The New Blog On the Block

Gorilla Artfare

Dan Dos Santos told me about this new communal art blog a day ago and in just that day the quality, variety, and quantity of art I;ve seen is amazing. And they've have been featured on Drawn and Lines and Colors. Awesome, another mandatory stop in my morning blog reading!

SHOWN HERE:
Kian
Tim Wilson
Icon
Scott Altmann
Entdriod

Facelifts vol.7

We’re doing a reprint of Stories of Your Life by Ted Chiang. The process of reprints is supposed to be somewhat automated -- we are not re-soliciting the books to bookstores so no one asks us to revisit the packaging. Occasionally, I can’t resist. It does, however, mean that we need to come up with something without spending any money on it. In this case, Peter Lutjen rose to the challenge. Honestly, I like all four but the top version is the one that kept being pinned as a favorite.

(Thanks to Ces, for the heads up.)

Yahoo's Non Sequitur

Personal Vision

Sometimes I feel guilty about being so NY centric on this site....but then, I live in NY, so here we are:

I'm very much looking foward to this. Marshal Arisman is legendary for his speaking abilities for good reason. Yuko is amazing. And I'm hoping to get to meet Sam Weber, who's done a couple of covers for us this year and has quickly become one of my favorite artists.

PERSONAL VISION:
Marshall Arisman Moderator.
Nathan Fox, Sam Weber, Yuko Shimizu, Eddie Guy
Thursday, February 7, 2008
7:00 - 8:30 PM; doors open at 6:30
FIT: 27th Street & Seventh Avenue, NYC
$20 at the door - Students $5

Ilustration Master Class

Rebecca Guay is organizing a fantasy and science fiction illustration workshop in Amherst, Mass, and has asked me to be a lecturer. All of the instructors involved are interested in making this a highly focused and intense week of learning.

Attendees will benefit from a full schedule of classes in figure drawing from an illustration perspective, use of reference, drawing from the imagination, digital and traditional painting technique, live demos and industry q&a, as well as extensive individual one on one critique from 10am to midnight each day.

Illustration Master Class
June 16-22, 2008
Amherst College Campus
$1,700.00 - includes meals and housing.

Instructors:
Julei Bell
Dan Dos Santos
Scott Fischer
Irene Gallo
Donato Giancola
Rebecca Guay
Boris Vallejo

Speaking of National Geographic...

Jim Gurney reminded me that National Geographic’s exhibition, The Art of Exploration, opens at the Allentown Art Museum this weekend, it runs until May 25th. I saw this show when it was at the Rockwell Museum a few years ago. It’s one of the best shows I’ve seen....but then I would say that since it pushes so many of my imagination buttons: exploration, animals, dinosaurs.

There are over a 100 paintings on exhibit, many from Geographic’s collection. I was in their offices a few years ago and nearly cried. It seems they use up any leftover budget they have each year by buying artwork. Their hallways double as one of the most amazing illustration collections I’ve ever seen, from Wyeth to today’s artists.

The artists represented in the exhibition include Paul Calle, Kinuko Y. Craft, Vincent Di Fate, Louis S. Glanzman, John Gurche, James M. Gurney, Greg Harlin, Charles R. Knight, Tom Lovell, Greg Manchess, Robert McGinnis, Stanley Meltzoff, Fred Otnes, Jerry Pinkney, Kazuhiko Sano, Richard Schlecht, Burt Silverman, Barron Storey, Jack Unruh, Andrew Wyeth (sigh!), N. C. Wyeth, and the ubiquitous “and many others”.

If you are in the area, the show is a must-see. There a number of tours and lectures being held in conjunction with the exhibit, including Jim Gurney talking about his latest Dinotopia book, Journey to Chandara, on March 9th. Jim is incredibly generous when it comes to talking about his process, he’s truly one of the most informative artists you’ll ever get to hear. (I assume anyone interested in painting technique is already reading his blog, Gurney Journey.)

