Kunjungan ke Dallas: The Outcome

Seperti yang udah gue janjiin di entry sebelomnya, kali ini gue bakalan membahas tuntas apa2 aja yang gue dapet selama gue mengikuti workshop Reverie di Dallas kemaren.
So people, take your seat, bring a bag of popcorn and enjoy the ride! :)
*bah, gue ngetik seakan2 orang pada bacain blog gue aja! wakakakakak XD*


REVERIE Day 1: The Opening Party
Since ini malem pertama workshop ini dibuka, so kita mostly cuma hang out, kenalan sana-sini, dance till the dawn came *gue ga tau sih kapan kelarnya, since jem 1 gue udah cabut*, sama ngeliatin para instructor berdemo ria di 10 (or 12) projector screen yang tersebar di seantero ruangan. Sebenernya kita bisa punya pilihan untuk start sketching and drawing sih, secara ada banyak model2 yang berpose selama party berlangsung, dari yang berbaju sampe yang nude. Tapi meh, being me, too lazy to draw at that moment (ya iyalah, wong balik SF aja gue bisa ke workshop buat gambar, ngapain gue wasted time di sana gambar2 lagi?), alhasil gue cuma ngider2 ngeliatin demo2 yang ada. Setelah beberapa kali nemplok di beberapa tempat demo yang berbeda2, akhirnya gue stuck di tempatnya Jason Chan *where else should I be? :p*

Dan ngomong2 Jason Chan, kali ini gue bener2 ngerasa jiwa fangirl gue keluar! XD
Beneran deh, level fangirlnya beda gitu waktu ketemu sama Andrew Jones n Marko! (secara yang satu cuma gara2 gantengnya, yang satunya terpaksa jadi fangirl sementara gara2 autograph laknat!)
But man...It was Jason Chan man! Illustrator fave gue yang sukses membuat gue pindah haluan dari yang cuma bisa gambar komik Jepang sampe jadi punya style sendiri yang based on realism drawing! Gue masih inget tuh, udah bertaon2 gue desperate pengen keluar dari manga or anime style tapi tetep balik2nya ke situ2 lagi.
Dari mulai nyoba ngikutin stylenya si Kidchan yang super duper graphical (dan akhirnya gue give up sendiri karena sense of designnya ga ada sama sekali), ngotot pengen ngalahin 1 ilustrator indo bernama B***c**** yang bikin gue jeles setengah mati (dan sekarang if i think about it and look back, WHAT ON EARTH HAD GOTTEN INTO ME?????), sampe desperately trying ganti style gambar kesana dan kesini sampe capek sendiri.

Dan on 1 fateful nite *ciehhhhh...uhuk2*, gue secara nggak sengaja menemukan 1 gambar dia. Gue langsung fell in love sama style drawingnya sodara2!! Drawing/painting stylenya tuh bisa passssssssssss bener sama apa yang gue cari selama ini: a mix between realism and anime style. Hasilnya? uh oh, so beautifullll *d (TTwTT) b /thumbs up!*
Eniwei, sejak saat itu, gue langsung ngeset goal untuk ngejer levelnya si bang Jason, dan mulai melangkah supaya gue bisa sampe di sono, walopun it means gue musti back to basic, belajar lagi dari awal ttg anatomi, proportion, gesture, facial feature yang realis.
Dan sejak ada bang Jason, gue dengan santainya bisa berkata, "Sapa? B***c****?? Udah lupa tuhhhh!!!" WAKAKAKAKAKA XD

Okeh, cukup dengan nostalgilanya, sebelom gue malah ngalor-ngidul kesana-sini dan lupa sama point2 yang mau gue sampaikan.

Berhubung emank gue DEMEN BANGET sama si bang Jason (sampe pernah mimpiin dia segala tau gaaaaaa!!!! Malu2in udah gedongan juga, bisa2nya mimpiin orang yang tau mukanyapun nggak!!! PARAH! *plak!*), gue nggak mikir2 lagi waktu tau dia ngedemo di salah satu projector yang ada. Sampe temen2 gue geleng2 melihat jiwa fangirl sejati gue yang udah mulai keluar.
Kira2 gini kronologis kejadiannya:

gue: Hey guys! Found anything interesting around?
Nils and Sophie: Yea, where have u been? We saw Marko demoing not a long ago there.
gue: Oh really? What about Jason Chan?
Nils: Oh, he's actually right there in the corner, he's just started demoing.
gue: ..... *kaget!!!*
REALLY??? WHEREEEE????? *mata membesar saking senengnya*
Nils: There, go! *nunjuk ke salah satu corner dengan kerumunan orang*

Tanpa ba-bi-bu, gue langsung melesat ke TKP dengan kecepatan cahaya yang bisa ngebikin Hiruma Youichi dari Eyeshield 21 terkekeh2. Nyampe di TKP, ternyata tempatnya crowded banget sodara! Saking banyaknya orang yang berdiri mo liat demonya si Jason. Untungggg gue pendek, jadinya gue bisa nyelip2 sampe akhirnya maju di barisan paling depan, pas di belakangnya si bang Jason.

