Have you ever heard of a store called Jerry's Artarama? It's a discount art and supplies store based in Raleigh, NC, and it's recently become my latest online-shopping victim as an artist in this pandemic. As a digital artist, traditional art was always foreign to me outside of the basic pencil-and-paper; but this year, I vowed to get better at traditional mediums in order to be a strong competitor for my dream school. Let's go over some of my supplies, shall we? A CaveatI know what you're going to say first: "But wait, Jay, this isn't related to game design- really- at all!" and initially I would agree with you, but I'm really grasping for straws on what I can talk about that is somewhat parallel to game design that I haven't discussed already. So I've decided to stretch out a little. This is somewhat tangentially related to game design mainly for the art sector-- many concept artists use traditional mediums to flesh out their ideas before digitizing them. So I'm going to analyze each and every medium, and determine whether I'd use them or not for game dev. Let's get into it! Prismacolor Colored Pencils
In terms of durability, I'd give it a 5/10. While the pencils are firm and don't splinter often, when sharpening the inner core it tends to split and snap in half. This characteristic is often seen in low quality pencils, as the snapping of the inner core causes pigment to spread everywhere and the artist has to sharpen the pencil even further, reducing its maximum possible use. In terms of color and spreadability, it's a 9/10. The pigment is so strong and colorful, and with the right blending and color combos the pigment spreads in a super satisfying creamy texture, creating hues perfect for your piece. I would definitely use these to sketch out ideas, color test, and create concepts for either characters or the world. I could see myself sitting in a meeting and quickly sketching these out on a whim for my producer. LUKAS Water-soluble Oil Paints
Now, you can paint oil pieces without worry of the strong smell or the toxic fumes-- some fumes are still there though, so make sure to paint in a well ventilated area. With nontoxic mediums/paint thinners like Gamsol available, you can paint pretty safely with water-soluble oil paints. Personally, I vastly preferred these paints to acrylic. It had a rich, creamy texture and blended extremely smoothly on a canvas. I could see myself making high definition pieces with this. Plus, there was no smell at all and I could clean the brush quite easily with soap, water, and Gamsol once I'm done. However, due to how expensive these paints are, and their inherent inclination towards defined pieces, I would not use this for the game development process unless it was in post production and I had to make a unique piece for a promotional campaign. It takes too much time to provide any value to the overall process, time that could be quickly halved if I switched to a quicker medium. Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors
What I'm trying to say is: cheap watercolor looks like cheap watercolor. If you skimp on the paper, it's going to add what I like to call "freckles" aka oversaturated and agitated pimples of paper caused by the addition of too much water on a non-watercolor viable paper. Cheap watercolor can make your piece look like a child's art project, and for professional work, that's not what you want. I'm not saying get the most expensive watercolor ever, of course, but I'm saying that you should invest in your art supplies as an investment in yourself as a professional. A good watercolor (like the above) has strong pigments, large pans, smooth padding. It takes to the brush with ease and spreads out like cream. But it still maintains the convenience of watercolors. The Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors were my first introduction to proper watercolors that weren't taken off Michaels' clearance rack. The pan is MASSIVE and has lots of potential for many pieces before running out, and there is great care taken to the piece-- on the inside cover, the packagers included a swatch board so you can test every color before applying it. No need for messy swatches on watercolor paper here! Kuretake Gansai Tambi also introduced me to Japanese art supplies in general. European producers dominate the art world, naturally, but there is a greater movement to look towards the East for high quality art supplies as well. I definitely will be looking towards Asian brands moving forward for my art supplies if possible; I'm highly impressed by the packaging, design, and overall quality of this. I believe these watercolors are perfect for quick, but high quality color proofs that are still professional to look at. In SummaryYou may be thinking, after reading all this, 'But Jay, why wouldn't you just sketch digitally?' That's a very good question, as sketching digitally has a lot of benefits. First, your digital copy is saved onto your computer/account so losing it (like you would a physical copy) is less likely. Second, because it's digital, you can send the pieces to assistants, producers, etc for feedback and receive it in record time. Plus, digital art allows you to make a thousand modifications at a time in just a few seconds.
Traditional art, and therefore mediums, however, have more possibility for pre-production. They're more stimulating and engaging than say a tablet and a computer screen; which means more ideas to generate. Plus, you can still be quick to make new ideas with these mediums! Citations...
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AuthorHey, Jay Phung here. This is my blog where I reflect on various assignments from Game Design! Please enjoy your stay (´・ω・`). Archives
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