Not All Art Needs to Be Pretty

My first Tales From Production series
Here I talk about how speed painting can get results faster than really pretty refined art. Sometimes messy sketch art is more valuable for finding the true story of an illustration

[@TheGreatBlumpkin]

This channel is the real deal, great advice from a real industry veteran with a heart of gold

[@curtis1997]

From experience when doing concept design you must learn how to take criticism and not get defensive when receiving feedback. You almost have to be detached from your design work until the client is 100% satisfied, because at anytime the client can change or stop the project.

[@RadianHelix]

Only for competent clients is this true. If your client is at the first curve of Dunning-Kruger, their crits can not only be destructive and unprofessional and unproductive, they can cause so much frustration and antagonism in you that you turn into a jaded monster version of yourself. True in AAA where executive's dad and grandad owned this company, true for your friends in middle school. Learn to see that what's good for the project is what's good for you, even if you can't see it. But also learn who to invest your faith in and bail before it leads to the inevitable.

[@ThatPrettyStrongBMF]

I think learning to accept criticism is always beneficial, regardless of the context.

[@sarahhsmiles42]

every one of your videos feels like privileged confidential knowledge, & i appreciate how you make creation and production etc. so accessible and de-mystified :)

[@AdamDuffArt]

These are my favourite types of videos - simple grounding fundamentals that remind you that simplicity is the foundation of mastery A million thanks

[@SubhadityaMukherjee]

As a student I'm so grateful for both of you. ❤️

[@ariathyf144]

Pre-viewing an entire movie via storyboard is so powerfully efficient thanks for remining us. It's the best way to have quality control over conceptual messaging , composition, color palettes, camera panning, facial expressions, dialogue/scenery/action time balance. No wonder why the quality of the Art in Pixar look timeless despite the technical shortcomings that existed in the earlier years. The moment you put the tech and tools before the brainstorming your result is deprived of substance and though-impact.

[@paulathevalley]

😮 an incredible number of storyboards. I seek out slowness, and I will never tire of hearing “they’re successful because they take the time.” ya can’t cheat time!

[@thenooticer7392]

Man that food store commission sounds like hell, I would have gave up

[@nikolaikai940]

9/10 I prefer rough sketches to the final image. There's something about the energy and exploration inherent in the messiness and loose pen/brush strokes that gets lost when the final image is cleaned up/rendered. The messiness also leaves room to *infer* detail as opposed to being explicitly *shown* all the detail in a finished painting.

[@siwardwoudstra1751]

I agree, at some point I found out that I like the sketches of Rembrandt even better then his paintings and etchings. For the reasons you point to.

[@LightingMentor]

Yup, I agree too! I love DaVinci's sketches far more than the Mona Lisa :)

[@siwardwoudstra1751]

@@LightingMentor Thanks for the response. I value your channel highly and am happy to see the new year video today in which you announced to post more often.

[@TRUEbASNER]

This channel is becoming more and more important to my growth everyday

[@RadishTheFool]

Your videos are never "just" a tutorial, or a list of tips, or an explanation, or a demonstration. It's always a small but clear story where several of those elements have been brought together to enhance each other. It's so impressive to me. Thank you for sharing your way of looking at art.

[@xiliuv]

I really appreciate this video as this is more intermediate-advanced stuff. Most of the free tutorials and tips are always super basic and the fact that there's some people really sharing stuff like this is amazing. Not all self-taught artists can afford y a 200$+ course or have time to study 10hrs a day or do hours of research for knowledge like this, and sometimes when an artist gets to an intermediate leven and can do more, it becomes really hard to find some help from the pros, because everything is the same: draw from photos, rule of thirds, what does eye level mean, learn perspective with cubes... I wish there could be more videos/channels like this. The art journey is not all about technique, there are some psychological stuff or best practices that just a few know about. I've been a self-taught for 11 years but I feel like I'm at a point where I don't know what I don't know, so I cannot fix what I don't even know exists, if it makes sense... I feel pretty confident in technical stuff but having this kind of extra help that is not the usual super basic tips is really helpful.

