Ryan Sumo's art blog
I’ve recently been talking to the Art Director of the Warlord CCG, who was kind enough to give me an art test and a few comments on my work despite having no experience in the field.
This concept was ultimately rejected, but I thought I’d post it here anyway.
No updates lately, so I thought I’d show you some of what I’ve been up to. This was actually done a week or so ago. I have a hard time drawing the neck bent over like that, it feels unnatural for some reason.
Took a break from study to reward myself with a quick fantasy piece. I haven’t yet decided if I see an improvement from my earlier work, but it’s still a nice change of pace. Little less than 3 hours in photoshop?
Update: cleaned up the shading some, and added a faux background to shake things up a bit.
So this is my first real artwork since I let for Singapore, and I quite like it. I used a picture from an earthquake as a reference and then just fit the huge robot and special ops guys with their tiny rifles in for a sci-fi duel. Obviously my robot design, especially in the torso area, needs a lot of work. But I think this is something that will improve over time.
OK, I think I’ve just about exhausted myself at this point. That’s all for today, folks.
1 hour rough experimenting with color and size. Obviously based on “The Iron Giant”, possibly the most underrated animated film ever.
Inspired by an Al-Jazeera documentary on an elderly Chinese couple taking care of children left for dead on the streets of a Chinese city (I forget which) because they have birth defects.
This is only part of the piece, with the full artwork being uploaded to my unfinished portfolio.
People who say that it’s the journey and not the destination that matters don’t know squat. Or at least in my personal quest to become a concept artist, that particular truism falls flat on its ass, because let me tell you, the journey is tiring as hell, but once you reach your destination, all sorts of avenues are opened up for you to explore.
Let me explain.
When your art is shit, you don’t feel like drawing much, because no one likes to produce shit, at least not for prolonged periods of time. But when the moment comes that the stuff you’re creating is actually starting to look good, that’s when things get exciting. But getting there, a process that involves poring over tutorials and artbooks and making dozens of sketches and painting on photoshop ad nauseum, really isn’t a whole lot of fun. Why do you think I’ve been avioiding it for the past 10 years or so?
