#this was easier when i did mostly digital art because it was basically always rough colour

[bmpmp3]

artfight aka the month where i agonize for hours about whether or not my colouring style counts as “rough colour” or “clean colour“

[dotzines]

Artist spotlight: Linkyu!

✿ Patreon ✿ Twitter ✿ Tumblr ✿ Pillowfort ✿ DeviantArt ✿ PIXIV 

Header source: [X]  

Introduce yourself Hi, I'm Linkyu; I am here as a digital artist, but I'm also an independent game developer at Duality Workshop. My favourite genre is Sci-Fi, closely followed by Fantasy. I like to write dark themed stories, but most of the time I'll make sure to make them hopeful. I don't like sad endings. As for the fandoms I'm into... I'd say, mostly Touhou; everything else has been a thing of the moment, but touhou stayed. When did you start drawing? Are you a digital or traditional artist? I started drawing more seriously a bit before I entered college, when I entered a dA RP group, before groups actually existed. Yeah, remember that? Good times. I then got more serious-er when I was around 20, but have been struggling to stay productive in art for the past few years. I really enjoy traditional, but my go-to is usually digital. Do you use any traditional mediums? If so, which are your favorites? Mostly, pencils and China ink. Given the chance, I'd like to get more into oil painting though!

image source: [X]   Why do you prefer traditional over digital? (or viceversa) It's a matter of convenience, really. I can try many things quickly digitally, and simply swap layers or try modifiers on the go to see what sticks. Also, there's no Ctrl-Z on paper. What do you think is the most challenging part about being a traditional/digital artist? Since you can undo every stroke, it's easier to lose commitment on a piece. Similarly, files are very easy to hide and forget, in my experience. What inspires your pieces? For the most part, it's from what I think is Cool. Or if I feel like a story would have a stronger impact with a picture, then it would inspire me to draw that. But mostly, it's cool things that inspire me. Things that make you go "wow", you know? If those things make me go "wow" enough to be inspired to draw something about them, then hopefully I can make people go "wow" from that too.

image source: [X]   Explain your "everyday" drawing process It's kind of all or nothing. I either have a very detailed scene in my head, or just a basic idea. Either way, though, it all starts with a very rough sketch with thick lines, then I refine it once or twice, make it a clean lineart, put some flats, then I colour correct while I shade the picture. Depending on what I have in mind, I might skip some steps if I just want to get something out, rather than focus on the technical skill of it. Do you have an artist you admire (or more than one)?

Recently, I've been huge on Jack McGee (@DroolingDemon on tumblr)! The vibe and dynamism of his art is exactly the kind that I've tried to achieve but couldn't see how. His current webcomic (Star Impact -- check it out!!!) has taught me a lot about technique that drastically sped up the way I draw. Is there an artwork you are most proud of? Why? There's this piece I'm working on, where I'm trying to push myself as far as I can currently go, and I really like it so far; I can't show much yet, but the last time I've done that, 6 years ago, is still the piece I'm the most proud of: https://feryuu.tumblr.com/post/60925152689

Do you listen to music (or tv shows/films/anything else) when drawing? Ye-- currently it's a lot of western music, but EDM is a common one, usually. I tend to avoid lyrical songs though because otherwise I end up distrating myself singing along and... not ... drawing,,,

image source: [X]   What makes art interesting for you? Art is an incredibly powerful medium for conveying messages and feelings. I like that about it. What do you do when art block strikes? When I feel like I can't draw anything, or that no idea seems good enough, I just settle for less. Each day is not worth the same quality, so I shouldn't worry about what I end up doing. Once I stop worrying about what I'm doing, I tend to actually go further than I intended, actually... What’s the most valuable art advice you’ve ever received?

Always Colour Your Pieces. It's okay to make sketches; I regularly participate in Sketchavember, actually. But unless you really work it out and polish the B&W aesthetic of the piece, it will be glossed over in a feed. Coloured pieces grab the eye a lot more. Besides, I believe colour theory to be a fundamental base, so, any excuse to practice colouring is a good excuse in my book.

[kelmcdonald]

A Year in Review 2017

New Post has been published on http://sorcery101.net/news/a-year-in-review-2017/

A Year in Review 2017

Hi everyone,

So it’s the end of the year. I have been looking back over the year to make my goals for next year. Last year I posted my goals on Patreon for the highest backer level. It’s a level that no one ever backed at. I don’t know if the price was too high or just general lack of interest. But I liked writing those posts so as long as I have time, I think I’ll start posted some edited versions of them free on my site each month. Before I started doing that I thought I’d post a public behind the scenes wrap up.

2017 was rough and exhausting. That’s true for a lot of people.

