank you many things.
I remember you put me in motion with your masters aprenttice letters a few years back now.
MillionThousands of thanks for your determination and inspiration.

Keep it up, please.

[SamBrown36]

Oblio, man I don't think I'll ever forget the begining of the Austin workshop, no one really knows who anyone is, you started ripping my portfolio about the 90 degree chamfered edge industrial design thing, then everyone sketched you a bunch, haha. Hope to see you in SF and hope to see you post a ton of work here. There is a likeness in your self portraits, keep cranking.

[mentler]

You got a bad case of creativity ~ some good stuff here ~ like what I see lots o variety ~ lots o talent.
The 3/4 pencil portrait lacks structure.
Don't put so much emphasis on lower eye lids.
Lower lid is usually up plane and catches light ~ it is also much thinner than upper lid ~ should not compete with upper lids!
Come visit!

[Oblio]

...and the beat goes on....
Thank you so much for the replies - you guys are too kind.
I'm sorry for missleading some of you - i'll try to be more explicit.
mainly these were almost 2 years ago.

MrFrost - o, thank you. what a great journey. I'm not quite a stranger of those lands. I graduated theater and film academy so i've been well instructed to the right side - but this speciffic journey, is so much special - and i hope i'll manage to tell you all why exactly is it so.
arghmisfit, groover, rolb, emily - thank you. i'm just starting - saty with me and help me keep it going. Please.
Delta - thank you - as i said the events happened proabbly during one year - what you have there are basically the first weeks. My brother is fine (paragliding again and going on more other things) and as you'll see, i've got a job back pretty fast.
coro - frate - we didn't get to hang out too much last time - but i'll be in SF soon and i'll bring you vampire blod as offering - for the so manny times your art became my desktop, for every drop of inspiration, for being my frate! i love you!
Erik - you.. you.... don;t worry frate - if i don't undertand what busy means - who does? thank you so much for passing by.
Sam - ha ha - yep - i hope you didn;t took it the wrong way man. i used to hire lots of artist so at least some crits i can give see you in SF soon eh?

mentler - your words just reminded me what concepart.org is about. don't ever stop to crit - it's probably the thing that kept me going. The fact that i was convinced i could learn to draw just with feedback from the net made me go on and on.


ok, so where were we?
oh.. i lost my job. It was the 2nd time and it wasn't pleasant.
I was working as game designer for a big mobile gaming company.
that day i did this:
and Andrew responded:

i was having a great time doing portraits every day with keyth and blackhawk killing.peopl, retro and and lots of others.
Joining Andrew in this ride was a fabulous trip - and i still envy him for going strong each day.

so here are some portraits of the first months. just some of them.
you can see the progression too i think.

Aug 2002


Sep 2002


Oct 2002

[Oblio]

NOV 2002




DEC 2002


IAN 2003


FEB 2003


i'm too tiered to update more now - i'll contiue soon.

[Fozzybar]

You posted the December2003 one twice...i'll fix that until you'll fix it yourself:

Feb2003



Funny...i was going to post this afternoon and ask about this image, which you did after losing your job...because i exactly remember how i saw it the first time and replied...you was so depressed and all members posted something to let you feel better...

I thought you wouldn't remember if i had asked about it...but it seems that it's still an important piece for you...i think it's the strongest one i saw from you yet...

Let the story continue until you post recent stuff...

[SamBrown36]

I see, so that was older stuff. Well, the newer older stuff you just posted is good too. I've gotta start doing self portraits. By the way, I didn't take what you said in Austin the wrong way at all, I agree with you and need to develop new form languages. I was kinda saying thanks for the crits, just wasn't clear about it. The top left SP on Feb 2003 is such an Oblio face. . Haha. But yeah man, I'll see you in SF for sure, I should have a ton of new work to show.

[Oblio]

Uh - sorry guys- i was so tiered last night i went black-out several times during the reply.
Thank you Fozzy.
Here is some more i forgot last night - the story will continue tonight.

APR 2003


MAR 2003

[Dominus]

nice crap man! pls continue to amaze me!

[Dan.v.D.]

oh my..

i to remember exactly the drawing from the day you lost your job and andrews sp.

and i somehow always thought that mcm did the hospital portraits, and was always irritated that they weren´t in his thread. stoopid me

keep it up mistah!

[Elastic]

Hey there keep improving. you have some nice/difficult expressions here

[Oblio]

just got back from a concert - probably the first in few years (more then 3 for sure)- so just a quick update.
I'm trying to get up to date so i can start posting my daily stuff.
So.. after that month things got rough - one of my project went into final stage, lots of work at the office too and all.
Also i think that is the time i started to watch Anime - lost lots of time to that but i don;t regret it at all. Those crazy japs pumped me even more and made my mind go CLICK severall times.
so - here are just some leftovers from 2003

and some crap of 2004.

