Friday, January 28, 2011

Old Cat got a facelift

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to talk about it, but anyways. A certain TV company asked me if they could use a piece of fanart I did on their blog.
While very flattered, I was also horrified, because the piece is 4 years old and just bad.

So I thought - I've got an evening sort of free, I could fix it. And I tried. And it couldn't be done. So I thought I could repaint it. So I did.

Man, colour is HARD! I just realized I spent a year doing almost nothing but black and white (greyscale to be precise). My colour is definitely stunted. I need to exercise more.

Anyways, here's the old picture (I warn you, it's baaad!)
http://merlkir.deviantart.com/art/Catelyn-Stark-47983434

here's the new one. It's all ArtRage, more squishy thick oils than usual, less washes of thinned paint for some reason.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Let's Read: The Artist's Way # 1

John Jude Palencar in his latest post on the Muddy Colors blog recommends a book, which is supposedly very good for removing artist blocks.

This book is The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.

http://www.theartistsway.com/

And voila, this book came out just last year translated into the Czech language!
(Czech readers may consider buying it, for example HERE.)
Let's read that for a while, I thought.

Disclaimer:  I do not wish to hurt anyone's feelings, I don't wish to say anyone's recommendation is not valid, I am merely writing down my impression.
This may become a longer series of posts, or not. We'll see. 


(I'll be quoting bits from the book and google tells me it's alright, under the Fair use thing. If someone (like the author, although I'd be surprised if she hunted every blogger writing about her book) thinks otherwise, just let me know!)


The foreword is promising. A bit new agey, throwing the words God and spirituality around a lot. Though the author admits it may be off-putting and that we should ignore them for our own benefit. That's fair I thought.
Lots of anecdotal evidence, which we may or may not choose to accept. (This copper pyramid totally cured my grandma's cousin's cancer!)


Minor sidenote - I found the Czech version of the book in a book shop focused on alternative medicine, shamanism, mysticism and similar nonsense. There is also a Czech version of the course, which sounds very suspicious and I wouldn't waste my money on it. Which says nothing about the book itself, perhaps rather about how people percieve it.


Ok, the first and main thing of this post are the


Basic Principles

(according to the author, one should read these every day and watch as his beliefs change. I'll comment on each principle separately.)
(English version of the principles copied from HERE.)

1) Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.

Comment: How do you know? So that I don't repeat this question all the time, I'll just presume this is what you came to believe based on personal experience and somehow put it in these words. First off, I have a huge problem with the LOAD of terms which are not defined in any way.
  • What's creativity?  "Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new (a product, a solution, a work of art etc.) that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs. What counts as "valuable" is similarly defined in a variety of ways." <-- says Wikipedia. Alright, one down.
  • What's natural? I think she means "how it's supposed to be (as nature/God/good flow intended)". We presume nature/whatever has intent and things are supposed to be somehow, but ok.
  • I can only assume you're not using the word "energy" in the scientific sense, because "life is energy" would not pass for an equation.
So, if I understand correctly, according to Julia Cameron, the process of living has a purpose and that is creativity.
OK, fair enough. I don't see any reason why it should be like that, but it's as good an answer as any. Also, 42.


2. There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life—including ourselves.

Comment: Wait, I thought life was pure creative energy. Are you saying the exact same thing, only adding that it's in ourselves too? Oh. Considering that we're alive, I would've kinda expected that. Alrighty!

3. When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity within us and our lives.

Comment: In the foreword it's kind of implied that there is a creator. Whatever you may think it is or isn't, voila! There is a creator. Let's call it the order of the universe - OOTU.
What this says - our creativity is creator's creativity, we're part of the Life. Alright.

4. We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.

Comment: Since it's previously implied there is a universal creator, this was expected. Still, I cringe at the thought. We're all creations? Eeeh, I don't think so. I wasn't sculpted, I grew from two joined cells. 
Again, we're told there is a purpose set for us and that is being creative. Since we were told that creativity is the purpose of all Life, it's hardly surprising.

5. Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God.

Comment: God gives gifts? Why? If it's our sole purpose in life to be creative, why should we be thankful to be creative? It's what we've been supposedly created for. That's like saying animals should be thankful for the opportunity to be butchered and eaten, because it's the purpose for which they're bred.

6. The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.

Comment: This implies an artist block is your own fault and as has been already established, is unnatural. Awesome. I'm sure self hatred and guilt are going to help.

7. When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: good orderly direction.

Comment:  This is principle #3. (a very minor addition suggests we can also explore creativity somehow)

8. As we open our creative channel to the creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.

Comment: This one is easing us into the idea of opening a channel (whatever it may be, again, we can only speculate. It's spiritual, I don't ask.) of creativity. Promises of many (positive word! Many good is good) gentle (gentle is good! especially if we're unsure of something) and powerful (this is no weak stuff, mate! powerful is good! Lose twenty pounds in three days!) changes. (change is scary, but if it's gentle yet powerful, I don't fear it)

9. It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.

Comment: The same promise as in #8, only adding gradual increase of coolness and safety.

10. Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.

