Post-Illuxcon Recovery

Wow.

Illuxcon was... Wow.

Being surrounded by living masters of painting...

The kindness and generosity of everyone...

What an amazing show!

It was my first public showing of my work and I am blown away by the reaction I had from everyone who saw it.

Thank you!

What I learned was invaluable - and again thank you!

I am so excited and inspired to do more good work!

Let's see what happens next year!!!

Almost ready for Illuxcon!!

No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth - I am learning why doing shows is such an ordeal... All of the preparation, the ordering of business cards, making prints to sell, setting up a portfolio and sample pack to give out to art directors, dusting off equipment, forgetting to eat..

Wishing I had time to paint! Well I have updated my website with some new stuff that I will be showing at Illuxcon in Allentown (www.Illuxcon.com) during the two nights of the Showcase. Stop by if you get a chance! It is such a thrill to be involved in the show this year, and I know when I get home I will be creating my "Do Not Panic" package of "Stuff for Shows"

(Above is my painting for the Amanda Palmer Tarot card Kickstarter project that was wildly successful! 78 different artist took part and I was so lucky to be one of them! (Reference photo by Elliott Franks) I will have this painting at Illuxcon and yes, it is for sale!!

The power of the crit group

I have been lucky enough to have been invited to two crit groups - and I have to say they have proven invaluable to my growth as an artist. Having other artists look at your work with the full intention of making everything they see better is the greatest gift artists can receive from their colleagues! Here is what a crit group has done for the picture I last posted:

This is a MASSIVE improvement over the original drawing. If I had not been a part of these crit groups I would have happily stopped where it was previously and tottered on my way thinking I was hot stuff.

Crit groups make you realize you are not hot stuff, you are actually a lazy bum that is a little too in love with whatever happy little marks you make... They push you because they don't want to see something that COULD be good not quite get there...
vAnd that is such a great great gift! Now back to being chastised again for not pushing harder!!!

Oh and here is another one that has been hugely improved by critique:

Now back to work!

Fireflies...

I am finally starting to recover from this year's Illustration Masterclass. This is a piece I started before I went but it seems to be picking me up again with the new level I had hit this year. I can't believe that only two years ago I had painted my first painting in almost 20 years! What an amazing journey it has been...from fireflies to the moon...

Commitments

One thing I have learned in the past few years on this journey to becoming an independent working artist is that commitments LOVE company! I have committed myself to becoming the best artist I can be, meaning working on my skills, working on my concepts, learning professional attitudes... and that has brought on the need to make other commitments. I am now committed to saving money like I have never done before. It sounds foolish NOT to but it is very easy to justify so much of your daily spending as "necessary" when you have a regular paycheck coming in. So now - I need to treat my income as if it were money earned as a freelancer BEFORE I make the leap into becoming a freelancer.  I realized all this painting and drawing means after sitting in a chair all day at the office I am sitting in a chair all night at home - and things are starting to atrophy. I want to enjoy a LONG career as an artist and that means I need to get in shape! It means committing to a gym and working out three times a week (to start - I am definitely an endorphin junkie!) no matter how much laundry needs to be washed...

Committing to my painting and Illustration dreams means committing to taking care of myself in every way possible...AND taking care of my family and friends which all becomes easier as I build a foundation of commitment to a better life...

It means growing up and taking responsibility for myself... in a way I never understood before.

All because I wanted to draw really cool pictures of characters in books I love to read.

What a great book!

I have so many anatomy books so I didn't think I needed this one. However - this one has anatomical images of so many different animals not available in most animal anatomy books, as well as excellent human anatomy. 

This is a must have for any artist's library!

Learning never stops...

I am already participating in two classes on with www.smarterartschool.com and then I get the sale announcement from www.schoolism.com ... I have been dying to take the Tom Fluharty oil painting course and with the sale I could not resist.

I am at the sketching stage now and already I am pushing myself harder than I normally do. I cannot WAIT to see how these come out!

I know that sometimes the best way to learn is to just dive in and do it, but even though I have been in and out of art schools for years I have never been taught anything about painting in oil in any particular technique (except what I had learned last semester in Greg's class) and I had to take this opportunity to learn Dutch Flemish technique.

This is going to be fun!!!

How art is improving everything in my life

I think these needs to be another theme I would like to share. When I go to lectures about the business and professionalism of working as an artist I am that person who is slowly sinking in my seat from embarrassment realizing I am that artist they are talking about who did NOT have a professional attitude. It's not terribly uncomfortable mostly because I am finding out what I was doing wrong and what I need to do to correct it.

What I have learned from the pros I have been studying with is the mindset of the professional, the attitude of a professional, and the behavior of a professional artist. That has been, for me, the most wonderful discovery of all.

What I did not expect is how it affected my attitude in my day job. I have finally learned to love it! It is helping me to get to my goal of being a self-supporting professional artist. It pays for my education and materials. I am learning how to handle business aspects such as working with print vendors, invoicing and filing and archiving. I am especially learning to leave my ego locked up in a little cage at home and to not miss it at all.

Learning how to be a pro as an artist has taught me how to be a pro at the job I don't really WANT to do and it has made me so much happier with my situation in general. I love this job now. I love that I make things good for other people. I love that I feel a sense of fulfilled responsibility that allows me to indulge in the thing that is my passion and my current goal (I have many!).

Drawing, composition, color, value, technique, mediums are all so fun to learn. But the sense of pride in myself that I am building comes from learning how to be professional. THAT has been the best lesson of all.

My current best source (other than the teachers with SmarterArtSchool and Illustration Master Class) is a wonderful book call "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. I highly recommend it - especially getting the audio version. It's like having a coach in the room with you while you work.

