awesome IMC insecurity, inspiration and such and such

The other day, Jon Schindehette wrote a post about art envy, insecurity, and comparisons.  An excerpt:

"About half way through the the Drink & Draw I had a really authentic conversation with one of the better artists at the event…and guess what he was worried about - folks looking at his sketches and judging him for it. That suddenly put my entire life in perspective. I realized that it didn’t matter how good I got, how secure I was in the knowledge of my skills - I would always look at artists that I admire and compare myself to them....

There is nothing wrong with wanting to do better things - to be a better person, but it is an issue when we are comparing our insides with someone else’s outsides." ~read more 

 It feels fitting to lead off talking about Illustration Masters Class 2014 with that, because, dammit, feeling insecure about my work that was the story of my life for the whole week. And you know what made it a tad bit more bearable?  Hearing Mike Mignola mention his own insecurities as an artist. So, Yes, thank you to all the incredible artists there at IMC (both faculty and students) for being BRILLIANT and supportive, and also for being vunlerable.

Now here's a few pictures :)


My preliminary sketch; this week I wanted to take something I had worked out digitally, and try my hand at traditional mediums: Here's my preliminary digital sketch (was calling this my attempt at the "fairy warrior" assignment)

So it begins:

day 1 crit session. Iain McCaig, Rebecca Guay, Scott Fischer, Mike Mignola, Greg Manchess, and Irene Gallo

my station, before the paint was poured

Meanwhile... some of who did what where:

Greg Ruth demo's mad sumi ink skills

James Gurney captures Allen Williams in action

Donato Giancola being brilliant

Mike Mignola breaks down storyboarding

Scott Fischer explains his analog photoshop process

Rebecca Guay demo (watercolor and gold leaf ink)

Then, back to what I'm attempting:

wherein I transfer my drawing and begin splashing stuff on it.

After multiple variations and methods and experimentation (and frustrations with trying to revive old paint handling muscle memory) here's what came of it.

"blood faerie"... finished. Watercolor, pencil, ink, and acrylic paint.

Well, and also, I was able to grab Rebecca Guay, Julie Bell, Irene Gallo, Zoe Robinson, and Lauren Panepinto and host a spontaneous recorded discussion. It was a brilliant brain trust and the conversation was amazing. More coming about that soon. (Hint: WOMEN DESTROY FANTASY. Hell yes.)

Rebecca Guay, Julie Bell, Irene Gallo, Zoe Robinson, Lauren Panepinto, and I. WDF roudntable

Women Destroy Science Fiction, in my hands.

What was waiting for me when I got back from the Illustration Masters Class:

women destroy!

It's a hefty tome of awesome and you can get it in paperback here, or ebook here.

It happens to include the work of four other artists who it was my delight to work with. Li Grabensetter, Elizabeth Leggett, Christine Mitzuk, and Hillary Pearlman.

Now, an excerpt from my interview with them:

"...it feels timely, and personally fitting, that this would be the summer Lightspeed dedicates an entire issue to the enormously talented and fantastically imaginative women working in the field of speculative fiction. The opportunity for me to invite other artists to be a part of the project was nothing short of breathtaking. Li Grabensetter with her beautiful handling of inks and watercolors, Elizabeth Leggett with her brilliant digital renderings, Christine Mitzuk’s rich painterly style, and Hillary Pearlman’s fantastical tinkering bring the fiction in this issue depth and texture. It was a pleasure to work with these gifted and passionate artists who are deeply involved in the speculative fiction community. My favorite part of working on this issue was sitting back and watching their amazing art come in. My second favorite part was getting to know these fantastic creators just a little bit better. I hope you enjoy this spotlight on why each of them does what they do. Which, apparently, is to destroy Science Fiction." ~read more 

And here, a sampling of what they did for this issue of Lightspeed:

Li Grabensetter's illustration for Each to Each, written by Seanan McGuire:

Elizabeth Leggett's illustration for Salvage, written by Carrie Vaughn:

Christine Mitzuk's illustration for The Case of the Passionless Bees, written by Rhonda Eikamp :

And Hillary Pearlman's illustration for Walking Awake, by N.K. Jemisin:

It was a pleasure to be involved with this project, many thanks to Christie Yant for her hard work in bringing this epic volume to life.   Stay Tuned, more exciting things coming with Women Destroy Fantasy and Women Destroy Horror.

(squeeee!)

