Becoming a Better Artist – Critical knowledge and techniques for today’s artists

#101

Kevin - The workshop is not in realtime, so time difference isn’t an issue. The course contents are text, images, and videos. You go through them at your own pace, but just make sure you leave enough time for you to do the assignments. All critiques, questions, answers, discussions…etc will be done via forum postings.

As for your main concern, the only week that is focused on characters is week six, as that entire week deals with character stylization, aesthetics, expressiveness…etc. The rest of the workshop does not focus on characters but on all aspects of visual art–in fact I have a section specifically on how to make images that do no contain people more interesting, such as architectural visualization, car renders, and so on (although from the point of view of creative approach, not technical solutions). The weeks on lighting, colors, and composition can be applied to all types of images, and since you are working with Painter now, week 5’s focus on surface treatment will definitely be of interest to you.

I think whether you’ll get a lot out of the workshop will depend on not just what you’re currently after, but your aspiration as an artist in the grand scheme of things. If you just want to make your architecture renders more compelling, the perhaps a good book on architecture lighting and architecture photography will satisfy those immediate needs, but if you have aspirations to simply become a better artist and visual storyteller regardless of subject matter, style, industry, medium…etc, then that’s what this workshop is all about.

#102

[B]I honestly think that this part of your workshop is very important. I was a little put off because it seemed as though the first two weeks were more about how to manage layers and create a brush etc. (Please correct me if I am wrong) Which seems super basic. Is this the technical stuff that you are referring to?
Also the price of the cg workshops has gone up(which I know you have no control over) but the amount of weeks has remained the same.

I think I need more practice on how to tackle an image and breath life into it. Whether it be a character or environment. And how to add mood to images. The stylization of characters also seems really interesting and I seem to find that difficult but I think that is mostly attributed to me not yet understanding what my style is.( hence how do I stylize something if I am not sure what my style is in order to make it different)

thanks.[/B]

#103

From what I can see, the price went up across the board on all workshops at CGS, and I have no control over that.

I think you’ve misread the content description. You are concentrating on the video portion only. The main bulk of the workshop is the text and images portion. Take a look at each week’s description again and ignore the video portion, and you’ll see that you’ve misunderstood:
http://workshops.cgsociety.org/courses/000131/

EDIT: Just so there’s no more misunderstanding, I’ve asked Biljana to reformat the weekly descriptions into something like this:

(This workshop contains a text & images portion and a video portion every week. The two portions tackle different aspects of each week’s focus.)[b]

Week One: Title[/b]
Text & Images content:
Blah blah blah.

[b]Video content overview:[/b]

Blah blah blah.

Video topics covered:

[ul]
[li]Blah[/li][li]Blah[/li][li]Blah[/li][/ul]

#104

I am definitely interested in learning about how to make images that have soul; creative vision is important. Here’s 1 vote for going on the original schedule. ^^

#105

That’s essentially what I hope to learn from the workshop, so if anything I would like to see it given more priority, not less. That said, I wouldn’t mind if it was pushed back a few weeks. Effective story telling is probably an advanced topic that requires your understanding of many basic concepts, so building a working knowledge of those other concepts in the first few weeks actually might be a good idea.

#106

Lunatique,

My intent is not to learn technical illustration but to become a better artist so i think we re on the same page. As for the figure/ character portion, I am interested in that as well but I cannot allocate my full focus on that right now which is why I wanted to confirm what the class focus was.

My problem now is I just enrolled and tried to pay with payapl. Had an issue there and tried then to go back and pay directly with the CC. It will not let me proceed beyond the info point, probably because I first selected Paypal.

Options?

#107

Log out log back in and start over ?

#108

I could try that but that can create another set of registration issues. I do not want to shake the web I just fell into and piss off the spider even more :wink: Best to sit still and see how CG responds. Thanks!

#109

Doesn’t sound like you will have registration problems because you have not registered. The registration menu messes up sometimes. It has happened to me. I just start over.

#110

I would agree, except it showed me I was registered and the seat availability dropped by one. I will try again since you have me worried…:wink:

#111

Streetz - Did my explanation about the separate text/images portion and video portion answer your previous question? If the new description format is still confusing, I’ll have to think of another way so that it reads even more clearly.

arcitek - If you have any problems, just contact Biljana: biljana@ballisticmedia.net

#112

Yes thanks so much for the reply. The workshop sounds really great. Seems like there will be a ton of info. I feel like I am having a hard time taking my work to the next level and I wish I could participate but I am not currently able to afford it. Good luck to you and everyone else in the workshop. I would be curious to see some images that come out of the workshop.