I tried to stick to my professional and personal goals anyway. I also tried a few experiments to see how things would work out.

Last year, I had a few business/income related goals. I wanted to focus on building my Patreon, my newsletter, and my store. I wanted to get rid of ads and do less cons. Ads are ugly and hard to track down bad ones. Cons I want to do less of because they are exhausting to me. I don’t think I’ve ever got creative burn out but I definitely get hussle/promo burn out. It’s been taking me longer and longer to recover from cons. So anywhere that I can get money which isn’t from cons if great.

A lot of my site redesign was to push those things.

My newletter is I think the most successful of those goals. I got a good few hundred folks signing up from my website and a bunch of folks signing up after my kickstarter. Next year I’m gonna try to focus on making it better. I few people asked for highlights from the blog here as well as promo. But I’m still taking suggestions if anyone wants to leave them in the comic. Right now it’s just promo but if I don’t have promo that month I end up not knowing what to write.

The shop getting pushed more, I think it did better than last year but I haven’t crunched the numbers yet.

Patreon didn’t go very well this year. I wanted to get more patrons there to mostly get rid of ads. I ended up making less money on patreon than before. I used to charge weekly and thought switching to monthly would help get more people on board, but I never ended up attracting enough people to make up for the difference. I tired a few different things like business posts like this one, sketch requests, and streams. At first I was posting my early comics in a big PDF but then was told more frequent posts get peoples attention more. I also tried to post more art on there. None of those really enticed people to jump on. I don’t know if people just don’t like my stuff. If I’m just not cut out for promoting a long term thing rather just doing a focused push for one big project. Either way I’m feeling pretty discouraged and after last weeks debacle with the fee change is leaving me kinda sour on Patreon. In 2018 I’m gonna try to focus on other stuff that might pay off more.

I was looking for more work from publishers and companies in 2017 too. Or more working smarter not harder with companies. That didn’t pay off in 2017 but it get me some cool stuff lined up for 2018.

But for now it looks like I’m gonna still be hitting up 10 or more cons a year.

On the somewhat creative goal and somewhat personal, I spent a lot of of this year making sure I kept up with my comic reading. It can be easy to not keep up with reading new comics and know what is out there when you are busy trying to make comics. I buy most of my comics at conventions but I got an ipad pro to be a portable digital drawing tool so I’ve been reading a lot of manga on that. But here’s some high stuff I really enjoyed and will probably write about on my blog over the coarse of next year. I read them this year but they didn’t all come out this year. The webcomics I’m just gonna link cause they are free to read but I usually just read the print collections when it comes to webcomics. So when I say I read them this year I mean the print collection.

Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas 

Agents of the Realm by Mildred Louis

The Meek by Der-shing Helmer

Feywinds by Nicole Chartrand

Check Please by Ngozi Ukazu

O Human Star by Blue Delliquanti

A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Ōima which is about a guy trying to get forgiveness from the deaf girl he bullied in elementary school. It’s very intense and grips with complicated questions about who gets forgiven and who decides who gets that forgiveness.

Monstress by Marijorie liu and  Sana Takeda. It’s a fantasy epic that is set in a matriarchal setting where magical humanoid creatures and sorceresses are at war. The main character is trying to learn more about an elder god type thing that has taken over her arm. It’s gorgeous and complicated and female focused. This might be my favorite comic right now.

Fun Family by Ben Frisch. I picked this up because I went to college which Ben. Fun Family is a fictional behind the scenes of Family Circus. It kinda odd but I liked it because it explores how a simple wholesome comic like Family Circus can be comforting when your home life is falling apart.

Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama. I don’t got to tell you all what Dragon Ball is about. But I read it for the first time and really liked it. I had only seen the anime before this. It was interesting to see the source material. I thought it was a lot of fun.

Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaki. Most anime fans know about this one too but again I read it this year. For you none anime fans alien parasites take over human hosts and replace their heads. The main character gets his hand taken over instead and he has to work with the parasite to hide from both humans and parasites. It’s an interesting mix of body horror and exploring morality.

My Hero Academia by Kohei Horikoshi. It’s about a superhero school in world where more people have superpowers and being a superhero is partly being a celebrity and partly a government job.

Space Battle Lunch Time by Natalie Riess. It’s about a cooking reality tv show in space. I was a lot of fun and very cute. It does a good job of having multiple rounds of cooking contests without getting repetitive. The main character is super charming.

Moonlighters by Katie Schenkel and Cal Moray. An all ages comic about werewolves doing magical odd jobs on their college campus.

