Posted in Teletubbies Coloring Pages
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Teletubbies
Something old, something...
By Jon Foster
Several years ago, I was working in Italy at a small studio that had big aspirations and innovative ideas. The film was called Dear Anne, which was a new and inovative account of Anne Frank’s life http://mirror.dearannemovie.com/main.html . Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, the project could not be completed. The Director was Dario Picciau, a very young, idealistic, and talented man. To my great joy he involved me in almost all creative story-telling aspects of the film. Initially, we discussed the scenes at length in his office, and then later I was given the task of creating storyboards for the film. I still think fondly of the time sitting at my computer in Milan pouring over manuscript and trying to think like a director as well as an illustrator. I am still proud of this work. Actually, I think it is some of my best work. Below are some of my efforts…I hope you enjoy them as well.
Oh, and by the way, storyboarding is like boot camp for drawing!!!
RC
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Guest Blogger - BILL CARMAN
- By Bill Carman
It really is an honor (intimidating though it may be) being asked to do a guest spot on Muddy Colors. Incredible place with a great future.
I’m an illustrator, image-maker, and professor at Boise State University. Yes the Boise State of the blue field and national football championship aspirations dashed hopes. I’ve been doing this stuff for quite awhile now but only recently really found my stride. I suppose it’s because I have yanked myself back and forth between the gallery and illustration world for so long that I excelled at neither. Maybe teaching sucked off valuable time or the fact that I am interested in so many things. But the more likely scenario is that my work seems to exist on the fringes of everything. Not exactly mainstream fantasy/sci-fi and not exactly surrealist or pop surrealist. I think that the art world, such as it is, has maybe caught up to what I am doing and I am able to dip into multiple arenas. It seems more possible now because of the internet and nearly unlimited avenues of exposure.
Here is where I could go off on a diatribe about passion and sticking to your guns and your authentic voice (I think that is borrowed from a Will Smith golf movie or something) but I believe I am here to show you something. Suffice it to say that developing a true passion for visual communication and making art is a long hard path but incredibly rewarding when you find and develop your own voice. My life is richer because this art thing is a life style not just a profession.
Anyway, one of my favorite projects from the past few years has been the recent Spectrum 18 call for entries poster.
Spectrum has become a defining element for the fantastic art genre, which we embrace. I have been thrilled to watch its progress and growth over the years. So when I was asked to do the call for entries poster it was a no brainer. The fact that they paid me $1,000,000 made it even sweeter. By the way Arnie, still waiting for that check. This was one of those jobs where the brief is, well just do what you want. Love those, but they are also a little intimidating. Nah, not really. I did, however, give them a few options in very rough sketch form and Arnie and Cathy prioritized them exactly how I wanted them to.
This is a painting on which I was already working. Polar bear and milking flying fish, you know just standard stuff.
This is an existing painting, 3x3 inches on copper (He Lured the Bird from His Brain), that I will be doing much larger.
And this, the chosen idea, was a whale thing I wanted to paint.
When I do my own work or jobs like this, the do what you want kind, there is usually very little sketch work. I’ll toss around a few thumbs or put together ideas from old drawings and sketches (see JJP’s post) or just start with a beautiful surface. So these chicken scratchings served mostly as mental notes for composition.I drew directly on gessoed masonite and painted in acrylic. For this poster I kept poster scale in mind, something that I don’t have room to talk about, but in short; impact at a greater distance than say a magazine or book. But other than that, as you can see, the painting developed its own direction. The process, or journey, remains the most interesting place for me. My students, and I include myself when an undergrad, always seem to be in a hurry to have a finished piece. I’ve seen people vacation in this way, rushing through the whole trip in order to gather gigabytes of visual evidence. While evidence is important to spark memory hopefully the trip itself was most important. My silly metaphor aside, the process is what I most look forward to. From the moment I walk my dogs and take that first cup of coffee upstairs to the studio, where narrative (if one does develop) is unraveled; where that tactility of brush, surface, hand, smell, and eye come together, I am where I want to be doing what I want to do. Having a cool piece in the end doesn’t hurt though, and I suppose it’s kinda important if you need to pay the bills.
We had a great dialogue as I painted. One thing on my wish list from the beginning, but given up in the end, was wheels on the whales. There’s a great lesson in there somewhere about doing what’s best for the painting and not for the painter. In the beginning this was always about whales and transportation. The piece ended up in the same general area but inherited a narrative about travelling, hot dogs, and station 18.
