A bit over two and a half years ago me and Silver started working on Crytek’s most recent game – Ryse. Now that the game is finally out, we can show you guys some of the concepts we’ve made. I’ll start with my work and Silver’s going to post his in the next post. Enjoy! :)
See Ryse environment concepts next!
Smiles,
Kaija
We’re adding another small illustration to the Run Freak Run online store! One-of-a-kind ink sketch of a Night Witch, framed, artist signed and ready to go!
Again, be aware that there really is only one of these available. First come, first served :)
60usd
Sold out! Stay tuned for more! :)
Smiles,
Kaija
This week we had an interesting question posed to us by Jarrod in the blog’s comment section. In a nutshell it was about breaking out of an old style, and whether we have any helpful views on that subject. I started writing an answer, but it blew out of proportion pretty quickly. Silver said he wants to contribute his thoughts on the matter too, but since out of the two of us I’m the “man of few words”, we decided this subject will do better as a proper blog post.
My response to the question took a more “general thoughts” approach, whereas Silver talks more in depth about the production side of the concepting process.
Jarrod, we hope this helps you at least a little bit!
Hi Jarrod!
I definitely believe that practice makes perfect, and I think that would be most effective advice. It’s true in anything you do in life. It takes lots of work to get to a point where you start feeling comfortable with anything you pick up. And then, provided you enjoy it, you put even more hours into it to better yourself. The notion that art is so dependent on raw talent only is really detrimental to starting out creative people. You put yourself down for not being able to do EVERYTHING art related on the first try.
Expanding your skillset, whether to a new style, medium, or just concentrating on a more specific aspect of a skill, like e.g. better composition means learning something new. You don’t expect a violinist to pick up a guitar and be great off the bat. Or do an effortless leap from cooking to baking. Right? So don’t beat yourself down :)
And that brings me to tips:
I don’t have an exercise to help you break out of your old style immediately. But for a long term plan what I can suggest is getting some new influences. That’s how styles change over time. A logical and easy way to start is digging deeper and trying to find out what influenced the art style that you might be trying to emulate. See how it evolved through many people’s contributions and see if you can use your own strenghts and point of view to add to that lineage.
Think about what makes it good besides linework or rendering techniques. Mood and intention behind your designs are so much more important after all. How can you use shapes, colors and composition to convey this new style? One example is Tim Burton, Disney, and Cartoon Network cartoons. All very stylised, but all of them use different color palettes, shapes and composition. They’re very much intentional because each contributes to very different styles of storytelling. And the outcomes are distinctly different.
I get that it might be a hard switch to make if it defies what you’re used to drawing. I had a hard time switching from fully rendered digital painting to black ink only. I pulled myself out of an emotional black hole only after I found a technique that I liked and just drew the way I felt most comfortable with. And now, after drawing RFR for one and a half years I’ve started to hunger for new techniques and wanting to introduce them to the mix. I can see you have a more immediate change to make, but what I’m getting at is: there’s no reason why it couldn’t be done. A lot of it is giving your brain time to adjust to the new subject matter and do a lot of research.
And then practise.
Smiles,
Kaija
Dear Jarrod.
In its most simplest form, you could definitely answer this question with a simple “practise makes perfect”. Problem is, that practise by itself is a lot more complicated subject matter and without the experience of knowing where to focus your efforts, you might spend hours wasting time on practising the wrong thing.
In this particular case, where you’re trying to learn a new style and produce concept art at the same time, you aren’t only actively learning, but you also have an obligation to be useful for your project and your teammates.
The pressure of feeling useless to the project is petrifying at the least and adds an extra layer of stress that you don’t need to complicate things. I can imagine how the urge to feel like a productive and contributing team member can pull you back to your old ways, just so you have the feeling of being useful again. It’s hard to break free of it, but not impossible.
Here’s what I would do if I was you:
I would vigorously copy the style you want to learn for a few weeks. Not for the sake of making concept art, not for producing anything for your project, but only for the sake of learning new reference points and muscle memories. You’ll grow confidence, notice nuances and grow as an artist. Every project needs a proper pre-production exploration stage where all you do is just study and research and prepare yourself for the production.
Learning anything new is a lot easier if you simplify the progress. There’s no need to make it hard for yourself.
