What do you want to learn?
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I like that this site has a clear focus on children's illustration. I am not sure if broadening that focus would make the site any better. There are a number of other schools out there that focus on the entertainment art side of commercial art. I like that with the focused site you get several like minded individuals willing to help each other work toward a common goal.
I think a focused course on the business side of things would be great. How to find work, expectations for beginning in the industry, agents, contracts, etc.
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@Nor said:
Hey Jake!
I'd really like to get better at cartooning. I've read a lot of books but they're not the same as learning by seeing, especially art. I would love to see you guys teach how to cartoonize things. I came from a comicbook background, learning to draw the Marvel way and tend to make things more realistic. I have a hard time making things cartoony. This is something that would be great to learn. I know you guys touched on it a little in dynamic poses and the children's book class, but a separate class focusing on cartooning would be awesome.
Thanks!
Nor@Jake Parker - that's it in a nutshell. I was in a bookstore yesterday and there were tons of books on exploring your creativity, or using a particular medium, even those horrible how to make a face out of geometric shapes books... but that's not what I'm looking for.
I'd love a class on using simplification more effectively, on collage stye coloring, on what styles in the industry are too popular, and which ones are unique like Will Terry's...
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i want to learn everything you know!!
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@Kasey-Snow regarding your third point about wanting to learn graphic design - to be honest, I'd be a bit offended and put-off if the SVS instructors did a class on graphic design/logo design. There's a reason graphic design is a whole other specialty (and it doesn't have to do with illustration). I'm a graphic designer myself in my day job, and I went to college for it. Branding is complicated and best taught by a professional graphic designer.
If you're asked to do logos for people you should refer them to a graphic designer instead. And logos are best done in Illustrator, not Photoshop. Logos are the one thing you'd want to be vector so that they're scalable and can translate well to many applications.
Your typography class request falls under the graphic design realm too - but I can see where there's crossover appeal, especially for those illustrators doing their own publishing and need to typeset themselves. Again, typography is very complicated though so if SVS did a class on this I would hope it's with a professional typographer or graphic designer, not an illustrator who does type decently.
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@DanetteDraws I can definitely see how that would be off putting for you, that wasn't my intention. They just asked what things we were interested in learning and those are the biggest needs I find that I have. As someone without the money to go to art school, if I could take even an introductory course online that would really help me out a lot as a freelancer. I take the logo jobs because I don't know any graphic designers (I guess I know you now though!
) and am loathe to turn down any work since I am just starting out. I just make sure they understand that they will be getting a drawing and not a graphic, though I definitely work in a massive file/resolution size so that they can use it for whatever.Again, sorry if I upset you with my request, it was just a genuine, probably naive, class suggestion.
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@Kasey-Snow No worries at all - I may've come across as more offended than I actually am (damn lack of emotion online! Sorry!) but I do have strong feelings on it.
Since you have an interest in it, I do think you can definitely take an online course on it without having to go to art school. I don't think SVS is necessarily the venue for it though since illustrating is a very different skill set. I wish I knew of online courses to recommend you to, other than there's some pretty great classes on sites like Lynda.com and Skillshare that you pay a low monthly membership for, just like SVS. And they have classes that are more in the graphic design realm (amongst other creative-industry-related topics like photography, business for creatives, web & game design, etc. - they're pretty robust sites).
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@marcusmattingly I agree with all of these suggestions! And I'd love to see Gary Lippincott or Omar Rayyan as guest teachers here!
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@Kasey-Snow as a former illustrator who became a graphic designer in college. I have an idea of what you're talking about... when I switched mid sophomore year from Illustration at Parsons to Graphic Design. I was lost. This is back in the day before computers, but even back then, they all " thought " a different way, worked a different way. I was playing catch up...
You might have those feelings looking at a logo you know you can create the idea for, but your client might be used to getting a graphic done in Vector, the reason being they can resize it at will without resolution loss. Your high resolution work will only be good for print at best, but would it work on a billboard? Vector guarantees that, because it's done mathematically to allow for almost infinite resizing.
So while you might think graphic design is what you want to learn, and it couldn't hurt. Vector is probably what you're really looking for in order to compete. The industry used to rely solely on Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw to do that kind of work. But this new program Affinity Designer is so much more affordable and AS capable as those old work horses. I'd advise you to give that program a look, and yes Lynda.com would be a good place to start. It's a big learning curve...
My wife is a vector artist, but she's had years and has been at it since Illustrator version 6 to transfer her normal art into vector art. I've only been at it briefly since 2006, but almost like a once a year thing cause frankly it's never been my thing. You can do a lot of amazing even photorealistic work in Vector (thru meshwork) that would be great to have as a skill set, like all mediums, it's the effort you put in.
Good luck in your pursuits.
