Becoming A Better Artist - Robert Chang Workshop

I thought this might be of an interest to some of the artists here. It is an 8 week course that starts on March 8th, but it is open for registration now and spaces are filling up fast. Just read the course outline and you know it is going to be amazing.

“While putting together the material for this workshop, I came to the realization that the entire course is essentially the absolute distillation of the most essential things I have ever learned as an artist to date, and if I could travel back in time and spend eight weeks with my younger self, these are the very things I’d want him to learn.”

He has been a studio art director, concept artist and texture artist in video games, a comic book artist, an animation writer/director, a storyboard artist, and an illustrator, and he is very confident in his ability to clearly explain even the most complex topics.

It is definitely not cheap at $549, but I think you can't put a monetary vaule on what you can gain from this workshop. At the same price, other workshops are usually about how to do this, how to do that. I believe what he has to offer will form the very foundations of every art you create, which is why I took the plunge and enrolled this morning. Another quote from his forum post:

"The truth is, I could've easily put together a workshop on some very easy but popular topic like "How to draw hot anime babes and awesome CG robots!" in a very short amount of time and then repeated it just to make money, but then I'd feel like **** doing it, knowing that what aspiring artists really need is not that kind of crap, but to really learn and grow as artists. I already knew the ROI on my workshop would be considered really bad business, but it was a labor of love, and when it comes to stuff I'm passionate about, any financial savvy goes right out the window. Spending more than a year of my life creating the course material definitely counts as "crazy" because I'm pretty sure I'm the only instructor in the history of CGWorkshop to have gone off the deep end like this."

Oh, and Robert Chang is the guy who did this famous digital painting.

So that's where VexXxa got her lip winking avatar that was so totally into orange stuffz.

Hey Lousy, is the course a down-loadable video series that you get to keep so you can review it at your leisure after the course or is it a limited login to a website while the course is on and once it's over you are locked out?
It would be more valuable (imo) if you can keep the course material after you are done with the class and be able to refer to it down the road.

One --> Artz Giveaway <-- To Rule Them ALL!

I will settle this. ORANGE FTW! - Ex Libris

Some one had asked how the course material would be presented and this was his answer:

"The text & images portion will either be html pages or pdf. I'm leaning towards html since it allows flexibility in my updating minor changes, whereas pdf will require complete rewrite of the entire file every time I make a change. Also, I think html is a bit more bothersome for those who want to spread my material via pirate sites. PDF makes it almost too easy for them. (Why anyone would do that after spending $549 is beyond me.)

The videos are linked in the html pages in the order of viewing. You always go through the text & images portion first before you watch any of the videos."

It's not just videos, and Robert said the text portion will cover different topics than the videos. He didn't say if you can keep the videos or not, so I just pm'd him.

Do you know what time of day these workshops take place? I never did one of these and I would hate to spend that kind of coin only to find out I'm at work during the workshops.

Hehe, another quote:

"If you have a day job or are going to school, you should still have enough time to do the assignments, as the assignments were designed with people who have day jobs or school in mind. You don't have to be online at a fixed time--the workshop is forum-based, with text and images and videos for the students to go through at their own pace, and then all interaction is done via the forum. Every week will have assignments, and I try to be flexible when designing the assignments. For example, if I ask for three different lighting variations of the same subject, you may only do two if you don't have enough time."

I think he also expects you to have a tablet even if it is a cheap one.

tempting, but I dont have that kind of money

Sorry Eddy. I imagine I will be skipping a few meals and CoH subscription will be my only entertainment spending for some time.

CR, this is the response from CGSociety:

"The classroom is accessible to students for quite sometime after the official end of the workshop so they can get back in. Regarding content, it’s virtually impossible to stop someone from copying the html and videos if they choose to."

So it sounds like you will be able to keep the material for personal use.

Yeah, it looks good, but pricey.

I think the price actually seems pretty good for an 8-week course. I mean, a 5-day Illustration Master Class workshop is like $1950!

I'd be interested in checking it out, but there's no way I'd be able to keep up. I have 3 illustration-specific courses this semester and ALL of them prepare the student for the very tight deadlines that publishers will give working illustrators.... yeah, I'm gonna understand short deadlines VERY VERY well by May o.@

I'm speaking more relative to my pocketbook than other classes.

Need to file taxes... and pay for this...also I need to file taxes and pay for a wedding in OCTOBER!!!!!

grrrrrr. LD





I guess I continue to be mostly self taught.

Hate to be a killjoy, but I would definitely shop around before jumping into something like this. The price is reasonable for this sort of thing, but online education is a growing trend and there are lots of options available. Personally I've always found Robert Chang's work to be weak in terms of professional digital artists. I wouldn't put him in the same league as a lot of the other people putting out educational material (El Coro, Jason Chan, Andrew Jones, Stephen Stahlberg, etc.).

