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TurnipStewdios — Commission: Frosted Forest sketch
#berry #sketch #turnip #icommission #turnipberry
Published: 2018-10-13 23:30:42 +0000 UTC; Views: 4941; Favourites: 642; Downloads: 0
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Description
IMPORTANT:This art piece has been fraudulently sold as an NFT. I do not, and have no plans to ever, sell any of my work as NFT's. If you see this piece, or any other piece done by me, for sale as an NFT on sites such as Opensea, it is stolen and posted without the permission of myself and/or the customer who bought a commission from me.
This is a sketch commission for
I... really like how this turned out.
The sketchier background on it came out a bit more dramatic than usual. Disclaimer: Under no circumstances do you have permission to repost or use this image or my other work for any reason, unless specifically stated otherwise. The customer who purchased this design may use is as an OC for personal uses, but may not sell the design without asking permission first. They may also post this image to Toyhouse or similar sites as a reference, as long as credit is provided. Do not repost my art to other websites, use this work as an NFT, use my art as banners, reaction images, page backgrounds, examples, or any other personal or commercial use. If you have a question, or would like to ask permission to use a piece, please contact me about it.
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Comments: 17
👍: 1 ⏩: 0
IMPACT
As a lover of animal-fantasy art, your piece immediately catches my eye for the way it depicts two creatures encountering a shadowy, massive landscape. The white's wings are cocked protectively over the dark gray alien, yet its ears are alert and head is held high, so it almost looks as though the white is leading, protecting, maybe even silencing the gray. The piece reminds me of a turning point in some fantasy story, where the two characters have just left one world behind and now approach another world or task to complete. Using dA's ratings, I rated you full impact stars because the posing, the strange alien species, ominous colors that juxtapose a seemingly peaceful landscape, and, frankly, obvious drawing-painting talent you have made me click this painting out of a cluster of other ones.
VISION
I would criticize the lack of polish in the mountains and trees themselves, since both characters looking at them makes this area an important viewer subject point, but will not criticize this because you stated this is a sketch commission, which wouldn't have that much time spent on background details. To make up for this, I will say, though, that maybe your conceptualization or vision could have been firmer and more exciting or playful here. These creatures are staring out into the woods and mountains... for what? Even something as quickly, easily drawn as a hidden shadow figure, or design detail that suggested another world, or even something "symbolic" like a broken tree branch or strange object... just, any teeny tiny detail that would have made me look at this landscape the characters look at and say to myself: "Whoa - at first glance, that just looks like they are looking at a landscape. But when I really look at it... something seems off" And I don't mean "off", technique wise, I mean something that makes the landscape something different than plain trees and mountains. Something that would make me curious.
Out of the other pieces in your gallery, this one reminds me of these:
(www.deviantart.com/turnipberry… , www.deviantart.com/turnipberry… ) In all those cases, you have strange, creature characters in scenic nature that, as suggested by the hard shadows and desaturated colors, look like they are within some story. I think you do a good job capturing mood and portraying the atmosphere of some narrative. Great job! I'm sure your commissioners appreciate how you take their characters to the next level by surrounding them with a context.
TECHNIQUE
I marked you down some technique points, but don't take it to heart since this is a sketch. I'm secretly crossing my fingers that, even though this is a commission, you may revisit this piece in private in public, or redraw it with your own characters, and see what this composition and beauty would look like... if brought to a finish instead of stopping here. If you do consider maturing this piece from sketch to polish: I'm a little thrown by the lack of color and texture in the gray (for such a charismatic alien thing, he is quite tiny in this composition, yet my eye is still led to him as a central interest point!). Also, if you look at the very bottom of this picture, the black grass looks a little too linear, like it is a picture frame, when I feel like grass should feel more a part of the scene itself, not like it is coming from the edge of the frame. I feel like we would only see grass that close to the edge of the frame if the perspective was from someone lying in the grass itself. And critique that applies to most of your pieces: while your drawing skill and lighting dynamics are killer, I think you would benefit from playing with color more, and adding color to an image again even after you have done parts of shading and drawing and base coloring. I think you might consider using color inside of your shading, and inside of your lighting, and maybe think of ways to add colors to things you think may not naturally have those colors (ex. painting red and blue light into green leaves, instead of white light and black shadow into green leaves.)
