The artistic self development adventure of Amit Dutta aka Monkeybread who, having chucked all caution to the wind, quit his job and only source of income for 3 months, embarks on a daring adventure full of travails, teachings and tantrums while striving towards the ultimate prize: becoming an Awesome Artist.

The Quest: To become an Awesome..er artist
The Deadline: 89 Days-ish
The Risk: Returns to job penniless and soul-destroyed with suckiness intact. Should be a laugh

Friday 15 March 2013

Day whatever

A long break

I've had to take two weeks off from painting due to a medical issue that came up unexpectedly, that I alluded to in my last post. I now basically have a 4x3x2.5cm hole in my back. It's a real hole. I could keep my spare change in it, or hide the one ring from Sauron in it. Luckily for you I won't be posting an image of it here. We should be thankful for small blessings. So I don't really know what day it is, and I'm a little scared of counting because it might depress me..so onto some work instead.

So about three or four days ago I managed to paint something again for the first time in ages with only minor discomfort. It was hard to get back on the horse...very hard, so I lept onto a donkey instead and this will be my ride for a while.


I decided to get stuck into a competition. A good chance to do a more finished illustration than I would normally do and get the opportunity to not win again; those are always fun.

So the theme was for the new video game reboot of Tomb Raider. This is Lara Croft's beginning story of how she survived against terrible odds to become the heroine etc blah that we all know.  So here are my development steps.


initial development sketches. I gathered more feedback that I would normally from other people on which choices to make. It was interesting, but not sure it made my life any easier.


The composition I ended up using, was a bit of a mashup of the various options.

A work in progress. Just starting to colour up and render...obvious issues remain
The final entry submitted tonight. I actually hate the end result. This is surprising because I normally find good in most things I do. I also realised that rendering detail is drudgery. The fun bits for me are clearly in the initial to mid stages of the image making. That's not surprising at all.










Saturday 2 March 2013

A hiatus in a sabbatical

Hello!  I'm sure some of you may be wondering why I've been slacking off with the posts.  
Well over the last week I have been unexpectedly walloped with an infection on my back details of which the less said the better.  

I have basically been feverish, dizzy and in quite a bit of pain that being localised on my back means almost everything involving upper body movement is affected. I tried painting through the haze but it was pointless. I decided to give it up and wait for the antibiotics to kick in and work....slowly...very slowly.

Today was the first day in at least 7 that I was able to paint anything; A self portrait (of sorts) and it took me forever, through winces and grimaces. 

I learned two things. 

One: I got incredibly annoyed having to look at my own face for so long. 
Two: Likenesses are hard, even when it's your own ugly mug. 

Come to think of it the growth is probably more accurate than my face is.


Say hello to my little friend