All these years and I've never done a self portrait. That's like skipping How to Be An Artist 101!
To be honest, figure work isn't one of my strong points. I have a very poor sense of anatomy, and even though my college was great conceptually, they didn't teach the fundamentals of drawing, portraiture, or figure work in any medium. I just drew what I saw, which has worked for me until now, but I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and do something kind of therapeutic and self-exploring.
It's been fun, and therapeutic, making more posts about my graphic design day job, and while working on a few projects for clients, this list popped into my head. This is by no means the ONLY types of clients you'll run into, but these are three I get a LOT and how I handle them.
The "And Then"
They want it all, and they want it NOW.
This client knows what they want. You meet up for a consultation, get the information you need to make their invite, poster, ad, whatever the product may be, you deliver a proof, and they get back to you with changes, but really, it's more additions. Then they keep on adding...and adding. You warn them that things are getting too busy, their clients/recipients will be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of (useless) information on this product, but every single word must stay as-is.
Before you know it, your carefully constructed design that was clear cut and to the point is now a jumbled sea of text. It's overwhelming, but it's what the client wants even if their recipients won't know what hit them.
Ever see the movie, "Dude, Where's My Car?" If you haven't, then there's a scene where they try to order food from a drive through and the person on the speaker box keeps the order going and adding to it by asking "and then?" Until the person placing the order snaps. That's going to be you.
My best advice on how to deal with the And Then is to show them very simple examples alongside their own hectic and jumbled one. Explain how the simplicity makes the necessary information (when, where and what) POP and allows their audience to know what they need to know without searching for it, because most people really won't search for it. Especially if this is an advertisement.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Clients want what they want, and in the end you'll create what they've asked for and approved, but actual physical comparisons and visuals tend to help the most. Verbal warnings and emails will definitely be ignored.
I’m
combining my two animated musical loves, Jem & the Holograms with
Steven Universe! Here’s the first in my series. I’ll be printing these
up in various forms for Otakon 2015! I’m gonna get started on the other
Gem/Jem’s this week. I have a whole band to create!
Why do I only get the urge to do more serious art at like 3 AM on a work night? Come on brain, get with the program!
Ah well I worked a bit more on my Black Lady piece, I keep going back and tweaking things here and there before even moving forward, but I think it's coming along very nicely!
Remember that Black Lady doodle I started forever ago and was going to redo digitally? Well I have started and scrapped that project a insane number of times. I revisited it today, and I kind of like where I'm going with it. I still need to put her hands back in and do a lot more stuff to it, but I think this line-art that I have down so far will stay....but we'll see.
I was thinking about what I am planning on doing with my hair, so I googled hair styles and saw THIS photo and I just loved it. She has such gorgeous hair! Mine will never be that long, but I really wanted to draw her, so I started this. I am oddly obsessed with this photo right now, so I might work on this digital painting for a bit and do a sketchbook drawing of her as well since my styles on both mediums are so completely different. It's nearly 5 AM and I better get to bed, so it'll just be a WIP for tonight.
I have discovered that I really really like digital painting with this tablet. I want to do some different studies with lighting, so I used a spot in my room for reference and whipped this one up tonight. All of these 365 drawings are done in 30 min or less, and with all things considered, I'm really happy with these digital paintings so far, and I'm excited to see how I'll progress with them over the next 200 days or so.
Hopefully I'll have to to sit down and do a more complex one and create a better finished piece, but for now it's 3:13AM and I need to get my butt to bed.
Know what I'm not good at? Rendering, and not using outlines. Tried to attempt both tonight, but I don't think it worked out all that well. Actually, the more I look at it, I think it's the mouth I don't like. I should try drawing a semi-realistic mouth next.
I'm just full of lame titles this week. I was inspired by THIS dress I saw on tumblr. I really love fashion drawings, but I just can't do them, at least not yet. I get way too detailed on the model and not as into the clothing itself. Plus, I wear jeans and a sweatshirt pretty much every day of my life. In summer it changes to a tank top. I wish I tried harder with my appearance, but I'm kind of in a funk, and have been for quite a while, I just want to feel comfy and safe, so jeans and a baggy blanket-like sweatshirt it is.
This feels like such a cop-out on my part. I wanted my day 100 to be crazy awesome, but it's only this WIP for now. I want to make some more prints for Otakon, and on day 1 I drew a black lady, so for day 100 I wanted to do it again, but it's 6AM. How did that happen? I'm looking forward to working on this tomorrow. In the meantime I am getting used to my new tablet and I LOOOOOVE it. Oh man, so much fancier and better than my super old one from 2005. This one can zoom and change brush sizes and do all kinds of short cuts. It's so much better.
Okay, I hear birds chirping, and I have another Candyology101 podcast to record tomorrow, so I better get some sleep. Good morning/night internet!
I didn't have much time to draw tonight, since I was busy filming and editing a new Youtube video, but this was me playing around with sketching on the tablet. Thankfully tomorrow is Friday and I might be able to sit down and make another halfway decent piece with this.
First drawing on the snazzy new tablet! I bought it used from a guy who went to college with me, and I couldn't be happier. I haven't had a tablet with working pressure sensitivity since 2005. All of my digital art up until this point was made with a mouse, so I gotta say, this felt awesome. Let's hope this baby will help me bang out some more prints and stuff for Otakon!
