LegoLand

Man this month has flown by. Ever since my classes started it's felt like 3-day-long weeks. I guess that's why I've not been posting as much. Just have a lot of stuff going on right now. So I had a great weekend at Joe's. I made $150 in one hour last night and $65 tonight. Which puts me right about where I was before this whole fiasco this week with trying to get my Student Loans consolidated. Won't go into that. Needless to say, I'm glad Joe's went well. I really needed the cash. It's funny $150 a night was my average at Joe's in Lubbock. Still haven't quite figured out the difference.

I had my orientation at Legoland today. I really enjoyed it. Never said that about orientation for any job. Ironically this weekend is StarWars weekend at the park. Stoked. There were all kinds of Jedis, stormtroopers, Vaders and R2D2's walking... rolling.. around the park. Not to mention the entire park is all about Lego's. Dude, my 10 year old self was in FREAKING heaven. I'm still geeking out. If I could go back in time and tell the kid in me what I do for a living these days I think I'd pass out. But really isn't that what it should be like? It is for me I guess.

It was funny watching Vader and his stormtroopers taking a leisurely stroll through the park on a sunny day. It was even funnier to see him sign autographs and tell a kid through the helmet - in a congested sinussy voice - "Is booger spelled with one "G" or two?"


I really think I'm going to like this job. I don't know if I was ever that optimistic about Seaworld. This just feels right. I think the company is much more ethical and enthusiastic. At least that's what I read from the attitude of the employees. And I have so much of my childhood wrapped up in these toys that I doubt I'll ever get tired of it. I mean, they're the main reason I became a comic book artist in the first place. To share the stories that I learned to write through my play. But that's a whole other post. And other than that, it took me 5 minutes to get to work today instead of an hour. Doesn't get much better than that.

After the Legoland orientation we broke into teams and did a scavenger hunt around the park. That was a lot of fun, even though everyone was only reluctantly enthusiastic. It was definitely a great way to get to know the park. I don't know if that's the sort of thing they do at Seaworld, since I haven't been through their orientation yet. After the scavenger hunt we kind of messed around and rode some of the rides and I took a bunch of pictures of different exhibits around. Mini-land was fantastic. Replicas of Washington DC, San Fran, New Orleans and New York. You have to see these in person to really appreciate the detail. Addy and I took a bunch of pictures in this cemetery in the Real French Quarter - it was cool to see it in Miniature. And apparently this tall building with the torch coming out of it is what's going up where the World Trade Center was.


Then after the Legoland orientation wrapped up and let out, myself and the two other people that work for the caricature company went to meet with our new boss. I really like her. She seems to really have her stuff together. I haven't looked forward to working for someone in... well... ever. But I do with her. I think there's a lot I can learn. The best part is, after the other new-hires left she pulled me aside to ask if I wanted to move up. I said yes. Apparently I made a good impression. And apparently someone important gave me a really good recommendation. Makes me feel good. Someone at the other park had mentioned a possible opportunity for me to move up. But I wasn't looking forward to the prospect. But for some reason this was different. I guess there's less chaos at this park. Or maybe it's more my rhythm. I don't know. But I could definitely see myself in a different role here, one that I've never aspired to before in any job - other than with my own business.

I hadn't expected a promotion. So it took a little while to process. My first thought was to lay down my process. How I need to know clearly what's expected of me. That seems to be what got me so frustrated with working at Seaworld. I didn't have the right expectations. Or more specifically, I had the right expectations, just bad timing. Since it seems that so much had changed right as I arrived or just before - and for the most part things are still changing. Growing pains. But before I could go into that she did it for me. At least enough for me to lay a foundation in my head. This seems to be the laid back environment I was looking for. Sales are important of course, but so is the art, and encouraging other artists and developing your skills. It's the little things that make the difference. And in this case, to me, there are a lot of little things.

