Art of the Masses

I have been a fan of Emily Grandin for a long time but had let way too many months go by before returning to check her work at Art of the Masses. She has done some amazing work this year, including a very cool advent calendar and a Sketchbook Project. Here she explains her process.

Session 7 - Opening the Palette

Last week I felt really constrained sticking to two colors, but this week when I had four colors to work with, yikes! I was wishing for just two.

I'm not as happy with this painting as the first, especially the grass, but it was a great exercise.

Session 6 - Two color watercolor study

Helga P has inspired me to get going on my homework for our online class How To Be A Children's Book Illustrator. So thanks Helga! Here is my homework for this week. I am going to try and keep up with Helga who is apparently very dedicated to getting her assignments done weekly.

Painting an image using only two colors was a fun exercise. I loved the process of mixing the two colors to get the color and the tone I needed.

Creativity

Need I say more...

Tutorials

Why is it always hard for me to keep up with the drawing and the learning that I want to do?? I have had a Wacom tablet for a couple years and I still haven't spent much time figuring it out!! Well here are some tutorials that will give me a chance to try it out (although the tablet is not necessary) to do it.

The first tutorial is learning to transform a sketch into a Vector Illustration featured on Geomediazine, an ezine I need to spend more time on.

The second tutorial was featured on Digital Arts website and has some great Photoshop effects to try out. I plan to start with this one.

Marla Frazee

Tonight I discovered this interview with Marla Frazee where she talks about her journey to becoming an award-winning Illustrator. She has some other great video links on her website.

Digital Picture Books

What's the difference between ebooks and a picture book app...guest writer Lindsey Lane writes about her experience digitally publishing her already published print picture book at Cynsations. There's some great information here, with links worth checking out!

Patrice Barton

Patrice Barton is not only a great illustrator, but from some interviews of her that I have seen, she is so genuine, sweet and kind. Here's an article she wrote recently about her approach to illustrating a picture book vs. a chapter book.


In addition, here's a link to an interview she did with Mark Mitchell where she talks about her process as she created her new book Sweet Baby Moon.

Children's Book Illustration

Mark Mitchell at How to be a Children's Book Illustrator has been posting some great links that are both educational and inspirational. I am so bad at forgetthttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifing where I read something and finding it again, so here's a list of some recent reads that I enjoyed.

Summary of the 2011 SCBWI Summer Conference offers some really encouraging comments by a number of well known illustrators.

Summary of the Cartoon Studio, an annual summer workshop offered at The Center for Cartoon Studies.

A lecture by Alec Longstreth called “Your Comics Will Love You Back".

Video clips on illustration

I happened upon a great video this week, an interview with Polly Dunbar with was both interesting an inspiring. She talks about her process and offers some advice for new illustrators.

One piece of advice was to draw all the time. She compared drawing like running, which I can related to, and said that as with running you have to draw all the time to get better. A week away on holiday and it takes a bit to get back to where you were in your drawing. And she certainly has taken that advice to heart herself, I was amazed by the stack of sketchbooks she had filled as she worked on her characters etc for her books.









And then of course, I can't get enough of Quentin Blake, so here's a little clip from him as well.

sketches

It's been a long time since I have posted some of my 'homework' from Drawing Tutorials Online, so here are a few recent sketches...







In the evening so as not to completely waste my time watching 'Dancing with the Stars', I have been doodling and working on some little characters. Here are a few of my favorites.

Marla Frazee

I am always astonished by how generous illustrators are sharing their knowledge and experience. Today I happened upon Marla Frazee's website and loved reading her 'Studio' section which addresses important topics for budding illustrators - tips, portfolio, thumbnails and characterization.

I have admired Marla's illustrations ever since I was introduced to "All The World". The world and characters she creates are amazing.

(Note: for fans of Marla Frazee, she will be the 4th Annual Children’s Festival of the Book at Bozeman Public Library in Bozeman, Montana Saturday, November 5, 2011)

Visual Notetaking

Have you ever heard of it?? I wish I knew about this when I was in University. It's a cool idea that I want to learn more about. Especially for my kids - if they could master the skill of visual note taking it might make a real difference to their education - at the very least, their notebooks would look super cool!

http://sunnibrown.com/visual-note-taking-101/

Video of Sunni Brown's presentation
http://vimeo.com/15171177

How To Be a Children's Book Illustrator

As a part of this journey into the field of illustration I recently joined a new online class - How To Be a Children's Book Illustrator (HTBACI), a class built and taught by Mark Mitchell. It's been a motivating experience thus far and I am really excited about the things I will be learning there paired with my continued work at DTO which is a fabulous website so deep with video instruction that I think I will happily spend years as a member.