Soupy Leave Home by Cecil Castellucci and Jose Pimenta. I picked this up because I introduced Cecil and Jose to each other. Their book is really good. It’s about a girl who disguises herself as a boy so she can run away to ride the rails as a hobo during the great depression. It’s bitter sweet and does an excellent job showing the relationship build between Soupy and her mentor on the rails.

I also liked Castoffs by MK Reed, Brain Smith, and Molly Ostertag and Letters for Lucardo by Noora Heikkilä but those both are only at volume 1 and I feel like the stuff that I’ll really want to talk about will probably happen in volume 2. My reading list is organized shortest to longest and so some have been on there for awhile. For 2018 far it’s:

As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gilman

Not Drunk Enough by Tess Stone

The Fifth Beatle by Vivek Tiwary, Kyle Baker, and Andrew C. Robinson

Vattu vol 2 by Evan Dahm

The Last Halloween by Abby Howard

East of West year 2 by Jonathan Hichman and Nick Dragotta

Drive by Dave Kellet

The Less than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal by EK Weaver

I Am Hero by Shinsuke Sato

If you all got recommendations I’m open to em. I think it’s important to read comic if you want to improve. So while I am gearing up for my next big project I wanted to make sure knew what was out there. I have been writing about them on Patreon but I’m gonna start posting them publicly. Writing about the stuff I like is just to help me articulate what I’m looking for in stories and be more deliberate in the future. I’m intentionally not reading Marvel and DC though. So if you suggest stuff from them I’ll probably pass.

And then here are more general personal goals and experiments.

I got really unhealthy while working on Misfits of Avalon because juggling two comics isn’t super smart when when has a hard deadline. There were a few months while working on it where I basically drank ALL THE REDBULL to finish on time. I also gained 20 lbs while working on it. So a lot of 2017 was me trying to undo the damage caused by overworking.

I don’t pay a lot of attention to my weight and mostly noticed because I got faced with the choice of lose weight or buy new clothes. Excising takes more work but is cheaper. So I started biking 3 times a week and used the biking version of couch to 5k to improve. I mostly stuck with it because MK Reed was my biking buddy. We fell off a few times when con season got hectic. Then because of con season I tried to think of something that is easier to do while away. So in October after all my cons were done I gave jogging a try. I wanted to die and my throat was closing up. I couldn’t finish even half of what couch to 5k tells you to do the first day. I thought maybe I’d improve. But after no improvement for a month I went to the doctor. Turns out my lungs are all fucked up and I just didn’t know it because that was how I always breathed. Doctor gave me an inhaler which helped with running so now I can completely the first day of the program, but my none running breathing is still not as good as it should be. So I just got a different inhaler that is supposed to help with that. Otherwise I might have some expensive medical tests coming up. So fingers crossed that everything is fine.

I also tried to do some push ups at the beginning of the year. I started by doing them off my counter and then moved lower to the arm rest of my couch. But I was apparently doing them wrong so I never successfully got to doing push ups off the floor. Building muscle strength might be something I need more help with than cardio.

And while running sucks honestly the hardest thing to do was fix how bad my caffeine addiction got. I mentioned above that I drank a lot of Redbull when Misfit of Avalon deadlines got tight. Well, when I went to C2E2 last year, the time it took me to wake up, go to the airport, fly to Chicago, and get to where I was staying gave me a withdrawal headache. So less than 24 hours. I still had 2-3 months of work to do on Misfits but I made a self note that this is a problem I needed to deal with once finished. So I turned in my pages that June. Then I quit caffeine cold turkey because I’m very bad at cutting back on things. It was a miserable two weeks. But by the time SDCC rolled around I could get through a con day with only one cup (as opposed to like 6 cups).

So for health stuff in 2018, I’m gonna try to keep up the jogging and biking. Figure out what is up with my lungs. And try to get help on the upper body strength that I am lacking.

[spaceisfuncomic]

Q&A Write Up

Q: What was the inspiration for this work?

SHANNON: Ben and I wanted to work on this project, and do it together, mostly because both of us were motivated to produce a completed comic to end this class. Comics are pretty time-intensive projects, so we were trying to come up with a story idea that could encompass a short ~10 page comic that both of us would enjoy working on. As we were perusing through each other’s sketches and previous work for inspiration, we found a character design that I had created in high school. We thought that this space explorer character would be a good subject for a short comic, because she is fairly simple to draw, yet expressive. We thought that we could come up with a similarly simple, yet fun and expressive story to go with the character.

BEN: I think we both wanted to make something that would have been difficult to do on our own with the time we had available. Working together allowed us to put more effort into individual work while making a more finished final product. We were able to come up with some shared interests while brainstorming together on the first day and the setting of space just came through as a combination of being the most fun to do and the most practical. I’ve always liked the aesthetic of outer space and alien wastelands so the topic was easy to agree on. Not sure that counts as “inspiration” but that’s kind of how things came to be.