I tried to be succinct but you know professors. Should have seen my first draft. Thanks again to Muddy Colors for this terrific blog and this opportunity to post. One more thing in closing. If you are interested in seeing some great work for a great cause please visit: http://www.artblocksghana.blogspot.com/
Thanks again,
Bill
RC
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Lord of Chaos
Gregory Manchess
Sometimes, you just have to take the risk, no matter what the client is asking or paying.
Irene Gallo asked me to do the cover for Tor.com’s ebook of Lord of Chaos. A huge battle scene was needed. Gigantic: 400,000 warriors on one field. All of it had to fall within a square format, too.
There was no way. Unless I painted lots of tiny little figures with no scale and no drama, this was sure to fail. So I took a risk. I asked Irene if I could stretch the layout to one side or another so that we could see the entire battle scene. Much like a wrap cover. We agreed I would pick the sweet spot for the cover square, and the rest of the scene we could include in a post for Tor.com where we talked about the painting process for fans of the series.
She was delighted and thought I was taking on too much. I was, but with thirty-three years in the business behind me, and tons of study of action paintings, I decided to go all out. Sometimes, ya just gotta get crazy.
Hold on though. This was no ordinary battle scene. It's broad daylight, lightning cracking out of a clear blue sky, and two hundred thousand semi-ninja warriors getting barbecued by explosive magic. As I broadened my painting horizon, so did the editors involved and requested more characters be included. Even attacking wolves. What the heck, let’s just throw in the Space Shuttle.
There was so much to organize. I started, as always, with thumbnails to try to work out the point of view. The composition would have to develop from there. I wanted the viewer to be right in there with the main action. Priorities: point of view, sweet spot, then composition. But composition can always trump the other two.
I have my own particular methods when it comes to action scenes. I choose the right perspective, then decide on foreground, middle ground, and background design. Like layers of action within the action. Light plays a major role in illuminating the layers and what I want the observer to look at and where. I control how they will absorb the piece. This is critical.
The black-clad guys have so much power, they stand in a broad semi-circle and blast people into piles of meat. I chose the moment before. Can you blame me?
Here's the cover more rendered as I visualized it out of my head, and another sketch for keeping details straight and explaining what I had in mind to Irene.
I also compose smaller areas within the composition. I call it ‘clumping’ as I group figures within a mass of figures. It is not random, it is planned, but it must look as if it’s random in order to achieve a pleasing design within the mayhem. Otherwise, you get mayhem. Snore.
The finished sketch in two sections.
But it wasn't right, so I spent over five hours just rearranging figures in the layout. Plus adding some characters. I drew open-line silhouettes of the main figures on separate tissues and moved them around. I suppose I could've done this on the computer easily.
And a couple of studies. I couldn't find the wolves I needed so I had to freehand them. I shot lots of figure reference: me dressed up and running at my camera. I'd have worked from nature, but I didn't have the room to set fire to fifty guys in my studio.
I also wanted to test some painting skills by making the painting large. That added even more time, but valuable training. It started as a five foot painting, but ended up being over six feet wide. It took the better part of four days to paint, but not full days. I had other work to do, too. I worked on it mostly at night so I could control the lighting under the camera. Part of the slow down was because I recorded the piece in time-lapse, and I had to fuss with the program that drove my SLR.
Once it was finished I showed it to some illustrator friends. Bruce Jensen did a quick render of the piece in a wide angle view, moving from left to right, like a cinematic pan-shot. Irene saw it and thought it a great way to showcase the full image as a flat scan, ending on the sweet spot for the cover image.
There are more details and explanations at Tor.com’s post about Lord of Chaos. You can watch me paint the dang thing, too, in time-lapse. (Watch closely and you’ll see my animation of one of the lightning strikes on the far left.)
I could be mistaken, but technically, it could be the very first animated book cover. Well, it’s at least the first pan & scan cover.
RC
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Drawing Month: Part II
By Justin Gerard
I received a number of questions during part I of Drawing Month.
Most of them fell into one of two categories:
1. How do I go about drawing a face for a study?
2. What if I really am confronted by aliens?
For the first question, I start every face with a grid, to map out the proportions and overall shape. For me one of the biggest struggles for every face is the proportion. This early mapping out of the structure keeps my faces from looking like they are sliding off the page. To help with this, I like to draw on vellum, so that I can flip the page over to make sure that the beautiful woman I'm trying to draw isn't starting to look like a bottlenose dolphin. I have found that very few ladies are impressed with images of themselves where they look like a bottlenose dolphin.
Pirates don't typically care as much as women about how they look, but even still, I try to stay in the habit of keeping good proportion. You can only take your characterization of certain people so far before sabers get drawn.
