Attached Link: Thread that helped make this picture

To help some to avoid wasted non productive years.(and I've wasted plenty of em) I'm posting this to help give back to this art community.

Over many years I have amassed many Graphics Programs Both 2D and 3D Photoshop, paintshop , Coreldraw Graphics suite, Vue, zbrush, Carrara, Bryce. Pixplant, Genetica, Sculptris, Groboto and others to numerous to mention and amazing amount of of photoshop filters and plugins to achieve certain looks, but I find that there is so much to learn that it's overwhelming to me to try and learn all about about all these.

I noticed that I've watched many tutorials bought and made much content and gathered much content, training and applications and making system upgrades that I thought I would need to produce art, but I wound up producing very little art. STUCK IN ALWAYS GETTING READY TO MAKE ART MODE

I'm sure some of you have gone through or are going through this.

The solution I believe is what I'll call "Project based learning" Or learning by doing.

I decided to just pick a small art project then learn only what I need to learn to get that project done. Just learn what I need to learn, make what I need to make. Buy what I need to buy in order to complete the project.

That way I learn something and get something visible to show for the effort and save some money by not buying unneeded stuff

In this Case The project was a stylized 3d Tree Trunk with
separate glowing sphere embedded. Sphere was to look somewhat engulfed
by Tree Trunk as when a branch is cut off and the tree heals or grows around the edges of where branch used to be.

I learned enough to make this. Not a wonderful jaw dropper.
But it is what I had in mind as a starter project.

Learning how to make this gives me some skills to take on
something a bit more complex in the next project.

I have always hoped that I would comeup with a style that I could call my own recognizeable as something definitively me.

I think that if any style will happen it will arrise out of the doing rather than trying to think up a style. I've been thinking a long time and looking at the work of others. But no style for me has arrision from thoughts on the works of others. So for me it will have to come by Doing art rather than Preparing to do art. Time will tell.

Also when I ask questions here and get help here or at other forums, then others can learn by following the thread.

I'm not 100% sure that this link to renderosity thread where I had ask for help will work for all but here it is.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2815408&page=1#message_3727337

THERE! Now stop thinking about it, stop prepareing for it and just go make something wonderful and post it here :)

Good post, its a cool picture too, well done :D

I know exactly what you mean and this is a great suggestion. Thanks for sharing this and the original thread.

nabob21

Agreed - I too know exactly what you mean! My artistic inspiration has been missing for quite a while now so I will try this out and hopefully I'll learn something too :) Thanks.

oh, I am so there! Buying, thinking, but not DOING! I've been in a slump for some time now, I think I will take your suggestion and learn something, anything and have something to show for the experience :)

thanks for the gentle kick in the behind, I hope it works for me as it did for you :)

Hi all

As it turns out, this was a correct assumtion that a Style would arise from doing art projects rather than trying to think up a style. These were recent projects I did that began to develope into my own style.

So for me the Project based learning and doing art was the way to go.

Here are a few of my recent works.

Coukld not recall how to attach more than one image, so pardon the seperate posts

And again, I'm almost there. I hope this old thread revisited can again help someone else break free from "STUCK IN ALWAYS GETTING READY TO MAKE ART MODE" mentioned at the top of the post. I noticed that this thread now has over 1600 views, I'll assume some were helped. If you were helped by this thread and have gotten unstuck, Feel free to post your work here or mention that this thread helped you. I would like to know that the methods mentioned worked for someone besides me. I hope.

Thanks

Frank

I know exactly what you mean. For me I think it's a matter of having too much choice. Choices of software, models, props, techniques, whatever. Leads to a paralysis of analysis, or just leaping from one amazing new software package or model to another. As a Poser artist, I've noticed that some of the more polished galleries I've seen consist of an artist using the same figure, subject matter or technique multiple times. Some use the same approach for hundreds of renderings, learning their tools inside and out. 

I'm going to try simplifying my renders to a minimum of objects and reusing characters, props and scenery for multiple images. Hopefully that will allow me to spend more time learning the ins and outs of the software, content and figures I already own. I'm also avoiding the constant upgrades to Poser, PhotoShop etc. Most of these packages are so complex that I've barely scratched the surface of their capabilities. 

I wish you luck in your endeavors.