Twilight Flight

A sketched environment with the usual col-erase blue pencil (not non-photo or non-repro blue). One of several I'm playing around with in between working on other things. I'll post more later.

Practice and other Oddities

The top post is one of the scenes from an animation short that I started working on when I went back to school, and then put away on the shelf, so to say, until I found time to work on it again. The elements were built of various watercolour paintings that I cut up in Photoshop, and then composited in Combustion (with some nice Z-space) with some of the set animated there as well. I've been thinking about this old project rather alot lately. For some reason, I'm always most interested in working on my projects when I have actual paying projects that I should be spending every minute on. Ah, well.

More male portrait sketch practice. I don't create many illustrations of male characters, particularly human males, in most of my personal artwork. For me, it's simply more interesting to create a different female character (generally human) because in some fashion it is another aspect of myself that I am actually drawing. In my own little mind, I live that character as I draw it...I know what my character is thinking as well as its motivation for whatever pose or moment that I choose to capture them in. Hmm. I guess I'm trying to say I like to draw my characters from the inside out, which is why I find it more of a chore, er, I mean a challenge to draw men. Plus, the human female form is much easier to draw what with all those nice curves. :) In the face, too. And then there's always the possibility of using my own self as a reference if I need one.

Breaking in the Sketchbook

Today's sketches include some random bits that I did in my new sketchbook, (some with a reference, some not) along with a quick rough sketch of an idea I had for Illustration Friday's topic, "Forgotten" (posted above) that I'm not gonna have time to finish before Friday. I'd like to work on it another time, though. They're all drawn with the usual blue pencil although I did a bit of experimenting with my scanner and Photoshop color settings when I exported them for web posting which is why they're all variations of blue to dark gray.

The story behind it -- well, actually there are 2 stories. My first story thought was based on some childhood memories that I had from when I was about 6, and some of my experiences during the interesting traveling we did around Europe one summer. The other was a thought about that little toddler that was forgotten at the Vancouver airport when his parents were so tired and overwhelmed that they didn't realize that they'd left him behind. And, I wondered: what if it wasn't just days that it took the parents to retrieve their forgotten child; what if it was years? Like if they were traveling interplanetary rather than from one continent to another on Earth. So, my illustration story is about a forgotten child in a spaceport.

Ran out to get a new Strathmore (now Canson) Field sketchbook (my current fave) at the closest art supply store...and the pickings were mighty slim. The art supply section was considerably downsized to what seems to be a mere 10 ft square section. I'll have to start doing my art supply purchasing online like I did whilst working in-house. Just means that I need to plan my purchases, and buy bulk when possible. And if I run out of 2-H pencils, micron pens, drawing and marker pads, vellum, bristol, etc...I need to remember that the nearest stocked arts supply stores will be about 10-20 miles away. I won't even talk about the fact that the nearest comic book store is even further away these days. Sigh.

Crazy.
So later this afternoon I went ahead and did some online ordering since it takes about a week to get here with ground shipping; ordered a couple of pads of Denril Vellum (one of the things I'd hoped to pick up at the art supply store today) among other items (like a couple more sketchbooks which were about half the price). I really like Denril Vellum for tight line-work, particularly when I'm tracing over my tight pencils on my lightbox in order to get clear sharp lines with Micron inks for the final art (before scanning and coloring on the computer). It's a method I picked up years ago when I was doing multimedia artwork -- creating characters and scenes which were colored in Macromind Director and/or Studio 8 and then animated in Director (by me) and assembled in Authorware by the team of programmers. Like I said, it was a while ago. :)

Variations on a theme

After drawing a left foot when I should have sketched a right (d'oh!); I thought I maybe needed to do a bit more figure drawing practice. Plus, I wanted to do some experimenting with costumes. So I paged through a few mags I had around and looked at some stills and video of fashion shows online.

The above sketches are a minor sampling of the scribbling I did today in my sketchbook. And, it looks like I need to get another sketchbook -- I finished up that particular one with these.