FULL ALBUM

--Will

Atelier - Week Three

Some good breakthrough's this week. I'm starting to get the handle on things a little better now. The hardest part really has been finding out what I'm Supposed to be doing. From the step by step drawing process to how to whittle my pencil into the correct instrument. It's becoming almost a meditative ritual sharpening my pencil. You take a regular charcoal pencil and shave it down to a very sharp dagger. Then you finely shave the coal itself to a fine tip and then sand the whole thing down. Fascinating. The next step is learning how to hold the pencil right. We don't hold it like you would when you're writing, we hold it almost like a blade. And for some strange reason it allows you to get more control with the drawing. Its just very hard to get used to at first. It's going to take a while to break it in.

I keep getting to class 5 minutes early - but apparently that's still not enough time for the Monday class. Because it's so full I always seem to end up in the profile position. It's getting annoying. But maybe that's what I needed to work on. I'm also still drawing WAY too fast. Drawing heads in 3 minutes all day long is not conducive to accurately capturing a likeness in a 2 hour drawing. The teachers had to remind me again to slow down. I ended up starting over 3 times before I got it right.

Head Drawing

A friend of mine gave me some tips on how to lay in the construction lines to make my drawings cleaner and have more depth. It helped a lot. You can see a ton of improvement with the last drawing. I was so stoked I wanted to pack up right away and run out of the room before someone could tell me I was doing something wrong, lol. I got it critiqued anyways. Turns out my only main problem was that I kept going too dark. You're never supposed to go all the way black till the end of a drawing. In case there needs to be corrections. Makes sense. I'm sure there were more problems, but I think week 3 they're just happy I'm making progress.


And of course I took photos of some of the other guys' drawings.


But this time I actually took pics of the class.



Intro to Tonal Drawing

This class was fantastic. Today we went into the "rhythms of the face". It's called the Reilly method of drawing. This is pretty much the trademark of the ARC system. I can see why too. Everything makes sense now. It will most likely take me years to learn how to do it masterfully... but at this moment it all makes sense. Basically the face can be drawn using rhythms that flow through the face. It's made up of circles, and arcs. And using measurements of thirds to keep everything in proportion. After one hour of practicing this, the entire class went from weird monster faces to realistic looking portraits. There's a lot left to learn, like accuracy, tone, and style. But I've never seen an entire class change that quickly. I myself made a huge leap tonight too. Course, I kept starting over, wanting to get it right once before moving on. So I don't have any pics of tonight's work. But I will probably put some up in the next few days - hopefully with a tutorial.

Here's an example of the rhythms.


And finally - here's some more fantastic art from around the school.


--Will

"How to become a comic book artist."

I figure it was about time to post something like this. I've met a lot of people since I've been in San Diego. Many with the same goals: To become a professional artist. Meaning... making a living doing art that they enjoy. Whether it be comic book illustration, game design, conceptual design or caricature illustration (different from theme park caricatures). And I know a lot of artists read this blog. So I'd like to do my best to impart what I've observed. Keep in mind this will most likely be revised in the coming months as I meet more and more people.

For all the working professional artists that I've met, the key ingredient seems to be this... they do the work. Pretty straight forward right? But it's not as easy at it sounds. The best examples that I've seen are guys that take a job with a small company to just do menial, tedious, grunt work. And they follow through spectacularly and without complaint. It seems to be a weeding out process. Even with small companies... especially with small companies.

One example is an artist named Dustin Evans. I met this kid at Wizworld LA last month with the Ape Entertainment crew. At first I kind of brushed him off. "So he finished a couple books so what?" But that's just it. He finished a couple books. He did them on time for the company, didn't complain, did his best, and got paid a measly sum (actually it's good by indy press standards - but it won't pay your rent). But the thing is, that built his rep. He got recommendations, references, and best of all he got more work. And continues to get work. To the point that this kid living in Oklahoma is able to move out of his parents house and pay rent, and do this full time (along with school). Not many people can say that. He's not the flashiest artist in the world. But he has a good attitued and a clean, fun, consistent style. And he gets it done.

