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numinousprime

Jared
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Going to start on Friday. 9 weeks of assignments. Wish me luck!
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To the pseudo-editor who, a long while ago during a joke of a portfolio review, told me that I'm "not a 'Superhero' artist - some are, some aren't". . .

SUCK IT.

Kick ass work soon to come.
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One of the cons of being self-taught is that it's all trial and error. It's easy to miss and struggle with some very obvious things. I do wish I'd had the opportunity to learn from a professional illustrator. It's difficult to get certain processes and techniques into your own head without someone repeatedly impressing those upon you.

For instance: It's utterly imperative that, when creating a character, you decide on a real person to base the character on. It's also imperative to sketch that person from at least a few angles. There are nuances - facial and body structures, expressions and postures, that simply cannot be pulled solely from your imagination. After a lot of experience, maybe it's possible to pull solely from your imagination, but, even so, it's still best to pull from reality. This is all so obvious, but, being self-taught, it's a step that I've given little attention to. And, HONESTLY, it's not mentioned in any of the books that I have! And I have quite a few! The best resource I've found on this is on Scott McDaniel's website - he has a ton of free and useful information for aspiring artists.

A few years ago, I took time off of work and was determined to finish a six page Spider-Man submission. I spent literally months trying to come up with Peter Parker  - entirely from my head, because a) I was LAZY, b) I couldn't settle on an actor to reference, and c) I was concerned that using reference would make my work look boring and static. The result was that ALL of my faces not only didn't look like Peter Parker, but they looked awkward and alien.

So, if you're an idiot like me, get rid of your ego and get some damned reference - especially for character faces!  Don't hide behind your artistic influences - especially anime/manga!  And don't worry about losing your 'style' by learning from reference. It can only enhance your work if you use it correctly.
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Unemployment!

2 min read
Have some time to kill before I head to Best Buy to pick up Keane's new album. They're one of a few bands that inspire me to get out of bed in the morning and create.

In a way, I feel like I've won the lottery. My company merged with another, and my  division is being shut down. We're now on 60 day notice - our last day being in early November.  I've been to work all of a few hours in the past four weeks. It will be another four weeks before the 60 day notice is up - and I get severance for another five. After that, I get unemployment benefits.

All of this adds up to more time than I've ever imagined I'd have to work on my portfolio without having a day job to kill my energy.

I'm really anxious about starting. I've been pretty much goofing off for the past four weeks - but God knows I've needed it.

But, really, there's no reason to be anxious.  Soon, the DA posts will resume, and I'll be on my way. Art is a strange thing. The more you work on it, the more you want to work on it. The less you work in it, the more anxious you get, and the less time you spend with it.

I'm going to try not to expect anything out of the next few months. Just going to enjoy myself. Learn to have fun with my work.
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Ordered these a few days ago. Already got them in the mail from across country. So, to start, this company is efficient.

So far, for my tastes and purposes, this is a great and professional quality pre-ruled board.

- Bright white

- Smooth but with a slight tooth

- Can handle erasure and reworking

- Finely printed bluelines

- Very inexpensive - $17 for 15 sheets - shipping included

- Similar to Seth Cole smooth in brightness and tooth

It's easier to get a clean line out of these compared to the Canson Comic Boards.


Overall, these are great. I can see why EON has been around for so long (ten years or so?).


I also got some foam board today to put under my pages. It provides a nice cushion to keep the lead holder leads from digging into the page. I find that I can more easily use an H lead this way - it ends up feeling as smooth as an HB, but without all of the excess graphite.
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Alvin Lee's Schoolism Course by numinousprime, journal

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Unemployment! by numinousprime, journal

EON Comic Art Boards by numinousprime, journal