Q: What was the collaboration process like? What were the things that you enjoyed, or did not enjoy about collaborating?

SHANNON: Our primary concern with collaboration was keeping a consistent look throughout the comic. We decided that the best way to achieve this while still working together was to divide the labor not by page, but by tasks. Basically, the way this worked was that after we came up with the story together, I provided the rough sketches, Ben drew the line work, and then I finished off with colors. Something I admire about Ben’s art style is his precise, detailed line art. I lack the patience for such things, so I was excited to have him be a part of that process. I got to do the fun, sloppy stuff, like in the thumbnails and the colors.

BEN: We developed a kind of pipeline where we would each work on a specific aspect of the comic before handing off our work to the other person. I thought this was nice for a project of this length since it was pretty efficient and it allowed us to keep the look consistent without much additional effort. I honestly didn’t dislike anything about collaborating. It was a good experience and I would like to do it again.

Q: How did you know that you would be able to work successfully with each other?

SHANNON: Even though Ben is pretty shy about his art, and I’ve only recently seen more of it, I have always respected Ben as an artist. In class, his works are always hilarious, and have a flair for the fantastic. I thought he would bring a lot of unique style to this project, and I hoped that he would have fun working on this story together with me.

BEN: I’m not sure how one would “know” such a thing but I was pretty excited about making the collaboration successful. I’ve kind of been aware of Shannon’s work for a while (since freshman year) and I think that a lot of our visual/aesthetic inspirations overlap without being overly similar. It felt like a good balance. I think overlapping tastes allowed us to collaborate more smoothly, and the differences between us were things that I wanted to learn from. Also Shannon is cool and trendy and a good storyteller.

Q: What were some difficulties that you ran across while creating this comic? What are some things that you might do differently?

BEN: I think storyboarding is often the most difficult step for me, but I got lucky this time around and didn’t have to worry too much about them. Other than that, I had some trouble drawing circles that were not lumpy.

SHANNON: I think the chief difficulty for me was having to stage the scenes in a way so that everything would make sense, even without words. There were many times when I was tempted to add some words to make my life easier, but in the end, I decided to commit to the wordless thing. Also, I am sorry if I was ever too insistent on my own decisions, Ben.

Q: Why do you think that you are drawn to graphic novels as a medium?

BEN: I like pictures because I don’t know words too good.

SHANNON: I love any type of visual storytelling, and I especially love cartoons and comics, because I feel that the creator has so much control over what they are communicating to their audience. The level of abstraction and exaggeration that you can get from cartoons can many times communicate more truth about a human experience than pure naturalism. I love the symbolism that you can access just by a certain combination of shapes and colors--how you can tell our little space explorer is a good guy by all the roundness that makes up her design. I’m not sure if we were really reaching to communicate anything that complicated in our comic, but I hope that we have been successful in designing a largely benevolent, fantastic universe.

Q: How do you feel this final project fits in with the rest of the work you have been doing this semester?

SHANNON: This semester, as we’ve been reading many graphic novels, I’ve been trying to develop my ability to just produce content. I feel like I have a lot of ideas, but little practice in actually getting them down to paper. The assignments of this class helped me to practice combining my thoughts in words with my thoughts in images. I am not sure that this project is very similar to anything we have read over the semester, but I have definitely been inspired just by understanding the process and labor behind comics.

BEN: I’m not really sure. I’ve been making a lot more stuff this semester for various school and personal projects, and I’ve also been exposed to a lot of new ideas (mostly through this class). I guess in many ways the things I’ve been doing have been an exercise in digesting new content, learning from others, and trying new things (in addition to plain, physical practice). This project has been a nice culmination of a lot of those things. I was able to do a lot of digital linework, which I had been practicing all semester for my senior design class. I was able to collaborate with Shannon, which was a nice ending to a class where I was able to be exposed to other people with similar interests. I don’t if this project deals with any societal or personal issues on a conscious level, but I don’t doubt that the works we’ve gone over in class have helped develop our storytelling abilities. I think being able to make your own comic after reading and learning about them for a semester is a nice way to end things.

Q: Are there any lessons learned or plans for the future that you would like to share? How did your experience in this class change things, if they did at all?

BEN: Before this class I had not given much thought to the value of being near people with shared interests. Being exposed to people who cared about some of the same things I was interested in this semester was refreshing, maybe even validating and eye-opening. I think my experiences this year definitely made me realize that I would regret it a lot if I didn’t continue trying to make things (of some form). I think making stuff is something that motivates me greatly to learn, which feels like a pretty important thing. I hope that I can find a way to make that a focus in my life post-graduation, whether it is through work, hobbies, life philosophy, or whatever.