And he's just one of a dozen that I've met recently. There's no plan to follow, no path to take. You just get work and get it done. And if you do it well, (not necessarily spectacularly) and on time, you'll get more work. Till you're getting enough work to call it your job. So if you're an artist that's looking to get started, that's a great way to do it. Go to a convention and meet people. Post on forums and meet people. Email companies with samples and meet people. Find work and do it. Sometimes you'll get burned, sometimes you'll get a break. But don't let the burns slow you down. Just keep moving.

Here are some things to keep in mind. Your style needs to be clean and crisp. You don't have to be Jim Lee. But your stuff does have to be consistent. Artists like Steve Rolston Mike Hawthorne, Tony Moore and Todd Nuack aren't flashy artists. But then again they're not trying to be. They're consistent artists. They produce quality work at a steady pace. Publishers and especially writers like that a lot. So in turn they get steady work.

So if you post artwork at a forum or go to cons for critiques and your work is considered consistantly quality. Meaning, it's publishable even though there's small things here and there you can work on. Then start talking to publishers. Start doing short stories or one-shots and get work. And whatever you do don't complain. If it's a project you don't like, do your best to make it something you DO like and finish it then move on. Because editors/publishers/writers talk. You never know who knows who in this biz. And that works both ways. The Ape guys are the ones that helped get Dustin more work. He wasn't even expecting it. But if you do a good job, most people want to reward that. Most people.

This advice is the same for pretty much any other art related industry. Refine your skills to a decent, consistent level, then start getting work. Humbly. Do your best at whatever your given and you'll be trusted with more and more. Work your way up. Build a reputation of consistency and quality. And you'll see each year grow exponentially for you.

Apprenticships and Internships

Another path is very similar to the first one in that you have to approach it with a humble attitude and a modecum of talent. It's relatively easy to get in a comic book company as an intern. Relatively meaning: people do it every day. Wildstorm, Top Cow, Marvel, Aspen... I've met interns from all of them. It is a very tough row to hoe though. You start out absolutely at the bottom of the barrel. Taking out trash, cleaning and at best spend a small portion of your time talking with pro artists. They also want you to start young, 19 or 20. They want to train you before you develope an ego. Before you get set in your ways. They don't want to have to untrain you of anything.

It's a LOT of grunt work. But that's how you get into the mainstream system. They train everything in house. If you come in with a few good strengths they'll develope you into a mean lean inking/penciling/coloring machine. Over a 5 year period. Keep in mind that you're not getting paid, you're in the studio once or twice a week and there's little or no glory in the early stages. But that's what it takes. And after a couple years of that you start getting small work. Backgrounds on pages, spotting blacks for an inker, laying in flat colors for a colorist. Menial stuff. And if they can trust you with that, you start getting more duties. Till you're good enough to do a full page here or there, or a one-shot, or pin-ups. It's a very, very slow process.

But the benefit is that if you make it through, you're almost guaranteed work for years to come. From any company. Because anyone that makes it through that process has truly paid their dues.

The D.I.Y. guys

Then there's guys like me. If you're a guy like me, we're in a whole other boat. I did this all the hard way. And because I pushed my way through - alone for so long, I've sort of developed an ego. And I have a lot of trouble swallowing that ego. It would have to take a very special set of circumstances for me to work up from the bottom again. At first I couldn't get work because I was nowhere near good enough. So I wanted to do my own stories. And that sort of became an excuse to not try to work for someone else. Then my talent sort of snuck up on me. Suddenly I was good. Suddenly I could get professional work. But I found every time I saw an opportunity that I would be too demanding on the project. And that made me hard to work with. Bit of a control freak, I am. Course I've always been conscious of it, which is why I've only tried on a handful of occasions. But I'm working on it.

They are definitely two different paths. I think the best way to illustrate it is the difference between me doing caricatures at Seaworld and some of the guys that started doing caricatures at Seaworld when they were 18 or 19. If I had started doing caricatures at Seaworld when I was 19, I would have had everything done for me. The displays, the frames, mattes, paper, colors, etc... And especially the training (oh boy the training). I would have been working with dozens of other artists, could have asked millions of questions and really refined my process. But that's not what happened.

