Style Diversity: (P)art Of The Process

You can twist and turn it, but a style is attached to an artist, like a product to a brand.
Or maybe not?

Well, there is some exception to the rule, read further for examples about that matter, but the short truth is:
A style is not as important for an artist, as personality and persistence.

A style can change, a trend can change and if as artist you focus on one style only, chances are that there is one opportunity in your lifetime, but you better don´t miss it if you are just working in that specific direction.
For everyone else it is good to feed and bet on several horses to make the race.

I observed some interesting changes mostly in music and later in visual art. In the metal-music-scene, the former gods of dark sounds and death-metal ( at least where I come from) were Paradise Lost in their humble beginnings. Over time they changed their style and in between some songs had more in common with Depeche Mode than anything else. A similar transformation has happened to Tiamat. For some fans this was an unvorgivable act, but others grew on them.

Not everyone has the ability of a chameleon like Madonna to redefine themselves and their style in every decade, but no one needs to. The obvious shift from underground metal to pop seems commerce driven and in most cases it is. Actually there is no problem with that, in my opinion Green Day has clearly benefited from that, while others: Amy Whinehouse and Kurt Cobain were never made to be famous.

I think it is an inside-out thing, it doesn´t help to reach popularity with a rocket-train if your inner self is not yet ready for it.

In a much smaller scale, a dimension where I live in, there are artists who have gone through similar transformations as depicted above. Theodoru Badiu and David Ho are perfect examples, I loved their style when I first encountered art works of these great artists online some years ago. Now they have dramatically changed, maybe because of commercial demand maybe because of personal taste. I will always respect them for sharing their work with others even if I can not relate to the new works.

But right after writing this, I realized that I have changed too, maybe in a different direction, it occurs that we met at a time that was just right and we were going into different directions from there. This happens with relationships as also with taste in music and art.

When I started out doing art, I had no clue what I should do, I always admired the female shape and as long as I can paint those from time to time, I´m a happy man. But now I figured, that starting out with different styles was the best thing to do.

From my time at the art center until now, there is an inner force that keeps me expanding into various realms. I´m not sure, whether if it is a force or a seduction. When I look at other artists work that I find adorable, there is always something I want to recreate. Luckily never the desire to copy, just the idea that I admire how Donato Giancola paints chrome or the way Dan Dos Santos describes light refraction on skin or the way Dave McKean manages to merge different elements into one piece.

This began to get a habit, one that helped me to get better instead of giving up. A habit that allows me to apply an observation to any assignment and not just a certain situation, what a relief! I learned how to analyze certain things instead of just copying the effect to thousand other images that look all the same. It is the aim to stay original. Maybe I´m not making a fortune out of this as artist like others do, but this has its advantages too: I´m there for the long run.

Other major advantages are, that I can embrace a wide variety of assignments, I still have new areas to get better at, and there is always a different demand. As someone being open and known for keeping up on trends it is easy to change a portfolio quickly if a few pieces to that area simply exist and only a few newer ones are required. Another relief.

So I began to realize that style diversity is just a part of the process in the long run.
I have learned to embrace new categories as challenge, as long as I can meet up with my standards and as long as I find myself in the images I create, why not?

Here are some examples of styles I foster:

Anime / Manga colored drawing style

Anthro (anthropomorphic) digital airbrushing

Belles Lettres painterly and narrative illustration style

Caricature and exaggerated portraiture

Children book illustration

Dog (or animal) portraiture

Fantasy art and high-fantasy art

Graphic style photomanipulation

Mythological creatures, mixed media

Organical photomanipulation style

Pin-up digital airbrush style

Plant and trans-genetic (sci-fi) portraiture

Sci-fi (Science-Fiction) illustration, painting and airbrushing

Sculpture, and digital derivative of sculptures

Steampunk illustration, mixed media involved

Milton Glaser brought it to the point:
What is required in our field, more than anything else, is the continuous transgression. Professionalism does not allow for that because transgression has to encompass the possibility of failure and if you are professional your instinct is not to fail, it is to repeat success. So professionalism as a lifetime aspiration is a limited goal.


