Q.
Who are you?
A. I'm Patrick Shettlesworth, an Illustrator from Seattle.
Q. Are you a professional artist?
A. Yes, I work as a Concept Artist for Microsoft XBOX games.
Q. What XBOX games are you working on?
A. I'm finished shipping Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge and
working on a game for the nexy XBOX console that will be announced
around 10/05.
Q.
Why XBOX? Why not PlayStation or Nintendo?
A. Playstation and Nintendo's best games are imported from Japan
(ex. SquareSoft titles, Zelda, Mario, Metroid..etc) Those games
already have the art done by the time it gets over here (and Japan
has it's own healthy supply of artist so they dont need me over
there). Microsoft Game Studios and XBOX give me the opportunity
for more creative input AND I dont have to move to California
or anything. XBOX has a huge selection of great titles coming
out for it and I'm excited to be a part of it. I'm not saying
we will topple Sony's lead or anything..but it sure fills in the
absence of the Dreamcast nicely.
Remember,
these are my reasons and my opinions and they may differ greatly
from your own....but it's my career.
Q.
How long have you been drawing?
A. Since I was 5, My favorite cartoons were "Speed Racer"
and "Marine Boy". "Ultraman" rocks too. I've
been drawing well for about 15 years.
Q.
What tools do you use to make your pictures.
A. I start out with pencil & paper (vellum coated bristol
board). A Scanner, Photoshop 5.5 & a WACOM pad. I have a complete
list of my preferred art equipment here.
I don't have any prices listed since they could cost anything
anywhere.
Q.
Are there any good books on drawing anime?
A. The "How to Draw Manga" ones are ok. They tend to
be poorly translated but the illlustrations are self explanitory.
The ones I REALLY like are the "How to draw anime and video
game characters vol 1,2,3." They have excellent examples
of how to do and NOT to do things. My sponsor www.animegamersusa.com
sells most of these books.
Q.
I'm in a slump..how do I get reinspired?
A. I get this question a lot. Everybody hits a slump or "Plateau"
from time to time. This will pass but there are things you can
do to make the down time productive.
1) Step away from the drawing board. Watch a movie, Build a model,
play a game..ect
2) Get some older drawings from your last slump and redraw them.
Chances are that you're a better artist now and you will begin
to see where you've improved and where you still need to improve.
3) Pratice your techniques, Bad at hands? Draw hands all day.
4) Talk to other artist on the BBS. Maybe someone knows something
you don't that will help.
Q. Will you draw me/My Character?
A. Unfortunately, no. I'm bailing out of doing character request
. I'm doing my best at giving you the tools needed to create characters
for yourself (teach a man to fish and all that). Aside from working
on this site I also work on 2 others AND go to school at night.
Just no more free time.
Q. But you still do Freelance, right?
A. Not as much as I used to. I crank out art all day at Microsoft.
Gotta give the drawing hand a rest sometime or it'll fall off.
Q. Can
you put all the tutorials in an acrobat PDF?
A. Ummm...no. The reason is that I update and change content all
the time. Everytime I made a change I'd have to update the website
AND the PDF. If you need to view these offline just retrieve the
pages from your browsers cache.
Q. I can't afford Photoshop...will you make tutorials showcasing
other art programs?
A. I can't teach what I don't use. I know all lot of folks use
PSP and CorelPaint but I don't use those programs so I'm in no
postion of authority to teach from them.
The hard truth is that almost all professional art jobs available
require Photoshop skills. If you're serious about becoming a professional..you
will HAVE to get Photoshop.
Q. I want to be a professional artist when I graduate...what courses
should I take in college?
A. Take classes in Perspective, Anatomy, Product Illustration,
Typography, 2-dimensional design..ect. You're local college may
have a Graphic Design course available..call them! Ask your High
School art teacher for guidance.
Q. Will you Critique my work?
A. I tried to do this on a one on one basis but I couldn't keep
up. So I implemented the BBS so artist could get feedback from
other artist. I jump in and critique when I can but for the most
part everyone gives the same advice I would have. BBS is HERE
Q.Can I
link your site?
A. Sure, why not.
