13/04/2013
Heinz Tomato upchuck
Painted this in art college a long time ago. We had to design alternative advertisements. I wish Heinz would go for this style!
11/04/2013
Part time artist
It has struck me that the name of my blog has never really fit with its content. I think it is time to rectify that.
I have decided to try and use this blog purely for concept art, a true representation of my concept work. I have tried to avoid discussing just how little time I get to draw but i think it is time to move the rest of my work to a blog called part-time artist or something of that nature.
In reality I get around 30 minutes a day to draw and another few hours a few nights a week. This is simply due to having a full time job and spending time with my family. I have an ever present wish to improve and create truly wonderful and inspiring art. When I achieve that, even with so little time, I hope others will read this and realise it is possible.
I have decided to try and use this blog purely for concept art, a true representation of my concept work. I have tried to avoid discussing just how little time I get to draw but i think it is time to move the rest of my work to a blog called part-time artist or something of that nature.
In reality I get around 30 minutes a day to draw and another few hours a few nights a week. This is simply due to having a full time job and spending time with my family. I have an ever present wish to improve and create truly wonderful and inspiring art. When I achieve that, even with so little time, I hope others will read this and realise it is possible.
12/02/2013
Sporadic
Hi,
Thanks for visiting. Due to ongoing commission work and the need for non disclosure agreements I am unable to post a lot of what I have been working on. In an effort to post more often I am spending more time doodling in my 30 minute lunch break. Hopefully this will result in some great little sketches etc.
Thanks for sticking with me.
Matt Bryan
Thanks for visiting. Due to ongoing commission work and the need for non disclosure agreements I am unable to post a lot of what I have been working on. In an effort to post more often I am spending more time doodling in my 30 minute lunch break. Hopefully this will result in some great little sketches etc.
Thanks for sticking with me.
Matt Bryan
07/08/2012
How perseverance, time, Apple and Savage Interactive change my life
I've wanted to work as a freelance artist for many years but not as many as I wanted to work in the video games industry.
I finished University in 2002 with a 2:1 in Computer Games Design and was certain I would land a role immediately. The Bachelor of Arts Degree was the first of its type in the UK and covered many aspects of making games from animation to modelling and script writing to visual imaging and so on. Anyone that completed it became a jack of all trades that was able to turn their hand to almost anything but was master of little.
I started working full time just a few months after I finished Univeristy and was living in a fairly expensive flat with my partner. CV's were sent off and I had a few interviews but I wasn't good enough. Being in full time work meant that my portfolio progresseed very slowly. I had expected to work for the call centre for three months. Six at the most. Three years later I had moved up the ladder in my job and became a manager. The extra responsibility meant I was more tired when I got home. I completed less and less work. I told myself I needed to rest after a hard days work. Everything would work out. I would get a job as an artist any minute.
Three more years passed. I was now married, had a three year old daughter and a mortgage. The standards of work I was seeing were so good that I almost stopped drawing and 3D modelling. How could I compete? A single character model was taking me months to complete because I was always working in fits and starts. Even my paintings and drawings seemed to take forever. I had family problems and my wife was ill. Life was hard. I thought I would feel better if I played computer and console games or watched TV. Anything but working towards my dream because that was too hard and at the time I thought it was futile.
Fast forward again to Summer 2011. I now have two children and I work somewhere else in a satisfying, full-time, job that I enjoy but it is not a creative role in art or illustration. Something inside me still yearned to do something with my love of drawing. I decided that working for a games company was probably off the cards now because of my wish to stay where I am. The starting wage for an artist would be too low to support my family and there are even fewer game developers in the North East than there were 10 years ago. There are few, if any, that want an artist who hasn't touched 3D modelling or texturing for years.
My brother gave me an iPad 2 last summer. I had always wanted to try one but couldn't afford it. I started dabbling with various packages but as good as they were they didn't have the flexibility of the P.C. art and design packages I had been used to. Then Imagine FX magazine reviewed an app called Procreate by Savage Interactive. I won't go into details here but it is superb. The user interface, variation and number of brushes and opacity/size sliders are second to none.