Thanks

#113

Hi,

My technical skill is very far of what I’d want but we have a lot tutorial etc who talk about this.
So I’m for the fact that we keep the week on creativity, it’s very important, the only problem it’s that I haven’t enough work to discuss :/.

#114

OK, so it looks like you guys all want to keep week one about the creative vision, and that makes me very happy. As you all can tell, the creative vision is very important to me, whether it’s for art, writing, music, photography, film, or even something like dance. Without a compelling creative vision, we will never be able to go beyond being just artisans that does what others tell us to do. While that’s what most commercial artists do for a living, I think many of us have aspirations beyond just putting food on the table. The passionate and ambitious ones always wants to be more than just cogs in the machine. Even if we only get to create our personal vision in our free time, it’s still something that feeds our soul and reminds us of why we wanted to become artists in the first place.

Don’t worry, that assignment is just one out of four assignments for that week, so you still have plenty to do.

#115

Shall we introduce ourselves to each other, then? We’re starting in a week and a half, maybe we could get to know each other now, see who else is in the course, talk about what we’re doing and want to do some day, that sort of thing. I’ll start. :slight_smile:

My name’s Mynta, I’m from Ottawa, and I’m taking a Game Development course part-time while I teach myself more art. I’m quitting after this semester though, because I thought that by taking this course I could end up doing the art for games, but I’m finding that’s not true. There’s just way too much emphasis on the programming for that. It’s been awesome experience, though. :slight_smile:

After the semester’s over, I’m going to get a job from May-next January and keep working on my art. Then next January, I’m hoping to get into a post-grad one year course on Illustration, which includes a class specifically on game art.

My career goal is to become a concept artist, specifically for video games. I’m not sure how far away I am from that, but that’s where I want to be someday.

My ULTIMATE goal is to know that I can draw anything I can imagine. More than just drawing the shape of it, I want to be able to imagine a person, a creature, a realm, and then draw it so that it looks real, exactly as I had it imagined. As my imagination gets exercised and becomes more vivid then this will get more difficult. But that’s what I want eventually.

What do I want out of this course? To save a heckload of time in getting there. :stuck_out_tongue: I have plenty of books on just teaching me to draw, I’m glad of those, but I love that this is about shortcuts, being efficient (and I am the slowest drawer you will find, ever), how to do lots of things I have no idea how to go about, and giving all these life tips to artists and perspective on creativity and such.

And I want to know about that carpal tunnel syndrome trick. :stuck_out_tongue: Last week for the first time ever my right hand and arm muscles got suddenly very stiff and hurt after spending long hours on the computer. I should probably figure out something preventive soon.

Yeah, so hi! Who else is in the course with me? :slight_smile:
~Mynta

#116

Thanks Mynta,

It’s always good to have aspirations and career goals. It is all a process and everything is a learning experience so this class should be no different.

Since I am a little older I have had the fortune of reaching a career aspiration in being an architect. I started as an artist a very long time ago and got sidetracked into this profession. Now, I would like to get back in touch with more artistic exploration within my field and have a strong interest in matte painting and fantasy worlds. Not really sure it is a career aspiration as much as a personal interest. I love working in 3D but I also like traditional media as well. I am focused currently on using digital painting applications to develop more expressive work.

I am currently trying to start my own business and I just found out we are expecting our second child this coming Monday so my plate is full…which is how I like things.

Anyway, good luck to everyone and I am sure this course will be a good bit of fun.

K.

#117

Haha, you guys are mind-readers. I was just thinking the other day about maybe having everyone introduce themselves, but then I realized it would be a little inappropriate since this forum is not specific to my workshop, and this thread is mainly for answering questions or making announcements about the workshop.

But don’t worry though, one of the assignments in week 1 includes answering questions about what your aspirations are, what you wish to get out of the workshop, what your weaknesses are…etc.

The course material is pretty much all done at this point, except I still have about a couple of hours of videos left to make. It’s the longest video of the entire workshop, spanning several hours and documents every step of an entire painting from a blank white canvas all the way to completion, with very extensive explanations of every single creative and technical decision made.

Can’t wait until the workshop starts. It’s going to be a lot of fun and very intense!

#118

This is an interesting workshop. Unfortunately I’m not able to participate this time, but maybe next time. So just good luck to everyone. :thumbsup:

#119

Hey, well my name is Edward, and I would like to improve in some way, even if it’s only in small things, I feel that would significantly help me. I don’t have much aspiration other than being able to realise my ideas so that other people may understand them a little better. I feel that by taking this course I would be sharing and learning from Robert and others who can help to inspire me. That’s it! =)

#120

I second that!
I discovered this course too late, if its repeated again I’ll definitely be in!