Question #4 - Fields of Art

Because my response to the last question mentioned a few different areas of art, I decided this question from the list would be the best to answer next.

Q: "What are the different fields of art you can go into?"


This is an excellent question, as most people don't realize just how vast the topic of "art" is. Categorizing fields of art can be a little difficult, but I'll do my best.

Fine Art - Everyone knows fine art. You go to a museum and there's paintings all over the wall. You visit a park and there's a statue of some long-dead soldier riding a horse. This is fine art. It's a broad field, but fine art can generally be defined as pieces of work often made in traditional mediums, created for the sole purpose of being placed on display for people to enjoy. Fine art is usually a painting, a sculpture, or a drawing. It's difficult to make money doing fine art, but because of this, I find that fine artists have an incredible amount of passion for what they do, and they simply live for their art.

Illustration - There's some cross over between illustration and fine art. Illustrations are usually drawn or painted (traditionally or digitally), but they specifically serve the purpose of telling a story of some kind. Illustrators learn how to tell story through their images by using composition, color, and lighting to their advantage. Illustration is most often used for books, but there is some crossover into concept art for film, and comics (or graphic novels) could be considered a branch of illustration.

Concept Art for Film- Concept artists are the creative minds behind everything you see on the movie (or TV) screen. They do the initial design for the characters, environments, monsters, props, vehicles, and costumes of every fantasy, sci-fi, action, horror, or animated film you've seen. They draw hundreds of designs for every detail for the director to choose from. Most of that art ends up on the drawing room floor, but it's all for the sake of creating the best designs possible for the final product.

Concept Art for Video Games - Same as for film, but game artists often have to design even more detail than film artists, because they are designing an entire 3D world for the player to explore. That soldier that just slaughtered you in PvP had to be designed by someone!

Storyboarding - (This is my major!) Storyboards are used to plan every action, camera angle, and camera movement of a movie, animation, video game, or commercial. These are then used as guides for the animators and/or director for actually creating the final product. The quality of the final product relies on the storyboards to display good character acting, composition, and timing.

Animation - There are three types of animators - 2D, 3D, and stop motion. 2D is the traditional method of hand-drawn animation, like Cinderella or The Lion King. 3D animation is created using 3D models in a computer, like Toy Story or Kung Fu Panda. Stop motion is made with physical puppets animated in front of a camera, like Nightmare Before Christmas and ParaNorman. Though the mediums are very different, every animator needs to learn the 12 Principles of Animation in order to make their character feel alive to the audience.

3D Modeling/Rigging - Modelers create 3D models of characters, props, and environments on the computer to be used in films or video games. A rigger is then given the job of creating all the joints and moving parts for those 3D models. These jobs are most often given to two separate people, but I lumped them together because modelers and riggers have to work so closely.

Stop Motion Fabrication - Stop motion is a small industry right now, but fabrication is a BIG job. Fabricators build the physical puppets, sets, and props for stop motion films. These people have to know sewing, carpentry, and a huge variety of craft skills in order to make everything needed for a stop motion film.

I think that's enough of fields of art in film. Let's look at something completely different.


Fashion Design - Fashion designers sketch out concepts for outfits, decide what does or doesn't work, then create the outfit by hand. While the popular fashion designs to publicize are dresses, fashion designers will design any and all kinds of clothing. The clothes you're wearing right now started as a simple concept sketch in a fashion designer's sketchbook.

Graphic Design - Graphic designers create logos, choose the fonts and layout of a product label, or design the whole look for a website. Graphic design is another broad topic, but graphic designers often work freelance, hired only for single projects by a business client.

Industrial Design - This is an even broader topic. Industrial designers can specialize in vehicles, buildings, household appliances, or personal electronics, just to name a few. Generally, industrial design is a combination of art and engineering. An industrial designer's job is to create something that is both functional and visually appealing.

Photography - This one is pretty straight forward. Photographers take photos. However, they don't always simply take pictures of pretty landscapes to hang in galleries. Nature photographers will travel across the world simply to get rare shots of exotic animals. Product photographers specialize in getting the most appealing shot of a company's product - from iPones to Big Macs. Fashion photographers take photos specifically to show off the latest outfits in a fashion magazine. There are a lot of options in photography.

This is really only scratching the surface and generalizing a lot of information, but I think this post is already huge enough.


You know the drill. Any questions or requests to know more, leave a comment!


(Disclaimer: I own none of the images in this post. All images are copyright their original owners)

Question #3 - Art School Tips

Another question from the wonderfully long list sent to me!

Q: "What are some art school tips? Like getting into art school, being successful, best classes to take, etc."

