I find it irritating that I can’t produce good art. I am a good programmer and I can make pretty good music. I can write decently. I can do pencil sketches half-decently as well. But I can’t produce good art – something’s just lacking for me. As an example, here’s the second map I made for Sheeplings:

It’s for quest 2, in which the bandits are introduced. You can see their bandit cottages at the left; oh, and the blue spots here and there is rain falling down. I think that the map looks pretty nice – it’s cheerful but a bit more desaturated than the first map, bringing it a slightly more sombre tone. The large patches of grey mountains also add to this, of course. I think I was going for a typical Star Wars pacing: the first quest is happy and full of…well…hope. The second becomes darker, and then it all ends in a climax in the third quest.

The map may look nice (at least to me), but it doesn’t look good. It’s like comparing a Toyota to a Ferrari: the former does the job, but no one’s particularly impressed. Except maybe the ones who own a rusty old Dodge or something.

Why can’t I do better than this? I really don’t know. I can move my pen around, and I can select colours that sort of work together. But after that, it still just looks flat, and like it’s missing something.

I wish there were tutorials on the net focusing more on artistic details than technical issues. Composition and emotional impact and information about how to make subtle but effective variations. Information about how to convey the message of, for example, mountain or forest with only a few lines; information about what makes people automatically associate some details with a specific object or instance or emotion.

Maybe this is what people learn in art school? Or maybe it’s an ability you’re born with? I’m the first to admit that I sometimes have trouble understanding and relating to others; my empathy and social skills aren’t always top notch. Maybe that’s something that’s required for a good artist?

When I have more time I think I’ll browse around for good books on this topic. I’m sure I saw a reference to a book along the lines of “drawing with the right side of the brain” or something; that sounds like an excellent book to examine! ‘Cause I’ve realized that I actually enjoy drawing despite my shame of performing so poorly at it.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 24th, 2006 at 11:38 am and is filed under Indie Games, Sheeplings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.