Illustration Master Class-- Day Four--Thurs. June 18

During the class, I hadn't managed to get to sleep before 2 or 3am, so I started to skip breakfasts in order to sleep in to at least 8:30. I ran into town (well, across the street and down a block or two) to hit Starbuck's and the drug store to pick up some paper toweling since the studio had run out the day before, so I didn't want to count on it.

I had slapped another coat or two of matte medium on my board... too much in a hurry to sand the texture away. And all too soon it was Lunch. And after lunch--two special guests gave a presentation on Fantasy in Picture Books, children's book illustrators Dennis Nolan and Gary Lippincott.

From "Dinosaur Dream" (I think!), by Dennis Nolan--


Dennis Nolan presented his work first. Influences (from childhood onward): '50s Golden Books, Dr. Seuss, Rackham, Parrish, Little Nemo, Mad Magazine, Frazetta, Sendak, Jason and the Argonauts. He did a variety of jobs (magazine covers, album covers, book covers, etc.) before becoming more well-known for his picture book work.

From one of his earlier books, "Castle Builder," which was done all in pen and ink, stippling it all (he said he estimated the number of little dots he'd made at about 2 million).


Example of his making a model for reference--




Painting in progress... watercolors, I think--






Then there was Gary Lippincott--


Uses watercolors, liquid frisket (an art of its own, he said), works typically light to dark, back to front, wet washes to dry brush.


Example of in-progress (actually, unfinished) painting--


The after dinner presentation was by the wonderful Charles Vess, who did the art for the original graphic novel version of Neil Gaiman's "Stardust." I think he said he did this image before the book/story was finished--


Influences--Prince Valiant (comic strip), Beardsley, Pyle, Wyeth, Rackham, Dulac, Kay Nielsen, etc.
Example of painting progression--








In Studio B, Dan Dos Santos did a Life Portrait Demo, working on several quick monochromatic sketches first--


Then mixing colors--


Boris and Julie had moved up to Studio B to continue their paintings--



Greg Manchess had original art tacked to the walls of Studio A--


Charles Vess started working on his own version of the Lady of the Lake, penciled then inked within a day or so, and he also had originals on the walls of Studio A--


Students painting in Studio B, another Lady of the Lake--


... and one of the SF covers--


Working furiously, students in Studio A... Pizza was ordered around 10 or 11pm... work continued way into the morning hours (with all the presentations and demos, there was little other time to work, aside from all night, but the energy was high, although there were early-birds who slept and came in early in the morning. Most people were working traditionally whether they were digital artists or not, taking advantage of all the instructors who worked in oils, but there were also stations along the sides with tables for those working digitally--


To be continued... SEVERAL MORE DAYS TO COME!!!


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I hope all the Americans had a fab 4th! Fireworks, music, picnics, barbeques... what's not to like???

Illustration Master Class-- Day Three

Report on the Third Day of the Illustration Master Class... We had our Guest Instructor, Michael Whelan come in the day before, but today, after lunch, would be his lecture/presentation. I'd been a fan of his work way back when he did that great image of Elric, and he certainly influenced my early work...

He's at the back, ready to comment on his images...


So, on the previous day I was checking my photo ref and working on refining my sketch, and by Wednesday, I had it as refined as it was going to be. On Monday, I'd shot refs (using L. A. William's fabulous equipment and with the excellent Zelda as a volunteer model). On Tuesday, I'd had Charles Vess look it over (he drew an alternate composition on tracing paper and told me about how most people were getting the legend of the Lady of the Lake wrong--that she was an earth goddess and had gifted Arthur with the sword in order to do good, but he used it for more typical things, like battle; I told him I was thinking of the Lady as a Celtic Water goddess--the sort they may have been sacrificing precious objects to when throwing items into certain bodies of water... which, I thought, wasn't too dissimilar an idea). Donato Giancola had come by and suggested that I not move the composition about so much so late in the day and said that perhaps I should have the lake/water more prominent--as in coming down from the background, in a rivulet sort of thing, so her feet and the sword and the roots at the bottom of the picture could be in water. I looked at Charles and he said he loved hearing alternate suggestions. And since I really didn't want to change everything (after having shot refs and all), I went with Donato's suggestions.