I found that loading up the app took a few seconds and I could start an image or tinker with one whenever I had a bit of time. As a parent it's rare to get any time to yourself until the children are in bed and even then there are the usual parent related chores. The iPad meant that I could draw without sitting at my desk. I could sit next to my wife on the sofa whilst she watched Ghost Hunters or something and still get work done. My work rate increased ten fold.
I started looking for websites that I could add a listing to for a small monthly fee and I was lucky enough to stumble upon ComicArtCommissions.com which is run by a great man called Terry. It only costs a few dollars a month for a premium membership and I've had quite a few hits on my listing and this website because of it. I have just completed my third commission. I've had a few other offers that haven't worked out because the person wanted something I was uncomfortable with or their grand idea just wasn't going to work for the tiny fee they expected.
The iPad 2 has its limitations both in terms of canvas size and the dots per inch (DPI) of the image but it's still possible to complete excellent pieces of work with it. In fact 2 out of 3 of my commissions have been completed solely with the use of the iPad. The third piece was drafted and planned using Procreate but was to be a water colour image and the iPad doesn't like water.
I'm now getting almost 20 times more hits than I was this time last year and the catalyst to my current situation has not been the iPad and Procreate, though I couldn't have done it without them, it has been perseverance and time. No amount of technology or streamlining would have made a difference without those two ingredients.
Perseverance is first. This man decided to run a marathon every day for as long as he could. He did it. He is an inspiration to many people for all the right reasons. One of his pieces of advice was 'To start'. Forget the rest. Just start the piece of work or the workout or the run and everything else will fall into place.
Stop getting bogged down in how long you need to work on something or what the long term goals are. He is right. It works. At times I don't feel like working to but giving in at those times is the difference between success and failure. After a full days work and a few hours of family time my mind gets tired but if I just start drawing, the energy to continue just materialises. I have no idea where it comes from but when I draw and create I have the energy to stay up till 3 and get up at 7. I'm tired the next day but there is something inside me that gets me through. It feels like another source of energy is keeping me going. I believe that I am doing what I have been yearning to do for years and I feel happier and more alive because of it. Ask yourself why you would want to wallow in self pity when you can follow your dreams?
Time is the second ingredient. There's never enough. There are always other things to do. Lack of time is an excuse. You can make time. Do less of something else to make time. Watch less TV. Play fewer games. Without spending time on drawing I wouldn't have improved. I wouldn't have completed any work. I wouldn't be in the position of having a few people asking me for more of my work.
I've spent an hour writing this post but it will serve as a reminder to me that perseverance is key. If I get up one more time than I fall what in this world can stop me? Jeff Miller kept getting up and running crazy distances. My brother kept applying for jobs despite fierce competition and knock backs and he got his dream.
I hope this post has inspired you and given you hope. Follow your dreams. You don't know what will happen until you try.
I will end on two words.
Start.
Persevere.
I finished University in 2002 with a 2:1 in Computer Games Design and was certain I would land a role immediately. The Bachelor of Arts Degree was the first of its type in the UK and covered many aspects of making games from animation to modelling and script writing to visual imaging and so on. Anyone that completed it became a jack of all trades that was able to turn their hand to almost anything but was master of little.
I started working full time just a few months after I finished Univeristy and was living in a fairly expensive flat with my partner. CV's were sent off and I had a few interviews but I wasn't good enough. Being in full time work meant that my portfolio progresseed very slowly. I had expected to work for the call centre for three months. Six at the most. Three years later I had moved up the ladder in my job and became a manager. The extra responsibility meant I was more tired when I got home. I completed less and less work. I told myself I needed to rest after a hard days work. Everything would work out. I would get a job as an artist any minute.
