by …continued from previous page.
Chris: Yeah me too. I’m extremely cautious, it takes so much time now to get me to recommend somebody for something. I’m almost like having them do tests on my own, jump through that hoop! Not literally, I don’t actually do that for those of you who are wondering. But it makes me want to though. It makes me want to…
Robert: I totally get you man.
Chris: So Robert, let’s wrap up with this, you know this as well as I do and you kind of reference this briefly near the beginning of the interview, that there are a lot of artists out…well in fact there are a lot of artists listening to this podcast episode who feel alone quite frankly. They feel kind of stranded and whether that’s educationally or vocationally or creatively, what would you say to them given the perspective you now have so far?
Robert: I would have to say that you have to…a lot of people say this and it sounds cheesy to repeat what a lot of people say but it’s very true and that is, no matter how hard it gets, you could at least give yourself a day to recover from any abuse that someone may have given you about your art or any abuse you may have given yourself. But you have to realize if you don’t pick yourself back up from that moment, nothing is ever going to happen. You’re never going to get better, no one is going to recognize you, you have to keep pushing. And if you keep pushing, eventually someone is going to recognize you. And yeah, I mean that’s the best thing that I can say, that’s out of my own personal history.
Chris: I’m living proof.
Robert: Yeah, pretty much!
Chris: Oh, that’s awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time and I look forward to the sequel to this podcast episode when we get to learn about all the geekery that is net right now in play.
Robert: Awesome, Chris!
Chris: Thanks again!
Robert: Yeah, this has been great. Can’t wait to talk to you again!
Chris: I’m sure you’d like to weigh in on a few of the more open ended topics that Robert and I addressed in our conversation. iPad styluses, stylusi – sketching on mobile devices, let’s just say that. Personal projects, the future of independent film, the downsides of digital effects, and how to deal with haters – even though that wasn’t part of the plan, it sort of came up there at the end. So please, join us at ChrisOatley.com/Robert-Simons-p2 as in part 2 and join the conversation! I’m very interested as always to hear your thoughts. Oh and Robert’s last name is spelled Simons, so yeah, ChrisOatley.com/Robert-Simons-p2. And so I look forward to engaging with you in meaningful conversation there in the comments. In the time since Robert and I recorded this interview, Wacom has released a new iPad stylus with a narrow tip and I have high hopes for that so I will keep you posted.
Near the end of the episode, Robert talked about how vital his concept art internship was to his career so I thought you might want to listen to Artcast episode 69, Breaking in at Riot Games and How to Get a Concept Artist Internship, an interview with Chris Campbell, and you can find that episode at ChrisOatley.com/Concept-Artist-Internship. Despite the fact that it was probably a mistake on my part to use the words ‘how-to’ in the title of that episode, Chris Campbell shares some extremely valuable insight about how to get an internship as a concept artist and how to build a career as a concept artist. So if you’re interested, you can go listen to that episode if you have not heard it already. And be sure to join us next time for a thought provoking interview with the incredibly brilliant Adam Westbrook, creator of the Delve Project which you can find at Delve.tv. I highly recommend that you watch his videos called The Long Game, parts 1 and 2 and that will help to set the scene for the next couple of Artcast episodes. And now my friends, it is time for the breakthrough segment.
Today’s breakthrough story comes from Olga Drebas. Olga is one of my painting drama students. Olga writes, “I never realized how much of this crippled me until the moment when I noticed I was free of it. Growing up, my family discouraged me from pursuing my art career. The discouragement affected my self-esteem which has affected my artistic development. As a result, I terribly misjudged my own work as not good enough to be sent to possible clients and publishers. That lasted for years. I’m not sure which podcast it was exactly, or which particular story, but I think I started following Chris around the internet, listening to the audio, reading the articles, and generally soaking in the artistic juice of this community. Within a few months, I realized that most of the things that I was too afraid to do, sending in my portfolio in response to a call for entries for example was such a normal thing to do that some people just did it as part of a routine. Promoting our own work can help us to combat insecurity. I started promoting myself more often, the exposure didn’t improve my art yet, but I think it will benefit in the long run. Rather the exposure helped me to start closing the gap between who I was and who I was destined to be. I sent my work to ImagineFx, after one month of silence they replied, ‘Hey! We want to feature your work. Please send in such and such and a photo.’ This was a huge breakthrough. I never realized I was already good enough for them. I became even more active about self-promotion. I emailed clients that I previously didn’t have the guts to approach. One of them replied within the first three hours and gave me a gig the following morning. So thanks guys.” And then she has a little crazy eyes emoticon which does not translate to podcasting very well but use your imagination. Thank you, Olga, you are awesome! You can find Olga’s website at GriffinFly.com.
If any of our podcasts, tutorials, articles, any of the Oatley Academy courses or instructors, or students – if anyone from within the sphere of ChrisOatley.com influence has made a difference in your life, if we have done anything to affect your career or your art or your story for the better, would you please be so kind as to take a couple of minutes and email your breakthrough story to [email protected]. You can send a written email, you can send an audio file through Dropbox if you’d like us to play the audio file on the show, or you can call us at 818-588-OATS and leave a voicemail on the listener line. So again, [email protected] or 818-588-OATS. We would love to hear your breakthrough story.
If you are an intermediate digital painter or a beginner who likes to learn quickly by being thrown into the deep end, then I encourage you to enroll in the very first digital painting course offered by the Oatley Academy of Concept Art & Illustration. In true Oatley Academy fashion, it has a snappy title. It’s called The Magic Box – Everything I Know About Digital Painting. In The Magic Box, I will show you every work flow, every technique, every time saver, everything I have developed over my past eight years of professional digital painting experience including my time as a visual development artist at Disney.
The Magic Box will empower and equip you to paint lifelike human and animal characters, to control color, light, and atmosphere, to achieve a professional level of polish and dimension in your work, to avoid overworked paintings and the flat coloring book look forever, to increase your speed and efficiency with versatile techniques that will work in any painting, and of course, to break through the overwhelm of working in Photoshop. Plus you’ll have access to a huge community of passionate focused artists with whom you can connect and collaborate. So if you want a clear step-by-step method designed specifically for concept artists and illustrators, head to ChrisOatley.com/MagicBox and enroll today. It’s completely risk-free and you get instant access to the first set of lessons as soon as you enroll. Here are just a few testimonials from current Magic Box students. @JohnAcuna says, “@ChrisOatley, those lighting tutorials helped me make a major breakthrough today. Two days of work done in as many hours. Thanks!” @Frederick_S says, “First time I’ve looked at a painting I’ve done and not wanted to scrap it asap! Thanks @ChrisOatley!” @ThousandFoldArt says, “@ChrisOatley, that last lesson changed my life dude! #MagicBox” And @DrakeStudio says, “The Magic Box courses from @ChrisOatley have made me question my entire digital art workflow. The learning! It hurts! Hurts so good!” I love you guys. Yeah, so head to ChrisOatley.com/MagicBox to learn more, to enroll, and we would love to see you join the Oatley Academy.
Chris: Whether you’re into concept art, illustration, character design…(laughter)…sound like I’m mad at you! What is this voice I’m doing? (laughter) Oh god….filthy kids and your filthy concept art! (laughter)