After I have roughed out my figure, I begin to work in the smaller shapes and try to establish where the shadows are going to be. At this stage I will work and rework areas until they look right. In most cases, when I reach this point, I have hopelessly muddled the image. See the pirate on the left. A portrait like that could very well get me shot.
So now I am faced with a number of choices:
I could run for it.
I could try to clean up the image with an eraser.
Or I could place a second sheet of vellum over the drawing and do a clean line drawing over it, keeping the correct lines and leaving out the ones that do not add to the image.
Generally speaking I opt for the third choice, but I won't pretend I haven't run a number of times.
So this works for human subjects. But not every subject you will draw is going to be human. Which brings us to our second question:
What do you do if you are Earth's first contact with a super-advanced and potentially hostile alien race? Will this method work? Or will this get everyone on the planet vaporized or turned into martian-livestock?
The answer is yes. It will work.
Now, the process is generally the same as working with a human subject, except that similarities to bottlenose dolphins might not be as offensive to an alien. The trick with aliens is of course to not screw up on your first draft, or if you do, to not let them see you throw your first draft away. Aliens may find that first screw up hard to understand, and it may make the human race look weak and easy to conquer. No pressure or anything, but the fate of the planet is now in your hands.
The answer is yes. It will work.
Now, the process is generally the same as working with a human subject, except that similarities to bottlenose dolphins might not be as offensive to an alien. The trick with aliens is of course to not screw up on your first draft, or if you do, to not let them see you throw your first draft away. Aliens may find that first screw up hard to understand, and it may make the human race look weak and easy to conquer. No pressure or anything, but the fate of the planet is now in your hands.
After you have completed the image present it to the alien as a gift.
Some may scoff, but it saved Milwaukee 0f '93.
Portrait of Alien from The Milwaukee Incident of '93.
(Pictured here alongside the discretely thrown away first draft.)
If the alien isn't impressed with the portrait of themselves, draw a picture of their pets.
No one can resist a portrait of an adorable pet.
Portrait of Alien's Adorable Dog from The Milwaukee Incident of '93
If you are interested in learning more about the basic approach I use I recommend the following 2 books:
Bridgeman' Life Drawing by George B. Bridgeman
Drawing Course by Charles Bargue with the collaboration of Jean-leon Gerome
Drawing Course by Charles Bargue with the collaboration of Jean-leon Gerome
These books have been a tremendous help to me. They offer cleaner and more thorough instruction on the method of drawing shown above, which has been twisted to serve my own dark ends.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Exercising with Criminals
Exercising with criminals.
As Greg Manchess mentioned in a previous post regarding the generation of ideas... Greg said “just start drawing”. It is that simple. To further that thought, I tell students that when you are exhausted and simply can’t draw anymore... draw some more. It is in that last bit of effort that you may find your solution. Nobody said this career path would be easy.
Another method to kick start your inspiration is to have a drawing exercise that is entertaining, enlightening and just plain fun, Keeping a schedule for this exercise will also help you develop your skills, drawing discipline and visual competence.
For me this happens on Fridays....
Ladies and gentlemen.... I give you the Smoking Gun web site. Every Friday they have their “Mug Shot Roundup” This weekly “Roundup” displays the mug shots of various citizens arrested for a multitude of offenses' What you’re seeing in these police photographs is a person at their worst.... or should I say their best, for us artists anyway. i usually pick one or two “perps” to draw. I must tell you that the variety of faces and expressions are timeless and will supply you with endless hours of creative fun and artistic fulfillment. The hairstyles alone are priceless. Oh the humanity.
I usually give myself around fifteen to forty minutes per drawing. I get a cup of coffee and sit back with my sketchbook or clipboard and several sharp ebony pencils. I work directly from my computer monitor. These drawings are quick, don’t worry if they are not accurate “Just start drawing”! In some cases you can spend more time rendering them into finished drawings at a later time.
Have fun and let’s hope that we don’t see anyone we know on the Smoking Gun, Mug Shot Roundup. Although I thought I recognized someone from Muddy Colors a few weeks ago!
Here are a few quick examples:
I usually indicate the criminal offense on the drawing as well.
Links: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/
Recent mug shots (The Smoking Gun does keep an archive of past offenders): http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/12-10-10-mugs?page=0
As Greg Manchess mentioned in a previous post regarding the generation of ideas... Greg said “just start drawing”. It is that simple. To further that thought, I tell students that when you are exhausted and simply can’t draw anymore... draw some more. It is in that last bit of effort that you may find your solution. Nobody said this career path would be easy.
