So you've already figured out the basics of painting a glowing object, but how can we boost your workflow?
Here are 3 simple methods:
1. Add some simple VFX around the object. I like to take a soft brush or a brush with one hard side + one soft side to add a subtle burst from the center of the mushroom. Don't be afraid of using the hell out of blending modes like Color Dodge in this step!
2. Hue variation breathes life into... well... pretty much anything. If you're lacking ...
2019-07-07 16:32:46 +0000 UTC
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Adding a quick glow effect to an object is easier than it may seem. The most important aspects are...
1. PUT IT ON A DARK BACKGROUND. It's *really* hard to make something glow if it's on a light background. It's a light source! So it should be lighter than whatever it's on.
2. Boost saturation. This is a rare occasion that I paint with 80-100% saturation.
I also like to selectively soften some of the object's edges, especially wherever the edge is almost white. I...
2019-07-07 15:16:21 +0000 UTC
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I adore freelancing. I do this entirely fulltime and expect to do this for a significant portion of my career...but there are many underdiscussed downsides other than "instability" and "you have to find health insurance" and "it's hard."
I've learned a lot in the time that I've been freelancing and found pitfalls that I didn't realize until I was in the deep of it. Hopefully this explains some of the things you should consider before taking the leap.
Creative iso...
2019-06-23 15:54:20 +0000 UTC
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Thank you to all of the $5+ Patrons that submitted questions! Please take all of this advice with a grain of salt as always.
If you'd like to submit questions next month, pledge just $5 a month (that's less than 2 Starbucks coffees!!)
~~~~~~~~~
Ghostyjpg asks: Once applying to a position and getting a rejection is it okay to apply again? how long would you wait to apply again?
I usually wait at LEAST three months between a...
2019-06-17 15:31:07 +0000 UTC
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I ran a one-time sticker promotion in April and it went splendidly! I have gotten a lot of questions about how to run something like that successfully, so I want to share some of the lessons I learned.
A quick overview on the context of my sticker promotion:
At peak, in late 2018, my Patreon was the highest it had ever been. However, I was overwhelmed with both work and Patreon, so early this year I cut my high-commitment $50 individual feedback tier to relieve some stress. ...
2019-06-10 16:57:06 +0000 UTC
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I worked with the wonderful AD Leesha Hannigan to bring this Cervan Priest to life. I have SO much respect for so many of the Humblewood artists, and it was such an exciting opportunity to collaborate with them!
2019-06-03 17:26:01 +0000 UTC
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I am a BIG fan of Baby Bestiary and was ecstatic to work with Andreas from Metal Weave Games. I illustrated the rogue-like fox rogue, Velisa, for the Awakened NPCs & Companions guide! He reached out to me after I posted 2019-06-03 17:23:49 +0000 UTC
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After 10 amazing weeks, I'm soon wrapping up my first long-format intensive course here in Chicago. I focus primarily on developing my students fundamentals and workflow through the lens of stylized concept art.
I developed all of the curriculum personally and put my blood, sweat, and tears into this class! I'm so proud with the growth I've seen in my students, and I wanted to share all of the examples, demos, and references I've personally made for the course, as well as for my w...
2019-06-03 17:09:49 +0000 UTC
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I've been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes sketching lately, trying to figure out what my next couple of pieces could look like.
I put together the tropical pseudodragon (Artstation) recently and started working on a desert version (Twitter thread)! I'm 50/50 on if the WIP image will actually be the final,...
2019-06-03 17:01:34 +0000 UTC
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Dungeons and Doggies needed some extra hands so I quickly painted up these little object illustrations! Original rough sketches and direction from the amazing April Prime and Russ Charles.
2019-06-03 17:01:20 +0000 UTC
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Our process for painting angular gems is very similar to that of painting round gems. Just focus on checking your values and building up visual noise SLOWLY at the end! Don't be afraid of the imperfections like bubbles and scratches that make gems interesting. :)
2019-06-02 15:00:02 +0000 UTC
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What does junior-level art ACTUALLY look like? It's a question that I've seen many times, so I asked the game dev Twitterverse to share the work they were making when they broke into the industry.
I have compiled a few of those examples here, but I really recommend checking out all of the responses in that thread. SO many wonderful people took the time to respond and it provides a...
2019-05-31 16:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Update 5/30: All stickers are in the mail!!
Apologizes for the delay on this, I ordered a return stamp over two weeks ago because almost 90 people ordered stickers and it still hasn't come in yet! I just rush ordered return address labels from another site and they should be in asap. Everything will be sent out this week once they come in!
2019-05-29 13:42:29 +0000 UTC
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Painting gems is quick and simple as long as you build up the light carefully!
I make sure to put my highlights (step 3) on their own layer on top so that I can paint underneath them when polishing and adding detail. I make that large highlight blue so it looks like it's reflecting the sky, which adds a lot of believably to the gem's material!
2019-05-28 16:38:12 +0000 UTC
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Neglected Lessons is a new post series similar to my Freelance 101 posts, but they are specifically directed at students or trying to cover lessons that game colleges often fail to teach. Please let me know what you think in the comments, or if you have ideas for what I could write abou...
2019-05-24 15:14:19 +0000 UTC
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Hey yall,
I want the rewards in the $5 tier to feel a bit more important, so all tutorials and blog posts like my Freelance 101 series will now be in early access for a few days to $5 patrons before being public.
I found this feature to be very helpful in the past and wanted to reintegrate it at some point, and the reward for the AMA Asker tier felt a little too light to me. I hope this provides a bit of balance to that tier.
Thanks for understan...
2019-05-14 16:20:26 +0000 UTC
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Update: They are in the mail!
The stickers came in today and they are SO. CUTE.
