Reworked 5.1 Illustration

Illustration 1.5 In Progress - Updated

Updated version at the bottom....

So I woke up at 3 am last night with this idea.  I hate the flower and I'm going to change it, yet it'll still be a flower.  I also just noticed the product placement thanks to the website behind the photo.  But yeah.  This is my idea so far... an intimate couple with a flower sprouting from the woman's mouth.  I'm going to go in and do the flower in a much more realistic manner and also do it at a perfect vertical.  I honestly have no idea what I'm doing and I'd love some feedback.  No. the oval is not going to stay there, it's just to help me visualize things.  It'll still be a basic oval, but I will have parts of it broken up to give a push and pull between the two weird purples.  Let me know what's going through your head.  I could sure use the help.

UPDATE

Okay, so I played with breaking up the oval thing that this couple is in and I changed the flower to a more realistic and also a better straight up and down vertical that breaks the top of the oval just barely.  The flowers and the background is still a BIG work in progress, but I'm beginning to get happy with the couple.  I want to come in with them and give a few shadows to show mass and volume, but besides that, I like them.

Here it is again with this weird feather texture background.

UPDATE

So I hate the texture on the background, but I still feel like I'm missing a big piece to this.  I took some of Olivia's advice and erased the linework over the legs so that they don't go straight to the edge of the oval and then stop.

COLOR CHANGE!  I LIKE IT BETTER NOW!

And a big change....

So get rid of the weird geometric crap coming out of the oval and take away their outlines and this is just getting... weird.  I actually don't care for it much anymore, but I'm going to change that!

A few more contours and also a line art color change coming up!

So on the first one, I went in and dulled down the brown color I used for line art.  The second one is a blue shade and the third one is a pink/purple shade.  Earlier I played with putting back in the facial expressions and details along with keeping the contour simple, but I realized that I didn't like it.  Now, I see the strange thing going on with the flowers in the corner, but I can fix that after I get a little feedback on the contour colors.


This kind of art is different than what I used to do, but at the same time it's what I always wanted to do.  I admire artists who work with strange subject matter such as this and can convey it in a very fantastical, almost scifi effect.

First Project - Thinking

UGHHHHHH!!!!!

I want this illustration to prove how unique and original I am!  Because I am totally a beautiful butterfly that nobody else looks like!  Right?!  Ugh!  I'll have an idea... yeah... tomorrow.... this sucks.

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."