After you’ve copied enough to understand the style you’re learning, or at least to have enough references in your secret brain library, then you can move forward from the exploration stage to your pre-production stage and make first pass designs for your project. This is where you make your mood paintings, your quick concepts with a lot of variation and room to change. Don’t be afraid to be unoriginal at first, this is still just pre-production for you guys.
Most of our first ideas are unoriginal and cliches, and I’d rather you’re a bad copycat while you’re figuring things out than not a designer at all. At least being bad leaves you room to improve, it’s a solid base that can grow if you just put the hours into it.
The purpose of pre-production is to inspire you and give you good starting point for production art where you take all the things you’ve agreed on and change all the things you didn’t, and then put it together into a concept art in such a way that any other artist after you can just take it and build it without a doubt in her mind what to do with it.
Now, when you are doing concept art for your project, remember to always focus on being useful first rather than making good art. Concept art is not only about making pretty marketing pictures (that’s illustration), it’s really about problem-solving, communication and presentation; it doesn’t matter how nicely you rendered or draw something if the core idea sucks or if the picture is unreadable.
Fortunately, the better you become as a problem solver, the faster you work and can hence allocate more time to refine your paintings.
As you learn and train, your reference memory grows so large that you can easily start jumping from one style to another, and after you’ve become experienced enough, you will start combining these styles without any trouble, which ultimately will lead you to finding your own style.
Personal style, often the ultimate goal for all artists, is never final. It’s really just a way to describe your unconscious choices and presentation habits that you’ve acquired over the years. And since you as a person will keep growing and learning, so will your style.
Learning art and design isn’t really that complicated. In the end you just need to sit down and do it for a long long time repeatedly with a lot focus.
And never stop.
Cheers,
Silver
There you have it! If any of you guys have any more questions for us we’re happy answer them as best we can:)
As Silver mentioned in a blog post couple of weeks ago, we’re working on collecting all the fully published chapters so far (1-5) into an e-book that you guys can download with a pay-what-you-want system, and read on a device of your choosing. In that collection we are also including a new, unpublished mini-chapter for some extra fun and value. You can expect the e-book to be out some time in December.
Today I finished touching up an illustration for that new chapter. It’s a cluster of mermen that I’ve been working on and (mostly) off for I don’t know how long. It seems like an eternity. Since Run Freak Run is already a side project next to a full time job, any side project of the side project gets limited attention. Unfortunately. I wish that wasn’t the case. But even with reality being what it is, it’s done now :)
I thought some of you might like to see a peek of the process, so I took couple of pictures:
Thumbnail phase. I make a 4x6cm grid and doodle all and any ideas for illustrations that come to my mind. At this stage I’m mostly looking for the main idea, the big shapes and composition. If they don’t work in that size, no pretty drawing will save them when they’re scaled up.
Finished inked illustration. I knew I wanted to do some texturing and touch ups digitally later on to achieve the vibe I was going for, so I kept the drawing really simple and clean. An easy base for the fancy stuff in the last stage.
Final illustration for the extra chapter of the e-book we’re working on. This is after I cleaned the black edges in photoshop, added textures, blending and fogging it up a bit.
Hope you enjoyed that! If you guys show interest in getting a poster of this illustration, we could print a batch of them and post them on our Etsy-shop. Be vocal about it, so we can get a vibe on whether to do it or not :)
Smiles,
Kaija
Check our online store for more!
Original Run Freak Run comic art from today’s comic,hand-drawn on A3 bristol paper and inked with sumi-e inks by the one and only, Kaija Rudkiewicz.
The original art is artist signed and the solid-wood frame is included.
199usd.
Clickity-click to continue to the online store!
Well, hello there.
A few weeks ago Run Freak Run became a Hiveworks affiliate. Hiveworks, if you don’t know by now, is the place to go when you look for high-quality, kick-ass webcomics, so we’re obviously overjoyed to be part of that. What I like about Hiveworks, is the sheer amount of long-form stories(only crazy people make long-form webcomics), diversity of art styles (art what?), and the general lack of gamer gags that have monopolized the industry for a long time, mainly thanks to the success of Penny-Arcade (no hard feelings gamers). Now, what does this mean for Run Freak Run? Nothing much changes,the only thing you’ll notice – at least you should notice – is that fancy comic bar on the top of the page, which makes it possible for you to find new, quality comics with a simple click. Procrastinating on the internet has never been easier!
