It's been a while since my last journal entry...
I've been really preoccupied in recent. Trying to balance work life with personal time and project time is almost unfathomable. Recently back in June I got hired as a game tester for a AAA Sport Title. The experience was well worth the 4.5 months I spent there until my work contract expired last Friday. Although overtime was unfortunately a bit too excessive and far too frequent. I met a lot of great co-workers and friends during my stay and will miss working with such a wacky and diverse ensemble. One thing I never expected was my sudden surge of artistic motivation.
At times during my daily work there, there were a number of idle periods which were typically waiting for others to get ready for a game test or continue with one in progress because I was part of a specific division that examined mostly the interaction components of game with other players; this meant that at times we were just sitting down doing essentially nothing. We were told that despite this being a game studio, we should still make an effort to stay busy because this was, in their words, an office building first and foremost. So sitting in the cubicle was dull and we were told to resist the urge to surf the net, play on our 3DS (which many like myself did bring) or use our smart phones to list a few of the most common activities to spend time. The pressure of looking busy with very little to work with, especially if you are fatigued by the sports title, and that there is no notable test conflicts available at the moment was difficult to say the least. After about a week following the start of my contract, I just started doodling on a letter-sized pad of 85% blank paper I brought along to take notes on. At first it was pretty random sketches, but when I started a more abstract and more concentrated work, suddenly I found myself starting what would be a drawing spree for the rest of my contract. If I haven't mentioned it before, it is that drawing/ sketching is the only known activity that relaxes me; so it was perfectly natural for me to do this during idle and break periods.
The game industry had a hiring policy whereas any original projects you partake in, must be reported to HR, worked on outside of work hours, doesn't use company resources and equipment and doesn't use company confidential project ideas. Failure to uphold all these rules would enable the game company itself to claim direct ownership of the project you were working on. While I'm sure other companies probably have similar policies in place, I wasn't about to give up on drawing. With that in mind, I drew ONLY existing characters from games and anime because I'm certain the thought of going through licensing and whatnot is extremely undesirable for anyone. In the end, my drawings totaled 36 and all were anything but simplistic drawings, a majority were complex-enough that the compilation would've utilized image editing layers, but were in fact created entirely flat. A majority were what I coined "Capcom Crowds" which was a term that referenced the wide assortment and explosion of characters in a single piece of work commonly seen in a lot of Capcom artworks. While other companies have certainly produced such compilations, Capcom is the best example of this trend and never ceases to my knowledge.
Each time I finished a doodle, it would be pinned up on my cubicle wall, which would become my wallpaper over time. This was to offset the fact that I had nothing to decorate my cubicle wall. Most co-workers brought collectibles, posters, books, etc. to decorate their cubicles; I on the other hand, use my drawings. Needless to say that none of my co-workers had the kind of cubicle I had. I got a lot of praise and great replies from not only my co-workers, but my team leads, workers from other departments, and surprisingly one of my managers. The latter was a surprise to be honest because he could've told me that such a visible array of decorations could serve as a distraction to myself and others which could hinder our progress of releasing the cleanest possible game on launch. Such a warning is possible given that my pinned up artwork did spill over to other adjacent cubicle walls even with the consent of my neighboring co-worker. If such was the case, I would've had to oblige, but fortunately my manager was kind and intrigued by my products and skills, so much so that he openly expressed disappointment when I had to take them all down on the last day of my contract. Only one person took some kind of offense to me drawing and this person (who shall remain nameless) can go suck an egg due to the tone I got during that brief exchange; subsequent visits from said person didn't project any more smart or wind bagged remarks.
The paper I used was marked with the name of a conference it originated from, this both impeded a full possible, clean drawing. While on a positive end, it served as a watermark in case somebody decided to steal one of my drawings. This was probably the reason I didn't draw on the back of the paper instead, since it is entirely blank on that end. I wasn't sure how much I would reach by the end, but after 30 drawings, I ran out of that conference paper, so I had to bring my sketchbook which resulted in a final, additional 6 drawings. I actually found myself fearing I would run out of drawing subjects more than paper, since I had very little ample time to brainstorm at work, because what I want to avoid re-treading too much of the same subjects/ topics to increase variety. My concerns escalated to where I started playing my 3DS a bit more to avoid self-extinguishing my artistic energy, and probably a good call given that Pokemon X & Y were released roughly near the end of my contract.
I will post them all over time, but I will need to clean them up first with Photoshop. As for coloring them which was an intent when I drew most of them, I'll need a large tablet for sure, because attempts with the mouse nearly killed my right wrist from these 2 alone:
Lucas and Boney and
Bound for Conflict. I am closer to buying myself a WACOM Cintiq 22HD which is necessary for about 70% of my intended planned project.
Since I was drawing existing IP's (aka fan art), I was surprised at how well I captured the source material compared to my earlier attempts. One such example is a drawing I did that contains the near complete cast of FF6. In my previous FF6 drawings of characters alone, they looked below mediocre to the point where I was ashamed to look at them. Both instances were the same, in which I used a reference image to draw from and in doing so, I learn about the characters physiology and form as a character study that could later improve my drawings skills and enable me to better manipulate the character to my own choosing. fyi reference images were briefly scanned upon from the internet at work, but since I don't literally trace the work, but rather redraw them, it made it easier to continue drawing with some discretion. From having drawn 36 works from my treasured memories of gaming and animation/ anime, I feel much more confident in my drawing prowess and regained some motivation to draw more frequently.
As crazy as it sounds I intend to redraw some of them, because the limitations of the paper alone did impede the potential of a lot of the works I did. Speaking of which, some (if not ALL) my co-workers thought I was insane... in a good way
Only one drawing was requested by a co-worker which kinda surprised me, since given that I had produced over 20 drawings, I expected at least 3 perhaps. However, one co-worker did request me to produce some concept art his own game project and I was happy to oblige (working at it from home though due to the workplace policy). A nice co-worker of mine made a request on our contract's last day for me to draw him in whatever style I please and I will honor that promise and post it as well.
The next time I get an office cubicle job, I'll most certainly doodle during my break periods and then wallpaper them.
I'll ensure I make more of an effort to update my gallery, add faves and join new clubs in Deviant Art... all while returning back to the job hunt... ugh
