posted: August 16, 2010

Something different.

Ron Escobar at Yoga Journal called me with an idea.  Ron pitched this idea of just taking my line work and incorporating it into photographs for their 35th Anniversary issue with a special section dedicated to the Lotus Pose.  I thought it would be a great opportunity to see some of my work in a different context than what I am used to.

I've done quite a few pieces for Yoga Journal over the last year or so and would have to say they are one of my favorite clients.  I think my sensibilities works well with what they try to convey so even with a new idea at hand, I was confident that we were going to make it happen and work well.

How this job happened was pretty simple.  We agreed on the budget, found out what Ron wanted and I drew and drew.  I did a few initial drawings to make sure I was going down the road he wanted then with some more information I kept going with it and just funneled work to him every couple of days.

I think I did about 30 drawings of just lilpads.  All different sizes and shapes and patterns.  Probably at least  10 drawings of lotus flowers in different forms from realistic to very decorative.

This whole thing is actually a little different for me.  I am so used to being the idea generator and my art being the focus of the design.  In this case, I had to be more of a decorative artist and work back and forth with Ron about how he was thinking the drawings would interact with the figures and the space of the photos.  It was interesting just being allowed to make drawings without the pressure of the 'idea'.  It kind of goes against my grain a bit and not what I am used to but still fun nevertheless.

It was great seeing the final PDF's come in.  All those drawings I did...it was like pot-luck of which one's were going to be used and I think the end results are pretty fantastic.

Here below are just a minute sampling of some drawings that didn't make the cut for various reasons...too complex, not complex enough, etc.  Yes, we even discussed the idea that I would hand-letter the headline of the opening spread.  I've been wanting to get involved with more lettering so I was pretty excited to have some time and an occasion to do it.  Unfortunately, it wasn't used.

Thanks to Ron for the great time working on this project!

posted: August 10, 2010

One of the coolest things about being an illustrator is all the new stuff I learn and get to read up about.  One week it is about virtual reality, the next week about modern racism, the next about gun buying frenzies in the mid-west, the next cultural and racial awareness of breast cancer issues...it goes on and on.  In May, I got a call from Catherine Gontarek from the Penn Gazette to do a feature story on tactile virtual reality.

After reading the article my mind immediately sprang to the future possibilities of creating digital art.  I've done digital illustrations using a Wacom with Photoshop and Painter and even have done some finished jobs that way to see if it is a direction I would prefer to go in.  Even got into some annuals.  In the end it wasn't something I preferred.  I am a total computer dork but I like having a physical piece in the end.

The article describes how gamers and even surgeons could use 'tactile' virtual reality to actually feel cutting skin or being shot in their favorite games.  With the gamers, it wasn't enough to just feel the pulse of being shot but trying to recreate the burning sensation of a bullet.  Apparently, they've done research.

Further along in the article it goes into what a pencil would feel like on different surfaces and even describes an example:

"Now imagine dragging a stylus—or a pencil tip, if that’s more familiar—across the smooth screen of a tablet monitor, or a handheld PDA device. It scoots across the glass practically without friction, making almost no sound. 

That’s exactly what doesn’t happen when Romano calls up one of his textures to a screen that sits next to his keyboard. This time, you drag the stylus over a picture of crinkled plastic and it jiggles around in your hand as though you were plowing across actual furrows and seams. The pixels of denim “feel” like a pair of broken-in jeans. Writing on the virtual stationery is downright eerie. The papery scritch-scratch might as well be emanating from a pen nib scrawling an old-fashioned thank-you note."

I imagine the possibilities of running a pen over a tablet and and feeling the sensation of a watercolor brush on heavy handmade paper.  I imagine how having this tactile quality could actually add to the handling of the art itself.  Would I be able to feel the same sensations of running my palette knife over the surface of my painting?  How would this transform digitally created art?  Will having this tactile quality help the artist improve their work?  I would love to hear from digital artists out there your thoughts on this.

Read the full article here:

Penn Gazette - Touching the Virtual Frontier

It was great working with Catherine and had a lot of fun doing these paintings.

As I am writing this, it occurred to me that I haven't gotten the physical copy of the magazine, only the digital PDF's.  I wonder, with the advent of the iPad and other 'readers', that if someone or company is going to create a 'virtual tactile magazine reading sensation' program.  Maybe I can reach up, touch my screen and feel the texture and crinkling of the newspaper and magazine paper as I turn the pages.

posted: July 7, 2010

One of the things that keeps me continuously entertained as an artist is doing personal work.  In contrast, I've recently been told when asked to go to a park and draw that a particular artist friend won't draw for fun...only pay.  Maybe it makes sense because he's a storyboard artist but how does one work as a creative and lose their own vision like that...or bring it down to just drawing for money?  I don't know and to each his or her own, right?

