This is for all you 2d artists and modellers. I want to know when you started drawing, and how you first get introduced to doing art on the computer? When did you realise that this was what you wanted to do? Also tell me your inspiration - what artists do you admire or look up to!
You can read my story on how I started doing game art in my profile (started on a 16 colour Commodore 64 with Koala Pad (must've been Australian made!), and I drew using a joystick!...
I remember drawing a picture when I was 4, although I may have started earlier than that. I think I drew a person walking along a footpath.
I've always drawn and in my classes at school I was usually 'the best drawer' guy. Most of my books were lined with doodles and whatnot. I did design at school as opposed to art as I wanted to focus on commercial skills and technical skills although I did art in my final year at school.
I've pretty much drawn all the time since I was young with heavy focus on characters for games from my teenage years. I figured someone out there was getting paid for it. So I practiced anatomy hard out and just did anything that I thought would be a good character for games with thought to what sort of gameplay mechanics they could offer.
At uni, I got a hold of the software and started colouring on the pc. Also used 3d Studio Max 2.5 and then went to the AIE the year after. I'm a design graduate, so at some stage I hope to merge the two disciplines.
Artists I admire:
Yoji Shinkawa - did the character and mech designs for the Metal Gear Solid series. What this guy does with a brushpen is amazing. It has a distinct look and personality to it which is probably what I admire most more than technical ability.
Alex Ross - love his work, so much personality as well as high level of realism.
Joe Madrueira - Love Battle Chasers to bits. Now that he's dissolved his game studio he should go back to it. Cool anatomy and great colouring from the Liquid! team.
Goseki Kojima - His work on Lone Wolf & Cub is excellent. With simple black and white his work oozes frenetic and frantic pace.
Capcom artists - Bengus and Akiman. Their work on the Streetfighter series (all) as well as the SNK artist are probably the biggest influence on my anatomical style.
Feng Zu - 'Nuff said.
There's a few more, but those are the main ones.
I started drawing when i was 5 years old coming from a family of artists.
My inspiration back then was DragonBall Z (Still owns any cartoon around [:)]) that is the reason i pretty much got into manga Artwork. Then it went onto high skool doing graphics artwork and during high skool was teaching other students how to draw manga....
In year 10 i started using 3D studio max 2.0 and photoshop then uni went off to doing interactive multimedia.... (but no 3D [:(]) Now i work for a multimedia company in melbourne doing cd-roms, websites and of course 3D animations and modelling.
All my 3d and drawing are all self taught which is the best way to learn [:)].
My Fave artists are :
Joe Madrueira = Yes also to me battle chasers !!!!.
Feng Zhu = just like jonathan said 'NUFF said'.
Musamone Shirow = Ghost in the shell creator (Freakin kick arse [:)])
Pascal Blanche = Don't have to explain... [:)]
Akira Toriyama = Obviously the best cartoon series in the world (DB, DBZ).Too bad he didnt do work on DB-GT *i think* [:(]
and many many more......
hope i didn't bore anyone....[:)]
My Mum was my heavy influence, and still is when she busts out a mad drawing. She used to do leather work and glass cutting too, and was heavily into art in High School. Draws great horses. (Yay Mum! @:-)
So yeah, I started drawing pretty early, and it's been the only constant (apart from gaming) in my life. Animation's cropped up from time to time, and I'm still in consideration of pursuing that as a career or not (or at least heavily extend my knowledge of it). Did Art through High School, bar a couple of years when I was taking Agriculture seriously. My first lot of digital art was done in Deluxe Paint on... I think it was my old Amstrad. Still have those pictures on a floppy somewhere down in Canberra. Will dig them up next time I'm down there. @:-)
Got my first graphics tablet around Year 10, I think. Huge thing used for CAD drawing (something like 16" x 12"). No pressure sensitivity and everything had cords, but I knew no better, so I was in heaven. Picked up a copy of 3DSMAX 3 in either '99 or 2000, taught myself with the aid of the Tutorials book. Old tablet wouldn't work after a complete system upgrade, so had to get my current Acecad Flair 5" x 3.75". Best year of learning was while at QANTM (yes, I heartily agree with all complaints of the course at that time, but for the few classes we did have, I soaked it in hugely. And with people around me to bounce art off, it was continually inspiring. Something I really miss.)