PAINTINGS: Jim Gurney, Lou Glanzman

Artists Against the War: Streaming Tonight

I'm kicking myself for not being able to attend tonight's Artists Against the War lecture at the Society of Illustrators. Luckily, with their new streaming video, anyone can catch it live or come back and watch it in the archives. All the links are small and cleverly inconspicuous so you'll need to poke around the website carefully in order to find it.

The Media: The First Casualty in Iraq
Steve Brodner, Christian Parenti, Steve Heller, David Wallis.
Wed, Jan 23, 7 PM EST
$10/$6 for students
Free broadcast

(Speaking of streaming video. Not to brag but, on the first set of three lectures broadcast, the science fiction lecture has been downloaded three times as often as the mainstream ones. I’m just sayin'.)

Spectrum Deadline: This Friday!

I know I'll be at FedEx Thursday night.

Spectrum

National Geographic and Greg Manchess

Greg Manchess painted the cover and two double page spreads for the upcoming edition of National Geographic.

Without a spot of research to back me up, I will say that it is pretty darn rare for the Geographic Society to use illustration on their covers.

Currently, Greg is working on a "spear fight with mammoths" painting for a Tor book. Should be cool. Hopefully I'll get some progress shots of that.

It's not getting any warmer.

Brushstrokes

Dean Cornwell - nice and gooey.
(Taken at the Dahesh's Stories to Tell exhibit a year or two ago.)

Because It's Cold Outside

Darker Mask

I got an email asking if I would show off the cover to The Darker Mask. This is a collection of contemporary, noir-ish, superhero stories. Due out from Tor in August.

Art: Tomer Hanuka
Design: Jamie Stafford-Hill

Facelifts vol.6

Richard Matheson's time-travel romance story, Somewhere in Time.

Another evocative Brad Holland painting, Jamie Stafford-Hill on the design. (I'm still waiting to see if we get away with not making Matheson's name fifty feet high, since the popularity of the movie version of I am Legend, we may not.)

Earlier Matheson cover done by Brad Holland for Tor.

Artists Against the War

Some quick shots from the last night's Artists Against the War opening reception at the Society of Illustrators.

PAINTINGS:
Ralph Steadman, Barry Blitt, Sam Weber.

PEOPLE:
Steve Brodner, Peter de Séve, Thomas Fuchs and Yuko Shimizu, Tim O'Brien and Ellen Weinstein, the crowd.

Orphans of Chaos Thumbs

I was searching my computer for an image with the word "orphan" in the title and I ran into these Scott Fischer thumbnails for Orphans of Chaos. I had forgotten how much fun they are. The expressions on the top set just crack me up.

This is Bad

Even for me, this is a mess!

Revelations: Wrap-Up

(Look, rain in Seattle!)

No pictures of the last day, sorry to say. The whole trip was a bit of a whirlwind, but a fantastic one. Now that I have caught my breath I’ll explain the event a bit more.

Massive Black / ConceptArt.org have thrown a number of these workshops over the past few years. This is the first one that I caught and now I’m bemoaning the fact I have missed the earlier editions. 500 attendees + enough instructors to overspill a decent sized stage = a great time!

They had two giant rooms set up. The ground floor had a large presentation screen surrounded by over a dozen smaller screens. Game designers, artists, illustrators, would give presentations throughout the day while three to twelve digital demos where going on simultaneously. Attendees could sit and watch the presentation, wander around and watch the demos while keeping their ears open to the speakers, or plug in their own computers and listen while they worked and took notes.

Upstairs was the traditional room. Again, there where stations in every corner with at least three models posing at any one time. Groups gathered around the instructors and watched, asked questions, and worked on their own paintings. Some working from the models, others from reference that they brought.

The loose structure seemed to most benefit the focused and self-motivated, which is fine since anyone that Isn’t focused and self motivated wont make it in the arts. There was so much going on at any one time, the trick was being able to settle down and absorb as much as possible without stressing about what you are missing. It took me a day or so to realize that the instructors were working so much throughout the weekend that you’d eventually find time to check out what everyone was doing.

