watercolor and artwork

[hisko]

Very nice brush strokes and color mixing. Are you satisfied enough to drop painting your backgrounds on real canvases from now on?

Thanks, I didn't expect that you would like it.
No, I won't drop real paint!! Real paint is really more satisfactory because of the brushstrokes, and the fact that there's an original object. Something that's unique and doesn't consist only of zero's and one's.
But I hope that I can turn this digital painting into money.
I'm not interested in money as an endgoal, but making storyboards for commercials already gives me so much financial freedom that I can do whatever I want (films, comics, paintings) without the need to make money with my animation, as you and Bill Plympton do.
You both do that very well, but you have a style that allows fast work, and my style is more elaborate unfortunately.
I hope that digital painting will lead to well paid commercial work. I make storyboards for commercials one day a week and that pays all my bills. It's terrible work, I have to say. And I will die at least one year earlier than planned because of the stress.

[ZigOtto]

nice self-portrait, indeed!
I have a title : "shiny nose in a warm light"
btw, your lighting is very special, did you use a short reading lamp ?

[hisko]

btw, your lighting is very special, did you use a short reading lamp ?

In the picture there are two lightsources, one from above (just a spot on the ceiling) and a second that comes from right and underneath, I made this lightsource up to make the picture more interesting.
I'm not saying that this portrait is good, particularly because it only looks like me a little bit.
But what helped me make up the second lightsource, is that I use clayheads for my animated film and put spots on them to see how I have to paint the shadows on the characters. That gives great inside in what light does, even though the clayheads are 'charicatures' (not really, but there are exaggerations)

[Klaus Hoefs]

But I hope that I can turn this digital painting into money.

Although I wish you would, I think there's no chance concerning the art scene, but in the illustration field there may be.
As one of my gallery owner said, the art market (= the art collectors) won't except digital paintings, they are longing for originals and for "feeling the material", so it is even with photographs (which took them art dealers a long time to establish in the art market).
I like your digital painting, but in fact it is connecting to the well known Baroque period (the light/dark areas...) that way that one has to ask why it is digital and referring to classic art ?
Digital Art is more excepted with a strong conceptual background, like Jared Tarbell, David Hermes or Keith Peters with their generic (=math) digital drawings and paintings have.
Recently I visited the ZKM Karlsruhe (Museum, Center for Art and Media http://on1.zkm.de/zkm/e/) again. If going round there it is all pretty clear.
Another example for Pixel Art is Manfred Stumpf, doing such static pictures. Oddly enough, if it comes to animation or video art this is very different and much more excepted, have a look at Kentridge, who is a good example, because he is also selling his rather traditional static charcoal drawings (material !) in big formats very well.

[hisko]

I like your digital painting, but in fact it is connecting to the well known Baroque period (the light/dark areas...) that way that one has to ask why it is digital and referring to classic art ?

Yes, you are right. But it was just an exercise really. A way to find out what can be done with the new fantastic brushes that ASAF (Malcooning) will probably upload pretty soon.
And with paid digital paintingwork I'm not talking about art, but more about commercial storyboard work and artwork for games (which I know absolutely nothing about, allthough I own a playstation 3 that I only use to play blu-ray films for my beamer).
If I would go back to ''artpainting', I will definitely use oilpaint, because it gives the most depth.

[Klaus Hoefs]

I have some friends here doing storyboarding for earning a living (and they also have families). Over years they have made the right connections and now they doing their jobs for German TV and for some animation studios. They say that this work (e.g.) for some early evening soap doesn't touch soul that much, but it's the other way with the games industry.
As a texture designer or as a character designer it seems that it will eat you alive. I've seen people being drowned with zBrush, UV-Mapping, Max and Maya loosing everything else.

[hisko]

As a texture designer or as a character designer it seems that it will eat you alive. I've seen people being drowned with zBrush, UV-Mapping, Max and Maya loosing everything else.

Yes, but I mean something else. Right now I make storyboards and sketches for commercials and other stuff one day a week, in a bright and 'happy' style that I don't like so much and that leaves me feeling empty and worn out once a week.
When I'm talking about games, I am only talking about sketches for development etc. which allows me to work more dramatic than in the toiletpaperbusiness.

