Turning an Idea into Understanding

When a client comes to you with an idea it's up to you to be able to take that idea and transform it into an image that anyone would be able to look at and connect it with that idea.  It's convoluted.  Basically you have to take a vague concept and turn it into something everyone can understand by looking at it.

I'm mainly talking about editorial work here.  Editorial art is very fleeting.  You'll see an image in the newspaper or reader's digest and maybe glance at it for a second, but then move one when the article is read.  After reading the whole of it, the newspaper or magazine will be thrown away, not cherished and framed up on the wall.

I think that's what makes conceptual illustration so hard.  You have to illustrate a complex idea, but it has to be simple enough that any ordinary joe off the street can look at it and understand the idea instantly.  If it's not instant than you're not getting the point across fast enough.

I've found that I lean more towards narrative illustration - a piece of art that tells a story.  So this semester I've had to stretch my mind a little in order to think like an editorial artist.  I just wanted to show the progress of one of my pieces and go over some things that help in the creating process.

So for this assignment we had to illustrate a simile.  After weeks of thumbnailing lots of similes and not finding any that were particularly strong I happened upon one that my teacher told me was my strongest idea.  The simile was this:  eat like a bird. ex. "my sister is so skinny; she eats like a bird!"

I did lots of thumbnails for this as well.  Some were complicated or didn't really get the idea across very well and when one is doing editorial work it is better to err on the side of simple.  Simple gets the idea across quicker.

I made a list of everything that was even remotely related to a bird.  Pick out a couple of those and put them together.

Here's my piece.

My teacher really liked it, but during the critique pointed out a few things that could make it even better.  So I fixed a few things and here is the final rendition:

I don't think it's the best piece I've ever done, but it's also hard for me to be very invested or interested in this type of work.  So I guess I know now that I probably shouldn't go into editorial work.  But I also believe that learning to get an idea across cleanly and simply will help me out in my narrative work, so I don't think of this as a waste of time.  There's always something to be learned and applied.

If you have any questions or suggestions of posts you would like to see, please leave a comment down below!

Fin

Concept Design

So I've decided to post a couple of my projects that I've done in my Concept Design class.

start with solid dark shapes and then do the WOTS, which is just adding white lines to the blob.

create a path and export that path into illustrator, illustrator can put that path into perspective. take a screen shot and put it into painter and painter can guide your lines along the perspective grid.

boom. time to smooth it out and add some finishing touches.

the finished piece.  a flying craft based off a fish.

my first sketched out idea

The silhouette, plus the WOTS 

I'm basing this ground vehicle on this dogwood flower.

finished

Bureaucracy

So I mentioned in my last post (Perspective, Determination, and Personal Work) a little bit about my club's Halloween Gallery and some road blocks that we encountered.  The road block is called:  Bureaucracy.

I'm mean, I knew administration was a headache before in a vague kind of sympathetic way, but the moment I became a club officer it really hit like a ton of bricks.  The school administration is so anal about documenting every single little thing you do, and I get it, I do.  If there isn't order then it's chaos and things won't get accomplished and people will take advantage.

But it gets in the way.

So here's the beat down.  Every year our club does a Halloween gallery called the Gallery of Terror.  Anyone can submit a Halloween themed piece and we put it up for two weeks.  We try to have it showcased in a place that's heavy traffic and will be noticed and appreciated by the rest of the school.  The school has shoved us artists in a tiny corner of the school, far away from the main buildings, so we like to remind the rest of the school that we exist.

This year we had a prime spot.  A huge wall right across from the bookstore, the most trafficked area of the school.  We were so excited, we've never had such a good spot!  So the day came and we joyfully put up our gallery.

Later that day we were informed that the Club Office had taken it down.

Our club adviser went down himself to beat some sense into them (just kidding, he just had a very terse conversation).  Apparently we didn't fill out a club event form, so the gallery was taken down.  We tried to explain to them that this wasn't an event, we just put up some pictures.  There wasn't an opening social or awards ceremony or anything, not any sort of organized get together.

So that didn't matter. And the wall across from the bookstore remained empty.

By this time people were asking where the gallery was, they wanted to show off to their friends and roommates and generally bask in the awesomeness that was our gallery.

It was the last week of October and we decided to get hang up the pieces in the hallway that lead to our two illustration classrooms.  It was really disappointing and underwhelming, but the art pieces were at least appreciated by a few of us.

So there's my one of many stories about the bureaucracy of administration.  I'm sure I will have better and larger tales of red tape the further I along my career I go.  The Lesson?  Bureaucracy Exists.  It is one of the many horrors in the professional world and just like making art or finding a job it is work.  The faster you learn the ins and outs of whatever administration you're working for the better off you'll be.

If you have any questions or suggestions of posts you would like to see, please leave a comment down below!

