Category: Artists

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The Perfect Bait

This morning, I finished listening to Bobby Chiu’s new book, The Perfect Bait.  It far exceeded my expectations.

While I have met Bobby before at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo a few years back, and have taken a couple of courses from instructors at his Schoolism.com site, I don’t actually know him.  But I do know his fantastic work, and have followed his career.  Bobby is a successful artist, and while I know his work is ever evolving and he is nowhere near where he intends to be, his example is one that many artists can learn from.   One of his recent more famous projects is that he worked as a creature designer on Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland.’   Here’s a look at his creature design work on his CGSociety portfolio.

It should come as no surprise why I’m a fan, and not just because he’s a fellow Canadian.  But it’s not just his work that’s impressive, it’s his philosophy on the business of art.  One of the benefits of buying the book is that you get access to the audio version as well.  So while I haven’t yet received the book, I have listened to the entire thing already while working yesterday and this morning.  Many art books end up being simply motivational ‘you can do it!’ publications, but Bobby talks about real world examples of how specific things worked out for him and why others didn’t, and how failure is as much a recipe for success as any award or accolade.  And best of all, he puts more stock in hard work than talent, something I’ve believed in for years, as I’ve seen artists far more talented than I, fall into obscurity because they simply didn’t apply themselves.

The benefits to me personally were two-fold.  First, there was a fair bit of confirmation in the book that I’m doing a lot of things right.  Had I read the book five years ago, that would not have been the case, but I’ve made plenty of mistakes, learned from them, made course corrections and carried on.  The second benefit was being made aware of a number of things I’m fully capable of doing to better my career but either had not thought of them, or I didn’t think they were important enough to bother with.  I stand corrected and feel better equipped to continue my forward momentum.

Most importantly, Bobby emphasizes the importance of passion in your work.  I’ve heard many times over the years that the work an artist should be doing is the work they would still do even if nobody paid them.  I am incredibly fortunate that with my animal paintings over the past couple of years, I have discovered that work, and am grateful for it.  I was already passionate about painting, but this book stoked that furnace even more.  In a perfect world, everybody would realize their passion and find it within themselves to pursue it.

So if art is your passion, no matter what kind of art that is, I would like to help ONE of you take a step forward.  On Friday afternoon, I will draw a name on my business Facebook page, and then I’ll buy that person a copy of Bobby’s book.  All you have to do is leave a comment on the post that links to this blog entry.

If you would like to buy Bobby’s book, visit the webpage, www.ThePerfectBait.com and get yourself a copy.  You’ll be glad you did.

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Tom Richmond and The Mad Art of Caricature!

There are many people who consider the humourous paintings of people that I do to be caricature, but just as many who don’t.  I consider traditional caricature to be an exaggeration of features while maintaining the likeness.   At the risk of trying to slap a label on it, my work fits somewhere in between caricaturing a person and cartooning them.  Often it will be a large head, small body, with only mild distortion or exaggeration.  For a lot of business or gift purposes, that’s what my clients want.  But wild exaggeration or not, I still feel that I have a lot to learn.

I have no desire to be a quick-sketch caricature artist, the kind you see at an amusement park or event, but I have a great deal of respect for those who are able to fill that role.  It’s a difficult skill to master and very different from the type of painting and cartooning that I do.  You have to be confident and bold when drawing live, and I’m a tentative obsessive sketcher when I’m drawing people.  I don’t mind admitting that I find quick-sketch caricature very difficult and I’d like to become better at it.

When I think of caricature artists that really wow me with their skill, Tom Richmond tops the list.  Tom is best known for his MAD magazine work, but he’s done a lot more than that in his long career.  Rather than list his accomplishments, take a look at his website and I’ll let his work speak for itself.  I’ve written about Tom before on this blog .  OK, maybe more than once.  What can I say, I’m a fan.

Last week, I received a copy of Tom’s new book “The Mad Art of Caricature: A Serious Guide to Drawing Funny Faces.”  People have been nagging him for years to write a book like this, and whether it’s because he got tired of it, or just realized he was ready and made the time, it was well worth the wait.  I pre-ordered the book sometime this summer, and I’ve been looking forward to it ever since.  I had very high expectations, and Tom’s book surpassed them.

I’ve bought many cartooning and caricature books over the years, and this one is hands-down the best I’ve ever seen.  From tutorials on how to draw specific body parts, exaggeration, relationships between facial features…I could go on at great length about all of the wonderful specifics he teaches in this book.  It is comprehensive and complete.  There are techniques and tutorials in this book that I’ve never seen explained in any other I’ve bought, not to mention valuable insights into how to become better at live or studio caricature work.  And content aside, it’s quality printing with beautiful colour, too.  Put simply, I would recommend this book to beginners and professionals alike, without reservation.

While reading the book, I just wanted to pick up a pencil and draw.  Yes, I draw every day already, and while it’s enjoyable, it’s not often that I get excited about it.  I’ve said before that Tom’s work makes me want to be a better artist.  I’ve no doubt that his book will teach me how.

To order a copy of your own, here’s the link again.  “The Mad Art of Caricature: A Serious Guide to Drawing Funny Faces.” 

