Regional Information

First, I would like to thank the lovely folks of MAC (Media Arts Council) that I met last night for all the great information that they happily shared at their Media Icons photography exhibit. What a great bunch of folks, and they were very helpful when it came to some plans I am putting together for my next big project. (Which I’m not quite ready to reveal just yet.) I’m looking forward to attending more of their events. They really put on quite a show.

Next comes a little link love for some of the blogs that I’ve started following, but have failed to mention here. I found myself thinking that I should help spread the word about these sites, so here we go…

Unusual Vantage Point

First up is Project: Rooftop or P:R for short. Dean Trippe and company do a wonderful job of hosting competitions to re-imagine classic super heroes and their costumes.

This is the sort of project site that I find terribly interesting and inspirational. When I’m looking for something to kick start the creative juices, I swing by P:R and get a bunch of new ideas going in a very short span of time.

If you’re not familiar with them, you owe it to yourself to become so.

Freeware and Frugality

Next up we’ve got the Freeware Illustrator. The concept behind this blog is, imho, simply fantastic.

Starting from the most humble of beginnings (a PC gifted from a friend) the author / artist known on the blog as Lukeo25 is chonicling his journey as he seeks to use only free hardware and software to run their graphic design shop.

We’re all familiar with the concept of the starving artist, and while I’m not sure that art, as a business, has it any worse than any other business financially, this seems a great starting point for those artists who might just be starting out, are doing it ‘on the side’ or are just plain strapped for cash. Really? It’s a delight to read, and provides a lot of good information.

Deviantart

And lastly – for my Deviantart link of the day: the #Art-Studios group. I’m kinda a freak for pictures of other artists studio spaces. I’m not sure exactly why, but it’s something that brings me a lot of joy. Perhaps it’s got something to do with my art supplies fetish. Seeing so many supplies displayed (often) all over the place just brings me a chaotic moment of joy.

Uncle Sam Sketch

Just a quick sketch I did to get the feel of the famous image by James Montgomery Flag. I don’t wanna spill the beans just yet, but let it suffice to say that I needed to understand how this image was ‘assembled’, and I think that I did that. This sketch ‘came up short’ on a couple of things (not the least of which is the age of Uncle Sam – he’s too youthful), but I learned a lot and I don’t think that it’s too shabby for 15 minutes of sketch work. Tomorrow / later today I will be creating my own version. I’ll post the results here later.

It’s my hope that the holiday season finds you and yours in the best of health and spirits, and the new year is filled with adventure and joy.

So anyone who knows anything about my web browsing habits has heard me talk about the ConceptArt.org forums. It’s an amazing place chock full with some of the very best artists alive today. Thing is, that’s not really what makes it amazing to me. What really makes it rawk is the willingness of a large number of those artists to be helpful and give constructive critiques to… well… to guys like me. They do this free of charge (so long as you show genuine effort) and are doing an amazing job of building a community of artists who bolster one another.

It’s often a wonder to behold.

Okay, now that I’ve brought those of you who aren’t familiar with the forums up to date, I would like to introduce one of the members. Phuzion has long been one of my personal favorites. I’ve probably not said more than a couple of words to him online, but there’s a simple enough reason for that. I don’t want to be ‘that fanboi’. I make it a rule on the rare occasion that I get to meet someone that is reaaally talented to not say “Geee… ur work is like teh HAWESOME!”. They get that all the time. I want it to mean something to  them. I want to show that I was paying attention. Problem is that when I see most of his work – even the ‘sketchbook stuff‘ (note – some artistic images may NOT be safe for work), I’m really struck dumb. (As a side note: he’s not the only one that this happens with on ConceptArt, which speaks volumes about the caliber of their artists.) All I can think to say is “Wow.”

And like I said – I don’t want to be that guy.

In a recent post (which regrettably you may not be able to see without the creation of an account) he talks about how he learned to draw like he does now. He talks of art school and a 90 page per week sketchbook schedule. This only becomes vaguely possible when you take into account that “3/4 of that had to be from life in the form of gestures“. I don’t know about you, but that still sounds like a shit-ton of drawing to me.

It’s more like what I should be doing.

I would love to quote more of his post, but I’ll wait until I have explicit permission to do so. In the meantime, go check out his gallery site, sign up for the forums and meet some of the other amazing artists, and just generally enjoy all the amazing art.

Just remember that’s only the surface. It’s artists like Phuzion that make it important.