Fin

 

Perspective, Determination, and Personal Work

So the past couple of weeks have been pretty stinking busy for me.  I always have multiple projects going on and usually only a week to complete them and last week they were just all due at the same time, so it's been hectic.  I've observed that there is a bit of a pattern to the work.

It's like ocean waves.  The waves are small at first, but you wait a little bit and a bigger wave chases after them and slams into you.  That's kind of how school works for me.  All these little projects coming in individually and then later projects pile up on top of each other and slam into you at the same time.

So I just wanted to walk through some different projects of mine.  This might be a long post.

Perspective:

So I'm taking a Concept Design class right now and it's part one of the classes.  It goes over designing vehicles, mechanics, and architecture.  The second part (which I'll take next semester) goes over designing organic beings (monsters, plants, ect). And  one would think that it was all very exciting and cool.

Except I kind of suck at designing cars, and buildings, and mechanical stuff.  I mean, they all fascinate me and I want to learn how to design cool concepts, but it's a bit of a learning curve for me. Part of my classmates are really excelling at this, but the other part (the one I'm apart of) are having a hard time wrapping techniques around our head.

The hardest part is the advanced perspective we're working with, my teachers explained that we should've learned advanced perspective in the early classes (Drawing 1 and 2), but it's public education and that's a whole different post, needless to say we had to do a crash course in advanced perspective.  Anyway, we get to design cool stuff, but it has to be in perfect perspective and 3d space.

I can paint an object to make it look like it's 3 dimensional, but to mathematically have it look 3 dimensional is completely beyond me.  I know it sounds like the two should be tied together and easy after you learn one or the other, but like I said - learning curve.

My learning curves aren't graceful arcs like teachers show.  Mine kind of resembles someone bashing their head against a wall until the concussion gives way to enlightenment.

So here's how to make something in perfect perspective.

1. You make a perfect square (it's such a headache)
1. Here's a video on how to do that (the channel is also a great resource for everything else): How to Draw a Perfect Square in 2 Point Perspective
2. You have a blueprint of the car you want in 3d space.  Make sure you have a grid overlay.
   
    
3. 
   
   
   
   
   
4. Divide your perfect square into how many squares long your car blueprint is.

1. 
   

1. 
   
5. Connect front view and side view points together 

1. 
   
6. Connect the dots and you have yourself a 3d model from your blueprints

1. 
   

Yeah, I still think it's a little off

Mine isn't perfect, like I said, I was really hitting a wall with this.  It's taken another project which I wan't able to complete for me to finally come blinking into understanding.  I guess we'll see if I truly understand by next week (I'll keep you guys posted).

Figure Drawing:

So I've always loved drawing people, but my figure drawing class makes me a little tired of it.  My teachers encourage constant figure drawing because the figure is the most complicated thing one can ever draw/paint and if you can do so correctly then you basically have the skills to do everything else.

I have the class Monday and Wednesday mornings for 2 1/2 hours.  Plus a 170 page sketchbook filled with half hour figure drawings. Now I've had sketchbooks that are way more pages than 170, but I think I've made my views on my sketchbook practices pretty clear ( see:Sketchbooks ).

Sometimes I don't really see improvement in my work over the course of a semester.  Really discouraging and it makes the grind harder than usual.

I do see improvement when I look a year back.

Most of the time it's small, like minuscule (and that can be pretty discouraging as well), but it's there and that tells me one thing:  I am improving and I will continue to improve.  All of my teachers and alumni that I've talked to have said one thing - it takes a couple years outside of college to really get to that professional level that you want to be at.  So it's really going to be three more years before I consider that my work should be at a professional level.

Doesn't mean I'm not going to be disappointed when I look at my sketchbook in the present day.  But the hope clings to me.

Personal Work:

So the month of October is a month of personal side projects.  It all starts with Inktober:

http://mrjakeparker.com/inktober    

Jake Parker is a big influence on the Illustration students here at UVU because his friend and co-worker for SVS, Will Terry, is one of our beloved teachers.  Jake started a personal project a few years ago called Inktober.  It started out as him just wanting to become a better inker and has turned into a world-wide phenomenon where everyone does an ink drawing everyday for October and posts them all on Twitter or other social media.

Last year I tried to do it and only popped out a couple.  This year I was determined to do 31 ink drawings . . . yeah, I'm totally behind, but I'm still determined to finish.  I've always like inkwork and coloring in marker, so I won't pass up the opportunity to practice.

Mikey likes his pizza and Raph refuses to turn around for the pic

The other personal project of mine is kind of multi-functional.  I was invited to a bbq at one of my teacher's house (*cough cough* Jim Madsen *cough cough*) and we had an art exchange going on.  So I needed a piece for that.  I also wanted to create a banner for my brand, an image that people would see and recognize as a symbol of my work.  The other use is for the Illustration department.

The Illustration department puts up a Halloween gallery every year (headed and organized by the Illustration Club).  I have never contributed a piece, so I thought this year I should. And I did (I'll write a post on the gallery and all the hulabalu that's been happening with that).