I'll get back tomorow with other stuff.
Maybe i'll just jump to current doodles/sketches/studies&crap.
I just wanted to show some of my progress so i can somehow pay my respects to everyone here by showing what CA (meaning YOU people) made out of me.
Words can not thank you enough.

[Marko Djurdjevic]

Frate!

Great, I recognize you in every one of them.
Miss ya!

M

[killing.people]

cool thread you have here
was such a long time ago! good times eh?

it is really nice to see all of your work laid out in such a manner. you can really see your growth in art skill, knowledge and personality.

-killing.obilo's.hole

[Oblio]

Marko - dommo arrigato - can't tell you how i blame myself for missing Berlin. i'll see you soon frate! take a small break for me - i can feel you're tiered and still a bit... angry on how the art drives you instead of letting you drive it. In SF you'd better love yourself more good times are comming!!!

killing.oblio - man.. yes... time has passed by and rusted everything eh? i remember your first nipple drawings and the times you had no computer and... well... we did great things in that SP theread. And with this thereat i think i'm looking for that kind of moments again - or at least i'm trying to tell everyone that is up to each os us to make this place incredibly addictive and usefull. Killing.killing.people.

so.. where were we? uh.. the hard times - well... fate kind of put me back to my place for a while - not much drawing. Funny - it all started with my decission to start drawing more.
I was afraid that i got used to draw my mug and that in the end i would not learn to draw - i would just learn to make self portraits. That's how it is when you're young - you get funny ideas so you get a bitter fun later remembering how stupid you could get.

So my plan was to draw each day a portrait AND something else - and i ended doing none mostly becouse in short time i realised there was NO time for 2 drawings/day - and without the SelfPortraits thread/feedback (that place is still a wonderfull freaky community inside CA, AND the most helpfull people go there) i was kind of unsucessfull with my plan.


Soon business issues took over me and i realised that weeks went by without any drawing. Shame was allover me and i actualy pointed to my brother Andrew that i might just step out from this train.


Some time passed and Andrew + Jason schedulled the visit to my grounds - yeah - they were to come to Romania (that's where i live btw).
I don't know about you guys but that got me SO pumped
My portrait by Andrew Jones - Apr.2004 - Bucharest (not Budapest )


I was planning this kind of meeting for years talking to Andrew about it - it was a blast. Thank you guys.. come again
After the visit i got a terrible desease - i was art-poisoned. That made me draw and draw.


I keep severall schetchbooks - one under the keyboard at the office, one in my take away case/bag, one in the car, 2 at home etc.

I mostly do crap and i blame myself everyday for not doing enough studies but one can not do only studies. Mostly, the things i do at work and in the car are just doodles. At home i mostly do studies.
When shopping with my girl.. i do portraits - the shops here have funny mirrors - they try to make you look thinner and the light is always nice - great plage for portraits. The trick is to make the girl try half of the outfits
well.. here i come:

art-book studies (bottom left), life drawing in a museum (bottom right), and out of my head (upper part)


Usualy on sundays i go to museums and draw statues:


doodle (tribute to Samurai Champloo) :


at home i mostly use Artrage for my studies.
i NEVER use undo, no color picker and the brush leaves good trails - i try to train my hand for strokes, and to fix my mistakes with the brush. As close as i can get to the real painting - i don;t want any comupter tricks for now.

Mostly value and color studies (out of my head in the bottom - i'm sure you can tell )


and more artrage


that's about it.
ah.. wait - last night i was at this concert - i doodled something on the ticket.


hopefully i'll be able to finish the job (under the keyboard sketchbook) soon and start postig stuff from there. Time is against me realy strong during the weekdays.
Thx for taking the time to stop by.

Andrei Fantana & Oblio

[Fozzybar]

Ooooookaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy...

Here is where the things start...

Now post the dailies...and get your ass kicked

[Oblio]

Thank you Fozz - i decided to update weekly & not to bother everyone with my crap around.

Not much this time:

and the one that gave me a delay for a few days:

my first fan art - i guess it's the first chess game with fan art, but the Chessmaster OldMan was asking for it.
Check out the game too
So.. it was pretty late i was trying to finish this up but due to fatigue i blacked out - hit my head twice - via spasmophilia. Pretty fun
I've got more sketches from this week in my job scketchbook - i'll post them when i'll finish it (it's almost done)
Thx 4 looking.
Cya.

Andrei Fantana, The Health & Oblio

[Oblio]

uh.. didn't had much time to update here.
I have the stuff but it's not scanned/uploaded/etc.
Here - East Europeean thunderdome entry - Steampunk Mars Explorer.
It could be better - i rushed it a bit. My fight with Thirdeye was great. Thank you buddy.



How did you like Chessmaster 10th (the game)?

Andrei Fantana, Oblio and the Time

[insane visions]

very cool

[cotron]

really cool to see your journey oblio. I met you in Austin, wanted to say that your attitude and progress is really inspiring! keep it up!

[Profil]

It inspires me very much to see how long you come from scatch.
Keepn on drawin