July Q&A - leave your questions here!
Added 2020-07-20 06:33:12 +0000 UTCHey!
Please feel free to leave whatever questions you like for me here and I will do a Q&A video toward the end of the month addressing everything from "how I do what I do in a certain process" to "how long will my body last before it shuts down completely from a massive backload of cottage cheese."
Thank you as always for your support, please leave your darkest secrets below as well as a question, darkest secret is optional
Dave
Comments
Hey Dave! How much time, weekly do you spend on adding to your visual library and what kind of exercises helped you most in retaining the information? How often do you run into an " oh crap how do I draw that "moment? Thanks Bro!!
Tony Chris
2020-07-27 15:53:10 +0000 UTCHey Dave How would you go about doing looser paintings, ones with visible brushwork, big masses, suggested details, and so on, how would you change your current approach? The moment I stop thinking about drawing and try to cosplay Sargent things fall apart and I lose my shit, what do? It seems that works that feel effortless and painterly are actually well-planned, but the actual difference in process is still not obvious to me. I've been focusing on my drawing skills for the past couple of months, and even though there are improvements, I feel a disconnect between what I'm achieving and where I want to go with art.
Anton
2020-07-25 12:37:09 +0000 UTCThank you, much appreciated!
Jeremy de la Garza
2020-07-23 21:01:29 +0000 UTCHe posted this info on one of his earliest posts called "Clip Studio Brushes" on Feb 3rd. he provides a link: - All the texture brushes I use in Photoshop are from Grzegorz Rutkowski's oil brushes here - https://gumroad.com/grzegorzrutkowski#xmnEX
Rave Dapoza
2020-07-23 14:42:12 +0000 UTCThanks for answering my question last month, and I appreciate the Kimmy/Sinbad story too. Made me feel less silly. As a follow up to that, I've had several MTG artists tell me that I'm close to the goal post, and had one MTG art director give me a portfolio review at a workshop. She told me I could draw, and technically my work was pretty much there but there was a missing factor. She said she couldn't tell who I was in my work, and that the paintings were stereotypes or generic, example my succubus was just a 'Demon lady'. I thought I'd poured myself into those things and they were 100% me. I didn't get into fantasy to be generic, any ideas on how to dig deeper and get something more? Or maybe how you would respond to a crit like that to get your next level? Sorry for the book, but thanks so much for taking the time man.
Nicholas P
2020-07-23 13:06:20 +0000 UTCI'm more depressed than the people around me know So when you're working on comic pages do you do roughs for a bunch of pages before finalizing the line work or do you just rough out and finish page by page? If you were going to get to doing skull and shark book would you approach it like the pieces you've been doing lately? or more like the look of Steve, or more painterly like it looked early on?
Andrew Gibbons
2020-07-23 10:36:39 +0000 UTCHey Dave, what is your advice on ideation in the early stages of an artwork? How to take something that seems cool in your head and make it work on paper?
Dean Brorson
2020-07-23 08:18:51 +0000 UTCHey Dave. It looks like these days the concept art/illustration industry is oversaturated with incredibly talented people. It seems like the skill bar to even start working is set higher every year. There are a limited amount of jobs and many of them don't pay very well nor give you stability you would expect. These days, would you recommend someone that is just starting out to pursue art as a career? Maybe it's more realistic to find a different career path and leave art as a hobby/side income? What are your thoughts on this?Thanks.
Sleepy
2020-07-23 07:19:05 +0000 UTCLooking at available positions on game company sites they often have qualifications such as: must have 5-10 years experience, must have a certificate or degree, must have worked in the industry before, etc. This can’t be a hard and fast rule, right?
Joshua Barbour
2020-07-23 03:00:43 +0000 UTCWhere do you get your brushes to make those sweet canvas/gesso mark textures on the background of your prints? Thanks Dave, amazing work as always!
Jeremy de la Garza
2020-07-23 01:37:37 +0000 UTCI thought he might have alright. I only signed up yesterday. Do you remember if that content is in the Q&As mostly or in the process videos? (there's quite a bit on here to get through) I was curious about the brush engines more than anything from the little I've heard it's a bit less CPU intensive than PS or Corel which I've found can labour a bit on my laptop, and if there was any brushes he/anyone would recommend getting for it. I mostly use pretty simple brushes in PS anyway... but that's partly because it tends to chug a bit if I play with blenders or any fancy wet brush stuff I'll get the Clip Studio Paint trial once I have a few days together to play with it.
Kevin Campion
2020-07-22 22:17:11 +0000 UTCTop 3 art books?
