Fireside chat: Learning concept art and getting into the industry

so we're here in Santa Monica with chatty Safari SOF Leonard T oh my shake with Chiara Andrew Harley Anthony Jones and ash Thorpe and yeah tonight we're just chatting about the state of learning in the industry and trying to help trying to help people to get into the media entertainment counterpart industry so yeah well why don't we start much hey and you know what what are your thoughts about about learning how did you guys get into this in in this crazy industry this crazy right I mean learn learning is interesting I mean when we uh most of us when we were learning at least I know you you started what 2005 ish four seven seven seven okay I started in 2003 that was when there was no Facebook no YouTube - haha oh yeah die dinosaurs right Facebook I started like I started thinking the worst possible place from developed countries obviously that you can start with is Poland and just like post-communist sort of developing country with everything is just upside down pretty much and your ideas about you know life are totally out of whack you're just following the same sort of mantra everyone is saying go to best high school go to best college and then you know after that you you have a job reality is you finish high school at best one we finish the best college and 50% of students are out of job you know they're they cannot find anything if they're lucky to work from my dolls you know so it's kind of really bad pretty awesome awesome yeah I should have chosen the McDonald's way you know for my dolls be honest about more fulfilling your risk how did you know how did you know about art risk yeah I mean how did you care how did you know enough to know you wanted eat well yes I mean Leben's all of us being driven by our teens in one way or another you know like your life kind of shape depending on how you how we grow up like all those aspects are you know related to how you grow up and like your parents your neighborhood people around you what the one thing that may be really like a toddler you still don't remember anything but maybe there's a visual thing that happened that like your whole ruse had just kind of sparked this interest you know that kind of developed over years so there must have been something for me because I always liked it like to draw you know and I always like to draw horrible things to I go like good my good my money a lot rubbing - yeah I draw the worst I remember when I was a draw that ever again when I wasn't it yeah I would draw it anyways when I was in the luggage elementary school where our assignment was on the art class was to draw like Santa Claus and I drew like a Santa Claus being a grip guy in like chainsaw and he killed like all the elves you know but like in the really horrible way the worst a little blood yeah yeah it's like it's remotes and my teachers like my mom cuz like they were distressed by a something in my head you know right oh just draw all I can call you a young guy artists do that yeah right yeah pretty sure I drew the same thing so any and like all of us are pretty much driven up by artists do anyway right else wrap up good so like movies games like what were you into so I drew like a lot I used to I got into like role-playing games it has to do something to do with my background like just being in poor family but I always imagined you know like happy better you imagine your life being better and what's the better way to do it display role-playing games prior your madness or imagination yeah so I was always into that and you know I never considered art to be bang because again everyone would say like you have to be a lawyer you have to be dis you have to be dialed otherwise you're wasting your life and I remember I'm not blaming my parents for this but I'd remember it so today like don't go to art school because you're gonna waste your life you know maybe maybe if I went to art squad I could probably waste my life actually because art schools in Poland are really really freaking terrible you know there are very like academic oriented and when you have an academic oriented Fine Arts sort of half but your teachers are you know someone who like his artwork or art station would look like right Oh what yeah then you're in trouble yeah because you're the level you're gonna reach is gonna be like hello Yeah right um but in 2003 I remembered this till today I saw like there was a commercial there was like a bunch of commercials and they had an interview with a comic Baginski on national television and the reason for that was because he's his short film that he created with Platt each image was nominated to Academy Awards for a short film he didn't win but I was like yeah it wasn't used it was a big thing especially for like my country you know no one nothing is coming out of my country in terms of art that I was like significant enough especially in their like entertainment arts you know but that was like a like a thing and I just like I saw there was a trailer for for for a Cathedral and I saw it like damn like you can do this in computer I always had like magic cards and like those illustrations from from like or hammer and everything like yeah it's probably painted somehow but I never never considered that this could be digital art no right but it was like in some kids especially newer stuff was digital art I was like damn we can do that and so I started researching I didn't even have a computer at the time so I went I always will going to like internet cafes just to learn you know so it was just like a just like the worst possible way to start learning it's like we have literally nothing not even a computer no guidance no one who can tell you like you should do this and that and that