Recommended Reads for the Achieving Artist

The following list of books are, without a doubt, a small selection of the most useful books that I, and many successful artists, have read and studied while going through art school and working professionally.

- Art Fundamentals: Color, Light, Composition, Anatomy, Perspective, and Depth, Gilles Beloeil

      - This book will do a great job providing a "crash course" of explaining the fundamentals to creating dynamic art and design. This is the basic information on art fundamentals you are expected to know before anything else. 

- Picture This: How Pictures Work, Molly Bang

     - This book focuses on how composition works on the human brain. It's very short and is not a hard read in the slightest. However, it does a great job covering, what I consider to be, key concepts of design that are used repeatedly by effective designers and storytellers in the industry.

- How to Draw, Scott Robertson

     - This is a must buy if you want to know how to draw anything correctly. 

- How to Render, Scott Robertson

     - This is another must buy if you want to know how to render anything correctly.

- Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth, Andrew Loomis

     - Loomis is one of the many masters of figure drawing. I not only go to figure drawing sessions, but I redraw and study the figure drawings of Loomis to better my own understanding. Any Loomis book is helpful, and luckily, he was gracious enough to provide FREE PDF versions of his books online.

- Color and Light: A Guide for a Realist Painter, James Gurney

     - This is another must-buy if you want to begin understanding how to effective see and use color and light. 

- Framed Ink: Drawing and Composition for Visual Storytellers, Marcos Mateu-Mestre

     - If you are interested in being an illustrator, storyboard artist, comic book artist, or any kind of artist that wants to create dynamic and effective compositions, this is a must-buy. This book does a great job in explaining a much more advanced level of composition and how the human brain will perceive the image and narrative.

- Composition of Outdoor Painting, Edgar Payne

     - If you want to learn more and get better at creating art related to background environment art, this book is a must buy. A lot of great insight from one of the masters of outdoor painting in regards to composition and art philosophy.

- Alla Prima II, Everything I Know About Painting- and More, Richard Schmid

     - This book provides a great perspective on the philosophy and techniques of painting. Schmid is a master of traditional painting and the teachings he provides in this book can easily be applied to enriching digital painting. This book is a limited print, so it may not be the most affordable price. But how much are you willing to pay for a master's lifetime of information on painting?

Extra Credit Assignment

DUE:

- 6x6, 300 DPI

Objective:
- Paint a CANDID expression of ONE character from either:
   - Blizzard
   - Game of Thrones
   - DC
   - Marvel

Requirements:

- Portrait ONLY (No half body, full body)
- Must show form and texture (Include highlights & shadows; No flats)
- Must show expression (try for something humorous like a photo booth portrait)
- Must be in COLOR

Introduction Class Assignment

DUE:

- Self Portrait - "FullName_DART135_Introduction_Portrait.jpg"  

     - Portrait orientation, high resolution image

     - Must show form (light side/dark side)

     - Must capture likeness
     - Must be drawn
     - 2 hour maximum limit

- Digital Portfolio  - "FullName_DART135_Introduction_Portfolio_X.jpg" 

     - Five examples of strongest artwork

- Word Document - "FullName_DART135_Introduction.doc" 

   - Name

   - 2 Most Inspirational Artists: Why? What specific work is your favorite; why?

   - What do you want to do with art? Is there a company/studio do you want to work for? Why?

         - What position/job do you want in that company/studio?
         - Why do you think that company and position is the best choice?
   - Do you have a sketchbook you work in outside of this class?
         - How many hours of the week are you sketching?

   - What do you want to get out of this class? 

Project 07- Portfolio

DUE: 

Assignment Guidelines

1. On USB flash drive:

      - 300 DPI, JPEG format 

      - Include all most up-to-date versions of Project 01-06 files

          - File name format: "FullName_DART135_Project#_#.JPG"

               - Ex. "MichaelMatsumoto_DART135_Project01_04.JPG"

      - Include the Introduction assignment (Self Portrait, 5 Best Piece Portfolio, and Word Doc) files

      

2. Bring ALL physical copies of most up-to-date graded prints from Project 01-06

Project 06- Photo Bashing Character Painting

DUE: 

Assignment Guidelines

11"x17", 300 DPI

Photo Bashing Technique Required

Choosing 1 character from Blizzard's Overwatch, design a reinterpretation of the character original design/costume. 

We will be combining the use of the Shape Tool, the Gradient Tool, Swatches, Channels, and Smart Objects, in combination with what we learned before, in order to create high detailed textures and forms with efficient painting.

Must Include:

- Must use at least 10 photos to bash into your design

- Must appear anatomically correct

- Must appear familiar and similar to the original costume/design of chosen character

- Ground plane

- Background element

- Light source (1 minimum)

Cannot Include:

- Reinterpretation of an alternate costume; must be the original design

- Photo bashing references that come from Overwatch or another intellectual property

DON'T MAKE IT LOOK LIKE A PHOTO MONTAGE!! Use paint blending techniques.

Project 05- Environment Concept Painting- Colorizing and Texturing from B&W

DUE: 

Assignment Guidelines

11"x17", 300 DPI

We will be combining the use of the Shape Tool, the Gradient Tool, Swatches, Channels, and Smart Objects, in combination with what we learned before, in order to create an environment based derived from imagination with better textures and techniques for efficient painting.

