Weighing My Legal Options

Like Vanilla Ice to Bowie/Mercury, or The Verve to The Rolling Stones, so it is that I find some designer somewhere lifting my riff. I'm tempted to send in the army of lawyers I have on retainer for just such an occasion, being that people are constantly lifting my artistic stylings. Right? After all, with the dozens upon dozens of readers this blog gets every week, one must expect this sort of thing!

So one of my minions slithered up and wrote to inform me of the latest. Thinking that I might show up at San Diego Comic-Con, Warner Bros. avoided showing new teaser posters for its upcoming film The Green Lantern there. But they did release them to CHUD.

You see, my first year at Comic-Con, back in '03, I took with me a little painting called "Eclosion," which was painted in 2002, and had it on display there. Doubtless, some aspiring ad agency designer was walking the floor, and probably snapped a photo of it when I wasn't looking, probably on his hi-tech 2-megapixel camera. Maybe even *3* megapixels! Evidently thinking enough time had passed, this person decided to reference it when designing these posters.

You be the jury, as I exerpt the relevant portion:

  

I'm just not sure what exactly I should seek--should I ask for a cut of box office gross? Perhaps it'd be enough to force them to remove that lame eyebrow? I don't know, but someone must pay!!

Practical Inspiration #1: Other Art

Being one of things most-asked when I meet folks in person, it seems a good topic to address here. What inspires me?

This can be answered from at least two angles: the practical and...it's hard to come up with the second word. I'll think about it as I move forward.

Practically speaking, every work I do is a problem-solving exercise. Given the size and proportions of a rectangle, the bullet points of narrative, idea or character that need to be included from the art order, graphic design elements that will overlay the art, it's my job to arrange these pieces in any of an infinite number of ways to create something attractive, interesting, etc..

Casting about for ideas is at once the most and least exciting aspect of any artwork. I find it incredibly exhausting to iterate on a concept. It's like wringing water from a towel, only instead of a towel it's my brain, and not water but ideas. However, there are those moments as you are churning out bad ideas when a great one suddenly manifests before you. That's an exhilarating moment, a surprise, especially since before starting any given thumbnail, the idea that's about to manifest has probably never occurred to me. So, seeing it take shape as a scribble is the moment where I get the excitement any of you might get when you first see a new finished artwork, when you're confronted with that moment of surprise. That happens for me in the thumbnail phase. The rest of the process has pleasures of other kinds, but not like that moment.

But even after hitting one of these, it's important that I continue wringing the towel out for more and better ideas rather than stop at the first one that strikes me. That gets increasingly difficult the more concepts you turn out. So, there are some practical things I do to try to wring out new ideas, to keep inspiration levels high for as long as possible. I don't use them all for every project, but this series of posts will serve to outline a few, not necessarily in order of importance.

1.) Look at other art: over the years here I've had a string of posts outlining museums I've hit up. As often as I'm able, I hit up museums and seek out artwork. Here in NYC, there are places I've gone to see art which aren't even museums but which have good artwork. I don't blog them all, but it's important that I expose myself to great artwork on a regular basis. It humbles me, helps me appreciate how far I've come (for instance, when I see something a painter in a museum did and think, "I can do that part."), and generally inspires me. Not doing so would be like being a musician who never listens to music. Absent a trip to a museum, reading through art books is a good secondary means to this end.

It's occasionally fun to see other artists, um, giving "homage" to some work of art that may be obscure to the public-at-large but is pretty well-known to those of us who dig in deep into various artists or historical eras of painting. I do try not to do this, to basically lift a composition from a historical work and re-dress it in outfits and things appropriate to my assignment. There may be times when this sort of completely intentional lifting of one iconic image is useful--see all the versions of American Gothic or Uncle Sam that have been painted over the years. But grabbing some more obscure work by Alma-Tadema, say, and repurposing it or large parts of it as an illustration, and thinking I'm passing it off as my own work--that I try to avoid.