SHANNON: I definitely want to keep on making comics after I graduate, even if they’re really simple, like diary comics. I really appreciated this class, because it kept me exercising my creativity. I understand that once I leave college, there will be less opportunities to take these sorts of classes. Going forth, I must carve out time in my adult life to devote to art and stuff. And if Ben is willing to collaborate again, I think that would be really fun! If I’ve learned anything from this class, it’s to just make stuff. It doesn’t matter if it’s good. Creation itself is a triumph.

[bendasprint]

The Journey

Working on the Creative Sprint this month has been a challenging but rewarding  experience. I started with little direction and I was pretty confused on what I was hoping to gain from the experience, but in the end I learned a new skill that will be worthwhile and I plan on perusing in the future.

In the beginning, I was extremely lost. My elevator pitch was vague and I wasn’t sure how to weave together the prompts, my pitch, and my skills in a way that was worthwhile. The first couple of posts for my sprints were unimpressive. I was doing simple sketchbook drawings that were pretty uncreative. Part of this hesitant mood to my work was the nervousness I felt about posting work I wasn’t confident in online. Normally my online presence is highly manicured, and moving out of that mindframe was difficult for me.

On the fourth day, I was fed up with doing the same boring work everyday, and I decided to brush the dust off my old tablet and do some digital work. I used to work in photoshop all the time in highschool, but since I came to VCU I rediscovered my love for traditional art, and sort of left my computer by the wayside. I had been seeing lots of really cool pixel art works online and I had seen a few of my peers I admire try it, so I decide to dip my toe into it.

The first pixel art I created was a little rough, and I had some trouble with saving the file and getting it to look right on Instagram, but the most important part was it was the first Creative Sprint Project I enjoyed doing. I was genuinely excited to show off what I had done. I did a few more traditional posts, and then started doing mostly pixel art. Over this month I did lots of research on the best ways to create pixel art and the different styles. I began enjoying the challenges and prompts and interpreting them into pixel work instead of seeing it as just homework.

When I started I thought that the less pixels I had the easier and faster it would be to crank out a piece. However, some of the most simple works in my collection actually took me the longest amount of time to create. My smallest works were 10X10 pixels, giving me only 100 pixels on the screen to work with. I spent so much time deciding exactly what pixel would be what color, and it’s a great exercise to think about color and form, simplifying objects but still retaining the recognition of what the item actually was. My biggest pieces were 100X100 pixels, and I would always feel relieved and excited when I worked on a canvas that was bigger than an inch. This project really changed my sense of scale, and I feel like I learned the challenges of working small, and just because something looks easy or simple it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t created with a designer’s eye.

I played with lots of different styles for my prompts. Some of my works experiment with opacities and blends of color, while others are simple defined pixels with no blending. I created character designs, paintings, landscapes, portraits, and simple icons. There is such a range of styles for pixel art, and many that I didn’t get the chance to explore in this short month. There are somepieces I think could have been stronger, but part of the Creative Sprint process is learning to be comfortable with one’s imperfections, and the further I got the more brave I felt trying things that I wasn’t sure about, and taking risks even if they didn’t look the way I wanted in the end.

To be perfectly honest, I was pretty obtuse about doing Creative Sprint in the beginning. I didn’t think doing this type of work would benefit me, and I was uninspired and uncreative. Once I started to challenge myself, I started having a lot of fun. I was telling people around me about the project and sharing what I learned about creating pixel art with friends and classmates. I had people giving me ideas and suggestions and cheering me on. Overall, I’m extremely happy with the work I created and I have come out of this month with a new skill I didn’t possess beforehand. When talking to potential clients, I can now add pixel art creation to my list of skills and passions, which I think makes me a much more unique artist. At first I categorized myself as a basic illustrator with no real direction, but now I have a skill and style that not every artist has and I feel it will really set me apart in the long run. I don’t think this month is going to be last time I create pixel art, and I can’t wait to improve my skill further and keep sharing it with others.

[benortheymasters-blog]

ASM Post Mortem

Asset Management: Team Post Mortem

In the Game Design Master’s degree program Asset Management class, our team was tasked to track and document four weeks of work on a digital game. There were six of us total - three designers (Colton, Kyle, Josh), one artist (Michael), one writer (Ben), and one from information management (Dante). For this project management exercise, we chose to continue work on our prototype project from month 7, “Color Control.” A 2d, side-scrolling local multiplayer game.