Unfortunately, the copy shop still had their printer out of order. Ruth Thompson's printer was working, but it only took up to 19" and I wanted as large an image as possible on the 18"x 24" masonite board... which would mean doing a bit of tiling (printing on two pieces of paper and cutting them irregularly so that the two pieces would jig-saw together along less noticeable lines... but that sounded like a pain to me. Drew Baker had his 22" printer but the ink ran during the mounting process... but they thought there might be a work-around if we spray-fixed the ink. I thought it would only take the morning to get that all done, but it took a while to get my file sized, then to make an appointment with Sarah who was running Drew's printer... then to borrow some spray fix from some nice guy... anyway, I didn't get a print on my Strathmore 500 series single ply Bristol until late in the afternoon. Diana Stein helped me with Donato's mounting method...

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Donato demonstrating his drawing transfer method with a student's work--


Wet Mount Method
1. Wet down print or sketch (whatever you're mounting)--both sides, with paintbrush or soaking in water.
2. Apply Matte Medium with brush to board (masonite or whatever) and back of paper. Cover corners and edges well. Make sure excess water is gone first.
3. Use roller/breyer lightly to get out air bubbles and excess medium (do not squeeze it all out or it won't stick properly). [my suggestion, since I've done this before: roll from center outward to get ride of air bubbles)
4. Brush medium on top (unless wanting to use watercolors as an underpainting/painting)
5. Sand down when dry and add and sand 2 more coats (150 to 200 grit)

Note: Tom Canty used to transfer his drawings by reproducing his detailed sketches photographically in a sepia tone and mounting them on Strathmore board... I'm not sure if he wet mounted them or not, though. I learned a similar wet mounting method from my teachers at Art Center and used it with drawings reproduced by a sepia tone blueprint printer (they could make oversized copies way back in the days when they didn't have printers/copiers available).
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I think only a few others were still in the sketch stage... so I was pretty behind! Ah well. But I was fairly sure I could catch up, since I'm not a very careful painter! Heheh.

So, after lunch, Michael Whelan was speaking-- Diana Stein was fan-girling a bit (and rightly so, I thought!), but I have also been a huge fan. He was THE book cover artist for F/SF for most of the years I've noticed such things. I've got prints of his, and several framed book cover comps and a sketch by him, collected over the years when he was at his prime.

He does very finished comps, here are some examples--


Here's a sketch/comp--


The finished piece--


He said the ADs were the ones who kept picking his centered more iconic compositions. He'd generally supply a number of skeches/comps for them to choose from. Used whatever medium he felt like, but works mostly in acrylics. Also likes Gessoboard by Ampersand.

He sometimes uses airbrush, mostly for flat areas, no details. Often uses free-hand, hand-made frisks made from mat board or other material, so that the edges aren't hard. Here are some of those--


Some other tools he sometimes uses--


He also recommends THE ARTISTS WAY by Cameron--


After the presentation and Q&A, Michael set up in Studio B and worked on/demo-ed a monochrome horror piece--


He also brought lots of prints of his work which he gave away (graciously signing them for us). I grabbed three--one of which was a poster of the Elric I always liked. Diana had me go up there to take a photo of her with him. I thought it came out nicely! (Heheh, she was later miffed at me when Michael was heading towards our table to sit, but then I pointed him towards Rebecca Guay, who was waving him towards where she was sitting. No way I'd feel comfortable sitting across from Mr. Whelan, but Diana would have loved having him by her. Ah, well! He WAS still at the same table, just farther down... )

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The evening was lovely--students and instructors were throwing frisbees on the green in front of the commissary and studio Halls.

The 7pm lecture/presentation was made by Donato Giancola. He's one of those artists I totally noticed right away--almost from his first covers--or so I thought! But Donato started with his beginning work (a fun retrospective way back to his childhood) that showed me he actually had a few covers on some secondary lines that I hadn't seen. He seemed to me to have a meteorically quick rise, coming out of art school right into book covers, but again, I was wrong... the guy still put in his time and has got to be one of the most motivated and hard-working artists around... Thoroughly impressive! His love of doing art and wanting to inspire it in others was palpable.