However it is definitely the case that sometimes I may see certain problems solved, and I'll use their answer. A particular color gradation in a sky, perhaps a lighting scheme, the energy of a certain piece. In this way, I use other art occasionally as a springboard to head in another direction.

Summer Conventions

In past years, this is where I would tell you about all the summer events I'd be doing. Most years, that has included San Diego Comic-Con, GenGon, and perhaps a small appearance here or there at some other event.

This year, however, I am sorry to report you'll not find me at these shows. It's going to be a fairly quiet summer for me. A part of me is relieved to not be worrying about them, as in past years they have sometimes come to one event every two to three weeks during the summer. It can be hard to get assigned work done during these periods, not to mention the costs are prohibitive, for flights, hotel, spending money, shipping artwork back and forth and so on. I had actually looked into attending DragonCon again this year, but alas I chose not to do that one either. I had also put in for a booth at San Diego with a couple other artists, but we did not make the cut for floorspace.

I hope you have a great time at these events if you attend, and perhaps I'll see you at them next year.

That said, I'm looking at doing a couple of events in the fall. One of them is already confirmed, in that I'll be a guest at Illuxcon 3 this November. More on that as it approaches. I'm also looking into the World Fantasy Convention around Halloween, but have no details to report. All of which is to say that I'm not going silent, but I am trying to mix up my venues a little, while keeping closer to home--these 2 shows are in PA and OH, respectively. I also did attempt to get a table at NY Comic-Con, but have had no luck this year securing space at these very in-demand events.

Magic 2011

It's that time of year again, the new annual Magic Core Set is on its way. Continuing with the changed naming convention, this year we once again get to play cards from the future. It is, after all, Magic.

The indefatigable "Giant Spider" makes his way once again into this set, perhaps making it my most-often reproduced Magic illustration. Artist proof cards are also available already, which you can pick up here, signed or with a sketch on the back.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, but I'll try to get something else up soon.

Sketchbook Peek

Now that I've wrapped up this last Figure Drawing project, I have a dilemma. Because I've never been able to keep a sketchbook, I intended from the beginning to fill this one up; I bought it for that purpose. That was part of the project--to stick to filling a sketchbook. Some folks fill tons and tons of sketchbooks, but I've never been able to. I abandon them. You can tell I was not entirely optimistic because I just chose a store-bought basic one, not a fancy bound one. Looking back, I would have of course bought a nicely bound moleskine or something. After being tossed in my backpack many times as I biked (NC) or rode the subway (NY) to and from class, it's gotten a little beat-up, at least along the spiral binding. Each page is perforated for easy removal. It would be easy to remove the pages and break the book up. Most pages have multiple drawings, a lot of which weren't put on this series of blog-posts.

As an artist who draws and paints to earn his living, I would have an interest in selling these. I'm kinda wedded to the book as a complete whole. Ideally, I'd find a way to sell the entire thing. It'd be nice knowing the whole thing went to one person. Otherwise, I'd be parting it out. But parting it out means that each sheet has multiple drawings, and the whole sheet isn't always tidily arranged. A few of the drawings weren't so hot, or weren't finished sufficiently (ran out of time). Sometimes those drawings are on the same page as a better drawing, sometimes so close that I couldn't even cut out the nicer drawing in a rectangle without including part of another. The best way to sell the best stuff would be to tear each page out and then cut each nice drawing out in isolation. But then I'd have a butchered collection. What to do?

Well, this is the book in question. I thought it'd be fun to let you all have a peek at the entire thing, since a lot of it hasn't been posted in this series. So, here's a video of that. What would you do--leave it whole, cut out pages, or cut out individual drawings? Somehow, I have to maintain my Ramen and PB&J diet.

Figure Drawing, Pt. 20

 

 The finale. Well, for now.

(Above) 5.5x8" pencil, 20 min.
(L) ~4x7" brush pen, 5 min.

I'm disappointed that it took so long to fill up my book. When I began it, while living in Asheville, NC, I actually thought that I'd fill it while there. At the start I think I had it in my mind that I might go draw weekly. Ha. 2.5 years later, I finished. Granted, there was a 7 month break while in CA, before moving to NY. But still.