[@LightingMentor]

Yay! I'm so glad this was able to speak to a different part of your artistic development. My goal with my videos is just to share things that I wished had been shared with me when I was younger. I'm glad you're finding it helpful

[@lt.klutzy]

Loved the episode! We would love to see u breakdown the integration of 3D software in ur process of illustrations thank you :D

[@Lobstrique]

production series is the best :) the 120,000 storyboards thing is mind-blowing and a really great mental anchor for work

[@ChristopherHemsworthCreative]

Thank you as always Jeremy, and once again I say that the fact that you are so willing to show us "behind the scenes" and the "nitty gritty" is so incredibly inspiring and helpful. Your openness and humility is super refreshing!

[@ekkiart6667]

I'm so glad I found your channel, thank you for your invaluable insights. - I'd love to do concept work - I just adore creating and going back and forth on ideas and troubleshooting creative problems. I won an award for it as college. I'd really like to do this type of work one day. Got to keep working and improving first though :)

[@TravisHenson777]

Wonderful. So much juice to squeeze from this video. Thank you

[@santiagobarral6499]

Amazing video! I would love to hear more about the preproduction phase and how the whole thing is organized

[@devanshisrivastava1143]

This paints out the process of designing so well.. thanks for sharing your wisdom!

[@memorizedvisions]

Thank you for this video, I've always had difficulty figuring out what concept art really looks like and I always see highly "rendered" images.

[@KathrynGoldman]

I'd be interested in learning how the story board files are organized. What tech is used to sort the individual sketches into a story that allows easy rearrangement.

[@LightingMentor]

Great question! It's not an easy feat when dealing with so many boards. It was a custom system to keep track of everything and every board was names in a specific numbering system. The editors would then bring all of those boards into editing software so make it play out as an animatic sequence so it would feel like watching the movie itself, complete with temp music and temp voices. It was then easy to just watch and see what emotions would be felt and then change it until it was really powerful

[@Guts42]

I am profoundly thankful for your work. I've been practicing a lot following your advice and using it to find my way through art techniques and research. even though I am a beginner, I already feel like there's a more solid idea in my head when practicing and understabding art. you're seriously doing God's work, keep it up! we love you ✨✨✨

[@Overlord1241]

That was amazing how you shared your experiences working with clients, more of this content pls.

[@samanthajeffers9339]

Your advice on lots of concept art is really helpful!!

[@Cocosoaie]

Thank you so much for sharing this incredible knowledge! I would love to see the process of those final 3d illustrations.

[@adventureisntfar]

Very helpful information :)

[@alfredmanzano680]

Really appreciate you showing the iterations you went through. So cool that you just saved all of that and not just the final images

[@cyaneya]

I'm so happy I found your channel, you are the real deal. Every subject you touch turns out even more interesting than the previous ones. So excited for more content in 2023!

[@jidjewww]

Thank you for sharing! I’m so glad I found your channel. I appreciate how you give details about clients’ feedback and how it developed from the first draft to the final piece.

[@sondertoons9743]

Im so grateful for you and your channel 🙏🏽

[@siwardwoudstra1751]

I am very happy to have come across this channel! Keep up the good work!

[@agoodamount7557]

Its really awesome to see your process in making these

[@rooftopdwelr]

This is such quality, insider content. Thank you!

[@jamescandyland]

Awesome vid! I just saw your interview with Kelsey, it was amazing and I’m glad I checked out your channel! Super inspiring!

[@DrStrangechilde]

So insightful-- also really fun to watch how the projects come together! Thank you!

[@Andyxcrm]

I’ve learned so much from your videos, thank you for sharing.

[@jimberry7865]

Awesome! I would love to see you iterate a few changes on a small scale in a future video. My biggest problem is often getting started. Once I have the outline of what I'm doing I can generally work with it in Photoshop. It's the blank canvas that's the hard part for me. Great job!!