Three more years passed. I was now married, had a three year old daughter and a mortgage. The standards of work I was seeing were so good that I almost stopped drawing and 3D modelling. How could I compete? A single character model was taking me months to complete because I was always working in fits and starts. Even my paintings and drawings seemed to take forever. I had family problems and my wife was ill. Life was hard. I thought I would feel better if I played computer and console games or watched TV. Anything but working towards my dream because that was too hard and at the time I thought it was futile.
Fast forward again to Summer 2011. I now have two children and I work somewhere else in a satisfying, full-time, job that I enjoy but it is not a creative role in art or illustration. Something inside me still yearned to do something with my love of drawing. I decided that working for a games company was probably off the cards now because of my wish to stay where I am. The starting wage for an artist would be too low to support my family and there are even fewer game developers in the North East than there were 10 years ago. There are few, if any, that want an artist who hasn't touched 3D modelling or texturing for years.
My brother gave me an iPad 2 last summer. I had always wanted to try one but couldn't afford it. I started dabbling with various packages but as good as they were they didn't have the flexibility of the P.C. art and design packages I had been used to. Then Imagine FX magazine reviewed an app called Procreate by Savage Interactive. I won't go into details here but it is superb. The user interface, variation and number of brushes and opacity/size sliders are second to none.
I found that loading up the app took a few seconds and I could start an image or tinker with one whenever I had a bit of time. As a parent it's rare to get any time to yourself until the children are in bed and even then there are the usual parent related chores. The iPad meant that I could draw without sitting at my desk. I could sit next to my wife on the sofa whilst she watched Ghost Hunters or something and still get work done. My work rate increased ten fold.
I started looking for websites that I could add a listing to for a small monthly fee and I was lucky enough to stumble upon ComicArtCommissions.com which is run by a great man called Terry. It only costs a few dollars a month for a premium membership and I've had quite a few hits on my listing and this website because of it. I have just completed my third commission. I've had a few other offers that haven't worked out because the person wanted something I was uncomfortable with or their grand idea just wasn't going to work for the tiny fee they expected.
The iPad 2 has its limitations both in terms of canvas size and the dots per inch (DPI) of the image but it's still possible to complete excellent pieces of work with it. In fact 2 out of 3 of my commissions have been completed solely with the use of the iPad. The third piece was drafted and planned using Procreate but was to be a water colour image and the iPad doesn't like water.
I'm now getting almost 20 times more hits than I was this time last year and the catalyst to my current situation has not been the iPad and Procreate, though I couldn't have done it without them, it has been perseverance and time. No amount of technology or streamlining would have made a difference without those two ingredients.
Perseverance is first. This man decided to run a marathon every day for as long as he could. He did it. He is an inspiration to many people for all the right reasons. One of his pieces of advice was 'To start'. Forget the rest. Just start the piece of work or the workout or the run and everything else will fall into place.
Stop getting bogged down in how long you need to work on something or what the long term goals are. He is right. It works. At times I don't feel like working to but giving in at those times is the difference between success and failure. After a full days work and a few hours of family time my mind gets tired but if I just start drawing, the energy to continue just materialises. I have no idea where it comes from but when I draw and create I have the energy to stay up till 3 and get up at 7. I'm tired the next day but there is something inside me that gets me through. It feels like another source of energy is keeping me going. I believe that I am doing what I have been yearning to do for years and I feel happier and more alive because of it. Ask yourself why you would want to wallow in self pity when you can follow your dreams?
Time is the second ingredient. There's never enough. There are always other things to do. Lack of time is an excuse. You can make time. Do less of something else to make time. Watch less TV. Play fewer games. Without spending time on drawing I wouldn't have improved. I wouldn't have completed any work. I wouldn't be in the position of having a few people asking me for more of my work.
I've spent an hour writing this post but it will serve as a reminder to me that perseverance is key. If I get up one more time than I fall what in this world can stop me? Jeff Miller kept getting up and running crazy distances. My brother kept applying for jobs despite fierce competition and knock backs and he got his dream.
I hope this post has inspired you and given you hope. Follow your dreams. You don't know what will happen until you try.
I will end on two words.
Start.
Persevere.
06/08/2012
Over 400 a month!