Process-wise, the main change was my introduction of the brush pen to my drawing kit. A small change, surely, but drawing with a medium you can't erase was very helpful. Once an artist gets rolling in his career, it can be hard to pick up a new medium due to the time needed to get control of it. When I first brought it to a session, back in NC, the drawings weren't so great, as I got used to the fear induced by the medium. Coupled with the short drawing times, loosening up was very helpful.

If you're ever in NYC, the Jazz and Sketch nights I went to are great, and highly recommended. The models are generally very good, and the live music a fantastic accompaniment. The classic illustration originals hanging around the room are inspiring. It's not full of pros--there is a nice mix of folks.

On that note, a word of thanks to my buddy and fellow artist Arkady Roytman, who's headed up the Jazz and Sketch night for some time, faithfully setting up, tearing down and managing a crowded room to make a pleasant experience. He's mopped up spilled ink some other artist got on the drop-cloths, dealt with the models, and even managed to do enough art in and among all this to post a figure a day for over three years now on his blog. Arkady is leaving NYC soon, and the Society is losing a great help. Best of luck out west! 

Though I knew it was the last session for me, I didn't do anything different. I just went about the business of drawing as usual. I wrapped up the evening, shook Arkady's hand and went home. This particular project was over. Funny that it should have a little of that graduation-feel to it, but since I'd put some hard limits on it, and tend to pretty stubbornly stick to them, it did feel like that a little.

(R) ~6x12" conte, 20 min.

There will be one more post wrapping up this series in the next few days, and then I'll be off to the next thing, which I'll begin posting here in short order.

Duels of the Planeswalkers on Steam

This Xbox Live title has just been released for the PC, for download via Steam. So now the rest of you can get in on the game. It sells for $9.99.

The game features reprints of my art, and further details were blogged about awhile back here.

Balance of Power, Director's Cut

Last summer, I debuted my painting "Balance of Power," which came with me to a few shows and was generally very well-received. I was quite happy with it, myself. One of the benefits of showing art in public is watching people react to it, or not react to it. Folks had very good reactions to seeing this painting, which pleased me of course. What was quickly apparent was that everyone's attention headed to the upper-left, to the figure of the woman. That's great--there are two figures, and she has the "superior" position in a few important compositional ways.

However, I felt the male figure got a little lost in the shadow of her presence. Even for myself, I found this to be increasingly the case. My wife hung the painting in our living room, so I've also had the opportunity of living with it most of the last year--you can see it hanging in the background at the beginning of a YouTube video I posted a few months back.

Additionally, late last year I discovered and began using Gamvar, a final varnish for use on paintings. Prior to this, I had been coating paintings with Galkyd, alone or mixed with Galkyd Lite. This creates a nice shiny finish, and a good isolation layer that cleans well. Technically, however, it's not a varnish per se. Which means, of course, that you can rework such a painting. So....

Recently, I finally began reworking it. Basically, I wanted his headpiece to have a more interesting shape, and for the patterning to be more refined. I also wanted to touch up the portrait a bit. I began by doing some very quick digital shape studies. Once I found one I liked, I overlaid tracing paper on a print, so I had a to-scale head. From there, I reworked the headpiece. I refined the patterning of the small stones that made up the mosaic. Then I scanned it back in, printed it at actual size, pulled the painting off the wall, transferred it down, and began painting.

While working, I also decided to darken the area of the distant wall behind the woman's arm. I also re-painted large portions of the face. It ended up being more work than I thought, but it'll soon go back on the wall and I'm much happier.

Before / After

Further, I finished with a couple layers of Gamvar, so I won't be tempted to touch it again. Ok, Gamvar can be removed with mineral spirits, but I've never tried doing that and have little interest in it. Leave that to a conservator generations from now!

The new version replaces the old elsewhere on my site, where you can see a detailed version of it as well.