Now also as a Beatles song.
I haven’t done a book club for a while, so I think it’s time to get back to it. Recently, well – somewhat recently I had this phase where I’ve tried to read a lot Haruki Murakami’s novels with varying success. First I tried 1Q84. Loving the beginning and then slowly dozing off. I thought it frustrating until I gave Norwegian Wood a try and ended up blazing through it happily. It’s the perfect dazed and confused novel, a timeless coming-of-age story that’s smart and emotional. Encouraged by this great experience I gave 1Q84 another try, but alas it’s not my book. I tried other Murakami novels too, thinking that maybe 1Q84 was just bad luck since he’s a very profilic author, but besides his short story collections, I haven’t found the same connection to his stories again. Anyways, Norwegian Wood, it’s good, and I think you should read it.
I’m currently reading Divergent by Veronica Roth, a dystopian YA novel that’s in production for a movie. I’m still half-way through it so I won’t write about it yet, but it is a good sign if I get over the 1/3th line. Usually I can’t force myself to finish a novel if I just don’t care enough.
Run Freak Run got reviewed by a group of podcasters called Polycomics (episode 9 everybody). Besides their favorable review, the podcasts are really interesting to listen to and I especially like their book club kind of a way of reviewing the first chapters of comics. Now, I do wish they would talk more about webcomics, but I’m biased. If you’re looking for new comic orientated conversations and a kick ass theme music, then head over to Polycomics!
I’ve been super crazy about Adventure Time as of late. Honestly, I had no idea what it was besides an Android game we used to play. But we kept seeing tumblrers go crazy over it more and more, week after week and finally found out why. It’s a rare feeling that’s better than realizing that there’s a chestful of great animation, almost like crafted just for you, and you have hours of it to catch up.
Natasha Allegri, one of the Adventure Time storyboard artists is attempting to find funding for her own self directed project with Frederator Studios over Kickstarter. It’s called Bee and PuppyCat; a weird tale of random happenings, supercats, monsters and the joy of looking for a new part-time job. Check out the first episode over youtube and then, if you find yourself liking this kind of stuff, head over to support her over Kickstarter!
We’re still working on putting together the first RFR e-book with a brand new mini-story. Kaija’s been working extra hard on it, squeezing work on the mini-story in every now and then so our regular RFR schedule never wavers. Here’s a little sneak peak.
Clickity-click to zoom!
Until next time!
Love,
Silver
Just popping in to say Happy Halloween :) 
Arthur Rackham (1867-1939)
The Witches’ Sabbath
I’m a person who’s never properly celebrated Halloween. The whole festivity tends to slide under the radar in Europe, or at least it did in Finland, where I grew up. Rather, for me Halloween is a funny pop cultural phenomena that I have only experienced through movies and stories from other people.
Tim Burton with Nightmare Before Christmas characters.
It looks like one of the most fun celebrations of the year though. It’s based on monsters, witches, bats and pumpkin lanterns! But it’s neither been a tradition for me, in which case I wouldn’t question my reasons for celebrating, nor do I know the origins of the tradition, in which case I could understand why I should be celebrating. So I’ve never participated. This year I wanted to rectify the latter.
To my delight, history of Halloween is full of stuff that I find appealing. It’s like reading a fairy tale. Or a book of fairy tales. In short, Halloween comes from an ancient tradition, and it’s origins can be found in Gaelic Ireland, around 2000 years ago. The festival was then called Samhain, roughly translated it means “summer’s end” and it marked the end of harvest season and the beginning of winter. Animals were brought down from their summer pastures for the winter and spirits and gods were given offerings of food and drink for good luck.
The eve of Samhain was believed to be a liminal time, the moment when division between this world and the otherworld was at it’s thinnest, allowing spirits and the dead to pass through and walk among the living. Bonfires were lit to protect and cleanse, as well as in symbolic imitation of the sun, to hold back the approaching darkness of winter. Costumes and masks were worn for safety reasons, to trick harmful spirits into thinking you were one of them. Other precautions against mischievous spirits included simply staying indoors, or if forced to venture into the darkness people turned their clothing inside-out or carried iron or salt to keep them at bay.