I had to teach myself all of those things. Weaving a tapestry of talent from every source I could find - from books, internet and the occasional caricature artist I'd meet in different cities. But because I've had to learn it all on my own I also know how much money I can make alone. I am completely confident in my abilities and my potential. Which is not necessarily the case with the guys that started at Seaworld at 18 or 19. Some of them are still there, cause they don't know how to do it on their own, or they're afraid to make that leap. It gives me an advantage. It also makes me arrogant at times. This was a much, MUCH harder road to travel - I can't just lay that experience down and pretend it didn't happen.

There are benefits to both paths. There are also drawbacks to both. And inevitably... the choice isn't always yours to make. But if you're serious about becoming a professional artist. Meaning... making a living doing art that you enjoy. You can't give up...

"There is always an option."

--Will

Interviews and such.

I had my interview with LegoLand today. It wasn't actually at Legoland, it was in Oceanside at an office park. Still haven't been to the park yet, lol. The interview went pretty well I guess. It was a group interview - I don't know how many were there before I got there - I came in about 3 hours late, cause that's when she wanted me to show up. It felt kind of weird coming in that late though. But I already work for the same company, so I guess it's more of a formality.

The most interesting part was listening to other people be interviewed. Some people say things and I don't think they realize how it sounds. I actually cringed a few times at different comments made. I know I say stupid things sometimes. I have no idea what I say that's stupid - but I guarantee somewhere along the line stupid things are said. But that's how it is I guess. I try to compensate by being enthusiastic and upbeat about everything. I think it makes a difference.

Anyways, I really enjoyed talking with the manager. I get a much more laid back vibe with this group. Which is what I've been looking for. I have a feeling I'll gel a bit better there. But we'll see. Seaworld seems to be in a major flux right now. And we all know how much I get frustrated with flux... unless it's me doing the fluxing. Even then it's not healthy for me. But hopefully things will settle soon, and I can get to a place where I enjoy working there. Till then I have no problem calling LegoLand home. So my orientation is a week from Saturday and then I'll start after that. Best part is I won't have to worry about getting time off to do restaurants cause they close by the time I need to hit the road.

So I got my first California sunburn today. It's not too bad. I've been hosing myself down with AloeVera Spray to hopefully quell some of the potential peeling. I just can't get enough of these beaches. And the waves. Monday we had our first cloudy day since the first week I moved here. I went to a beach after I got off work anyways, and I got to play Robinson Crusoe for a good couple hours. Not a single soul on the beach or in the water as far as the eye could see in any direction. Imagine that. The water was so clear that you could see the sand underneath up to 4 feet deep. And you could see right through the waves. Just take a look at this view...

MORE PHOTOS

I have so much stuff I keep wanting to say on here, but by the time I get to a computer, I'm usually too exhausted or sidetracked to get it out. I suppose it will come in it's own time. Hope everyone is doing well. Keep smiling.

--Will

Atelier - Week Two

I've done a few practice sketches over the last week. Turns out this booklet I bought from Jeff Watts nearly 10 years ago at Comic-Con is actually a reference source to do practice drawings from. I always felt a little guilty copying drawings out of it before, but it turns out that's what it's for, lol. So here is one of the sketches I did.


Second week at the school went fairly well. The head drawing class was tough. Very frustrating. There are so many incredible artists in there, it's a little overwhelming. These are some of the best of the best, and I'm coming in having to unlearn - in a lot of ways - everything I've learned to do over the last 8 years. So it's the combination of not knowing what I'm doing and watching all these amazing artists around me doing it so well.. and fast. The comment I kept getting was "slow down" "take your time" . I guess too many years of doing caricatures. I'm used to whipping out a head sketch in 3 minutes. And here we are with an hour long head pose, and I'm on step 30 within 10 minutes. It seems like my drawings are way more out of whack when I try to take time doing them, than when it's a 3 minute drawing.

Anyways, I ended up starting over 4 times. There was something in the delineation that I wasn't getting. So I kept trying to understand that. There are so many things to remember when drawing with this technique. Line control, delineation, proportion, tones, values, darks and lights. So much to keep in mind. The ability that I have now is almost solely reliant on my ability to "see" well. But that can only take an artist so far, which is why I've been so frustrated for years. And why I'm SUPER frustrated right now.