Omg, gue deg2an bangetttttttttttt!!! WAKAKAKAAKKAKAKA!
Rasanya kayak ketemu sama gebetan yang lamaaaa banget ga ketemu!!! DODOL ABIS!!! XD
Gue saking hepi plus perasaan laen2, cuma bisa speechless sambil senyum2 ngeliat dia ngedigipaint. Seriously kayak anak ABG huahuahuahuahua :p Nah, lagi asik2 ngeliatin si Jason ngedemo, tau2 temen gue, si Cecely dateng:

Cec: Ah, I should have known you're here
gue: yea, where else???
Cec: Are you not going to talk to him at all?
gue: ...I want to, but I have no clue what should I say!
Cec: oh come on girl, just say sumthing, like introduce urself!
gue: and then what?
Cec: and then..start talking!!!!
gue: ...No, I think I'll go blank if I ever do that
Cec: ...Ok, I will make you talk to him after this guy finished talking!

BAH!
Udah mempermalukan diri di depan Andrew Jones, masa mau mempermalukan diri di depan Jason Chan juga sih????? Kalo sampe gue berbuat bodoh di depan Jason Chan, bener2 bisa mati burung ituuuu!

Akhirnya, sebelom si Cecely melancarkan serangan gerilyanya ke si Jason supaya gue bisa ngobrol sama dia, gue memutuskan untuk bertindak. MERDEKA ATAU MATIIII!!!!! XD
Tapi sebelom gue sempet bertindak, tau2 ada 1 orang cowok yang ngedatengin Jason and mulai ambil posisi mau ngobrol.

Cec: Hey Phil! This girl REAALLLYY wants to talk to Jason. Could u wait after her?
The other guy: Oh, sure! He's all yours!

OMG.
I.really.felt.like.a.fantard.
A.super.one... *sweatdropbangingheadagain*

And all of those conversation happened while we were standing BEHIND him DIRECTLY!!!! You know..Our voice wasn't THAT soft. Infact, it was quite loud since we had to speak louder so the other party can hear. Imagine kalo Jason Chan sempet denger anything yang kita omongin, I'd flush myself down the drain to erase any embarrassement.

Eniweiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~
Finally I got the chance to talk to him directly and ask for any of his advice on digital painting. Here's what I got:
- work on grascale
- use overlay layer on top to set up the mood
- alternate layer mode, depends on what u wanna do
- normal layer on top for richer color
- using hard round brush, varies opacity, flow and hardness for most of the painting
- airbrush for blending only
- pastel brush for texture
- jangan lupa imagenya diflip untuk ngecek :)

Next, hari kedua!
Daripada ntar kepanjangan ngebahas bang Jason, bisa hatchi2 dia digosipin molo hahaha.

Di hari kedua ini, gue ga banyak ngapa2in, karena perut gue sangatlah sakit. Padahal awalnya gue cuma nahan kentut doank lho, ehhh malah buntut2nya jadi maag trus kembung trus malah kram perut kayak ditusuk2! :|
Makanya sodara2, kalo hendak kentut janganlah ditahan2, bisa berakibat fatal ntar!

Workshop yang sempet gue ikutin: Anatomy and traditional drawing by Andrew Jones sama Michael Mentler. Bah, ini si bang Jonsie sibuk sendiri sama kerjaan dia, apanya yang ngajar bung?? Si Mentler very helpful sih, tapi gara2 suara dia kecil buanget dan orang2 yang ngerubutin dia banyakkkk alhasil gue juga tak tahu-menahu dia lagi ngajar apa. ^^;

