This week I'm all thumbs

In school at SJSU I was required to produce a couple hundred thumbnails for each new piece. Here is 100 give or take, and it took me at least five hours to do. I'm definitely out of shape.

BUT the piece is shaping up nicely. I already have several from here I'm going to want to elaborate on, and ideas from others that will fold nicely into the best ones.

Onward and upward!

Switch Hitting for your Vision

One of the most dangerous things for a writer / illustrator who is going to be releasing a product that includes both of their talents is the inevitable comparison of one to the other.

"I liked his artwork, he's a much better artist than a writer; he should just stick with that."

"While I enjoyed his story, the illustrations were amateurish and better left to a professional."

Etc, etc.

If my releases do produce such criticism, I'll be happy. I'd be even happier if it produced conflicting criticism like above, as that would mean I'm doing both right.

But if it is one-sided, what can you do? All I can imagine is that you take the criticism with a grain of salt, like all artists should, and continue on your merry way. There really isn't any way around the opinions of others, you just have to make the choice on whose advice you're going to listen to, if anyone's.

Last night I finished my first story to the point that I'd be ready for the public to view it, but I'm still going to send it to an editor before I finalize it for release. Those oxford commas aren't going to just correct themselves, you know.

Prepping the thumbnails

In putting together a piece for the Spectrum Annual competition (see here), I'm postponing my Drawing a Day for the next couple weeks (and the foreseeable future, if I continue to do new pieces).

This evening I sat down to throw some thumbnail sketches together. Eventually I want to have a couple hundred, but for this first round I didn't even know what I wanted to focus on for the story I'm illustrating (also one of my own), so I noodled a bit. I did know what I didn't want, though, so I had to walk the knife's edge between internally editing my thought process (bad) and putting down ink just for the sake of putting down ink (also bad).

Anyhow, these are prudently shrunken thumbs to prove I've been working, haha. More tomorrow!

SPECTRUM Call for Entries

Here is a reminder that the great Science Fiction and Fantasy Art Annual SPECTRUM has a Call for Entries due January 25th. I believe I'll be postponing my Drawing-A-Day in exchange for doing a piece for the competition. I'll be posting progress reports on the piece here daily.

Here's the link: http://www.spectrumfantasticart.com/entry_info.php

Cartoons are drawings too!

I've been clogging up the Drawing a Day with more developed pics, but this is just bare bones drawing here. Almost all are from random photos on the web. Sometimes it's easier to do that than to explain to the person at Starbucks why you were making fun of their nose in your sketchbook.

Newest drawing of the day AND SPECIAL BONUS Article that says what I tried to say.

Here's today's drawing (which was actually yesterday's... the real world keeps creeping in), one of Larry Niven's Kzin war cats. Lesson from this excursion: Always have reference available when you need it. In this case, the gun is woefully inadequate and looks like something not-gunnish.

More importantly, a friend of mine pointed me to this great article by illustrator John Hendrix. How to Find Your Voice: 

1. Learn to solve problems on your terms: 

Illustrators and commercial artists often make the mistake of being too good at solving the problem. Meaning they let the limitations of the project overly influence how they solve the problem. When I give my student's an assignment I always tell them the same thing."At any point in this assignment, if you are unhappy with what you are drawing, it is your fault. Not mine." Illustrators, not art directors, are in charge of designing content that they will love to create. You can start simply: make a list of things you like drawing. My list looks something like this...
Bridges collapsing

Foxes having tea 

Goofy hats and beards 

Ray guns 

Cute robots 

Ugly robots 

Boats sinking 

WW I gear 

Animals with swords 

Magic fish 

Unmanicured trees 

Holy things 

Old presidents and kings  

19th Century misunderstood abolitionists 

on and on... 

Make a list that has 100 things on it- and pin it up in your studio. Make a habit of inserting these subjects into your drawings and, even better, into your illustration solutions. Learning to solve a project in a world that you enjoy is a huge part of finding your voice. The reason why is so simple it almost escapes notice:  When we make things we enjoy, our work gets better.

Read the rest at the link. It is well worth it.

Happy New Year!

This year is going to be big. Colossal, even.

Inspired by this year's huge film, Pacific Rim, I thought that it'd be nice to see one of those Jaegers a little lost. Where's that ocean, now?

This was a speed drawing, done in about 90 minutes. What I'm learning from this is that I really really need to observe more machinery because I don't know squat about details.

Oh, and don't be afraid to use non-conventional colors for sky and other objects. Local color can sometimes flatten or sap interest from a piece.