Wind and the Willows assignment was due on Wednesday (which turns out to be two days ago) Here was what I had so up to that point

Getting to this point was a really fun process, as I mentioned in some earlier posts (Terryl Whitlatch, Justin Gerard) I found that by doing my own personal life studies on the creatures I would be rendering was a great way to really get a feel for how they might look in a fantasy situation.

Unfortunately this isn't at a finished state; and I have to implement a lot of fantastic critiques from Perry and the class. But here are the steps so far

 

First the thumbnails to try and come up with a neat situation to illustrate. I felt from the start that I scene with Mr. Toad's obsession with automobiles would be something I would like to create.

With that in mind, I thought this particular scene was most effective and expressing that thought

After that, I looked up all the elements I was going to have in this drawing, namely a rat, a mole and a toad. Adding to that, I did some research on some automobiles circa 1910, and some gypsy wagons. (which is not in the full illustration yet)

 Mr. Mole

 Mr. Toad

The gypsy wagon not pictured

I also visited a pet store to see some rats and guinea pigs, and took some reference photos of some actual frogs that my friend owns. All in all, it was a very fun project. I will update with the finished as soon as I can

Today Perry did a wonderful lecture on Style and Influence. He shared a lot of information about famous artists and who they studied under, and also shared his own artistic heritage.

There was one story in particular, about a friend of his named Cary Austin. It starts with a lot of promise, as this artist studied alongside Perry in college; and won an award from the Society of Illustrators. He was then noticed by the Greenwich Workshop, which features many great artists.

 But due to some mistakes and a self destructive lifestyle; he was dropped for not meeting deadlines and now works a blue collar job. Perry said he probably hasn't touched a canvas in 15 to 20 years. It's a very sobering story, but one that I feel we should ultimately be prepared for.

If we are able to become noticed in the world of art, we still need to remain relevant and consistent. People will have to be able to depend on us enough to trust us with their money.

When Greg Manchess visited awhile ago, he asked to see my sketchbook (cringe). I stuttered and stumbled and was very hesitant, when he said, "You need to be more confident in your work. If a client sees that you are shy, they might start to think you are shy with your deadlines."

I bit the bullet and showed him, and he had a good laugh. But the lesson was learned, not only do we need to improve upon our artist abilities, but also we need to present ourselves as competent freelancers etc.

The story of Cary Austin shows a seemingly common side of the world of art; and I hope to learn from the misteps he and others have made.

I also decided to look into my own influences in an effort to become a better artist. So far, my major influences are Don Seegmiller and Perry Stewart. With Don, I have done portraits that attempt to have a similar feeling, which sort of tries to be close to Bill Whitakers method.

 

This was an assignment I did from Don's workshop; basically trying to emulate how he digitally painted a portrait of a girl. Bill mentioned that as new painters, we shouldn't blend for quite some time, until we can master the process of putting down paint effectively. He then said that he, Don and Emily Gordon were crazy because they blend everything. 

I noticed that I tried to do the same as Don did, and still continue to try and do so. 

When I think of a quintessential traditional artist, I immediately think of Perry Stewart. There doesn't seem to be any medium he hasn't tried and mastered. I've tried to emulate his work many times (and failed) but I feel like it shows in some of my water colour paintings

 

Of course, Perry helped with this one; but every time I try to create something traditionally or any kind of artistic experimentation, I tend to think of Perry's example. 

Both Don and Perry and super well rounded artists, and I find that I am always trying to emulate them in some way. In my sketch books, I noticed a lot of influence from Don's style

He tends to draw around the shapes, and anything with Prisma on toned paper I am just trying to copy him. 

I notice that when I do figure drawings, I tend to try and emulate Perry. (not successfully) Watching him work is always a privilege. 

Both of these artists have forever changed the course of my own artistic path, and I hope to learn and grow more from their wonderful examples.

I mentioned Terryl Whitlatch before, but didn't showcase any of her work.

She has been apart of many major motion pictures for all the huge names out there, such as George Lucas, James Cameron, Steven Speilberg etc. Her work can be seen all over, in games, movies, books. Her process is like the one mentioned earlier, although I think she came first. But I think it would be hard to find any artist in the industry that doesn't trace some line of inspiration to Terryl.