If you're interested in doing something like this, make sure to check and see what else is out there. $550 will buy you a lot of concept art downloads. Also, the more educational stuff I buy, the more cynical I get about promotional blurbs. I have no doubt that this class would be a rewarding experience, I'm just not sold on it being the best way to leverage your finances to improve your art.

You make a valid point, FD. I am aware myself that Robert Chang's portfolio is not the most impressive compared to some other artists. He himself has said it:

"I may not be the most amazing artist compared to some of the superstars out there, but I know I've got some serious teaching chops, and I have a knack for being able to explain very complex and esoteric subjects in ways that even the average person off the street will be able to fully grasp. I didn't spend more than a year on the course material for nothing--I aim to really shake things up!"

I try to think in terms of sports although I am not a big sports fan. How many coaches were the best athletes in their time? You could be an average player but still go on to become a great coach. The most skilled artist is not necessarily the best instructor, because it takes another set of skills to teach. Robert has other passions like music/writing/directing, so he would have been a lot better painter if he had totally focused on just art. But I think his wide range of interests will enable him to bring that much more to this workshop. I see him as the kind of guy with a vision and the rare ability to describe in words. He is known for his quality posts on CGTalk.

I will quote him some more, because, well, it is his workshop and only he knows what it is really about.

"Another unique aspect of the course is that it does not waste the students’ time and money by covering topics that already have many free or low-cost commercial resources available, and concentrates on mainly topics that do not have readily available resources, or covers popular topics with a new level of depth not seen elsewhere."

"The whole point of the workshop is to open your eyes and minds, show you creative concepts you have never been exposed to, analyze creative approaches in angles you've never considered, show you critical knowledge and techniques you can adopt into your own experience, and the end goal is to transform you from the inside out as an artist. You can't gauge how much someone has been transformed or the number of exciting revelations one had during the workshop with an assignment--it just doesn't work that way. Any instructor who tries to assess how "enlightened" a student has become with some kind of test assignment would be missing the point and going about it all wrong. My goal is not to pass or fail you--it's to elevate you and help you become someone who is fully capable to continuing your artistic journey with far more confidence, accelerated growth, and insights that otherwise would have taken you many years to acquire. The fact that this workshop contains insights on things I see many professional artists I have art directed get wrong on a daily basis, is a perfect example of the kind of workshop this is--it's about valuable insights that even being a professional won't guarantee you'll have (and this is often what separates art directors from those he directs).

I think it's likely that all of you will understand everything in the workshop, because I believe in my proven ability to explain even the most complex concepts to total beginners. What might happen for some of you is that although you have understood everything, you may not have the amount of experience/skills required to be able to execute those advanced concepts, but you will eventually be able to after having practiced more on your foundations. It's sort of like if we're in The Matrix and I uploaded all the knowledge you'd ever need to be a kung fu master, but since your body is not conditioned to be able to perform those moves yet, all that knowledge will stay in your heart and mind until you have conditioned your body to perform those moves. This workshop is like downloading kung fu secrets into your brain, but you have to practice your foundations in order to execute the moves."

I've thought long and hard before making my decision. I am not trying to convince anyone they should register, just letting people know it is available and what it is about, so if it is something that appeals to you and can afford it you won't miss it. I know these things don't automatically make you a better artist (my last big spending being attending a conference where I got to see Craig Mullins, Andrew Jones, and Syd Mead.) It inspired me to no end, but not much happened after because I didn't know what to do. What I am expecting from this workshop (and what it sounds like Robert is promising) is that you will be able to grasp concepts you couldn't quite understand or even weren't aware of before at the theoretical level. And by reflecting on your new knowledge, with intelligent approach and hard work, you will be able to improve much faster than you otherwise would on your own or with free and low-cost resources available.

Sure, you could buy a crapload of videos of someone painting something with the same money, and a lot of them are great. You can see their processes and how they do it. But they don't often go into why they are doing something, and you are left clueless as to what is going on in their mind at the subcontious level. Maybe you will learn to paint like them on the surface but find something lacking. I am searching for the why, the purpose, and I think this workshop will be a valuable map for me. Yeah, that's my goal, to design with purpose. I will leave with an Andrew Loomis quote:

"There is really design, either good or bad, whenever we put areas of variable tones together. It dawns on us as painters that the effect of the arrangement of such tone is really more important pictorially than the subject or the things we are painting."

Not a killjoy at all BW, I for one always welcome a knowledgeable dissenting position.
If all I hear is a list of pros and a marketing blurb it makes me a bit leery.

I personally haven't heard of any of the artists mentioned here but then I don't have any real formal training.
It sounds like a fine course of study but for myself I don't think I need advanced concepts "simplified" so any person on the street can understand. I have a basic understanding of many advanced concepts and am a pretty quick study for new things even if they are complex in nature.