A private commission detail... scene from a battle (Agincourt?)--


The full triptych, he worked an image of the buyer in, just like artists used to do in the middle ages--


Very early influences (childhood): Star Wars, Tolkien and D&D, Romita's Iron Man comics.




He mentioned that with the advent of all the digital programs, it was no longer so necessary for an artist to leave room for type on book cover art. Diana had left 1/3 of the image open at the top in her sketch for the Princess of Mars assignment, but was told she shouldn't worry about that, which surprised her. Apparently the currently thinking is just to create a good painting, as Donato said in his lecture. And for the purposes of our class, it was better to make a good portfolio piece, anyway, since it wasn't a true book cover assignment. I have to say, this is a huge relief, since the 1/3 business always made for crappy compositions without the type in there, I thought!

And then it was Studio Time from 8 to 10... or to 1am or later/earlier for the students...

Boris, sitting back and thinking about his painting--


Julie, working on the figures (they are both just ace at rendering fleshtones!)--


Greg Manchess, adding a bit more to his painting Wizard of Oz--


Student, Ruth Thompson, had her under-painting finished--


Other students with their drawings/paintings on board (more Lady of the Lake pieces)--


Students, Painting away--


One of the Barbarian vs Polar bear pieces--


I was furiously lathering matte medium on my board... I didn't even bother with the sanding phase (not worried about the texture so much). I just wanted to get my ground ready to paint ASAP...!


MORE REPORTS TO COME

[All photos: copyright (c) 2009 April Lee. All images (c) to their various owners. Any copyright holders please contact me if there are images you don't wish to be posted. Or persons who don't wish to be posted, for that matter. This is not a popular blog as I don't really promote it, but if the General Public does surf in here: Please Do NOT download these images. Thank you.]

Illustration Master Class-- Day Two

[Been listening to Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett tributes all day and all night... I grew up with MJ... loved him in the Jackson Five and lived through the craziness of the brilliant Thriller album. Definitely the end of an era...]

So... Tuesday, June 16... I actually posted my first LJ report late on Monday night... so I think I got to sleep at around 2:30am or so. Breakfast was at Amherst's Valentine Hall from 7:00 to 8:30, a short walk from our dorm, Pratt Hall. But... I am SO not a morning person. Also, EDT is three hours earlier than PDT, which Did Not Help! *groan!*

[Michael Whelan, guest-instructor, viewing instructor Greg Manchess's work.]


The food was good, though. And I thought I should have breakfast, since it came with the course and I knew it would be a long and busy day. We had a Hazardous Materials and Safety Meeting at 9:45, wherein the college's representative quickly ran down all the rules, such as making sure absolutely NOTHING went down the drains or into the trash that had any kind of paint or medium on it. There were special bins for everything--paper toweling and wash water and turpentine, etc. Wow. Well, I guess it wasn't a great idea for us to be pouring stuff down drains for all those years in other places, but still... wow.

Donato had some of his sketches spread out for us to look at--


I spent the morning on my laptop in my room, looking over the photo ref that was shot the night before and picking out the ones that were closest to my sketch, then laying them in to see... Of course, my sketch had the figure twisted in a pretty broken way (no human could pose that way, unless they were a contortionist... poor Zelda was not happy when I was telling her to try and twist around more!). THAT of course, is a reason photo refs are necessary--so figures can pose in a realistic way! Anyway, I mocked up an image with Zelda's pose. I'd change things in my sketch, of course... make her longer, mostly, but try and keep the pose looking real...


Then I ran back over to the Studio because that's where all the fun was! I 'borrowed' some tracing paper from Diana and sat in my spot and sketched for the morning. Troubles were looming in that the copy shop in town that usually makes large-sized prints on heavy art paper was out of service. Fortunately, Ruth Thompson had hauled along her 19" Epson printer and laptop and set them up in the Studio for everyone to use (with a suggested donation to cover ink costs). That was a total life-saver!
And Drew Baker had brought his 22" printer to use (back at the dorm). I swear, the students were all great about sharing stuff--materials and equipment... it was heart-warming!