Getting In

The first step to getting into a good art school is building a strong portfolio. While it's nice to show off your original characters and cartoon styles, the admissions guys at any art school would rather see life drawings. Sketches of your friends, your pets, that old coffee mug you left on your desk last week and never cleaned out. . . These are all perfect things to draw for your portfolio. Your portfolio should be at least 2/3 life drawing, with only a few personal pieces to show off your creativity. We all love to show off our creations, but art schools want to start you off with the basics of form and anatomy. They want to see that you're already getting an early grasp of these things.

Some pieces I would have had in my college entry portfolio.
You want to demonstrate your skills with perspective, life drawing, value, expression, and so on.

There are a few things that the admissions departments get really sick of seeing in portfolios. While there is nothing wrong with drawing these things, admissions departments usually take them as a hint of an artist who isn't serious. As unfair as it is, this is the sad truth.

Things to avoid putting in your portfolio:

• Fan art 
• Anime-style drawings
• Dragons (This one really gets to me, but admissions departments have simply seen too many dragons in portfolios to take them seriously)

It's also a good idea to hunt down some weekend or Summer art programs to help you practice your life drawing and build your portfolio.

Simply the best thing to do for advice on your portfolio is to attend a National Portfolio Day. These are events where representatives from a huge range of art schools around the country will take a look at your portfolio and tell you what you should add or change to get into their school. You can also ask them questions and collect pamphlets on each school you're considering. It's a wonderful way to figure out your options. You can find all the information you need on National Portfolio Day, including their schedule, here: http://www.portfolioday.net/ 

(EDIT: For some reason, the Portfolio Day website seems to not be working right now. Hopefully it will be up again soon. If you want to know when and where your local Portfolio Day will be, leave a comment, and I'll gladly hunt down the information for you.)

Being Successful

There are two sides to being successful in art school: managing the college experience in general, and doing well as an art student. I've watched people struggle in both areas, so here are some tips on both.

College Life -

• Learn responsibility and independence. Grade school does a lot of hand-holding, but no one in college is going to baby sit you. You won't be constantly ordered and reminded to do homework, you won't have teachers policing the door for students skipping out on class. It's your job to do the work and listen to the lectures. If you don't take this responsibility, you simply fail class and get kicked out. No one will have sympathy for a slacking student. 

• Stay on good terms with teachers and staff. You never know when you might be in desperate need of their help. Even if you simply hate one of your teachers, always treat them with respect. One day, your future may be in this person's hands. These people were hired to help you, not be your enemy.

• If living in a dorm or shared housing, always keep your roommate(s) and neighbors in mind. Ticking off your dorm-mates is a good way to get yourself kicked out onto the street, or at the very least a building full of enemies. There's nothing worse than dealing with someone who always yells and blasts music, or has no respect for your half of the room.

As an Art Student -

• Always accept critique from your teachers. You may not agree with what your teacher says, but it never hurts to consider their advice. Talking back or making excuses for yourself only tells everyone that you don't want to improve. You may hate what your teacher is saying, but the best response is to nod and say, "okay." You don't have to make the changes your teacher advises, as long as you're willing to listen to the advice without argument.

• Really take the time to do your homework. Some assignments will require 10+ hours of drawing, and your teacher can tell if you trimmed the time short. I'm a procrastinator myself, so I often pull all-nighters and go to class the next day on three or less hours of sleep. If you're a procrastinator too, stock up on enough caffeine and music to get you through the long nights. You WILL have days when you're awake for 24 hours straight.

• Draw outside of class. Classes teach you a lot, but you should always practice applying what you learn to drawings done in your own time. This is the best way to make sure you're really absorbing the information you're learning in class.

• Study the work of other artists at every opportunity you get. It's a great way to test what you've really learned. You may soon realize that your opinion of an artist's work has gone from, "That's really nice," to, "I love how the composition brings your eye to the figure, the high contrast and warm colors create a sense of fear, and you can just feel the tenseness in the figure's pose!"

• Make contacts. Try to stay in touch with the students and teachers you really like. Most teachers will be happy to give you advice and critique beyond class, and may even help you get a job someday. You also never know which of your fellow students may eventually run a prestigious gallery or be head of a company. It's always good to make friends and keep those connections open. (Similarly, try hard not to make enemies for the same reason.)

• Get to know students within other majors. You might not have much in common with that graphic design student or acting major, but they're always great people to know when you need a voice for your animation homework or a logo for your website. Plus they can give you fantastic insight or pointers that may help you with your own work. 

Best Classes to Take

Every school will have a set curriculum that you will have to follow, so choosing clases will not be difficult. You'll most likely be required to take some form of entry-level still life class, at least one perspective class, and a swarm of figure drawing classes. This may vary depending on your major, but fine art, illustration, animation, and visual development (concept art for film) will all certainly require these classes.