eventually I've learned like there's a there's a gnome on DVDs but you know being a poor person I couldn't afford like spending 60 bucks plus shipping from us to Poland and I don't know how much you take like how long to take sixty bucks was a little a lot of money I think that's what I spend on my first tablet I had to work like a full month for this you know but you know it's just like you just go through all the hardships and you're learning from pretty much everyone else right who's on the same level as you right you're like pushing each other forward and then you see like Craig Mullins and and you see like Daniel Daniel Simon you see like Ryan Church and all those like especially know that the Star Wars crew there are the Phantom and it start with screw like they were blowing up and this is like I will never beat me I'll never yeah I'll never get there right remember that episode one book yeah with a life-changer huge I saw a gimmick eggs drawings and I saw the Dermot Power scheduled and yeah stuff I was like oh she uses a reliquary for me oh yeah that's one more I don't even know who Ralph McQuarrie like you I didn't know who that is like I met alone like all the other artists that would bender like I've learned that like really late because I was never exposed to this you know right so was there like this aha moment like I mean would you guys all agree like that this is aha moment when you realize that wait a minute like people actually make a living doing this stuff oh yeah yeah you know yeah for my parents it was that Art Center existed right because when we went to that school it's so cool it's like cool-looking and it looks professional it's professional looking so I remember when I did tours with my dad he was like not 100% on the art thing but when he saw that school he was like okay I can see how if this institution exists in McGee this is serious yeah yeah yeah all right that was a different era too though say like it's still very powerful of an institution sure one of the only ones I think it's recognized still as being a place where you can go and get a pretty amazing like a jump in your it was interesting how the architecture of that place is so beautiful from an aesthetic perspective and so in a dramatic and intense that it it reeks of power I mean whoever designed it had that in mind but like it has that feel and so I convinced my dad drop the money it spends on Art Center I'm not had a different life I had every single thing handed to me I'm like him everything yeah so it's been great and it's still great but I mean that's cool and I've learned about the arts and he goes in 5 or 2 tells just seven writer for you I was trying to like figuring out like I I want to go to art center you know there is like you have to get visa like oh yeah it's like what a lot of money right I'm what like how on earth I'm supposed to like afford this you know well the irony is never it was never like a an option for guarantee is after I became a pro for a long time I kind of wasn't not checking in on other artists the first person I saw that was like holy crap was your stuff talking about mark Ralph McQuarrie and all that it wasn't until I saw your stuff that I was like photos and painting what are you talking about yeah like someone can do this and not have it look terrible and I your stuff was the first stuff that convinced me that that could even work I mean they've been all artists up there are but I was intense and yours was the first I saw I remember because I wasn't paying attention and then you got hired I'm like what the hell's that guy doing I had to be sitting next to me for me to look at it cool I love those moments so when you can find when you find another artist that opens that pathway in your head right for me was like Ralph McQuarrie and wanting that book I remember going to the bookstore was a kid and I wanted that book so badly was the art of Star Wars a new hope but Empire Strikes Back my favorite why not right right and I remember seeing that and freaking out I wanted it so bad my birthday was coming up and I just I just bugged my mom every day she finally got it for me so you're changing turning point because I look in there and I go wow these were drawings before they came to the film yeah I realized I i deciphered it in my head and I realized I always wanted to do art but I realized from that moment but I wanted to work in feature films because that's magic yeah it's beautiful let's take on taking on that right so from that point on how did you train and equip yourself to you know to get ready for that - for the industry well I'm talking about humble beginnings like so there's no training really I remember being really poor I was raised by a single mom so just get like a box and you know and a book and you draw on that and then you just use type paper that she'll bring home from work you know and just completely fill that up so it was always one baby step in front of the other and so you can get that one first break and then you go from there and then constantly be humbled by the reality that yeah it's very hard and it's always going to be somewhat of a struggle but like going through each motion and enjoying each step so as far as gearing myself up it's just been about working really hard and wanting it beyond everything and studying and being optimistic yeah I like to piggyback off the blue you're saying like I get asked all the time like what's the secret type of kind of questions like what push I use I shall use it with my brush it what brushes are very popular last question would be yeah right like they always ask and and let's be clear you know like different brushes and different tools are absolutely useful absolutely right like you can't like build an Ikea just with