Pixie Dixie

My most recent pet mouse, Pixie Dixie. At the moment, my only pet mouse, but one is plenty. She's a really sweet little mousie. When she sees me (I've had her about 2 weeks now) she'll stretch out, walk around her cage a bit, and then reach up for me to pick her up. I'll put my hand down into her little 5 gallon aquarium, and let her hop up into my palm. She'll wrap her little tail around a finger and squeak or chitter at me. I wonder sometimes what she's trying to say. I only keep her out for a little bit before putting her back in the tank -- it's much safer there...I have a couple of cats, too. :)

I get a batch of mice about once a month to feed my two snakes, Copper (corn snake) and Ghost (a Texas rat snake). Since I've had those guys about 18 years (I really didn't think they'd live that long, so I must be doing something right), that's a lot of mice that I've seen. Which is why I rescue one or two once in awhile. Guilty conscious, don't you know. Although, since I'm not a vegetarian I'm not feeling really that guilty...I eat meat, too.

Although except for sashimi, my meat is always cooked.

sketchbook: faces

Some random faces from my current sketchbook. Spent about 15-20 minutes sketching each one with my Sanford Col-erase blue pencil. I felt that I needed some practice doing realistic portraits versus my usual somewhat stylized quick sketches of made-up people.

Me Now

Well, here's the "After" or I should call it "Me -- Now" sketch that accompanies the previous "Teen -- Me" post. :)

The Dreadful Teen Years

Happened to read about the "Teen Meme" off of a couple of artist's blogs I regularly read last week, and had thought about doing one of my own...so I started mentally sketching something. And then today read over on Lines and Colors that there was actually a starting point and a collection of links. Very cool.

My own teen years were not a favorite time period. I confess that I tried to forget about it as much as possible. But I remembered enough to do the above quick sketch and some commentary.

Think that I'll do my "Imaginary Inner Teen-Self" for my next sketch, heh. Quite a bit different.

Illustration Friday: Wide

Possibly not the most comfortable way to travel far and wide, but certainly would be one of the most interesting -- held securely in the massive claws of a flying dragon. Above is the color concept, and just below is the final pencil.

The initial sketch is posted at the bottom. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how the right wing should be properly drawn when I started sketching, so I did a smaller thumbnail to help me. In any case, I think what I ended up with works fine. If (or when) I do a more finished version, though, I think I'll do a quick sculpey of the dragon first so I can see how the wings should be positioned. All in all about four hours total of creative fun!

More Progress

Here's a coloring progress of a previous sketch. I'm kind of liking the sepia-tone look of it. Has almost a watercolour wash feel with it, too; although it's all Photoshop.

And here is a sketch in progress as inspired by a recent EOW for a Woodland House Mouse...how could I resist drawing a story for a mouse. :)

For Illustration Friday: Electricity

My initial sketch (below) and the color version for the Illustration Friday project, "Electricity".

My Wild Hunt

A progress shot of one my mini-projects whilst I continue my own Wild Hunt for full-time creative employment. A 4-hour detailed sketch at this point as posted in the above sketch. In the meantime, in addition to that pursuit -- I'm doing some freelancing and, as always...still updating the online portfolio.

Undersea

A progress shot of the line-art for "Buried Treasure". I did a very light sketch of the overall character first going right to left (can see the light sketch in the face area of this particular image), and then reworked and fine-tuned with darker line-work and shading going from left to right. I'm also building elements separately for the scene because I have additional plans for bits and pieces along with the final illustration that I'm currently painting.

I'll post some more progress shots later...

In other news... Had a phone interview today and am doing an art test for another company...curious to see how that goes this time; different role, different product. :)

Rejected!

Thank you for the interest you have expressed in our art position. We were very fortunate to review your recent application. However, at this time, we are pursuing other candidates based on the best match with the requirements of the job. Please check back to our website www."_____".com. We are frequently adding positions that may be of relevance to you and your background. Once again, we appreciate your interest in "_____". We wish you continued success in your search and the development of your career.

