Hey everybody! The new interview is tonight! Plus I got a post of my enviro studies... Which isn't very exciting soooo... New interview tonight!
Live Interview with Daarken tonight @6pm EST on Crimson Daggers! - Click! -
- NOTE for European Viewers -
For those of you who have watched before at this time gotta know that we've had our daylight savings last sunday(europe isn't for a couple weeks) so this interview for you guys will be one hour before the usual time.
Daarkenis a Freelance/Concept Artist working fulltime(probably literally) @ Mythic Entertainment and on various other projects including Magic: The Gathering!
Heres my environments from the past week... minus one crappy one D:
Hey everybody! I know I've been all over the place and not updatin lately... That will change after my deadlines are up but will be like this for the next week or so. Hopefully I can pull through!
In the meantime though... I wanted to updated with all the awesome interviews that are comin up on the Crimson Daggers LiveStream!
To Win this Monster post a comment on Chelsea's blog with a background story about him :)! It can be about how he was born, where he came from, a story from his life, anything! As long as he's the main character.
(Click the Image for more info)
Pretty awesome, and easy if you got a minute to write a cool story! I'd do it but I'm already surrounded by her stuff in my house D:. We're both working from home and I get to watch her make cool stuff all day and she helps me with my work as well :). Pretty goooood system. But yea, if you'd like to see more of her work then just check out her blog at the link above and click her Shop on her top banner. Support the Chelsea, buy her awesome things haha.
Also, I'm planning on having more guests on the Crimson Daggers... I've sent out a few emails to people and some private messages. But while I wait I figured I'd ask you guys what you think.
Who should I contact to be my next guest artist?
Just leave me a comment with your suggestion and I'll look em all over :)!
Hey everybody! Updating this a little bit later than usual. Devin and I spent the time after the Crimson Daggers and built an awesome monster snow man out back. Its pretty huge, somethin over 6 feet, just wait til I don't show you and it rots in the backyard... Withering away as the glory of spring destroys his monster heart D:.
Check the stream tomorrow
@6pm EST for my Monday night Character Drawing Session!
I'll be taking suggestions from the Chat and it will dictate how the final character comes out!
Anyways heres some of the content we covered during the stream today... Basically a lot of technical questions came up and we often referred to sources online from which we learned. Hopefully you'll give these a read through and learn somethin useful!
Composition! - Be sure to READ through ALL to absorb it!
Other than that I don't have much else to post. Not quite done with my study just yet but I'll try and update when I can :). Hope all that info helps! Keep on studying and seeee my daggers tomorrow!
And as always I got the other supplies I mentioned like the Plaster Cast I was studying today in the sidebar to the right here ---------------->
Hey everybody! Crimson Daggers just ended and I'm getting read to start on work! But before that I figured I'd drop this piece of info for you if interested. I did an interview for Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews the other day and it just got posted this morning.
Also I may be doing something with ImagineFX in the future(not sure exactly what just yet). Will post more as they tell me :D. Or not if they don't want me to haha. Should be cool though, I'm always interested in doing how to's and other workshop style stuff. Hope its cool!
So, until I got some more stuff to post heres a photo study I did today with the Crimson Daggers!
Hey everybody! Just finished up another Crimson Daggers stream this mornin. Feeling really good today, veryy alive! Got myself all pumped up yesterday talking to my friend Janaabout work and what shes been up to. So we're sorta feeding off eachother's energy and hopefully I'll be able to push myself to another level. Really excited to see how this turns out! But you wont know til around fall when the work is released(we're both working on the same project).
Heres my tomato from today!
Talked a bit about the supplies column I got on the side here---->
Basically its a program Amazon runs where your website can be associated with their product. If you click and buy the product through my blog then I make a % of the sales. At the moment its only 4% but I guess after awhile it can go up to 15%. Pretty good deal if you ask me! Hopefully it'll help and hopefully I'll provide stuff you need.
So I asked people from Crimson Daggers what they'd like to see me host as far as products... And the main suggestion was to host good anatomy books! So heres some I searched out after the stream that are awesome. Just remember that you have to read it! Don't just copy mindlessly... Make the time you put in worth it!
Glenn Vilppu -(couldn't really find a good source)
George B. Bridgman -
Theres some good ones to get started with. Just make sure, like I said before, that you really read and try and figure what you're doing when you study. Don't just copy without thinking.
Hey everybody! Finally got the Crimson Daggers website up! Thanks to Dennis Kutsenko :D! I just made up some simple little layout and we got it up as a placeholder.