that little element if you haven't power drills so much faster yeah right and also think certain brushes not to get too off-topic bring out certain mark maybe no suit I got like there's like a different like the tool like you know it's easier to hammer in a nail with a hammer rather than your fist right like it is more impressive sure well I hammer him like this but I mean only if people were pressing that you're in a circus right it's not consistent you can do it forever right and but to kind of get back to saying like people to ask those types of questions live and I try not to discourage them and I think there's like a habit amongst you know professionals lies not about that not about that sure um I think I think it's important for anyone who's paying attention to this is that like I didn't know I had no idea like I didn't know okay well I better follow you know like step number two and then that way when I'm done I'm gonna succeed you know like I had no idea like I I think a lot of the times people are trying to avoid failure but I'm trying to say it's like that's hardest part of it it's like a to say absolute the wish to avoid failure yeah how are we supposed to learn we're never gonna do failing yeah you're like you never yeah if you're not failing you're not realizing your mistakes you're not realizing it we all fail all the time we just don't necessarily share it yeah that's a difference too I think that's important and valid to bring up is you do studies I do studies we all do studies and I think we don't necessarily show that yeah totally like if I had like if I have shown about a thousand images over my career there's like ten thousand images that nobody's ever seen same yes right yeah and there's gonna is always gonna be that way yeah three thousand that they're gonna be shown and like yeah this is actually pretty good getting better as you close it yeah ten thousand a year have you guys all all of you have an attitude of like I'm not doing another thing yeah and I think it's important to have the luxury to not have any other options you had it a lot harder than I did for sure but like there was no option I was going to do this weather was gonna take me my whole life or weather was gonna take three years or five years there was never a point where I was gonna be like well that didn't work out I think I'm just gonna like we're gonna Donald's that was never enough yeah and I think anyone that no matter how small the steps are no matter how much you suck sure if you really love the art and you have an aesthetic that you care about and you looking at other artists it's impossible for you not to succeed eventually at least not even think of it I'll think about it yeah you're just trying to get better at art yeah your your intention is very clear yeah I'm gonna get better and if you get rid of all the other noise about job and who's gonna hire me what connections I have this just get better aren't the opportunities are just gonna come to you no doubt because people need talent exactly and they're gonna hire for that and they're gonna be aware of that and that's always tell people when they're asking me to help out jobs and day rates and all episode that's great to talk about but the most important thing it should be focusing your energy on is you and your skill everything else just comes in spades so easily you can make as much money as you want once you pass a certain level yeah people want you yeah well past that level there's there's too many people wanting you have to deal with that yeah too much success now and that's a whole mindfuck of in its own you know whole different discussion yeah the success yeah because it will happen like you said like itself your intentions clear yeah I always compare it to like physical activity because I think with visible activity people can see that very clear like if I want to run faster I run a lot more right and then I hey look I run like a second faster than I did last week whatever and people keep stacking that and then eventually you'll be looking a little bit flooded right but with art like I guess people because it's so subtle right yes you'll see it immediately it's like watching play I'll do one of my favorite things to do is like I have a class that I teach and like what I do is like sometimes my students have that job no and I show them their first week homework to like their third week I'm like you can't tell me that you haven't learned something okay I was like it could be like an inch but this is proof that you've improved yeah you know at least have faith in that and as like that's that's the point is like inch by inch right you know what's interesting you have blank canvas and Photoshop is all there will ever be yeah so if you're working right now and you're distracted by something else just keep in mind for me it helped me to suddenly realize like even if I want an Oscar for concept art the next day I would come home and I would still just be blank canvas Photoshop it's you in Photoshop or whatever program you're using and it will never change so just find a passion for that in the moment and that's it because it won't be anything else ever it's important to understand that relationship and that some erotic relationship you must have with that blank canvas yeah and understand what you're putting out there is going to prayer every time it's going to be struggle every time for the rest your life it is I always like you know even even now we can consider ourselves to be you know somewhat professional or somewhat successful in our fields and even even now like when you start a project the open Photoshop said blank canvas scared every time yeah you have that feeling like we're going to start with yeah what if everything else was fake