Sincerely, "_____" Recruiting

Yay! I finally received my first official rejection email/letter after sending out 19 resume and sample art submissions to various companies for a new full-time creative position -- that I've been applying to since the first week of April. Breaking into a new industry isn't easy, that's for sure. Some of the companies I applied to would likely be excellent experiences in understanding the development pipeline, but may not prove to have long-term creative interest for me (...for various reasons) and therefore great for short-term contract opportunities. A few job openings (less than 5) were actually referred to me by people that either currently work at the companies that I applied to, or know people who do so that's hopefully a plus. Only about 30 more submissions to go and then maybe a decent nibble like in this example. :)

Meanwhile, I'm updating my website with new art including an unofficial re-launch at the end of this month (always takes longer than I plan to debug and update while I multi-task on other items: job-hunting, networking, developing projects, etc.) with additional section updates throughout the month of May. At this time, the main art sections I'm creating include:
- Concept Art
- Illustration
- Sequential Art
- Sketches

with a quad of information sections:
- Homepage/brief introduction
- Resume
- About Me
- Resource Links

I've also been contacting people that I've worked with in the past to let them know that I'm available for freelance or local in-house contract work developing concept art and/or children's book illustration.

However, I'm avoiding web design and development like the plague -- it literally makes me ill. Hmm...maybe that's why it's taking so long to get my website updated...ha. And maybe that's why these two snippets in the Eric Canette interview from the Character Design blog, had me in complete agreement:

"...From Peter Chung I learned to not work on projects that don’t inspire me; projects that don’t do anything to make me want to jump out of bed, drive an hour into work, jockey a drafting table, day in and day out. It does nothing for the soul."

and

"...Also, always, ALWAYS think long term. For example, sure you could probably do a job that will pay ridiculously well financially, but if all is causes you is stress loss of sleep, then I don’t know how much that will do for you when all it just takes away from your mental health you know? Those are the things you need to consider before taking on projects. But the reality is, when you’re first starting out, you may not have that luxury, but once you’re e in there, once you have some notches on your belt, I believe it’s worth considering the points that I’ve just mentioned."

---------------------------------------------
Some rough preliminary sketches of an illustration that I'm working on, called "Buried Treasure". Final image size should be about 14" x 20".

Thumbnails.

Initial layout rough.

Orphan Works and related Hoopla

Hoopla: Noun, informal.

1. 1. Boisterous, jovial commotion or excitement.
   2. Extravagant publicity: The new sedan was introduced to the public with much hoopla.
2. Talk intended to mislead or confuse.

I've been reading plenty of postings and commentary in the last couple of days about the potential Orphan Works legislation that first caught my attention back in March '08. Mark Simon's article over on AWN was definitely a "wake-up call", although maybe a bit shriller than most. I'm still not entirely sure what all is going on and what it could mean as regards to commercial and/or private copyrights for my artwork, or even how it could affect the way I post my artwork (and other images) on the internet; particularly since most of the legalize documentation is not something I read over and study on a daily basis (ha -- hardly). Is there a new bill regarding this up before the 2008 Congress? I've read both "yes" and "no". Most recently: hearings, definitely.

Whatever the case, I'm glad that it's finally on my radar, considering that the initial bill hearing occured back in 2005 and I'd never heard a peep about it till March of 2008.

If you're interested in checking out some of the additional resources that I've been reading in the last few days, here are some of the links (other links are also in my previous post):

1. Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists (IPA)
2. Six Misconceptions About Orphaned Works
3. Orphan Works blog
4. Bill Could Worsen Problem of Orphan Works
5. Status of 2008 Orphan Works legislation
6. Public Knowledge: Orphan Works articles
7. Flickr Strips Copyright Metadata
8. Countering the FUD about the "Orphan Works" copyright bill
9. Orphan Works Legislation: Round Two
10.Creative Commons sued for deception

Orphan Works: Artists' Copyrights Issue

I'm actually almost afraid to post any more artwork online...and that includes launching my new website and portfolio after reading various articles and discussions about this bill that may soon be law here in the United States.