[@fuzzydragons]

great advice and probably one reason they had us start and finish each brief in graphic design at uni in 2 weeks. we had to learn to work fast and ways to actually set up things and communicate ideas to a client in a way that was understandable but also able to change if needed.

[@tinyredkite]

Thank you so much for this video! Very informative and paradigm changing, especially for perfectionists like myself. I've been struggling to find ways to change my approach, and here is your video as the answer! Thank you!

[@OneTabbyYeiX]

Hello Jeremy, I'm solo practicing art student and I find your vids are extremely helpful to set a concrete direction of what to learn and apply as a artist! Please keep it up with what you're doing, I'll be always enjoying listening you vids and applying. It is such a honorable experience to listen Ongoing Industrial Art vetaran's advice. Really Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!

[@snuffells]

You're amazing!!! seriously, your channel is really good, have a really really good advives, thank you so much !

[@Lizard1582]

This channel is a gem.

[@victorllanos2311]

I’m new in this channel. I got trapped when I started to watch and learn invaluable tips and lessons from real job field. Also I’m captivated by our humble host and how he explain everything without a hint of ego -which it could be acceptable and reasonable due to his career and experience! - THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[@dirkschwartzel3360]

Hi Jeremy, love your work and love the way you teach even more. This is by far the best video how it is like to do freelance work in the real world. Will forward that to my son. Stay motivated. Regards Dirk

[@Numellover8]

YES Jeremy FEED ME YOU KNOWLEDGE

[@taintedkid]

Hi there, and thank you for creating these wonderful videos. Each one gives me the strength to continue trying to become a better artist and create art without the fear of failure, which has been taunting me for a really long time. I have no words to explain just how great this content is and how much I value the advice you give every time. Thank you! Greetings from Italy and Bulgaria 🇮🇹 🇧🇬

[@animeknowledge5048]

Guys don't forget to share the video with others the more subscribers he has more videos for us

[@LightingMentor]

Thank you kindly my friend!

[@vstreet7583]

I just want to say how much I enjoy your channel content. Thank you. Dg.

[@3dchick]

Omg, this was fantastic! Id guessed 200-300, so wow! I really need to start doing this and block out when trying to put my scenes together in Unreal. It just takes way too long to iterate with the full props/characters.

[@armanhossain1667]

Awesome & helpful video.

[@MichelSoucyJunior]

Just great infos and good advice. Thanks

[@jazzykayonbroadway]

I'm a scientist now but as a kid I really wanted to be an artist, specifically a painter/drawer. I think if I had seen this as a middle/high schooler I might have actually gone ahead with it because you're showing really cool art tricks but also how to do art in the "real world" as a "real job". Kudos and thanks for making this channel!

[@stephanieu1185]

👏🏼👏🏼 Love the witty name of this channel! 😄The content is superb

[@PandoxLp]

I love your channel!

[@milagrosmansilla9567]

Thank you for this channel 💚

[@flaviocampos3581]

I really liked the art of the the 2 first examples. I like level design for games and learning how to do art like this would be amazing. Do you have any tips on how to start? I always like that Isometric view of areas to show things but I am not sure on how to start learning.

[@europeanroyalty4778]

Really enjoyed your beauty video. Thanks.

[@josemreyes]

What a great video! ❤

[@rojoreno]

awesome presentation, thanks for sharing.

[@briannaalejo9226]

Thank you so much!!!! Wondering how many pre-production visuals do video games usually produce?

[@harshaeranda3321]

This is gold🏅

[@AlpineArts]

When I was a kid, I loved this animated Christmas video called “Noel”, which was based on a red glass ornament. It was so excellent, have you seen it? Your style reminds me of what they used in that video. I love it!

[@TimmyLC199]

This is gold

[@jamkhoor7037]

Amazing experience

[@miaisdrawing5509]

thank you so much for your content.

[@mistertitanic33]

Im interested in how you go from 2D sketch to 3D blockout so well? could you do a video on that?