and now as I'm gonna be found out to suck because all the guys have this moment were like no you did some did something for like a project and you're like you you really happy with this you know and then you're starting doubting yourself like mmm will I be able to pull it off again maybe it was like one one you know one thing one time thing it happens a lot you know and that's just because there's in our nature you know because when you're when you really focus on are pushing yeah you're pushing right if you really focus on what you're doing you're always gonna have self-doubt you're always gonna you know fail failure failures hurt it's the worst thing that had happened but you have to realize that you have to go through failures and you're never going to learn anything or not but also you do something I've noticed a lot of you do where you're always trying to learn anything so you never get to be safe that's you're always out there on the frontier yeah there's tons of artists that find a thing that they do and then they just stick to that and then you're like ah finally I just got here yeah if you're the kind of person who's always learning anything especially now in this environment where concept art is part 3d part all this new software part all this crap it constantly having to learn you're never safe yeah it's just you have to be in this mindset that this is not achievement based if you were just pursuing your you know if you if it's only about getting achievements sure then you're doing a wrong thing right I think so because you're going to reach that reach that point where you achieved something and you're going to feel empty yeah there's not nothing else in front of you that's that's the start with but also once you achieve something you're sitting in that place and it like it's this saying that if you if you stand still you're actually moving backwards you know you're actually not progressing you're out you know moving backwards is taking slow steps back because not only you're not pushing yourself to learn something new but also you're deteriorating your own craft you're just getting so used to what you do that you stop caring about details that you would normally care when you're trying to achieve something or you're pushing a fear yeah when you're pushing about fear you have that no feeling that it's not perfect yet I want to add like a little more detail I want I want to create it better right I want to push it but you're not you're like around this comfortable splits but yeah is zone out right yeah and yes I think the way all artists need like tear out their own personal work time because when you get we're start working at a job or company you're constantly required to do stuff on deadlines you also kind of like get caught into a routine you don't get to experiment cuz you don't have the time or yeah so it's important to like have your sort of like pieces that you're doing on your own that's when you get a chance to really intimidating because yeah first of all like failing hurts it is also like there's so many things like you feel like intimidating but you also have Gordon your family yeah I mean even taking away like just you know your library who just just the fact that you have this thing that's always gonna scare you and I cried in the matter like it's not gonna be a scariest thing on earth because you know what's all could be in the worst way worst circumstances are manifested within your song but like from your personal perspective you're always going to fear it fear about something and if you don't have that if you're too if you're overconfident then you're not moving forward you're not you're losing that the drive to progress the worst thing the worst thing is to achieve a success without hard work because then you're not not enjoying it at all or as you didn't go through the journey of achieving that thing right it's not about the goal that you that you're trying to reach some of the journey that you that you're in towards that goal right that's where the most thing happens when you against friends because when you learn things that's were them that your memories are right yeah when you're watching a football game right or a soccer game and we obviously interested like on the score but you're not talking about the score you're talking about that action that happened you know you see how how we saved it yeah or that foul yeah what an like all right talking about those things right the most interesting games are the ones where they're kind of close right sometimes you can watch the Super Bowl and one team just dominates like the Super Bowl is literally like one team and it's like 50 points ahead yeah like it's the most boring game ever but like one team likes truly succeeded they like dominated that's a lot about different are mankind culture yeah we like we like the tug of war like I like the games were during halftime one team had like maybe two touchdowns ahead sure but the other team somehow came back right like those are the games that people talk about those are the game of the things that we care about we care about like what you said to journey but yeah exploration I tell my students all the time like the best times of my artistic growth was in the beginning when I was like what I knew nothing about anything and I was just like constantly what this is the thing you can do that and you can do that like it's a it's like a slope like it's like it starts off like a really steep slope any method it starts to starts to point when you start to get more more professional and you get more and more adapted to your tools it starts to yeah even now and it stops becoming like a hobby and starts becoming a job right and that's why you're something you get to do personal stuff