Still up to my ears in secret stuff I can't post about yet, but I did take the time to draw this little comic about the terror that is hot oil. I don't know why, but short ribs just want to murder me! Or terrify me. I don't have nearly as much trouble with other things.
Ok maybe potstickers too.. and pierogi.. and pork shoulder..
But I have a strategy now!
My new place!
The area I live in now, Reston, is this 70s planned community. The architecture is so funky and blocky and earth-toned, I find it very fun and inspiring! I had to take a break and doodle some. :)
Things have been quiet on the blog because my life has been really rapidly changing! My gentleman friend got a wonderful new job up in Northern Virginia, so we just finished moving from Roanoke (our home for the past 2 years) to Reston, which I am absolutely already in love with. I'm sure there will be lots more art and such about that!
As we go through this transition, I've just been thinking a lot about growth, growing up, family, love, and having a sense of home. I wanted to capture some of those feelings into a little personal piece that would also serve as a chance to push some new techniques in my work.
I got to do another jigsaw puzzle for mud puddle! These are available in select retail stores in and around Boston. :) (I think you can also buy them online if you send an email to mud puddle.)
This is one of the most challenging illustrations I've done to date - the composition was way more complex than the pirate puzzle I'd done previously. But again, I really learned a lot - and most of this piece was really useful practice for the GP Miami playmat I had to illustrate a few weeks later.. :)
Like the pirate puzzle, I had to do a second background for this piece to reflect a different locale, in this case, Boston Harbor. Unlike the pirate piece (where I just changed a few buildings on the skyline), this required a dramatic overhaul of the composition. It was.. intense! I'm fairly pleased with the results, though:
I've been continuing to experiment as a way to keep myself fresh as I chug through the long & large projects I have right now. Loving what I'm making!
I drew the orc lady just to improve my mood on a tough night, and then I liked the pose/figure so much I thought I'd just try using it as a base to do some character designs! I've actually never done that before, it was waaay fun. And it gave me a chance to work on building up sort of a lexicon of surface treatments for when I'm working this way, which I think will be very useful.
I also restricted my color palette to just 4 colors, as an exercise. I'm daydreaming of being able to do intaglios or something some day..
Since I started trying to freelance full-time a few months ago, I've been taking a lot more time to try and find good resources for illustrators online. I've been looking for classes to take, conferences to attend, calls for art, podcasts, discussions.. really anything that will help me participate in the illustration community, develop my work, develop my practice, and get my stuff out there. It has been harder than it should be. And since I wasn't really able to find any directory of this stuff, I thought I'd try and start putting one together myself. I want to make this list as comprehensive as possible, so if you have anything that you think should go on here, please leave a comment or send me a tweet! File it under #illoworld.
My only criteria for the list at this point are: 1) it's a useful tool for illustrators (professional, student or amateur) 2) it's somewhat evergreen. I'd rather link to places that have frequent calls for art than one singular call for art, places that often post tutorials than a single tutorial, etc. :)
Otherwise - fire away!
Illustration Showcase Blogs Pikaland Ape on the Moon Drawn! (archive only now) Cartoon Brew
Illustration/Freelance Practice Blogs ChrisOatley.com Red Lemon Club Once Upon a Sketch The Art Order Zero 2 Illo Work Made for Hire
Illustration Directories & Portfolio Sites Illustration Mundo Hire an Illustrator (paid) Dribbble (Invite-only, but I personally recommend it highly.) Behance Cargo Collective Coroflot Directory of Illustration (paid)
Classes, Workshops & Mentorships (Online) Camp Pikaland Lilla Rogers Studio School The Lamp Post Guild Motivarti Chris Oatley Academy CG Master Academy smART School Gnomon Workshop Schoolism School of Visual Storytelling
Classes, Workshops & Mentorships (In Person) Light Grey Art Lab (Minneapolis, MN - travel workshops - personally recommended!) TLC Workshops (Bothell, WA) 3x3 Magazine (NYC) Concept Design Academy (Pasadena, CA)
Participate Illustration Friday Ten Paces & Draw Light Grey Art Lab (frequent awesome calls for art) They Draw and Cook Spoonflower Weekly Contest The Sketchbook Project The Scribble Project The Art Order - Challenges #KidLitArt weekly twitter chat 1000 things to draw
Listen While You Work Once Upon A Sketch Podcasts Chris Oatley's ArtCast Big Illustration Party Time Design Matters Light Grey Art Lab Will Terry's Youtube Channel (videos about professional practice as well as tutorials) Creative Mornings Paper Wings Guys with Pencils
Conventions/Conferences Spectrum Fantastic Art Live CTNX Animation Expo ICON - The Illustration Conference SCBWI Annual Conference Toronto Comic/Arts Festival Small Press Expo (SPX)
Professional Organizations Society of Illustrators (NYC based) Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (many local chapters) Graphic Artist's Guild
Juried Annuals Society of Illustrators Spectrum Communication Arts Illustration Annual
Magazines Applied Arts Magazine Communication Arts 3x3 ImagineFX
I already know I'm missing lots of stuff, so please give me your suggestions and spread the word! There must be so many cool illustration things people just don't know about. :)
The last of my Creature Collection for StarCityGames.com! (For now..)
