Michiel van den Heuvel

Magic...!

General / 11 January 2018

This is what my paintings look like in my head...!

Check the video below for a quick test I made with one of the paintings from my personal project. No Werble app used here - just Photoshop's latest features. I'm so giddy with excitement, just because I'm learning a ton of new stuff and seeing my normally dead paintings come to life with magic!

Note to self : It has been a decade

General / 31 December 2017

If you're reading this it means I have decided to bite the bullet and write a new blog post in my new website. ( Find my old one here ) It's been over a year since my last entry on my original blog, where I left off on a note saying that essentially my ambitions to be a professional independent freelance artist in the digital entertainment industry were not going very well. I had made many mistakes, did not gave it everything I had, and was very much in conflict with myself. I had to take measures otherwise I would never grow and develop as a person.

That year I started working in a restaurant as a kitchen aid to pay the bills. I have been there ever since and learned a thing or two about myself and life. 2017 has flown by incredibly fast and a lot has happened in that time. So much in fact that I've been shying away from writing a proper follow-up post just because of it. A lot of things were lost to and there were also many things that I left behind. With relief, but with a pained heart.

I hope that what I'm writing will offer a little insight to my experiences and my beliefs in life. I have mixed feelings about putting certain things out on front street, but I feel that these posts act as the cartilage of my sketches and paintings. For now I think it's better to keep it to the point :

I am still working a day job and I'm fine with that for now. Yes there are moments where I despise it, but more importantly, I started appreciating my free time a hell lot more. I found out that I still have plenty of ambition and drive to become better as an artist. I have learned many things in 2017. It's hard to think of them on the top of my head but here are some of the more hardline advice I wrote down recently :

1) Don't chase the money - chase your whimsical ideas, experiments and do what you like to be doing regardless of payment.

2) Don't compete - Just 'do you' and show it to the right people

3) Put knowledge into practice - figure out what can help you speed up your process with accurate results when you're on the clock

4) Track your progress - develop a rhythm or pattern in your progress so that you may improve upon it

4) Keep an open mind - try new techniques and different software to challenge yourself

5) Determine your worth - ask yourself if *your* work done for the month is a fair result against your minimum monthly financial needs and want

I'd like to go out saying that 2016 and 2017 made a real impact on me. I grew as a person and developped my ambitions, my passions. I feel very confident that I'm headed for a positive new year and I want to thank everyone in earnest for their patience and help.

Lastly, do enjoy some of my sketches and studies from this year!

Passion versus Opportunity : Making the Right Choice

General / 10 June 2016

If you think that your passion equals your vocation,let me tell you right now; it rarely does.

For the last couple of years I have been trying to become a succesful self-supporting freelance artist. I graduated in 2013. Three years later I end up working full-time with a new job as a kitchen-aid in a restaurant where the hours are long and my weekends as I know them no longer exist.

Before that, I worked several years as a partime mail-man by day and bartender by night. Although both jobs had their merits, the meagre salaries did not provide enough income to support myself and I was struggling to find work as an artist. I was reliant on my parents for financial support.

Every now and then there was an opportunity to do some artwork for a client. They were usually the same: I had to provide a test image without compensation or any guarantee of partnership. That's a strange way of doing business. You wouldn't do that with your local bakery now would you?

Asside from a few exceptions I declined most jobs that I replied to in the first place. I knew I would just feel miserable working on them knowing the pay would be less compared to the same amount of work I put in serving drinks at the bar until 5:30 in the morning.

My work just wasn't good enough for those well-paid freelance gigs that I thought I would be doing. I am no Noah Bradley even though I really wanted to be. No matter how passionate I felt about this, I just was not skilled enough.

My freelance career has had some ups and downs, where one project paid well but most did not. And in the end I dind't really believe that they were going to help me 'break through'. My motivation for them was minimal and that reflected in the results. I wasn't happy about myself, my career as an artist or my work for a very long time.

Something had to change. So I decided to stop, which at first shaked my beliefs of being an artist. But I was reminded by Steven Pressfield's writing. I might be paraphrasing but in this book 'The War of Art', it says; 'Stopping implies the chance to start over again. Quitting means turning your back and never going back again.' I would stop, regroup and find something more worthwhile.

As a young kid I always wanted to work in a restaurant and prepare food. I loved Jamie Oliver's cooking shows and I eagerly wrote down his recipes in a notebook while I watched him do it. I had a good appetite for different kinds of food, and I loved the idea of being the one that prepared tasty dishes as easily as Jamie seemed to do. I told myself that one day, I would build and own a beach-side restaurant like the ones I used to dine with my parents during the summer holidays.

But as the years went by, so did my passion change. And I realised that painting pretty pictures seemed a lot more fun instead. I was going to follow my newfound passion and after my graduation in 2013 I wanted to develop my career as a freelance artist. Living the life of sitting in your pj's and working from home on any project, whenever it pleased me! That seemed like the best thing ever.

