Illustration Master Class 2014 Edition

Post-IMC is not so much a case of con crud, but rather a multi-day hangover from excessive consumption of awesome! Now that I've been home for a few days since getting back on Monday, I'm finally rested enough to not feel the urge to just lie down on the couch.

This year I decided to work on a personal piece: a painting for The Dark Woods show coming up next month at Krab Jab in Seattle. The painting is my take on a Japanese kodama, spirits that inhabit old sugi trees. I was originally going to take on the Dragon Rider assignment, even going so far as spending two weeks working on reference compiling and having a final sketch to show for it, but two days before heading up to Amherst, I, in Carly fashion, decided to kill two birds with one stone and work on one of the three pieces I needed to get done for gallery shows coming up in July, and get a good critique on my own personal work. So, in two days I went from zero to sketch, ready for first-day critique.

Sketch Pre-Critique

My focus group was comprised of Rebecca Guay, Greg Manchess, Scott Fischer, Mike Mignola, and Iain McCaig. I couldn't have asked for or picked a more perfect group! Of course they offered great critique, leading me to have the figure hug the curve of the tree to help reinforce the flow of the piece. It wasn't until the end of the week, but Greg brought to my attention how much of a swastika the original pose was... Whoops!

My critique in action!

Day two, Tuesday, I spent the whole day coming up with and finalizing her new pose--primarily sussing out what to do with her arms and hands. The end result on day two was what I ended up transferring onto board and began to paint by Wednesday!

Thursday's in progress photo...

I kind of got too wrapped up in painting and socializing to take more progress pictures, but I at least got this one! Since this picture was taken I changed the pose of her right arm to a much more believable and elegant configuration. Now that I'm home I've worked on it since, and thanks to the slow-drying nature of titanium white, it will take a few more days to finish this than anticipated, but I'm pleased with how it's coming along and am very excited to get it finished! Once it's done it will be of course posted up here on the blog, so look out!

I told myself that this was going to be my last year, because it's terribly difficult for me to afford attending, but it's so hard to say no year after year... Soo many good things came out of this year, potential job gigs and private sales, and seeing friends I wouldn't get a chance to see any other time. I'm going to try my hardest at being able to go back for 2015, so the next few months I'm going to work my ass off! Here's to another brilliant year of the Illustration Master Class!

How could I say no to a week of shenanigans?!

IMC 2013 Piece

Jon and Arya oil & acrylic 24" x 36"

I finished it! I will be making prints, which will be available to buy at Dragon*Con and illuXcon this year!

IMC 2013 Prologue

So here's my concept for this year's Illustration  Master Class piece. I chose the assignment to illustrate two Game of Thrones characters, depicting Arya Stark and Jon Snow. I chose the two characters because they have this special bond, Jon being the one to nurture Arya's desire to want to be as far from the lady she's being forced to be by giving her her first sword: Needle. The two of them are black sheep in their own right, Jon being sent off to the wall, being the bastard child of the family, and Arya being defiant and free-spirited. As the story progresses the two of them are left to fend for themselves.

Arya I've depicted in a defensive pose, but Needle at hand she is capable of defending herself. As a character she is indeed very strong, but being forced to flee and survive on her own  she has run into situations that are beyond her control being still just a child.

Jon's sword bisects Arya's hair in a symbolic representation of how Arya has lost her innocence and how she was forced to drop her identity and her gender to flee the capital after her father was executed.

I'm pretty confident in this composition/idea, however my only qualm is I need to finagle a way to cut her hair shorter without smushing Jon into Arya, because to pass as a boy her hair was cut waaaaaaay shorter than I depicted. Winona Nelson suggested to me that I use a shadow cast by Jon's sword further up in the composition to achieve that effect, which is something I will definitely play with until the critique next Monday when the IMC is in full swing!

IMC Day 6

Here she is at day six. Wanted to try to paint as long as I could tonight, but I'm too sick to put any more time into it. It's been unfortunate that this year something has been going around and there have been a lot of us getting sick this week. Personally, I've been feeling incredibly tired, achey, and been unable to focus--both mentally and visually. I feel sympathy for Chris Burdett, who has been in his room with a terrible flu all week long... Tonight someone else nearly fainted from dizziness after our last lecture and had to be led back to his own dorm room. Crazy stuff!