Comment: The big guns are out now! "divine" = "of or pertaining to a god, esp. the Supreme Being." You don't come up with ideas, they come from God! But that's cool, because we all also come from OOTU. The more we're creative (but we're using the word "dream" - it's very positive and people like it. That's why it's in commercials so often), the closer we are to God/OOTU. And the more we fullfill our purpose in life, which is creativity. So, by doing it more, we're doing more what we're supposed to do. I see.

Summary: The author felt it necessary to make 10 of these principles. I can only guess it was in order to make it similar to the Christian set of rules. But as I'm reading through them, they could be summed up in a few sentences pretty easily. 
"All life (yes, even us!) comes from god and its purpose and meaning is Creation. By being creative, you'll fullfill your natural God-intended purpose and thus get closer to God! So it's alright to be creative, do it more! You'll become more creative and overall much more awesome, throw away your fears and self imposed blocks!"

See?
Do I need to say I don't agree? I find this "hypothesis" very artificial, based on nothing I could call evidence or reasoning. And so far, I don't think it's very helpful. "Be creative, it's ok! Srsly!" isn't exactly the groundbreaking advice I expected.

"How to use this book? There are a number of ways to use this book. Most of all, I invite you to use it creatively!" 
I'll end this superlong post with this delicious pun. Until next time! 

And be creative, 'cause it's OK! Really!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

My portfolio needs YOUR help!

I decided to do more colour paintings for the portfolio. I've been collecting reference - all kinds of colour paintings I might learn something useful from.

If you have a couple of minutes, please, post links to one or two fantasy book covers, RPG covers or just colour illustrations/paintings YOU think are awesome.

Thanks in advance!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Cheesy Whizard

New art, yay! It will probably change a bit before the book is out, I've got some good critique from the team.

Meet a "Wizard".("čaroděj" = magic+doer )
Wizards in DrD2 are masters of fire and wind. This one is pretty pissed and his salamander pets aren't happy either.
DrD is a multiclass system, so it's interesting to see how varied characters you can create - Wizard itself is a class you can take only if your combined levels in Fighter and Invoker give you 6 or more.

(Wizards do kinda focus on battle magic, hence the fighter levels. Invokers are your intuitive magic adepts - various fortune tellers, talent wielders, illusionists and so on.)



We'll be releasing examples of wizard characters and I really like them, so I translated the text:

Master Hanush
(Invoker 5, Fighter 1)

Master Hanush is a spellwright - he makes clouds of sparks float through the darkness and take shapes of ships or mythical creatures, for amusement of friends and children.
When the time comes to face the forces of darkness, his eyes erupt with flames, he flings enemies with a wave of the hand and burns their war machines with lightning inferno. And while he usually leans onto his walking staff to rest, he's able to use it in combat quite fiercely.

Mad Lavrisha
(Invoker 3, Fighter 3)

Lavrisha was born into a noble family, but her father drove her out because of her magical abilities. She had to learn to fight her way through life alone, because she hasn't yet found a man, who wouldn't be intimidated by her magic and fiery temper.
In battle she moves like a dancer - she uses two elegant bladed fans to hurl whirlwinds and fire tornadoes at her enemies.

BrotherTaran, Bane of Heretics
(Invoker 1, Fighter 5)

Born into slavery, Taran had to work with other kroll children in the quarry. His life changed when a commander of a religious order bought him from the slavers.
He became a devoted follower of the god who broke his shackles. The order's master of the sword trained him to become a paladin. Taran travels through the land, defends the weak and faithful and slays abominations and heretics.
His lance burns with the heavenly flame in battle with the hordes of evil and his warcry is a thunderstorm.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Watch out for the Russians!

Because I said I would, I'm making a list of Russian artists I +watch on DeviantArt.
Today on Facebook I boldly claimed that:

I find that Russian digital artists have something very Russian about them (the realistic controlled colour chaos of your favourite Repin and the icon-like ornamentalism of Bilibin) and also something linking them to the east and Asian - certain palette choices and boldness with sharp brushstrokes. Which is like - duh, they're Russian and they border with China. But it makes their work look very unique and I can tell an artist is a Russian if I see one on DA.

See if you can spot the similarity. ;)

Anry Nemo  - great character pieces, lots of crisp detail and clean PS work.

Andrey Maximov  - again, sharp clean PS style, from epic space opera to high fantasy.

Alex Aparin  - if you watch Paizo's Pathfinder products, you've seen Alex's work. Great colours, composition and pumping dynamism oozing out of every piece.

Julia Alekseeva  - I wish she posted more, it seems her DA is a bit abandoned. Crisp PS style, high fantasy mostly.

Pavel Spitsyn  - a great painter of historical and fantasy stuff. Lots of detail and attention to historical accuracy.

Marya Filatova  - an exception from all the crisp PS work, her pencil and watercolour portraits of elves have deep (I'd almost say eastern) grace and melancholy.

Olga Drebas - more crisp PS concept arty style, this time with interesting weirdness.

Marina Kleyman - more painterly fantasy, very firm grasp of colour, form and design. Slightly Paul Bonnery.

Viktor Titov  - very sharp and impactful scifi landscapes and fantasy book covers.

Elena aka "Hellstern"  - amazingly talented young artist and a very pretty lady. Can't get enough of her in any way. ;)

Nikolay Yeliseyev - fun and interesting concept art.

"SnowSkadi"  - another incredibly talented artist - dreamy architecture and landscapes and breathtaking horses.