I think as artists our aspirations should always allow for 50% experiment and 50% professionalism, an equilibrium that is acceptable by both, clients and artist is a healthy goal.

"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."

Oscar Wilde

10 Ways You Can Transform Drawbacks Into Creative Assets

Gaga

Everyone has Drawbacks or disadvantages due to different circumstances in our lives, but it´s on us to change our view about them, or better said: turning them into assets.

The image shows an explanatory example of this topic, it is told that Lady Gaga was a roadie for Iron Maiden, once upon a time. Things that would make everyone else look like a complete dork somehow complimenting her appearance.

This post should be a motivator to carry on with whatever you do. If you have two healthy hands, a rough vision, some kind of talent, this post should help you push the envelope by unleashing potential that might hold you back now.

Bullet post alert:

1. Attitude and perception: Be remarkable when it is least expected!
   There are many times in our lives when we meet others and very often transactions go smooth, we know how people behave when everything is well, but this is not how people remember you. People, especially clients remember you when in a situation of stress or helplessness, you were the one that put a mood of calmness and outcome-orientation in a project where others would have given up.
   This counts for business relationships as also friendship. Like in a friendship, no one can give a guarantee that you stay friends forever, but in business this attitude can come back to you in a positive way. For me it did, several times now.
   
2. Boundaries of a home-office freelancer
   Regardless if you have a flat, a house or just a cellar to work, there is still household to do, even more if you have kids. People think it is great to be able working from home but it requires a lot of discipline to dress for work and use social-media to show up, especially when no one else is around. I changed all my communication to email and social media (not chat). If you think freelancing, working from home as parent is difficult, AS a parent, I can say it all depends on organisation and communication, I reduced phone calls to a minimum, which means twice a week for important calls. Everything else goes through email.
   
3. Make yourself interesting
   The most challenging thing is to find something people might find interesting about you, in fact so interesting that they keep telling others about it - but it havn´t has to be something obvious. If you apply for a job position (and I talk about a job you really, really want) it will not going to help you to show up in that expensive dress, give the job interviewer something he really wants. If you are starting out as artist and want to apply for an internship by a reknown arist of your genre give him something, an opportunity that he can´t pass up, like managing all phone calls for learning something in return. There is a wide variety of things that are interesting about us, it is vital to find these and turn them out so others can see their benefits when dealing with you.
   
4. Different styles are good for you
   You think you have a burden, because you work in different styles and hence look like a generalist to others? Think twice: It might take you longer to hone your different skills, but opposed to someone who does paint all the same things their entire live for a living, you have the benefit of a variety of work. Concentrate on two or three strong styles at a time and keep up portfolios of them. When the demand for one style grows you can keep producing more of this or to relax you can do something totally different and add it to your other portfolio. If you start out this way, people will not be surprised to see something fresh from you, they expect it. If you start out just with an ink-comic style and after years of just posting that, people might wonder when you start showing watercolor paintings.
   
5. Get rid of passive mode, turn active mode on
   If your drawback is an addiction to video-games or television, I really can´t help you but to say that you have to make a decision. Anything that makes you passive can get into your way of creating things, creative things, or things people talk about. Get rid of the passive mode and turn your active mode on, it isn´t necessary to make sports or exercises for this, but make it a habit to find out which artists are responsible for the concept-art of this game, that movie, and so on... this can be a start. Watch making off´s instead of just the movies, try to visit museums instead of the football game, do more of things that make you feel good. And don´t try to tell me that watching T.V. makes you feel good.
   
6. Persistence is more powerful than talent (to some extent)
   Don´t misunderstand this sentence, talent is important, it separates you from the crowd, but not being able to market and communicate your skills will make you a paperboy or assembly worker. Persistence in communication, marketing and learning are necessary to survive in the long run. There are a lot artists out there who do mediocre stuff but make a good living from just doing so, I dare to say that they are strong in the communication and marketing aspect and show a necessary persistence.
   
