Post 6

Review your responses to the above questions.  What sort of an illustrator are you?  What sort of career do you want to have?  Does your present body of work reflect your aspirations?  Could it do so more strongly?

I suppose I am a fantasy illustrator. I have fought against that word for so long because I viewed fantasy artists as the people who constantly draw dragons fighting knights while large-breasted princesses swooned in the distance.  But I understand now after reviewing more artists what all fantasy art means and how I fit into it.  Honestly I'd like to have a free-lance career where I work for multiple clients who would love to have my name on their product or company or own my own magazine that I help to design whenever I'm not running it.

My current body of work does not reflect my drive.  I do have a lot of work and I'm drawing everyday, but my work doesn't show what I want to do.  I think that it's because either I'm still confused about what I want to do or I believe I'll never make it in what I wish to do, so I stick to things that are safer.  I need to believe more in my own skill so others will believe in it too.

List ten images/themes/techniques/subjects/formats that your portfolio needs in order to become more in line with your aspirations.

-More finished illustrations
-Knowledge of texture and detail
-Everyday practice of ALL techniques needed in a finished illustration
-Mixed media to scan onto digital work
-An impressive sketchbook
-A more cohesive body of work
-Ideas that reflect me rather than any other artist that I may be inspired by
-A skill level that can rival famous artists
-More realism
-A unique sense of 'me'

Post 5

- If you had to spend the rest of your life illustrating one book, what would it be? Why?

I believe I would want to illustrate "Animal Farm" by George Orwell. I've always loved drawing animals and this way I would get to draw them in a bit more fantasy sense while still keeping their real appearance. This is also one of my favorite books, so the chance to illustrate it would be fantastic! Because of the fact that it would be for the rest of my life, I believe this book holds enough to actually keep me busy.

-If you could go apprentice with any two artist's in the history of the world, who would they be? Why?

First off I would choose Alphonse Mucha to apprentice under. I would love the chance to watch as the Art Nouveau movement was born! Also, Mucha is my favorite artist. Some of my more recent work has been based around his style and technique. Many people have tried to replicate his work, but his touch is always something special. The second artist I would choose would have to be Aubrey Beardsley. Of course he didn't live very long, but I imagine picking his mind over why and how he completed his work would be worth the short-lived apprenticeship.

-If you were banned from the art world, but could have any career you wanted that wasn't in art, what would it be? Why?

I would probably study medicine. Diseases, viruses, and the human body fascinate me. I used to actually draw different things from anatomy books whenever I was younger. To study cancer, or AIDS, or Alzheimer's would be a rewarding career. To me it would be just as creative as any art career I could go into. Every day would hold something new with new discoveries. Perhaps it would all be based upon experimentation or learning how some things live and adapt. Either way, I'd LOVE to go into the medical field.

- Describe the project you would propose under the following circumstances. Describe the project in detail: what would it be, how would you spend the money, how would you schedule the time alloted, and how would the work be presented upon completion? 1.) you have one month and one thousand dollars (all of which must be spent on art expenses). 2.) Six months and ten thousand dollars. 3.) One year and one hundred thousand dollars.

1.) With one month and one thousand dollars I would buy $500 worth of different color house paint and $500 worth of canvases. I would then open the cans of paint and hurl them at the canvases, allowing the paint to splatter on them all. I would place them all close by one another so that I could display them three inches apart in a grid format on a large wall. It honestly wouldn't take too long concerning time, but I would have to make sure to work on them whenever I am emotional and need to vent.

2.) With six months and ten thousand dollars I would buy a urinal and a mannequin in a pissing position.  I would then use the rest of the money to have in $100 bills and put it into the urinal.  The piece would then be put in museums to make sure the money wouldn't be touched, but also so many people would see the idiom of pissing away money.

3.) With a year and one hundred thousand dollars I would buy a 100ft roll of white satin fabric and red dye.  Then I would invest the remaining money in five different stocks in the stockmarket.  Everyday I will put five red dots depending on where the stocks are at the end of the day.  Every week I will connect each dot to one another until over the course of a year it has created a great matrix of the stock market showing the ups and downs of it.  

Post 4

List 10 Illustrators whose work you admire or whose career you would like to emulate.  Who are their clients?  What sort of work do those clients look for?