Another method to kick start your inspiration is to have a drawing exercise that is entertaining, enlightening and just plain fun, Keeping a schedule for this exercise will also help you develop your skills, drawing discipline and visual competence.
For me this happens on Fridays....
Ladies and gentlemen.... I give you the Smoking Gun web site. Every Friday they have their “Mug Shot Roundup” This weekly “Roundup” displays the mug shots of various citizens arrested for a multitude of offenses' What you’re seeing in these police photographs is a person at their worst.... or should I say their best, for us artists anyway. i usually pick one or two “perps” to draw. I must tell you that the variety of faces and expressions are timeless and will supply you with endless hours of creative fun and artistic fulfillment. The hairstyles alone are priceless. Oh the humanity.
I usually give myself around fifteen to forty minutes per drawing. I get a cup of coffee and sit back with my sketchbook or clipboard and several sharp ebony pencils. I work directly from my computer monitor. These drawings are quick, don’t worry if they are not accurate “Just start drawing”! In some cases you can spend more time rendering them into finished drawings at a later time.
Have fun and let’s hope that we don’t see anyone we know on the Smoking Gun, Mug Shot Roundup. Although I thought I recognized someone from Muddy Colors a few weeks ago!
Here are a few quick examples:
I usually indicate the criminal offense on the drawing as well.
Links: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/
Recent mug shots (The Smoking Gun does keep an archive of past offenders): http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/12-10-10-mugs?page=0
RC
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Some Common Sense
By Eric Fortune
Back in the day(a Wednesday so I've heard) during my senior year of art school I remember getting some common sense advice from my teacher, Joe Kovach. He proclaimed "Always have a cushion of money in order to pay for a few months of bills". Sounds simple enough. But as many of us know starting a career in illustration can be difficult to say the least.
Here's a saying you may have heard before, "feast or famine". Sometimes you have so much work on your plate all you can think about are deadlines. And sometimes you're frantically promoting yourself just to get work to trickle in. Right out of school...FAMINE. Getting an opportunity to prove your artistic worth can be trying. I eventually snagged one of a few full time illustration jobs. Having a 9-5 was good and the money was steady. However, prior to making the jump to freelancing full time I recalled the sage advice of my mentor and saved as much money as possible for a rainy day. I worked my full time job and took on as much freelance as possible before putting in my two weeks. Even with the cushion I had saved up there were some really stressful times when freelance had dried up to the point where I considered changing my name back to "Diamond" just to make ends meet. School loans ain't cheap.
I recently gave this advice to an art buddy who tends to live a check to check, what happens happens, stressed out life style. He shrugged. I guess it depends on whatever lifestyle you want to live. Saving up for a rainy day and living within my means allows me to focus on my art and not get too caught up in things I don't really need anyway. Recently, I had to replace all the tires on my car(damn you all wheel drive) and the water line leading to my house had burst(damn you burstable water line). Which brings to mind two other relevant sayings "shit happens" and "when it rains it pours". Best to be prepared.
Back in the day(a Wednesday so I've heard) during my senior year of art school I remember getting some common sense advice from my teacher, Joe Kovach. He proclaimed "Always have a cushion of money in order to pay for a few months of bills". Sounds simple enough. But as many of us know starting a career in illustration can be difficult to say the least.
Here's a saying you may have heard before, "feast or famine". Sometimes you have so much work on your plate all you can think about are deadlines. And sometimes you're frantically promoting yourself just to get work to trickle in. Right out of school...FAMINE. Getting an opportunity to prove your artistic worth can be trying. I eventually snagged one of a few full time illustration jobs. Having a 9-5 was good and the money was steady. However, prior to making the jump to freelancing full time I recalled the sage advice of my mentor and saved as much money as possible for a rainy day. I worked my full time job and took on as much freelance as possible before putting in my two weeks. Even with the cushion I had saved up there were some really stressful times when freelance had dried up to the point where I considered changing my name back to "Diamond" just to make ends meet. School loans ain't cheap.
I recently gave this advice to an art buddy who tends to live a check to check, what happens happens, stressed out life style. He shrugged. I guess it depends on whatever lifestyle you want to live. Saving up for a rainy day and living within my means allows me to focus on my art and not get too caught up in things I don't really need anyway. Recently, I had to replace all the tires on my car(damn you all wheel drive) and the water line leading to my house had burst(damn you burstable water line). Which brings to mind two other relevant sayings "shit happens" and "when it rains it pours". Best to be prepared.
RC
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