cuz personal state-o takes you out of the job mentality and puts you back into like I want to actually learn like you know fusion because it's looking awesome I want to learn unreal because it looks like that's a really cool place to do like why not like what I try this or what I'm gonna try to paint this now I've never painted this before hurts every time you know like you open like fusion me like Oh again another things I have to do already literally three things like other things I have to learn finiti and I do it only because McKay did it post some on Facebook and I'm like I need to not get on Facebook yeah Facebook is great for that reason and our station too is because you're just like constantly exhausted yeah then inspired yeah bye everyone stuff right yeah your first reaction is like I'm never gonna be able to do that yeah but then you start like they chest that's heavy I want everyone to just slow down I'm just like stop doing such awesome never gonna happen he's gonna always progress yes crazy but Glen Keane was doing that thing we are yeah draw you use devices it's unbelievable I use it at a studio down the street it's like unbelievable that program I want to I want to try if you get a chance to get a hold of it Seattle the vibe the valves like VR system okay they I try to put on their headset and it's like they have a painting program on 3d store it's like it's unbelievable okay this will say man get wait really painting I mean yeah I don't know if you can actually use it to make anything but like it's fun but are you talking about the day and age where we would make 2d images seriously right and my major is going to be dimensional could it be you be earlier and like great sculpt something are the best games or occasionally experiences so yeah your point like I was talking to like an old-school traditional sculptor who transition to 3d because like you know I drop is dying and cherry he's like I you know I still do traditional scopes and I'm thinking about they can go more and more into the ZBrush and my thoughts and all these other tools and I was like you know honestly you could probably get back to your traditional sculpting right eventually if the tools are going to be so good yeah that's actual like ability or even just like building something and in real life yeah having these 3d scanners right now just it literally is a 3d frame using your wrench the gap your yeah like yeah I told my students to avoid tools as the most important thing to worry about like you should definitely worry about tools because they're always changing you should worry about like the basics basic foundations yeah always a hard thing because because - you're like I just want to go and I want to know what brush you're using I do I do want to know what brush yeah no they don't not tell me what brush music I hear you also give me the brush yeah I think you should know right I'm trying to say it's a treat I like the tools are becoming easier and easier and easier alright as my buddy he's a rigger and he's like talking to me about learning some art like he's at home and learn how to draw design and I was like okay why and he's like wool like I just download this new software and I mean it's still kind of like basic but right eventually like I'll be out of the job like this is just so easy you just plug stuff in hit go and it's rigged it makes ya know right everyone right no some other software but very similar they're doing that already that's something I think certain technologies don't make certain types of our making obsolete I don't think so I think I think the best people always surface you know I think like the sculptor guy right so yeah sake technique would be people still open are they shred at oil painting and they have their niche and they've just removed a rock at it and then they can just focus on that or you can say like I think the thing that we all admire about like a guy like Craig Mullins is he would take the traditional medium and prove it that it works in a different domain yeah we have a BJ's showing you take the photos and you can bring it into a whole different realm and then add like the DES 3d stuff and the Marvelous Designer and you can build complete like three-dimensional pieces and that's taking it to the next level sure but I don't think it diminishes the value of the original dimension I think the originals like the original piece is still really great I just think that there's a value shift but it's not necessarily like this is crap this is better it's more like these are both like someone with fundamental does way better so technology stuff I mean something that won't become obsolete eventually like share no UV movies or rig little bit very very very or even like Daz I see it we use that a lot now and it's a posing program right for do you know having figures in our shots and like yeah if I knew a guy who could draw the figure out of his mind with perfect Anatomy that'd be cool but we have Daz now so like it's like those skills are awesome to have and if we were actually designing musculature on a person that person would be the person but if the job was just to design a costume on a figure and it didn't matter then that replaced that person you know what I mean an interesting observation about that is like let's say you take a guy like Otomo for example who drew the masterpiece akira and a masterpiece of art accomplishment if he had dads would that affected the way he created and I think guys like Ralph McQuarrie guys I'm making only Boba Fett and all these different things their imagination that translation of making something by destroying straight other line their intention what's the difference you know there's got to be a shift in the mental path in order to create