Ever have trouble maintaining a regular art study regimen? Need a renewing source of daily motivation and discipline? Crimson Daggers may be the answer.

The Crimson Daggers are a group of artists that meet every day for at least an hour a day to better themselves and their artwork. We hope to establish a strong sense of community and always try our best to stay dedicated to helping those around us.

The group meets online daily on Livestream at 9:00am EST (6 PST) in a live podcast-style classroom, hosted by artist Dave Rapoza. The idea is to offer a free and open environment of mutual motivation and learning, on a disciplined schedule. Students can post their art and receive critiques in the appropriate threads on CGHub and Conceptart.org. And with a study rotation of still life, anatomy, landscapes, master studies, color theory, and reference drawing, there is plenty of material to keep you growing and improving as an artist.

Ballistic Publishing recently graced Sketchfeed with a review copy of Exotique 5 – The World’s Most Beautiful CG Characters. We take a quick look in the hopes of helping you determine whether it’s worth picking up.

Let’s face it, we never really tire of gazing at vulnerable, sword-wielding digital beauties in all manner of undress. After all, isn’t that the real reason we became artists? Exotique 5 certainly delivers–not only amazing girls–but a little something for everyone. And don’t worry, there’s a fair share of creatures, dragons, bots, and monsters too. Science Fiction and Fantasy characters are the dominating themes, which reflects the scope of featured professional artists that hail from the game and film industries. Most of the images are purely 2D, with a few ZBrush and Maya/3DS Max artists represented as well.

Commissioned art is included from the likes of Sony Online Entertainment, ArenaNet, ImagineFX, Alderac Entertainment, Wizards of the Coast, and Games Workshop, as well as numerous independent pieces. Ballistic selects it’s content from artist submissions, which they announce from their web site. If you’re an artist looking to receive some good exposure, be sure to keep your eye out for such announcements.

As you can see, there’s some serious eye candy and inspirational material here. As always, print and binding quality of the book is top notch, with heavy-gloss paper stock–and should hold up to a number of serious coffee-table perusals.

If you’re a serious collector of printed digital art compilations, then you don’t need us to tell you that Exotique 5 is worth the $52 USD price tag (or $115 for the mega-elite Special Edition). In fact, you probably already have a copy. Otherwise, this publication makes the perfect holiday gift for the artist or fans of fantasy art. And speaking of holidays, Ballistic is currently running a 20% Christmas discount for paid CGSociety members.

And just so you know, we searched around for a cheaper price, but didn’t really find any better options at the time of this writing. Perhaps that will change as other vendors pick it up. I never like to buy something before finding out if it can be had cheaper elsewhere. In this case, buying straight from the publisher is probably a safe bet.

Check out the Exotique 5 web page to make a purchase or preview the book in it’s entirety online. Also see Neville dSouza’s article on CGSociety, detailing his process for the creation of Exotique 5’s cover image.

Finding new inspiration for your artwork can sometimes be a frustrating task. Usually it’s just a matter of getting into the right mindset, taking a look at your surroundings, and using the many tools available to us.

In this case, let’s take a look at the satellite photography available from Google Maps. The earth, when seen from space, contains some exceedingly beautiful imagery, both man-made and natural. Such inspiration can be utilized in many ways including texturing, colors, digital brushes, patterns, and so on. The potential for inspiration is nearly limitless. (more…)