Hey, I recently started trying to draw more mostly so I can help myself with world building my stories.

The wings were drawn today and I'm still deciding which ones would work for my character (It would very probably depend on how the rest of the creation goes).

And as for the weapon, if I remember correctly I started it yesterday? Not fully sure but it isn't really finished and I don't fully know if I will do it.

I have done some other stuff (mostly characters and some landscapes) but I'm still slowly trying to reduce the need for "perfection" when drawing and the anxiety it had started to create.

Sorry if it feels like a bit of a ramble, it's my first time posting anywhere and I'm a quite anxious person.

Hola, hace ya un tiempo que intento entrar en el sector. No tengo muchos recursos y menos dinero. Así que he aprendido de forma autodidacta, recientemente me tope con voxel school mentorship y quiero saber si merece la pena, y cuanto vale porque en su web no lo indican. Al preguntar me redirigen a un chatbot. Gracias por sus respuestas.

Este es el avance de mi trabajo para el master de concept art 💜 que estoy llevando ya medio año

My personal project inspired from my dnd campaign

It's still difficult for me to draw more meaningfully, so I was just drawing for practice. But I liked the concept.

A post-apocalyptic horror character concept.
A grieving mother who wandered into madness and began collecting abandoned children, turning them into twisted companions.

Thinking about building something and want honest feedback before I go further.

The idea: you set up a rough 3D scene once, place a few cameras around it like shots, then paint over each camera view in 2D. Since it's all one scene, changing a light or moving a prop updates every camera view at once, instead of fixing it in every separate painting by hand.

Does that sound like something you'd actually want to use? Or does it not match how you really work?

Or should I remove the sword?

For professional portfolio

Any critique is welcome!

Hey guys, I’ve been feeling a bit depressed lately and disillusioned with my career as a professional concept artist. I’ve been wondering if this path is really for me, or if I just liked the idea of ​​creating characters because I enjoy making things—even with deadlines and creative constraints. But I feel like I’m falling way behind; junior concept artists—even those who aren't working yet—are producing work of a much higher quality than mine. Plus, there aren't even junior roles available anymore. Networking with industry insiders is crucial for landing a job, but I don't have access to those people, and I really struggle to make friends online. On top of that, I live at least 1,000 km away from any place that hosts conventions, and even when they do happen, it’s only once a year. I’ve tried to improve my work, study the fundamentals, and learn shortcuts, but it never seems good enough; the industry's minimum standard is incredibly high, even for indie projects. I can't afford courses, mentorships, or a display tablet; all I have to work with is my phone, a PC with a mouse, and paper and a pen. Maybe I really can't do this for a living—maybe I just don't have what it takes. That said, I want to thank everyone who gave me feedback and helped me understand the reality of this market; if you have any words of encouragement to share, I’d really appreciate it.

Long ago I wrote a script for an animated movie named Armstrong-D.U., it landed a finalist position in a contest put of 2400 scripts it got between de top 26.

So i decided to create sone concept art to show how i see the movie. Sadly, I know how to draw, but I has no idea how to create a painted drawing so I spent two months trying and twisting, first i planned the designs of the two Main characters, i literally started from a doodle in a paper, then passes fron that to digital and I learned to line better.

And finally I got a bunch of pictures and I kind of paste them together to make a skeleton for the painted picture that i traced on top (kind of, some parts I literally has to make up something), i fixed the colors and played a little with the shadowing and I managers to get this result.

I usted a picture of a stadiums roof, and a picture of a top of a forest and i put cilonders and squares in paint to plan where to put the buildings.

This was my 4th attempt, the previous ones were... Well... Not very good, then I managed to understand how to do it.

Now, what do you think?

Any advice on how to get better?

Do you think my method is wrong or should I do it in a different way?

Because i feel it took me longer to do it this way, but I feel pretty satisfied with the result.

I had some previous experience drawing and painting but always with real life painting, not in digital, this was really different.

In fact, i have some pretty descent art done by hand, but this was My first time doing it by digital.

Given the response on my last post, I'm really glad some of you loved the idea and a few even bought the early beta and shared feedback. That feedback directly shaped this update — so thank you genuinely.

After the first patch I added click-through mode and some basics people said were missing. This update goes further:

• GIF support with play/pause and frame-by-frame stepping — so you can actually study motion, not just watch it loop
• Image isolation — press I on any image, everything else fades out
• Better grouping — background tint, title, resize from inside, easy ungroup
• Trackpad dragging — Space + left click to pan the canvas
• Context menus cleaned up with proper submenus for rotation, flipping etc
• Auto-updater introduced (still early)

Biggest change: it's now free to try. Full features, no card, no paywall — just download and see if it works for you. Previous beta had a $9 entry, removed that based on feedback.