this stuff is it going to be it's different is it better or worse that's exactly I have noticed with my team it's like every single job is different so if you're doing something that's more like blizzardy then you're going to need the deadlines because you need to design the shapes but if you're doing something that's more like a Navy SEAL you don't need those shapes as much you need the believability so depending on the challenge the tools and technology and that's the thing we struggle with the most which combination of things out of this huge ever-expanding skill set or the right ones to effectively solve this problem and for movies like Star Wars that have everything designed that's always the dream because jobs to work on because you know you're gonna have a lot of both yes but some IPS don't have a lot of both they just have mostly one right very true coming back to a point of like you know foundation right all those tools are giving you preset exactly and if you're just following preset your work will be just a preset you know you're not having your own input for it is that's why what you're saying about Akira and Otomo you know it's it's his very personal style right cannot recreate that in and that's like you could possibly recreate it right I need to have design but you haven't designers I know it oh yeah yeah you have such an equation manifesting an entire world with pan paper yes all right do you have the Vinci's you go into that you know it's like you have a brilliant mind with intention yeah it's the same thing because we used to have humans I don't have intention they're brilliant mostly but I think it's just to go on to the tools I blows me away because like I'm gonna be starting to learn from you for learn to learn square thing and looking at the way that you build images it's really inspiring for me because it's a completely different creative path right it's a different process all together it's a different alchemy yeah I think the results are going to be they're always going to yield something different it's new right so she won one badass or a couple badasses are doing have a bit cloudy that says Samar and you're right well now I gotta be like how would I get there so yeah good friend of ours right like I tell you it so gruff an amazing amazing artist I remember I had a student once asked me he was like he's like you know should I learn 3d or shine I'm starting to D it's like because I want to make sure I get my foundations and I say what makes you think you can't get your foundations in 3d you know and why do i as a why don't you I don't think you can do that and he's like I don't know like let's be clear yeah of course drawing it from hand requires you to really know a lot more but you can still know that stuff without drawing yeah people like movie directors have a great artistic vision and they don't know how to draw right and and that's like that's why I brought up the Talia's like but the deli for instance I've never seen him grow on trees OK at it lady doesn't need a draw right and another is like Aaron Beck who doesn't know how to use 3d yeah and all his designs are like right so it is they're like maybe he built a car he's been building a car for four years from scratch so he knows how every single part works yeah and a student if student was asking me should I go do like Aaron Beck I'm like I don't know if you'll ever be that good you know like there's some alleged us there's some legends that took such the long road around and are such an inspiration but if someone was asking me I'd be like yeah if you want to wait 20 years also the alchemy of working at wet alongside with Greg and and Pierce and all those amazing guys I think that spawns greatness you know I think so we're trying to create as well you know like the feedback loop is so strong and so direct that we're getting an instant feedback from one another divider I think that's very important the first studio that I actually worked at was prologue and it was a very intense right so the most amazing work I've ever seen in my life I didn't know that work could be that good until I was there and it was work that never saw the light of day right and it blew me away because it was like the most amazing inspirational things and I realized that's where I need to be right I'm here my consciousness I need to go there and that's only as hath established by people that are pushing you see them up and you're like how did you get up there yeah yeah but they'd been doing it for seven years just non-stop oh yeah yeah always hard yeah you always have these like like prodigies is what they called right and Biggs is for sure but like yet the investigate because it's still the same things are true for instance era Mozart like he composed a song like the whole song by himself at the age of three yeah right some people I love this clearly talented kid right situation remember my buddy did that because I was telling I don't believe in but we're telling a little bit Mozart now you pull that on me right yeah what about Mozart so I went and researched I was like I want to know I want to know what made Mozart Mozart and I figured it out as I up there I came back I was like look it's not all talent because as both his parents were the greatest one of the greatest musicians at that time yeah so their sister his sister was older if he was like a kid in Vietnam or something you might have been different it would have been my different Oleg might have it would have been different yeah right little completely different buta really really oh oh they're a little differently shaped coconut I know I get it they have tuk tuks Hey he still figures it up um so lucky so lucky he had two parents were great musicians right his older sister was