Di hari kedua ini, yang cukup helpful malah waktu gue ngeliatin sketchbooknya si akang Wes dan cara dia gambar. Kacauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!
Tu orang bener2 my new inspiration deh!!!! Again, gara2 ngeliat gambar2 dia, gue kayak dibukain tentang cara shading dan toning yang bener pake pensil mekanik!
Dia nggak pake tools macem2 lhooo...Cuma modal pensil cetekan 2B sama sketchbooknya yang ukuran mini, tapi dia bisa produce such a BEAUTIFUL pencil drawing in short amount of time! TTATT *terima kasih oh Tuhan buat pencerahannya!!!!*

Satu hal yang gue belajar dari si akang Wes tercintah: dia nggak buru2 kalo narik garis. It seemed to me that he put a lot of thought in each stroke. Jadinya nggak asal ngurek2, ga asal sketching. Lining dia bersihhh banget, and gue jarang ngeliat dia ngehapus. Waktu dia ngesketch, dia juga ga ngesketch dengan napsunya, yang goresannya sampe berbekas di kertasnya gitu. Gerakan tangannya waktu ngegambar tuh sangat2 ringan, almost dancing di atas kertasnya. Flowy banget gitu deh.

Waktu dia ngeshade n ngetone juga sama aja, nggak asal ngeblok sana-sini yang penting keliatan ada shading. Dia bener2 took his time untuk develop hatching/cross hatchingnya, sampe akhirnya kerjaan dia keliatan 3D dan berkesan clean. Buat masalah ini, Jason Chan juga ada ngomong sama gue, untuk look for plane changes instead of blindly ngetone. Dan dia juga bilank, waktu gue put down my shading, goresannya diusahakan searah sama plane changesnya, biar kesannya 3D and nggak confusing.
Sejak dikasih tau gitu, gue mulai mempraktekan, dan hasilnya DASYAT BO!

Bisa dilihat perbandingannya di sini:
Ini gambar2 yang menurut gue mewakili my progress yang occured tiap taon :D
LOL sama gambar pertama, jadul buangettttt!!!!
The last pic itu fresh from the oven, and I'm pretty happy how it turned out :) Banyak2 latian lagi ah, supaya bisa selangkah lebih deket sama si Wes Burt! XD

Lanjuttttt hari ketiga.
Nah, this was the best day.
Kondisi badan gue oke, udah gitu dapet one on one coaching pula sama beberapa instructor!

Salah satu kelas yang menurut gue sangat bermanfaat, and thank God gue mengabaikan saran temen gue untuk ga ikutan kelas ini, kelas digital painting in photosop with Bobby Chiu. Walopun gue telat masuk sekitar 15 mins, and udah penuh bener sampe harus berdiri di pintu, tapi nonetheless, ini kelas bener2 inspirational n helpful!

Ini yang gue dapet dari kelasnya Bobby Chiu *nyadur dari notenya temen gue sih XD*:
- Pay close attention to position and the shape of highlight. When unsure, create a highlight on a new layer and move it around. The shape of the highlight reflects the shape of the surface at all times.
- Even when creating a fictional subject, it is important to draw inspiration from life. AKA: REFERENCE, BABY!!!
- Learn something every month and build up the library in your mind.
- You should always be trying to figure out your client’s vision rather than trying to push creative boundaries of your own. While on the job, you need to be enhancing the client’s vision rather than changing it.

Bobby’s quick digital demo:
• Make sure you can always see the thumbnail of your image. You can use navigator for this. Bobby opens a second window of the same file he is working on instead.
To do this, go to Window – Arrange – New Window for *whatever your file name is*.
Put the new window next to the window you are working in, and resize it so that you can see the thumbnail of the entire image. When painting, make sure it looks good in the thumbnail window or your picture may not be working properly.
• Do not rush to put down strokes. One thought, one stroke. The speed of putting down marks has nothing to do with your work speed. What makes you work faster is if you train yourself to think faster.
• Bobby likes to start in a dark background, sketch using a very slightly darker color. He believes that to preserve the imagination in one’s sketch, one must not kill it with too much contrast too early on. It’s very much like looking into the dark at night and seeing shapes. If it’s broad daylight with everything in plain sight, sometimes your imagination stops working.
• It is important to establish the lighting scheme early on. Work in layers, and if the contrast becomes too great too fast, turn down the opacity so you can easily paint over it on a new layer.
• Bobby starts out with the texture brush, then switch to the default round brush.
• Avoid using complete black. Try to think about colors a few steps ahead. On the other hand, highlights are also very rarely white.
• Bobby alternatively paints in the dark and the light, gradually increasing the contrast.
• Use contrast wisely. It’s a tool to attract the eye.