Barbara Konczarek is from Poland and does work for different book illustrations and posters.  The clients that she works for are mostly publishers and authors and they look for her detailed whimsical feel in art.

Teagan Gavet and Tess Garman work together on their illustrations and have currently finished their second comic book.  They are featured at many different types of cons and their clients are constantly wanting some of their fantasy art or comic books.

KidChan is an illustrator from Malaysia.  Her work has grown in many different ways over the years and now shows a fantasy, textured world.  Her clients are mostly people who would like to now own her books along with a few companies who use her pieces on posters and advertisements.

Hunter Bonyun works with mainly commissions but has gained so much popularity via the internet that they are constantly invited to be featured artists and comic cons and other artistic conventions around the country.

Serena Malyon is an illustrator from Alberta, Canada and she is a freelance artist.  Her clients are mostly book publishers.

Hillary Luetkemeyer is an American artist who works primarily from commissions off her website.  Her clients are mainly just people who admire her artwork.

Johannes Voß was someone I had mentioned earlier.  He is constantly being hired to do work for Wizards of the Cost in their book series and Magic: The Gathering Card game.

Dave Allsop is another artist for Wizards of the Coast.  While he has done a few cards for MTG, he illustrates several of their Dungeons and Dragons books.

Svetlin Velinov is a concept designer and freelance illustrator from Bulgaria.  This is another Magic The Gathering Artist.

Anthony Scott Waters used to be employed by Wizards of the Coast, but now is a freelance artist to anyone who would like to commission him, or anyone who can afford him.

Go to a bookstore with a large magazine section, like Barnes & Noble or Borders.  Find at least ten magazines that you think you could work for.  Consider both the content of the magazine and the type of illustration, if any they use.  Record the names of the art director and any assistant art director's listed, and their contact information.  

The different magazines I believe I could work for would be Game Informer, National Geographic, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Teen Vogue, Dungeon Magazine: Wizards of the Coast, Gamasutra, Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Game Informer - 1-866-844-GAME
National Geographic - 1-888-966-8687
Cosmopolitan - Cosmopolitan, P.O. Box 7186, Red Oak, Iowa, 5159
Vogue - (800) 234-2347
Teen Vogue - 1-800-274-0084.
Dungeon Magazine: Wizards of the Coast - (800) 324-6496
Gamasutra - 415.947.6000
Electronic Gaming Monthly - 800-829-7830

If you were starting your own magazine and your livelihood depended on it selling well and your sanity depended on it being something you wanted to spend all your time on, what would it be?  What sorts of writers and artists would you hire?  What subject matter would it deal with?  How would you want it to look?  List ten non-magazine clients that you would like to work with.  Why are these dream clients?  Find and record their contact information.

I've actually given this a lot of thought before and I honestly want to do this, but I'm not sure how to start with publishing.  I would have named it ArtNGames and it would be about the art within any sort of video game.  The range of art would go from environment to character design and the games would be from Xbox games to things like Angry Birds on the iPhone.  It would have interviews with some of the original designers and also a Q&A about their career.  Each page would be an artwork all its own.  While some magazines have pretty designs every other page, this would would be amazing all the way through.  I would hire artists who know how to make graphic design very futuristic and informative.  They'd have to be specialized in layouts that draw the attention for the text rather than away while also inviting the viewer in to the page.  The type of writers I would hire would be people who could critique art truthfully and also thoughtfully.  I would want the writers to be able to tell why some art works even though it's very different and how it keeps the player's attention.  I know that some magazines have had small articles about this, but no one has ever devoted a full magazine to it.  The Smithsonian had the "Art of Video Games" exhibit and it was one of the largest turn-outs they ever had.  That exhibit was able to look professional while still being inventive and use images from the games.  I would want my magazine to reflect that.

The ten non magazine clients I would like to work with would be BioWare, Bungie, Square Enix, all Art schools and universities (that's kind of a big group), convention groups, museums, video gamers,  .  These would all be dream clients because they would reach toward such a large audience.  Each gaming company would want to see what their rivals are up to and why their games are working so well.  Schools would love them because they could get a subscription for students with information on how to achieve one of these jobs in the field.  Convention groups and museums would want it whenever they do something based upon that type of art work or to show how art has grown and changed over the years.