already like like becoming a businessman his dad was a great instructor as well I made it fun for his kids to learn how to play music really wrong that's interesting right and so at the age of three yeah like if you have like an idea where around music with some of the greatest chapters of music and you actually enjoy it right that's like another part like yeah kids enjoy what they're doing my daughter's drawing better because she enjoys I make fun of her drawings in a way where she laughs at it right we've laughed billions of like a like that kind of looks like a squirrel at a start like yeah it was a girl a turtle that I would like squirrel actually true cuz my grandma helped me teach when I hear machay stories I'm always like that's amazing cuz I live 20 minutes from GDC when I was like in high school so I was like right next to where the stuff was happening so like so circumstances right like yeah you never saw that he probably would have nobody have if you never saw that teaser video that's a dream like when you smile when you're speaking about Mozart like just just the fact that he was in the very talented family and he like from the day one he wasn't war and he heard music all the time so she's a child as a blank canvas right and this was already like Incred into his Eiland round languages about it right yeah right exactly so his language is already like music yeah he's already in there so composing so you guys have started this new thing that learned Square and we talked quite a bit about you know the about learning and the learning path you know there's it's bound with failures and it's fine you know and you just keep going and we talked about the importance of fundamentals as well and all technology and everything how so and also from learning from one another I think that's that's pretty key so how are you guys incorporating all this into it into your new venture it's an honest approach I think I think it's a very dear and honest approach that we were just trying to teach one another something in the most honest ways and we're open to the idea that we're going to fail and the world's going to watch it and we're okay with that because we know internally that we're going to succeed out of it and that we're going to achieve something greater we're going to become greater people and that exchange we're trying to really show the world that if you're out there and you are the person that I meet on the street and says I used to draw well I want you to understand that you can if you want to like anybody can and anybody can learn and grow and we want to show that we really want to like we want to like convince people becoming an artist shouldn't be laughed at right like almost oh wait now it is right and I'm working it yeah here's here's what here's kind of like I'll kind of like getting to looks like the metaphor for what we're doing is you know a lot of Education now is really backwards and it was built it was built for a reason and that reason is it still exists but for the mass population it doesn't really apply you know like the idea of okay you go to preschool then you go to elementary school then you go to middle school then you go to college then you get a job and then you get promotion and then you get another promotion and in your retiree I that's right why and then that's like that's what we're selling our children and I have two teenagers one teenagers graduated high school and he graduated high school the same way that I graduate had no clue what the hell I was going to do right I had no clue and I it took me like four years to discover what I really liked had an opportunity to do which was art right like before that I was like a musician I'd explain like guitar right and in school like music and arts and all that stuff was treated kind of like oh it's just the extra activity but as kids it wasn't right as kids it was like mandatory like you need to draw in color in the motto as a kid you're a killer too well they do get in class here but they were like in when we were really young it was kind of forced and sure and I think a lot of us had that same kind of mentality like after school maybe not shot he said he already knew right but not everybody had that but like one of my students is like 1990 and he's like jadi like he knows he like knows what counsel part is already he knows all the big names already he's already 18 right he's already figured it out and I'm like I totally you know how awesome you're gonna be yeah okay you're already there already I just hooked out recently does that guy she haven't won the our cafe oh that's it okay Tom yeah I talked about that gave a little bit uh epilim yeah like all those yeah yeah children project yeah I'm hot I've hired sure right below I don't know what's a lot I told you he's gonna be like yeah I know whether laws aren't fooling bears yeah but that's that's the point like I guess because they already knew maybe maybe the circumstances that they are in you know right there was a person in there a householder and friends that were encouraging or anything them do art because your great idea uh and you'll be even better if you just do it and and that that works like yeah oh it's all about circumstances and things that are around you there is actually an example I always forget his name but there's this one guy who's uh who's uh a surgeon he's a he's a he's operating on hearts like he won't used to operate them hearts and was one of the best in Germany and he was like you know after medical schools like medical school is like your your almost whole life yes yes I think he was at age of 34 like 40 something right what are you like you know I don't want to do this anymore I really like drawing cuz I do it as a hobby let's make it a career and