recent art tests - semi fatty thread

[RasselTassel]

Hell-yo!

I'm currently planning my move back to the states so I figured it would be nice doing it the real american way, get a job and work, work, work : )

So with that comes all the art tests. I actually like doing art tests(dont tell them). When doing personal work I'm just not that interested in rendering pictures all the time and following strict schemes but once I get an assignment to wrap my mind around I tend to put more focus into it. The personal work I do is mostly for training and it's in my belief that sometimes rendering things to death is just a waste of time... especially when designing and in training. but its cool to now and then pick up a subject and take it from start to finish.

So with these art tests I get something that's up to date and something that I can put into my portfolio rather than the freelance work that's buried under NDA's. (i do like the freelance work too jaa)


Here's what I've done so far:


Below is a spaceship design that slowly developed into a giant space turtle. I thought it would be cool with a spacecraft that moves around the space very much like the sea turtles moves around the oceans on earth, catching a ride on the underwater currents. I got lazy with describing how the smaller ship disconnects from the main shell.



A minute of brush/design play in the middle of the process. Trying to explore different designs.. the turtle won.





enviros/interiors:










vehicle/creatures:









Satanic walking cow:

[RogerAdams]

Wow, really nice stuff. You put a lot of effort into your thumbnails, each one would make a great final piece.

--roger

[velkroboy]

very cool stuff I like the enviroments. Are they completely from your head or did you have some influences?

[Ian Mack]

You are extremely skilled. I like what you said about not wanting to over render your personal stuff. I do the same thing and it isn't until I enter a contest(I'm not near as godly as you yet) that I really put some time a project and take it from start to an actual finished level.

[white paint]

I totally didn't see those satanic cows coming, that really freaked the hell out of me I like it, I love it! They kindof remind of the creatures in that Evolva game.

[junon]

was that last batch an art test for cryptic? Curious as I had done a similarly themed test for them, if so mind if i ask how it turned out for you?

[Loolarge]

Thats friggin awesome, i love the woods and and the enviroments! I was wondering if you used 3d for the ornaments on the floor or something, that would be tedious to do by hand Overall i really like your colors too

[Nexus]

Could you give us a little insight into the whole art test process? I know that game design companies will sometimes have a potential employee do an art test to see if they will produce the kind of work necessary for their most current project. Past that I'm clueless as I havent yet tried to work for a game design company. How quickly do you have to return these to your potential employer? Are they the deciding factor on whether or not the job is yours? Questions of that nature would be great to have some insight into.

[fookchai]

Very nice viusal development man! Yes, the thumbnails are definitely working!! And I like the color study too!

Jonathan
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http://theartofjlo.blogspot.com/

[Dile_]

Wow, someone has improved a lot!

Those are all really great!

[Theo]

those environment thumbnails are just mindblowing.

helt jävla grymmt to put it simply. rock on!

-theo

[Aslev]

awesome sketches here Dan, it's fun to see the thumbs more defined! wish you luck with the job searching

[B-nine]

great work. I absolutely love the thumbnails. I'd love to get a better insight into your process if possible.

[crazybrush]

Hey Dan, good to see you working!

You're definitely improving...your sense of atmosphere is pretty good, especially when you're working on smaller scale, it seems, which is what's important.

I'm not too big on ship designs...too generic, too scattered. A good design consists of three lines and if you can't see them in the final product, you've probably failed to deliver a unified concept that tells a story.

There are perspective issues in your environments...take the first "courtyard" image for example, find your horizon line & vanishing points and draw some lines and you'll see how off they are. I think at this point you should start with a grid and stick to it.

I honestly think that you're on a good track to becoming a great concept artist and it bothers me that these amateur mistakes keep reoccurring in your otherwise beautiful pieces.

If you fix these issues, you probably won't have to do tests when you look for work.

Beef it up now...I can't wait to see what you'll come up with next.

[NicoRaven]

Brushwork looks Spec tac cu lar.

[archipelago]

oh sweeeeeet! good brushwork here and interesting concepts...

im from sweden and planning on going to the US aswell, mostly just to study though but we will see I might end up going to australia actually (ive lived there before)

yeah anyway, good luck, keep it up!!

[Main Loop]

nice! wouldnt hurt to clean up the edges more in the final renders of the ships...

[shadoman]

Best of luck on the move back. I don't think that you'll have too much trouble on the job.

[dorian]

WOW

love the very last street scene, lower right corner - totally stunning work..... really strong!
thanks for sharing these, chelonia could come straight out of star wars, beautiful stuff!

[kaktuzlime]

I love those environments!

[thundercake]

You had me at space turtle...mmmm.

Lovely brush strokes and great environments!

[RasselTassel]

RogerAdams: Yep, I love the sketching stage.. if It wasn’t for the fact that I had to deliver a final I would probably stay and enjoy the sketching longer. Thanks!

