Mentorship Testimonial: Tyler Edlin

So, in September 2017 I started 8 weeks of mentorship with Tyler Edlin. My goal was to further my skills in environment design and to build on past foundation classes @CGMA. I specifically chose Tyler’s mentorship program because I love his world building skills and paintings style. His approach to teaching is also very cool, you can check it out on his YouTube channel.

How does the mentorship work?

At our first Skype call, we just sat down and talked about the goals for the next 8 weeks. Tyler looked at my previous work and proposed a syllabus that was tailored to my expectations and my current skill level. After that, we met every week on Skype for a session where I got to see Tyler’s screen while he reviewed my homework and showed me new techniques. Then we discussed the next assignments based on my goals.

You will get supplementary material in the form of videos and pdfs/images, too. Tyler was also always available for text messages on Skype and his Discord channel, which helped a lot to get the most out of those 8 weeks.

How much work is it?

As much as you can handle :-) it is pretty flexible and 100% based on your own free time. I ended up painting mostly at night and on the weekends, which worked fine for me.

Do I recommend it?

100% yes! Tyler is a very nice guy and goes out of his way to give you proper feedback and education. Online schools like CGMA can teach you the basics and are a valuable resource for that. But the feedback I got in the mentorship program was much more in-depth and specific and changed my way of approaching a fantasy landscape or environment.

This experience changed my life in a way I hadn’t imagined before taking the mentorship, and I am truly grateful for the hard work Tyler invested in me!

What did I paint in those 8 weeks?

The following paintings were done during the mentorship program.