WIP Wednesday - SmArt School: Last Assignment

 For a final treat in our SmArt School semester, we had a visit from Matthew Kalamidas, who is the art director for the Science Fiction Book Club. A couple of weeks previously, Matthew had issued an 'assignment' which consisted of the blurb description of a new SFBC novel, and suggested we come up with a cover treatment.

 Adult book covers are a bit out of my normal wheelhouse, but I want to be stretching, so I attempted a number of thumbnail treatments (they are posting here in reverse order to what I drew - I got progressively more symbolic and 'surreal' the longer I went - a direction I'm actually quite interested in).

I had discussed wanting to pursue a more surrealistic approach to my work with Rebecca previously, but wanted some pointers in how to approach that, so she took a couple of these thumbs and combined them into this composition - talking me through her thought processes as she went (so lovely!)

I went with it - cleaning it up some and adding some more detailing - but this is so derivative of her example, and I wanted to practice some of the thought processes (without reinventing the wheel here)-

So I practiced with some other variations - keeping the same basic idea and composition, but  with additional characters, and trying to push a bit further....

Also playing with color schemes, patterning vs. rendering vs. areas of flat color... Was really fun! Now to pick a trio of these and finish them up for reals. 

Until SmArt School starts up again after the new year....

WIP Wednesday - Snow Queen

This fall, I'm doing a part-time mentorship with Rebecca Guay via her rather amazing Smart School. This is the piece I'm currently working on-

I was inspired by a snowy photo shoot of one of my fairy-nieces -

I composited an image around that photo.

....Face study....

Got a critique from Rebecca - shifting things around a bit, and making it all way BETTER -

Image is currently at *this* stage. We'll see where it goes from here.

IMC Report - Part IV

Today I will tell you about the wonder that is Rebecca Guay -

Not only is she the originator and driving force behind the IMC,

-she is an excellent and entertaining lecturer (we got to see lots of her process and really think about the motivations behind making imagery...).

She brought quite a bit of original work for us to look at -

Book interiors, Magic cards,....

her IMC piece from last year-

-work from her upcoming, amazing looking graphic novels -

-and her Spectrum Gold award winning personal piece!

She also did a lovely demo for us, based on a photo of her daughter. She started the underdrawing/painting on the computer -

-printed out on watercolor paper, sealed and an initial coat of acryla-gouache paint put down.

-more painting....

-more detail added via paint, and outlines strengthened with a verithin pencil...

When this underpainting stage has been taken as far desired, she seals it with galkyd and starts layering on oil glazes...

This is how far she got by the end of the week. So lovely to watch it appear underneath her brush. She is one of the big reasons I go.

Demos -

One of the coolest parts of the whole week was being able to watch each of the faculty 'in action'. It's one thing to see their work as prints or in books. It's quite another to see it happening in front of you, stroke by stroke.

I was the least familiar with the work of Greg Manchess (ironic since with the exception of Boris Vallejo, he's been out there painting the longest). I suspect it is because he paints in a 'chunkier' oil style, which is the farthest from my own, as well as painting for such a wide variety of markets (from fantasy and children's books to National Geographic). He ended up being my favorite to watch however. The years of experience and intense observation made the choice of strokes look elegant and effortless. More like a dance (as opposed to my frequent painterly struggles). It was awe-inspiring to watch. I don't know if I'll ever paint enough to get to that point, but it is something to aspire to.

Dan Dos Santos did a live portraiture demonstration in under an hour that knocked my socks off. Again, the wealth of previous experience translated into beautiful, efficient choices. I learned tons from him about color temperature and value that has previously only been hinted at in my painting.

Scott Fischer (on the left - with the hat) does *everything*! Traditional, digital, fantasy, scifi, children's books, writes music, sings, etc...! The guy is manic in his energy and his enthusiasm. And wicked talented. I would get kind of tired just listening to all he juggles.

I've always kind of swooned over Donato Giancola's work - but it was great to see to see some of his originals and to watch and hear his thought processes in action.

The best part for me was watching Rebecca Guay's process. She works the closest to the way I do - but way better, so it is very exciting to see. I learned many neat, cool things - from new transferring processes to under painting to oil glazing - which I haven't tried for years, nor in my style.

Many new things to implement!! (The question now is *when*?)...