-note taken from Grace Liu in conceptart.org forum -


Selaen digital, gue juga dapet banyak tips2 dari para master oil painting, salah satunya adalah Greg Manchess. Cara beliau ngajar jelas beda sama Bobby Chiu yang lecturenya enak ngalir dan orang nggak bingung. Mr. Manchess suka ngobrol kesana-kemari and kita musti pinter2 nangkep point dari apa yang dia omongin. Eniwei, here's some tips yang gue dapet dari Mr. Manchess ttg how to do a drawing from imagination, doesn't matter what your medium is :)

Drawing from Imagination by Greg Manchess:
- Start with a vision, rough ideas. Jot down any ideas that you can come up with, then mulai dari thumbnails >> shape, jangan line/detail. As the drawing/painting progress, try to constantly thinking in shapes. Keep the idea as direct as possible
- Do research and planning of a painting, it's VERY important! If you plan ahead how your painting would be instead of just going with the flow, you will save more time and energy. You will also have a clear understanding on where you drawing would go.
- Set up tone and cahaya dari arah mana, supaya create lighting yang believable
- REFERENCES! always, and always have reference with you, especially if it's something with environment. Oh well, dont forget references. PERIOD.
- Give just enough taste of imagination. Maksudnya, jangan overdo, biar ntar jadinya tetep masuk akal. Give a taste of real life too in your drawing.
- Build up warna dari underpainting, then working towards shadow, and last baru ke light areas. Avoid going into detail first thing at all cost.
- Do your coloring by blocking the color, tapi jangan ngasal, harus ada formnya. Perhatiin tarikan brush, mo ke arah mana harus sesuai sama form/shape yang mau dibentuk (plane changes ala jason chan).
- Composition trick: Overlapping elements selalu menarik and give depth. Do not put the drawings/characters/elements at the same distant. It screams BORING!!
- Always, and always start with something simple first, then you can elaborate later on.

And here's another note I got from one on one talking with William Whitaker, a master painter :) Mostly sih tipsnya dia buat oil painting, tapi sapa tau aja bisa diapply ke digital juga XD
- When you have a difficulty on setting up a flesh color, go with a cooler tone instead of warm. You can never overdo your cool colors, but you can always overkill your warm colors. Cool colors also give you more freedom to build up to warm. Once it's too warm, you can never muted it down without making it looking muddy.
- Pick a brush that's the biggest brush we think we can use, then use the bigger one to paint
- Harus ada balance antara complexity/rendering area sama unrendered area. People tend to over-render everything so they leave no room for eyes to breath
- Dont worry about color combination and such. First, you need to master your brush handling and how you put down your color.

Notes from DA Stage: Sequential Art and Comics by Marko Djurdjevic, El Coro and Jason Chan
- Pay attention to size - composition relationship
- Dont forget that your BG color can be used to tell the story. What feeling do you want to convey? How can it be achieved?
- Give enough little detail to support your drawing. *again guys, dont kill yourself by overdoing your piece! :)*
- Pay respect to your character.
- Dont be afraid to leave colors out and cuma pake beberapa warna, supaya create a better atmostphere. More colors isnt necessarily better.

Selaen menghadiri kelas2 yang ada, gue juga sempet nongkrong di salah satu corner waktu Noxizmad lagi ngedemo. Thanks to Will yang sukses ngebikin gue ngeburu si Nox gara2 dengerin ceritanya, yang katanya, "I spent most of my time with him just talking. He's really nice and gives you feedback and tips..." and bla bla bla...

Eniwei, here's tips and tricks on how Nox did his digital painting in photoshop (Yeap, most of them were using sotosop. Seinget gue cuma si mister Jonsie yang pake painter):
- start with grayscale (a tight one, jangan asal diurek2)
- overlay layer to give the overall feeling
- color layer (gives nice tryout for color. it adds color without nutupin underpaintingnya)
- normal mode layer to finish up

Yah, mirip2 si Jason punya sih...Dan gue udah mempraktekan, tapi hasilnya kok GATOT??? T______T entah kenapa warnanya ga bisa keluar euy! kayaknya gue musti pinter2 cari cara nih gimana *melesat nonton video tutonya bang Jason*


Hari Keempat!!!
*akhirnya, setelah note yang panjang2 ajubilah*

More notes coming di hari terakhir ini, tapi mostly ttg how deal with the business side. Eniwei, it's great to know that aspect sih :)

