Jon Neimeister
Atlanta, GA
2D Art Lead at Hi-Rez Studios
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8mo

Peter N
added comment inWarmups to Improve Line Quality
8mo
Asked for help
Hey @Stan Prokopenko
Is there any chance you could do a short intro to setting up digital brushes for sketching?
General opinions are mixed on what kind of brush beginners should use when learning digital art and I'm having a hard time finding one that feels right.
I know the brush itself doesn't matter in the big picture, but I am just a bit afraid of getting bad habits from using the wrong one.
A few tips on things like what should be pressure controlled, what size/opacity should a brush be, etc., would help a lot.
I randomly realized just now, that even though we got a great introduction to traditional tools, you didn't talk about digital ones much.
8mo
Hey, Peter!
IMO, it does and it doesn't matter. "What brush do you use?" is almost a meme at this point, but brushes do make a difference- and I think it mainly comes down to experimentation and feeling. Like some artists prefer charcoal pencils, others prefer charcoal sticks, neither is better but one may just feel better for you and you'll get more out of it.
Generally speaking, you won't develop bad habits from using the wrong brush. Bad habits just come from process, cutting corners, using shortcuts instead of learning fundamentals, etc.
I think focusing on specifics like what brush, what size/opacity, etc. isn't super important. What's more helpful is to set a goal and experiment with brushes to get there. Like if you want to get better at more painterly styles, do some painting studies and try out some textural brushes to see what you can do. If you want to get better at hyper rendered splash art style, you can try a study with just hard/soft round brushes and see if you can nail that hyper-render feeling.
So my general advice would be:
- Set some goals on what kind of markmaking you're trying to achieve
- Get some free/paid brushes from artists that will help you get there, or make your own
- Try out your new brushes and organize them. Keep the ones you like, delete the ones you don't like. Having a massive, disorganized brush library is a nightmare.
- Learn your software's brush engine. Being able to make your own brushes helps a lot, and it will help you understand why some brushes work for you and others don't. And you can even edit brushes that "almost" work for you to make them perfect.
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10mo
Hey, everyone! I hope you've all had a fantastic start to the new year and are excited to dig into the next segment of this course. I wanted to give a quick update on our plans for this year as there's been a slight change to our production schedule. I've accepted a new job on Hearthstone which is very exciting but also means I have to move across the entire country, which has been consuming every waking moment of the past month or so. As such, there will be a bit of a delay in the release of the next episodes until I can get settled into my new place and re-establish my recording setup.
We have a LOT of great content coming for the course this year that I'm super excited to share, and I want to be sure I give it 110% effort rather than squeezing it in between a million other things. I do apologize for the delay, but I can promise the next section is gonna be awesome and well worth the wait. Thank you so much for your patience, and I can't wait to continue painting with you in 2023! <3
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Jon Neimeister added a new premium lesson
11mo
1yr
Can I use cap instead of Photoshop for this
Asked for help
I had some fun but at some point but I just hate painting backgrounds, man.
Well, to be more precise, I feel so clueless as to how to make a "nice" background (and/or props) that I get demoralised to the extent that eventually I felt like I was "rolling through punches" to move forward and "finish" the piece.
I don't want to "not do it" because I know that I want my finished artwork to have (even simple) clean backgrounds, but I clearly feel like I lack some knowledge or something.
Anyways 'nuff whining (for now)
Thanks for the lesson 🙂
1yr
Hey Tsotne! Thanks for keeping up with all the assignments, it's been great following your work. :D
Don't worry, it will get easier! The most likely culprit is that you're simply more experienced with figures than backgrounds, so you're hitting a bit of a wall where you know you can paint "better" than this, but it's not coming together the way you want for the background which can be frustrating. As with everything: practice, study, and reference is the key! Additionally, backgrounds are very reliant on perspective so investing some time into learning that can help a lot.
This is also a very challenging assignment, we've been working almost entirely with reference up to this point, but if you invented the background from imagination that's a whole new problem to tackle. Did you have reference for this background or was it purely invented?
I'll get deeper into this on the critique video, but for now I hope this helps. Keep it up, you're doing all the right things! :)
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Jon Neimeister added a new premium lesson
1yr
Jon Neimeister added a new premium lesson
1yr
Jon Neimeister added a new premium lesson
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Jon Neimeister added a new premium lesson
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Jon Neimeister added a new premium lesson
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Jon Neimeister added a new premium lesson
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Jon Neimeister added a new premium lesson
1yr
Holy crap I am in awe!!
I've been wondering forever how illustrators make those painting look so "professional" and nice, and these are like the golden nuggets of knowledge explained in a nice and clear way.
I'm getting excited, Imma try all these things as soon as I can.
Thanks Jon! :D
Jon Neimeister added a new premium lesson
1yr