7. The burden of part-time freelancing
   Do you think you have a hard time because you have a day-job to pay the bills and do freelance work in your spare time? I know you, but what seems as double life is maybe a preparation for the real case. I worked a day job, studied part time and did freelance work besides, so I know what I´m speaking of, this experience helped me to make the right decisions when I stepped into the full-time freelancing business, because I knew what I wanted and what not.I learned what methods work and which had to be replaced by better techniques.
   
8. You are not good enough
   This is the most overrated thought, and worse; self-affirmation ever. To be not good enough can be changed, but it takes dedication, time and passion, if these three components are inherent you have good chances to GET BETTER! If you are not good enough, but have to make a living as artist somehow, connect with artists that are better than you, learn from them, work FOR them, get to know their methods, help them improve their business. You might have a good idea how to market something, have made experience with a medium, that can SAVE THEM TIME, and so on. you see, being not good enough is an excuse and a bad one.
   
9. Lack of self-awareness 
   Be it due to education or your nature, a lack of self-awareness is equally bad for your health and relationships, than an exaggerated self-assurance. If you´re suffering from the former, there is a help, not an easy, but there is help: surround yourself with people who are naturally strong in self-awareness. Be it friends, mates, in a relationship or friendship doesn´t matter, it will take time, if they care for you, you´ll learn to take more responsibility over time, try out new things you´ve never done before, doing this with self-aware friends is a great way to get better at this, plus you have great things to share and eventually a story to tell. Relationships are vital, a good friendship is a benchmark where you can often get feedback from peers, accept hard but constructive critique and seek people who are willing to push you, if no one cares what you do, that is a very bad place to be. But also it helps to be no Sissy when it comes to receive critique.
   
10. The money issue
    Freelancing as also doing art for a living is not necessarily a story about starving artists. The typical thing the public assumes is that the art is a luxury good and either you make it, or die trying. Fact is that art is more present than ever; from video games, movies, label designs to clothes, cars, and as therapy, etc. Art is more used in our society than ever before to communicate and to transport messages and feelings. With the internet there are more chances than ever for artist to succeed. The only thing is to know what you want. You can´t believe that just making your art will make you rich, you have to create a following first, however you make this, it is your choice, offering solutions as illustrator is a great option, from there it is possible to generate great contacts to publishers and authors. If you are in the situation of plunging into the freelance business, it might be a good advice to have some savings to cover at least a year without income or better have a spouse with a fixed income. The money you will make with your art is depending on how much you do, how good you market yourself and how you are perceived by others. If you are authentic, creative and original ,chances are good that after 3 years you can make a good living from the arts as it was in my case.

I hope these ways and tips are encouraging and helpful. IF there are any additional drawbacks that I have forgotten, let me know them in a comment and I´d like to provide a helpful answer.

Heavy Metal Thunder: Book Cover Painting Process

I realized that I didn´t post a painting process here in a while. Actually I have utilized tumblr as sketchbook for insights in my process, but sometimes it is better to show a process coherent as a whole. This isn´t a tutorial, but I try to explain as much as possible and if you have questions to any of the steps below, I´d be glad to answer them!

One very recent character-driven cover artwork I did was for Kyle Stiff and his Heavy Metal Thunder book. It is kind of a different story, because it is a 'choose your own adventure' styled book, but... you better read on Amazon what this genre or better said; the book is all about.


The title as also the description he gave me was all directing towards heavy metal, but mostly targeted at the physical representation.
The main character "Cromulus" is a mix of El Topo and Rasputin type of persona and a soldier, nicely packaged in a black-armor, equipped with pretty archaic weaponry and a jetpack on his lonesome journey through outer space.

