Have a glance over this month's lineup of news, events, opportunities, and more!
BLACK FRIDAY SALE & NEW CLASS LAUNCH
We are busy behind the scenes prepping for the Winter signup launch! For this year’s Winter Term we will have one new live class - FORM RENDERING. This class is the second in our fundamentals series and will focus on painting and thinking three-dimensionally. We have developed all new exercises and curriculum and we are excited to share it with you. If you struggle with rendering and muddy values, or have trouble making your paintings look volumetric, this class is for you!
In addition to FORM RENDERING, we will also be offering the following classes:
FANTASY ILLUSTRATION (in self-study or with feedback)
MATERIAL RENDERING (in self-study or with feedback)
CHARACTER ILLUSTRATION (in self-study or with feedback)
DIGITAL PAINTING BASICS (in self-study or with feedback)
INTRO TO STYLIZATION ( self-study only)
INTRO TO CHARACTER DESIGN (self-study only)
Registration opens on NOVEMBER 27th with our Special BLACK FRIDAY SALE EVENT! We will be offering our biggest savings of the year with a special 25% off on ALL CLASSES from NOVEMBER 27th - DECEMBER 3rd!
The 25% off sale will also apply to private bookings.
UPCOMING EVENTS
WARHAMMER 40K SPACE MARINE ART CHALLENGE KICKS OFF ON NOVEMBER 7
Swatches Art Challenges are back! The Theme of this Art Challenge will be the glorious SPACE MARINE! Participants will get a special challenge assignment and to keep things festive, our top 3 participants will receive a prize!
Tickets will be $20, go on sale November 7, and there will only be 10 tickets available. Participants will have 4 weeks to create their image, receiving two live feedbacks. The first feedback live stream will be on November 21st and the final feedback stream on December 5th. Full details will be posted with tickets.
PRIZES:
1st place winner will receive a physical copy or digital download of the SPACE MARINE 2 game for the platform of their choice. 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive a free self-study Academy course of their choice.
COMMUNITY
Our fellow Academy instructor Nino Vecia has launched a new Kickstarter!
Nino has spent the past year creating all new illustrations for his dark fantasy card deck “Prophecy”! You can check out Nino’s beautiful artwork and support his project HERE.
Discord News
We are also still accepting portfolio submissions on Discord! However, because of the upcoming art challenge and Christmas break, we will likely not resume the review livestreams until early January. To submit your work for live review on the Swatches YouTube channel, please join our Discord server here: www.swatchesdiscord.com and post a link to your work in the #video-critique-submissions channel.
INSPIRATION
We recently came across some of the concept work for Black Myth: Wukong and it is outstanding! There are such beautiful combinations of color, texture, patterns, materials and details to look at. Even though there is a lot going on, each character/creature still looks cohesive from top to bottom. Check out more of Yang’s work HERE.
TIP OF THE MONTH
Importance of Having Good Vibes and Being Low Drama
There's a lot of other factors that go into being hired besides portfolio. There's you as a person, your attitudes and behaviors. First impressions and how you get along with others is very important.
Senior Artist and Art Director Fred Rambaud shared some thoughts with us on this topic.
“As an art director I was always thinking, I’m going to be working every day, eight hours a day with this person, and I just don't feel it. I don’t want to. I didn't get any good vibes, so I'm not going to. I don't care about the work. “But he was so good.” Yeah, but no, it's going to be a problem. I can feel it. It's going to be an issue.
People forget that they're working for another person. When you hire somebody, you have to think about the human factor a lot, sometimes more than the artistic factor, because most of the portfolios out there that are considered, they can do the job, they can do belt buckle variations and whatnot. When you go to your artists and you talk to them and you ask for something, and they start complaining about the task or they start, “Oh, my God” and this and that. Or, they have a bad attitude or they don't communicate well with the 3D character modelers, and it's always about friction, and the only thing you do constantly with them is try to deal with those attitude problems.
So, you better be somebody that has a lot of positive vibes and feels outgoing, and somebody who people want to hang out with, basically. It has nothing to do with the cool elf you have in your portfolio. These things are completely forgotten by artists. You're competing with your attitude, with your persona, with your vibes, not only with your portfolio.”
You can get more industry insights from Fred by watching our full interview with him here.
INDUSTRY NEWS
After years of being invite-only, Wizards of the Coast are accepting portfolio submissions! If you are interested in applying for WOTC properties, you can submit your work HERE.
The first round of submissions is from Oct 25 - Nov 15.
The second round is from Feb 3 - Mar 7.
Don’t forget to check out the Career and Portfolio Kit if you need help preparing and targeting your portfolio for specific properties like MTG and D&D, or book a private consultation with us if you’d like feedback on your portfolio!
JUST FOR FUN
Swatches Academy has a new mascot! Meeker (or Meek-Meek for short) appeared in our backyard 2 months ago. He was about 3 weeks old and starving. We didn’t think he would survive, but after frequent cat milk feedings and a trip to the vet, he regained his strength and has since grown into a very active kitty! He is also slightly cross-eyed, but we think it adds to his charm 🐱
Thank you for browsing the November newsletter, we'll be back with another lineup of news and events in December. Until then, catch up on the latest portfolio review episodes on the channel HERE, get community feedback on your artwork on the Swatches Discord HERE, and get an artistic edge with a popular self-study digital art course HERE.
-Clint
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