Talent, Potential and Skill

I want to talk about a little thing people call talent, it doesn’t exist, except in the minds of people who are unable or unwilling to do well in something creative or wonderful. Let me expand on that, from my own experiences and through talking with other creative types about their experiences, I found that when someone says, “This person has talent”, they have the mind set that the person they refer to has some innate ability that allows them to do wonderful and creative things without effort. This is from the truth, because every successful creative person out there had the passion to dedicated themselves to the time and effort it took to get their skill to that level, it isn’t easy.

While I don’t believe in talent, I do believe in potential and aptitude. Every single person has the potential to do wonderful things if they dedicate themselves, but some people have more aptitude than others in achieving wonderful things and that is the only real edge they have. Lets take artists for example, they start off drawing young just like everyone else and for the most part they don’t draw any better than anyone else and the only difference is that they either took more enjoyment from it or took it more seriously. So, as that artist grows up they continue to draw and learn from mistakes. Sometimes, if lucky, the artist grows up in a family that has an artist or two living with them, whom they can learn from. If the passion is particularly strong that artist might ask for art lessons or get books on the subject, but still that is not always enough. If the artist stops their artwork longer than a year they become rusty and have to retrain and this is devastating. The successful artist is the one that seeks help through training but also continues self education and is willing to explore, make mistakes, and discover for greater understanding to create wonderful art. So, the successful creative person often puts years upon years of time, effort, and dedication in order to become good at what they do; sometimes this takes a life time.

Enclosing, always remember that if you want a writer, artist, musician or other creative type to produce something wonderful for you, your business or any other venture, remember we all work for a living.

"If you are good at something never do it for free"— Joker (Heath Ledger)

The following pieces of art are to the best of my knowledge in chronological order to show how long it took me to progress to my current skill level in art.

  Around Age 5

 Around Age 8-10

 Around Age 8-11
















Around Mid Teens ( I think I am going to revise this comp it is just to fun to pass up)

Around mid to Late Teens (was modifed in PS 10 years ago can't find original was two separate pieces)














Around mid to late Teens














Early 20s

 Early 20s





















Mid 20s











Mid to late 20s finally in college studying art

 Late 20s still learning to paint digitally

Present day!

Check out more of my work at Tobias White Illustrations

You should also follow me on Facebook, linkedin, Deviant Art, or catch me at @TobiasWhite1
Don't forget, you can also purchase many of my works as full sized prints at TBW Designs On Zazzle

Visions of Revision

For those that follow my work regularly, they know that my artistic skills have improved over the years. However, when I look back at my past work I still see the potential those composition had. Leonardo da Vinci once said, "Art is never finished, only abandoned" but instead of living with that abandonment I have taken it upon myself to revisit my older works and improve them to make them stronger.

 

Before and After

Wishful Thinking

 Before and After

Grand Priestess of Cthulhu

 Before and After

Cthulhu's Rising: Humanity's Defiance

Before and After

Grand Priestess of Cthulhu 2

Of course I started these revisions off with my Lovecraft pieces as that is something I specialize in, but there will be more revisions to come and they will cover a more variety of subject matters. Feel free to ask any questions you may have and also don't forget to visit my new online store in which you can purchase these paintings as full size prints or as other products such as coffee mugs, skate boards and more!

Check out more of my work at Tobias White Illustrations

You should also follow me on Facebook, linkedin, Deviant Art, or catch me at @TobiasWhite1
Don't forget, you can also purchase many of my works as full sized prints at TBW Designs On Zazzle

The Cast of Bubba Beef Jerky and the rejects.

Let me introduce you to the cast of mascots from the new and up coming Bubba Beef Jerky line. I was commissioned by Bubba Beef Jerky, which is linked to Sunset Gaming, to create mascot s that represent a different flavor and it was my task to come up with different characters based on what my client wanted and my own interpretation of the flavor. While I haven't tried all the flavors yet, the ones I have tried have a good flavor and can pack some heat. Fighting Habanero is very spicy but has a great taste. Honey Hippie is mildly spicy but is coated with a honey glaze and if you don't mind sticky fingers can be quite tasty. Lemon Bomb is it's own unique tangy flavor and it is selling well. Teriyaki Infusion as you can expect tastes a lot like other teriyaki flavored jerky but it is a good one. I have yet to try the other flavors but I am most interested in trying out War-N-Onion and the Java flavor Jerky.

Doing these commissions and commissions with other clients I have really learned some of the challenges one might run into with dealing with clients and what they want. Sometimes, if you are lucky, the client know exactly what they want which can make your job a lot easier; which feels great to get in, get out and get paid. Although other times they might know a general direction they want to go with but they want feedback and or want to be presented with ideas with what they want; this takes a little longer but is workable and just requires a little coxing. Lastly there are the times when they have only a small idea of what they want but they can't think or communicate exactly what they want, this can often.

Often I have been told and I am now learning first hand is that communicating with your client is paramount before a job even begins. Do this even if you have a repeat client with whom you have been successful in the past. You need to know what kind of style they are looking for, what kind of feeling they want the art to project, and to have them describe what they want as detailed as possible. Also having examples of other art from other sources can help communicate the desires of your client.

If you are just starting out like I am, one of the things that you must expect is to get a lot of ideas rejected and so be ready to submit a large amount of ideas to your client. A good idea is to send you client sketches or comps of a variety of ideas that encompass what they want plus it is a good idea to add you own ideas of what you suspect they want but they were unable to communicate that idea or didn't think of it. From there you might even have to do a second round of sketches but of refining from the ideas they did like. Down below you can find a variety of sketches I submitted that got rejected from being Bubba Beef Jerky Mascots and they only represent a fraction of what got turned down.

