@dbekhouc We chatted before but just so everyone knows - The reason I use Photoshop and ZBrush is because those are the main tools most industry artists will use during their career.

I'm not going to argue there are extremely valid alternatives out there, that's true and students should definitely explore them if they're interested, but more likely than not PS+ZBrush is what you'll be using.

I always prefer taking the safe route and going with what is currently in place, and what is likely to stick around in the future.

Besides, Photoshop is not only a painting tool, like we cover in the course, it's great for vector art, photo manipulation and a number of other applications. I would be doing you guys a big disservice by not teaching it. ART School is not specifically for future painters either, it's for any art-related career, with a focus on digital art.

When working freelance, the tools you use don't matter as much, but most career artists are working in-house where the tools do matter. Those tools are Photoshop and ZBrush.

I would almost recommend you get a Photoshop subscription before you spend money on a tablet. Photoshop definitely has a bigger learning curve, so the sooner you start the better

Hey all! Just wanted to drop a quick update!

I'm still hammering on Term 4 and this sucker has been taking a lot longer than anticipated, the anatomy class in particular. It took over a month on its own just to record th econent so it's delayed everything (it's good though!).

Just wanted to let you know I'm not slacking! I've been working on this multiple hours every day minus a few exceptions (tax season, etc) and I want to make sure I release something you'll enjoy! Still got a couple more days to spend on it but it's coming soon, it's my most fun term to work on so far

Thanks for your patience!

Also, we're not there yet but once all the terms are released (and to help with the final projects), I'll be doing weekly hangouts/streams so we can all get together and interact on a more personal/direct level. Really looking forward to it!!

K back to work.

Rendering everything for Term 4 now, should be up soon! I definitely underestimated the amount of talking/editing this one would require so sorry for the wait, it's been a while!

Hey all! Once again, apologies for the wait I've been working on Term 5 every spare minutes I have!

Business is always first however and it's been a crazy past couple weeks with new hire interviews and our marketing director going on maternity leave - my work load has been significantly higher than usual and it's really slowed down progress.

With that said, recording is all done and I've started editing the first class last week so we're in the final stretch. Based on my schedule I should be publishing Term 5 on July 26 ... hopefully.

My plan is to start Term 6 as soon as I'm done with term 5. I normally give myself a break of about a week in between terms since it's really mentally draining but I really don't want to stretch the last terms into 2019 so no more breaks. Plus the content won't require as much research so things should really pick up for the rest of the year.

Ok back to it!

Quick update! Good and bad news - I realized about a week ago that the first half of the audio for the animal and creature drawing class was missing so I went ahead and scrapped the whole thing, not much I could keep unfortunately.

I thought I'd be able to just redo the entire class it by skipping a bit of sleep here and there and make it on time anyways but it looks like that's still not gonna cut it after all and I'll need more time to work on it

The good news is that it's going to be significantly longer and better as a result

Like I've mentioned though, this should not impact the completion of the other terms and I'm still on track for wrapping it all up by the end of the year.

Sorry for the wait guys, I hate delays so I'm doing all that's humanely possible to get this to you asap without negatively impacting the quality. Couple more days, couple more days!

Here we go - Term 5 will be released this Sunday. I think it's been worth the wait

Hey all, Term 6 coming October 23, only editing left to wrap up, just finished recording today!

Didn't go much faster than last term this time around despite what I hoped for unfortunately.

Here's a bit of context, for those who dare read through all this.

Once upon a time...

I mentioned last time I wouldn't take a break after Term 5 and jump right into this one which I tried to do for a good 3 weeks, but then I just couldn't. I reached my limit. I couldn't spend a single minute working on ART School in the whole of August, I just hated every moment spent in my office and I couldn't get myself to sit down long enough to get anything done. Working on ART School since September 2017 non-stop, I neglected my personal art to the point I did pretty much nothing for myself for a year straight, and I just burned myself out. I don't think it ever happened before honestly so I wasn't sure why the hell I was struggling so much.

My wife suggested I take a solid month break which I thought was crazy since I was already getting anxious with the lack of progress I was making, but a couple more days of pure misery really did it for me and I decided to go for it and take August off, work on my own art, try to feel better about myself and recharge my batteries. I'm really glad I did.

I took the month to draw whatever I wanted, catch up on other important life stuff and hang out with my family for a change. It didn't take long for the fire to come back and now that my personal art is back on track and I feel good about it, I'm actually really excited to finish ART School and put in work for your guys. The weekly live streams have also helped a ton, it's like therapy in a way, getting to connect with real people and seeing all of your progress.. Thanks for showing up each week guys <3 The streams never stopped for that exact reason as you probably noticed!

All of this to say I'm back now, after finding out I'm not invincible after all. Even better, I found out what was missing this past year - ART!! I've been overworking myself for years now so I figured I was just used to it, but if this pause made me realize anything it's that I'm only able to cope with work as long as I keep being creative and doing art for myself, using it as a way to unwind, escape. It's my drug of choice I guess?

I know a lot of you probably couldn't care less about any of this but the last thing I wanted was for the content to suffer because of my lack of.. enthusiasm (to put it mildly). Now I feel I can keep on giving it my all, so you can still expect top-shelf classes to keep coming for the next few months until ART Schol is a WRAP!

Enough of this rant though, I just wanted to say thank you for being so patient with me and that I'm really looking forward to the rest of the classes. The final project begins Term 7 and I'm especially excited about that since I'll be working on my own along with you all. I feel a strong pull to finish now whereas I used to continuously have to push myself, it's a good feeling , haven't had that in a while.

Once again, sorry about the delays and sorry for anyone who read through all this, time for a nice night of sleep and a full day of editing tomorrow.

PEACE.

-marc

Thanks guys, means a lot.

Quick update on the process - things are looking good - I just finished rendering Color & Light Theory 2 + Mech Design.

The only one left to edit/render is Composition & Storytelling.

I'm on track for the 23 end of day / early morning of the 24 if render/upload takes a while.

Cheers

Uploading now

Still need to upload and process, but should be up soon! Thanks for your patience again everyone, the last month has been pretty intense but hopefully you like the content!

Also - my voice was pretty much gone towards the end so it might sound a bit raspier than usual

Term 7 dropping today! Happy holidays everyone!

In case you're wondering where the concept art class went, I felt it wasn't relevant enough since it's more of a job title than anything else, all the content I wanted to include is stuff that will be covered in the Environment Art class instead, so it's just a reshuffling. Nothing is removed or ommited, no worries!

-marc