And of course here's what she was supposed to look like, lol.


The intro to tonal drawing class went much better. This class is definitely designed for my skill level. And I imagine that after one quarter of this class the head drawing class would be so much easier. But this is how it is.

I'm starting to get a better idea of what I should be doing with this technique. It's all about accurately portraying what you see. Make it as proportionally accurate is possible and then adding style onto the accuracy. The key to doing it is carving shapes and lines out of the face. And then blocking out the tones, first with two tones, white and grey, then going into detailed tonal drawing. My problem was that I kept going straight to the detailed tonal drawing before steps one and two. So though there might be a likeness, the proportions are totally off. and it ends up looking messy cause there is no consistency to the tone. The purpose of using dual tones to block out the figure is that it gives the whole subject a consistency that you can pull lights and darks out of.

This week we were working with a Soranna head. It's an impressionist head sculpture that basically blocks out all the shapes that make up the human head. It's great for helping an artist understand how the face is structured. And how the light affects that structure from different angles. You can see in my drawings as I'm working out the purpose of delineation, trying to find the shapes without letting the lines take over the drawing. I still have a ways to go on that. And I have even more to learn on the shading. But I feel like I made a LOT of progress today.


And this is what the head actually looks like. There is actually a real head in the room, but this is a handout showing the breakdown.


Then lastly, I walked around the school a bit more taking some photos. There's just so much to see. So much talent. I can't wait to take more classes. I can't wait to get to the level of all these other guys. It seems limitless.

FULL ALBUM

--Will

Living In Agape

A friend of mine emailed me last night about some of the choices I've been making lately. He said that in the past he might have been worried about these choices. But that there's no worry about these, because it would seem that I'm not making them out of fear. And he's right.

The irony is that I was having a good laugh about this earlier tonight. This is the third week in a row of total struggs just to make ends meet. I've nearly run out of food, gas and money by the end of each of these three weeks. But the funny part is that I didn't run out. At the last minute I either get a handful of tips from customers at Seaworld or I've made it to a restaurant to do sketches and made just enough to get through the next week. To the point where tonight, I was like why am I even thinking about running out. It's never happened and it never will. I haven't been afraid at any time since I've been here - a little nervous, frustrated, anxious, or exhausted - but not afraid.

Fear is an interesting thing, isn't it?

It can serve as a warning sign, it can immobilize you, it can keep you from taking chances, and it can even rule your life. But the funny thing is - it's one of the only emotions that we truly can live without. After all, fear is simply a perception. It's a way of thinking about something - and more often than not it's completely irrational and useless. The thing that brought me out of living in fear was living in God. Or more specifically, living to glorify God. In everything I do. (ahh crap, he's talking about God again.)

The line of thinking was this - God created me to live my life and live up to the limitless potential he has blessed me with - He wants me to succeed (he even wants to help me succeed) and live UP to that potential so that it might glorify Him - So that others might see it to live in God too. So logically, if all of this is true, there is nothing for me to fear. Because if I'm living for God - then everything is meant to be - every obstacle is a guide, every demon is a messenger, every blessing is a sign - all leading me to my destination. The destination that He has already planned for me. So fear has no place in that. It's all an equation that I must figure out. A balance that I must find, between life's necessities and making my way to my destination.

God doesn't want us to be afraid. In fact He wants us to be fearless. And He wants us to boldly go out and do what is in our hearts. While at the same time being responsible for yourself and your own actions. The thing that I had to realize was that I can never make my dreams come true. Only God can do that. And God doesn't work on my scale, it has to be his plan or nothing. He's not in the wish granting business. Lol. But he knows what is in my heart, and if I work towards my goals and do it in his name, he will make it work for me. And far better than I could have ever planned it. But being his plan, you have to watch for his signs, and follow his path. But I guarantee it WILL lead you to your destination.

