Starting small

Luca Salvatore

Hi guys, this is my first thread/topic. Guess i should introduce myself.

My name is Luca, I am a illustration and animation enthusiast in my 20s and aspiring illustrator.

This post is about being overwelmed with so many things to learn and wanting to dive into these big projects that we might not be ready for. I am obviosly talking about me.

I tend to hate my art. Probably because I always want to do these big full illustrations, but am lacking in so many areas that i just get fustrated and give up. This leads to me not getting practice in.

Anyway I thogh that starting a series of small single object illustration would help me learn the skills that am lacking and slowly ramp up the difficulty and size of the illustrations.

Bellow is the first of hopefully many. I am open to critique (be gentle) for things that i might do better in the next one. And I would encourage others to try it and post their small projects if you have the same problems as me.

Thanks for reading all that long gibberish

ina

Luca I feel you! Starting small is a very sensible approach. Unfortunately I'm not a very sensible person and I tend to take the dive head first and smash into the rocks kind of approach. But I'd like to think I've learned to deal with the frustration. I still get terribly frustrated at times, but now I simply see it as part of the learning process, and as a compass to guide me to where I need to put in extra practice. But it is hard when that is "everywhere". I also try to offset any frustration by celebrating tiny wins. Even if my current experiment (I like to call them that because that takes the pressure off) is not turning out overall, maybe there's an idea, or a color, or a shape that I like. And if this "fails" there's always the next experiment to look forward to.

Luca Salvatore

Thank you @ina, it's great to hear about others views and work methods towards improvement.

I hope to soon find a good flow that will help me in my journey like you have

Eric Droke

Luca, first of all, welcome! I hope you enjoy this forum as much as I do. I'm no pro by any means (still trying to get there), but I'll do my best to offer you a "gentle" critique.

It looks like you've got the perspective thing down. Good job! That can be tricky. Your lighting and details are really good, too. You seem to really understand how light interacts with 3 dimensional objects in space. So, right off the bat, kudos to you! That can be a tricky thing for a lot of people.

I'm not quite sure what materials your trunk is made of, though. Is it wood, concrete, brass? There seems to be a bit of each. One thing that might make this piece better is if it was constructed out of a material that is more familiar, or in a way that is easy to understand.

Also, I'm not quite sure about those big black knobs. What is their purpose? I think in some old trunks, you would see those as decorative additions sometimes, but they also served a purpose of protecting the wood when stacked with other items in transit. How are yours being used? What about the chains? I don't understand how they serve the purpose of this trunk.

Those may seem like little nit-picky things (and to some degree they are) but those are things that can distract the viewer from the more important things... like the story and your beautiful art.

Keep up the good work, buddy! Try not to overthink things too much. Just keep it simple and have fun! Glad you're here.

Nyrryl Cadiz

@Luca-Salvatore you're actually doing really great. i'll tune in to you project

Luca Salvatore

@Eric-Droke Thank so much for the criticque! You are very right about the materials, it is suppost to be mostly concrete with 2 planks of wood and metal knobs, but I guess the fact that I made half the concrete yellow confuses that idea? Maybe I should have made them gold metal?

Also on the same point, I just started the Rendering different materials course so hoefully that will help.

With the design, you are right. I didn't completely think it through. The idea of the knobs was partly decorative and partly of a weigh to keep the top of the chest down. It was initially just on the front but i realised that it made the design front heavy, should I remove them?

The chains were a last minute detail, I had no seal/lock mechanism. I though about adding a key lock, but I had already spent nearly 2 days on what was supposed to be a small project.

I will definetly try to think more practically with how things would work in real life, thank you so much for the feedback it really helps!

Luca Salvatore

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Thank so much. I will do my best