Ruth had mounted one of her drawings to board already, using the Donato method, and had started her underpainting in acrylics (borrowing some of mine--which I rarely ever use nowadays, but had managed to pack). It was looking great. I had fun sitting next to her and seeing it all go along (particularly since I was working so slowly... my usual pace, alas!). She had tiled two pieces of paper together on the masonite, since her 19" printer couldn't accommodate her large image, which is why the papers look different.


Lunch was over at Valentine Hall... a short walk from our studios in Fayerweather, from 12 to 1:00. Again, a nice spread of food, cafeteria style.

And afterwards, we had a lecture at 1pm, by Dan DosSantos on Frankensteining reference. I was recording most of the talks, but haven't downloaded them yet. Anyway... he demonstrated by showing a photo he'd taken just outside, a model (Rebecca?) against a stone background with ivy. Then he'd rifled through the internet the night before to pull off bits and pieces that he used to create an outfit and jewelry and flowers for the background... and he put them all into the picture, flipping and distorting and changing the elements to make them work.

Here he is afterwards, laying in the sketch/undrepainting, with the printed out frankensteined photo-ref to his left, plus the original photo of the head and other refs around him. The top one was all gridded out so he could re-create it on his ground. Wow, he works quickly, getting that down! He had the face painted in a blink, it seemed!


The afternoon studio session always goes quickly and dinner was from 5:00 to 6:30.

7 to 8 was a Lecture/presentation by Greg Manchess. Again, I recorded it and haven't downloaded it yet, so no details yet (if anyone is interested, I may post more later). He covers his career so far and has lots of terrific images and is an amusing speaker--showing his reference shots--mostly using himself as a model for all sorts of figures!


In the evening studio session, Boris and Julie are back, painting away. They've laid in background detail and their paintings are coming along so quickly.




And then everyone is running for their cameras as Irene Gallo has been decked out in the full suit of armor that L. A. Williams has hauled along with him from Ohio. Another (Mark?) has brought a sword. (A number of students had brought props and stuff--swords, gowns, fabric--it was great!) Irene makes a perfect Joan of Arc, and that is Charles Vess behind her, and also L. A. Williams in the background.


We were all laughing and having a great time crowding around them. It was just fun and crazy and not at all something you see every day!

For some reason, I'm still not early to bed! Ah, well... just too much going on. I think people are already hanging about the studios working away until the early morning! I try downloading my photos to possibly post here, but the wireless connection is pathetically slow, so I give up and wait until after I return (now!). Gah... It was like being on a bad dial-up! I don't know how the students stand it. Maybe they buy their own connection???

Anyway, more later!

Illustration Master Class-- Day One-- Continued

I'm back, but still exhausted, so this will be a brief post!

On the first day, after the moving our stuff to the studios (there were two in the Fayerweather building--Studio A downstairs and Studio B upstairs, with 40 students in each--I was downstairs in A) and having our sketches looked at before and after lunch, and then going to the lecture on shooting reference and studio set-ups, we had the evening tine in the studios, from 8pm to 10pm (and the building open until 1pm... or later for people to work if they wish). It was fantastic to see the instructors set up, with them working away!

How often can one get to see Boris painting?



Scott Fischer had a rotating board to paint on.


Greg Manchess was starting a piece that was one of our assignments (the Steampunk Wizard of Oz).


Students, already set up and working hard.

John already had a terrific finished sketch ready to go for the Lady of the Lake assignment--


Boris, with Julie Bell painting next to him, had a comfy chair, with his name taped on back.


Some of Dan DosSantos's paintings on display in Studio A (I'd actually read BUTCHER BIRD, that had his art on the cover, which was my intro to his art).



Donato had the beginning of the private commission he was working on--


Greg Manchess knocked in the first figure on his piece the first night--


Scott got a lot done also--


Julie Bell painted the underpainting--


As did Boris... all in an hour or two--


Of course, they are well-admired professionals for a reason! I was still working on my sketch, of course... shooting photo-refs in L. A. Williams' room, since he had brought his lights and D700 camera, and the fantastic Zelda (who does the graphic/comics on Tor.com) had volunteered to model for a few of us (Diana Stein and Joseph and me), while she got Ruth Thompson to model for her. I was still sorting through photos at 2am. And the late nights only got later from there! Agh!

