Task 14: Planning and Concepting

"Art Process Boot Camp. Bring a helmet."

I found this to be a very interesting read, almost as if i really needed to read it. To be honest I dont feel like im much artistically and I really need to improve in my work.
It was good to see how a professional would produce things as it emphasizes how much the planning means to the final outcome, I dont believe I plan enough and my work suffers - sometimes I manage to produce some good finals but with more planning I believe they will drastically improve.
I like the way she has given rules of thumb in her tutorial as it gets me to remember them, I feel like writing them out and sticking them around my room.
It was quite a read and I think I would have liked to seen some more "Work in progress" pieces between the main pictures posted.
Its good that she posted "Rule 7: Always be aware at how the element materials of your painting affect and are affected by the environment" and then gave some examples, in my work I dont think I pay much attention to the actual materials - sure I want them to look as realistic as possible but I dont feel like I understand it particularly well at the moment.
Yeah it was a good read and I believe it helped me a bit, she has obviously done this quite a lot as it shows in how she has painted areas, Im still relatively new to digital painting (And general art work) but she stresses that these steps she has listed seem more important than ability - the ability comes with time and practice.
I really like her final image and also how she has used the motion blurs to emphasize certain areas, its interesting that to me this is a very good piece but she her self still has problems with it, almost at the point of binning it - this shows that she still feels like she needs to improove a heck of a lot.
(I feel the same way with most of the work that I produce also)

I defiantly need to develop the skill of planning and concepting, I dont feel like the work I was producing was that very well guided and almost felt like I was just doing it because it had to be done rather than doing to improve in understanding and production. I wish to be able to produce work faster and to a better standard than my previous productions, as i said in previous posts about wanting this 2nd year to be a vast improvement from the first and that I need to develop, this gives me tools(skills) that i need to now continue to use but more importantly, to use and develop.

[List of the rules]
Rule #1: If it doesn't work at the size of a postage stamp, it won't work at any size
rule #2: If it doesn’t work in value, it won’t work in color
Rule #3: always try to avoid centering anything and avoid odd tangents.
Rule #4: the farther from the focal point, the blurrier the details in an atmosphere.
Rule #5: the stronger the contrast, the more the focus.
Rule #6: the stronger the saturation, the more the focus.
Rule #7: always be aware at how the element materials of your painting affect and are affected by the environment