ORIGINALITY
FINALLY (dear Heaven I type too much so lucky for me that I type fast), the BIGGEST, MOST UNIVERSAL tip I advise you, based off me thinking hard about both this piece AND YOUR GALLERY.... is treat yourself to more personal artwork!!!!!! ;w; I mean this more than I mean anything I typed in those gigantic paragraphs above me. While I appreciate that you have to use commissions to build yourself, while I appreciate you are looking for technique-critique, the surest, best thing I think you can do for yourself is let YOUR TALENT be defined by YOUR PERSONAL VISION. You've succeeded - you've got people (I'm one of them) enthralled and amazed by your art technique, check that box, you're a good artist, and sure you may improve a little more but you're already awesome - now, me (your follower) wants to know who YOU are as a person. Because you, as the artist, will reflect in your art, and vice versa. Still keep up the commissions for yourself if you like, you've earned and deserve them... but if you want to really improve, I /don't/ think it will be in a technique you perfect - I think if you have the drive, the fire, the desire to improve - you will tell the outside world to PAUSE and you will let YOUR IDEAS be the driving force. You will change how you manage your time so that you can afford to "commission yourself." I want to see this talent, this style of illustration, this hard work, represent YOU, the artist!
I type so much I'm sorry!!! Argh I can't turn off my novelist brain. I write and write and write ^^' But I'll let myself post this, considering I don't think artists get lengthy feedback all that much anymore! Everything nowadays on the internet is short soundbites, and I think longform can be more meaningful - so with that, I hope something here is what you wanted to read from a critiquer!
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Thank you very much. Especially for taking the time and thought nessisary to type out such a long and, actually, rather helpful response. I really appreciate the feedback, especially for something like this, and you have some great observations.
To address several of your points at once, (The feeling of entering a new area, the feeling of something being off, and the lack of an obvious subject,) I was actually thinking a lot of the scene from Bambi, when first entering the meadow. A cautious, slow, deliberate emergence into an open space. There does not seem to be any obvious threat, but caution of the unknown might be warranted. Maybe I could have included a more obvious secondary subject, and I'll certainly keep it in mind for future note, but I wanted to try it without one.
This is, as stated, a sketch commission, and thank you for making a note of that.
And as for color. I was originally thinking of this as a sort of fall piece, with frost graying down what would have been dull red leaves, but that sort of thing would usually have come at a later stage.
And thank you for the bit about personal art. I would normally be doing a lot more personal work than I am at the moment. 
However, I do not have a day job. I support myself entirely off of commission work, and at the moment, I honestly couldn't be happier doing it that way. But I am still not over the hump, as it were, with my commission-based income. I've been doing this full time for less then six months, and I don't quite make enough money to be completely comfortable. I'm not just doing this to build myself up, I genuinely need to do this many paying pieces. I do need to pay bills, and in the last month in particular I have had unforeseen expenses which have made things hard. At the moment, my first priority has to be paying customers. Having to go back to a minimum wage, 30-40 hour per week job, just to support myself, would kill any time I might have, for ether commissions or personal art. I did that for several years after moving out on my own, and while the majority of stuff I did was personal, I got almost nothing done. I got a grand total of 17 images done and posted to DA in 2017, verses 56 so far this year.
At the moment, The prices I charge mean that I have to work a minimum amount of time every month in order to make bank. As time goes on, I am and have been steadily raising those prices, which will eventually allow me to spend less time working. But at the moment, the audience I have isn't quite large enough to support anything above a specific price range. Many people who buy from me are college or even high school students, and if I raise my prices too much, my business may dry up. As I get better artistically and attract a wider, better paying crowd, this will hopefully become less of a problem.
And I do realize that one of the best ways to get a wider audience is to do more personal, unique work. to put more effort and thought into each piece. As a way to help with this, I try to put a bit of myself into anything, even commissions. To strive to improve, impress, and enjoy myself, even when I'm just doing it for the money. That's how this turned out the way it did.
Again thank you very much for the constructive feedback, and I would love to continue the discussion, if you feel like there is anything to add.
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Of course! I am very glad to know that my feedback was welcome and you feel that some of the points were helpful. 
I think I chose my wording wrong or was too vague, "build yourself up", I could have worded that better, but I did understand that commissions were supporting you in some way, I didn't realize they were your main income stream until you told me so, but I assumed they might be. Balancing supporting yourself with making personal art is not easy so I am very impressed and encouraged by how you are both successful in your work for almost six months now, and you are happy with what you are doing. I also think it is great that your personal style and creativity still shows in commissions! That is awesome - you have it together in a way I don't yet. I am still in college (not an art school, just a state university) for Animation, and while I've had a lot of personal growth and maturity these past years, my school never drilled me on my portfolio and demo reel the way I thought they would. I realized midway that college is a business, and that my artistic success was going to come from my own time put into it, and that graduating from an Animation program did not guarantee anything, except that I could check the box for having a bachelor's degree.
