How to become awesome!

...and 5 reasons what blogs have to do with it.

• The first reason: You get to see tons and tons of inspirational and extraordinary artwork from artists around the world, when that same inspirational and extraordinary artwork can really get you down. It’s too overwhelming. There's so much really great talent out there but the amount and speed at which it comes at you, makes it hard to analyze why there are so many amazing artists out there and you feel you are not one of them.

• The second reason: Institutes like Bobby Chiu deliver such a huge amount of information on their blogs that I personally feel it´s hard to see the wood for the trees. Even if it’s valuable information. There’s sooo much that it keeps me from focussing; The key issue in growing.

• The third reason: Then there’s the fans on forums and blogs. And the time it takes for you to realize that “I love your work” never gets you anywhere if you need constructive criticism. And believe me, a lot of people do.

• The fourth reason: Another thing I've noticed is that if you (like I do) have a few bookmarked blogs you visit everyday before starting your working day, the attention and time you give to the art presented, is brought back to a minimum. Like you treat the artwork with disrespect or something, like it becomes some sort of disposable. Just think about how fast you scroll down a new blog in search for something great which makes you pause and be amazed. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can stop reading now..;)

• And last but not least, even if you have a succesful blog, with a lot of followers it's hard to focus on the right thing. It maybe even harder...

That's why we, at the ZylomGameStudio, decided it was necessary, in order for us to develop our skills in a structural way, to create a plan that breaks down your artwork into smaller aspects and with that helps you focus. A plan that gives you the tools to understand how to develop your artistic skills and tools that help you analyze afterwards. So basically how to become awesome and better yet, how to create awesome artwork!

Therefore we (the talented artist Dirk van Dulmen and me) developed a -theory and guidelines- which we use for the studio’s Master Assignment. A very complicated assignment described in two simple steps.

Step 1: Write a story.
Step 2: Make sure every aspect of your drawing supports your story.

In the months to come I’ll write more about this on my blog. If you want to follow our artists Master Assignments check out the ZylomGameStudio blog.

If you are interested in working with these steps and want to know more, let me know.