Sorry I haven't been around, been busy with chemo, healing, etc... won't bore you with the gory details. Cancelled my sub for the time being... hope to be back around August when all is said and done, and I am recovering from my 2nd TACE procedure, which gave me 8 months last year and could possibly give me more or MUCH more, fingers, toes, limbs, eyes crossed!!!
Anyway hope all you have been well. Looking forward to coming back soon, but couldn't resist sharing this with my SVS family.
running out the door, but I live in Ontario, and will research this for you more extensively when I get back, off the top of my head, also look into Bobby Chiu's online school, Schoolism... a great source for illustration of all kinds. ttyl...
How about some lights coming from them? Either like a focused ray, or glittering off their hands in sparks... say they're creating an electrical current in the nervous system, or jump starting one.
14 Minute video on Creating a Watercolor Mixing Chart
The first 7 minutes is very basic preparation...
Then SHE really takes off very fast, you will have to watch it more than once, but her process is very effective in making combinations from 2 colors. She only uses a 6 colors total for this chart, but the number of combinations is staggering...
As she does 6 - 8 combos per 2 colors.
At the 11th minute mark, you'll see how it effects her paintings, which was very convincing to see it applied well, she has a cute style.
Here is a video gallery of her time lapsed paintings, about 6 minutes each I think... I only watched the first 2, the 2nd one was better...
Time Lapsed Video Gallery - 27) two - six minute paintings...
I have a professional watercolor mixing book I've bought, but the trouble with those is you have to use the exact paint and paper to achieve the same or even close to same results. This idea of hers personalizes the chart per painting, while it IS a tedious step. It is a much more professional way to work then flowing by the stream of your pants... lol no pun intended.
Just to say, everyone does mix how they please, and over years of any medium becomes a master at what they know works. But if you're not there yet, want to take some of the guess work out, or hey are just a geezer like me, this charting process is a great tool in helping... I definitely plan to use it for the 2 commissioned portraits I have planned this year...
And there you go, use at your discretion.
Enjoy SVS!!!
@Lee-White said:
I wouldn't worry too much about this stuff. These kind of conversations, while interesting, always sort of bummed me out in college. At the end of the day I just couldn't really use anything from the discourse.
I agree with the first part of your post Lee 1,000%. Debates do little to sway me, as my process is " my " process and subject to how I feel it should be approached. Either I agree with what the discussion is or I don't, everything with a grain of salt and moderation.
I feel as artists, we have 2 jobs, the first to satisfy ourselves, which in itself for many artists can never be done, because we're all closet perfectionists that will never be 100% happy with our work, thus the need to keep creating and strive to get better.
The 2nd job I feel, and I agree with @sergio partly on this, is not only to know our audience, but to successfully reach our audience with communication first. If we're drawing a duck, does it read as a duck, or a sickly dolphin? If the latter, we have failed. If we were reaching for realism, and what came out was my 2 year old's refrigerator drawing, then yeah we failed.
Somewhere out there, there's a job that goes with an audience begging for the epitome of duckness. I don't know if I wanna work for that person, but if I ever do. I hope that what I turn out says duck enough for them to go jump in a lake somewhere. Just kidding.
This is what is so great about the 3rd Thursdays and the critiques. They open us up to, if we are successful at problem solving, and dynamic thinking, and striving to get better. Now...
BE the duck, you ARE the duck!!!
Now draw the shizzle out of that duck!!!
If you've never tried this exercise, turn a photograph upside down, and only copy the shapes you see, and not worry about a likeness. Keep the reference upside down, do not turn it or your piece until you're done. You'll find by concentrating only on the shapes, you get a very tight likeness. So the trick is to repeat the same thing right side up, see shapes and not elements of a face, ears, nose, eyes, mouth.
As to a caricature it is the exact opposite, concentrate on what makes the person's face unique. A larger than perfect nose. A crooked smile. Eyes that are large or small. Juxtapose that exaggeration with other normal proportions, or exaggerate 2-3 and keep the rest normal.
Good luck, if you want videos, I can hunt some down for you... but am feeling a little tired tonight, so will edit this as soon as I find you some.
A if I had to chose, B doesn't add much more than saturation to me, and c is too pink for my tastes... does it have to be 1 of these 3? Can the Dragon be blue or purple?
Welcome, I think SVS is a step in the right direction for you... so much to learn. Without sounding bias because I am a subscriber, I find that is the best way to get the most from this site, because it gives you access to all the classes. And I am not sure where you want to start out. You have a very nice sense of color and design, but there is always more to learn, no?
3rd Thursdays are great fun and promote problem solving, community building and friendship and you learn so much from other people's work and the critiques by Will, Jake and Lee. Love the wolf and the fox piece...
3 things come to mind right away after skimming through most of what everyone has told you.
What falls under your job description is the ART. That's it. Sure you do art direction, but even books with 20 pages NEED an outside art director that usually comes from either the publisher, in this case the Client doing it themselves. They're not hiring you to art direct. That is a separate job in itself, that isn't required of you as an add on. If you want to make a contract that says you will art direct your own work AFTER the fact... that requires allowing them to change everything you do, as your doing it... which yes, is fine if you're covered financially for changes. And everything will need revision especially with difficult clients, which this person is before you've even met. RED FLAG!
If you had a nightmare job from Disney, would you turn it down? HELL NO!!! You'd sell your mother's favorite chair and tell her it got lost in the fire. It's Disney, it's a once in a lifetime chance, it's immortality. But this guy is not Disney. You can't go into every job thinking I'm gonna treat this like I'm working for Disney. It's a great thought, but you'd be killing yourself for something that obviously is more about the experience, than it is about the benefits. And that's fine if you wanna do that... I hear people like to backpack alone through Europe. NOT ME. I'm a city boy... I like room service, working toilets and cable TV.
Some people like to rough it. That's what this is gonna be...
As should yours be to you. As should everyone's time be to them. Even this author. If he hasn't found the right artist, ask him why, really ask him what was wrong with all those people? What did he like, what did he out right hate? What didn't work with him personality wise? What didn't work with him as far as their work ethic, their approaches, their answers to disagreements, etc... You're going on a DATE. As far as I'm concerned this is about to be a personal relationship with a finite time period. But it's gonna be personal. You're gonna look back at it someday and say that's how I spent the summer of 2016, working with Joe Killjoy and his book, How to bore me to death volumes 1-12.
So ask yourself. Is this job, worth my time? Even if you're starting out, what are you gonna learn or take away from this job? Money is not the answer to all things. If you're working for money, you're in the wrong profession. I can name about 8 things that will get you more money in half the time, that are more enjoyable than doing this... but I am not you.
You're already entertaining the notion, so something inside you is curious. You're willing to give this guy the benefit of the doubt even though you know and see the red flags everywhere. Denial is not just a river in Egypt. Just kidding. But seriously if you think you've got the right stuff to do this, and the money sounds good, and you wanna know the answers to all these questions, go for it. May the wind be at your back...
In all seriousness, good luck to you, and let us know what happens.
I recommended the Artist's Market book for someone recently. In your case you would single out publishers who do science-fiction, fantasy, pretty much look at the covers of authors you like. See if you can find information on those publishers. Another thing to do is see if the cover artist's name is listed, and write to them, and ask them how they got their start in the business. Most artists I find will gladly tell you their " origin story ", and you'll start to see a pattern building. It's not all just luck.
Anyway, good hunting, love the Cthulhu piece!