granted he's working for films right now doesn't really something that it doesn't matter when you start I can't totally do it yeah absolutely just a matter of starting yeah being consistent he's already a brilliant person that probably that's already has an established understanding of yet how to be a doctor courses but what is really already hardware change the ingredient that I already had that yeah knows hard work bring it so Sheldon had become an artist away after Arts Center Art Center I just I just messed around and I wish said I was terrible because I wasn't ready I wasn't ready to be that person who knows how to do what you're ready I did when was I mentioned this before I almost got fired from Naughty Dog okay and that was my wake-up call okay I was kind of coasting and I did an okay job important moments yeah and I was like they brought me and they're like you got two weeks and another concept guy got fired like like six months prior okay and we were just not adapting to the style right six valley night and I was like oh crap and I was like buckle down let's do this yeah I kind of I do okay under that kind of sure but I never had that pressure before because I wasn't like you I grew up with like a potato in a cabin depression we call of the potato right but that's pretty much what I am yeah we got to wrap up the conversation but what would be your your biggest you know the your takeaway you know we're for this conversation as far as as far as learning is concerned I think if I had to like put a finger on it I would say don't be afraid of like the journey you know I think like one thing I always find my students is always doubting right they're always like what if I don't get a job when I fight like you like you're saying right and I say okay what if you don't get the job what if what if you would have you don't get money in time for your visa what if all this things happens what if the most like the tear all your worst nightmares came true are you gonna quit that and they're like no so then what are you afraid yes right what's always what are you afraid of yeah it's like because that could happen right and must we're providing that it's happening right and we were put we put you in that situation and you said no so then I've said you can keep going like you go don't wait doesn't now you're prepared for that because it could happen right but now you're prepared you're gonna be like okay well that's just one step and I thought I told my students all the time that once that happens to like when you get to that moment like you didn't almost when you get by it or you're like being a janitor right yeah like when you get to those moments that's really where like the fork of the road like there isn't a choice instead of coasting like you said there is a now a definitive choice those are great right and you'd make that choice and you're going to come to another trigger me coasting and they're gonna find another fork right and you're going to choose so it's really that constant journey and being not afraid of the outcome is really really liberating right because then you allow yourself to trip and fall you allow yourself to like bump your head and more easy opportunities now I can't I kids who work who live in some remote place like you were if you if it wasn't 2003 if it was 2015 and I saw your work I'd be like do you want to work on something tomorrow like the world is global now yeah that only have some situations yeah I don't have a six years ago any kid for any person from anywhere on the face of the earth make with us I can hire them tomorrow and they can start working you can make a good living doing so totally yeah and for their families and yeah you would operate the army doesn't matter as much because no matter as much as exchange yeah everything's changing it's beautiful yeah so don't be afraid so there is no failure yeah yeah those tons of it there's a result just over react you're not gonna give up yeah I'm gonna work on it you're like I'm not working on ya no matter what then yeah yeah yeah I would say like I saw what that would be just just be consistent you know yeah even so you know you could break it down and so I don't have time yeah yeah that's the always the best experiment of time by the true face you always find time you just have to look at your habits during the day what are you doing during the day that you don't have time you're scheduling really helps a lot to UM oh yeah scheduled blog work full-time if you even if you have to commute even s let's see how to work two jobs right what do you do when you come to come back home are you watching TV or what how do you spend that time you can always sketch during that time right even if it's a half an hour in a day imagine how many hours you'll be sketching at the end of the year that's gonna be just amazing amount of hours and the amount right right that's great and here's the great thing as as soon as you see results yeah you feel more positive about yourself right you like always oh yeah I can I can see progress very exactly and it just compounds on everything else yeah because all of a sudden your whole life changes yeah like all those things compound yeah and also I would say distance he will yeah finish consistency gets you get you to as a success yeah this is a great example because you know mr. polite start with ya know what not really success it's just like all right well thank you so much guys that's all right guys so thank you so much for your time and yeah for the inspiring talk all right awesome thanks

Channel: ArtStation

Views: 87,829

Rating: 4.9627762 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: uGs15-YFa2w

Length: 42min 32sec (2552 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 08 2016