Right in the period where I started my trial month as kitchen-aid, I was asked by my ex-classmate Jan van Lamoen to work on his graduation project. I was thrilled to be asked because I knew he was the most competent game-designer of my class and he was very professional. He trusted me to provide the environments and characters for his graduation project. I felt humbled. ( Mostly because I thought I couldn't draw a proper face let alone design face expressions )

For two whole months I worked on his project, all the while juggling my job as mailman, bartender and newly found job at the restaurant. It was hell. In the end, the project was delayed quite severely, but it was done. And I received a contract for 6 months at the restaurant. I could quit my other two part-time jobs! I have already stopped working as a bartender ( finally! ) and yesterday I received a call that June 14th would hail my last day as a mailman.

The last two months I have learned more about myself than in the last six years.

Doing what you're passionate about is not necessarily where your vocation lies. You can be passionate about one thing, but you might not be skilled enough. And that's the hard truth about me and my artwork. Because I look at my work and I see what other people are doing. They áre keeping a regular sketchbook, they áre working on their fundamentals, they áre attending life-drawing sessions, and so on.

I have a lot of things to work on if I want to be a succesful artist ( and I still do! ) but it's okay to settle for less. Mike Rowe puts it like this: "Don't follow your passion. Pursue opportunity"

And the truth is I feel okay about my current life. Yeah I'm not working my dream job from home, and my new job has long hours that include weekends, but that doesn't mean I should be unhappy.

I'm working a steady job that I wanted when I was a kid, and I actually enjoy that type of work too. I think I could be good at it. I have job security and a monthly income. And I still have time left during the week for painting and drawing. I'm pretty sure I can still get better at that too!

My project with Jan has proven to me that I can do more than I thought I could. ( Will post artwork soon when released! ) While I was shifting gears between each of those jobs, I rediscovered my passion for painting and drawing and I learned that I liked doing things I normally did not do, like painting characters.

I have a loving girlfriend who supports me. My family and friends support me and encourage me. I couldn't have done it without them.

It ain't over till the fat lady sings !

General / 22 December 2015

In this blog post I´ll be sharing some recent sketches that I made. You can see them below this post. In the meantime some thoughts on my online presence : I'm still thinking about what I want to do with the layout of my website and it will probaly be undergoing many minor changes in the future. I have asked advice from fellow artist friends on the publishing of portfolio's and personal work. I want to include my most beloved pieces of personal work. So from now on, the Gallery will serve as a living page where I'll store my favored sketches and other pieces. The home page will serve as as landing / portfolio page, which is obviously due for a major overhaul. Expect many changes there the new year!

Lately I haven't been studying much, but instead I have been focussing on just making personal work and putting my knowledge into practice. I have some ideas for upcoming pieces and I'm still thinking about a potential project that involves Dutch landscapes. At the moment there are many individual dots that I need to connect. I believe that 2016 will force me to shift into a higher gear. I expect next year will be difficult, but for all the right reasons. I think I'm heading for a rough time but I believe I will emerge stronger once it's behind me.

I wasn't planning on writing a big blog post to summarize the end of 2015, but looks like that's where it's heading! I'll sign off for now and come back later to touch on some subjects from this year.

-Michiel

Spitpaintings and Sketchdump

General / 22 December 2015

Lately I haven't been studying much, but instead I have been focussing on just making personal work and putting my knowledge into practice. I have some ideas for upcoming pieces and I'm still thinking about a potential project that involves Dutch landscapes. At the moment there are many individual dots that I need to connect. I believe that 2016 will force me to shift into a higher gear. I expect next year will be difficult, but for all the right reasons. I think I'm heading for a rough time but I believe I will emerge stronger once it's behind me.

I wasn't planning on writing a big blog post to summarize the end of 2015, but looks like that's where it's heading! I'll sign off for now and come back later to touch on some subjects from this year.

-Michiel

Storytelling and prepping for THU!

General / 13 September 2015

While digging through my reference folder I stumbled across a photograph that I knew could serve as a foundation to sketch on top of. So I did. At first I just added in trees and extended the scene somewhat, but I did not think about a narrative.

This is a recurring problem in my work. It shouldn't be just about the background, even though that's what I love to paint. My work lacks storytelling!

I invested more time in this sketch and added in two figures, a rock, a sword and hey presto! Suddenly things become alive. :)

I might finish this one some time soon, but for now I will be leaving for THU2015 !

Sketchdump

General / 13 September 2015

Been super busy! I just wanted to upload some recent speedpaintings and doodles. More coming ! :)

Sketchup and rendering experiments

General / 02 July 2015

Stuff in the making :) I was practicing with Sketchup last year, but this year I'm playing with render techniques that fit in my workflow. What you see below is part of a project I am currently working on.

Too many brushes

General / 15 May 2015

Playing around with colors on a prepped canvas while experimenting different brushes, techniques, ideas...Sometimes I get lost in whatever it is I am trying to do. I need to lay down my brushes that I use, get rid of the rest and just stick to the plan...!

Cloud study

General / 21 April 2015

I found a brilliant photograph of some clouds at sunset and just had to make a study of it. This is, ofcourse, a cropped version of it. I focussed on the colors and overal mood and tried to simplify the shapes. It took me just over an hour and I tried to keep in mind the many lessons I learned in order to keep things simple and straightforward. I'm pleased with the end result and really enjoyed myself :)

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