The Art of Freelancing:
- Be spesific, you'd better have a trademark. Bisa dari medium, dari style, dari apa aja, yang penting punya trademark supaya orang bisa inget
- Fokus maunya kemana. Ke bookskah? Ke concept artkah? Jangan maruk semua2nya mau.
- Be picky on what you're working. Jangan asal duid, semuanya jadi.
- Be approachable. Have website, gaul n kenalan sama orang2 industry sana. Jangan malu2 memperkenalkan diri and always have a business card anywhere you go. If you can bring your portfolio sample, that would be great.
Bahasa indonya: jangan di rumah molo! Expose yourself, kalo memungkinkan go to conventions, and let people know you are exist!
Kerjaan nggak turun dari langit, bung!
- Get an award. Bobby Chiu pernah mention ini ke gue waktu kita ngobrol. Waktu itu gue tanya gimana caranya dia bisa jadi kayak sekarang ini, dan dia bilank, salah satu yang nolong tuh gara2 dia masuk ke Spectrum or Expose (lupa gue, salah satu deh pokoknya). Nah, dari situ dia langsung dapet recognition. Emank nggak mutlak jalannya musti gitu, tapi nggak bisa dipungkirin juga kalo orang2 jadi lebih bisa kenal kita kalo kita dapet penghargaan kayak gitu.
- JANGAN MALES!!!! *ajleb!!*
- Make a good portfolio, mulai dari isi sampe craftmanshipnya. Kalo perlu, minta tolong temen yang jago ngedesign buat design'in portfolio book kita. Go to professional people buat ngebound our book, jangan asal motong sendiri gara2 mau ngirit, ntar mencong2 akibatnya kerjaan melayang duid ilank juga.
Trus, karena portfolio kita harus terlihat sebagus dan secantik mungkin, alangkah baiknya kalo kita cuma present our best work. Wait to make a portfolio until we have at least 10 solid images.
- Know your client-to-be. Kalo elo ngedatengin client yang nyari book cover artist, perlihatkanlah gambar2 ttg book cover, jangan malah komik bikinan sendiri yang kita kasih liat. Gitu juga kalo your client to-be is looking for a concept artist, show her/him decent amount of visual development works, jangan malah buku cerita anak2 dibawa2.

Selaen itu, gue personally juga dapet masukan dari Jason Chan waktu dia ngereview sketchbook gue. Gini kira2nya:
- Use lighter pencil, karena dia ngeliat tendency gue ngebikin gambar jadi gelap and jadi messy gara2 graphitenya cemong2, dan juga tendency gue buat press super hard sampe akhirnya berbekas. Not pretty...
- Think about plane changes instead of lines. Perhatiin arsiran, harus searah/mendukung plane changes *ampe bosen gue dengernya*
- If work from life, draw what you see, not what you think you see.
Ihh, this one is a tricky one, soalnya rata2 orang punya tendency buat ngegambar apa yang ada di otaknya, bukan yang diliat mata. I literally have to stop and stare at the model when I draw from life, dan gue juga harus terus2an make sure tangan gue nggak going berserk sendiri, tapi bisa gambar pelan2.
- For pencil drawing, work from light to dark. You can always darken the light area, but once it's too dark, it's hard to pull the light area like before.

NGOS..
NGOS...
NGOSS...

*menghela napas*

Akhirnya kelar jugaaaaaa XD
Nah, udah, utang gue lunas deh buat temen2 yang nagih2 terus buat notesnya huehuehue.

It's been a great experience, and I'm definitely will come again if there's any chance! :D
Oh iya, katanya they're doing another workshop this August in either Germany/Italy, and are preparing the Shanghai workshop.
So, anybody yang tinggal di Asia, save up your money, and you might be able to come to the Shanghai workshop! :)
If you have the chance, DO NOT MISS THIS!! It would be very beneficial! :)

Eniwei, here's oleh2 buat Mogri and Rowal, and whoever yang ngefans sama Marko, Bobby and Kei:

clockwise from top to bottom: Marko's, Kei's and Bobby's

Man, capek juga ngetik panjang lebar begini, banyak technicalnya pula XD
Eniwei, now that I finished typing, I should do my homework (or maybe reading some ES21 fanfic first?? XD *digaplok*).


*ditulis oleh Mutia hari Minggu tanggal 19 April 2009 jam 5 sore lebih dua puluh tujuh menit dalam keadaan kepala pusing, pilek dan demam gara2 radang tenggorokan.*