Back, as if nothing has changed

After more than 2 months in east Asia, I've come back home to live under the same roof as my parents.
Still without a job and feeling as far as ever from a career as a concept artist at a game studio.
There are interesting events coming up during Hanukkah, after which I will see if I can get a job working for a company that sets up trade events and conferences, in another attempt to avoid freelancing. Save money to travel again. Get into the green card lottery.

I had fun in Japan, and an even better time in Seoul, and I'll never forget it.
The GDC Eu and Gamescom combo is still the one event I can't miss, but G-Star in Busan comes in second, hopefully I can make it there and to Seoul again someday.

I need to get back into creating portfolio pieces, work through the disappointment I'm feeling right now.
I took over 1800 photos during my trip, and I'm adjusting the raw files, now that I have access to lightbox and more computing power. Until I go through all that and incoporate them as reference, textures, and color palettes, I'll continue with my speed paints:

Back in the Game

I'm working on my board game again, after a brief hiatus to do a couple of art test, and hitting a rougher patch of the unemployment roller coaster.

At least I kept up the daily speed paints. Here are a few samples.

Went to the 5th Israeli Games Unconference after being at the 3rd, and made a few new contacts. I still think I need to leave this country ASAP, but it isn't easy. Made good use of a website I found offering game internships in France a couple of weeks ago, though I've only received a few rejections for my efforts.

Monsters and Podcasts

Here's an update on what I've been working on since my last update, I felt it was needed. I have been steadily working through the monster studies.

I also realized I needed to do more, and knowing myself, I do that best when I give myself small goals. Painting to podcasts seemed like a good idea, giving me a limited time span to play with ideas and see how far I can take it. Here are a few of my favorites:

Still looking for a job, art test results weren't good enough for 2K Czech, unfortunately. Israel isn't that bad, I guess. Went to my first Israeli con, joined a board game club, meeting English speakers and seeing old friends.

Monster studies

I did this page of monsters / animals yesterday, just to see what I can come up with. It was well received on my social networks, and one of my friends went on a 'like' binge through my art folders, including one of my studies, which made me realize it might not be a bad idea to do another one based on the monsters. I have been struggling lately with finding a project, this should kill some time.

No news on the job search, local or globally. It's the holiday season for us Israelis, which may be partly to blame, though I doubt there will be a torrent of phone calls at the end of the month.

Wooga Style

I talked with a Wooga representative during GDC Europe, and I told him I would do something in their style, to increase my chances. Here it is, a demoness based on something I did when I was 17 or 18 and had on my door since.

In other news, there's no news about employment, whether it's from game studios or the few local places I contacted. Been messing around more in Photoshop, made use of my GDC Vault access, started reading a book about making games in Unity, and installed 3DS Max to add to my skills.

I'm back

Back to Haifa, Israel, the city I lived in for 24 of the 31 years I've been on this planet. Living with mom again is now picnic, with the constant requests, questions and planning on my behalf. I didn't fly here straight from California, though, first flying to Toronto to visit family, then Germany for 8 days to volunteer at GDC Europe, which gave me access to Gamescom, and I had an amazing time meeting other hopefuls and pros, generating interest around my portfolio, sitting through interesting sessions, collecting swag and playing the newest games. I want to find an industry job more than ever, and contribute my share to creating these amazing pieces of entertainment software, as well as having the financial ability to play them, even if they say I'll have less time to do so, but I'm sure I'll manage to squeeze some in, it's not like I have a girlfriend to distract me :P I installed the trail of Photoshop CS6 on the PC I now have access to, and started playing around, trying to find my way back to producing art, and the constant drive to improve my portfolio. Here are some of the first paintings I worked on.

Classes start tuesday.

I'll be taking the 2 am train, arriving at Ben-Gurion airport an hour later, and starting the boarding process for my flight to Warsaw. Hopefully there won't be any delays, and I'll fly out of Warsaw 3 hours later, headed to Chicago's O'hare airport, before my final leg to Columbus.

It's been a short vacation, and as always, I feel as though I could have done more, but knowing myself, I think I've had a bigger output than I usually fall into. It's all about setting small goals, like doing a page of sketches a day, and keeping away from hardcore games.

Mom hung my paintings on the wall, even blew up and framed a sketch I did on a little post-it sized note, when I was bored during a family reunion. :)

Website is still work in progress, but it's close enough to finished that I started sending out emails inquiring about positions in game companies. I've gone through the numbers and "A"s on gamasutra.

Unless there's a snow day, my first class is Silk screening, 12:30 Tuesday.

My younger brother, the second of three is getting married at the end of Oct. twisting my hand to return. I'm hoping that by then I'll be well on my path towards my dream career (with the possibility that reality might roll out differently.)
When I do come back, I think I'll visit the Carmel mountain park, the site of the big fire that happened in Early Dec. and do some more plein air, like the digital work I did over the last two days. I had a blast.

9 more days in Israel

My website is still a work in progress. I realized that the gallery code doesn't work in IE, and I may have to replace it with something that does (and maybe get more space for explanations in the process.) So I haven't really started the job seeking process.
I also need to design ads for sketch group, and have them approved by our dean of student affairs, something which shouldn't take long, once I get around to it.

I haven't seen/painted the remains of the fire yet. I don't think the mock interviews are going to happen. Haven't done as much digital painting as I planned to. Still haven't gone to Masho Masho, my old workplace, to have a chat with my old boss. Still didn't buy Scott a gift.

At least I have my nightly ID sketch session.

I also did this pirate cocktail party, merging two INTJf topics, Pirate and Cocktails. :)

Working in Israel

I've been a week here in Israel, and I am still flexing my artistic muscles.
I'm working on my website, waiting for the DNS servers to resolve after messing around with the IP address. Once it is up, and I sort out everything I want to put up on it, I'll have to start pimping it out in the hopes of finding a job before I graduate.
I have also been doing some ID type sketches with a ball point pen, nothing terribly exciting.

I still plan to buy some illustration board (how do you say that in Hebrew, and do they have any available?) and do some gouache paintings of what's left of the big fire that raged around here about 3 weeks ago.
I also planned to do try some digital painting tutorials in the hopes that I will find one I will really be able to follow and that will really help me push me to the next level, although these kinds of things have never really worked for me in the past.

 I did a digital painting tonight - the Christmasaurus, bring presents to all the good caveboys and girls.
It was inspired by something Cynthia Sheppard posted on facebook :D

Random ideas on the 166T Dumont-New York

Marine Life: SpongeBob SquarePants and friends as USMC Marines.
Spongebob manning an aircraft carriers anti-aircraft guns, firing at diving kamikaze pilots, while Patrick loads and Mr. Krabs commands.
SpongeBob and pals on a patrol bob in a Vietnamese Jungle.

A whole fucking series.

Ach Shelo: Hebrew for "his brother," a typical way in which one IDF soldier would call another soldier. Another might be "Dod Sheli" or "my uncle."

I wanted to draw Israeli soldiers the way I remember seeing them. Sleeping on a crowded train, or trying to hitch a ride, their shirts pulled out of their pants (both are offenses)