Speaking of which, I've been lucky enough to be pretty busy lately sending off jobs this morning and starting work on others after I am done typing this up.  Being just as grateful for commercial work, which I know won't last forever as I am very aware and experienced  the ebbs and flows of our industry, I am grateful for the in-between times where I can play around the studio and make messes or work out ideas and story lines with my own personal projects and ideas.  Money is good...great even...but pleasure in creation...that's the ticket to ride.  I've recently bought gold leaf kits and have some mono-print ideas I'd like to experiment with.  Who knows where it will go?  I've never used gold leaf.  Can I use it to give myself a 'pimp-tooth'?

Over the last few years, I usually pulled ideas, color palettes and visual elements out of my sketchbook and put them in my work.  Lately, I've been finding myself more and more taking entire concepts and thoughts in my personal projects out of the sketchbook completely and doing 'finished' work.  I've done dozens of these sorts of pieces in the last six months mainly for exhibition in galleries.

The pieces here were actually for a gallery show that never happened which was fine with me because of the amount of other projects going on.  Still, it was great to get some of these ideas out of my head and onto some boards and using these as an 'inspiration springboard' for the project I want to create out of this character and environments.  Doing these pieces has finally gotten me to a place with the story, concepts and environments that I feel comfortable starting to build now.  After 2+ years of this stuff rolling around my head, its about time....but through it, I've had a blast developing it.

One of the things I thought about throughout typing this post up is how often I hear folks, mostly the younger generation focus their work so specifically toward a market because 'it'll make them money' that they end up losing their own innate creative abilities, dreams and visions.  I mean, most folks went to art school because they like drawing pictures and creating images that maybe came from their imagination.  Where did that go?  Did art school screw them up that badly and make people fearful to express their own ideas, concepts, visions and maybe focus a little too much on making money?

I am not trying to be idealistic here either.  I had many-a-sleepless night very focused on when or if the next check will come in over the years.  I did discover after all this time that there will be the ebbs and flows of income and in the very end, all that matters is whether you are doing and creating exactly what you want to do.  When the times are tough and there's no money, all you'll have is your happiness in your art and yourself.

Or not...I don't know...and maybe I am getting too philosophical here....and to each their own.

This storyboard guy that won't even draw for his own pleasure, only for money, it seems ridiculous to even bother being an artist.  It's something I don't understand.  I try not to be critical of it but to me, it doesn't sound like much fun.

The point is, creating for your enjoyment and amusement is often a secret that illustration departments don't always tell students about or maybe some people forget about.  The market will show itself to you with your work that you do and that will lead to making your money.

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This series focuses on the world our intergalactic friends live on and the change that needs to happen in order to save the planet.

posted: June 28, 2010

Dean Cornwell Achievement Award

 

At the Society of Illustrators President's Dinner last Friday June 25th, along with Robert Zimmerman the main man who created this here Drawger, Illoz, Bite-Sized Snack...and other internet realities, we received the Dean Cornwell Achievement Award.  We got the award for 'conceiving and implementing' and 'creating the customized website portal' competition system that every illustrator, student and school have been using for the last 4 years to enter Society of Illustrators competitions.

From start to finish, it took me about a year and a half to get through the process.  Dealing with logistics, money and what needs to be built and then Zimm came in the last 6-8 months and built it.

Thinking back, it was an amazing project to do because so many other changes were occurring at that same time with the newly hired Anelle Miller as Executive Director. I remember getting pretty cranky along the way because it was a long project to deal with and I was nervous about how it would work.  Also, most of the professional illustration industry and hundreds of schools were going to use it!  It HAD to work! Thankfully, cool-as-a-clam Zimm always had a way of making sure I wasn't taking things too seriously.  When I started freaking out during the testing stages and some stuff didn't work, inevitably there will be some silly sound-effect or link that took my to some sort of nefarious website that he would sneak in somewhere when I wasn't looking which made for some great laughs.  If anyone knows him, you know he's got a wit and laugh that you just can't help yourself to laugh along with.

In the end, he built an awesome competition manager.  When everyone saw how amazing it worked, the Society's Board decided to start using it for everything else.  It has been amazing to see it grow after that first year.  Major props to Zimm for helping me make the vision a reality with his ninja-like coding skills then taking it further with Anelle for all the other competitions!  Also...props to Josh Carpenter...the quiet guy in the background that seems to never get enough credit!

Thank you Zimm and Josh and thanks to the Society for giving us the award.

As an aside...a special thanks to Zimm for creating Drawger, Illoz and the other piles of illustration-based sites and putting passion behind the possibilities in the illustration world.  It's changed a lot of things in the illustration biz over the years and more changes will come.  Congrats, buddy.

We wanted to make sure we gave the Society all our love for giving us the award!  Zimm is a good kisser.

...and for some shots of the evening....

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