Decoding Daily Deviations: Twilight Hour

For this one I really wanted to splash out into a bunch of different software to be more rounded as a designer, so I started mind-mapping and super-rough sketching with Copic sketch markers, mostly while I was relaxing at a cafe or pub, trying to figure out exactly how I could allow the tram to move both along rails but also escalate/de-escalate when needed. I had a bunch of iterations for how it would work, some of them were a bit too convoluted but that's why I like to keep it low pressure and rough initially. After that I modelled the police tram in Zbrush to try out some hard surface sculpting, then sketched the scene out with my Copics, transferred to photoshop and finally modelled out the more complex railing parts on Sketchup using an Ambient Occlusion render. After that it was straight into painting in Photoshop and really noodling the details!"

Definitely with working out the function of the tram; I really was frying my brain to keep it functionally interesting but at the same time be able to relate it all with only one shot. Something I would definitely remember for next time is that it's easy to have 'too many light bulbs', aka too many complex and often conflicting ideas which can in the end result in less impactful designs that don't read so well. So certainly it taught me to aim for simple and elegant ideas rather than jumbled ones."

Honestly, I'd say there are far, far better artists than myself. I'm certainly still learning every day on the job and it's easy to feel overwhelmed with just how much crazy work there is out there. If I was to give myself advice before I started doing digital art full time, it would be to not be intimidated by that fact, and to focus on your own personal improvement. I'd say the only thing that will get you through the tough grind (and it can be brutal) is to have a specific aim in mind and to keep fighting for it. It's really hard to keep motivation up sometimes, especially when you first start, because working in the film or games industry seems like such an impossible dream, and can be hard to even convince yourself it's a real possibility. Learning fundamentals hardcore, keeping faith and dedicating a lot of late nights I think are the best things that I can suggest, but as I said I'm just relating what a lot better artists than me have taught me in my learning journey so far."

Actually more than I probably let on. I started out on DeviantArt at around 15 and it was a completely implausible goal in my head that I could get a DD, since I've been mooning over the gorgeous stuff people here produce for about 6 years now. So more than anything else it was absolutely surreal to be counted as anywhere near some of the craziness on here, and it gave the 15 year old in me a big kick! Hopefully I can get some personal work out soon, likely to be a further foray into Sci-fi or some landscapes but we'll see!"