What is it? It's called the Orphan Works bill.

I initially found out about this new legislation that is going before Congress over on CGTalk, in this thread here. After doing some research of my own, I was concerned enough that I posted the same information over on ConceptArt as well, in order to, hopefully, get some of the professional artists on that board to post their comments and discuss how they thought it might affect our work practices.

Didn't get all of the discussion that I'd hoped for, but on April 10, Mark Simon posted an article called, "Mind Your Business: You Will Lose All The Rights to Your Own Art" on AWN (Animation World Network) about the Orphan Law legislation that I thought was an excellent simplification of some of the issues and certainly made it rather clear how this could affect anyone that was posting any images on the internet, not just the creatives who develop art and earn a living from it.

Here are some of my favorite points:
1. "...If the Orphan Works legislation passes, you and I and all creatives will lose virtually all the rights to not only our future work but to everything we've created over the past 34 years, unless we register it with the new, untested and privately run (by the friends and cronies of the U.S. government) registries. Even then, there is no guarantee that someone wishing to steal your personal creations won't successfully call your work an orphan work, and then legally use it for free."

2. "...However, an Orphan Works bill is also in the works in Europe. I was speaking recently with Roger Dean, the famed artist of the Yes album covers, and he is greatly concerned with what will happen if Orphan Works bills become law. "This will devastate the livelihood of artists, photographers and designers in a number of ways," Dean says. "That at the behest of a few hugely rich corporations who got rich by selling art that they played no part in the making of, the U.S. and U.K. governments are changing the copyright laws to protect the infringer instead of the creator. This is unjust, culturally destructive and commercial lunacy. This will not just hurt millions of artists around the world..."

3. "...Photos on the internet could be orphaned. With tens of millions of photos shared online with services like Flickr, Shutterfly and Snapfish, there is a huge opportunity for unauthorized use of your photos... legally. You could see photos you take of your family and kids, or of a family vacation, used in a magazine or newspaper without your permission or payment to you. You would have to pay to register your photos, all of them, in every new registry in order to protect them. Say the average person takes 300 photos per year (I take a lot more than that). If a registry only charges $5 per image, that is a whopping $1,500 to protect your photos that are protected automatically under the current laws. If there are three registries, protecting your images could cost an amazing $4,500. Not to mention the time it would take to register every photo you take. Plus, you will also have to place your copyright sign on every photo.

That's not including all your art, sketches, paintings, 3D models, animations, etc. Do you really have all that extra time and money? Plus, even if you do register, the people stealing your work can still claim it was orphaned and, unless you fight them, they win. Even if you win, you may not make back your legal fees.

It gets even better. Anyone can submit images, including your images. They would then be excused from any liability for infringement (also known as THEFT) unless the legitimate rights owner (you) responds within a certain period of time to grant or deny permission to use your work...."

4. There are many, many other problems with the Orphan Works legislation. As a creator, YOU MUST understand what is going on. For additional information on Orphan Works developments, go to the IPA Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists.

This is not something that is going to go away easily. We need to be vocal NOW!

This legislation has been beaten or delayed for the past two years and they will keep trying until it passes. This is no time to be quiet and see what happens. What will happen depends on you. Send e-mails and call your congressmen. Ownership of your own creations depends on it.

Roger Dean sums this up well. "Where are the colleges and universities in all this? Has the whole world gone to sleep?"

Edit (some additional links with info):
1. From ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers)
2. Creative Commons Sued for Deception
3. OrphanWorks blog
4. Bill Could Worsen Problem of Orphan Works
5. March 13, 2008 Judiciary Hearing: "Hearing on Promoting the Use of Orphan Works: Balancing the Interests of Copyright Owners and Users" (video)
6. PDF of outline for above hearing

Milestones

This past week I celebrated another birthday...whee. Yeah, it's that time of life when you're always turning 29...and will do so "ad infinitum". :)

My work friends were very sweet: from making a very delicious, very rich, home-made chocolate cake for me to share (although I did take a small second slice home with me, heh); treating me to lunch (yay, sushi!); to creating a poster birthday card for everyone to sign of my "mightiness". Ha. I was quite flattered. Even the Texas weather celebrated with a lovely Spring day filled with sunshine and near eighty degree temp. Especially nice since the following days have been much cooler and cloudy with some rain here and there.