BioWare -  Andrew Wong (anwong@ea.com) 

Bungie -
 Bungie Software Production Corp.
P.O. Box 7877
Chicago, IL 60680-7877

Square Enix -
Square Enix, Inc. (North America): support@square-enix-usa.com

Art Schools - MCA -
1930 Poplar Avenue  Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 272-5100

Universities - University of Mississippi -
Oxford, Mississippi, University, Mississippi, 38677

San Francisco Comic-Con -
Comic-Con InternationalP.O. Box 128458
San Diego, CA 92112-8458

Museums - Brooks Museum of Art -
1934 Poplar Avenue  Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 544-6200

Video Gamers - umm... I can give you my contact info on that.

Post 3

-Describe your typical creative process, from getting an assignment to finished piece.  Describe what you think your creative process should be like.  

My normal creative process begins with my trying to create a finished piece actually.  I'll go into detail about what I think it should look like and then I'll break it down.  I cannot visual things very well if they appear rough or messy.  Once this finished piece is done, I'll take a pen or pencil and begin to mark it up pointing out perspective, or relations within the piece.  Then I'll begin to brain storm what else I can put into the work to make it more visually pleasing.  I've normally created this on photoshop and will add in different types of colors in order to see which works best.  I do this easily using layers and turning off some rather than others.  Once I've decided on the color scheme, I allow that to influence my background design. Finally, when everything has been set, I sit down and draw out the finished piece.

- Research and describe a professional creator's creative process (this person need not be a visual artist.  Dancers, writers, film directors, and so on, may have analogous and equally illuminating views on creation).

Johannes Voß is an artist from Germany.

"You'd be surprised by how many people ask something as unspecific as this. There's really not much to reply to this other than: Play around with things, spend time learning and experimenting, be aware that frustration might be coming your way in fairly decent amounts. Practice, practice, practice, read, think, practice."

In a recent tutorial of how he works, Johannes pointed out that he lays out his composition with black and white color first, deciding how it will be built.  After this, he takes a sloppy hand to finding a bit more detail of where figures will be placed as opposed to the darkened areas he already laid out.  Once this is established he perfectly blocks in color, making note of how dark one grey object is to another grey object.  He begins work on detailing the background followed by detailing the middle and foreground.  When this is done he lays in color with several layers until he finds the desired texture.  Once the color is in, he begins details by using the color.  At the very end he scopes out the piece and refines little pieces that he may have missed.

On a side note, Johannes believes art school is a waste of time.  At this current point I disagree with him, but find it a little odd.  In a recent interview he stated, "Why was art school a waste of time?" Well, it just stems from how a day looks studying at home compared to in school. School: Travel there, talk to peeps, wait idly for lecture to start, listen to boring stuff, heckle with profs, walk from room to room, draw a bit in between. At home: Get up, draw, sleep. So you just get way more practice in if you're learning by yourself. Also it doesn't cost a hundred grand."

Post 2

-Of the artwork that you have done, what is your personal favorite piece?  Why do you like it?

This is a picture of my fiance taking the tape down for me to show how large the wall was.

While I LOVE digital work, my favorite piece of my own is a mural that I painted for Mid-South Tournaments and games.  The wall was 10 x 25 feet and it honestly only took me two days.  I think this is my favorite because I went into this job not thinking much of myself as an artist and I truly impressed myself in the end.  I never called myself a painter, but whenever the job came up, OF COURSE I'M A PAINTER!  

-What piece do other people like most?  Do you agree?  Why do you think they like it? 

I painted this piece senior year in high school and it is still the one that everyone tags me to and compliments me on.  I believe it was my attention to detail within the painting that everyone loved.  Until recently, this was my favorite piece of artwork that I had finished.  In the end, the amount of time spent working on this piece paid off and I am very proud of it.

-What piece surprised you the most?
I believe this answer can be found back up with the first question.  The reason the mural is my favorite piece of work is because of how it surprised me.  I was able to step back from it and say "I did that" with confidence and pride.  I honestly do not have too many pieces of art that I can do that with.  It was the largest project I had ever taken on and I completed all by myself.

-Choose five doodles or sketches that you like as much as any of your finished pieces.

I do a lot of work off people's avatars on a website called GaiaOnline.  This was a quick sketch of a girl's avatar that I really enjoyed.

This was a quick sketch up for a valentine's picture for a friend off GaiaOnline.