Which brings us to now, where I'm doing a Bachelor of Multimedia as I missed out on Fine Arts by one rank. I get along to Life Drawing every fortnight... and yeah. @:-P All that blah blah and now I have to list my influences.
Craig Mullins - I remember first seeing his art. I've learnt much from studying his work.
Andrew Jones - Not only did he work on Metroid Prime, but his daily self portraits continue to impress me, not only in the quality, but the dedication as well.
Leonardo da Vinci - Nuff said.
Dan Paladin - Character animation flows from him like... a really big... flowing thing.
And I'm sure I could go on forever, so I won't. @:-)
i never did art at school and wasnt interested in computers/digital art until late school.
started drawing (mostly strange hr giger styled stuff..) and filling up my school books instead of paying attention in class in grade 11. i remember i spent 1 whole day going from class to class drawing one really detailed peice that covered a whole page- went through about 6 red ball point pens :) (i had no pencils handy :))
started freelance graphic/web design in grade 11. then started 3d when i finished grade 12, 1? years ago. doing it ever since...
i get my inspiration from a lot of artists/movies etc...anything that jumps out :)
I used to draw a bit when I was little and went in a few comps, because of living in a small town this was easy and I kind of couldn't see how I could go much more into it and lost interest. At high school I did very little art (I didn't study it at all,) the only time I did any art was went someone in my year come back from the art room with something that was alright and I just had to top it to show off. Which was fun and was something people looked forward to.
Then because of my interest and getting into the games industry I program for game for all year 11 and half of year 12. Then I played with unreal ed and build some levels and found this a hell of a lot more fun. So I looked for a Uni course which did this shit and I found one in Bathurst at CS which was 4 years and was the first year it was going to be ran. I didn't like the sound of it because of that, then heard about the AIE and seen that there was people which has gotten into the game industry that way. I got a position at both places and went to the AIE.
2 years later I'm working in the industry.
I get my inspiration from a lot of artists/movies etc...anything that jumps out at me.
I remember drawing a really awesome picture in my notebook during a highschool maths class.. I was so focused on the drawing that I didn't notice my Maths teacher circling around me (and lecturing at the same time), until she reached my page, ripped it out, and scrunched it up.. while still continuing with her talk! Ahh.. that's what you get! [:)]
I can always remember drawing a lot.. then I got my first C64, and drew art with that. Then the Amiga.. I came across a 3D program called Imagine (it was released for free as a cover disk for Amiga Format, I think), but there wasn't much 3D you can do with an Amiga 500, with 1mbs of ram. [:)]
Me uncle got me into drawing. I rememba watching him wen i was like 5. He was in high school at the time winning award afta award for his drawing efforts. He was a hella good drawer, and he was the person who inspired me to pick up drawing. He would draw from alot of D&D s*** so i started doing the same. I was a young buck so i had no clu wat i was drawing, and my stuff didn't even come close, but what mattered was being persistent.
After that i drew all thru primary and high school. Either in class while listening to teachers (they would try and catch me out but it aint hard to hear and draw at the same time, so they just let me be) or id grab a rock or sum chalk and draw on the ground during lunch break. Teachers didn't have a problem with that either, cuz most of my s*** was tight so they would even leave it there most times.
I was a drawing finatic in my youth, i would draw on anything and everything. In church we'd get handouts, id draw on that. Excercise sheets in class, draw on that. Other mates ring binders, draw on that. Blackboard while waiting for teacher, draw on that. Table cloths at restaurants, draw on that. Pretty much anything i could put a pen too i would draw on, it just never stopped for me, i loved it. And it paid off, cuz just like my uncle i was winning awards for my s*** and i was like best drawer in high school by yr 9. Most of my teachers would get pissed and they'd try to put me down, saying i should be more attentive in class. Fair enuff my grades were subpar, but id rather draw then do homework and tests. My reason was that when i grew up i knew id be drawing so everything else came 2nd to that.