Meanwhile, I've been keeping busy with my homework: from organizing my art files and setting goals and deadlines for my home illustration work (including the art mentioned previously being developed specifically for my new portfolio); to setting a sterner handle on my budget (I think everyone is doing some tightening there); to getting my taxes done (should have that finished after next weekend - bleh); to having a hella lotta fun doing my creative writing. :)

The DFW Writer's conference that I attended a last month provided a good bit of info to soak up, but no agent pitching from me just yet. If ever. :) I came back with several pages of notes, a better appreciation of the DFW writing community, and some homework. Part of that homework includes doing some recommended reading to help me build stronger, more interesting characters; to help me with developing dialogue for my characters (an area I feel a need to work on); and motivate me to "get my ass in gear" so that I finally finish my first novel manuscript and (possibly) send it out to the appropriate literary agent. Most of what I learned could also apply to my picture book stories and my other Tween or YA story, which is the graphic novel I've been developing. I also attended Sarah M.'s presentation on Graphic Novel development which pretty much affirmed some decisions I'd already made about the one I've been working on, but I also noted some additional points to consider for future projects.

Like anthologies. :)

But first, I need to finish what I've started as well as keep in mind some of the creative priorities that are key to my illustration and vis dev artist career: like finally updating my online portfolio, darn it!

I also have been getting a few newsletters from Holly Lisle that I signed up for about a month ago. Can't think at the moment how I found out about her postings; likely another writing blog that I was checking out from my notes. I like most of her books -- they're usually a fun read; and I'm looking forward to checking out a YA series that she's mentioned (saw the cover artwork in development on another artist's site which originally peaked my interest). I definitely appreciate that she takes the time to share some of her writing experiences and provide some good insights to her writing process, although not all of it is applicable to my stuff.

In any case, my novel is progressing quite nicely by this point. It's been seriously fun (and surprisingly addictive) to finally take my rough notes and outlines and bits of story, characters, world-building, conversation and narrative that I have been writing by hand in my spiral notebooks for the past several years (totally for my own amusement -- some of these notebooks have traveled with me quite a bit, too) and type them into a tighter format on my computer a few nights each week. It's actually somehow turning itself into a 60-90,000 word novel (not quite there yet, I'm only at about 6 delightful chapters typed in at the moment...hmm...about 30,000 words).

Even better, this one I'm writing up is really one out of several notebook stories or potential novels, in fact.

Still occasionally trying to decide if this particular novel is better presented as an eventual pair of books or if I should shoot for a trilogy...(eh, what's that about not counting ones chickens...). However, I'm only focusing on the one novel at the moment (I'm not counting my graphic novel, or the picture books as part of the notebook stories; they are quite a separate development). My sister has kindly accepted being my first reader and I expect she will be quite blunt about what she likes and doesn't like about it (or that needs improvement) -- she's my sister after all; it's lucky for me that we both enjoy some of the same genre reading. :)

My thought is to also include a few BW illustrations scattered throughout the book. They'll be some finished versions of the various thumbnails and sketches that I've done of specific elements, scenes and characters (and am still doing) as I've been writing my story. It's entirely possible, of course, that the only people that will ever see the finished product are my friends and family (or even just my sister and myself), but since this story was/is really written for my own enjoyment, I'm quite happy with that.

If, however, I do decide to take the next step once it's done and submit it to an agent for consideration and then, ideally, eventual publication...I'll let you all know. ;)

Fever Dreams and Rambles

Don't have a cold or fever any more (not for the past month actually) and the cough is nearly gone at last - yay! At this point, it's probably a touch of allergies anyway... However, some of those fever dreams did linger with me and kept inspiring me, so above is another quick sketch from that. The final color version is in progress...