[@micaharmart]

Amazing video as always. I was wondering if you have any thoughts about how a solo illustrator would go about being incredibly iterative with only being able to bounce ideas off with oneself. I find myself only coming up with 1 or 2 ideas for a painting and then I get stuck. Maybe my imagination muscle is just very weak at this moment, or I don’t have clear goals. I was just wondering if you had thoughts on that. Thanks

[@lolozo214]

If you have an hour to spare, there's a GDC talk called practical creativity which may be helpful. Naturally it talks more about game design but some of the techniques may be transferable. If I had to summarise it, it largely focuses on introducing constraints and trying to work around them.

[@andy6515]

Great Video !! The only question I have is "How do you make the transition from 3D to the final? Do you draw over the 3D model?"

[@ChrisPho]

Hi, what software do you use for 3D modeling? It looks amazing!

[@ditarahmawati3719]

nice explanation.

[@jamkhoor7037]

Please make a video about the color board for short animated movies.

[@VarshilChangani]

Hey your videos about colours are absolutely amaaazzzzing! Not just this one.. im binge watching since hours… i just wanted to know when you said 3d .. what specific software are you using?

[@VarshilChangani]

I think it might be obvious to graphic and environment designers.. but i have an architecture background and so i dont know much about softwares you guys use.. 🙂

[@RaelNikolaidis]

I had second hand anxiety when he said he had only three weeks to get the project done. Seriously.

[@ChrisSpeda]

Great! 🙏 What kind of software do you use to sketch?

[@LightingMentor]

These were all done in Photoshop. More recently I've been loving Procreate on the ipad

[@FabioAngela]

About storyboard, how do you think current AI progress will lead on that matters? I can see a huge revolution that would lead to trim out drastically the time spent on sketches. Maybe the tech is not ready yet but it will be way sooner than expected (imo)

[@LightingMentor]

I’m not really sure. Right now AI seems good at spitting out lots of pretty images, but is not good at subtle connective storytelling. Time will tell what changes come. Either way we need to focus on what story we’re telling

[@sh1ma332]

i hope you dont mind if i ask this but are you going to do a tutorial on texturing details?

[@jamkhoor7037]

Thanks Man.

[@migovas1483]

This works with people that understand what they want , and know what are doing, plenty of times You need to explain, and loose time doing a 'fine' version, because Mr X or Miss Y on the board meeting, have problem understanding basic shapes, or volumes, THIS SQUARE is your Building, THIS CIRCLE IS YOUR POOL..🤣🤣.. right now, they start asking, " can you get a midjourney/ ChatGPT rendered version to see it better? " ... because they don't know how the character will be yet.. but they insist they have a very clear idea of how long the sleeves on the T-shirt will look..😇...

[@d1i9n2a2]

You're so cool 😄

[@egomod]

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@The-Strong-One]

Looks hard to do for traditional art, restarting from scratch a lot more. But maybe that means it's more valuable, not harder

[@dogbark]

*120000* !? and I thought 1000 was a lot 😆 wow that is fascinating

[@IanYan9]

Amazing video. How do you charge your clients? Per hour or per project?

[@LightingMentor]

For most of my clients I would hear what exactly they were looking for and make an estimate of how many hours I think it would take me, then make a flat fee for them based off of those hour calculated. I'd always make a simple work agreement between us before starting that set all fees and deliverables clearly and what extra charges would incur if they had changes. It always worked wonderfully to set expectations up front very clearly before starting work. I hope this helps answer your great question

[@IanYan9]

@@LightingMentor how do you deal with changes that clients had? Do you charge extra for the initial changes or only for changes after some work has been done? Thank you for your help.

[@nope4454]

You said u worked on a series of animated vegetables.... was jt veggie tales?

[@jimonmars1]

Could you explain the storyboard number? One image per second in a 2 hour movie is only 7200. Obviously a lot of concepts get thrown out, but that many??