I'll be working on sending these out in batches over the next week or two! Thank you so much to everyone that became a Patron for these.
If you missed the promotion, I'm planning on potentially selling the leftovers at some point on Etsy or something. I'm slowly building an arsenal of stickers that need homes, hahah.
Woo!
2019-05-13 21:59:27 +0000 UTC
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Thank you to all of the $5+ Patrons that submitted questions! Please take all of this advice with a grain of salt as always.
If you'd like to submit questions next month, pledge just $5 a month (that's less than 2 Starbucks coffees!!)
~~~~~~~~~
Abz asks: Do you have any advice when it comes to struggling to stay focused? Even though I want to be as productive as possible, I find myself struggling to commit to projects that don't interest me personall...
2019-05-06 21:39:03 +0000 UTC
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Heyo!
I've been on Patreon for a year now, and with the new "founders" update thingie coming, I wanted to compile some quick information about how to make the most of your profile. This will be a bit quick but hopefully it can help some folks trying to jump on-board before May 7.
1. Simplify
Having a page with a ton of rewards can be confusing and off-putting to new viewers. I recommend using less tiers with simpler rewards over having a ton of tiers...
2019-04-30 16:22:05 +0000 UTC
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A lot of folks ask what my day-to-day routine is like as a self-employed artist that works from home, so I wanted to share a bit about the habits I have in place to keep me focused and healthy. I've slowly built a daily set of actions and decisions to avoid burnout and distraction. It's definitely a balancing act, so I hope this provides a little window into what it's like to work as a freelancer!
2019-04-29 19:00:02 +0000 UTC
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WOO! Thank you to everyone that hopped on and got us to the 4th sticker goal over our celebration weekend. We took a vote on what the fourth sticker should be, and I had such a blast putting together this last little cutie...
The jackalope!
I hope you folks like it :D
This little fella will be shipping out with the others sometime in May. I'll post updates once the stickers come in....
2019-04-26 20:52:16 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone! I was on a panel at a local event at Northwestern University called Progression Mechanics, and we had a really great discussion about shifting tides in the games industry. Tom Eastman from Trinket Studios, Adam Boyes from Iron Galaxy, and I talked about a lot of touchpoints that I wanted to expand upon after ruminating over them the last few days. Thanks to those folks for having me on the panel, it was awesome...
2019-04-24 18:02:08 +0000 UTC
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Thank you THANK YOU thank you THANK YOU everyone that participated in the birthday celebration! I want you folks to understand the numbers of how big of a difference this made:
- 47 new or upgrading Patrons
- Over $250 in growth
- Almost 70 people signed up for stickers
*deep inhale, exhale* Wow. Damn.
First of all, I'm flippin psyched to design the 4th sticker. I will take a ton of suggestions on Twitter, narrow it down to 3-4 option...
2019-04-15 04:06:18 +0000 UTC
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Update: we have passed over 30 new Patrons!!!
What's up it's my birthday on Sunday!!! The Patreon celebration will come in two parts.
Part one:
I want to do a Big Thanks, so I'm doing Twitter shoutouts all weekend for all new and upgrading Patrons.
Yes, bumping up your pledge from $1 to $2 counts as an upgrade. Yes, you could potentially bump up your pledge and then get the shoutout and then immediate...
2019-04-13 14:00:02 +0000 UTC
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There's a lot to celebrate in April, so I'm trying out Patreon's Special Offer feature to promote the $5 AMA Asker tier. My birthday's on the 14th! It's tax season, how fun!
A couple of folks asked me to start doing AMAs again and I've been wanting to reintroduce a $5 tier, so my Ask Me Anything posts will be restarting on May 1st.
Want these 3 adorable stickers inspired by my most popular creature designs? Just sign up for the AMA Asker tier before the en...
2019-04-09 18:01:59 +0000 UTC
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Some of the personal work that I've put together lately! I'll be doing other posts with my commission/client work updates.
Wesley was a recent major addition to my portfolio and I'm SO pleased with how he turned out. I was hoping to put together a full process post for him, but just haven't been able to find the time, unfortunately! Here's a quick 2-step GIF of my last rendering pass for him, though:
2019-04-02 18:00:03 +0000 UTC
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I've had SUCH a blast freelancing, and I wanted to share some of the work I created for the awesome upcoming game, Mirador! Sauropod Studio was so fun to work with, and I hope the game really takes off on launch. (This isn't a sponsored post, I swear... I'm just hyped and I want to show what some of my freelance work looks like!)
You can check out their gameplay reveal trailer here: 2019-03-30 17:50:00 +0000 UTC
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A lot of folks have been asking for more advice on freelancing, so here are some personality traits that I've found to be essential while you're self-employed in the art world. This stuff is hard! But building these aspects into your professional self can make everything feel a little easier.
A great freelance artist is...
1. Adaptable
Freelancing fulltime is unusual. You're usually not paid every other Friday, you have to figure out your own insu...
2019-03-28 16:35:30 +0000 UTC
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WHEW.
What a month. Hey everyone! I haven't posted an update in a while so I wanted to drop in and say hi, talk about how GDC went, etc etc etc.
I wasn't planning on going to GDC until January. It's...expensive, exhausting, stressful, anxiety-inducing, and takes a TON of time away from work. But it's also the best opportunity out of the year for me to see old friends, connect in-person with clients, and remind myself why we do all this crazy stuff in the first place.
I also ...
2019-03-27 22:48:35 +0000 UTC
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Think about the forms you're painting in 3 plane directions: facing towards the light source, being parallel to the light direction, and facing away from the light source. This makes it much easier to paint believable forms with a clearly-reading light direction.
2019-02-04 19:00:47 +0000 UTC
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