--Will

Balancing

I just got back from working at Joe's Crabshack. Made about $120 from 40 sketches in 2 hours. Last night I made $95 in about 2 hours from 30 sketches. I could have made another $50 if I'd gotten there an hour early, but I didn't finish my shift at Seaworld in time. I really enjoy working at this Joe's. I mean Joe's is normally laid back, but this place in particular seems to be pretty mellow. The coolest part is that I finally found a good pen to do the caricatures with. It's a Copic refillable black marker. They gave me one when I started working at Seaworld, but I didn't like using it for those caricatures because you had to refill them so much. Probably cause the pages are so big. But it's absolutely perfect for the sketches I'm doing. I think I'm going to start buying Copics for this gig from now on. Fascinating, I know.

So I'm transferring from Sea world to LegoLand. Legoland is only 5 - 10 minutes from my house. So I won't have to worry about gas as much. Some people tell me that Legoland is a LOT slower than Seaworld, and so sales won't be as high. But others tell me it won't make that big of a difference right now. Legoland only sells color sketches - so by proxy they make more money - cause no one chooses the cheaper B/W sketches. Also I will most likely be one of the higher selling artists in the park, because of my experience and speed. And lastly, the city doesn't take an extra 9% out of my commission (seaworld is on public land). That combined with not spending $150 a paycheck on gas, I should be ok ...And I really like legos.

I'm not done with Seaworld - Legoland is closed tue and wed each week till Memorial day, so I can work Seaworld those two days just to keep my face in the ranks. And hopefully when summer picks up I can start working there full time again. Cause it will definitely be worth the drive then. Hopefully they'll still have me.

I was really getting tired of riding the fence on the whole decision. I hate indecision, and even more, I hate not knowing why I'm being indecisive. Yesterday I finally figured out what was going on. I know what I am capable of - I know my speed, my quality, my strengths and weaknesses - how I work. But one of the recent policies at the park is for all the artists to be aggressive salesmen. According to the policy, we are not allowed to sit and draw unless there's a customer in front of us (which by the way, is normally how I get customers to sit down, lol). If there's no customer, we have to stand around and hustle every person that walks by. Even if there's not many people around.

It works for some people, but a lot of the guys that consider themselves artists first - myself included - are miserable. I am a good salesman, but not like this. I know what I can do, and I think when we were busy during spring break my numbers showed for it, and so they left me alone. When I have traffic I can keep up with demand better than most people. In fact we had a rush yesterday before closing and I was doing 3.5 drawings for every 1 the other guys were doing. And I still had good quality.

But when it's slow I'm S.O.L. Cause I'm not an aggressive salesperson. I'm a nice guy that likes to make customers happy. Not beat them into submission with a sales pitch. That's not my way. And from what I understand, Legoland is more my style. So till the traffic is at Seaworld to back me up, I'd rather not deal with the guilt trips. I want to enjoy drawing. It sucks too, cause I really like working there, especially all the people I work with. I even really like the people giving the guilt trips. I just don't like feeling like crap for something I that I don't need to feel like crap over. I think that's where a lot of the conflicting emotions were coming from.

So that's that. I'm going to keep asking off Thur - Sat nights and working at Joe's. Hopefully make an extra $300 a week with that to cover my food, gas and bills. And then whatever I make at Seaworld/Legoland will cover my rent and give me some savings to work with for some of the big stuff coming up. That will definitely get me through to the end of May when traffic picks up. I'll re-evaluate then.

--Will

Chance

Taking chances is a funny thing. It's so counter-intuitive. And yet, it's human nature. I take a lot of chances in life. Always have. And in all honesty, I've had a lot of failures because of it. A lot of scars to show for it. At times I've been mocked, and taunted for my failure. But I wouldn't take a single one of those chances back. Because it's made me who I am, and has put me in this place in my life.

I take chances in a lot of things. Take chance in art, placing a line, hoping it will work - expecting it will work. Sometimes it just goes in the trash. But sometimes it goes in a frame, to be admired for years on later. Same thing with conversation... Saying a line, hoping it will work - expecting it will work. And when it does, it's spectacular. You can cut through all the self-lies, bullshit, walls, formalities or just plain obliviousness with one well placed line - then again sometimes it blows up in my face.

