Tackling the 2D space, game on!

This summer I have realized why finns are considered such hardworking nation by stereotype. Our summer is usually so terrible, it’s best spent on the computer. Like last year, I actually got an entire game done in few months, because of that weather of ours. This year is actually a whole other story, because, holy crap, it’s actually not terrible out there….I am confused. You can pretty much look at my tan and calculate the wasted working potential…!

But, it has not been all sparkling and strawberries in the sun (I would by now be dead by the sunburns if I did that daily!). I have actually been tackling at something; before this,  I haven’t considered myself as much of an illustrator or further more, a concept artist. I was one of those kids who always made friends with the best drawing kid in the class, then compared what I had in the paper and what they had….. 99% of the time that resulted to a rage quit. You can probably imagine, that it did develop into quite the trauma…which I really even haven’t tried to properly untangle, not until this day.

But you know what, game on. Deep down I find drawing a fun activity, and in the last months, I have taken as much time as I can to develop my 2D side. If you are like me, I can’t recommend this website, ctrl+paint enough. The guy running that site is really clever at breaking difficult concepts down to more simple pieces…that and he has a really calming voice! =) I am about halfway through his tutorial library, and can already see a positive change. I’m not exclusively concentrating on characters or environment, but try to reach a good basic level on both. The ideal situation is to reach the level where I can do all my own concept art, which later will be turned into models. There is still distance to get there, but now I don’t have that feeling of hopelessness and fear of white paper anymore. Here is a simple practice project to “feast your eyes upon”. I’ll start adding actual concepts to the gallery, once I feel the quality is about right.

ps. Happy midsummer everyone! Remember, lake fish is no good for sushi, over and out. 😉

No more rage quits. It’s all about patience.