Learning to love my day job: AWESOME!!

Rose Red and Snow White - Final

Here it is!!!

Now it's time to move on to the next one...

Rose Red & Snow White in Progress

Here is an in progress shot of my Rose Red & Snow White painting for Smart School. This is my second go round with it and I am already so much more pleased. I am finally starting to find my painting method (it's still very much an amalgamation of what I have been learning from other artists) or I should say my brush confidence and this has been going more smoothly. I've also begun to learn how to use less saturated color and to reference my value scale for better values. I would say this is at about 1/4 of the way through. I'll keep you posted at to how far it gets!

Here is what I started for the first round (it is not finished and will most likely get gessoed over a year or so from now). I feel like I am riding a rocket - but I make sure I look at the masters to keep my humility firmly in place!!!

I really cannot say enough about Smart School - I have already begun the first week of the new semester, and even though I am only on "lurk" mode my head already hurts form the sheer amount of information I have received. These two paintings are only about six weeks apart. I am STILL growing!

Not • Quite • Final...

It's not QUITE final yet...

I still have tweaks to do to this but it's something I am so proud of - and two weeks form now will no doubt hate! Over the summer I had attended the Illustration Masterclass where one of our teachers had challenged me to do what I was REALLY passionate about (thank you Iain!). The thing I always found most fascinating about illustration was putting a face on the characters in my favorite books. I was always drawn to the faces of the people I imagined as I read and I spent hours trying to bring them to life. This painting is my answer to that challenge as well as being an assignment from the Smart School class with Greg Manchess I took over the fall.

I consider this just a stepping stone. I have already gotten some great criticism on this already (Thanks Marc!) and will be making some tweaks over the next few weeks and will post that when it is done. The difference a truly educated eye makes is fascinating and I am all too slowly acquiring that eye myself.

Okay - did I drop enough names? With good reason. I would not have achieved this much without their knowledge and generosity!

This is a painting of one of my favorite characters of all time: Menolly.

My early influences

This is one of the several books I own on Alphonse Mucha. Many artists I know are in love with this man's work and with Art Nouveau in general. It's the design, the organic quality, the beauty, the infatuation with nature as design, it's the whole package. Maybe fashion got tired of it but artists never get tired of it. Anytime I am working n new designs I look at this work for inspiration. 

This one was the big score for me in college - I got the LAST ONE in the US - it took about a month for them to hunt it down and ship it to me and it was a frightening $80 in 1988. I have treasured this thing all my adult life and it is definitely one of my desert island books. Seeing the prices for it on Amazon kind of blew me away but I will sell my Legos before I ever part with it. It was also one of the few books that had photos of his Slav Epic and they were only black and white. You can now see them in glorious color online - I believe they are on display now. This is such a treasure trove because it has just about EVERYTHING he did...

Had to post about this - it really is one of my biggest influences and the sheer desire to paint like this is what drove me out of the graphic design program I hated and into the Illustration program I wanted...

Progress...

Part of SmArt School was doing and redoing - most of us challenged ourselves to do this because we were learning so much so fast that within only a few weeks we would look at what we had done and KNOW all the things we needed to fix or change. These were done only about 4 weeks apart but the difference amazed even me!

I still want to do another one as I am still developing in a rapid fire way...

Where to begin

This is where I began as a young artist just learning how to describe the world around me with a pencil. When I was in ninth or tenth grade it was rather obvious I was an artist. I was so lucky to have a teacher who was interested in helping me develop and I have to credit Mr. Cauvel with introducing me to this book. I have pretty much every iteration of this book and I still come back to it from time to time to refresh what it is I learned in it. 

I can honestly say if it hadn't been for Mr. Cauvel (and all my other art teachers) I wouldn't have made it at all. This book was the first big step and personally I feel every artist should have it in their library - which most do. I know this isn't really news for most artists that this book is pivotal in learning but at least for me it is one of the most important - as in if I only had ten books on a desert island important.

If you are just starting out learning how to draw - this is the best place to start for anyone.

SmArt School assignments

SmArt School with Greg Manchess has been - what you dream art school would be. Starting with thumb nailing, then final sketch to final drawing, each step of the way he pushed us to design EVERYTHING, to love every bit of the image - teaching us how ALL of it needs attention and purpose - and how exhausting it can be to do it. 

You do need to develop stamina to do this! If anyone says art is all fun - well okay they are right - but it is hard mental work, it's concentration beyond what you normally use to get through your day, it's chewing on glass while sitting on poison ivy...

Best of all I am learning to love the PROCESS...

What I am learning from

I wanted to add some of my favorite books that have inspired and educated me over the years. Andrew Loomis has one of the most amazing series of books that are thankfully being reprinted in lovely editions. This one is a great one to start with:

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth

I have found that there are a LOT of art books out there but filtering through them does take judgement and an awareness of your needs and tastes. Having said that rather pompous statement, I have to admit I buy just about everything that is on the market. Before the internet it was hard to know what was out there unless it was printed and on a shelf in a bookstore or library. These days the bar is so much higher and there is so much more great stuff out there both old and new that it's hard to know where to start.

Start with the BEST. Start with what you love and what intimidates you. Don't buy an art book because it feels safe and you feel confident you can handle it. Buy it because it scares you and excites you.

I'll be sprinkling listings for books on this blog that have done this for me. I will try to add ones that aren't as obvious as the Loomis books (so many great blogs have these listed already).

One more word of advice on art book avarice - find a really good used book store. You can find AMAZING art books for FABULOUS prices at these national treasures. Often better than what you can find on Amazon (and usually close to a coffee shop too - can't get java while shopping on Amazon... unless you walk into the kitchen.)