I'm now getting over 400 hits a month on this blog. I'm amazed that its grown from 25 a month to this in just a year.
It just goes to show that perseverance works. Unfortunately very few visitors comment or get in touch but at least they're visiting and I'm getting chance to share my art.
Other than my hand drawn art I'm producing almost everything on the iPad at the moment. Whilst the resolution and DPI of the images is quite low it does mean that I can put 5 minutes in here and there whenever I get chance.
Being a husband and father means I get very little time until my children are in bed. Stealing 10 minutes here and there has become a necessity and bar leaving my computer on day and night its not really feasible to sit down and start working at my desk until the later hours, hence some rather unusual update times.
With the introduction of Dropbox support in the next update of Procreate on the iPad I will be able to move images between the two devices quite easily and expect to be able to get even more done.
I am hoping to start posting a few tutorials over the next few months in order to give something back to everyone that visits and follows me on twitter etc.
I wish to avoid showing you how to draw like me though because you need to develop your own style. Fingers crossed that I can get something together.
I will have to do it in between commission work, my full time job and the above but I'm sure it will be worth it.
In the mean time thanks for taking a look.
Matt
It just goes to show that perseverance works. Unfortunately very few visitors comment or get in touch but at least they're visiting and I'm getting chance to share my art.
Other than my hand drawn art I'm producing almost everything on the iPad at the moment. Whilst the resolution and DPI of the images is quite low it does mean that I can put 5 minutes in here and there whenever I get chance.
Being a husband and father means I get very little time until my children are in bed. Stealing 10 minutes here and there has become a necessity and bar leaving my computer on day and night its not really feasible to sit down and start working at my desk until the later hours, hence some rather unusual update times.
With the introduction of Dropbox support in the next update of Procreate on the iPad I will be able to move images between the two devices quite easily and expect to be able to get even more done.
I am hoping to start posting a few tutorials over the next few months in order to give something back to everyone that visits and follows me on twitter etc.
I wish to avoid showing you how to draw like me though because you need to develop your own style. Fingers crossed that I can get something together.
I will have to do it in between commission work, my full time job and the above but I'm sure it will be worth it.
In the mean time thanks for taking a look.
Matt
Exported artwork from Procreate - Supergirl work in progress
Painted entirely in Procreate on iPad 2 without a stylus.
In the mean time I'm very happy with it. I hope you like it.
11/07/2012
Change your life forever
Change your life forever with these 5 rules
Perspective
What you see and believe is unique to you. Your view of the world has been shaped by every event and experience in your life. When you judge someone else you do so within the confines of your experiences and understanding of the world. Do not make the mistake of liking someone more, just because they agree with you.
Taking offence
Just as your opinion is based on your perspective you must accept the same of everyone else. When you recognise this you will no longer take offence or be upset by the words and actions of others. Listen to what people say, but choose not to be upset by it. Their opinion is no more a fact than yours.
Possessions
Money, fame and material possessions can provide happiness but it will be an empty happiness. The people and events that touch you will enrich your life beyond any possession. Enjoy yourself; play; share your successes and failures and your passion and love of what excites and energises you. Do this and you will be rich beyond your wildest dreams.
Do your best
When you are well and full of energy your best will be amazing. When you are ill or in turmoil you will most likely feel less able. As long as you do your best you can forgive yourself and move on. Your best will grow with learning, practice and above all, perseverance.
Believe in yourself
The only barrier to achievement is you. You can overcome anything if you get up more times than you fall. When faced with an obstacle, focus on how to overcome it rather than how it affects you. If you let negative thoughts fill your mind you will waste your energy on them. Channel your energy towards resolving the problem and you will overcome it sooner.
In addition to these rules please consider the following quotes from some truly great people:
You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist – Golda Meir
To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it – Confucius
We do not cease to play because we grow old; we grow old because we cease to play. – George Bernard Shaw
In every big thing or achievement there are always obstacles, big or small, and the reaction one shows to such obstacles is what counts, not the obstacle itself - Bruce Lee
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