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JamesLedgerConcepts — Power Plant
Published: 2012-03-18 04:03:07 +0000 UTC; Views: 14818; Favourites: 511; Downloads: 584
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Description
Took about four hours to do. Completely painted in Photoshop. This image is a personal project, so doesn't belong to anyone else, i.e. a client. The nonexclusive rights to this image is £5.Default round brush, flattened. Took some inspiration from the new Sparth book - Structura 2.
The image represents a power plant based in the cold mountains. The few staff that work there live on Pot Noodles.
To create a similar image (with no revisions) would cost about £50 ($80).
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Comments: 112
You're very welcome James!
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This is very nice. I like how the blue is the dominant color, with only a little dark orange added in for flavor. So much artists these days go overboard with using lots of blue and orange together, which IMAO doesn't look nearly as good. (In My Arrogant Opinion.) It's really impressive that you did this in only four hours. It takes me four hours to draw a stick figure that doesn't look like guano.
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That is very kind of you to say! I am trying to speed things up as much as poss. It normally takes me a long time too. I have to practice 16 hours a day minimum or everything takes days and days to complete.
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Very nice work! I really like the way you developed the atmosphere of the piece.
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Cheers loads CI!
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You're welcome!
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Hmm, that's some pretty interesting artwork. I like the 'line' feel of it.
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Many thanks SS!
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The lights look like eyes staring back at me. Have you talked to Steve Burg about your awesome artwork?
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Darn - I totally forgot - will do it tomorrow for sure - if you check back in I'll let you know what he says.
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Contacted Steve - waiting on reply..!
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He gave some good advice about how difficult it is to get work and maybe to pursue a different direction i.e. look into new forms of media to work with. He suggested getting any kind of job rather than focusing on just concept art i.e. a non-art related job if needs be for the time being. Because of the trends and difficulties in the business it is more important to get an income, rather than be selective about the type of career etc.
From what employers are saying, it is my location that is the major problem. I live no where near a games/film/studio. Telecommunication jobs are notoriously poorly paid (I get about $50 for a 5 days job) and in most cases I am contacted by very odd, vague people that dissapear after initial contact, then reappear 6 months later. So dodgy.
Telecommunication work is definitely 100% risky so I have stopped responding to any new 'clients', or 'opportunities' regardless of the content of their emails as it is most likely fake and they are working on something completely different or have absolutely no money whatsoever anyway. It is a complete waste of time and is of no benefit to any artist.
I have also stopped applying for jobs too, as I have no qualifications, experience and I live too far away from any studios anyway. Most studios are based in the USA and I have no chance of obtaining a visa.
Most studios in the UK have told me that they rarely advertise for any kind of 2d artists as the jobs are filled months or even years in advance, due to their popularity.
To be successful at all, I would have to move near a studio and spend about 5 years doing voluntary work in a studio and get a number of serious formal qualifications. I have applied for a massive number of jobs so far, through all means of contact i.e. phoning/emailing companies direct, emailing, sending CV's, agencies, agents, the list goes on. I have received replies from about 1 or 2% of those attempts to tell me I couldn't even be considered with such low experience.
I have also had my email hacked 2 times as a result of contacting online agencies, which is very destructive.
Like in most trades, it's not about the artists ability or skills at 'thinking outside the box', it's about who you know, where you live and how long your parents can support you while you earn no money chasing a dream, unfortunately (I have no parents, so no handouts).
I could draw amazing pictures all day and get better and better, but it won't do me any favors at all towards getting a career as an artist. Most employers are not concerned with the 'port folio' as it is the 'CV' that is most important to them initially. I am going to have to get a regular non-art day job now anyway as I have exhausted all means of getting a job in art and the months keep rolling on with absolutely no income coming in at all. I will just keep my art to a hobby for now as it is less stressful and easier to accept. Obviously if something tempting turns up it could all change but I seriously don't see how that can happen when I live here in Bristol, UK and not California.
Cheers for your suggestion though Archer - I will update my journal if anything exciting changes!!
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Wow, I never realized how tough it would be to do that. I'm at a loss of words right now...
I'm glad that you are still optimistic on creating art as a hobby and not a job. God bless Great Britain, for they are truly blessed with lots of positive energy and optimism. (I know a secret about your land, but I'll tell you later :3 )
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That's OK - it's good to find out as much as possible. I have applied for some UK based in-house jobs, with the incentive to relocate now. I have about 2 months before I have to apply for non-art related jobs which will be disappointing if it comes to that. There must be a God up there!!
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I have the bad habit of meddling with people's affairs and I apologize for that. It's because I have had missed grand opportunities in the past and I feel if I help someone catch that big break in their life and give them even the slightest edge and that person makes it big, then in a way I have repented from my own mistakes.
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Ahh, not to worry - I have applied for 2 jobs in-house now, with the incentive of relocating. If I am gonna make a go of this I need to know the realities, even if it is sometimes what I don't want to hear. You did fine!!!
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Nice, although composition wise you should have placed the character on the same plane as your key buildings to denote scale. Right now the char only tells us how big the staircase in the foreground is and not anything else.
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Good point - I will update it. Was so rushed. cheers Shak!
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Wow, this came out great! It's a little unnerving and cold to me, which is perfect for it beg a power plant and it being based in the cold mountains. Perfect! Your lines are really clean and straight.
Photoshop and I always fight when I want straight lines, so yeah, major envy on that part.