 The Problems:

1) Formatting of early documentation

Our early documentation was done in a very casual way, and our week 1 milestone presentation showed a lack of attention to detail. We understood the production assignments to be less robust than they were in reality, and we fumbled when trying to go into detail about comprehensive plans for the whole month. We hadn’t yet prepared our schedule for the fourth week of work, or defined tasks moving through the whole month. We had a rude awakening during that first week, and it was definitely an early growing-pain for the team.

 2) Lack of programmers

We only had one proper programmer in our group, Colton, and he was relied on very heavily every week. He often had to work extra hours to accommodate everyone’s needs for the project, and this resulted in several programming tasks failing QA tests in each week as they cascaded down to future milestones. Kyle took on some responsibilities with programming as he learned some basic coding to work within the menus of the game, but these tasks took longer for him as a beginner than they would have for Colton, so it was difficult to leverage this toward easing the burden of remaining hours on tasks.

 What went right:

1) Course correction

Although we only had 2 days between our first and second milestone presentations, we put our heads together and cleaned up our act a lot by that second day. We fleshed out our full scope of documentation and powered through a lot of extra hours to make sure that everything was properly tracked and above-board. With the recent embarrassment of milestone 1 fresh on our minds, we were determined to craft a better showing moving forward.

2) Communication

The team was very open and honest with each other about what we needed and wanted from the project, and we set our own goals early on. We each were able to define our own tasks for the month and stick to them, updating each other on our dependencies as they moved forward. It was because of our communication philosophies that we were able to get our documentation workable for the milestone 2 presentation and keep everything up-to-standards after that.

 3) Meeting goals

Each week, every team member completed most or all of his tasks and worked at least 10 hours on the project. Despite some problems with a tornado in week 4, we were able to keep our workflow on-point and share things with each other just in time to get QA and implementation settled. While some of the tasks ended up getting cut, like victory poses and 4-player support, we added a power-up collection mechanic to the game at the request of our professor and had it functional in the final build. Individual Post-Mortem:

This month I learned a lot about project organization. Our team got off to a rough start as we first build our schedule and presented it casually as an incomplete document in the first week. I worked very closely with our producer, Josh, after that point, to ensure that our documentation would be up-to-code from that point onward. This did interfere a bit with my role as the project’s artist, cutting into the time I wanted to spend working toward the game project. I became the unofficial group administrator, despite not having the production title, and I found myself doing more work than I was scheduled for every single week with organizational and leadership tasks, and running communications between team members.

After the second week, things got a bit easier, as our production documentation was mostly on-track. I continued trying to pass off the production and leadership tasks to our producer Josh, and did my best to fade into a background/support role. This worked in all but the most dire crunch times, when someone needed to lay down the law, and this was when my art role on the team was respectively hindered the most. Moving forward in team projects, I will make more clear distinctions between whatever my role is and the role of production, which I always seem to unintentionally fall into. Getting documentation on track as soon as possible should help with this in the future, as a team with a set course requires less in the way of micromanagement/direction.

[1000wordresearchreport]

Reply From Draw With Jazza

I did get a reply form jazzy but he said he get some many replies everyday he cant answer them all. he have given me a list of question that he gets asked the most and his replies to them, they are what I'm looking for in this chapter but they will be very usefully throughout the rest of my report 

Dear Student,

I really like to support students and used to be able to answer interview and survey questions but unfortunately I get so many requests for responses along with my normal emails that I am unable to assist any more on an individual basis. I have created a list of past questions and responses which I will send you and I hope they may be of some assistance to your research. Apologies for the generic answer but I get hundreds of emails every day and time constraints make individual interviews impossible. I realise that your questions may not be answered by these documents but this is the best I can do to try and help in some way. Also here is a link to an online interview I did http://www.federationstory.com/drawing-has-never-been-so-interactive/   and I have linked in the questions below to a few autobiographical and relevant videos on my channel. All the best with your project!

Jazza

1. What was the first Job you ever had? Target as a checkout assistant

2. Did you always want to be an artist/animator? Yes- although not specifically animator sometimes I wanted to be a director, sometimes a musician

3. Was there a turning point in your career? Moving away from game design and starting the YouTube channel

4. Did you have a mentor or someone that inspired you? Christopher Hart when I was young. Also Adam Phillips.

5.You’ve got a large following on YouTube but how did you start out? and did you ever think you would have such a large following? Have a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNDY6FWGgmE No I never thought it would get this big but now I find my goals increasing all the time

6. A)  Are you surprised that your making a living from Youtube? and not only you but so many other people?    B)  Do you find that your channel on Youtube allows you to make a comfortable living? People who make a living from Youtube often don’t make it from ad revenue but have to find other ways to support themselves. I have a shop that sells digital art products and that allows me to be a professional Youtuber/Artist and this is a really important support to my channel. I used to take pretty much any freelance work I could get in the beginning- as another way to earn a living, although now I find I have less time for freelance. I am an author and have my first book (on Character Design) commercially published at the end of the year, as well as contributing to other publications. I do still take on occasional freelance but mostly larger commercial projects

7. What do you feel makes you different from other artist on YouTube? That I put my face and personality in my channel a lot. I try and have a community and be informative as well as fun, spontaneous and entertaining.