But that's how chance works. It's a numbers game. You take 100 chances in a day and 10 of those will pay off spectacularly. The bigger the chances, the bigger the payoffs. And when it doesn't work out it's easy to move on to the next one.

"What have you got to lose?"

I've had friends that were afraid to take chances. Waiting for that perfect moment to get started, or for that window of opportunity. But it never comes. Because chance favors the bold. I find that the more chances I take in life, the more opportunities I see. And best of all, the more I recognize pitfalls and wrong turns before I get to them. Same thing with art, I've spent more years learning what NOT to draw than I have learning how to draw. You have to learn how to do something wrong a thousand ways before you can learn to do it right consistently. And in my mind there's no sense putting off taking those chances till later. Do it now, do it fast, get it over and done. And who knows, maybe one of those chances will work.

To be honest, I don't know what this post is for, or even what it means. Just that I was compelled to write it tonight. Maybe it will speak to whomever it was meant for.

--Will

Atelier - Day Two - Week One

Today went much, much better. I left work a bit early and stopped by the art store and bought all the right supplies this time. Thanks to Stephen I actually had the money to by them, thank goodness. I went to the beach and sharpened my pencils and watched the waves till it was time to go to class. We use these weird sharpening techniques for the charcoal. They're in pencils and we whittle them down so that the wood is half gone and the coal is a long sharp spear. Then we file it down to a smooth point. You should see how we have to hold it too, lol. You get some amazing control though.

So I get to class and get set up. This is definitely a beginners class, I felt like I wasn't alone this time. In fact I'm on par with some of the better students in the class. I have a LOT to learn though. Started out with a description of the class, what to expect, what not to expect. He said this class will train your brain, but you won't necessarily see any improvement in art for a while. There's no shortcut to experience. I'm already seeing progression though. Then we started in to a 20 minute uninstructed sketch of a skull.

I was pretty happy with mine. But then again I didn't realize how much I wasn't actually seeing. It's one of those things that you can't tell you're doing something wrong until you know you're doing something wrong, lol. They went into a demo then for about a half hour which was pretty cool. The demos are the best, you get to see another artist go through the process step by step and explain everything. I can't tell you how many art classes I've had where teachers wouldn't do that. Hacks.

Then we did another 20 minute sketch going off of what we went over. Turns out I was getting way too detailed way too quick. That seems to be my personality though, right? Heh. I'm personally dealing with two problems, one is how to use the pencil, shading, line control, half-tones, stuff like that. The other thing is blocking in shapes with just white and grey without getting too detailed - so that's what I'm developing right now. Everyone has their own problems. At this moment this is mine. I'm not having so much trouble with proportions, which is good. Course if you look at the first skull drawing compared to the others... you can see how off I was. Anyways, after that we each got some critiques and then started into an hour drawing.


I'm really working on my ego. Every artist has to develop an ego in order to be confident enough to get the work done. But every artist has to swallow that ego when it's time to grow. So even when I think I've got it going on, I'm asking what it is I need to work on. So far they've ALWAYS had something to say, lol. And I'm sure that's not going to change. Keeps me in check though, which is good. And it keeps me from getting too comfortable.

So class was over really quick. It just flew by. I was having so much fun too. And I wasn't at all nervous like last night. But this is a different kind of class. I think it's cool to be bouncing between the two emotions. Keeps it exciting. Speaking of exciting, I took a pic of Ron's sketch from last night. You saw my head drawing... well check out his...


Man. 40 minutes. You believe that.

He is by far the most amazing artist I've ever had the privlidge of watching draw. Here's something else that'll blow you away. This drawing was a demo he did at a Concept art seminar recently. He did most of it in like 2 hours. Man oh man. I hope I can sit next to him again next week, lol.


