#how to get a job in concept art

[asteraws]

mister temothy himself 📚💸🪓

[moeblob]

I unfortunately picked up Bravely Default 2 again (I bought it back when it released) and then started over since I last played it in June 2021. And. You know what. I like these silly beans. And then I saw concept art for Dag's expressions and I am not the same. Why did they decide to give him huge fangs in it.

(also I'm trying so hard to avoid spoilers less for plot but more for characters so if you know anything that happens to characters shhhhh. also the expression concept is below the read more so you can see what I mean.)

[rileys-battlecats]

i really gotta get better about listening to my own brain and needs when i'm making things. i've been working on a video and i'm almost finished (yippee!!), but drawing this One Specific Frame was giving me trouble. i could have just brute-forced my way through it and finalized the initial sketch, since it was relatively good enough. but instead i left it and took a day off from working on the project, let myself recharge, and came back to the sketch with fresh eyes today. and what do you know, my redrawn sketch today is WAY better! now, i can finalize that frame and be genuinely proud of it, instead of just powering through on something i was less than happy with.

i hadn't done any other art stuff that day when i couldn't get my sketches to look right, so letting myself stop and have a break from the project felt sort of "unearned" i guess. but it's just. what i needed! and the break did what i needed it to do; i was able to come back later and make something i could be proud of.

anyway i guess this is me saying that, if you're like me and have this weird morality-complex about letting yourself rest, it's ok to take breaks, even if you feel like you haven't "earned" one yet :)

[lemongogo]

can i ask.how u guys practice ur creativity <3 how u practice ur imagination or like.. how u experiment with ur art, how u come to ideas and how u develop them.<3 pretty please <3

[funkle420]

a great way to combat genAI in the future would be educating kids (and teens and college students and all ppl) on art way more.

[sskk-manifesto]

Ep 5!!!

[penguin--person]

played isat for the first time!!!:) i like it, its nice :]

[codeandcanvas]

A note from “Getting real with Timothée Mathon”

“About Artstation, I see that like it’s Instagram for art. Like, you see on Instagram the body shapes and the lifestyle that you see on the front page of Instagram? It’s not the norm–it’s not even what is recommended, for a lot of people. It’s just what a lot of people like to consume. And it’s the same for Artstation: what you see on the front page of Artstation, even when you log off and just have the Artstation–not the thing curated to you–the Artstation selection, it’s not what the industry needs, it’s not what the industry has done, even when there’s a logo from a game because it’s just a curated version of that, they never show the crappy sketches.

Because on(sic) an investment standpoint, an investor (who) will see the sketches will not have the eye, and will be like ‘ok, you(r) artists are garbage, what the hell is happening righ there?’.

So, they want to show the sexy stuff, and this is just what people like to consume and press like on, and the algorithm wanting you to stay for as long as possible, just like any other social media, rewards that.

And what you see on the front page you might think it’s good, it’s the norm. For some people, it’s very good, of course.

But this is not what the industry needs.”

I put this interview on during my study of Kapitzki’s “Programmiertes Gestalten”, which I am glad to say I now have two in my possession, temporarily, and the thought kept crossing my mind, that what I am currently doing, is taking a workation to work on the things which are the junior level designer tasks: the things which Feng Zhu calls people out for calling them “easy”.

The quote above can be found at around https://youtu.be/jzJodyjVlls?si=tdMePvTb4hPMHt95&t=2423 but I would listen to it in context if I were you. Also, as a bonus, here is the video Mathon and Neill talk about, from Zhu:

As someone who is interested in freelance work, I am especially interested in everything which backs me up in my need to rebuild and cement my design foundation from my graphic design study, well above passing grades.

Because it is not about passing. It is about becoming so good, that all of the work becomes play again.

[none-tadashi-left-hiro]

It's like....m my voice and my actions have the power to influence things.... But yet something always stays the same.... And to what extent does it change things..... Is there ever positive everlasting change from any of my actions......... What am I doing all of this forrrr who am I doing it for.......

[feldsparite]

wip. sandile cockblock.

[shanedoesdoodles]

Godzilla Oil Eel Thing and the Civilization that lives in its stomach(s)

[un-local]

Opened da vinci video editor for the first time in forever. Remaking my first video as a gift to myself

I might share it, I think some of you may like it :3

[lighteraryloredump]

Took some time to clean up a couple shots from some old storyboards and turn them into story beat illustrations. They're fairly simple, but it was really fun to give myself the chance to revisit this story and characters again :) I have been thinking a lot lately about writing & illustrating a comic and I have always conceptualized this story as being in comic form one day, so there's a good chance you'll see more of these guys !

[hmsmilkbone]

I quit my 'job' (I don't think you can even call it that.) I was doing character concepts for a little mobile game, and it became increasingly clear that I was the weakest contributing member.

I'm not really sure what to do. I have been so afraid for so long that I'm not even really living my life. I don't push myself or try harder. I get scared and avoid things, and now I am a shit artist and a shitty person.

With ai and the entry level work so polished, I don't think I'll ever get anywhere. I should probably quit and get a real job, but it hurts my heart. I think I could probably put in the effort and improve, but I'm too much of a loser and a coward. And I guess that's ok with me because I'm not doing anything about it. I wish I was a different person, but I choose to be a failure, and this is the consequence. Idk what to do. I could choose to improve and move forward, but it feels like there's no point.

