Been a Pro Illustrator/Storyboard Artist for 15 Years, AMA

[Masato]

(AMA = Ask Me Anything)

http://masatotoys.com/illustration-choices/


many pros and cons to the work I've been doing... Anyone interested in this line of work I can give lots of insight/tips

[JosephDredd]

Checked out that link. Man, you are just so unbelievably skilled I want to punch you in the face. Can't think of any questions when I'm angry.

Ultimate Warrior with the case of olive oil had me lol pretty hard

[Canuckster]

How does one break into your line of work with no experience and minimal drawing skills?

I'm looking to have the gangster working homelife you have....smoking weed all day, women at your disposal cooking you food....staying up late making up jokes for fun.


I want in

[Edge Guerrero]

- Did you ever do a movie storyboard?
Isn't working in home harder, because you always think you can finish the job later?

If you ever get the oportunity to illustrate a famous vide-game character, who would you choose?

[JosephDredd]

What do you love to draw the most?

What's the hardest thing for you to draw?

[Masato]

How does one break into your line of work with no experience and minimal drawing skills?

I'm looking to have the gangster working homelife you have....smoking weed all day, women at your disposal cooking you food....staying up late making up jokes for fun.


I want in

lol

it has its downsides too

-when no work comes in for weeks
-working insane hours all-nighters round the clock
-sitting for insane hours and fucking up my body
-working for questionable corporate buggers

but yeah whenever I complain I have to remind myself how badass it is to work from home. Would have to be the perfect gig to lure me

I think its also making me crazy though, lol Absence of social workplaces + weed + headphones for decade+ might make one a bit odd :D

[Masato]

- Did you ever do a movie storyboard?

Nope never done a movie storyboard. I am intensely curious though

- that's what we call 'shooting boards'. What I do is concept/presentation boards, much earlier in the progression. I always hope if something gets produced that the director does not follow my boards too literally and takes it to the next level.

Movie storyboards are so beautiful, especially for action movies they are fucking amazing. More complex though, you have to indicate camera moves and lenses etc, there's a whole language to be learned.

Would love to do more of this work, I've always wondered why I received so few calls for these. Usually they pay shite though, maybe on the bigger films. What I'd love most is to do storyboards for a quality animated flick, that would be fun

Isn't working in home harder, because you always think you can finish the job later?

Yes and no. I always work with very short deadlines. It HAS to be done on time. So while I am a great procrastinator, when time starts to run out I gotta get on it. Sometimes its hard dealing with kids but they grew up like this, they know what it means when I'm chasing a deadline

If you ever get the oportunity to illustrate a famous vide-game character, who would you choose?

lol maybe Chun Li :D

[Masato]

What do you love to draw the most?

What's the hardest thing for you to draw?

To be honest I almost never draw for pleasure. Never have.

For work I get requested to draw so many things its ridiculous. If you can think of it I've probably had to draw it. So I've become kind of indifferent.

The style I draw in is not even really my style, I had to learn it so I could tap into the market for this specific kind of work. If I drew for fun I honestly think I would draw more abstract, or far more cartoony/surreal. That's what naturally comes out of me, but I've been forced to do this semi-realistic style to make a living

Now if I have free time I don't feel like drawing so I don't really produce much that's self-motivated. I really liked composing the panels for Sonnen's War though, that was so much fun. Not really 'drawing' though, although I did have to compose and arrange all the elements by drawing them first, then shooping them in after.


The hardest thing for me to draw is likenesses of celebrities. I hate those jobs and tend to stay away. Actually I hate to draw faces in general, I have a real hard time with them. Any close-ups of faces, or requests to look like someone specific always make me nervous.

Even when I did a lot of lifedrawing, I would tend to avoid the faces. I don't know why, they always look weird to me, like they are constantly morphing or something.

I never really did study the face, I should really overcome this one day and do some proper study and practice how to approach it and get more comfortable.

[Masato]

The truth is that I'm very much a hack artist.

The style for this kind of work is not expected to look great or be finished, and they always have to be done ridiculously fast.

Because of this, I've mastered a style of using photo reference to cheat and speed up the process. Its a kind of 'shorthand' style where everything is simplified to make the production as fast as possible. There is simply no time to labor over anything to refine it and make it nice. Its ALL about SPEED.

This is OK for its own function, but its actually made me develop a lot of bad habits, and has cause me to avoid a lot of skills that you'd think I'd have developed but didn't.

One day I really wonder if I could afford to get out of this advertising market what kind of skills I would focus on, and what I'd make with them

[JosephDredd]

What do you love to draw the most?

What's the hardest thing for you to draw?

To be honest I almost never draw for pleasure. Never have.

For work I get requested to draw so many things its ridiculous. If you can think of it I've probably had to draw it. So I've become kind of indifferent.

The style I draw in is not even really my style, I had to learn it so I could tap into the market for this specific kind of work. If I drew for fun I honestly think I would draw more abstract, or far more cartoony/surreal. That's what naturally comes out of me, but I've been forced to do this semi-realistic style to make a living

Now if I have free time I don't feel like drawing so I don't really produce much that's self-motivated. I really liked composing the panels for Sonnen's War though, that was so much fun. Not really 'drawing' though, although I did have to compose and arrange all the elements by drawing them first, then shooping them in after.


The hardest thing for me to draw is likenesses of celebrities. I hate those jobs and tend to stay away. Actually I hate to draw faces in general, I have a real hard time with them. Any close-ups of faces, or requests to look like someone specific always make me nervous.

Even when I did a lot of lifedrawing, I would tend to avoid the faces. I don't know why, they always look weird to me, like they are constantly morphing or something.

I never really did study the face, I should really overcome this one day and do some proper study and practice how to approach it and get more comfortable.

I'm in the same boat re: not drawing for pleasure, but you pushed through and made a career out of it. I'm just trying to do that now because, hey, if I'm going to work a job that I don't really enjoy, I may as well do it at home watching movies.

Faces caused me trouble for the longest time (and still do sometimes... a difficult expression at an extreme angle can be almost impossible at times), but I got my hands on a couple of ebooks that really helped. One by Andrew Loomis (all is books are in the public domain and easy to find in .pdf form) and another written for CGI animators on how to animate (and understand) what every muscle in the face does and what emotion it conveys. Let me know if you're interested in either of these.