Summer studies

Figured I should probably post some work by now. Before I came to Leicester I had a pretty productive gap year working on my fundamentals and digital painting. I knew I would be bogged down with other things to do once I came here, so I didn't want to let up on the chance to work on my skills alone for a whole 12 months.

Here's some relatively recent studies from over summer, references taken from mjranum-stock and characterdesigns.com.

I think if you want to be a concept artist badly enough you can't look at it like any standard 'job'. Its got to be something you really want to do. If you're emotionally invested in your work then you'll probably be more inclined to keep progressing yourself. I crave drawing, so I do a lot of it, although if I'm really honest with myself probably not as much as I know I could be doing, especially now that I'm at university. There's always some degree of resistance.

Anyway, here's some more studies. Composition and value studies from old masters. There's Zorn, Bouguereau, Sargent and a Frazetta in there :) These were done on a small scale, probably no longer than 20 minutes each.

...and more figure work, focusing on values and rendering. The references are from mjranum-stock on Deviantart.

I'll go with this for now. Loads more studies and personal work to put up here but I'll probably stream it out gradually in the next few weeks rather than drop everything into a single post.
Cheers!

Introduction

Hey! I guess I'll start my blog with a brief introduction regarding myself and my background. If you didn't gather from the blog title already, my name is Joe! I'm from a town called Leigh which is based in Manchester, England, however I am currently residing in Leicester where I am studying Game Art Design at De Montfort University.

To be honest I'm not much of a gamer, although I've had a passion for drawing probably for as long as I've been able to hold a pencil. My long term goal is to eventually land a career in the games industry as a concept artist designing characters, creatures, environments and maybe even painting full illustrations for marketing and covers, which is all quite typical of someone who might like games and art. While 2D art is where my main interests lie, I fully understand that to remain relevant and survive as an artist in the games industry one must also have proficient knowledge in 3D modelling, which I am currently learning. Realistically, I doubt I'll be able to enter the industry as a concept artist to begin with, so I chose to study on this course as it focuses not solely on 2D or 3D but on becoming a better and more proficient games artist all round. For this reason, and with all the industry links available, I see this course as a really viable way to get my foot in the door.
 
Over the next three years I'll be using this blog to record all of my achievements, failures and creative endeavors during my time studying at De Montfort. So, please feel free to follow along and watch as I hack and slash my way through hours of torment and sacrifice to achieve my goals. Who knows? with a little luck and a lot of hard work I might even land myself a job! :)