We will be focusing on the development process for painting an environment concept based on the following topics as the main subject/focal point:

- Sci-Fi/Fantasy : Castle Frontside

- Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Base Facility Frontside

Must Include:

- Evidence of Nature (Sky, Rocks, Mountains, Water, Earth, Vegetation, Birds, etc)

- Repetitive Symbols/Patterns

- Presence of a strong light source

Cannot Include:

- Characters 

- Elements That Compete with Focal Point

DONT MAKE IT LOOK LIKE A PHOTO!! Use paint blending techniques.

1. Mood Board 

2. B&W Thumbnails (10+)

3. Color Studies (2+)

4. Final Painting

Artist for Inspiration:

- Eytan Zana

- Kalen Chock

- Jaime Jones

- Frank Hong

- John Sweeney

- Sparth

Health & Ergonomic Resources

VITAL STRETCHING EXERCISES FOR THE HARD-WORKING DIGITAL ARTIST

THE 20/20/20 RULE FOR THE HARD-WORKING DIGITAL ARTIST'S VISION

ERGONOMIC POSTURING FOR THE HARD-WORKING DIGITAL ARTIST

Project 06- Digital Portfolio

DUE: 

Turn in all the most updated versions of work for Project 01, 02, 03, 04, 05 and Extra Credit (if applicable) on a USB Flash Drive:

- All images must be: 

• Properly labeled- "LastName_FirstName_135_Project(#)_(X).jpg"
• Ex. Project 05 Photo Bashing Character Painting Project-
• "Matsumoto_Michael_135_Project05_01.jpg"
• "Matsumoto_Michael_135_Project05_02.jpg"
• "Matsumoto_Michael_135_ExtraCredit_01.jpg"
• In high-resolution 300 pixels per inch 
• In .JPG format, FLATTENED IMAGE (NO MULTIPLE LAYERS)

Important: Be sure to double-check that your USB/files work on another computer before coming to class. Corrupted files/flash drive will not be excused under any circumstances and will negatively affect your project grade.

Project 05- Photo Bashing Character Design

DUE: 

Assignment Guidelines

We will be focusing on "Photo Bashing".  Photo bashing, kit bashing, or model bashing  is a practice whereby a new scale model is created by taking pieces out of commercial kits. These pieces may be added to a custom project or to another kit. For professional model makers, photo bashing and kit bashing are popular to create concept models for detailing movie special effects. Commercial model kits are a ready source of "detailing", providing any amounts of identical, mass-produced components that can be used to add fine detail to an existing model. Professionals often photo bash and kitbash to build prototype parts which are then recreated with lightweight materials.

DONT MAKE IT LOOK LIKE A "COPY& PASTE" PHOTO!! Use paint blending techniques.

We will be combining parts of multiple photos together, using adjustments of hue, saturation, color, and levels adjustment, as well as the free transform tool, while painting on top of photos creating blending techniques that will help aide is in developing the following character designs with high detail textures from our imagination.

1. Alien/Human Character with Cyborg Installment
2. Pop Culture Inspired Character with a Cyborg Installment
• Must be one of the following:
• Link/Zelda- Legend of Zelda
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
• Rey/Kylo Ren- Star Wars
• Captain America/Black Widow- Avengers

Process

1. Silhouettes

2. Line Drawing/B+W Painting

3. Form (Tone and Highlights)

4. Detail

5. Color

6. Final Touch Ups (Cast Shadow, Atmosphere, BG, etc.)

Page 01:

STEP A. 5+ Total Silhouettes for Posing & Proportions

STEP B. Mood Board (20 Photos that directed your FINAL CHOICE character)

Page 02:

STEP E. Final Presentation (of FINAL CHOICE character in Dynamic Pose)

Extra Credit Opportunity

DUE: WEDNESDAY, MAY 11th

For extra credit, complete the following assignment on an 11"x17" and submit a printed copy and digital file:

1. Self Portrait

- Link to Project Guidelines

Additional Demo for Project 04

Matte Painting Demo:
(There are only 3 total videos for this demo; titles are mislabeled)

Castle Concept Pt. 1
Castle Concept Pt. 2
Castle Concept Pt. 3

Project 04- Castle Matte Painting

DUE: 

Assignment Guidelines (on horizontal 11"x17" paper)-

Using the selection tools, adjustment tools, and Free Transform in Photoshop, create a convincing environment concept using a combination of the photo resources provided and any additional brush work.

Click here to watch how this is done in the industry!

Choose to base your castle environment from the choices below:

A. High Castle in the Mountains

B. Castle By the Sea (Not Under the Sea) 

You must include:

1. Use at least 10 different photo sources to create a new painting; 3 photos must be from the resources below
2. At least 5 levels of depth: Extreme Foreground (XFG), Foreground (FG), Middleground (MG), Background (BG) and Extreme Background (XBG
3. Castle concept as the main focal point in matte painting
4. Use your understanding of atmospheric perspective to create convincing depth
5. Inclusion of characters NOT recommended; however, any characters should be used more like props in the environment 

---> CLICK HERE to Download Additional Photo Resources <----