[dynasmyth]

How does one get a job in the art industry? As a concept artist or a storyboarder or a colorist? Or just anything?

[elodieunderglass]

hi! i was just wondering if you’re getting a piece of this pie. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/voidrealmminis/rise-of-the-eldertubbies?ref=profile_saved_projects_live

Oh my goodness! Haha thanks for showing me! And no, of course, this guy is still selling my dream while claiming it’s totally nothing to do with me. I hadn’t heard about it so thank you.

For those just joining us, here is the saga of the elder teletubbies:

1. in 2017 I posted a dream I had on Tumblr. In the dream I discovered that the childish teletubbies shown on BBC’s Teletubbies are merely the children of a species that grows up to be forest cryptids as adults. The post contained a detailed character description explaining how the children’s simple antennae become more complex antlers; their coats become thicker hair; their eldritch screens are unknowable; here, look:

The adult Teletubbies have more branching, complex antlers and shaggy coats. They are less brightly coloured. They are terrifyingly large. Their strangely human faces, emerging from the thick fur, are unquestionably adult; remote, serene, reproachful. Their television screens are glitchy, esoteric and unknowable. They are cryptids whose public exploitation has undermined their rarity and their strange, alien dignity.

That’s a pretty clear description.

2. The post quickly gained attention and many people drew art, made sculptures, designed in-depth character concepts, and even made DnD character sheets and entries with detailed notes. It was 2017. The post got over 90k notes. It had an extremely clear description of the cryptid in it. This wasn’t at all obscure.

3. The post and four pieces of the concept art, including the first piece by were screencapped and posted on r/tumblr. The post included this art by the now-deactivated @finoliatav which is, I think, the first piece of art. Most screencaps don’t show that it’s animated! Once you see it you can no longer pretend that any more work needs to be done in designing these characters, really - they’re all variations on a very clear theme.

4. A guy called Jars started drawing the BBC Teletubbies as adult Teletubbies. He noted on Reddit that his inspiration for the first one was the r/tumblr post but after that, he considered it entirely his own creative work. He drew each of the 4 BBC Teletubbies as adults using my character description and wrote a little story about how his character had stumbled upon them in the woods. He’s a good artist and his work went viral on Reddit and instagram. Those places being separate from Tumblr by the walls of the enclosure, they quickly believed the Jars was being highly original and praised him for it.

5. jars got carried away by his fame and started merchandising for all he’s worth. He’s selling elder teletubbies placemats. He got a collaborator to help him make and sell plushies.

6. Plushies of my character design applied to BBC characters. Jars sells them. To people. Who buy them. He sells these.

7. I think this is like… his job.

8. It has been years of this. I don’t think he has actually come up with anything else to sell by himself. But given that he now has millions upon millions of views on platforms I don’t use, let alone dominate (Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, TikTok) he seems to have fully subscribed to the idea that this is his THING.

9. After a while I wrote him a friendly email expressing that since my original dream was very much about discomfort with how the teletubbies were being exploited, I didn’t mind him selling his own art but that I wasn’t happy with him selling plushes based on my writing.

10. He wrote back along the lines of it all being his original intellectual property and absolutely nothing to do with me, etc, so jog on and don’t interfere.

11. I’m not entirely sure where the original intellectual property is when taking BBC characters and drawing them according to someone else’s detailed description of how to “evolve” them (branching antlers, shaggy coats, eldritch screens, serene adult human faces) especially having drawn them after seeing four separate detailed reference photos to base your own drawings on; especially when they’re the existing BBC characters from the show and not even your own. Like, Jars, you were given an entire detailed brief, several sets of references, an entire concept and a television show: the only artistic choices made here were to pick up your own personal pen and do the drawing. You have never deviated from my description, which you did not come up with yourself in any way. But okay Jars. You did some real intellectual heavy lifting here, this is Intellectual Property suddenly, and I guess this is your day job!

12. I myself actually have a day job, am capable of generating lots of other original material just for funsies, have never asked you guys for money, and I’m not generally huge jerk I don’t think. Also, I’m uncomfortable but have never been clear on how to stop him - I don’t think I can. So I don’t do much about this, apart from occasionally scream with hilarity with you guys about it.

13. Like this is the opposite of Goncharov. This is a guy making his wage on a 2017 tumblr collaborative shitpost insisting that this is the beautiful fruit of his only brain. And millions of people believe him.

14. There are now YouTube documentaries with millions of views and TikTok lore about Jars, and his lore, the Elder Teletubbies, which apparently he invented. People are making their wage talking about the history of Jars and his teletubbies lore. These documentaries are, if you can’t tell, not especially well-researched, as it is not difficult to find the original elder teletubbies art on the internet, which is all timestamped. Occasionally hilarious people from Tumblr point this out in the comments (thank you, you guys are hilarious) but the juggernaut is unstoppable!

15. Jars is now, apparently, doing a kickstarter to raise money for some kind of DnD sheets using the grown up BBC teletubbies.

16. I will point out that tumblr made and played with DnD teletubbies in 2017 for free and nobody had to pay $3000, but again. The juggernaut is unstoppable.

I have never, ever known what to do about this guy.

I have always been open to advice but genuinely never been able to articulate how it “damages” me, apart from ethical discomfort about how much I hate my writing being monetised by other people, especially when it was about my discomfort with exploitation. The juggernaut is unstoppable though. He fully intends to get thousands of dollars from this. He almost certainly will!