It’s weird to me to be just showing this piece now, because I’ve already been able to show off pieces that use knowledge I learned from doing this one (notably, the GP MIami Playmat.) At this point, this guy is over a year old..
Anyway, get your dicebags (sunglasses cases!), playmats (mousepads!), deckboxes, cardboxes, posters, & etc now! I’m very proud to say that they’ve sold out of products early on more than once, so get ‘em while you can! :)
This article by Noah Bradley is going to be going around the art parts of the internet a lot, I think. It's a good, quick read, and he does raise a lot of very valid points. I've heard him talk about this kind of thing before, in particular his super excellent interview with Chris Oatley. I don't at all disagree with his point that under no circumstances should a young artist put themselves into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt in order to go to traditional art school. It's crippling, it's not worth that, and you will not pay it off on what you'll make as an artist. And I think he's put together a list of some really amazing resources for artists with a certain learning style who are interested in particular styles/markets. I will definitely be going through some of those resources myself!
Where we do disagree, I think, is on the value of going to art school if you can make it more financially feasible. So just to keep this simple, here are the reasons why I am still glad that I went to art school. Keep in mind, I did have a scholarship that reduced my cost from $100,000+ to $30,000. I've been out of school for 2 years, and I started freelancing full-time a few months ago. Only time will tell how feasible that decision was. ;) That $30,000 in loans still feels like a lot - and it will, for the next decade - but so far, I don't regret my decision.
I went to the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. It's not a well-known, well-funded, or particularly renowned school. It was close to home, it's quite small (which is important to me), and they gave me a large scholarship. I did dream of going to RISD, but they gave me no financial aid, and the offers I got from other schools were paltry compared to what MIAD had to offer, so I went with the financially sound choice. This is important - I do recommend art school, but you have to make sure it's a financially sound choice.
Art school did a few really important things for me. The first is that it gave me 4 years during which it was my job to get better at art. Now I understand Noah's point that art school isn't strictly necessary to do this, but for me, at age 18? That's what I needed. I drew a lot, I am a very focused person, but having the structure to force me to focus on making for 4 years made a huge, huge difference to not just the quality of my work but also the way I think about it, the way I approach it, everything. I would argue that it helped shape me into a person who now can self-motivate to keep learning, because now I have the tools to do that learning. I don't think I would have been there right out of high school; I think I would have found a crappy day job and floundered around drawing WoW fanart in my spare time.
Art school also gave me a rich and inspiring community that is still instrumental to the quality of my work and my well-being. Noah mentions this and suggests forums, but I would argue that an online community is not really enough on its own. (And I say this as someone with lots of online friends - I met the man I've been with for the past 5 years online!) I think artists really thrive by being around other artists - there's a reason we love to go to cons, to workshops, to drink & draws. The illustration majors of my class became incredibly close, working in the studios together. We all took inspiration in and from each other, critiqued each other, and supported each other. Beyond that, because my school was so small, I was also often in contact with other majors and got to see their work. I was exposed to art I probably never would have known to seek out on my own, art that really got me thinking and trying new things. I would never have gotten to try printmaking without going to school, and it's now a discipline that I adore and am still trying to piece together into my current work, years later.
The other network I got to hook into was that of my professors. Because my school was small, we all got a lot of individual attention from the incredible illustration faculty, all of whom are active in the industry. Several professors taught me for a few years, and got to watch my work evolve over those years. They helped shape the work I'm creating now, they helped push me in new directions. I'm still realizing the truth of things they taught me, 2 years later. And I still have them as resources when I need advice or insight.
And lastly, of course, the classes. I'll be honest - for the most part, the actual assignments I did didn't particularly matter, for the most part. What mattered was that I: a) was being forced to make work, which is about the most important thing you can do to improve, b) got to learn and had to practice the workflow of going from thumbnails to finals, and c) through trial by fire learned to juggle multiple projects so I could hit deadlines. The latter is absolutely one of the most important skills you need to have in this industry.
So that is what art school did for me. Has my diploma gotten me jobs? Nope. Did earning it make me into a better artist and professional? Absolutely. Is it for everyone? Of course not. But I think it's right for some people, as long as you can get scholarships/aid to reduce the cost.
Maybe I could have much of what I described doing something similar to what Noah Bradley has suggested, I don't know. My gut feeling is that personally, I could not have. As a developing young person, I needed the structure during those years so I could handle myself in the years following - now, there is no structure. Now, it's all up to me. And I'm doing ok.
Anyway, there's my 2 cents.
Edit:
Noelle Stevenson (aka Gingerhaze) also has a post about this subject and says many things I agree with. I'm excited that people are starting to all share their viewpoints. :) Will definitely link more as I see 'em.
Conclusion:
What I've been able to take away from all this at this point is: everyone is different. Everyone needs different things. Don't let anyone else tell you what's right for you. Do research, ask questions, think about where you are with your art now, think about where you want to be, think about what makes sense to get you to that goal. Think about your intended markets and what resources are available in that discipline. Maybe it's any one of a number of traditional art schools (there are different kinds!). Maybe it's the art program at a university. Maybe it's a few classes at your local community college. Maybe it's a mentorship (I'm so excited these are becoming more of a thing) or a workshop, or several, or an entire period of self-guided study. There are many options! Only you know what is best for you.
