Day 366 One year has passed - review

So guys. One year has passed and I decided i wanted to

make a review of what happened during that time.

I'll devide it in 3 Steps, which i think will show my progress.
And after that I'll show some Brand new stuff I've been working on.(Diploma Work excluded)

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So this is it for the paintings that lead up to what i'm doing now. Those were mostly studies but hopefully there is some Progress to be seen.

Now here are some of the more recent sketches/studies
I have to say they felt somewhat easy and fun compared to the Paintings I've done half a year back,
 yet they are still some little fun things I did on the side.

study from photo

In this progression I think you might see some evolution and how my technique is evolving,

but as always, I'm never quite satisfied with the things that I've got.

This now leads me to a rant about what happened this year and how my goals are progressing so stop reading here, it might get boring.

My goals were as follows:

1# To Create a stunning diploma, that I can be proud of and that could be sold with good consciousness. (The Work within that diploma is supposed to be my portfolio). 

2# To become super healthy and super fit. Which means that during these 800 days I want to do sports almost every day even if it is just 15 minutes of crunches and push-ups(weekends excluded). And to lose 25lbs for good, doing so.

3# To get a lot more organized and to work with more discipline.

Yea.

Some of it went well, and some of it didn't as much. But still I feel like a different man right now.

Rereading some of the posts I did back then, showed me what kind of a jackass I am.

I have gotten a lot better, BUT I see so many fundamental shortcomings, that I haven't a year back. I am more critical than ever before. especially concerning perspective and three-dimensional construction of objects. But knowing how much you suck and where your problems are, is the first step on the Road to improvement.
Speaking about Problems, my "art-problems" seem to be insignificant compared to other constant temptations and another shadow above me. I'm my own worst enemy. There is no one else keeping me down like myself.
For one year i've been working on my second goal on and off. Recent days have been especially lazy because i finally after a very long time finished my flat. And it is finally completely ready and tidy too.
This was kind of a big break for the third goal, but none the less it meant a lot of stress and dealing with it solo as I do, meant looking back for old ways to deal with those.
And Hell, I enjoyed playing them games, and Valve's Summer sales were really mean, as always tends to get out of Hand.
This showed me that I need some kind of compensation to maintain a balance in my life.
Sure Painting and working can be fun, but there also needs to be an end to it some time. Some time to breathe, to refuel. Making a great career in this industry means to be working hard every day until you have your big break. Doesn't it? Maybe. But maybe it doesn't.
I've been Asking myself, what comes After my 800 Days of struggling. And I realized that it will never end unless I decide to. I asked myself what it was, that I wanted. What exactly is it that I want. And when i came to the root of it all it felt mundane.
I couldn't give a clear answer what my Dream was, and I realized I've been asked before.
It hit me. I couldn't specify anything about the job i'm running for. I've been moved into this spot by people who told me, that I was good at doing what I do. I've learned so much, and one of those things is that everyone can learn everything, if they really want. There have been plenty opportunities in my life. But it could be, that my course changes again. I love painting and the life that i'm able to live right now.
I'll keep on improving myself walking this path, but with a more open mind then ever before, looking for new Opportunities and Dreams.

Cheers,
have a great one  :)  

340

Holy shit...
It's been to long.
I'm such a lazy piece of shit, so lets start to get back on track slowly.

I failed, I hit the Games again... at least now i feel like i can do some work again.
felt a little burnt out, the design Academy work just keeps turning my switch of.
So that's it for my petty excuses. There will be more of me again now, that there are holidays again. 

Have a great one guys 

300

Hi guys,

It's been a while. Right now i'm doing a lot of storyboards i re-read the the story and now i'm planing out the guidelines for my Diploma. So basically the only things i do right now are thumbnails, design sketches, storyboards and the bigger part of the construction brain-work. I've even made some sort of battle-plan, on how I intend to approach the work.

So about those sketches, they were mostly for fun. The Mech-suit designs are still somewhat unrefined. The Mechs on top, were done with some design background in mind and might even be an early stage of the designs, i'm running with for the project. The bottom one however was just some random custom-brush-inspired speed-painting thing. I didn't spent more than 2 hours on either of them.

Those are the things i enjoy most at the moment. I found this thumbnail and storyboard stuff to be hard work. It might somehow be connected to the fear of the white page thing, where u stare at the blank page just reflecting whats going on inside your brain... nothing.
Well, well, I know this is not much, but really uploading all those storyboards and little studies and Brushpen sketches would take some insane amount of time, as they are piling up toward 20 A3 pages already, excluding the digital stuff. Maybe later when i can filter the really bad ones out. :D

Have a great one guys,

Always yours <3

Day 278

Hey Guys not much to say now...
These were all some fun doodles in between. I really love experimenting, the robot is the result of some fancy techniques i picked up and mixed from various great artists like Anthony Jones, Feng Zhu and recently the great Scott Robertson.
Now that i try to save as much time as possible it appears that the right technique at the right place can save a lot of time, pain and work. There is still many a pointless brushstroke in there, but to get this result within 2 and a half hours makes me happy, when I compare it to the stuff, I did just half a year ago.
Yes, Yes it still sucks I know, especially because there is like no real perspective, except from the atmospheric one, but i'm happy it sucks a little less than before.

Have a nice week guys

regards :)
Michael

Day 259

Hey there.
Its been a few days again.
I've got Vacation now, and i'm trying to get as much done as possible.
So, I've finally started to work on my Diploma and this feels like a huge mountain of Work to climb, even with 541 Days to go. I have figured out a lot of stuff lately, concerning my philosophies.
Having this wonderful isolation again where almost nobody disturbs me is sometimes heavy and yet you get to a deeper level with yourself.

My diploma has a big part Sci-fi in it. Too bad that Sci-fi involves stuff i don'T usually do to often...
like environments and other stuff that requires a lot of perspective knowledge.
The past two weeks I've been fighting with Spaceships, and well the digital line-art still kinda sucks, (probably because I'm to impatient with it) but I've managed to find an approach i'm very happy with.
I use alchemy for inspiration, loosely paint over that in PS and establish my perspective on that sketch, after that i design and render it out. I've got some cool results with that method.
Well sorry for not showing them, but I can't show you stuff from my diploma yet. However, in between time, I'm still doing some little drawing games, figure and Head studies to not get rusty doing them. Here are some.

Have a great one.

248 "the Mill" study

Rembrandt(The Mill) master study

This is the first of a series of landscape / environment studies i'm going to do...
the past week was kinda weak. Easter and stuff...
So yea, I'm doing some environments now, because I'm really weak when it comes to them.. so in those I'll try to focus on and learn about lighting and color. I think, I learned a lot from Rembrandt today. Now I hope to pick up the pace and do more.

have a great one bb

day 238

So sorry for not posting...

Tried to get something done for the bloodsport 13 but that didn't work out...
So Now i'm having fun with stuff.  :)
Enjoy!

these are only some animal inspired design ideas I'm probably going to do some more of these. they were so much fun...
have a great one.