1.) Character / armor concept

1.) The first rough draft was merely a concept sketch, an approach to find out in which direction I should go with the armor, weaponry and especially the jetpack design.

2.) Stance and jetpack studies

2.) The stance above is based on the idea that the cover should reflect the jetpack as much of a burden as it is a display of power. The sword and the gun are placed in a position that allows the eyes to flow into the image from the lower left corner, leading towards the title, back to the character and author name.

3.) Crop and sketch based on given specs.

3.1.) Eye-flow-plan

3.) The sketch I have done on pencil and paper was scanned into Photoshop. I used the polygon-lasso to select just the figure and placed it above a digitally sketched background. The aspect ratio used is a 6x8 format, which is quite good for later use as e-book which is around 600x800px, so that there is plenty of space above the character for typo. The idea that developed in this stage was, that he stands in front of a wall and on the left there is still space that shows the interior of a ruin / uninhabited spaceship.
3.1.) This is an Eye-flow-map (more info here), it is possible to engage a specific eye-flow with lines, contrasts and various other composition techniques, no one can guarantee that it works as intended, but it is always good to have a plan, instead of hoping the best for a good outcome.

4.) Scene sketch with typo

4.1.) Further developed scene with typo

4.-4.1) To see if there is enough space, I added the typo as a "mock-up" at this point, because now it is still possible to change anything. To get a better impression of the weight the font has and the image, I added some shading and contrast to the painting. Right now there are some flaws that show up, which were not that  visible before, such as the head size and the stance which looks more burden than powerful and his right arm that looks too short.

5.) roughly colored version

5.) In this stage, his right arm still looks weird, but now it haz color! I changed the stance and added a complete layer-group to add colors and some lighting effects. Custom-brushes were used at the bottom, lighting on the character was essential to show the coldness of outer space on the one side and some mysterious blood red on the right side. From a technical point of view; there is a color-layer-group behind the character for the background only, since I have separated the character from the background (like mentioned before). There is also another group of colors on top of the character, in step 5.) it consists only of lighting with red and blue (Check 7.1.) for the layer palette how this actually looks).

6.) This colored sketch shows the refinement as a whole

6.1.) This map shows the hot spots where the most work went into

6.-6.1.) These two images show where the most work went to refine the whole painting. We are getting closer but still: "way to go".

7.) This step shows my workspace which is a bit bigger than the actual image

7.1.) Cluttered layers in uncluttered groups

7.) This step shows a bit more of my workspace area, which is actually bigger than the image itself, for mixing colors, brush tests and temporary reference image placement. I always keep the character separated from the background, until the image is 90% done. So at this stage I have made a duplication of the character layer and made it about 20% darker, then I erased the parts that should stay brighter, to add depth and more contrast to the lighting, this is visible if you compare the version 8.) with 6.) .
7.1.) This shows my layer palette at this point, still a bit messy, I´m used to reduce layer groups, once they´re approved. To keep safety while working back and forth, I save different versions every now and then, so I can import a layer group from a previous version to go back if necessary.

8.) Added detail and color adjustments

8.) This piece shows the almost finished artwork, it is clear where the main work went; the face expression as also the details in background and the lighting from the sides, plus a vignette layer to change focus to the upper half of the work. But still, there are sime minor things that separates this from being a final work.

9.) Added fog, frozen blood and depth-of-field...

9.1.) Close up #1

9.1.) Close up #2

9.1.) Close up #3

9.1.) Close up #4

9.) Fog, frozen blood on the sword and depth of field to the background add the drama I was going for, another fancy effect are the various lights that are visible on the armor and jetpack, the i-tip is the black smoke on the gun, which is only visible in the version without typo.
9.1.) These are some close-up´s, pretty self-explanatory:)

10.) Final version of the cover art with typo

10.) This is the final version with typo, it shows that the font, bolt and the limited typo effects go well with the sci-fi theme.

 I hope you liked this digital painting walk-through, check out the others here and here too.
Comments are always welcome.