Anyways... So I took a bunch of pics of the Atelier tonight. Lots of art that's just hanging on the walls in the ONE classroom I was in today. There's 4 other rooms. I also took some pics of the front of the building and the parking lot. I can't describe how incredible it feels driving up the hill to this place and getting out and going to class. It's literally like climbing the mountain to seek wisdom from the old wise man. Fog and mist all around, birds chirping, no noisy cars. Just peace and inspiration. Then you get inside. And it goes on and on and on.


This was definitely worth moving 1000 miles away from home for. This is what it's all for. I can't wait for next weeks class.

--Will

Lubbock Comic Jam - Hosted by UglyPuppy

Quick announcement that the Lubbock crew have set up a comic jam for tuesday (tomorrow) night. For more details check the site HERE. Hope it goes great! I'm jealous already. Somebody take some pics for me, I want to see.

--Will

Watts Atelier - Week One

Before I get into the class, I wanted to mention that I did a few drawings at work today that blew me away. Not really that they're all that spectacular, just that I felt so comfortable doing them and they turned out half way decent. And I also did my first TRUE caricature today. Total exaggeration and it was funny.

This cute little old man was walking by. So I drew him as exaggerated as I could and it still looked like him. Then there was the sketch of Moira from the Pirate comic. Best coloring I've done so far. And then of course there's another retarded shark.

So the class...

I ended up getting really nervous as I was walking in. I pulled out my GIANT Newsprint sketchpad and Jeff Watts was walking out and he was like "Whoa!" That's a bigass sketch pad. I was thinking "uh oh." See the problem is I didn't get a supply list. I forgot to list my apt. number on the application, lol. So I just asked my friend what to buy. Turns out I got it ALL wrong, hehe. So I sit down and I find out why the sketchpad was too big. I couldn't see over it to draw the figure. That sucked. So I milled around a bit waiting for class to start and I ended up in one of the other rooms. I thought it was a special room for new students, cause everyone there was new too. Turns out they weren't waiting to get the new class speech... I was just in the wrong class and so I missed the first 5 minutes. Which made for a funny scene... me coming in late. It's all quiet, and then suddenly there's this loud commotion as some fool in the front row tries to open his GIANT sketchbook and can't even see over it. I was bright red. BRIGHT red.

I ended up just tearing out a few sheets of paper and clipping them to one of the spare boards - so I could SEE! After the first few drawings I realized I sucked at life drawing. I suddenly had flash backs to life drawing at Tech. How much I loved it but how impatient I was about the whole process. It's interesting that they teach it the same way. So I have a leg up I guess, if I could calm down when I'm drawing. Instead of attacking it like it's a caricature. Course the BIG difference between Tech and Watts is the other artists. I'm not drawing with a bunch of flakey sorority chicks and hung-over frat boys. These guys are pros. They've already got careers and most of all... passion.

So about the third drawing I started to calm down a little and actually started "seeing" the figure. The guy next to me gave me some great tips to work through and gave me an eraser and a razor to sharpen my pencil. Then I realized that on the other side of me sitting right next to me was Ron Lemon. One of the teachers at the school. And Francis Tsai's old boss at Presto. He's the guy that taught Francis how to color. So I skipped a couple drawings and just watched Ron. Hell I could have watched Ron draw all night. He's so quick and amazing. And each drawing I would think "That's done right? What else can he do to it?!" Then he would do something amazing to make it even more incredible.

So I have a lot to learn.

I got a critique about half-way through, The teacher said that I was off a little on the back of the head and that was throwing off all the other proportions. But he said that even with that all my other proportions were dead on. I've got good likenesses. Must be from doing caricatures. They sometimes draw on your drawings, which I really like. Or if you're completely off on something they lay tracing paper over and help you that way. Pretty cool.

So overall I am extremely excited. I see so much potential. I see how much confidence and ability this will build in me. And I can see where some guys would get frustrated with this. There's no instant results, it takes 2 - 3 years of constant drawing and constant classes for it to really pay off. But when it does it puts you in a whole other category of artist. I think I have a great start and a great future ahead of me.



Today's class was Intro to head drawing. Tomorrow is Intro to tonal drawing. I'll get the right supplies (and the right class room) this time around, lol.

--Will