Lobadoca
2020-07-22 20:58:31 +0000 UTCWhat specifically are you wanting to know? He’s talked about why he likes it in several videos so far.
Joshua Barbour
2020-07-22 20:13:56 +0000 UTCDebating on getting a ipad pro the larger scale or one of the mid range cintiqs for delving into digital. What would you recommend being a better investment?
Fidel Murillo
2020-07-22 18:31:13 +0000 UTCAny chance you could talk a little bit about clip studio? Or if someone has been here longer than me could point me towards a previous Q&A where Dave talks about it. cheers.
Kevin Campion
2020-07-22 11:43:11 +0000 UTCDude you whip up new characters so quickly. Is it possible to learn this power?
Deendrew
2020-07-22 08:12:13 +0000 UTCWhen printing do you sharpen/blur your paintings or do some sort of pre prep for the print?
Timbo
2020-07-22 01:44:53 +0000 UTCWhat would you recommend for studying to get better at rendering? Do you think master studies would be helpful or would you recommend doing still lives or something else? Also do you wear socks when you play video games?
Juho Huttunen
2020-07-21 21:30:20 +0000 UTCWhats up Mr. Delicious.. hope you and the fam are doing well. i have 3 “let’s get to know Dave” questions: 1. Where did this nickname Mr. Delicious come from? i feel like i've followed you long enough that i've seen the name floating around but how did it come to be? What are some other nicknames we should be aware of, so your Rapoza family is in the know! 2. You talked about your survival in the woods growing up. Can you give us one of your most memorable moments you had surviving in the woods and any Rapoza survival tips? 3. What are your ‘go to’ 90’s Capcom music soundtracks? Thanks for all you do and stay delicious.
Rave Dapoza
2020-07-21 20:27:34 +0000 UTCHey Dave, I have a technical question regarding rendering highly reflective material. It seems that in your work you'll paint "stripes" of light going down a form, and it looks quite convincing (The neck armor of Unit-01 in your latest piece is a good example) I try doing something similar, but I'm never happy with it. From a casual perspective, the placement of these reflective stripes seems almost random. How do you decide where to put them, how they flow, get thicker and thinner and which edges you make hard vs soft? Thanks!
Yumm456
2020-07-21 14:27:55 +0000 UTCI am going into an animation program at ucf, one of the key parts for the program is to write a narrative story between two characters. Do you have any advice on how you guys write your stories?
Matt DiVietro
2020-07-21 13:28:58 +0000 UTCI have a silly question too! Can you give any advice about studies for character artist? It'll be cool if you can show your old studies in retrospective way. Also what do you think about mentorship and do you plan to make 1by1 weekly sessions (not for free ofc) to help unskill artists like me and share your wisdom?:D
Paskudaka
2020-07-21 12:29:44 +0000 UTCFound myself starting to get more work and was wondering how you go about scheduling for multiple projects? Big fan and this has been a big help, really appreciate it.
Jimmy Kucaj
2020-07-21 02:31:52 +0000 UTCDo you have a favorite tabletop Rpg system? And also fav rpg game, jrpgs, mmorpgs, all of them count
Colorblindraws
2020-07-21 02:02:53 +0000 UTCI don't have a question, I'd just like to pay my respects to Tiki Kye. She passed away July 12th, 2020 and acceded into the pantheon among the ranks of Sedell's Drug Store, Super Sports, and the fried chicken and VHS selections at Quickeez. Thanks, and stay well.
Ian Marshall Pellerin
2020-07-20 21:08:48 +0000 UTCHey Dave, what is your best piece of advice when it comes to advertising/marketing a product like the Steve books and how it became more successful then most traditionally published books? Something you know now after having done it twice. Thanks!
Nick Waldinger
2020-07-20 19:50:53 +0000 UTCwhat are good ways of making money as a artist and is the starving artist a myth?
Ahmed Alqirsh
2020-07-20 18:52:48 +0000 UTCHello Dave
Ahmed Alqirsh
2020-07-20 18:52:03 +0000 UTCFirst, thanks for sharing so much, you're wonderful. I've been drawing professionally for around 20 years (mostly concept art, pinups and indy comics), I'm also a Lead Art designer for a small local video game company (working on cute match 3 assets for facebook/mobile games). Just a little front loaded context, but my question is, how do you work around working so much? I often wonder if the fact that I'm even thinking about that question, if it means art is a hobby/side thing for my life as opposed to the thing that my life is about, which you seem to be. I hope the question was clear ha ha, I do feel like a bit of this is just my mind wandering around inside of itself while I procrastinate and don't work on art like a bad little boy.