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Photo Reference

It’s quite common for me to say that if I take a good photograph, it’s by accident.  The main reason is that taking a good shot doesn’t come naturally to me, and I haven’t the interest in putting in the time required to become better at it.  That’s the key to becoming good at something, devoting yourself to it completely when everyone else around you gives up.  Many people will tell me that they ‘can’t even draw a stick  man,’ which of course is an exaggeration because everybody can draw a stick man, but I get what they’re saying.  The truth is that if a person really does want to become a better artist, they have to be willing to do what it takes to get there.  So it’s not about being willing to draw one stick man, it’s about being willing to draw thousands of them in pursuit of the perfect stick man.

It’s obvious that I’m never going to be a really good at taking photos.  Sure, I’d like to take better snapshots, and over the past few years hanging out with a lot of photographers, I am doing that, but I have no illusion that I’ll ever have any real skill.  My heart just isn’t in it, and truth be told, learning the technical aspects of cameras, lights and equipment  just seems like studying for a math final to me, and I hated math.

Thankfully, I’ve already found my passion elsewhere, but there is still a lot I can learn from photographers.

I love looking at beautiful images and the artistry that photographers put into their work is not lost on me.  Some of my best friends and many of my favorite artists are photographers.  I don’t need to understand how Andrew Zuckerman does what he does to know that I love his images.  Same applies to the work of  Jill Greenberg, Joe McNally, and Moose Peterson.   I know that if you click on any of these links right now, I’ve probably lost you, and I can’t fault you for that.

As a painter, I have learned a lot from photographers.  Images are images, and often, many of the things that contribute to making a great photograph will apply to illustration and painting.  Composition, lighting, texture, atmosphere, and the things done in post processing, all of these important elements directly translate to the work I do.

With that in mind, I’ll often buy books written by photographers, especially if they’re more about how to take a good photograph, rather than how to use the equipment.  Additionally, I’ll buy books about the business of photography as it is very much like the business of illustration and painting.  We show our work in galleries, we work on commission for clients, we deal with the same copyright, licensing issues and agreements.  The talent and skills required may be different, but the disciplines are similar.

What I often learn most from these books is how much more I’ve yet to learn, and I expect that will always be the case.  What I find most fascinating is that the philosophy and dedication required to be a successful photographer is the same as any other creative and artistic profession.  There’s a lot to learn from other creative professionals, especially if they’re working in an entirely different field, because it forces you to consider another perspective.  A musician will have something to teach an actor, an actor will have something to teach a photographer, and a photographer will have something to teach a painter.

I’m currently reading two books on photography right now, and am enjoying them very much.  I’ve had the pleasure of taking a couple of classes from Scott Bourne at Photoshop World, and recently did some caricature work for Moose Peterson, so I was eager to get their books.  Not only is there valuable insight and information in both of them, but as expected,  some beautiful images, too.

Now you can go back and click on those links. 🙂

 

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DVD sneak peek

Having recently returned from Photoshop World, it was a big thrill to see my painting DVD’s on sale at the PhotoshopCAFE booth on the Expo Floor.  I had brought a print for them to display at the booth and apparently it contributed to good sales over the three days.

Brought home my copies of the DVD, minus one that I gave to a friend and another that I gave to Bert Monroy, as I’ve learned a lot about illustration and digital painting from him over the years.  He’s a great guy and was most noticeable this year because he was booting around in a little scooter after recent knee surgery.

The PhotoshopCAFE booth was showing a DVD that included clips from a number of their titles.  Here’s the clip they were showing from my most recent DVD, PhotoshopCAFE Masterclass: Animal Painting in Adobe Photoshop.  For more information on the DVD, visit the PhotoshopCAFE site here.

 

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Tom Richmond

While there are many artists I admire, there are a select few whose artwork continues to inspire me and makes me want to be a better artist.  I’ll consistently tell people who ask me for career advice, to find and learn from artists whose work you like and who are better than you are.

The first part is important.  While it’s easy to find people who are better artists, if you don’t like their work, it just won’t make you want to be better by seeing it.  Consistently, I can go to artists like Drew Struzan, Neville Page, and Jason Seiler and know that I’ll find work I’m not able to do yet, but because I love their work, it inspires me to try.  Better artists will almost always have something to teach you, because hopefully by the time you’ve gotten better, so have they.

Another artist who consistently makes me green with envy (in a good way) is Tom Richmond, a very well known and popular MAD magazine and caricature artist.  I’ve been a fan of his for many years.  If you draw caricatures, and haven’t seen Tom’s work, you might want to take a look.  He’s got a great website and blog.  I especially enjoy his Sunday Mailbag posts where he answers reader questions.  Tom’s got a great reputation in the industry not only for his work, but he’s active in the community and always willing to offer helpful advice.

Recently, he mentioned that he had taken a bunch of limited edition prints of the one you see here to Comic-Con in San Diego and ended up coming back with some.  When I saw the print (shown here, with permission), I knew I was buying one.  It made me laugh out loud.  There’s just something in Tom’s style  of drawing that I’m missing in my own cartoons, some life and action I want to capture but am not quite there yet, and I knew this would inspire me to keep trying.  So it will be matted and framed and hang in my office where I can easily see it.  It’s a great print.  Still some available here, if you’re interested.