[@LightingMentor]

Do a search on youtube for Pixar Animatic and you can see how many storyboards as needed for every shot. Like this kzbin.info/www/bejne/oWG4l6Z4e9GYg7c And then it's impressive just how many changes are made

[@metralla]

I wonder how you deal with clients that have no concept of what a rough sketch is. As a graphic designer I have sent rough ideas to clients to get feedback and sometimes I got email responses like "I don't like the font", " that sticky figure is not realistic enough" or "Who is Lorem ipsum?"

[@LightingMentor]

Great question! I made a packet to show my process to new clients that showed how this rough ideation works and how it would be refined later. 99% of them got it, but sometimes there are clients that just don’t have that ability to see past it. Most see the benefits of trying lots of ideas before polishing it

[@barbi111]

Is is worth to do an illustration in 3D instead of only in 2d?

[@LightingMentor]

I think many illustrations can be all 2d for sure. Back then the clients wanted high resolution (upwards of 20k pixels in width) so 3d was just faster and easier. :)

[@CandyRoom]

120'000.... О.О Very interesting, thank you!❤️

[@veryfilthything]

I think this is really good advice in general, but I really struggle with doing this as an artist and its not for a lack of trying. You say these are loose, fast sketches and I have no doubt that they are for you. However, there's something important that all of these have from even the roughest iteration: clarity. I can look at these and see exactly what idea you are trying to convey. When I try to do something like this, my thumbnails completely lack clarity. I have an idea I'm trying to draw, but my quick drawings are so sloppy and unrefined I can't convey my idea properly through them; certainly not well enough for a client to understand. I don't really know how to resolve this either since I thumbnail literally everything I draw and have for years. I always try to do these quick sketches before working on a project, but they are always terrible at conveying information. I have to spend tons of time refining them to get my vision across which defeats the point of them being quick thumbnails. I'm saying all this to ask if you have any specific advice about tackling this issue, cause its not really something I've seen talked about. I'm also not sure its just a matter of experience either because I have artist friends who have drawn significantly less than me that can do thumbnails with much better clarity, so it feels like I'm missing something.

[@kupotenshi]

I suggest doing timed figure drawing. You'll get better at drawing faster with more clarity when you only have 5 minutes to draw an entire body. You could also practice sketching some simple concepts with clarity in 5 minute intervals. I think drawing with a timer when you want to improve your speed helps a lot.

[@Window4503]

Is it possible that you’re too focused on the fast and loose part? The goal is to lay down the least amount of visual information that still easily conveys the idea. That doesn’t have to be done quickly. Your goal is simplifying a concept rather than just doing a concept quickly. Try drawing slowly and thinking about the most efficient way to convey an idea in as few lines or shapes as possible.

[@papasgottaeat]

Jerry's sketches destroyed my finished artworks

[@franksonjohnson]

You worked on Veggie Tales??

[@LightingMentor]

Yup... way back a looooong time ago. It was my first job

[@jreffjeff7909]

ur a real kid man B)

[@nitrogamesstudios5276]

Where is source or sites to draw clients without talk the paywall sites like freelancer or people per hour (huge spyware BTW)

[@ekkiart6667]

I don;t think it is one particular site or even a collection of sites but rather advertising yourself on social media and the big thing, NETWORKING :) Getting to know people in the industry. I found doing a university course very helpful for networking as it "gets you in the door." Best of luck! :)

[@fruitypebbles803]

Oh man, you mentioned working on veggie tales, so I looked you up and it turns out you were a Christian missionary! And you traveled the world trying to convert people to Christianity! Not gonna lie, that’s really kind of creepy. ☹️ I thought we were past the point as a civilization where we shove our beliefs onto others.

[@LightingMentor]

And that was a point in my life long long ago that I wish weren’t part of my history. My worldview has changed significantly and I now agree with you that beliefs should not be shoved on anyone! I do not consider myself religious at all now and wish that my past was different, but the past cannot be changed. We can only move forward