Concept Artist Exposition: Steven Messing

This is another blog post where I fanboy over another fantastic artist.  This time around, his name is Steven Messing.  I intend to become one of the best illustrators in the world in the future, so I look at what the best illustrators in the game can do.  These guys have amazing capabilities through many years of working their asses off and crafting their style (or talent, as people who don't know shit about working hard call it).  One thing I notice is that quite a few of them incredibly skilled, their creativity is not at the same level as their illustration ability.  Steven Messing on the other hand, has both the ability to paint at a very high level on top of having the creativity to back it up.  That's why he is one of my favorite artists.

that color composition...

Now there is little point in reading me ramble on and on about how good he is.  Use this wonderful tool known as the internet, with this lovely NSA data mining website known as Google and search him up.  I follow him on facebook as he regularly updates his work there, I'd recommend you do the same.

His official website: here

Personal Projects - Pushing The Schedule, Taking Your Time

Note that this does not include work with a client. Once the date is set and the contract is signed, there is no turning back. If you need extra time, then you really have noone to blame but yourself. This is about personal projects. Artists generally have an issue of knowing when to let go of a project. People get better at this unsurprisingly enough the more they keep painting. This recent project I worked on was the opposite case. I had a plan of when the project would end. I finished the project. But, it didn't look all that good. It was "ok".

I create a youtube speed painting every month, and release it on the first of the month. If you look at the dates, most are released on the 1st of every month. The few that are not were videos that I had to re-upload due to song, copyright infringements despite not monetizing any of my videos. Now before I start on another rant on Youtube and their idiotic policies, I'll try push my ADD away and try to focus on the topic at hand. I decided for the first time to take an extra day and work on the final illustration and improve it to a level that I was satisfied with. This is my 29th speed painting, and it's a shame that my run of releasing my videos on the first of every month was finally broken. Lets hope my next run is more than 28 speed paintings!

Make sure you know when to let go of your illustrations and in some rare occurrences, going back and improving your work!