But anyways I wanted to put forth a challenge... If anybody is interested! Basically I don't have much webdesign skills(as you can most likely see) but I had to get somethin up and out there. For the future though I was looking to have it redesigned so that its more presentable. Doesn't have to have a million features or whatever but it should just be a cool splash page. It may need ad placement as well in the future if you'd like to take that into account. So anyways, if you'd like to lend a hand that would be awesome. I'd love to check out people's mockups of the Daggers website. I'd rather see it designed by a fellow dagger who knows what theyre doin anyways haha.
has to include redness, blood and possibly switchblades in design
has to have the mission statement up top(the current one was just thrown together.)
has to include stream details(currently below mission statement)
So anyways, if you're interested please submit whatever mock ideas you may have to rapozaster@gmail.com. Don't mean to ask for free services or anything but I'm runnin the daggers for free at the moment D:. Not much money rollin around in the pockets. Figured I would reach out to my daggers for some love. Hopefully theres a couple graphic dagger designers out there :D!
Hey everybody! Trying to keep up with everything I got going on and am failing... Sometimes its best not to juggle everything at once so you don't drop all the balls :(. Best to keep a strong focus. So yea, I've been doing the Crimson Daggers now for a good 3 months or so and have seen loads of improvement in the participants. The studies have totally helped my work along in so many ways and I find that finishing art is a hell of a lot easier than it used to be. Hopefully as time goes on this will grow and grow til we get a good couple hundred regulars on there posting work daily :D. Thats what I'd like to see anyways... People just getting waaay better every day and showing everybody else how its done. In the meantime though... I can wait, too much to finish all the time!
Currently I'm working on a few magazine pieces, an album cover and some personal works for an application I got going w/Bobby Chiu. Been having fun though and trying to make time to get away from art. Trying to get some time in on Mass Effect so I can unplug from my constant work and just sorta zone out. Don't usually play games ever, in fact this is the first in a couple years, but its relaxing and I think I've needed that. Just have to watch out that I don't get totally sucked in D:. Mass Effect is awesome :O!
Well, heres some art I've been doin :O. Just messin around for now so these are all works in progress :). Then some studies.
Hey everybody! Just wanted to let my Crimson Daggers know that I'll be out til the 27th!
Looking forward to taking a little break from work, I'll continue to study though :). Here are some studies I've been doing lately. Not very exciting but I'm waiting for my work to get released :O.
Hope you've been keeping up with the Crimson Dagger's progress! Lots of new art everyday :). If you're a member of Concept Art feel free to drop some support on em :D.
I'm really excited today because I'm ahead of deadline on all of my work. Could possibly send it all in today but I'll hold onto it in case I see something I could improve... But its cool to have most everything done ahead of time. Having too much fun working for Wizards! Hoping I can get some more magic work soon although I'm not sure how often they ask for work. I'm hoping my Daggers are all working their hardest because once you do start to achieve your goals you'll see how worth it it is to really push yourself everyday. So if you're a Dagger and readin this then just know that I have total faith in all of you! I see crazy progress and I know if you stick with it you'll get to wherever it is you're headed. No need to worry about anything, as long as you follow what you love 100%... Success and money follows. But if you go around chasing money then you'll most likely never get it. Just work hard for yourself. Also remember to post anything helpful you may find(reference/technique/study habits/ etc) on the sketchbook for everybody else to check out. Keep in mind you can get everything outta life by helping others get what they want. If you're always dedicated, working hard, and always helping/being helped then how can we not succeed? This is the fastest way to the top!
With that, heres some crappy studies I've done lately haha.
All of these are 1-2 hours with the exception of the Repin study which is on hour 6 now :).
Also, keep in mind that I'm showing these even though I think these are all terrible haha. I just want to show that it doesn't matter. You gotta know that we all fail...if we never failed we would never know how to improve. Making mistakes is just a natural part of learning, you'll never(unless you're a superhero) do anything perfect the first time. Everything is just a matter of practice. Some people are naturally inclined to certain aspects of whatever it is you're learning but that doesn't mean they're any better than you. Just keep at it and you'll see through trial and error that you have just as much potential.
Hello everyone! I've been having a lot of fun lately with my work. I always knew that if I just kept on pushing my name and studying I'd reach the goals I set... But now that I'm doing the jobs I want I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what to do. Whats the next step? I just know that I can keep on doing better work and possibly move onto book covers. Trying to figure if I want to try and get a game contract or maybe some movie work. I haven't decided what to pursue just yet. Hopefully I can just keep on studying and pushing and move onto better things naturally.