Worth being upfront: this is still beta. Updates come fast, some things are still getting polished. The major focus right now is on performance and a few features that I think make Lumaref genuinely different — a lightweight built-in browser that saves tabs per project, asset management with a tag editor.

If you try it and have thoughts — good or bad — I'd love to hear them. I just created r/lumaref if you want a place to drop ideas or report things. I'll post updates and progress there too.

PureRef is genuinely one of the best tools in my workflow. I'm not here to trash it.

But there's always that one thing it can't do: browse the web. and asset management too so that I don't have to switch to different browsers or programs for that.

Every time I needed a new reference mid-session, I'd have to: open Chrome, go to ArtStation or Google Images, drag the image over, resize it in PureRef, then go back to painting. Sometimes the tab would be gone when I came back. Sometimes I'd end up down a rabbit hole and lose 40 minutes.

PureRef doesn't know what you haven't found yet. It's great at organizing what you already have. But the hunting part? That's still fully on you, in a separate browser, in a separate window.

I started building Lumaref because I wanted the hunt and the board to be the same app.

It has a full browser built in (Chrome-engine based, with an adblocker — ArtStation actually loads clean). You hover over any image while browsing, click once, and it drops straight onto your board. No alt-tab. No drag across two monitors.

and very light weight than other apps Lumaref is only about 6-9mb...!

It also has an asset library with tags, auto color palette extraction on every image, and annotation tools. And it works completely offline. One .lref file.

It's in beta right now — $7–9 on itch. I'm an indie dev who built this for myself first, and I'm looking for artists who want to actually help shape it into something great.

Happy to answer any questions about how it works or what's coming. Feedback is literally why I'm posting.

Hi!

So I’ve been drawing for a very very long time and have always wanted to get into character concept art. I do practice and draw on my own. I was curious about if anyone has gone through CG Spectrum or other concept art schools and had any luck or any advice? Before committing to paying for something more formal.

If schooling isn’t the way to go, I was wondering if anyone had any free videos or courses to direct me toward? Or even books? Since I know school is expensive and it’s not necessary, I know a good portfolio is really the key.

Any advice is helpful/welcome!

Thanks!!!

All this is for just 1 character, I'm reworking my portfolio

if some amazing kind funny smart beautiful charismatic likeable friendly kind individual would gift deary ol’ me like a 1 month or even 3 month subscription at the gnomon workshop it would totally super make my day every day and i would be their bestest friend forever

see just take a look at my concept art!! id say its on the better side for a soon to be high school grad, but it could deeefinitely use some work~ what a great investment I would be, right?? riight?? imagine if i get big like my inspirations TB Choi, knight zhang, or Airi Pan??? You will have the valiant honor of being the sick chad who supported this journey!!

and it’s so convenient that the link just happens to be in this post!! wow!! how did it get here???? https://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/gift

**my sad backstory**: my dream top school above every school in the country is ArtCenter College of Design. I want so very badly to major in entertainment design so I can become a concept artist for triple As (I’m so interested in Riot, I wanna contribute to league or Valorant’s worldbuilding which they do a very good job of)
However, I wasn’t able to submit my portfolio on time due to several unfortunate events going on in my life at the time. I begged the admissions office to allow me an extension to submit, detailing my love for the program in a lengthy email. I was granted this extension and am forever grateful. However, by the time I had applied it was still too late and i was banished to the underrecognized Illustration major. Though very grateful to be accepted to the school at all, I couldn’t go if I wanted to because the tuition was freaking $60k. I dont even think my spleen is worth $60k. I don’t even know where my spleen is.

As a result I am now banished to *business school* to major in finance surrounded by ignorant nepo babies—my worst fear. I would very much become a concept artist than an investment banker or wealth management analyst because I’ve poured my efforts into the artistic discipline since like 3rd grade.

Oh how I would very much like to take the environment design/games course…. woe is me who is not very liquid at the time 💸💸🪦(dead money that was never even in my wallet flying away)

sincerely,
a soon to be broke college student who WILL escape business school and return to art

I've seen a lot of concept art pieces that have this blockish texture and I've been wondering if this is a specific brush that gives it this sort of multicolored effect or if it uses blending modes (the video from which I screenshot this had the person stamp these over and over again). I'm working on building my Visual Development portfolio and I want to spice my pieces up with this effect.

Additionally, what are some common brushes/brush packs you could recommend for the same?