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ImmarArt

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Click here for part 1. 

Before I start: Don't listen to the people who tell you to change the style you love. You will find work and people who love your style as long as you do what you love, period.

There are two type of people: The people who can work on their own and people who need structure. If you can work on your own follow the advice below. If you need structure, you will need to go to an art school or take online art classes. There are tons of awesome professional artists who teach online classes. Here's some: www.schoolism.com/school.php training.cgsociety.org/ www.conceptart.org/go/learn/
www.gnomonschool.com/

To improve your art, draw what you want to improve on. You want to learn how to draw feet? Copy photos of peoples feet 30-60 minutes every day until you got it down. If you need reference photos, deviant art has tons of them. search 'feet' or anything you want. Draw your own feet. Take photos. As a professional, I always use reference before I start an Illustration. I gather photos from google, pinterest, deviant art, I take photos of myself or friends and use them to help me see what I can't imagine. Try this: www.pinterest.com/characterdes…  

Drawing from life will improve your illustrations 100%. When I started out, I refused to draw real people. I just wanted to draw in my style and I thought it was useless to me. I was sooo wrong. You can still draw in your style and learn from life at the same time. Its a tool. use it. Another way to improve is to gather a list of 5 artists you admire and copy their illustrations every day for a year if you need to. Copy 80% of your time and use 20% to draw from imagination. It's a slow process and it will take years to get better. there is no secret to it. Just plain hard work and dedication. You can't be a pro athlete in a few months. From my experience, It takes 2 years to get good at something and 3 to 4 years to start making a living. (Use it as a guide and break it with a faster time. I challenge you). But they have to be completely focused years. There's no excuse. When I started I had 2 kids, I worked a full time job and struggled with depression but I still made time for art everyday. 

MAKE time for art. Give up a few hours of TV or games or going out every week. You NEED to make art a priority if you want to make a living from it. TV doesn't pay your bills, Games don't pay your bills, Your friends don't pay your bills. This choice will make or break you. I promise. It's definitely OK to take a day off every so often to have fun. 

You will loose heart, you will want to give up, you will hate it sometimes but just keep working EVERY DAY and you will be one day closer to living your dream.  

To sum up:
1. Draw what you love.
2. Copy, copy, copy.
3. Draw everyday.

Don't forget: 
I'm giving you guys:
- A full size JPEG for my new batman poster
-2 Photoshop files 
-plus all of my Photoshop Brushes for FREE! 

The files are about 3 gigs total and too large for DA, so I posted them up on this website instead. gumroad.com/l/Batman

Enjoy guys and let me know what you think by leaving comments. Please share with fellow artists. 
Have a great day and work hard! 
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Hello DA, 

There are a lot of artists out there who need help with becoming better artists but they have no idea where to begin. I've gathered some of the best free resources out there for becoming a better artist. This also applies to the people who want to know how to make a living as an artist. 

ProkoTV - (Youtube) How to draw everything- from basics to advanced. Refine your skills. 
Theartorder - Advice from one of the best art directors in the Illustration industry.
muddycolors - Advice from professionals and art directors in the industry: Art process, finance, promotion.
illustrationage -Advice on how to make a living as an Illustrator.
IceflowStudios- (Youtube) Everything you never knew you could do in Photoshop. Technical know how. 

Below are invaluable resources if you have some cash to spare:

Artpact -How to price your work/downloadable contracts/reviews of companies by working artists. Low fee. $
Thegnomonworkshop - The BEST training videos from entertainment professionals. Technical know how. (Film, Video game and Illustration Industry) high fee $$.
There is a way to get videos for free. You will need to enter their monthly art competitions and place in the top 4. I got a lot of videos this way in the past. 
Programs: 3ds Max/After Effects/BodyPaint/Boujou/ImageModeler/Lightwave/MatchMover/Maya/Mari/Modo/Mudbox/Nuke/Painter/Photoshop/Real Flow/Shake/Stitcher/Unreal Engine 3/XSI/ZBrush

The list above applies to most artists out there. There are also other aspects to becoming a professional artist, for example: Developing mental stamina, physical health, balancing life and work, etc. All of these things are extremely important and you will need to learn them. If you guys have questions or want to contribute links to other websites, post them in the comments below. 

Next time, I will post a list of companies for once you are ready for your first Illustration job. 

Click here for part 2

Please favorite this post and share with other artists. Thanks! 

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Hello DA!  I got some new art up on my blog. Some you've seen here on DA some is brand new. Go take a look! 
immarpalomera.wordpress.com/20…
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Hello Da! 

I can't believe I've been viewed 50,000 times! Holy smokes! Thank you all so much for the love!  I can't express how much that means to me. thank you for all the favorites, comments and shares! I've been on DA for 7 years now and I never imagined I would meet so many great people on DA. Some of you are really close friends now and I can't thank you enough for your support. THANK YOU 
 
I've been quite busy with client work, portfolio work, and other personal projects these past few months. I had to stop my daily sketches I was posting on my Instagram because I got too busy. I hope to start it up again next month.

Some of you may have noticed some of the work I've done on the Legend of the five rings game and I will start sharing some of that work with you soon. Some of it is old art so please excuse the crudeness. I was experimenting with different styles and brushes but I eventually found the style I wanted to be known for on that game. I won't show all of the work because I have no clue what has been released yet. haha. I only know of the work people have asked me about.

I have posted some new work on my portfolio site here: immarart.daportfolio.com go check it out and leave me a comment here. 

Till next time! 
Immar
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Film study

2 min read
Someone recently asked me, what is a film study and what its purpose is. I'll explain it for the people who don't know: 
A film study is the process of copying a still image of a film onto a blank page. The purpose is to learn how light affects form, how color looks in different lighting situations and depth of values (values are darks to lights). There's a lot we can learn from this process. Movies are put together by many professionals in the field: Concept artist, make up specialist, lighting directors and so on. There is a lot we can learn from these professionals so make good use of it. I normally pick a film that has really interesting lighting or a type of lighting I usually don't have much experience with. Some artists try to avoid the eyedrop tool to pick colors so they can 'see' color better but there is no difference to me. I use it all the time and I'm still learning about color. I will go into a detailed process another time with screenshots for you guys. It will make things easier to understand. I hope you guys use this method of improving your skills. 
It's my way of doing things and it's just advice. 

-Immar
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Featured

How to become a better artist for FREE! Part 2 by ImmarArt, journal

How to become a better artist for FREE! by ImmarArt, journal

New art and update on my blog by ImmarArt, journal

50 thousand views and Legend of the five rings ! by ImmarArt, journal

Film study by ImmarArt, journal