The atmosphere was fantastic, vibrant and giving. I kept thinking how brave these guys are. Art is a solitary activity and usually attracts those that are most comfortable working in private. And yet, here they were, in front of huge crowds banging out work, sharing sketchbooks, helping each other out. Everything from high school students to old pros working next to each other.

The weekend was capped by a job fair on Day 4 - art directors and artists from various print and video game companies go through portfolios. Some attendees were still in school, just looking for some advice and direction, others were working professionals looking for freelance and full time positions.

It’s impossible to pick out highlights from the weekend but I was particularly taken by watching Jason Manley gave a kick-ass color theory class that also doubled as an art history lesson. The whole time, Jason Chan and Andrew Jones were working on the screens either side of him. It was amazing to see students connect the direct link from 19th century oil painting to 21st century digital painting.

Thank you to Massive Black for putting this event on and for inviting me out there. And thank you to everyone that took the time, money, and guts to show up and play.

Artists Against the War

Sorry for the short notice but, opening tonight...

Artists Against the War

Society of Illustrators in collaboration with The Nation. Curated by the wonderful Steve Brodner and Anita Kunz.

Through January 26th

Opening Reception tonight: 6:00 PM. 20$,100% will be donated to Disabled American Veterans.

Panel Discussion: The Media: The First Casualty in Iraq
Wed, Jan 23rd. 7:00 PM
$10/$6 for students
To be broadcast live.

Revelations: Day 3, Man in Black

Towards the end of the day The Black Frog took break from digital painting and came up to the traditional room to model for an hour or so, dressed as is. The energy in the room went through the roof. Painters in the first few rows included Carl Dobsky, Michael Hussar, Shawn Barber, El Coro, Greg Manchess, Dan Dos Santos.....

Revelations: Day 3

Jason Manley, our host and founder of Massive Black, giving an excellent color theory lecture.

Brom painting.

Dawn Murin and Jeremy Jarvis (art directors for Wizards of the Coast) looking at Jeremy Cranford's (AD for Blizzards) copy of The Art of The World of Warcraft. Models. Students hanging out and sharing sketchbooks.

Jaime Jones working with Mathias Verhasselt looking on. Andrew Jones work in progress.

Video from Revelations.

Revelatuons: Day 2: Lady in White

The first day of three day long pose.

Revelations: Day 2

Feeling better! Yay. But there is still too much going on to focus on saying anything. I'll post a bunch of pictures and then go back and caption them and make comments when I get home. I will say this, however, there are a lot of amazing painters here.

Revelations: Day 1

It’s only January and I already know one of my biggest regrets of the year will be being deathly ill this weekend.Revelations is amazing and despite my cold I am still managing a great, if slightly groggy, time. I’ll try to write actual thoughts once my head clears enough to have actual thoughts.

Aleksi Biclot
Daniel Dociu
Greg Manchess
Jason Chan, Wesley But, and others drawing. Attendee looking at Michael Hussar pantings
Opening night party (wth figure drawing) in the Space Needle.

Hugo Recomendations

The folks at SF Awards Watch are asking for Best Professional Artist Hugo recommendations. Take a look at the list and add your favorites. There is also a list for art books that could be eligible for Best Related Book.

I would like to write a nice post about Donato Giancola's statement at last year's Hugos -- that he would not accept a nomination this year (if the community chose to bestow one on him) in an effort to stall momentum-voting and to help spread awareness of the breadth of artists that do, and have, given so much to the community but have gone unrecognized by the award's static history. If I wrote this post I would have commended him for taking such a step to place a spotlight on the problem...but I would also mention that I regret the award will not be chosen amongst the strongest possible playing field. Alas, I am sick as a dog and can't seem to string two sentences together at the moment.

Revelations + New Place to Spend Time "Researching"

I’m off to the Massive Black/ConceptArt.org workshop in Seattle -- looking forward to seeing tons of amazing talent form people that I haven’t crossed paths with yet.

I’ll try to post as I go but in the meantime, you can check out the cool new sci-fi site io9.com.