Fun little project I wrapped up this week, a special playmat for Checkmate Games & Hobbies in Toledo. :) They’ll be giving these out as prizes for their upcoming Invitational tournament.
For those who don’t know, a playmat is like a giant mousepad that you put your cards on at a magic tournament. It sits between you and your opponent.
That’s why I’ve always, always wanted to do a playmat with this layout! Now it looks great for both you and your opponent, and there’s some personalization with deciding which “side” you want to be. I think it’s fun!
Thanks for letting me run with my crazy idea, Checkmate Games! :)
Another StarCityGames.com Creature Collection piece revealed! Like the others in the series, this illustration is printed on a line of trading card game accessories - card sleeves, playmats, deckboxes, cardboxes, and dicebags. They're also being printed as promotional tokens given out by StarCityGames.com for use while playing Magic: The Gathering. :)
This piece was the first time I actually approached the image knowing it was going to be on a playmat. For the others, for various reasons, I did the token first and then expanded it out to fit the playmat/deckbox layout. Because of that, this is the only one with a whole cast of characters. The fun thing is that we then got to give each one their own token! :)
I actually really, really enjoyed doing this piece. I used a different brush set than usual (I honestly tend to stick with the default round) and got really excited about the textures and colors. The little guy in the lower right is my favorite, he just looks so cute. :)
WIP GIF TIME!
HOOO BOY. This one was a challenge!
I got to do SCG’s playmat for Grand Prix Miami in June!
We went through a lot of different ideas and eventually settled on this craaazy crammed beach scene. My thought was that one of the interesting things about playmats is that you spend a lot of time looking at them but not really seeing them, while you’re playing. I wanted to create something that would sort of surprise you every once and again with something you maybe didn’t notice before. :)
Also, I happen to have a lot more WIP shots than usual this time, so I put together a process gif for y’all! :) Should show you just how much stuff I fiddle around with during a painting. No matter how hard I try to plan everything out ahead of time, things always change as I start responding to what I have.
Alright! Another piece released for SCG!
This is actually my favorite of the bunch, but not because of the squirrel - because of the background! I just really had fun painting it and learned a lot that I’ve wound up applying to future paintings. :) I really like the play of flatness with dimension here, and it’s something I’m exploring further in current work.
Having some feels.
Wow! What a weekend!
I recently had (my first ever) Artist table - and I happened to have it at the largest Magic: the Gathering tournament in the history of the game. Trial by fire, anyone?
Basically, my daytime employer, StarCityGames.com, sent me to this event so I could sign the products they’ve been coming out with that have my illustrations on them. I also got to sell some playmats and prints, and take some small commissions.
It was super fun and super surreal - I can’t believe people wanted me to ruin their belongings by writing my name on them! Everyone I met was just lovely and I really look forward to doing more events in the future.
The best part - I got to have dinner with Steve Belledin, Eric Deschamps, and Terese Nielsen - three extremely skilled Magic artists whose work I really admire.
And now to settle in and paint/draw/doodle my little tushy off to catch up!
Another piece released for StarCityGames.com!
This one was a weird one. Initially, the plan was to have cute/whimsical pieces by me interspersed with more traditional fantasy fare by another artist. The other artist fell through, but deadlines are deadlines, so they asked me to step in- and out of my comfort zone!
This piece actually felt a bit like a throwback. Before I went to art school, I was a lot more interested in realism/concept art/etc, and I used to do paintings like this a lot.. mostly as World of Warcraft fanart. :P (You can see some here!)
It was pretty cool to do something so different and challengingl I learned a lot about how my workflow and preferences have changed over the years. :)
Lastly - this piece would not have been possible without my amazing model, Paul. :D <3 <3
Another piece that’s been waiting in limbo!!
This is the first of a series of illustrations I’ve done for my day job at StarCityGames.com. The illustrations are each being released as full lines of products for trading card game players :D (Sleeves, deckboxes, playmats, etc.)
The set with this illustration are now FOR SALE on their site, including in particular the playmat (which is like a giant mousepad) and the dicebag (which is actually a sunglasses case!)
It’s all been a very bewildering and wonderful experience. :) I hope you all enjoy what I’ve made and what’s yet to come!
I’m so happy I can share this with you all!!!
A few months ago, I was asked by the lovely people at Mud Puddle to do an illustration for use on a wooden jigsaw puzzle. An illustration of little kids being pirates!! Two of my very favorite things to draw EVER.
Loved the assignment, loved the client, loved the result!
Oh such tormenttt
Just doodling around before bed!
I don't really do a ton of fanart, but I've been a little low on ideas lately but still REALLY driven to draw.. so here we are.
This is Roll from Megaman Legends. That series really influenced my aesthetic right when I really got excited about drawing in a way that I don't think I fully realized until I was working on my college thesis. :) Fun to do a little homage!