Incidentally, Tom’s long awaited book “The Mad Art of Caricature” (which I ordered this morning) is going to be released next month.  If you want to draw caricatures, there are a lot of great books out there, but without even having seen it yet, aside from sneak peeks on his blog, I have a feeling this will be at the top of the list.

Thanks, Tom!

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Tangled

My wife and I watched the Disney film ‘Tangled’ again last night.  I bought this DVD before I’d even seen it which was rare for me, but there was something in the trailers that told me that even if the story was weak, the artwork would be worth it.  I wasn’t disappointed in either.  I posted on Facebook that ‘this artwork makes me high,’ and I wasn’t kidding.  There’s something about cartoons with a lot of life in them that just gets me excited.  While Disney may not do it for everybody, and I’m not a huge fan of every one of their movies, this style makes me want to be a better artist.  It makes me hungry to sit down and draw.

No matter what creative avenue you’re strolling down, if the scenery isn’t doing it for you anymore, and you’re bored, find something that will reignite that old passion and put a spring in your step.  I have a few go-to books and movies that do it for me.  Tangled is now added to that library.

I’ll often get people asking me if I want to animate, and the answer is a flat out ‘No.’  A number of years ago, when the general consensus seemed to be that Flash animation was the next step in editorial cartooning, I did create a weekly animated editorial cartoon called ‘Beaver Fever.’  Sort of a Rick Mercer/Jon Stewart wanna-be cartoon beaver with guests and commentary, that sort of thing.  A lot of people liked it, including some big media outlets in Canada, but nobody wanted to pay what it would take to keep me doing it, so I scuttled that ship.  I didn’t enjoy the work.  It felt tedious and mechanical.

Knowing what you want to do is essential in any career, but equally important is knowing what you do not want to to do.  I do NOT want to be an animator.

But I love movies.  I mean, I REALLY love movies.  I’m not obsessed with them, by any means, but I can watch some movies over and over again.  Tangled will be one of those.  I would love to work designing characters for movies one of these days.  Not full-time or anything, just a commission once in awhile.  It would be great to see some animal I created brought to life on the big screen.  That’s one of those things I regularly throw out there into the ether, because it seems to have worked well for a lot of other dreams that have become reality in my career.

Never underestimate the power of passion.  Glen Keane has worked on some of the best animated movies out there, often as Supervising Animator.  I’m talking about Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and of course, Tangled.  There are many others of course.  Those who followed the comic strip, Family Circus, as I did growing up, will be interested to know that Glen is the son of cartoonist Bil Keane, and was the model for the character Billy in that strip.

While I have known and admired Glen’s work for years,  I am most in awe of an artist who has been working in the field for as long as he has, a man who has done and seen it all in the world of animation, and yet still has that passion in his voice for his craft.  You can tell he is still excited to be doing what he’s doing.  Watch this video and you can see it.  Listen to how he talks about this character.  To Glen, she is real, she has life, and most importantly, she has passion.

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ImagineFX goes digital!


Just found out this morning that my favorite digital art magazine, ImagineFX has finally become available in a digital format. Regular readers will know how much I like my iPad, and one of the best uses for it is reading magazines. I’ve got four shelves on a bookshelf in my office containing many printed issues of Photoshop User magazine, various Computer Arts titles, and ImagineFX.

I had canceled my ImagineFX subscription awhile back because I didn’t have enough time to sit and read a magazine and some issues were going on the shelf unread. Figured I’d catch up before diving back in. One thing I love about the iPad is that I can have an entire library with me all the time, and magazines are perfect for this device. I can zoom in on artwork, read as much or as little as I want in a sitting, and quickly find an article in the future without having to sit down and flip through a stack of magazines. Best of all, it doesn’t take up any shelf space.

I’ve renewed my subscription, at a fraction of the cost, and all I’m missing out on is the DVD that comes with the printed issue, which most of the time I didn’t use anyway. ImagineFX is by far, the best digital art magazine on the market. I’m not even a sci-fi or fantasy artist, but I have learned more from this magazine about digital painting over the years than I have from almost any other resource.

Happy to now have it back, and in the format that I prefer.

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Inspired by Drew


Every artist should have other artists they look to when they need to find that spark to take their work just a little further. Lately I’ve been working through the winter doldrums and feeling a lack of inspiration largely due to a difficult project I’m currently working on, one that isn’t very creative. While very worthwhile, I’m not really having any fun with it and that’s frustrating.

It’s only temporary, and the end is in sight, but in the meantime, I went looking for a little inspiration this morning, and found it in a very familiar place, in a book called, “The Movie Posters of Drew Struzan.”

I’ve written about Drew Struzan before on this blog. Having reread that blog entry this morning, I realized that anything else I say about him would be repetition. He is easily my favorite artist (no really, my absolute favorite artist.) While the size of the images in this video do not do his work justice, you’ll still get the idea of why I continue to be in awe of and inspired by, the work of Drew Struzan.