 

Just remember that you are basically a gun for hire in the art world so if you take a job then you need to do what you client wants and sometimes that require you to wade through a lot of ideas.

Check out more of my work at Tobias White Illustrations

You should also follow me on Facebook, linkedin, Deviant Art,  or catch me on Tweeter at @TobiasWhite1
Don't forget, you can also purchase many of my works as full sized prints at TBW Designs On Zazzle

Orange County Art Walk

A brand new website has recently been released by the fine folks at House of Designers. Within a simple click you can find yourself at the OC Art Walk, a site devoted to artists who reside in Orange County of Southern California. There you will find out about local OC art headlines, events, features and profiles of artists in Orange County.

The OC Art Walk's site is cleanly made, easy to navigate and has a little Razzle Dazzle but not enough to slow down the site from downloading.  The first artists that have the honor to be profiled on the OC Art Walk include Elena Bulatova, Teresa Shippy, Noemi Barajas, Abraham Acosta, Jessica Jo, Tobias White, Jaime Johnson, Steev Creeper, Paulina Ruiz, and Michael McGinn.

OC Art Walk's ultimate goal is to help the artists of the OC to gain exposure and to create a stronger art community. So come on by and check out the OC Art Walk , and if you want to always be in the know then hop on over and 'Like" their Facebook page, so you can be kept updated with their headlines and to help support their noble cause.







P.S. All you artists of the OC come on by contact the site and help this site grow and help strengthen our art community!

Check out more of my work at Tobias White Illustrations

You should also follow me on Facebook, linkedin, Deviant Art,  or catch me on Tweeter at @TobiasWhite1

Speed Painting Techniques Act 3

Continued from Speed-painting-techniques-act-2

It was one thing to talk about the techniques of speed painting and another thing to watch it happen. So I finally decided to record one of my speed painting sessions. This painting was done in an hour but I have sped it up so that it is only 8 minutes long. For best results watch it at 720p HD or higher, although if you do, depending on your connection speed, you may want to let it load a bit, so that it plays smoother. If anyone has questions I am willing to answer.

Check out more of my work at Tobias White Illustrations

You should also follow me on Facebook, linkedin, Deviant Art,  or catch me on Tweeter at @TobiasWhite1

Speed Painting Techniques Act 2

Continued from Speed-painting-techniques-act-1

As from the previous speed painting post I said that I was a bit rusty, but thanks to the daily speed paint challenges from da-speedpaint on Deviant Art I not only knocked that rust off, but I am now oiling the squeaky wheel!
One of the big mistakes I think I have done was to try and sketch out a speed painting. Sketching is not a bad thing for speed painting, but I have found that I would get caught up in the sketch, which in turn, would eat up time and then I would get trapped by the sketch. If you do feel the need to sketch then keep it loose and keep it fast and keep yourself unconcerned about detail because that is not what speed painting is about.

Another tip I found to help my speed painting is not be afraid of using loose references. Go ahead and do a fast google search for the topic you want to paint. Grab one or two of them and set them up on your screen next to your blank canvas. If you have a Poser you can set up quick poses and render them out as references as well. I found that it also makes it a bit easier to drop such references into a blank canvas that is the same dimensions as the one you are working on. By have loose references you free your mind up a bit so that you can just react and counter-react to how you are painting. When using references in speed painting it is wise to not and try and match the color of your reference because odds are you are going to make changes anyways, so close is good enough. 

Lastly when you start a speed painting, don't be afraid to be a bit sloppy while you block in your shapes. It is best to throw down as much of the color and general shape of what you are painting first. It is kind of like planning out a pallet and composition stage. Once you have everything laid out for positioning and color pallet you can then go to town and refine your painting for the rest of the time you have allotted yourself.

Check out more of my work at Tobias White Illustrations

You should also follow me on Facebook, linkedin, Deviant Art,  or catch me on Tweeter at @TobiasWhite1

Speed Painting Techniques Act 1

Part 2 continued from SpeedPaintingForProgression

A while back I had let my speed painting skills rust a little bit, so when I jumped back into speed painting I found my self struggling. However, I am getting back into the swing of things and so I thought I would talk about techniques I have been relearning and relearned.

 One of the techniques I have learned to improve speed painting is to use a variety of different brushes, brush size and opacity. If you have Photoshop C5 or higher than the pressure sensitive opacity toggle in your brush control bar is very useful for this. By doing this you keep your strokes from looking the same overall. This also helps you create detail with out getting nitty gritty which wastes time and our goal is to paint quickly
Another technique is one I learned from Cliff Cramp. By laying down local color first and then applying an overlay of color you can create shadow and light rapidly. This also will keep your work unified. In Corel Painter you would want to use digital water, but in photshop you do it with layers. One layer will be set to Soft Light or hard light (at 60% opacity) for my light sides and the other layer is set to Multiply (at 75% opacity). However, while this technique I was taught was generally taught for longer paintings I found it greatly speeds up a painting because it
takes out some of the thought process.

In combination with the overlaying techinque when you paint your local colors you will want to just block in the general shape of what you are painting. Think of the shapes as silhouettes. If you feel that you must sketch out the form from the inside then keep it as simple as possible and then block in a little bit with in that form. When you do the overlay technique over this you will get near instant volume to your painting.

Lastly keep in mind that this is a speed painting so set a timer of some sort: one that you can keep track of. When you are nearing the end of your time this is the time you use to clean up or to throw in those last needed details for your painting to be done.

Check out more of my work at Tobias White Illustrations

You should also follow me on Facebook, linkedin, Deviant Art,  or catch me on Tweeter at @TobiasWhite1