"..."

It can be somewhat disheartening to hear of the recent successes of some of the concept artists over on CA when it seems like you're sending your art out again and again, and hearing little if anything back. Is it bad to have a variety of different creative experiences? Is it because you don't have specific experience in game development or animation or whatever field you're trying to get your foot into? Is it because you don't personally know someone who works in the industry? Is it because you're not uber passionate about playing video games every free hour of the day but would rather focus on practicing your art or writing, or watch a movie or read a book, and just play games the odd hour or two once or twice a week?

Could be any of that, could be that they don't have an opening at the moment, could even be that the various styles of art that you've done for other jobs or what they saw from what you sent in your portfolio submission just don't fit with their current needs...ah, well. Try, try again.

I've been thinking that with all the rapid concept art I develop for the day job (some days more than others) and for my own little projects, it may help explain my almost reluctance (with a dash of procrastination, if I'm really honest about it) to work on the Fairy Tale illustrations I have on my list of "things to do". While I can and do get immediate satisfaction from the rough sketches and quick coloring of the personal concept artwork I do some evenings and weekends after the day job, it takes so much longer when I'm doing a tight illustration piece to finally reach the same level of satisfaction and see some real progress. A piece of concept art or spot art I can finish in an hour or two, at most four; I basically have to schedule a month or two to simply get one 11x17 illustration completed (that meets my standards)...for what would take a week or less if I was focused and working on it at the full-time day job...if I want the final finished illustration artwork for my new portfolio to solicate freelance work among other opportunities.

But, if I'm serious about my creative goals, that's what I simply will have to do.

After discovering another rather excellent site that posted info on upcoming books in the sci-fi fantasy and paranormal romance genres, along with a few astute comments about some cover designs that I also thought were rather sadly illustrated and unfortunately art directed, I decided to include some alternative concepts and a couple of cover illustration redos much like a couple of assignments I had back at university when I was studying illustration. Plus, once again, these will be some nice pieces that will fit well in my updated portfolio with the "Myths, Fairy Tales, and Legends" theme.

These past few weeks have also included some good progress on my first dummy picture book where I'm both the author and illustrator. I'll finally be submitting to various publishers in late spring. And then likely several months of waiting. Argh. The other picture book I'll continue developing once I've sent off the first, although I'll probably switch to focusing on the GN for the change of pace. The YA graphic novel remains another "work-in-progress" at this point as does my fantasy novel although I do write a page or two on that one almost every night. Some thumbnail sketches, too, as I mentioned previously, to help me visualise where this story is taking me.

Happy Birthday, Little Sister!

A quick coloring job in PS (about an hour) of a sketch that I originally pencilled in the card I sent my sister for her birthday. The sketch was inspired by a photo of her wearing one of her favorite costumes: my sister does the RenFair thing and this particular costume is based on the ballgown from the movie, Labyrinth, a gift a couple of years ago from her loving hubby (who also sewed it).

I posted the coloring progress in Photoshop, since this blog of mine is my "work in progress" after all. :)

Fey Fragments

Bits and pieces of sketches in addition to those I'll be working on over the next couple of months as I continue to whip my portfolio into shape. Some fever dreams I had this past week have been definite inspiration, heh.

I always forget how the flu keeps me exhausted for days, even weeks after I "feel better". Still have a bit of a cough and congestion.

Did squeeze in some writing over the weekend, but I'm not yet back on regular schedule for that. Disappointing. I'm surprised about how much I think about some of my characters every day, though; and keep up with the world building. On the plus side, it helps that I can sketch out and visualize specific areas and scenarios in my notebooks for the various bits I have ongoing. Kind of a bit of storyboarding with a slight nod to graphic novel pacing. Not only does it help me stay on track, but it makes me curious enough to keep exploring. Can't wait to finally read it all when I'm finally done. :)