A good example of this conceptart (they don't mean Joseph Beuys) is this:

www.goodbrush.com

Like it or hate it, this guy makes 30.000 dollar a week (at least that's what I heard, good be 30.000 a month which is very fine with me too).

[Klaus Hoefs]

To be honest, awful paintings (imo) - bloodless and heartless manufactures: just right for the games industry.
Although I know many animators who would be happy to earn 30.000 $ p.a. ; net.

But it seems that everybody has to go through "money or soul" (or maybe "money and soul") by his own.
With advancing years you look at this very different. Maybe because you realize that you only have this one life.

[hisko]

To be honest, awful paintings (imo) - bloodless and heartless manufactures: just right for the games industry.
Although I know many animators who would be happy to earn 30.000 $ p.a. ; net.

But it seems that everybody has to go through "money or soul" (or maybe "money and soul") by his own.
With advancing years you look at this very different. Maybe because you realize that you only have this one life.

Well, I think I resolved the money or soul dilemma. 4 days a month money(commercial work), leaves 26 days of soul (animation and comics).
I just looked at some games that have been developed here in the Netherlands, like Killzone, and being a strict non-gamer I am really shocked by the fascist undertone.
Very nice to have whole generations grow up living this shit....
Hmmmm, maybe I should stick to promoting toiletpaper.

[malcooning]

To be honest, awful paintings (imo) - bloodless and heartless manufactures: just right for the games industry.
Although I know many animators who would be happy to earn 30.000 $ p.a. ; net.

But it seems that everybody has to go through "money or soul" (or maybe "money and soul") by his own.
With advancing years you look at this very different. Maybe because you realize that you only have this one life.

I'm with you Klaus.
Obviously such sums of wage are very appealing - and I would choose this path too, but it demands investing time, effort, and, well, some degree of passion in that direction, because $30,000 a month don't come to lazy people. I believe that people who draw like that (who work for the gaming industry) are mostly passionate about it. the examples above were done definitely with passion. It's all matter of tastes, and there are gazillion artists out there find the art that is associated with the gaming industry very tasteful. so these people can be quite happy - they are passionate about something that has a highly economical potential.

But if your whims constantly send you on personal quests of forms of expression, you are probably bound to keep to the lower end of the incomes spectrum.

I would most likely take a job if it offered me $30,000 PCM, knowing that by accepting it I consent to very big compromises - compromises in the field that Is the dearest to me - the one that is my personal talent, and the one which I hope to never ever out burn.

[Paul Fierlinger]

There's a middle road too. All my career in advertising I drew in my own style. Granted, I lost out on some big accounts because I created a reputation for myself as being an "artsie" animator good only for a narrowly defined type of product. But this position generated enough jobs to raise a family with 2 kids and equip myself with a complete animation studio just for my use. I managed to maintain a fair amount of soul working this way, but it was far from perfect; I had to take a lot of crap too. But looking back on it, it wasn't all that bad.

My most common clients were bank commercials and high-end consumer goods such as expensive vacations or automobiles and expensive social services such as private health care. But I have done a few McDonald spots too, but that was rare for me.

I got a tremendous bonus from this commercial period though, which spanned at least 70 % of my career, and that is it taught me economical storytelling which I am fully applying to my current projects. Almost everything I have been successful with in recent years I can easily trace back and credit to my commercial work. Commercials are the best storytelling labs.

[malcooning]

The brushes Hisko was talking about can now be found here.

[hisko]

Obviously such sums of wage are very appealing - and I would choose this path too, but it demands investing time, effort, and, well, some degree of passion in that direction, because $30,000 a month don't come to lazy people. I believe that people who draw like that (who work for the gaming industry) are mostly passionate about it. t

I'm quite sure that you got it wrong.
As I said before, I do very well paid storyboards and visuals for commercials and at the same time I hate commercials (with the exception of a few). It's just an income. Some people go work in a copyshop, others live on beans and rice.
This kind of work is possible to do if one has the technical skills for it. It has nothing to do with taste. I put my taste into my own work.