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This is late, but here are my requests:
I use Corel Painter. Do you know any children's book illustrators who also use this software? Several online tutorials scratch the potential of Painter, but that's it - and not many come at it with a focus on children's illustration. I'd especially love insight on creating special effects in Painter that look like children's art (instead of looking like a photograph).
Aside from that, what has helped me most is when you critique and give visual demonstrations of how you might alter things or where things aren't working (rather than just talking about it). I feel like that in itself has elevated my work many leaps in the last month.
Thanks for all you do! I'm overwhelmed by your generosity and great advice.
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@Kasey-Snow there's a great Graphic Design & Typography magazine/video/teacher online called Before & After: http://www.bamagazine.com
He has a series on Lynda.com that's worth the price of admission. Here's the link: http://www.lynda.com/Design-Color-tutorials/Before-After-Graphic-Design-Best-Practices/365959-2.html
Hope that helps!!
"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates
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Great first time on the SVS Third Thursday tonight. A bit of a bummer I didn't place at all. Any advice for the future?
It seems I need to learn it all. I love these classes. I learn more from these than art school. It seems in retrospect that art school didn't really do anything for me.
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@carlossketches @Kasey-Snow just found another free course on Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/introduction-to-graphic-design/
(haven't watched it yet, but the reviews are great)
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@Chris-Perry I wouldn't say that Chris - your ability to render is very impressive - seriously - At the end of one of the earlier Third Thursday critiques the instructors gave a list of what they said were the most important elements of a piece - concept being the most important and rendering being the last thing to to give weight to their choice of winner - the list had five or so things - they were going to post that list but i have not come across it....they most likely just forgot....(does anyone reading this know the list i'm talking about and the things on it?) - i think this is good information for you - like i said your rendering is super solid - i am a bit of a novice at this but i will give advice because you asked for some - next month maybe post your thumbnails and get feedback at an earlier stage - get a composition that has a quick read and hits the prompt and i think you will do awesome - maybe Will or Lee will give feedback on your thumbnails too you never know - i would say that i was very puzzled by your piece and thought i was missing something that was obvious to others - but maybe that is good to hear.... i did not make the Jedi connection at all - i read the sleigh as being on the ground behind santa and he was gesturing earnestly to the wonderfully drawn elves floating in the air - looking at it now i see it is the overlap from the halo around Santa's hand that makes the sleigh look like it is in the background and there is no shadow on the ground to suggest that the sleigh is floating - ....i think if the overlap were reversed and the runner of the sleigh were slightly in front of halo around Santa's hand that the sleigh position would read the way you were intending - i think also there is so much great stuff to look at around that action that it does not have the drama or focus that it could - if it were All about Santa using the Force it might be more clear too (maybe having r2d2 next him too as a visual cue) - cropping a bit on the left and adding a bit more sleigh and floating cues on the right i think too - i think you tried to pull off a very difficult concept - this is all useless opinion i know - but really for the SVS instructors its concept and readability......and those other things i can't remember
- anyways -..really looking forward to your future work!! -
I'd love to see Jake demonstrate his more traditional illustration style. Also, I'm learning animation, so I'd love any thing to do with that industry that Jake and Will have learned working with bluesky and other studios.
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@Kevin-Longueil Thanks Kevin. Very thought out answer. Next time I will go with simplicity. I am taking Marco's computer painting class on SVS and he states, simplicity is a quicker read which makes for better story.! Here is a new piece I am working on. I took the references I will be using and made a FPO before I start drawing.
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@Lee-White How is the business course coming along? I'm stoked for that one
Ace
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I think there should definitely be a class on storyboarding.
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I would really like to see a class on painting characters digitally, focusing on the face and maybe the body too: the features, the colours, how to render skin...
The video from brett snyder is great but seeing it digitally would be a great plus. Besides, this is such a tough subject, that I think that several videos, with different approaches and styles, would be very interesting -
My wish list:
1- Class that goes deep into creating a great portfolio. From creating the images to setting up the website.
2- Some add on's for the the existing business classes by Lee White getting a little deeper into creating your promotional materials and trying to get your first paying job.
3- Paid portfolio critique session with all three of you would be awesome. It would be even more awesome if you could get an art director or an agent to do it with you. I think it would be really helpful to all of us to see how a trained eye looks at some of our portfolios and what turns them off right away or what they like. -
Digital painting in other programs, such as Clip Studio Paint or Sketchbook Pro.
Perhaps a course on doing art conventions.
Traditional coloring approaches like colored pencils, Copic markers, watercolors, etc. And seconding:
@Jack-B said in What do you want to learn?:
I know this is a little bit late, however I really really would like to see some tutorials on creating 3D models in Maya or zbrush. I feel like they can be really useful even when you are just setting up 2D scenes etc. It would help a lot with composition and I am sure there are a lot of people that could help teach it.
