Revisiting the Masters

Man it's been a while since I posted anything! Last week I went to the Laguna Arts Festival with some friends and checked out all the great art by local residents of Laguna. The art was very inspiring and I enjoyed it all. One artist I thought was very cool was John Taylor. He made some incredible sculptures of submarines, ships and paddleboats. He used trash and computer chips to make them, it was so awesome! You can check out his work at www.folkartships.com . Later on that night I went to go see a live show called Pageant of the Masters. Now this is an incredible show where props and people are placed on a stage and in movable frames. They showed how it was done and at first it looks like people and props on a stage, and then the lights go off. When they come back on the lights are different, and the figures and props become the painting. Everything looks completely flat. They also did this with sculptures and they actually looked like sculptures. It was crazy to think how these actors could stay completely still while the audience stares in awe of what they are seeing. They hold their pose for around 90 seconds. Master paintings are recreated in a very surrealistic way that seemed almost impossible to me. This got me thinking upon looking at all these master paintings about how can I revisit the masters of Illustration. I studied them at school, but it's always a smart thing to go back and take a good look at how illustrators like Dean Cornwell, Howard Pyle, Harvey Dunn, J.C. Leyendecker and N.C. Wyeth worked and study their drawings. Here are a few drawings of Dean Cornwell and a J.C. Leyendecker. Dean Cornwell is called the dean of illustration and rightly so. His knowledge of anatomy is incredible. His figures are drawn with such authority, they jump out of they page with so much personality it's crazy. J.C. Leyendecker is a master of design in his figures, he edits out all the busy parts and puts in what matters in the drawing. I learned a lot by doing these yesterday and today. I look forward to doing more each day.

More Sketches

Here are some more doodles I've done in my sketchbook. Nothing really major but just fun drawings. I haven't really tackled any major paintings as of late. Opportunities for upcoming classes are flooding in and it's kind of overwhelming. It's hard to find time to just sit down and paint without putting a whole lot of thought to it. Most of my stuff requires a lot of involvement. It's finding the time to get fully involved in my illustrations that's hard. Sometimes I just want to do stuff that's easy and fast. We'll see how that goes.

Some sketches

Here are some sketches I thought I would share. I did these just messing around in my sketchbook, seeing what could come out of some doodles. I know it's been a while since I posted. I'm going to post soon a pic of the marquee I've designed and painted in downtown historical Redlands. It was something different, but still a challenge for me to do.

A new push for marketing

As an artist with no representative, no degree in marketing, no company to do illustrations for it's tough to find an avenue that can keep me busy and happy with the art that I do. I love to draw people, I love to draw in public so how could I make that into a revenue? Over a year ago I decided to market myself as a caricature artist for parties, events and festivals. This has been going on with ups and downs at different events. Why stop at trying to do everything by myself though? Connecting with party and event planners was one marketing strategy I had to tackle. After making a bunch of fliers with this service and spread it out to dozens of stores, I got a call the next day from a party planner about working a party. So any artist that is just waiting for something to happen without doing anything different will wait a long time. I say reboot your strategy by reaching out to others and connect with them, you never know what will happen. My goal is still to develop my own illustrations and be recognized for them, but I need to be pro-active in what I am happy doing right now. I used to think that the caricature artists in the bay area were uneducated and talentless hacks, and for some I still think that ;). That doesn't necessarily mean I am one in doing the same trade. This new approach in marketing seems to work and hope it will continue to work, along with the people I connect with.

Palm Springs art class

So I taught a class at the Palm Springs art museum on Saturday, October 16th and it turned out great!! The kids were nice and focused, ready to do some work and learn. As I walked around to observe the teen's art, it was already obvious to me that they were getting a hang of things. It was not only a learning process for them, but for me as well. They were really involved in what they were doing and seemed really into it. My age range was from 12 to 19, which seemed that it might be hard to handle but it wasn't too stressful. It was an awesome class and the education coordinator asked me to come back in July, so I look forward to teaching the kids again!

The Design of Music

So here's the color comp of the commission sketch that I posted earlier. I'm genreally happy with the direction I'm taking it. The posterized edges in it gives it a more stylized, graphical type of painting. As with all my paintings that I do a digital color composition for, the colors may change when I paint it traditionally. Which is what I want so it doesn't look so much like a digital painting. Will post another update as time goes on.

New Commission Sketch

So, here's a sketch for a new commission I received from someone I met at the recent Stage Coach Days event in Banning. It's musically inspired and considered a challenge for me, especially since it's going to be stylized in a posterized, traditional painting. I love challenges though, because it always makes me think differently on how to approach something. So here's a preview of what it's all about, enjoy and I'll post up a digital color comp of the piece soon.