I've had professional artists say that you should always have at least three uses for a piece of artwork that you do.  If you make a piece of work for a client that's one use, but also use it for advertising yourself or (like I did) make it apart of your brand.  This personal project was a completely new experience for me and I've found that using one painting for multiple purposes is very convenient and helpful.  I will definitely keep following this helpful advice.

I'm also still working on my brother-in-laws RPG book.  For now, I'm mainly sketching everything out and during the Christmas break I will be inking it all in and hopefully have it finished by the end of the year.  So look forward to more updates on that in December.

So that's what's been going on this month.  I also have my two other classes:  Conceptual Illustration and Senior Seminar, but there isn't anything super exciting going on with them, just work. I might make a post about everything I'm learning in Senior Seminar, we learn a lot about the business aspect of art. I'm hoping to launch my Twitter account this week and look for a facebook page with my name on it.

If you have any questions or suggestions of posts you would like to see, please leave a comment down below!

Fin

Mid-terms

Sorry, I've been pretty busy in the last couple of weeks with mid-terms and family stuff, so I don't have anything planned to talk about, I just wanted to leave this video here because it's one that I keep coming back to again and again. Neil Gaiman is a bit of a hero of mine. So Inspiring!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plWexCID-kA

Artist Spotlight - Jon Foster

So I thought it was time for another artist spotlight, and this time I chose someone who's making a splash now.

Jon Foster.

It's surprisingly hard to find personal information on a guy whose still kicking (just kidding, it's not surprising at all, and I'm sure I could've found more if I actually dug around).  So here's just some basics:

He graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1989 with a BFA.

He still lives in Rhode Island.

He is mainly an oil painter and he does a lot of different commission work:  book covers, comics, concept art, ect.

He has won multiple awards and is very awesome and famous.

Why do I look up to his art?  Well, I mean, just look at it!  Even if you aren't a fantastical or sensationalist artist you are still looking at his craft in awe (I know you are, so don't deny it).

I might hate oils with a fiery passion, but I sure appreciate them like nobody's business.  I love his style and color palette (which is really just an aspect of his style).  His figures are so perfect anatomically and they don't feel fake (well, they're a bit stylized, not exactly Donato level).  His compositions are amazing, perfectly planned out and always adding a little something more to the paintings.

Alphonse Mucha is more of a fine art influence on me and Jon Foster is my illustration dream.

"We were kids without fathers . . . so we found our fathers on wax and on the streets and in history.  We got to pick and choose the ancestors who would inspire the world we were going to make for ourselves." (Austin Kleon quoting Jay-Z)

Check out Jon's website here:  http://www.jonfoster.com/

Fin

If there is any topic you wish me to discuss, or any questions that you would like answers to please respond in the comments and I will blog about them!

Is it Worth it?

Surprisingly in the six years that I've been seriously pursuing art this question has not come up that often for me.

I was trudging back to my car late one night after my last class for the day had ended.  I was thinking of a meal that I was finally gonna eat, bills that had to be paid, and the low income that I receive.  Many of my friends back when I was in High School had already finished their degree and were working their careers and getting way more pay than I have ever gotten.

Learning art has taken a long time and I don't believe I will be at a truly professional level for a couple more years to come.  The majority of my attention has to be learning and mastering art or else I simply won't be able to compete.  Earning money, social get-togethers, and outings are put on the back burner in order for that mastery to come to fruition.

I thought of all that, walking the mile it takes me to get to my car.

Is the art worth the sacrifice?

I could get some easy training and be working right away and earning more money than I ever have at this point.

It didn't take me long to answer my own question:  Of course it's worth it.

There is a lot of sacrifice involved in a career in the arts.  I don't think a lot of beginning artists realize that and it's good to question yourself and the path you've decided on.  If you do not have the passion for what you're doing you're going to be absolutely miserable.

I've heard a lot of my teachers talk on the subject and the one thing I've concluded from it all is that a lot of it is going to suck and most of the time you'll never be satisfied with your level of work, but you keep doing it and keep getting back up because it is your passion.

So is it worth it?

That's entirely up to you.

For me, I've kept on trudging through these years focused solely on my goal to graduate.  I pushed aside any doubt that a career in the arts wouldn't work out and stubbornly kept at it.  I have found that the longer I keep at it, the more passionate I become for it.

So yes, it is worth it.

Found this on the wall outside my classrooms. Appropriate.

Fin

If there is any topic you wish me to discuss, or any questions that you would like answers to please respond in the comments and I will blog about them!

Art Update

So I haven't posted for almost a month.  I'm just going to put some stuff I've been working on here and then do an actual post in a little bit.

Concept Design

Concept Design

Concept Design

Concept Design

Conceptual Illustration "Envy"

Rough drawing of the Greenwalker Symbol

The symbol of the Greenwalker Tribes

Concept sketch of a female Greenwalker

Sketch for my banner

Me at Comic Con in SLC