8. What do you wish you had known before you starting uploading videos to youtube? Be careful how much work to set myself. I tend to underestimate the time it takes to do things and take on too much.

9. Is there anything you dislike about the platform (YouTube)? I wish it was easier to report stolen content.

10. Tell me about your process from idea to implementation? I come up with a lesson plan or script, then I film/record, then I do a rough edit and beyond that I add assets such as video footage or images, finally I polish the edit, render and upload

11. Do you use social media as part of your strategy? Yes I use Twtich, Facebook, Twitter

12. What are some of your biggest achievements? Building a large audience, collaborating with reputable companies, Interviewing talented artists, writing a hard copy book soon to be published in the US and a grant which you know about from Screen Australia and Google

13. What does a typical week in your life look like? Up at between 6-7am, off to the office where the magic happens. I have a schedule planned out about a month ahead which involves the days I am recording and the days I am working on supplementary projects. I don’t finish until 6pm usually, then I try and get to the gym and see baby Jazza.

14. Would you say creative block is an obstacle for you? if so how do you overcome that? Long answer-This should help answer your question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh17KFLbuEE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqzFpUbbhuc

15. Do you have much time to work on personal projects? NO NO NO, I wish I had more time, …. I try and work on things I love and also that work for my business

16. What are some of you favourite tools and software that you use?

I use Adobe Flash (now Animate CC) for my animations, which is good in that it can be used to create interactive mediums like games/apps as well as animations. ToonBoom is an animation specific program that is quite popular, and though I have not used it very much I plan to do more work with it in the future.  I use Adobe Photoshop for my Digital Paintings and image editing.. I use a Wacom 24 HD which is a high end LCD tablet for professional use. I talk a bit about tablets here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pqmDjGQmJA

17. Do you get much work outside of your channel? Yes but most of my work comes initially from my channel or from my website but usually from my reputation that is mainly built through the channel.

18. Have you ever turned away work? If yes why? All the time- pretty much every day. The reasons are usually a combination of: 1) Unrealistic budget expectations (want me to work for free or almost free) 2) Unrealistic project expectations (feature film/music video) with little understanding of the amount of work involved 3) Strange project that I do not like or I consider inappropriate (I won’t work on obscene or adult content) 4) I am already booked up (which I am for at least 10-12 months usually)

19. What do you like to do in your spare time if you get any? I enjoy a game of Dota, some nerdy role playing with mates, spending time with baby Jazza and my wife.

20. What advise would you give to someone trying to start their own channel? Work hard, be consistent, have integrity, release what you consider to be quality content

21. Pepsi or Coke?

Coke

22. How did you go about getting into the industry? -Did you have connections or was it a case of putting your work out there as much as possible? I draw constantly- then became professional through YouTube: Have a look at this video- basically I kept putting my work out there, Newgrounds and obviously YouTube  helped a lot with this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNDY6FWGgmE

23. What advice would you give to a young animator trying to get into the industry? Becoming a professional animator is not an easy road. There is no one way or sure fire path to success but one thing that you must adhere to is hard work. People who treat it like a profession even when they aren't being paid and try consistently, taking every opportunity to improve their skills, have the best chance of success. Remember it takes doctors and lawyers 6-8 years of daily study and it’s the same with art and animation. Keep practicing, put yourself out there in the animation community and be determined (and a bit thick skinned)

24. Do you prefer working as an independent freelance animator or as a professional at a studio? - Why do you prefer (whichever you prefer)? I have never worked for a studio, just run my own. I have toured some as I may need to set up larger one day and have been interested in how the larger studios work, but I don’t think I would enjoy animating one particular segment repeatedly. I like being part of  the whole creative picture.

25. How did you find the transition from aspiring animator to professional? -Did you face any problems you hadn't anticipated? I had to get a handle on the business and legal side and it is not my strong point. Copyright releases and IP contracts, terms and conditions, deposits- now my wife handles most of that end which is a relief.

