⛵️ Setting A Course: Art

Art is an interest that I’ve long held but never truly pursued. For the longest time, I didn’t believe I had the talent. Then a few years ago, I surprised myself with an acrylic painting that didn’t suck. It was at a paint party, with the initial sketch, reference image, paint supplies, and instructor all provided.

I walked away from that event thinking, “Hey, maybe I can create art afterall.”

Game Art

My long-term goal of becoming a solo game dev provides a creative outlet for many skills. Art is one of those skills, but it’s all about the journey and the learning, not the end result.

One question I’ve been asking myself lately is, “What kind of art do I want to make?”

When I studied art in high school, I convinced the teacher to let me create a little game for a main project. That was so long ago that the school computers only displayed 4 colors (black, white, cyan, and magenta). Pixel art was the only option.

Of the games I’ve played recently, Octopath Traveler II, Loco Motive, and The Drifter all have a pixel art aesthetic. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter and Foolish Mortals have a cel-shaded style, and Dragon Quest VII Reimagined has a unique style of its own.

As much as I enjoyed playing the pixel art games, I prefer the art styles of the other games.

Still, I tried out Aseprite. My first impression is that it’s well designed and intuitive, and the program I’d use for pixel art if I decide to make a game that calls for it in the future.

I’ve read that pixel art is easier to learn than digital painting, but I don’t think that’s true. While each medium has its specific considerations, pixel art still benefits from all the same art fundamentals.

Rebelle

There is a long list of art fundamentals I want to learn and put into practice. Composition, perspective, value, color theory, anatomy, character design, and so on.

I think I found the perfect tool to use while learning. Rebelle 8 Pro is painting software with an emphasis on natural media. Everything is simulated:

• Watercolour and ink flow according to the tilt and texture of the canvas
• Cobalt Blue and Cadmium Yellow blend like traditional pigments (instead of like light)
• Oils and acrylics can build up thick layers of impasto

It allows me to learn and experiment without feeling like I’m wasting materials. No need to take over the kitchen table and no cleanup. I can work through books and courses on traditional watercolour, gouache, pencil crayons, and charcoal without needing all those supplies. Then I can take what I’ve learned back to traditional art if I want.

In anticipation of spring, I painted this wild rose with some critters. It was just for fun, so I didn’t pay attention to lighting or scale.

Not only was it a joy to watch the watercolour react, I was also impressed by the user interface:

• Brushes are nicely grouped, rather than one overwhelming list
• Many hot keys can be tapped to switch or held to switch temporarily, such as E for eraser
• The reference guides feature could be really handy while learning proper proportions

Desktop

One catch is that Rebelle is a desktop app. For me, this is what I wanted.

Three years ago I purchased a Huion Kamvas Pro 24" (4K). Now there are newer generation pen displays with nicer screens, touch screens and better pens, but the first generation still does the job. Drawing on a large canvas with no batteries to recharge is quite nice. Compared to the iPad Air, the only thing I miss is the lack of barrel roll.

Limitations

Rebelle looks like a great tool to use while learning art, but what about as a tool for game art? I did find some limitations.

It has a stencils feature for drawing patterns from stencils, but I couldn’t find a Krita-style wrap-around mode (or tiled mode) for creating repeating patterns and textures. Not only could that be useful for creating stencils, but also for game textures.

Games are not static, so the biggest limitation is that Rebelle has no timeline or onion skinning. But animation is a separate topic for another day.

Visual Variety

Steam is flooded with indie games that look like all the other indie games: pixel art, low-poly, etc. I think Rebelle could be used to bring a little more visual variety to games.

Watercolour has found its way into more than a few games. The towns in Bravely Default II, the backgrounds of Cuphead, or the entirety of Dordogne. With Rebelle, it may be possible to acheive similar quality without the arduous process of scanning traditional watercolour. A few more games in that style wouldn’t hurt.

Watercolour isn’t the only option though. Why not craft interactive worlds with oil, acryllic, pastel, charcoal, ink, etc? I’m excited for the possibilities!

Learning

At this point I’ve accumulated quite a few learning resourses. Some courses on Proko, Domestika, and Udemy. Shelves lined with literally hundreds of art books to study and inspire. So the big question is, where to start?

I think Drawing Basics is the most obvious place. Sitting through 80+ hours of lecture doesn’t sound very appealing, but that’s just part of being a student, even if I’m taking the self-study approach.

Art isn’t the only thing I’m learning though. So expect posts on animation and music to follow soon.