This is actually a quick chibi sketch of my fiance while he played Xbox.

My wedding invitation started out as a sketch while I was bored in class one day.  I ended up adding the pink ribbon around it later and coloring it in.

These are the sketches that I'm currently working on of the mascot for the Brooks Museum of Art.

Post 1

-What media do you like working in?  What media do you hate working in?  What media would you like to try, but haven't?

Of all the media that I have used, I have to say that doing digital work would be my favorite.  I still love paint, ink, and graphite, but if I had the chance, all of my work would be digital.  I cannot think of any media that I have not tried except anything that deals with printmaking.  One day I will try screen printing, maybe. I steer clear of anything 3D, for I loathe working with 3D.

-List three non-illustration classes that have influenced you and/or your work positively.  How has the work of your peers  influenced you and your work?

            Some of the classes that had the biggest influence on me besides illustration were drawing classes.  In Drawing Composition, I had Morgan Cook who helped me to explore different art through time periods and I found my love for cubism.  After Drawing Comp, I had two classes with Fred Burton that I loved.  I first had Life Drawing, which I am currently taking Life Drawing II .  Now that I’m in Life Drawing II, I can easily see how much I learned with the first class.  I can now draw things I never imagined with ease!  The third class that inspired me the most was Fred Burton’s Drawing into Abstraction.  Whenever I first entered the class, Fred asked me what I was doing there, that it wasn’t the type of class for an illustrator to take, but through that class I was able to explore so many different techniques and mediums that I wouldn’t have gotten to in Illustration.  Aside from past classes pushing me, I find my peers pushing me as well.  As I watch them all advance, I know I should advance too.  I honestly do not see my classmates as my peers but rather my competition.  I will graduate with these classmates and be competing for the same jobs that they would love to have.

-What sort of subject matter do you like to create work about?  What sort of subject matter do you like to read about?

            My favorite subject matter to create art about would have to be fantasy.  I’m not such a fantasy lover that I’m constantly drawing dragons or medieval people, but putting people and animals in fantasy situations interest me.  I also do commission work for GaiaOnline, a forum roleplaying website.  On that site, I have an art shop where I draw people’s avatars.  Through drawing these fantastical avatars for years, I discovered that I really enjoy it.  I’ve never coupled my art work with my reading material, however.  I enjoy reading anything political or articles that question the psychology of community or the individual.  My favorite author is George Orwell. 

-What kind of music do you like?

            My drawing may be fantasy while my reading is strict political, but my music is far different.  I’ve never found a band that I do not like.  I had to dedicate an entire computer to nothing but music and move everything else onto an external hard drive.  My music tastes range from rap to gospel, from techno to heavy metal, from screamo to classical music.  I love all music and it just depends on my mood to which I choose to listen to.

-What non-art related interest/hobbies/skills do you have?

            Outside of art, I’m a total nerd.  I play in Magic: The Gathering Tournaments, participate in Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, and spend hours playing on my Xbox.  While I do these things I will multitask by throwing my other hobbies of cooking, forum roleplaying, or even L.A.R.P.ing into the mix.  I’m not very social with anyone at the college and have maybe a handful of friends there.  Outside of school I spend hours with large groups of nerds. 

-What is something that you like that nobody else likes?

            I honestly cannot think of anything that I like that nobody else likes, but I suppose it's more of a who.  I LOVE M Knight Shyamalan's work.  I don't care what anyone else says!  The twists that come with his plots, the composition of the shot on the screen and the colors that he chooses to display always captivate me.  My favorite work of his is The Village followed by The Devil.

-If you had the run of the world's museums, what three works of original art would you like to own?

           If I could own three original works of art I would first hang Alphonse Mucha's Gismonda over my bed.  He is my favorite artist and I would adore to have that piece of work, especially in my own home.  The second piece of art that I'd choose would be "Two Nudes on Old Indian Rug" by Philip Pearlstein.  Normally all of the pieces you see for him are paintings, but this created with etching and aquatinting.  It's beautiful and the forms are amazing with his soft layering of greys over.  The third and final piece of art I would choose to personally have would be "Diego" by Alberto Giacometti.  His fashion of building up mass out of line and layers of paint is amazing.  He doesn't draw to find the shape, he draws and paints to find the mass.