As I'm still Very Sleepy, that's all for now...!!!

Illustration Master Class-- Day One

[cross-posted from my LJ]

For a fantasy illustrator, this is like dying and going to heaven! There are 70+ students, ranging from beginning to being tops in their fields. Everyone is excited and working together and amazingly kick-ass. I arrived at Bradley/Hartford yesterday and shared a shuttle in with four others, all women, one a former Disney animator, now free-lancer. We all were glad to meet each other and three of them had attended last year. Apparently they had around 30 students returning, which is not bad in a recession.

Remember that I did a massive fail in getting my assignment sketches ready (we were to pick from a list of assignments, do thumbs and shoot refs and bring a finished sketch or two to class the first day. I chose a basic fantasy assignment: The Lady of the Lake. On Sunday night, Jennifer Meyer, a great artist who is in the room next to Diana Stein and I helped me with a thumbnail and I made a really rough sketch--


We are staying in the dorms at Amherst College. Lovely surroundings, good facilities, good food...

The room I'm sharing with Diana (most have only one to a room, but we volunteered to share).


Ate breakfast at 8 on Monday morning. 10 we gathered for the visual presentation of some of the work of the instructors: Rebecca Guay, Donato Giancola, Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, Greg Manchess, Charles Vess, Dan DosSantos, Irene Gallo (AD for Tor), Scott Fischer and Michael Whelan. Then we ran off to our Studios to set up and to get our sketches critiqued.

I had a few other crappy sketches--


(believe me, they were crappy... you should have seen some of the gorgeous finished sketches others had--they were suitable for framing as is!)



Four instructors made the rounds of one of the two studios (they would switch off on various days). Greg Manchess and Boris were doing my section.

They thought this sketch was better and suggested I move the sword a bit and said I'd need to get good photo refs to go further.


I grabbed Rebecca Guay to see what she said, since romantic fantasy is more her thing and she sketched a bit over my horrible sketch as well and suggested I flip the image.


After dinner there was a great presentation by Boris and Julie and then Donato and Dan and a martial arts guy on shooting photo ref... slides of Boris and Julie's studio set up for taking photos (he as tons of expensive cameras and lighting). And Donato brought his diffusers and strobe light and reflected color gel light to do a demo with the marital artist doing leaps and kicks. Damn... we all need to upgrade our cameras and lights to a HUGE degree if we need to do it right. But as Boris said, it was better than when he had to use professional photographers and wait to develop the film, etc.

Donato also demoed his method of transferring and mounting the drawing onto board (masonite or illustration board). (Uses matte medium.)

In the studios Boris and Julie were working on their paintings, same with Greg Manchess and Charles Vess. Donato had a large private Lord of the Rings painting he was starting. The studios are all open until 1am.

After that we went to L.A. William's room because he had a strobe light and D-700 camera and we got other artists to volunteer to model. There are people with swords and armor and chain mail and scanners and printers... others are doing all digital, but most are going to eventually be doing traditional. I'll be trying oils for the first time since college.

It's now 2am and we have to be up at 7:30 tomorrow! It's going to be a crazy-ass week!

Warlord CCG-- Bronze Dragon Shape-shifter Warlord

Here's another digital (PS7 and a wacom) Warlord CCG piece... He's a Bronze Dragon in human form, and one of the Warlords in the game. They wanted him standing on a cliff by the sea, but it was difficult to show the waves since an up-shot is more heroic than an overhead (where you could actually see what's below him). I had sketch versions of both and the client agreed with the idea of forgetting about showing the sea.

I usually don't like those even six-pack abs (if I can help it) but I thought it worked OK with the more dragon-y aspects of him--which are too subtle for words, actually (I think his pupils are slits, and his coloring perhaps, are the only hints).



I'm not much of a clothing designer... I have no idea what the well-dressed dragon warlord is wearing these days. As usual, just winging it...

Still need to do something about the Illustration Master Class coming up next month... Gah, so much to do, so little energy!

Oh, and I went temporarily insane and decided to join a group I know of who are going to Jamaica for a few days. I look forward to visiting the remains of Port Royal and anything the least bit pirate-y... Will be going in a few days, so will be off-line, probably, until next week.