IMC 2013 -- The Illustration Master Class

I love the IMC so much!!!  A week of wallowing in fantastic fantasy art!

Check it out:  Illustration Master Class IMC Website

They always sell out right away, so don't hesitate.
A core group of top-notch teachers working in traditional, digital, comics, gallery, children's book illustration:  Rebecca Guay, Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Donato Giancola, Dan DosSantos, Greg Manchess, Scott M. Fischer.  Often with Iain McCaig and James Gurney.  With a main Guest Instructor, and many dropping by to give talks and lectures.

IMC 2013 had Mike Mignola as Guest Instructor (although he had to leave a few days early).

A list of assignments to pick from to work on during the week (held in Amherst, MA, in June), is given out beforehand.  We bring materials/supplies/computers to work on.  Live and eat together.

Around 100 students.

Auditorium for Lectures/Presentations--


Crits on the first day, with 3 or 4 of the faculty--


Lecture on Shooting Reference, with Scott Fischer and Donato Giancola having some fun--


Some of my rough sketches for the "A Midsummer Night's Dream" assignment--


More detailed sketch of Titania and Oberon--


There are some models/drawing/painting sessions... this one has James Gurney doing some painting--


Boris Vallejo--


My oil painting, on 18x24" masonite, at my workstation--


Diana Harlan Stein, working on her Captain Nemo painting--


We were in the first floor painting studio.  There was also a room upstairs, and another room just for digital (darker and no paint allowed!)--


Row of easels--


Greg Manchess, painting--


Iain McCaig, Greg Manchess, and Donato Giancolo looking at artwork--


Scott Fischer, painting--


Donato Giancola, painting--


Diana Stein, painting--


Rebecca Guay, painting--


My painting--


End of the week, display of work and sketching in everyone's sketchbooks--

Spectrum Fantastic Art Live!

Yeah, I'm trying to catch up, which is just impossible for me...  Anyway, back in MAY, the folks at the Spectrum:  Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art series of art books held its first event in Kansas City, MO:  Spectrum Fantastic Art Live!

Here's the website:
http://www.spectrumfantasticart.com/spectrumfantasticartlive/

Brom was one of the special guests, he gave a slideshow overview of his career, which was, of course, fascinating--


Brom had lots of amusing stories about getting to work for TSR and his time there.  From the outside it seemed like they must have loved having him there, shaking things up a bit and keeping the art interesting and fresh, but he thought management felt he wasn't quite fitting in with his muted palette and dark, edgy characters.

"the secret to making it cool:  put an eyeball in a hand"

management:  "your elf looks gay"
brom:  "i posed for that"

gets called by the people doing Scooby Doo and goes he goes in thinking, "you want me to be Shaggy" 

Sculpture by Virginie Ropars, based on Brom artwork--

... She won the Spectrum 19 Gold Award for Dimensional Art at the Awards Ceremony.

Another of Virginie Ropars' sculptures--


Batmobile displayed outside--


Random photo--


Special Guest Iain McCaig (creator of concept art for Darth Maul, etc.) gave several interesting presentations.  I picked up one of his books and a sketch by him.  Yay!


The Art Department had their booth across from ours--


Diana Harlan Stein and I shared a booth.  It was by the stage where the Guests made their presentations, which was very cool I got to see them all.  There were also panel discussions, but I missed those.


More random booth photos--








Spectrum Art Awards--held in a fabulous old theater.  Announcing the nominees for Best Dimension Art, Virginie Ropars, winner of the Gold.


Spectrum Art Awards.  Donato Giancola, one of the presenters.


Spectrum Art Awards.  Michael Whelan announcing Grand Master award given to James Gurney--

James Gurney was there to accept (as were most of the artists.  He also gave presentations during the day, and had a booth where he did demos.

Cool dance/art show between the awards, by the Quixtotic Fusion dance company with Android Jones (one of the Special Guests)--


The hotel bar was buzzing afterwards.  Exhibitors I heard from reported "Eh" or "OK" sales, but were enjoying other aspects of the event.  That was pretty much my experience, too.  The show and the Awards Ceremony were well-organized and definitely worth going attending.

It was announced that Spectrum will try it again next year.

Illustration Master Class (IMC) 2012

I'm at the IMC (Illustration Master Class), all week.
http://www.illustrationmasterclass.com/



Core instructors are:
Rebecca Guay
Donato Giancola
Boris Vallejo
Julie Bell
Dan Dos Santos
Scott Fischer
Greg Manchess 
Irene Gallo
and last year's guest instructor, Ian McCaig, is back again.
Guest Instructor for this year is Brom.
Doug Gregory, AD for Blizzard Entertainment
James Gurney, guest instructor from 2 years back, is visiting again to do demos and lectures.

Before we arrive, we get the assignments.  There are a lot of cool ones this year: 
Tristan and Isolde
Tarzan and Jane
Old Man's War
... a YA story (can't remember name)
... and a few others.



I chose the "Tristan and Isolde" assignment.  Going for the Romance!

We are to make thumbnails and bring sketches for a crit on the first day.

There is an online student network were we can ask questions, post images, and arrange shared shuttle rides from the airports.  I was busy reserving one of those on the way out for the afternoon arrivals (there were 5 of us), during the days before... But I actually did work up some sketches... No thumbs, though, bad me!  And as usual, I had to work on the sketches a bit more on the plane to Mass.


We signed up for a crit sessions with a set of instructors... So here are Rebecca Guay, Dan Dos Santos, Greg Manchess and Ian McCaig doing crits. 

These are the BEST crits ever.  Nothing nasty.  Just lots of great ideas to choose from.

We are encouraged to shoot reference.  There are lights set up in the Lecture Hall between lectures, and students bring stuff--like this full suit of plate armor.  And other students will put it on to model it for other students.  Everyone has work to do, but there's a serious amount of fun and cooperation.


We choose from two painting studios and one no-paint allowed digital room to set up our stuff.  And the instructors set up, too.  They come around and help students and also do demos and work.  Watching people like Boris Vallejo (here) and Julie Bell paint is just amazing.


Lectures so far:
Iain McCaig's Beginner's Boot Camp
Shooting Reference
Art of Greg Manchess
Manchess: the Talent Myth
Dos Santos:  The art of...
Iain McCaig:  Visual Storytelling
Art of Brom
Gurney: Composition
Gurney: Light and Color

Demos:




Donato's paper mounting method
Gurney d
Dos Santos painting from the model
Figure model for gesture poses
Manchess--painting
McCaig--monsters

I spent two days on my sketch, got it mounted on board the third day and did some underpainting...  Two days left to oil paint...!!!