WOMEN DESTROY SCIENCE FICTION!

the Women Destroy Science Fiction issue of Lightspeed magazine is now available for pre-order. Here is a look at the table of contents (this issue is a veritable TOME of freaking awesome females.)
Aaaaand... here's a look at the cover I painted for it:

cover for WOMEN DESTROY SCIENCE FICTION © galen dara 2014 © Lightspeed magazine 2014

For this one I got in touch with my pulpy sf side (didn't even know I had one) and started handing out bazookas. It was pretty different from basically anything I've done before and it was incredibly fun. Thank you Christie Yant, Wendy Wagner and John Joseph Adams for letting me have my little part of destroying Science Fiction!

Stay Tuned: Women Destroy Fantasy and Women Destroy Horror are coming up
(and, apparently, Queers will be destroying SF next year OMG SQUEEEEE) 

random (Hugo + gender) stuff

Well since the Hugo ballot went live this past weekend, lots of stuff has been said.

But it's what Jeb Hartman said that is bringing tears to my eyes right now:

"One of the most happily amazing things about this year's ballot, in terms of gender, is the Pro Artist category. Last year, one woman was nominated (Julie Dillon), and she was the first woman to appear on the ballot in that category in twenty-seven years. This year: THREE women.
This is unprecedented in the entire fifty-five-year history of nominations in this category. There was only one previous year when even two women were on the ballot, and that was 1984." ~read more

Before last year only two women had ever been nominated in the Pro Artist category; Rowena Morrill (nominated several times)  and Val Lakey Lindahn. (btw, you really should read Justin Landon's run down of gender parity in  the SF art world.) And now here's us: Julie Dillon was the first woman on the ballot in 27 years. Fiona Staples, technically on the ballot twice because Saga is Nominated for Best Graphic Novel. And me, who made the jump from the Fan artist ballot to the Professional Artist ballot in one year. (Yeah.)

Going back to Jeb, because he just said it so well:

"[The Professional Artist] category is one of the least-changing categories on the ballot; this development seems to me to be a great indicator that things are changing. Though of course a single year does not make a trend. I hope this continues; and I hope that the Pro Artist category continues to recognize a larger number of artists than it usually has over time." ~read more

In that light I want to give a shout out to the four other illustrators working with me on the Women Destroy Science Fiction issue of Lightspeed Magazine:

• Li Grabenstetter
• Christine Mitzuk
• Elizabeth Leggett
• Hillary Pearlman

As well as a random (short!) list of my own favorite artists (who happen to be women) working in the field today:

• Victo Ngai
• Tran Nguyen
• Jillian Tamaki
• Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
• Kinuko Y. Craft
• Camilla d’Errico
• Fiona Staples
• Rebecca Guay 
• Anna + Elena Balbusso
• Yuko Shimizu
• Ana Juan 

Because it feel so applicable  here's an excerpt from Kameron Hurley's essay “We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative”:

"And when we talk about war, we talk about soldiers and female soldiers.
Because this is the way we talk, when we talk about history and use the word “soldiers” it immediately erases any women doing the fighting. Which is it comes as no surprise that the folks excavating Viking graves didn’t bother to check whether the graves they dug up were male or female. They were graves swords in them. Swords are for soldiers. Soldiers are men.... Let’s just put it this way: if you think there’s a thing – anything – women didn’t do in the past, you’re wrong. Women – now and then – even made a habit of peeing standing up." ~read more 

(That essay, btw, is nominated for a Hugo in Best Related Work, and is published at  Aidan Moher's A Dribble of Ink which is nominated for Best Fanzine. It's A Great Lineup all around.)

Speaking of women who fight, here's the illustration I did for Codename Delphi, written by Linda Nagata, published at Lightspeed Magazine, (which is nominated for Hugo in the Best Semiprozine category.)

Okay, that's it for now. Back to work.

ROBOTS!!!

After you have gotten your fix of modern military science fiction, you really should go check out the quirkier side of kickstarter with HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!!  Based on the short story of the same name by Keffy R. M. Kehrli published at Lightspeed Magazine, that delicious little piece of fiction convinced editor John Joseph Adams that a whole anthology based on the concept of  improbable kickstarters needed to happen. After all the kickstarters I've been involved with... I CONCUR. 

My part in this is small, I just drew some robots. These ones:

illustration by galen dara for FUND MY ROBOT ARMY

A little something about me: I don't think I could draw a nice neat straight line to save my life. My robots tend to be loopy.  Here's some WIP sketches as I played with robots:

initial loopy-style robots

preliminary grouping for a robot army

eventually the grouping went this way, for simplicity and the ominous robot factor.

For more info about Help Fund HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY and for KITTIES!! watch the trailer:

 
(And to conclude, you really must keep the Women Destroy SF special issue of Lightspeed on your radar for next year)