In the meantime though I've been running the Crimson Daggers stream everyday(with the exception of a couple sick days) and have been loving it! The amount of improvement I see in the people participating is amazing. I'm really proud of everyone who has really just changed the way they live to focus on their big dreams. Everyone can see it(those who keep up), we're all improving and how could we not. As long as we're all studying harder than everyone else then we'll get there no problem. You just have to keep at it and stay dedicated to yourself. Its not about impressing anyone or always coming out on top. Its all about failing and learning from failures. Thats not a downer thing to say either! If we're not constantly failing then we're not truly trying. "if you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems. And thats big mistake", that qoute has a lot of truth to it. When you have a big goal like becoming a fantastic artist then you truly have to work at all kinds of problems. This isn't a two step program and its not a scam either. When we all just meet for an hour a day everyday studying together for free and for ourselves then we're all that much closer. I really just want to see everyone move forward and not lag behind. Its really important that you follow whatever the hell you wanna do.
So if you aspire to be a great artist then please join up. No fees or anything stupid like that. - Crimson Daggers Study Group!We meet everyday @ 9am EST!
But yea... I just want to say that I have nothing to gain from this except my own knowledge and skill expanding. This whole thing is setup strictly to help everyone for free. I hate how money becomes the motivation to help people, nobody owes you anything. I worked my ass off but I'm not gonna hide anything, you just have to give back as much as you can. You can get everything you want out of life by helping others get what they want. This is totally true and I've seen it first hand. Having somebody tell you that you really helped them is worth way more than knowing I'm making the most money possible for spending the least amount of time teaching.
Not to say that I'm the greatest teacher or anything but I'll probably get real good if I keep up with the daggers hahaha. I hope so anyways!
Anyways, the Crimson Daggers might be hard to keep up with for most people but you can rewatch any of the Streams below the window there or just spend an hour of your day studying and post your work on our Concept Art sketchbook
Btw- of course I know there are plenty of well taught fantastic online classes and whatever but for the most part its 'lets appeal and use our names to make the most money possible'. And I think thats terrible. If you really wanna get good then invest in taking an atelier course from somebody who really knows what they're doing.
So Anyways! heres my step by step Cosmic Sorcerer. I don't use this approach anymore, but I figure it may help some people.
Crazy week! Since starting the Crimson Daggers I've done a lott of work D:. Trying to juggle this with freelance and now its finally coming together... Got a good rotation going on now! Goes something like this -
Life Painting from Observation
Painting from photos(landscapes, portraits, nude figures)
Master Studies
Then whatever else I can fit inbetween, mostly just technical information on illustration and whatnot. It'll be better to have the structure though. Other than that I got Zach and Andrew Domo hosting Crimson Daggers LiveStreams as well! Lots of really great work being produced!
Heres a study from my lifestream today. I do them @ 9am EST and they run about an hour, this one was an hour and 20 minutes.
Finishing up a good amount of deadlines between now and Christmas so I'll see what I can post up here... But it'll probably be lots of studies haha. At least for a little while.
The Crimson Daggers have EXPLODED! These guys are so dedicated to getting better I can hardly believe it. Surely there are those that don't update everyday and follow along with the studies... But the ones that have... They've already shown big improvement! And with the new addition of two more Crimson Dagger streams I can't begin to imagine where this will take us! I really look forward to more studies and more improvement! I hope you guys do too.
Sorry I haven't been updating my blog, just waiting for some pieces to get released so I can update somethin decent... In the meantime you can check out a Work in Progress and my studies from the stream!
Will keep you updated on cool Dagger developments!
Hey dudes! Don't got any new art to post sadly... But I got a good amount on the way that I'll be able to show. Just waiting for it to get published. Other than that I'm workin a ton this month and got some pretty tight deadlines. So aside from the LiveStreams I don't know what I'll be able to put out.
That being said, I plan on taking the LiveStream sessions to the next level! Starting within the next couple days I'll be doing hour long morning anatomy studies on LiveStream! Together we'll all take on Loomis and as we progress through the streams we'll move onto painting from life, perspective studies and all sorts of good stuff. They will most likely be at 9-9:30 am EST and run til 10-10:30 am EST. Hopefully I can get a good amount of you to really get into studying everyday so we can all move forward!
If you want to join, and be serious about it... You can drop me an email - rapozaster@gmail.com and I'll add you to my mailing list! Let you know the times and hopefully in the future move onto assignments we can all complete. Anyways, I really look forward to getting this all started!
This pumped group will be called the CRIMSON DAGGERS. You better be ready to soak the competition in blood, to conquer lazy thinking and procrastination! Be ready to take hold of everything it is that you want out of your work and scream to the god of the Crimson Daggers that you crave Crimson blood, sweat and power!! D: