Because we just got our assignments for the upcoming Illustration Masters Class. And while I'll bring my laptop and tablet, I'm going to be spending the week getting my hands dirty with actual pigment suspended in liquid-y mediums (both of the aqueous and oil variety).
Here's some sketchbook dabbling with paint, just working through brustrokes and glazes and color chart type stuff, because it has been a long time. Thank you Bill Carmen and Rebecca Yanovskaya for being my reference imagery and inspiration.
pthalo blue, mars black, and yellow oxide study using Bill Carmen art as reference
cobalt blue and burnt umber study using Rebecca Yanovskaya's art as reference
Also I came home with sketchbooks from John Picacio and Bill Carmen (!!!) with WIP glimpses, notes and a little insight into all the crazy stuff that happens inside an aritst head. I'll be spending the next weeks swimming through those.
Speaking of.. here's some of what I sketched while inflight between Tucson and Kansas City:
It was just all incredibly... fantastic. Three more artists I have to make note of: Shelby Nichols with her lovely creepy darkness, Britt Snyder with his lush, buttery brush strokes, and Dan Chudzinski for his OMFG brain and bone-filled cabinet of curiosities.
One last thing: Chavant clay. Because they were handing out samples in the 3d area (where all the demo sculptors were making awesome with it). And I spent the whole flight home mushing and molding it. I need to get me some more of that.
making clay stuff on my airplane tray table. woooooo.
I caught this show on NPR this morning about surgeons getting just rusty enough to make noticeable mistakes after a few days off work. The study was based on the old adage: “If I miss one day’s practice, I notice it. If I miss two days’
practice, the critics notice it. If I miss three days’ practice, the
public notices it.”
Also, a friend shared this article the other day, about putting away the camera phone and learning to draw:
"...because drawing can teach us to see: to notice properly rather than gaze
absentmindedly. In the process of recreating with our own hand what
lies before our eyes, we naturally move from a position of observing
beauty in a loose way to one where we acquire a deep understanding of
its parts." ~read more
I am working on various illustrations pretty much every day. But I've thought about setting a goal to incorporate pure drawing practice every day. For the fine-tuning of it. For the joy of getting immersed in details. So here, this morning I set the timer for an hour and just put pencil to paper (using photo reference, because I'm swooning over all the lovely layers of fabric.)
Finally got around to the local life drawing session again, this time armed with a palomino blackwing 602 that Inkgorilla gave me. Holy Smokes, that pencil is the bees knees. Just ordered a whole box, and I have a goal of scritch-scratching my way through them all before summer is over. Oh how I miss the feel of some mark-making implement vibrating down my fingertips to a toothy paper. My drawing tablet, for all it's wonder and wow, just doesn't replicate that.
Well, enough of that. Here's a quick glimpse of that life drawing session (NSFW), all hodge podged together:
Over the weekend I wrote up an inkpunk post, some (meandering) thoughts about talent, ability, and creative success:
"It was at the Illustration Masters Class where I first heard Greg Manchess declare that there is no such thing as talent. A rather startling premise to tell a bunch of aspiring artists. But no, Greg stated that artistic skill “is built, not possessed”,
created by hard work and training. I wonder about this idea, chew on it
occasionally, still not sure what I think. It makes me think of films
like Amadeus and Finding Forrester that portray bitter rivalries between
merely adequate creators and their brilliant counterparts. I have no
idea how historically accurate the portrayals are, but today Mozart is a
household name while Salieri is mostly for history buffs. I itch and
scratch away at what that thing is that makes one individual a superstar
while another is just adequate." ~read more
Then this morning John Scalzi posted about Self Loathing as a creative person, how, basically, it is NOT a given that all writers (or artist, etc) must deal with the throes of depression and self loathing. It was a good one for me to read this morning: last night I was actually agonizing a bit, feeling utterly talentless and terrified of my mediocrity. Today is looking to be a much better day. Shake it off, get back to work. It's all good. Anyways, here's a bit from Scalzi:
"...Are there writers who are self loathing? Absolutely, because there are people
who are self-loathing, and writers are a subset of people. There are
also doctors who are self-loathing, plumbers who are self-loathing,
farmers who are self-loathing and so on. There are also writers who are
not self-loathing. There are excellent writers who grapple with
self-loathing; there are excellent writers who don’t (there are mediocre
and terrible writers in each category as well, of course). Trying to
typify all writers as self-loathing is as useful as typifying all
writers as anything, save the base, practical definition of “someone who
writes.”...
I think people who are writers and who are also the sort of self-loathe
can possibly use that self-loathing as a tool in some way, but
personally I suspect if you’re genuinely deep in the throes of
self-loathing, as a writer or whomever, your first stop should be a
doctor, to see if that’s something that’s treatable. It might be easier
to deal with the writing the sucks if you’re not thinking that
therefore, you suck." ~ read more
Now, here... I leave you with a page from my sketchbook from two year ago,
Here's what came out of my pen the other day while waiting for a doctor's appointment:
Meanwhile, Jaym Gates is on facebook posting about Clydesdales showing off their speed and ohhh I'm swooning at the massive beauties thundering away with their feathered hooves. Here's video footage (but click through the link for just some take-your-breath-away photos.)
Reminds me of the post Jaym wrote several years ago detailing specific attributes of this noble "companion and cohort in heroics."
Oh, one more nod to Jaym; a couple years ago I used a some of her prompts for my 30 character challenge. Here's my take on Storm Crow and her steed:
I have a new post up at the Inkpunks. Well, actually, it's collection of stuff that my fellow inkpunks have written over the past few years: inspiring, motivating, informative stuff! Go check it out!
"Ya know, these inkpunk people have written a lot of really smart
stuff. I remember when I first started reading the blog a few years ago
each new post was a breath of fresh air and inspiration. At the time I
was trying to restart my own creative life with ambitions to write an
epic fantasy novel or maybe create a webcomic, or at least start drawing
again, SOMETHING! Every post left me feeling energized and ready to do it.
So today I decided to select a few inkpunk gems from the past,
focusing on inspiration, setting goals, style, writing exercises, etc.
Whether you are gearing up for NaNoWriMo*
next month, looking for motivation to start a new creative endeavor, or
full tilt in your current WIP, may this help fuel the fires and release
the madness." ~read more
btw, you can follow the Inkpunks on twitter and facebook for updates from this fabulous little collective of creative individuals.
Speaking of stuff from the past, here's a page from my sketchbook a few years ago. (And here's the flickr set with more.)
Last night was #sffwrtcht and it was an awesome experience (here's the full transcript if you are interested). Thank you so much Bryan for having me on! There was more to say than I had time for, not to mention aspects that simply go beyond the 140char limit. This question in particular is one I keep thinking about:
.@galendara What advice can you give for other fan artists who’d like to move beyond fan spec work into professional sff art? #sffwrtcht
— SFF Writer Chat (@sffwrtcht) October 10, 2013
That's something I'm still working on myself, but I do have a some ideas based on things that have helped me to get where I am right now, So grab some salt, here goes:
~Create new work on a regular basis and share it (on flickr, facebook, twitter, whatever is your preference.)
~Look into instructional opportunities like the Illustration Masters Class and SmART school. They are worth the money spent not just in
terms of the knowledge and training you will receive but also in
expanding your connections in the art world.
~Attend
conventions, both art centered (like Spectrum and Illuxcon and Comic
Con) as well as more writer oriented conventions such as Worldcon, World
Fantasy Con, World Horror Con, etc.
~Get your work into the Art Shows at those conventions.
~Sign up for a booth at those conventions.
~Send work in for inclusion in art annuals (Spectrum 21 opens for submissions this month.)
So there you go, what I was not able to fit nicely into 140char last night during SFFWRTCHT last night
Oh, wait, one more thing. On the importance of connections (because many of my suggestions are about making connections). Bryan asked me what role connections played in my success, and this sums up exactly what has helped me get where I am now:
@BryanThomasS a writer friend mentioned to an editor friend that he had an artist friend if they wanted illustrations #sffwrtcht
— galendara (@galendara) October 10, 2013
That was my big break. Where it all began. I cannot even begin to express how grateful I am for that initial connection. (Thank you John!)
And now, because it's Inktober.. here, more stuff that crawled out of my pen the other day.
Next week Best Fan Artist Hugo winner @GalenDara joins us to talk #art#covers working with writers and more. At 9 pm EDT 10/9 on #sfwrtcht
— SFF Writer Chat (@sffwrtcht) October 3, 2013
I'm nervous and excited: this coming Wednesday at 9pm EDT I'll be participating in a twitter discussion with Bryan Thomas Schmidt on SFF Writers Chat. Come join the conversation (follow hashtag #sfwrtcht*), it will be a party! For a sample of previous sfwrtchts with artists, here's the transcripts for past discussions with the (multiple) award winning John Picacio and the most amazing MCA Hogarth. (What, intimidated? Me? noooooo...)
"Enjoy the freedom and independence of being
unpublished. Oh never mind; you will not understand the freedom and
independence of being unpublished until you get a book deal. But trust
me, in ten years you’ll look back at those early notebooks and recall in
a way you can’t grasp now how much autonomy you enjoyed and how many
long, lazy days you were free to spending working on a single chapter.
Your handwriting is not as bad as you imagine...
Write one sentence every day that excites you." ~read more.
It made me miss my sketchbooks and notebooks and spending time filling pages full of odd doodles and notes and mixed media experiments just to get the crazy stuff out of my head. I don't keep a regular sketchbook anymore. Which makes me a bit sad. So, inspired by this post. I picked up pen and paper yesterday and for an hour I doodled crazy stuff, just like I used to. Gonna try and do this every day. Thank you Wendy. And Liz.
so I have this serial story to illustrate, and I only have the first installment. I'm struggling to figure out what will be the *pivotal* image to pull out, to work with. But mostly, I'm just a tad dry, creatively speaking. So today, I found myself doing thumbnail after thumbnail and it wasn't even for the project any more, it was just because. And I was pulling up images I love from Scott Bakal and Yoshitaka Amano and doing thumnails based on some of their art work. JUST BECAUSE.
and it felt great.
Tomorrow, I'll get back to work, the *real* work (see if I can make any headway on that serial.) But today, it felt good to just draw a bit. I do not do that nearly often enough.
Lastly, at the convention Lisa gave me a beautiful handbound sketchbook she'd made plus I acquired an old japanese ink pen with brush tip. I instantly put both to use:
Finally got a scanner with a bit more room to move around in. This one. With an 11x16-ish scanning surface.
So now when I break out the watercolors on the big pad of 14 x 17 inch paper, I CAN SCAN IT. Mostly.
Here's from a recent life drawing session.
(NSFW)
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marker, pen and watercolor on 14 x 17 inch paper
pen and watercolor on 14 x 17 inch paper
And also on just regular old 9 x 12 inch sketch paper, something the old scanner would have winced at.
ball point pen on 9 x 12 inch paper
Just for kicks, here's a few sketches doodled this weekend while driving home from a race in Southern Utah. I thumbed through a running magazine and drew from the photos in it's glossy pages, trying to take my mind off my sore legs.
micron pen over several pages of sketchbook
Excited to have a scanner again. Planning on using real drawing-on-paper stuff in some of my upcoming work. (Ooh, btw, have you seen this Wolverine movie poster?)
And, that's all. Just had to share.
Now for randomness... here's an open letter to a beloved busy person. It's a must read.
This past weekend, I took a trip to Kansas City for the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live event. A tremendous amount of amazing happened there, but one of the highlights for me was the live drawing session held Friday night.
I was attending with Jacob Ruby and Marlyse Comte and they had come armed with iPads and app after app of drawing goodies. After I had filled several pages from my paper sketchbook, Jacob was kind enough to let me commandeer his iPad for a spin through the next few poses, and I was hooked.
I do have an iPad, but it's old, entry level.... plus... my offspring lays claim to it.
I may just have to rectify this situation eventually.
((ironically, I came home and showed the apps to my kid, he proceeded to completely blow me away, doing things with the apps I didn't even know were possible.))
As a way of taking some downtime between projects, I recently immersed myself into episode after episode of Bones (yah, I'm a later starter: currently in the middle of season 3.. SHHHH!! don't tell me *ANYTHING*).
Bones and body organs and body liquification... (Haven't gotten to that episode yet, but wow.) (Plus humor, drama, sexual tension, Oh yes.)
In addition, I've been reading a lot of good stories. Almost all of them written by friends and acquaintances. ( I am blessed.)
Also, indulging in just some straight up doodling in my sketchbook. For no reason what-so-ever except I want to:
Then learning a new Photoshop trick where-in I am able to 'lift' the drawing off the page, for easier coloring. (VERY helpful, as I still prefer my analog natural-hand-drawn lines to what I can sketch out on the wacom tablet) This isn't the best example of the trick, but here's what I did with that previous sketch:
Oh... and random, but have you seen this montage of the many cinematic deaths of Sean Bean?? (warning: Spoilers. And death. Violent death. Over and Over and Over.)
Much appreciation goes to Wendy Wagner who opened her home to me for this convention. (And to Andrew for taking me rock climbing. Plus all the other exceptional friends and fellow creatives who helped make the trip amazing.)
Orycon was fabulous and I was especially pleased to have my work win the Directors Choice award for Best Horror in the Art Show. (Undead Evening Gown, nabbed me the ribbon.)
A bit overwhelmed with all the things I could (and should) say about the event, I will instead just share a few a few snapshots of what I sketched during panels and readings:
There is so much I could say about the events and proceedings of World Fantasy Con... but instead, Here: a few doodles I did and a table full of collaborative drawings done with others during the convention.
This sketchbook now spans one full year. Aug '10 to Aug '11. (Here, from just over a year ago, when I was preparing to make the jump to this book.) I've marked this period on the edge of the pages in red and black: noting the passage of time in visual ways being a personal quirk. Wonder how long it will take to fill the remaining pages? Almost two thirds of the way through right now. Here's what the one year page looks like (not a planned page, just the randomness of how the marks fall):
This year filled up good and well with so many real art jobs that the 365 exercise is indefinitely on the back burner. But here's the set with what I have done and continue to do in sketchbooky marking making, for this year.