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Thanks Bes! I have been doing art for over 2 years now - I started from scratch using photoshop to manipulate photo's and then discovered digital painting 6 months later.
I have learned from using books and DVD tutorials mostly. You can find a list of recommended stuff on my actual website - [link]
[link]
He is a master but well worth watching.
I by a lot of books from amazon, anything to do with concept art or digital painting. These Dylan Cole DVD's are fantastic as he tells you what he is doing all the way through - [link]
I have rarely found free stuff as beneficial as purchased stuff as free stuff tends to be posers on youtube that just end up making me feel more frustrated than I was before, with little explanation of what they are doing. It's really important to learn the fundamentals of art asap - once you have that you can draw what you like.
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Thank you very much, James. These links are great and your work is amazing!
I've been trying to expand my skills and improve upon my artwork and this will really help. I've been trained as a traditional animator and went through the 4 years of schooling for it, but learning should never stop.
Thanks again for your advice. And I agree with the youtube stuff. They tend to be too busy wowing the viewers than actually explaining how they are doing it.
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Excellent - really glad I could help. The learning never ends - the fundamentals go on and on - I guess it's just the same in traditional animation.
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Thanks a lot Miss Austin!
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Haha my pleasure
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how long have you used photoshop, and do you reccommend any tutorials to speed up the leraning curve? Another awesome piece.
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Thanks LS - I don't know how I missed this comment???
I began using Photoshop about 2.5 years ago. At that time I discovered digital painting which I didn't know anything about. I watched loads of youtube vids to learn graphic design stuff mainly. Then the digital painting completely took over. More youtube, more tutorials, a load of DVD tutorials and books. I practice about 16 hours per day including weekends. I have a long way to go yet but practice obviously pays off.
I still get things very wrong by the way - I can not draw animals or people. I am limited to hard surface stuff for the time being.
I recommend watching [link] even though it is advanced. It is a good goal setter.
Remember, digital painting only requires a tiny part of photoshop compared to learning graphic design. The main learning is the ability to draw what you want to draw. Use pencil and paper and pick a subject, say castles. Look online and just copy what you see. Do 20 castles all week. Once boredom sets in spend the following week inventing your own castle. All the visual data you collected is now installed forever in your brain and when someone asks you to draw a castle you know exactly what to put in the drawing i.e. a moat, a drawbridge, a keep, towers and so on. Practice perspective - 1,2 and 3 point perspective. Concept artists don't tend to get bogged down with obsessive accuracy but once you know how things look in 3D you will be able to guess the perspective without all the vanishing points all over the place. This is fine for environments but gets trickier when doing close objects that do require more accuracy such as wheels on a car or interiors of streamlined hallways etc. If you can do it on paper then move on to photoshop and do the same. I don't do much line drawing at all but it definitely helps at first. In photoshop restrict yourself to using a default chalk brush and paint the main shapes over your line drawing - avoid detail. See how far you can go using a medium sized brush and get used to roughing in the colors. If you can make it look good then the little final details will make it look even better, usually. Focus detail on the prime area you want people to look at, then less detail as you move across the picture. I make the mistake of detailing everything and it takes too long. Over detailing will eventually make the picture flat and lifeless. More detail = less dynamic movement. Look at an action sports photograph - sharp and perfect lacks the motion you get with the natural blur.
You MUST learn about color theory and values (how light and dark objects are in certain lighting conditions). When painting environments always bang in the sky first - learn to paint a quick sky or use a gradient to go from light on the horizon to dark in the high sky. The sky dictates everything as it will force the environment to take on the sky color.
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Did you start with some lines or did you start painting right away? It's fantastic.
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I started painting first - got the main big shapes in. Then I did a little line work but not much. I find the lines take too long sometimes. I am trying to speed myself up as when working the clients want everything as fast as possible. I used lines at the end to go round everything and make the messy bits clearer. For this one I used a flatted default round brush so it is doesn't leave so many fuzzy edges.
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Good, thanks again Tek. Trying to get things done as fast as possible, rather than taking days over something. When working, they want the concepts done fast, fast and faster!
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Pot Noodles? That sounds interesting.
Nice work, hon!
How's the reading?
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Cheers HJ - actually doing a lot of reading lately - all mixed though - another novel, this time by Stuart Oldes - hopes truth. Good!!
And usual tutorial books, which I generally love too. Got a life drawing book, but aint got any nude models to hand, so it doesn't really help.
I hope you are reading a lot too now. I have to force my self to sit up in bed and not fall asleep.
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I am mostly proof reading chapters for a book being published soon. When I am finished all that, I don't much feel like reading for pleasure.
Put an ad in the paper! You'll get lots of offer for nude models! Some of them might be a bit scary but you never know!
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Do you get paid to proof read by the way?
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I'm not sure yet on this one! LOL! I hope so! It is for the writer who's book I did an illustration for and since I have never done proofing, I'm not entirely sure what is going on. But normally, it is a paid job. God, I hope I do! I could sure use it!
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That is what I was like - I did work without actually knowing if I was being paid..! The thing is it is scary when everything is new. I thought that if I asked for money I would scare them off and they would tell me I was too inexperienced to ask for money. Maybe there is some truth in it. After-all, graduates often do unpaid work to gain experience.
Hope it is going well and you have picked up on all the mistakes!
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I am hoping that this will lead to other work in the field, so even if this one doesn't pay, 
It is going well, we are almost at the end and I think I have caught them all, I hope! 
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It all adds up - this could be your new profession!! Bloody good stuff!
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