Checking my sanity.

[Shamagim]

Well, after my 9th hour of actuall work and one hour and 20 minutes nap, I wake up to this new day ( at 0:30...technically it is a new day) And I start wondering about things that I should probably keep to myself, but while I wait for the caffeine to kick in, I have a really important question to ask you guys, though it will appear as an extremelly shallow and perhaps uninteresting.


First, my country isn´t exactly the best place to be an artist, we do have, however, we do have art schools and programs for illustration, 3d animation and even digital illustration, programs that cleverly teach english aswell, because is sure as hell that we don´t have game industry and publishers here are not interested on paying for their cover´s art, all that plus a very shy economy that won´t even dare to invest on anything. ( but not a particualry bad economy either).

Uhh, yes my point....

There is only one publisher that actually makes is own card games, that are know trought Latino america and now they are expanding to Mexico and Europe...I´m lucky enough to be working for them, but unlucky for being in a tight artists bottle neck ( only one proyect...to many illustrators)


Wait a second, I have to feed my cat.....


That company has one proyect in particular that is trying to do something, that something is the source of all my previous blabbering that I really hope it makes sense...Well this proyect has a "style" that is considered vanguardist in a way, and I would really like to know your very honest opinion about it.



El linko: http://www.humankind.cl/galeria.php

language guide: Theres a bunch of enviroments at first, you can check other type of cards by using the search menu in " Tipo" ( type)

-Santuario ( santuary)- enviroments
-Personajes ( characters)
-Manipulacion ( Manipulation)- some sort of magic
etc etc..

Be as honest as posible, this actually will mark my path to take in the next few months..


Thank you guys for your time and patience...

[Ilaekae]

Looked at the site but have a few really stupid questions first...

I'm from the wrong generation...so...

1. What are "cards?"

2. How are they used/played?

3. Is it electronic gaming or something like the D&D stuff I saw the kids playing with a few years back?

Sorry for looking stupid, but...I'll look even worse if I try to answer your question before I understand what I'm really looking at.

[Elwell]

Ilaekae--
Collectable Card Games (ccg's): Imagine D&D crossed with baseball cards crossed with a traditional card game. The original, and still most popular, is Magic: the Gathering. Each game has a basic framework, but new cards with different abilities are continuously released. Because each card is illustrated, and there are hundreds of cards for each game, they use a LOT of illustration.

[Ilaekae]

Thankyewthankyewthankyew...I really have to get out more. Interesting concept...

I'm gonna go back and check the site with this in mind...

[Shamagim]

Yup, around 400 Illustrations on each edition, in the case of this one, around 250 illustrations, but don´t worry, is only about the illustrations, you can tell that most of those cards have a similar "style" ( don´t like that word to much)

[Ilaekae]

I rather like what I see here. It's very different from the tried and true super-slick extremism I'm used to seeing on other sites/supplers I've seen like this...that crap's starting to get old as far as I'm concerned...

This company's style's a sort of retro 50-60s US/Euro with a bit of graphic punch to it, and ironically came about here then because of the influence of Latino artists from the 40-50s. Full circle. Nice. Fell in love with the Character Arachi set cover...

As a money maker when introduced into the states and Europe...could work if exploited properly with advertising. I could see it as a shoe-in in Spain/Portugal, and probably Germanic areas.

As for the rest of the market... The different look might seem fresh and new to the kids who haven't really seen anything like it before. It also has that retro attractiveness that the older critics should latch on to...

I'm not quite sure what exactly you're thinking or planning, but if it's any help, I might take a chance on this...nothing's a guaranteed, but at least this one doesn't say "complete loser" all over it...

Keep in mind that I'm coming at this as a designer/marketer. I'd be curious to see what some of the "gamers" and game artists think...

[DavePalumbo]

I really have to get out more

wow, really

[Ilaekae]

...bite me...

[Shamagim]

Thank you for your time Ilaekae .

I was struggling with this retro type of illustration, I wasn´t sure if I was "suppose" to like it because everyone else did, also I was thinking on assembling a portfolio to be alowed to work in that proyect too.


The proyect WAS a sucess as far as i know, also an incredible accurate diagnostic Ilaekae!!, there is already a shoe-in in Spain and Germany. ( they know it won´t do good in USA)

Also it makes sense how it became so popular here, I guess the Latino influence never left, becuase is what you see in the streets actually ( graffity art)...shame is, I´m still having trouble digesting it, maybe I could try to make a different solution for the same result...and test my luck .

All though I´m curious about other points of view.

[Ilaekae]

Possibly one way to approach the art is from a "latino mural" aspect--flatter shapping, texture more important than heavy form shaping, with the retro bold outlines pulled back to a much more controlled and lighter-weight line with some "nubbiness" to it.

[Shamagim]

I´ll work on some stuff right now.....after another coffee . I do enyoy form shaping, but It woudn´t have the same graffic punch.

Maybe a solution would be to shape the figure using the same latino mural you are talking about, but maybe using more color differences than value, to avoid loosing what makes it special....anyways, out to experiment !!!! ( or maybe I´m repeating what you said..)

[Shamagim]

This is weird to do in this seccion....but maybe is acceptable in this context......

Experiment 1:


Maybe I can try some kind of speed painting....to sketchy for that game, to raw? ( not used to this kind of stuff...)

[johnny78]

I`ve looked at some of the cards and I gotta say that they don´t look cool. Sorry.
But maybe it´s the stuff they want. I´m not sure if I´d put something like that into my portfolio. Only if it was really successful and people could relate to it. Even so I´d put some paintings in that are more developed. It has a "drawing done by a 13 1/2 year old"-feeling to it.

But I think that you are approaching it in a nice way. So if you want to work on it, try to make something out of it that you feel comfortable with.... Well, I don´t know if they didn´t have anybody who could it better, or if they really wanted it that way.

[Shamagim]

I`ve looked at some of the cards and I gotta say that they don´t look cool. Sorry.
But maybe it´s the stuff they want. I´m not sure if I´d put something like that into my portfolio. Only if it was really successful and people could relate to it. Even so I´d put some paintings in that are more developed. It has a "drawing done by a 13 1/2 year old"-feeling to it.

But I think that you are approaching it in a nice way. So if you want to work on it, try to make something out of it that you feel comfortable with.... Well, I don´t know if they didn´t have anybody who could it better, or if they really wanted it that way.

Yup I know, and yup they wanted it that way ( I´m glad some people think that way, it means I´m not crazy....yet )((There are some nice ones though))

dilema:
Theres only 2 proyects, for one of them I already have a contract, the other one is the one you see in the links.....and I´m suffering from the "empty pockets" syndrome right now...

Oh BTW Johnny78, weren´t you from Chile?...I think I remmember you saying so like 8 months ago in a different thread....or I just had to much coffe..


Shi.....t, can´t sleep