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I Wanted to Love Lunar Academy · The Wandering Wolf Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, I'm Jezz and you are listening to The Wandering Wolf podcast.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I almost don't know what my own podcast is called.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: But today I actually want to talk about a workshop experience I have for
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: a site called Lunar Academy.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was planning to do it first as a video for YouTube but I didn't feel like it
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: so I wrote a little longer note on Substack but I don't think people like
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: that either so much I don't know I didn't feel like
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: It fit for a longer newsletter post kind of thing.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, on Lunar Academy they offer online workshops and I have taken three of them.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've done Illustrating Story,
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Fundamentals of Visual Storytelling with Kenneth Anderson,
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Introduction to Stylized Character Design with Christian Erb.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry if I put your name.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the last one was Environment Sketching for Game Development with Jerme Fenske.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't like them.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: They got better, but...
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: I compare these workshops with Aaron Belay's workshops over at Creature Art Teacher.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: They are amazing and I keep signing up for them over and over again pretty much.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that I felt like all workshops should be like
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: But they're not.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: The workshops on Lunar is a very, very long webinar.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like workshops kind of thing.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if you have taken a few webinars.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I have from different places like Wacom, Clip Studio.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And mostly they are like one hour and they are only showing their stuff.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: They don't actually draw.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: They're mostly like, oh, look, here is my layers on and off and stuff like that.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't like it.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: They kind of felt like those things.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when the first one with Kenneth, it was so boring.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, so boring.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the workshop is like, oh, six hours long and like, oh, come on, draw.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: But he didn't.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: He mostly showed art from other artists, like new and old.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, some of his own.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was there to learn The visual storytelling,
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was looking forward to this because I have read interviews with Kenneth
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: and he's been in many of 3D Total's books.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was so ready for it and it was so freaking disappointing.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was awful.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he barely drew.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: He drew something almost at the end of his own artwork and And like,
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: no, I didn't learn shit, okay?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the very, very end, people, like five people or something can sign up for critique.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: So they do some blah, blah.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I never watched that even.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: They're boring for me.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: The other two got a little bit better, but the same boring concept.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like for two hours, they just...
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Talk and show stuff from other people's work.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I'm not here for that.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here for your workshop to teach me something.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, teaching or learning is showing.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Showing what you do.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Showing what you did wrong.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Showing and telling in real time.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Not like, oh, here is some work I did for this company this many years ago.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it looks great, but how did you get there?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, the second one with, I don't know, what was his name again?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: I did say it.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Christian, he did a little more like draw over from other people's works.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And he did start a demo.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: He started to create two different characters.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: We who was watching could pick one and he continued to work on that.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: But he never got to finish it because there was no time.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because he had to do the critic work.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: For Jeremy, one, it was a little bit better.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: He showed some time-lapse steps, I think from Procreate.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then he did work on a piece.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, it felt like a live stream, you know, on Twitch.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: When you can ask questions and blah, blah, blah.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't feel like I learned something.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I like about Aaron Blaise's workshops.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: I recently did the two days cat and dog workshop in the September one.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he used to dive in right into it, you know, right away.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: One day was for cats, another day was for dogs, but he started the same for both.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this is how this cat or dog looks like.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is how the anatomy kind of works.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: So here is eyes.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then he started to draw the breeds.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, he might have worked a little bit too much rendering and stuff for some of the pieces.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I love watching him rendering his artwork.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's just satisfying to watch.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: But you learn.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: You learn.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because you can follow along.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's the thing, you can follow along for his workshops.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: On Lunar, you can't.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: You can't follow along.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you can ask, watch again, and all that, but how far can that go, you know?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: So...
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: I hope they might find this podcast and hear what I have to say
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: and hopefully maybe improve on it.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I will not do another workshop because it will not get better.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Two hours just talking and then like maybe two hours,
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: maybe they do something that they maybe get done, you know.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, take an example though for the last one with Jeremy, with Environment.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: For two hours he talked about himself.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I like when they talk about themselves and showing off what they have worked on and so on.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: But for two hours, no thank you.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: That can be done for like 50 minutes.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: So he just showed finished work that he done for Paleo, Elder Scrolls Online and other games.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they look incredible.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's great that you started a studio and all that, but how did you get there?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: How was the sketch?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: What went in your head, you know?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: How did you get there?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, a bit disappointed.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: The good thing is these workshops is not that super expensive.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: But they feel super expensive because I don't get any value from it.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they have a new one up, Creative Illustration with Victor Meyer.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that one costs even more.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess it's because of the artist.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I feel I get a better deal by getting his eight weeks course over at
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: the Underpaint Academy instead of Wish costs even more,
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: but something tells me I get to learn way more than from a workshop.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's what I had on my heart today.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Ranting about this.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I do have a few workshops coming up with the Aaron Blaze.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: The charcoal one in a week.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then for the seabrush one.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And my little bit,
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was really excited when this was about to happen,
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: but then it was kind of rescheduled.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: They changed time because he couldn't do it at the time.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I did also sign up for a new workshop with Terry Whipslash.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've never done any of hers, but I'm looking forward to doing this one.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not super keen on her teaching.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, she comes with really interesting facts when she talks.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm looking forward to that.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't have so much to say anymore.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you for listening today.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And see you some other time.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.