Now I'm in a sticky spot where I need to go back and revisit the basics, and get myself shaping up my schedule, gallery, and portfolio, to "catch another wave" since the one I thought I was riding didn't take me close enough to shore. There's a lot of ups and downs with the support you get for your art - I'm sure you know this way better than me, and I'd welcome any advice you have on being a professional artist 
Anyhow, I really appreciate how thoughtful and open you are
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I was fortunate enough to get a good look at what art college and college in general was like before I actually tried to attend one. When I first moved out a few years ago, I spent a while looking for a day job. The plan was to get myself into a stable situation and build up some money for a year or two until I could enroll in ether the local community college or state university, probably for game design. And, funnily enough, I got a decent, well paying part time day job working at the state university. While I was there, I met and talked to people who were going through some of the courses I was interested in. And I realized that it was... kind of pointless. I could learn the same things that most of the courses provided, in a fraction of the time, completely free, on my own. so, I decided not to attend college. Having a job on campus meant that I was off during school hollidays, including the entire summer. I was actually eligible for unemployment during that time, but I did commissions to support myself as well. It was a great opportunity to test the limits of the income I could make that way. Finally, at the beginning of this summer, I figured that I could make enough on my own, and I quit.
Over the last few years, I've been looking for resources and good artistic information online. There is lots of stuff available, free to use, that you could easily use to supplement your college education. Youtube, in particular, is a surprisingly good resource. For some reason, all of my favorite youtube artists are traditional painters. But three of them in particular are extremely helpful for learning things like lighting, anatomy, technique, and composition that can be used in any medium. I would suggest that you look up Aaron Blaise, James Gurney, and Andrew Tischler. In fact, you may want to look into buying (or loaning from a library) the books "Color and Light" and "Imaginative Realism" by James Gurney. They are two of the best art instruction books I have ever found.
If you want to start an artistic carrier, I might recommend the day job route.
The most important thing you can possibly have for a job as a freelance artist is self discipline. You have to be able to treat it like you would any other work, going in and sitting down to it at least a certain number of hours every week. The nice thing about being self employed is that you can set you own schedule. You can take breaks and days off when you need them, which is an enormous help for stress management. But, at the same time, you can't give yourself too much freedom. You need to sit down and finish a piece, and the sooner you get it done the sooner you can take another paying customer. I only actually work a few days a week, on average, because I have to wait for someone to bite. But as soon as I get a commission, I will sit down for as much as six to eight hour shifts per day until I finish it. Again, I can take a break when I need it, and, in fact, making sure you are taking regular breaks is very important. But getting it done quickly means that if I have another customer, I can make more money, and if I don't, I can have a few days off. It isn't anywhere near as stressful, boring, or slow as a comparable shift at a day job. I don't have to deal face to face with customers, I don't have a boss or coworkers, there is no commute. I can go make lunch or a snack, I can take a few minutes to look at messages, listen to music or interesting stuff, or any number of other things to pass the time. (in fact, I tend to listen to videos about science, engineering, astronomy, and spaceflight. There are some fascinating channels that I check on regularly. I tell people that art is my carrier, and rocket science is my hobby.
And, actually, your comment about personal art yesterday was the final kick in the pants I needed to finish a personal project I've been working on for a while. I have the first sci-fi piece I have posted to DA going up this afternoon, and I'm planing on making a series out of it. So thanks!
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That is all great advice, thank you so much for sharing it with me!
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Read the comments on the critique... maybe they're looking toward the possible obstacle of the cliff line - maybe somehow they've got to get over or around that to get to where they're going.... of course I don't know - was just a thought... Love the stark simplicity and the more subdued colors in this - and the light and shadows on the characters are great!
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I'm really liking the nice clean lines and the simplification of the shapes - less is more in this case.
I also get a Roger Dean feel from this - and being as he's a favorite of mine, I'm all for more in this technique.
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"sketch" commission? I'd say more than that
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My commission tiers are more about how much time I spend on something. This came out unusual good in a relatively short time.
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well great job at being able to render quickly! it can be difficult to make art with speed
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This looks great. I love the pattern on the clifts
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