If your school offers any animal drawing classes, I highly recommend taking them. The animal drawing class at my school is not required, but I strongly believe it should be.

Sculpting classes are also incredibly useful. There is a required figure sculpting class at my school, but I don't know if all schools require that non-sculpting majors take a similar class. Sculpting is important for understanding the planes of the human (or animal) figure in 3D space. It's amazing how much this knowledge will improve your drawings. 

Overall, it's simply a good idea to take a wide variety of classes. Try not to get yourself stuck in one small area of art. While it's excellent to be an expert at one thing, it's even better if you know a little of this and that off to the side of our main focus. For example, my focus is storyboarding for animated film, but I've also taken classes in concept art, puppet making for stop motion, and I'm signed up for classes on game design this Summer. You can find more job opportunities after school this way.

As always, comment if you want to know more or have a question!

A Pile of Questions! (#2 - Art Materials)

One of the lovely students I met while visiting my old high school has sent me a whole load of wonderful questions to answer here on the blog. I'll be slowly working my way through each of her questions over the next few weeks. I'll be tackling them in a somewhat random order, as I'd like to hunt down a few good resources for answering some of the more complex questions.

Q: "What are the top brands to use (pencils, pens, markers, papers, paints, etc.)? [...] What are the best tablets (in terms of cost, usability, features and outcome of art) to use for digital art? Where can you buy these materials?"



What makes a brand of art materials good to use is somewhat debatable. Most often, the highly favored brands among artists are also the most expensive. However, there's nothing wrong with using the cheap brand of any material, as long as you, personally, get the result you want out of it.

I can tell you what brands are commonly favored, and which ones I personally prefer.


Pencils (graphite and colored) - Prismacolor, General's, and Faber-Castell are some of the high quality (and expensive) pencils out there. These are all definitely good brands. Though when it comes to graphite pencils, I find the brand doesn't matter so much. The biggest difference between pencils is the hardness or softness of the lead, and any halfway decent brand will provide a wide variety. Just make sure you use a softer lead when you want to draw dark, and a harder lead when you want to draw light.

Reference chart for lead hardness

You can be a little more picky about colored pencils. Crayola really won't cut it if you're looking for real art pencils, but just about any brand sold in an art store alongside Prismacolor and Faber-Castell will do the trick. My personal favorite is Koh-i-Noor's woodless colored pencils. They're much cheaper than Prismacolors, and the color quality is excellent. I also tend to favor woodless pencils (colored or graphite) because you're getting more for your money, you don't have to sharpen as often, and your lead is much less likely to break.

Koh-i-Noor's 24 set of woodless colored pencils

Pens - The most popular brands of pen are Micron and Faber-Castell. I actually agree with what's popular in this case. Microns are my favorite for fine detail inking because they come in a wide variety of sizes. I've had a few negative experiences with the flat-tip Faber-Castells, but their brush pens are excellent for loose sketching or dynamic inking (thick-to-thin lines).

My full set of black inking pens. Faber-Castell also comes in grays and a wide range of colors.

Markers - It's hard to go wrong with Prismacolor's markers, but Chartpak works well for simple shading or coloring as well. Copic is a brand that's often recommended, but I actually haven't tried Copic markers because they're so terribly expensive. I would only recommend buying them if you're really serious about working with markers.

Prismacolor's grayscale markers are excellent for shading. They blend smoothly and come in a full value scale.

Papers - Paper is one material where I find artists can be very divided over what they like. For this, I have to recommend trying a variety and seeing what works best for you. Canson is a popular brand, and very good quality, though I'm not a fan of their textures. Personally, my favorite paper to use is Strathmore sketchbook paper. It has enough tooth to pick up graphite, but it's smooth enough to ink on. Another favorite, for inking in particular, is Beinfang's Graphics 360 paper.

Paints - I have to admit, I don't know as much about paints as I should. I often stick to pencil and pen, and turn to digital mediums if I have a need for color. Windsor & Newton is the only professional brand I have experience with. It's a good quality, but pretty expensive. The only hard advice I can give to to avoid "kiddy" brands that are often used in grade school art rooms. These are the paints that are sold in big jugs or bulk sets and only label their colors simple "yellow," "blue," etc. These aren't unusable, but they will be very difficult to get a professional piece of artwork out of.

Professional-quality paints come in smaller tubes and use very precise pigments for their colors. 

