Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

One book I am excited for is Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. I thoroughly enjoyed Lament; The Faerie Queen's Deception. It's sequel, Ballad, will be out this October. But Shiver is about a girl and a boy who has a little problem with turning into a wolf. Might sound like she borrowed from Stephenie Meyer, but believe me, Maggie has a very unique voice and I'm sure she has made this story her own.
The book comes out in August and she has made her own video with her own music. This young woman is a mother, musician, artist and yeah, an author too. Not fair but there you have it. Watch her video and see what you think.

IMC 2009

I've been back from the Illustration Master Class for a few days now and am still reeling from the experience. I didn't think anything could top last year's class but they managed to surpass it. Rebecca Guay is the mastermind behind the class and along with her assembled cast of instructors extraordinaire, they pull off a class that allows the student to reach within, face long-held fears, and boldly go where they never thought possible. Perhaps that seems too dramatic, but it's how I feel about it. There exists an incredible artistic energy that comes from all the teachers as well as the attendees. It's impossible to resist and once you plug in, it propels you forward. It's very hard to leave. Depressing, actually. But, we do stay in contact on Facebook and that helps.
Above are photos of my daughter Sarah as the Lady of the Lake, the assignment I chose for the class. I ended up taking elements of each Photoshop workup, developing the sketch at the bottom. Next post, I will show my progress on the painting.

Fan Art Process - Part 1

I have been asked a few times how I go about drawing fan art. I guess the initial start of the process is finding a book I connect to. . . how much I want to envision the character(s). Let's take one of my favorite finds last year: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Could not put it down and am anticipating the next in the series, Catching Fire, due out in the fall. The main character is a 16 year old girl named Katniss Everdeene. Say I want to flesh her out of my head on to paper. First I start with the author's physical description which surprisingly, wasn't a great deal. On Wiki is gives this info: Katniss has straight black hair, which she normally pulls back into a long braid, olive skin, and gray eyes. She is slender and athletic, especially skilled in wilderness survival. Archer.
I also go through the book and highlight any scenes that disclose to me particular characteristics of her personality...kindness, anger, selfishness, determination, tenderness....etc. Then I go hunting. First, I try to remember any actors that have an interesting face. For instance, one of my very first Twilight fan art of Edward and Bella had me going back to an actor I remembered from a Mel Gibson film called Gallipoli. His name is Mark Lee and played the unforgettable character, Archy Hamilton. Though he was blond, he had the chiseled features that I envisioned for Edward. Plus he had portrayed the goodness that I felt was part of Edward's personality.

For Katniss, I remembered an actress....didn't know who she was at the time, who played Becky Thatcher in a 1995 film of Tom and Huck. She was tomboyish and yet you could tell she was going to grow into a lovely young woman. I discovered it was Rachael Leigh Cook. Had to do some digging, but found a photo of her around 16.
Her hair isn't in a braid, but it's dark. I can work with it. The ragged t-shirt is a good start for her clothes, although the Nirvana underneath will have to go as will the eyeliner. But she has potential. I wish the lighting of the photo was better, but I can work with it. If there's no one I can recall, I will go through faces on Flickr, modeling agencies, etc., hoping someone will jump out at me. If it's black and white and good lighting, all the better. So, this is how I start. Next will be the beginnings of the sketch and the use of other references.

SAD or Sketch a Day

This one is more planned than the others because I have to get to work on my assignment for IMC. This sketch still came about in a doodling fashion.

Sunday Sketches

One is from life. The other is from a magazine. I really liked the lighting of the photo. I'm trying to use my eraser less and drawing with more line commitment. The best way to do this of course, would be to trade my trusty mechanical pencil for a pen but I'm not ready to make that leap yet.

Sketch a day

I've been reading Danny Gregory's book, The Creative License and am trying to sketch something from my head everyday. This exercise involves drawing what comes to you...not over thinking, just drawing without worry. Sort of like creative writing without worrying about grammar or spelling. I hope I can keep up with this and thought posting would help motivate me. This is Geeze. He wants your French fries.

Artistic Borrowing

When I have a commission, or in this instance, an assignment, I often begin the process by looking through my vast file of other artist's work, as well as perusing the web for other images that inspire me. Often, I take an idea here and there and meld it into my own. I have felt this is due to my inexperience as an artist until I discovered that others who have been in the industry a long time do this as well. Many also search through Classic paintings to help with the creative process. Even the greats are guilty of borrowing themes and poses from each other, particularly when certain art movements were influencing the art world, such as the Pre-Raphaelites brotherhood.
I've been preparing for my assignments for IMC (in two weeks...gulp!) and came upon these two paintings. Do you see any similarities? The top one is by John W. Waterhouse, one of my favorites. The second is by Cory and Catska Ench, another fav. The Ench's have certainly made it their own, but their book cover was undoubtedly influenced by Waterhouse. Of course the way to avoid this problem is to take your own photo references and poses.
The rules change when using copyrighted photos. In my previous post (Revised Dazed and Confused), I showed a piece of fan art I did for Twilight using a photo of a model I found somewhere on the web. (This was prior to my computer crash so I can't find the source). Though I changed the face, the eyes, the clothes, I was still worried that I would run into copyright problems. The drawing below is my attempt at revising the drawing with my own photo reference. My thanks to Jeff, doctor-son-in-law for posing... and no, his eyes are not golden.