Thursday, June 21, 2012

Rejects

Sometimes you'll work on a project and come up with something that you feel is pretty good only to have it passed over and rejected. That's normal and to be expected. Rejected designs are actually useful in that they help you better understand the direction you should be going in. They help in getting more creatively focused. It may not be what the producer wants but at least you know what they don't want.

Here's a few examples of what I'm referring to. These concept sketches are from a project I was developing last year. It's still in the works and as such top secret so I can't discuss details. But I can show some images of what it's not going to look like. These were done with black line pen and touched up with blue pencil.




There's a saying... The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. That's one way of looking at rejected designs. They may not be right for the project you're on but they'll look great in your portfolio. Much if not most of my portfolio back in the day when I used to show it to find work consisted of designs that were rejected or images of things I drew on my own. It's ironic. Sometimes your best work is what you do for yourself when you have complete creative freedom. Then when you get hired because if it you're job is to adapt.

Thanks for checking in and I hope you enjoy today's entry.  


5 comments:

tengg said...

This is aliens? The alien woman on the second art-work drawn very nice. Anyway, others two are interesting, too.
By the way, about your amazing but rejected works. Have you any rejected arts from Crash Bandicoot?

tengg said...

there are*

Charles Z said...

Yes, I think there's art from Crash that would fall into that category. Mostly along the lines of designs that were modified as characters were being developed. There's artwork from Crash that hasn't been seen before publicly. Probably lots of it. I'll dig it up and do what I can to show it.

Winston Lee Jackson said...

Great lessons, Charles. I'm in the middle of a project developing a design of a character for a client. I'm certain some ideas will be rejected, but I'm also certain I have designs which will be right up their alley. Got a lot of that patience from my time at the Animation Academy. Thank you, sir.

- Winston

Charles Z said...

You're more than welcome sir and thank you for the great comment Winston. Good luck with your project. As talented as you are your client will be very happy with what you do.