What I enjoyed this week at HTBACI was the sharing of information by both Mark and the other students of the online community. This week I watched a number of inspiring video clips and articles.

Here are a few and what I took from them.

A video of Alicia Padron painting one of her lovely watercolor characters. I was surprised to find her use so much pencil to shade her character after it was painted. It worked so well!




An article entitled "Why We're Still in Love with Picture Books" by Allyn Johnston and Marla Frazee which speaks to the future of picture books and why we will always want them around - the impact they have on us and our relationships with the children we read them to.

“As we share the words and pictures, the ideas and viewpoints, the rhythms and rhymes, the pain and comfort, and the hopes and fears and big issues of life that we encounter together in the pages of a book, we connect through minds and hearts with our children and bond closely in a secret society associated with the books we have shared. The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading. It isn’t achieved by the book alone, nor by the child alone, nor by the adult who’s reading aloud — it’s the relationship winding between all three, bringing them together in easy harmony.”



Members of HTBACI also had the opportunity to watch an interview Mark did with an illustration duo - Jeff Crosby and Shelley Ann Jackson. They talked about their experience as students and getting in to the business, shared some of the books they have published and the process they went through - the research, trying to get the books published etc... as well as offering some advice for those just starting out. Some of the take-aways for me were draw all the time - go to figure drawing classes and draw on the street. Draw what you love and make sure to include those subjects you are passionate about in your portfolio as publishers will ask you to draw then things that they see in your portfolio (if you want to draw dragons, makes sure to incl those kind of pieces in your portfolio). Join a crit group, go to conferences and don't be shy - network with the presenters as well as other illustrators, you never know what work can come from those important connections.

...so there are some tidbits of learning for the week. Not bad eh??!

Characterization

Will Terry, who teaches at Utah Valley University, has put together some DVDs on illustrating Children's Books. There is a 24 min preview on character design. Watching it I learned some GREAT tidbits. His videos may be on my Christmas wishlist later this year!

Grandma Moses

One of my favorite blogs is Sugar City Journal. Lynne wrote a post about Grandma Moses that is inspiring. What an amazing lady - started painting at 76, lived to 101 and in that time became a rather famous American painter.

I loved this description of her process...

"Grandma Moses did all of her painting from remembrance of things past. She liked to sit quietly and think, she once said, and remember and imagine. "Then I'll get an inspiration and start painting; then I'll forget everything, everything except how things used to be and how to paint it so people will know how we used to live."

and her philosophy...

"I look back on my life like a good day's work, it was done and I feel satisfied with it. I was happy and contented, I knew nothing better and made the best out of what life offered. And life is what we make it, always has been, always will be."

Other blogs to follow

Tonight as I have been doing some research on illustration I have come across some great blogs that I don't want to forget about. I have a very hard time keep track of blogs that I would like to follow and then going back to them regularly. How does one do it without spending hours online??

Anyway, as a note to myself, here are some great websites/blogs to check back on...
Mighty Art Demos - specifically how to make a storyboard by Uri S. This particular page is a must for me to reference later.

Children and YA Lit Resources by Cynthia Smith

How to be a Children's Book Illustrator by Mark Mitchell - I have been eying his course for a couple years now, I might just take the leap tonight, it's on sale.

How to Steal Like an Artist

Today I came across a really inspirational post entitled "How to steal like an artist" by Austin Kleon. I find it fascinating and encouraging when I read about the processes of others. Of course even the best artists get inspiration from others, but somehow we newbies think that others generate their ideas all on their own.

Homework

With my focus on Drawing Tutorials Online, I thought I might post some of my homework assignments.

This was an exercise in angles and measurement...


A sketch of G, working on line, continuous line, fabric and reverse gradations...



An attempt at step 22, an exercise on advanced surface planes - after looking at this again, I realize that I need to go in and push this a little further. It's one of those exercises where it got so frustrating I had to walk away from it, but after a week break, I'm feeling I am ready to make another attempt at it.

Drawing Tutorials Online

I have been MIA from my blog lately. But I have been very busy sketching. I need to post some of my sketches. In December I discovered a fantastic website - Drawing Tutorials Online. Matt Archambault is a fantastic teacher. He has been an illustrator for 20 years, a teacher at the School of Visual Arts in NYC, and has developed an amazing website that is an absolute dream come true for me. It's a place that I can go whenever I have a minute in the day, to learn about drawing techniques that I have studied for years, but somehow Matt creates 'aha moments' for me all the time and has really opened my eyes when it comes to approaching a figure drawing. I couldn't be happier with the course and what I am learning. I now have my mojo back and am so motivated to improve!!