I often have fully complete, minutely detailed images in my head... I just need to get my hand/mouse/future tablet to recreate what I see in my mind onto the paper/screen.
To that end a better understanding of the tools and techniques of digital art is my current focus. There seems a wealth of knowledge available in this area... it's just sorting through and finding what is worth my time/money.

Thanks for bringing it up though LD and I hope you get exactly what you are looking for out of it.

Honestly I would like it if more people posted what kind of instruction or tutorials they found to be the "best of the best" so as a community we had a standing list of some sort.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrozenDeath Hate to be a killjoy, but I would definitely shop around before jumping into something like this. The price is reasonable for this sort of thing, but online education is a growing trend and there are lots of options available. Personally I've always found Robert Chang's work to be weak in terms of professional digital artists. I wouldn't put him in the same league as a lot of the other people putting out educational material (El Coro, Jason Chan, Andrew Jones, Stephen Stahlberg, etc.). If you're interested in doing something like this, make sure to check and see what else is out there. $550 will buy you a lot of concept art downloads. Also, the more educational stuff I buy, the more cynical I get about promotional blurbs. I have no doubt that this class would be a rewarding experience, I'm just not sold on it being the best way to leverage your finances to improve your art.

One --> Artz Giveaway <-- To Rule Them ALL!

I will settle this. ORANGE FTW! - Ex Libris

That might almost be worth it considering some of the names on the list.

Looks like last years themes for painting were the Lady of the Lake (King Arthur) John Carter of Mars and I'm guessing the Golden Compass (or some other story where men fight polar bears).

One --> Artz Giveaway <-- To Rule Them ALL!

I will settle this. ORANGE FTW! - Ex Libris

Here's a list of some good free resources:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthre...f=199&t=259576

It is kinda old so some of the links are dead, most notably Loomis books. I hate to post this link for the third time, but if you want Loomis books, the currently working link is:

http://alexhays.com/loomis/

I really wish they'd reprint his books so I can have them on my shelf.

Conceptart.org that Clutch mentioned is great - you can find lots of amazing sketchbook threads in their forums.

As for specific instructions on getting started digitally, maybe someone else can help you. I think I lurked around different forums and artists web sites, and picked up bits and pieces from everywhere.

What initially introduced me to digital painting was speedpaintings by some people (and the art in TA's gallery. ) I wouldn't recommend going around doing speedpaintings, though. I always sucked at it, and now I can see that in order to pull off a successfull speedpainting, you need to have mastered or at least have some proficiency in form, value, the ability to simplify and efficiency of strokes. Without those foundations it is too easy to end up with just a mess of scribbles. Loomis books are perfect for building those foundations. Quite honestly, I think you will get used to working with a tablet in no time if you did some of the simpler excercises in Loomis books in photoshop, like composition using lines or tonal planning with few simple values. After that it's just a matter of learning to use the tools in photoshop like layers, free transformation, masks, etc.

I'm really enjoying my life drawing class at community college. I think it cost around $250 and it goes for almost 6 months. Although I've spent another $150 on supplies at the front door. It's a very traditional way of learning, which I think is the fastest, most effective way to learn. The courses that promise miracles in minutes are selling snake oil... Apologies for the alliteration.

Learn the way of the old masters, and you'll be able to do anything you want. You can check my progress at my DeviantArt page, linked to a sketch due to having some nudes on the front page currently.

This is the master class in art.

I mean that, honestly.

On a more practical level, however, I would recommend anything with Jason Manley. His artwork is good, though it's not really my favorite at Massive Black, I think that probably goes to Noxizmad.

HOWEVER

The guy knows his ****. Seriously. To me he really embodies everything that a good artist is, in terms of understanding the language that we, as artists, are working with, and his art history...where we are and how we got here.

Yeah, life drawing is highly recommended if you want to learn the figure. I had a lot of fun when I had an annual membership at a local life drawing centre. They had two sessions everyday, and with an unlimited pass, you could go as many times as you wanted. But there was no instructior and everyone just did their own thing.

I am not sure if more structured life drawing classes are different and I hope they are, but what made me ultimately lose interest and stop going was the lighting that totally sucked. You need a good lighting for a good tonal drawing, because you learn to describe the form with shadows. They had at least 3 light sources coming from different directions with equal intensity. It was fine for quick gestures, but confusing and frustrating for longer poses.

The drawings by some of the regulars were amazing, but I guess they were mostly interested in drawing with lines, although there were a few painters and even a sculptor. I was more interested in learning value so I could learn to paint too. IMO, if you keep working with badly lit objects/figures when you are trying to learn value, it could do more harm than good.

I love my Figure Drawing courses. And LD, that's a bunch of crap that you had poor lighting, and rest-assured that that's not the way of other courses. Both my instructors will take 10-15 minutes setting up lighting for a pose, and the room itself is constructed to tightly control the light.

My current teacher is a big believer in the atelier style studio class (our textbook) which is very very nice.