Most mermorable moment would have to be the yr6 school fete. Everyone was baking muffins and crackers etc for the fete. I couldn't bake or cook so i was strung. Then a mate suggested i draw up some pics and sell them at the fete. I told him to get stuffed cuz i was very sensitive about my work (which is probably why i drew like a madman.) But he insisted that i do it, so i thought what the heck. I drew up like 8 different images and photocopied different sizes. Poster size, postcard size etc. I put a different price on each size, the largest going for about 50 cent. Anyhoo, on the day of the fete, they sold like hot cakes! Even better then hot cakes because i had to go back and print more copies to sell. I was even selling it to teachers, which i thought was a blast. What's funny tho, is that over the years ive bumped into mates from back in the day and they still have the s*** i drew for them! that just makes me feel all fuzzy and warm inside.
Since i left school tho, things have changed, i draw alot less and my skills don't increase in leaps and bounds like they used to, but ill be leaving work soon so that will all change.
Anyhoo, my inspiration for art mainly comes from comics. Since i was 9 i been reading and learning from comic art. Lately tho (last 5 yrs) im not referring to them anymore because my processes are pretty solid now.
Sorry to carry on but u asked.
hmmm
well mine wasn't anything like some of the ones i read of you guys.
I somehow just got into it from a completely different feild gradually.
Get this i started out wanting to be a coder [:D]
I guess if i got back as far as i can it started with me being interested in writing.
My story is very complicated so i'll cut out the fat from here on.
I used to be very good at maths and science so it looked like that was where i was going. But then when my 6 grade teacher said we should write a story that i guess set me off. I can remember spedning adv maths in year 9 and 10 just writing fan fiction :)
Which i why i suck so much at maths in college. That and i didn't do any work but thats another story.
Anyways when i got an N64 i started playing games. Goldeneye got me into games not just to play them but interested in what goes into them. That led me down the programming route untill i, at some point read about the design aspects. Then i thought to myself i want to be a designer and also by year 12 i realised that i didn't have the expertise in the maths that i would never use to do coding at uni so i dropped that. I still have an interest in programming but i enjoy doing art more.
I went down the design route for a long time and got into art as a way of getting into design. The first peice of art that i can remember was a wallpaper jpg using paintshop pro :)
I actually got into the computer art before drawing. Mainly cause im not really good at drawing. I don't practise because i get so frustrated because i can't get what i want onto paper.
My love of writing also led me down the movies path and into direction and acting. The combination of those art and acting becomes 3d animation which is my strongest point. I would be doing acting if i thought i could make but my programmers logic thinking means i probably won't [:P]
as for inspiration. Countless anime directors and key animator directors. Essentailly anime is my inspiration in short.
Okay that may have been the woolworths version of no fat but hey. Thats my story in a not very coherent form and proably missing alot of key details.
I was in year 7 (High Shool N.S.W.) when I encountered a friend of mine drawing creatures that he had read about in the Dragon Warriors RPG. A conversation followed
Me: "What you doing?"
Him: "Drawing, Here (extends offer of pencil and paper) Draw"
Me: "But I can't Draw"
Him: "That doesn't matter"
So draw I did, a creature called a Deaths Head, it was crap (no surprise there) But I enjoyed making it so I kept drawing.
I decided I wanted to do it for a living when I was studying psych at UQ and I thought "this sucks I want to do art for a living" I have only been drawing with dedication (by this I mean drawing everyday give or take) for the last 3 years.
Artists I admire:
Brom, what that man can do with traditional media stuns the hell out of me
Frank Millers work on Sin City, Talk about emotion capturing, mood showing art.
Well thats me.
Pantmonger