I have accepted that for a long time.
Now the time has come to embrace it.
Why would I create a blog celebrating my lack of artistic ability?
It is because I want to get better. I am getting on in years and what I have done to further my artistic skill so far has not worked. So now I am doing what is the equivalent of open mic night for people who are scared of speaking in front of a crowd.
You might be surprised to know that, technically, I am a professional artist at a video game studio. I am lucky enough to work at a game company that encourages generalization. So I have been able to move around a little in my artistic endeavors. Mostly I do 3D environmental stuff. On our last game I did Visual Effects. I have even done a little concept art here and there. I have learned that concept art is not just about how well it looks. You need to be able to creatively answer whatever question is asked of the concept and you need to do it quickly. If you are successful with those two aspects of concepting you are more of an asset then the guy that just draws pretty pictures.
This is probably my most successful concept. It was for Shrek Super Slam. I was lucky enough to design this level as well. I quickly added shapes to the arena..played it a little. When I was happy I took a screenshot and painted over it. The level at the end was surprisingly close to the concept.
Here is a crappy screenshot of the level in game.
While looking through these images I came upon a lousy screenshot of another level I did for Shrek Super Slam. This one is a scary version of Gepetto's Workshop. The concept was drawn by someone else but it did not quite work out so I ended up just making this one up as I went. I had a lot of fun making these levels.
Next up is the latest concept art I did. This one is of Luke Cage for the Spider-Man: Web of Shadows game. I think I was allowed to concept him because I was so adamant about putting him in the game (He has always been one of my favorite Marvel Characters. I still got a bunch of Power-Man and Iron Fist comics). This concept was not so succesful. The question that needed to be answered was what does Luke Cage look like? So I drew a quick body and experimented with different clothes. If you look closely you will notice that I put a tatoo on one of the figures. It was not until later that my inner geek kicked in and reminded me that no needle could possibly penetrate Cage's skin. So maybe its a rub on.
Once I got a go-ahead for a direction I drew a more detailed image. In the end certain things had to be changed. Enough was changed that personally I felt the the concept failed to do it's job. I also did not adequately describe Cage's face. I should have put more detail into that.
I think the Belt Buckle could have been cooler.
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