Here's an example of what she likes to do; notice how the aquatic creature on the right resembles a horse in real life? She does countless life studies of animals before creating a creature from her imagination. Here's a full view

During her demonstration here at UVU, she showed some popular creature designs that she did, such as Jar Jar Binks

She then began to imitate an emu, and said that his walking mimics that of an emu. It was really cool and funny to see.

Sebulba, from that same movie (Star Wars) has a head that is based on a camel. You can see very clearly her knowledge of real animals affecting her creature designs. I will try to emulate this by basing my designs of Mr. Toad, the Rat and Mole on their real life counter parts, but still going an imaginative route.

This past week we finished up our Gallery of Terror assignment, Perry said to use whatever medium we wanted to. I decided to try a digital painting, I thought colouring it would be a nice touch. Perry said if we chose to go digital, we would have to start traditionally.

I find it hard to go into any digital painting without attributing Don Seegmiller in some way. He has been a very large influence in my art, and has taught me so much about the digital mediums.

In a quick demonstration, he starts off here with a prisma pencil sketch, then scanned into his computer

 After scanning and opened in Painter, he go overs with a quick digital watercolour layer

 After knocking in all the colours and values, he continues to render the image until finish

Those images are from Don's tutorial videos

I tried to emulate this by sketching out my assigment with pencil, and then scanning it in to my computer.

After that, I arranged them in Photoshop and began to lay some values down

I began to make some changes

Added a  colour glaze

Then rendered it to this point

I will have to come back to it to finish it off, as I am not super happy with the results

This week we turned in our thumbnails/comps for the Wind in the Willows assignment. Going up to this point, I took a lot of inspiration from Terryl Whitlatch and Justin Gerard; as they approach creature designs with a lot of life studies. Perry also gave a list of great artists to refer to as well, viz;

Heinrich Kley
T.S. Sullivant
Boris Artzybasheff
Daniel Merriam
Carlos Nine (might be NSFW)
Omar Rayyan
Charles Santore
Scott Gustafson

I started looking up toads, but actually cut the process short because we had a quick assignment change. But the idea is to draw from life studies of animals and objects; then using that information you have gained to create a new imaginary creature. Justin Gerard shows a lot of attention to detail in his sketches, and they look quite good:

These type of sketches would later turn into something like this

Even though the third sketch is an imaginary creature, it still feels natural, like something that you might actually see in a cave hidden deep in the Himalayas. Using the knowledge that he gains from life studies and implementing that into his own illustrations makes that possible. These sketches are from Justin Gerard's blog

I started with a toad sketch, but also looking up images of moles, rats and badgers. After our new assignment is completed, I will go back and do more study sketches to try to imitate Justin Gerard's and Terryl Whitlatch's method.

This week we turned in our first assignment, which was to illustrate a book cover from a chosen set of books. Perry went through and asked us to critique different pieces. He made sure to note when there were different elements of design that needed to be addressed, and gave advice for for improving each work.

For me he advised that I use some white chalk to show the highlights that I could not achieve with the graphite powder I used for mine. I've already started to try (with nu pastel) and it works great. I just need to sit down and complete the piece as he suggested.

 

Graphite powder and a 2B pencil on Bristol paper (with an assortment of erasers)

I chose 'A Brave New World' thinking it was about Chris Columbus sailing the ocean blue.

I learned that it is not about Columbus. Though it does have a bit to do with a man finding himself in foreign territory, and trying to adapt to the extreme differences. It's not a very happy book at all, I chose to depict John the Savage towards the end. 

I watched Perry do a fantastic demonstration with Graphite Powder, so I wanted to try it out. Basically you lay the powder onto your paper with a soft brush, then after you have it to the value that you want it, you pick up where you want to with an eraser.

I didn't get a picture of his demonstration, but here is some of his work. UPDATE: HERE'S THE DEMO!

Note how he has toned the page, then lifts the highlights and darkens as he sees fit. Fantastic work. Basically that it what I was trying to emulate

We received our next assignment, which is a Children's Book Illustration on 'The Wind in the Willows' The next class we were lectured on Anthropomorphism and Metamorphism, and effective ways to do it. Perry showed examples from artists such as Justin Gerard. I will do more research, and am currently reading the book.