Tablets - If you want a good tablet, you have to be willing to spend some money. Wacom is pretty much the go-to brand for tablets, but they offer a variety of quality. Their Bamboo tablets will do the job for very simple artwork, but can severely limit you when you wish to do something more professional. Intuos is the favored line of Wacoms, because they have pressure and tilt sensitivity, and shortcut buttons on the side of the tablet. The current version is Intuos 5, but I still use my 8-year-old Intuos 3, and wouldn't trade it in for the world. It doesn't hurt to use old versions.

My very loved Intuos 3. Not looking too bad for its age.

The current Intuos 5 for comparison. A much sleeker design, but does basically the same things as the old Intuos 3.

Wacom also sells the Cintiq, wich is basically a computer monitor that you can draw directly onto with the tablet pen. As wonderful at they are, these are QUITE expensive, so I don't recommend buying one unless you're working as an artist professionally.

Beautiful, innit? This thing is every digital artist's dream, but the price tag is a true reality check.

Where to buy - You can find all of your traditional (non-digital) materials at any decent art store. My school heavily supports Utrecht, but I recommend Blick or Daniel Smith. Utrecht's store brand is poor quality and they inflate their prices to an insane degree. (They once sold reams of animation paper for $80, while you could buy the exact same paper direct from the makers for less than $20)

Tablets are usually best bought directly from the company's site, though you may find better prices at some online retailers. Where you order it doesn't matter so much as long as it's from a reliable seller. Do some research.


If you want to know about any other materials or have extra questions, please ask in the comments!

Question #1 - Holding a Pencil

The first question for the Field Book comes from an old friend of mine, Swiblet on DeviantArt.

Q: "What is the optimal way to hold a pencil for best results?"

A solid answer on this topic is difficult to give, since not every artist will agree. However, I can offer my personal opinion and experience here. The best advice I can give is this: never get stuck only holding your pencil in one way. Be open to using more than one method for holding your pencil, because different situations may require different techniques.

Many of us get set in the first method we learn - holding the pencil close to the point, between our thumb and pointer finger. This is a perfectly good approach for handling fine detail or small drawings, but it can be much too confining when sketching in larger shapes. Our fingers and wrist only have so much range of motion at this level.

It's better to hold your pencil farther from the tip when first beginning the larger, rough shapes of your drawing. This allows your pencil tip to move in a larger area with less effort on your hand's part.

For an even better range of motion, you should try the technique that most art instructors encourage students to use. This is an "overhand" sort of pose; you hold the pencil far from the tip, the eraser end pointing into your palm. This method takes practice, and requires that you use your whole arm to move the pencil around the page.

(Anyone intending to take life drawing classes should start practicing this method as soon as possible. Most teachers make it a requirement.)

This method works best for drawing on large vertical spaces, though I also use it for very lose sketchbook drawings or filling in large areas with one value.

There are many more techniques for holding your pencil, and every artist will find different poses more comfortable. As a learning artist, part of your job is to find out what works best for you. Always be open to experimenting with new methods for holding your pencil. I was once very reluctant to try anything beyond holding my pencil close to the tip, but eventually I realized how much more I could do by practicing other techniques.

If you don't feel like this has answered the question for you, or you want to know more, please post a comment to let me know! 

Welcome to the Field Book!

This is a blog intended to help learning artists, particularly those who might not have access to the kinds of art classes they want or need.

Because this blog was created with learning artists in mind, I want to base my posts on input from my readers. Send me your questions or requests on any topic you would like to learn more about - for example: anatomy, perspective, color theory, composition, etc.

You can contact me through comments on the blog, email (link in my profile), notes or comments sent to my DeviantArt account (link also in my profile, under "My Web Page") or any other way you happen to know to reach me. I will attempt to post a response to every single request sent my way.

Now for a brief tour of the blog page.

To the right I have two collections of links. The first is a list of websites I think will be helpful to any learning artist.

-Character Design Notes is a blog provided by my school. They post lots of wonderful input from professional artists working in character and creature design.

-Temple of the Seven Golden Camels is another blog, created by Disney artist Mark Kennedy. He regularly posts fantastic advice on storytelling, composition, and character design. It's always a fascinating read.

-Figure & Gesture Drawing is a site designed to be an at-home figure drawing class. You select the type of model you want to draw from and the type of drawing session you'd like. Then you're given photos to draw from with a timer. Always excellent practice when you don't have a live figure drawing class available to you.

The second list is a collection of links to the Amazon pages for wonderful art books. I'm trying to include a variety - from animal anatomy to storyboarding. Obviously, you don't have to buy from Amazon, but providing the Amazon page is the best way to display all the book's details so that you can search for it elsewhere.

Both of these lists will continue to grow, so be sure to check them from time to time. Most additions will be mentioned in the blog itself.