26. There has been some speculation that CGI is leading the way for animation and that 2D will become irrelevant. What are your personal opinions on this? No I don't think 2 D will become irrelevant. I think new tools will make producing animations more accessible though.

How did you first get started with art? Have you always been into drawing? I have always been in to drawing (since I can remember)! Art has been my escape, my way to tell stories and create characters since I was a child. I was sometimes quite lonely at school and I was bullied a bit when I started high school, so at lunchtimes (and even during class I admit) I would often sit by myself and draw.

How old were you when you first made the transition into digital art? About 12 years old when I started playing around with early versions of Photoshop and Flash, I got my first tablet at 13.

How have things changed since then in terms of technology? When digital art emerged as an option I knew I wanted to jump on board. I got my first tablet and didn't look back. Obviously since then software and tools have come a long way! However right now things are moving on again and I am so excited because on the channel I have just begun to create 3D art in virtual reality. It's an exciting time! There will be more development in the software and tools for VR art (in the same way as there was with digital art) and no doubt that this is just the beginning.

When did you realise you’d be able to draw for a living? I had dreamed of writing a 'How To Draw' book since the age of 12, but it's not until recently that I have been able to make a stable living in the art world. I began to feel confident about making an OK wage about 3 years ago, when I began to get some reasonable freelance jobs, mainly as an animator rather than solely an artist. It wasn't stable but it was suddenly paying the bills. The problem was animation is very slow work and there was only one of me, so it was always going to be limiting in terms of making a stable wage. I had to convince my wife that it was worth turning down freelance on occasion to keep focusing on my YouTube channel, where I could see building a reputation and better potential for growth than one person animation. The YouTube channel eventually brought the offer of my first published book 'Draw With Jazza- Creating Characters' and even a children's television art show.

How did you get started with your YouTube channel? Before YouTube I used to work as a Freelance Flash Game Designer, but the Flash Game market was taking a nose dive. I had already started doing little art tutorials on YouTube, at first on a channel that contained a mixture of stuff (music etc), because I am usually working on creative projects of my own, but I noticed the art tutorials were quite popular. That is when I decided to start Draw With Jazza and see if it would grow into anything. It was lucky I did, as earning money in the Flash Game market was getting more and more difficult, Draw With Jazza began to grow and gave me the next direction in my career just in time, as I could no longer support myself with Game Design.

How quickly did success come there? You could say both quickly and slowly! I think a lot of people who start a YouTube channel want to see automatic viral videos, the reality is it take a lot of channels years to build an audience (it did mine) and the ones with the initial viral hits often don't go on to be long term successes.  My channel definitely wasn't viral and it took a few years to get momentum, but then it grew quickly. In total I have been on YouTube for about 4 years and after year 1 I had about 5,000 subs, it took 3 years to reach 100,000, now at the beginning of my 5th year I will hit the 1 million mark and I am so excited about that.

What do you think is your secret, and how do you keep things fresh? I love art and I make content that I would be interested in watching. Although I pay a bit of attention to what is popular, popularity is not the main driver for my content choices, as I feel when you do that  the content gets 'fake' and lacks quality. I really believe in making videos that I have enjoyed making and I hope the fact that I believe in what I am doing, comes across! It's not just about art, but also about showing your personality and letting people in. I definitely only do what I believe in. I'm not saying every video is perfect! Every now and again I make a video and I think 'that didn't turn out so well', and sometimes I still have to release it, as doing three videos a week doesn't leave me much room for error. Ironically sometimes the ones I'm not so proud of are really popular videos. You have to be willing to put yourself out there warts and all. My art challenges (left hand drawing, blindfold etc) don't show my best art (that's for sure) but they are very fun to make and popular content.

What would be your advice or top tips for anyone looking to get started in digital art? The same as my advice for any beginner artist, practise, work hard and don't be too tough on yourself. I think most people expect to be good quickly, or maybe when you look at developed artists they make it look easy and then you compare yourself to that. It took good artists, not hours, but years and years of practise. You need perseverance and patience with yourself.

Are there any mobile/tablet apps you’d recommend people should use for drawing on the go, and why? There is Photoshop Sketch and an Illustrator equivalent but I forget what it's called. I personally work a lot on the go but I run Photoshop off my Windows Tablet, that is capable of running the full program. A lot of people like using Sketchbook.

What would a good beginner’s setup be? For digital art you need a descent tablet of some sort, and it doesn't need to be expensive, but get one made for art. You can get started with a basic Huion or Wacom tablet (even picking up one second hand from ebay if necessary). The tablet will need a PC or Laptop with Photoshop or similar on it. There are way more expensive 'tablets' that aren't really made for art and won't give you the same results as a cheaper option, made with artists in mind.