Jonathan Rector
2020-07-20 17:48:27 +0000 UTCHi Dave Ive been following your art since the ninja turtles version, now ive seen your art evolving with new techniques hope you have other tuts to share, and hope to know on how you aproach composition. Thanks
Julio Cesar Naranjo Marin
2020-07-20 17:38:59 +0000 UTCHey Dave! So for the past 3-4 years I have taught myself how to program and really want to started to improve my art skills. I have been drawing on and off in those 3-4 years. But now I am really been focusing on trying to get better at art. I have been drawing everyday and started to paint basic stuff from life like apples and bananas. I feel I have improved but I would like to know in your eyes what basic fundamentals should someone start with first. Anatomy,perspective, Color, or all at once and for how long per day. I really love drawing characters and looking at concept art and reading comics. So should I focus more on the fundamentals that surround concept art and comic stuff or take it one step at a time and really learn the fundamentals while also drawing from imagination. Also Hi Kim & Axel!
Michael
2020-07-20 15:45:40 +0000 UTCHi Dave. I'd like to thank you to Kim for following up my question last time about your morning routine. Twas super entertaining to hear you both talk about your daily routine. Question: what aspect of art would you consider you practiced/spent the most time developing in the visual arts field?
Figmenter
2020-07-20 13:37:26 +0000 UTCHey Dave, what do you eat with your cottage cheese? Strawberries? Something besides Strawberries? These are the questions that keep me up at night. Congrats to you and Kim on your second kid by the way. Hope they get super fat.
Jacob Loren
2020-07-20 08:53:07 +0000 UTCHere’s a secret: Art is the only thing I’ve ever had a real passion for, but unfortunately I’ve dealt with a lot of anxiety related to “not being good enough” or whatever, but listening to you talk about your thoughts on art during your Orc and Bog Witch tutorials made me believe that if I work my ass off I can make it as a professional artist one day. So thanks for that man. (Also you should plug your gumroad here because I know there are people here who’d probably flip out if they knew they could watch you paint for 15 hours for only 10 bucks)
Louis Whitworth
2020-07-20 07:30:31 +0000 UTCHey Dave <3 Thanks for doing this again! Can you talk about your watercolor paintings? I love them, I'd love to know the basic rundown of your process with them!
SulaMoon
2020-07-20 07:24:55 +0000 UTCDuring university, with unrelated degree to anything artistic I was drawing only 2-3 hours a day just to not "get rusty", but now 1 month away from finishing I get anxious before tying to make art my full-time job and investment. Where to start? Sketching, film and photo studies, or something from imagination and studying from real life when nessesary ? How to work my way back up and improve?
Zuzanna Horaczuk
2020-07-20 07:17:44 +0000 UTCRepost because I think I commented on the wrong post previously!:Hope this one isn't a repeat, newer Patron: I remember you once mentioning you went on a sort of "sabbatical" to jump your skills up, something like a year's worth of training. I feel like I have a similar opportunity in my life to go dark and just focus on leveling up to improve my work/clients. I'd love to hear you speak a bit about that process and maybe some of the day-to-day thoughts you had on focusing solely on skills.
David Tenorio
2020-07-20 07:01:20 +0000 UTCHi there Dave! As someone who aspires to reach that next level of art, I feel like brush choice is extremely important. I’d like to know if there’s a specific set of brushes you utilize for photoshop/clip studio. Or perhaps any you’d recommend? Thank you.
Daniel Stewart
2020-07-20 06:59:48 +0000 UTCHey Dave, I hate art. Like the thought of doing it makes me blister with enough rage to burn my house down. What should I do to become a professional artist? Actual question: I’m trying to figure out that Drew Struzan-like color pencil on paint style like you used on the Guts and Casca pieces, but I’m hung up on when you’re supposed to stop painting and switch to pencil. For instance, is it just pencil on top of flat colors? Or do you paint in some shadows? I know those pieces probably aren’t fresh in your memory, but if you have any insight or approaches you’d recommend that would be great! Thanks!
Louis Whitworth
2020-07-20 06:49:57 +0000 UTCThanks for sharing Dave, loving the content so far. Not so much of a one question but I would love to hear more about the backgrounds on your pieces, how do you go about defining what that would be and thoughts on how you balance that out with the rest of the characters, composition and colors.
Raf Grassetti
2020-07-20 06:43:18 +0000 UTC