Samhain also appears in many Irish folk tales as a moment when important events take place. These seem to be mostly invasions, kings making child sacrifices, magic, and deaths. Loads of deaths.
I found some quite disturbing vintage Halloween photos. I love them!
Mutants and monstrosities. An awesome bunch.
Best hag costume I’ve seen so far. And does the creature in the middle have sunglasses on?
The tradition of jack-o’-lanterns seems to be a bit more recent tradition. It has been tracked to the 19th century, when trick or treaters carved out turnips to act as lanterns and the carved faces to represent evil spirits and to protect against them while walking outside.
In the 9th century, the Roman Catholic Church shifted the date of the “All Saints” or the “All Hallows” day to November 1st and over time customs of Samhain and All Hallows mixed and merged, taking it closer to modern Halloween.
The tradition of Halloween finally appeared in America in the 19th century, when the Irish emigrated there in huge numbers. In the late 19th century an effort was made to mold Halloween traditions more into neighbourly get togethers, and Halloween parties became the most common way to celebrate the holiday. At the beginning of 20th century Halloween had already lost most of it’s superstitious overtones to family friendly activities.
Creepy, creepy, creepy.
It’s the vacant eyes…
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For some reason these are my favourite costumes of the whole collection. They’re so terribly sad looking…
It’s not all doom and gloom :)
All in all I found some of the most capturing history, myths and holiday traditions in Halloween. And I was just barely scraping the surface of the information that’s out there to be found. Lastly, after the info-dump that I bestowed on my brain, I have made my final verdict: it’s high time for me to take up some Halloween customs.
I think I’ll start with a batch of skull cookies.
Smiles,
Kaija
Every now and then, whilst Kaija is drawing Run Freak Run I pull out my trusty camera and photograph her at her craft. The fun thing about visual arts is that not only do the end results look amazing, but also the process.
Seeing art created in front of you is like magic.
Each page is inked on A3 Bristol paper with sumi-e ink.
A thousand points to whom can name what branded mugs are there in the background!
Kaija sketches each panel first with a blue pen and then inks!
Soon, this page can too be purchased from our friendly online art store. Nudge, nudge.
Bitch, I’m fabulous.
Love always,
Silver
Last week we did a quick trip to Berlin. Just a one-night visit for passport documents and while we were there we met up with our old friend whose life could be the subject of many romantic comedies. I bet everyone has a friend like that; the kind who’s so active and so vibrant that it makes you feel old.
I am getting older, there’s no doubt about it – I just turned 26 the other week, but because of my routines I sometimes feel older than I should feel. I live an artist life, which sounds very exciting. But let me tell you, most real life artists are the most boring, selfish and neurotic people in the world who are all busy with their work. At the same time, they are the most passionate, dedicated and skilled in their craft only because they put the hours in to it.
Back to Berlin.
Berlin confused us – it was big, larger than big – it was beyond huge so much that I had trouble grasping what part of the city was which. It was wide like London, but without a center. It was full of artists, who didn’t really seem to do much art. And I think the whole graffiti street art is getting out of hand; you should watch out Berlin, for cool lies in exclusivity.
Maybe I’m too quick to jump to conclusions. Maybe I shouldn’t judge from only two days, but I will anyways, for I don’t have a decade to get to know you.
For some time now, we’ve been working on a Run Freak Run e-book that collects the first five chapters and our favorite blog posts from this time. We don’t want to leave it at that either. For the sole purpose of the e-book we’re working on a four-page mini-story that will be exclusive to the e-book (it has mermen in it!).
Most importantly, we want to keep the e-book just as free as it would be if you read it here on the website, with the option of paying what you want. Think of it like the humble indie bundle where you’re encouraged to support the teams behind these projects, but in case you can’t, or don’t want to – that’s cool too.
Overall – it will be 71 pages of comics in the highest resolution possible, plus additional 10-20 pages of best of blog and behind the scenes materials.
It’s all slowly cooking in the oven, and we can’t wait to get it done so we can share it with you :)
Cheers,
Silver