Velkroboy: Well there’s always influences in everything you do : ).. but it’s all pretty much visualized with my own engine if that’s what you mean.. Thanks.

Ian Mack: Thanks man. Yeah I do believe you develop faster when you spend most of the time sketching things out… for me that’s the most giving and creative part. I remember when I really got into digital painting, I used to do speedpainting/sketching like 10hours a day just working on mindless sketches for about a year. It definitely helped me a lot.

White paint: Hehe.. never heard of evolva but It sounds cool ; ) Thanks

Junon: Cryptic looking for a concept artist eeh? Thanks for the info.

Loolarge: You’re right that would be damn slow painting that decoration in perspective. No I didn’t use 3d but I did use a texture/pattern from a photo… It could actually easily be hand painted as well.. the secret is to get into the pattern-thinking of using repetitive shapes… and prepare the pattern in a neutral perspective/seen above so you can use the distortion tool in PS in order to apply it to the painting. Thanks!

Nexus: You’re right these art tests are usually given to potential artists so they can see if you can match the quality, look and the pace of the project. The time given to do the art test has in my case usually been between 2 and 5 days. It’s pretty simple, they’ll give you a task where you get to produce something that hopefully won’t be too far away from the project the studio is working on. If the studio is decent and serious they will only issue the art test to the very top of the potential candidates so they’re not wasting anyone’s time with an art test. Some times you’re lucky and the employer will actually order the art test as a commission and pay you for it. And other times they don’t even bother to give you an art test and will call you on an interview on the spot.

Fookchai: Hey thanks.. I stumbled into your blog there and I love your circus concepts!

Dile_: D I T T O!

Theo: Tackar! : ) Your folio is looking tight.. are you working on a sci-fi title yet? (because you should!)

Notic: Thanks Tommy.. give the kid a wacom/crayons from me : P hehe

B-nine: Big question.. well, I as many other artists do a lot of “blocking” and painting with big brushes in the beginning in order to establish the composition/layout and the general design of the image. And when I have a clue on where I want to take the sketch I decrease the size of the brush just a little bit and starts to boldly continue refining the painting. I also do a lot of color tweaking along the way using overlay-layers etc. A tip working this way would be not to be afraid of making mistakes and doing brushstrokes that aren’t completely straigt/right.. you can always simply select the opposite color and paint over the mistake. Using fewer layers also helps in keeping the file easy to handle. – thanks and hope that helps a bit.. if not don’t hesitate to give me further questions and I’ll see what I can do in answering them.
Crazybrush: Again you catch me with the perspective rules up my ass ; ) It must be the classic of painting yourself blind… most these works are done in one sitting so I don’t get those opportunities to rest from a piece before declare it finished.. but after this piece was done I was so hasty in declaring it “done” so I’ve never really had the chance to look at it with new eyes. I mirrored the image in PS and its as clear as day now : P… such an easy thing to fix. But knowing me I probably wont fix it either. There’s some slight issues in the final spaceship as well but I think both concepts serves their purposes atm so I’ll let them rest.

In the future I’ll have it as a rule to always mirror the finished work in the end. And oh I rarely use guidelines btw… I mostly go on my instincts and I believe this is what will take me the furthest in the end.

The spaceships where a compromise between what I like to design and what the studio liked.. I didn’t want to scare them off with some crazy ass design and felt that in this case a little bit generic wouldn’t hurt. But designing will always be the everlasting problem solving indeed.

Thanks! I appreciate and agree with most of your comments so they’re definitely welcomed. : )

NicoRaven: Thank you : )

Archipelago: Cool.. I studied in the US a while ago. You’re in for a treat.. just promise me to be careful with the schools… a lot of schools are conducted as a business over there and they’re doing an excellent job in “selling”… even though some of it is completely BS. But there’s good knowledge to be found if you know where you’re looking, definitely.

Thanks and good luck with that as well!

Main Loop: ahoy.. thx! There’s only one final.. and I do believe it would hurt me if spend too much of my time cleaning up edges at times. There’s always room for cleaning up edges.. but the question is how much time you want to waste on that.

Shadoman: Thanks man.. yeah I hope so.

Dorian: Glad you like them. Thanks : )

Kaktuzlime: Hey thanks mannen

Thundercake: space turtle ftw, thx! : )

[RasselTassel]

oi! Did some space sketching today... one quickie and one quickie that took a little bit longer... didnt really challenge the design but oh well.. next time.

[Coinpurse]

Killer Designs,
Very informative and very clear.
Thanks for sharing

[archipelago]

holy crap thats amazing man! the perspective feels sort of weird in the first one, kind of tilted? cool anyway, really inspiring!

and thanks for your info about schools, ill keep that in mind