Sickness aside, I dug in today, and am pretty happy with the results I've gotten thus far. I probably won't be painting tomorrow morning, but all in all at this point I'm thrilled with what I have so far, and will have to go home, overcome whatever illness I have, and finish this baby!

IMC Day 5

Finally dug in with oils today! Focused on the face, and am  really happy with the subtlety of colors I'm achieving. Redid the face completely, so that's where all my time today was invested. I actually made some minor changes right after I took this picture. I'm just sad that these photos don't do the paint any justice at all... I mean, really, really don't; holy crap.

Tomorrow will be a big day--or so I plan--to lay in most everything else. I'm super tired now, and am very excited to go in tomorrow and start fresh in the morning!

IMC Day 4

Another slow-ish day. Primarily did a lot lot lot of glazing and small detail stuff in the bark. I also came to a halo concept that I liked. Very Wayne Barlowe! Almost, not completely...

Tomorrow morning I'm going to begin rendering Katniss. I decided to call this an early night to get a good night sleep, as I've felt super tired since breakfast. Also, I have pinkeye in my left eye! Wonderful. At least it's not the cold that's making rounds, I'd rather have a freakishly red eye than feel groggy and congested.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I had a wonderful portfolio review with Dave Palumbo. Today I also had Lauren Panepito give me some insight and both reviews are making me feel confident in my work and reinforce that I'm doing the right thing. Time for rest!

IMC Day 3

Here I am at the end of day three. I finished the under-painting early afternoon-ish, and started to lay in color after dinner. The upper, darker portion of the painting is way too cool so I made a note to myself to glaze in some sap green tomorrow morning. I refrained from doing so tonight because I didn't want to just keep working and end up doing something really stupid. I can go back to it with fresh eyes tomorrow.

Pretty excited, gotta say! starting to come together, and the parts I'm a little hesitant with--the color of the tree trunks, mostly--I know what to do with.I didn't expect to get quite this far today, so I can't wait to see how it will be at the end of tomorrow. I'm exhausted.

IMC Day 2

Today seemed like such a slow progress day, but I got quite a bit done, now that I'm looking at what I have. Bright and early this morning I mounted my drawing at 8:30 or so. Off and on waiting for it to dry, sanding, putting another layer of matte medium on it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

While I waited in between drying and lectures I worked on a color study, and then felt satisfied enough to start the under-painting. I hadn't originally intended to begin with a brown under-painting for the background--for in the color study I jumped in directly with the blues/greens--however I would love to add some brown undertones and blah blah blah... But, I feel I'm at a safe point to stop for the night and come back in the morning with fresh eyes. Until then...

IMC Day 1

So here's the result from day 1: I had critique at 11 this morning with Scott Fischer, Doug Gregory, Boris Vallejo, and Irene Gallo. They stated this was a solid composition, and the only revisions were to change the angle of the large branch behind her and make it thicker, put the littlest bit of tension on the bow string, and to have the bird (that I added in last night and taped to the piece) oriented so it faced Katniss. Scott put it so aptly that I needed to "flip the bird", and you bet I did! I also fiddled with the halo idea for the hell of it before I decided to return to the dorm.

Spent a healthy 2 hours napping after lunch to make up for the lack of sleep from these past 2 nights. This is an early night as well, putting off mounting the piece for tomorrow. It's going to be a busy week, so I might as well get in a decent night's rest while I still can. More to come tomorrow!

IMC Prologue

So here's what I have for the critique session for this year's Illustration Master Class. I'm not too savvy with digital, so I did what I could with my laptop's trackpad to give an idea of the color scheme. Better than nothing! I have the colors matched with physical paint, so it's all good, planned out, et cetera. I just want to throw out that the model is my student, Emma, who is a big The Hunger Games fan and convinced me to read the series. I like to think this is a good way to thank her and show her how awesome she is! (But all my students are equally awesome, of course.)

Heading out tomorrow morning around 9 a.m. with John. It's going to be a long, but fast week! I will take progress shots of the piece as the week goes by on a daily basis--more or less, depending on how much I get done and how tired/busy I am. Stay tuned!

IMC First-Fiddlings

So here's the concept I'm running with for this year's IMC assignment. I've chosen to paint Katniss from The Hunger Games, in a tree scouting out the arena. Mulling about the idea of a fiery halo around her head and on the tip of her arrow, but that'll be discussed during the critique session.

Time to collect all the reference I need and start with the better sketch!