Nose to the Digital Scan

When I see art--including the paintings of my colleagues--in person, I am apt to get way in, practically sniffing the surface. I do this to get right up on the smallest details, including incidental things like brush stroke drag and textures that weren't intentional in many cases. While at the Met recently (more on that soon) I was constantly being barked at by the security: "Back up, please!" "Sir, can you step back please?" "I'm going to have to ask you to stand back." Quite annoying, especially considering many of the paintings I was doing this for were behind glass, and I leaned forward with my hands folded squarely behind my back lest they think I was about to slip the paintings off the walls.

In any case, most of you won't see most (or any) of my original paintings without 1.)buying some (which I highly recommend you all do) or 2.)attending an event where I'll be showing them. So, I've decided to pop a couple of details out of a recently revealed World of Warcraft illustration for the upcoming Hunt for Illidian Raid Set. The highlighted squares represent a tiny 1 square inch, and each is then shown below blown up to 300x300 pixels so you can get the digital equivalent of burying your nose against the surface. I'll even toss in the sketches for you all first:

Digital Thumbnail

Pencil sketch, 5 x 6.75" I deliberately drew out more than was needed so I could play with the crop.

9x12" Oils on treated paper. Digital tweaks were required before print.

1" square. I consider any paintings under 11x14" to be "miniature painting."

Sam Fisher Stops to Admire Ilya Repin

As I've mentioned a few times around here, videogames are a favorite pastime. In some videogames, you may be in environments where there are paintings on the walls. In these situations, they are typically shrunken textures that barely get across the art itself, and most often they are quickie illustrations put together probably by some staff artist. As an illustrator, you can imagine I always pause to check these out.

Occasionally, you may notice a piece of art that actually exists being used in a game. Perhaps the digital artist liked the painting, perhaps it fit the theme, and so they stuck it in. For those who know where the paintings actually reside, seeing them for instance hanging in a mansion in Raccoon City or something always elicits a chuckle.

Recently, however, while playing Ubisoft's Splinter Cell (I know, how many years late?), towards the end you're at the presidential palace in the once-Russian state, now country, of Georgia. There I was, back to a wall, when with complete delight I noticed the "painting" hanging there:

Someone at Ubi has very good taste, or at least Google-skillz

There on the wall was a very cool painting I recognized as being by Russian painter Ilya Repin, entitled "Volga Barge Haulers." I first encountered the painting in the book on Orientalism I mentioned some time ago, but since most of his works still hang in Russia I haven't seen any in person.

Two things were impressive about this: first, the artist is actually Russian, though somewhat obscure, and second, the painting is still hanging in Russia in St. Petersburg (though not in Georgia's presidential palace), so its location was not altogether incongruous. The game credits one Yves Allaire as the texture artist, and if he was responsible, I shall say he has impeccable taste.

Lastly, the actual image (larger scan here) for you to enjoy, and to note how the proportions were squished to fit the frame. As well, what was used as texture seems to be the image from the same source perhaps as was used in the Orientalists book, which has the same decidedly golden cast to it, as opposed to the scan I'm presenting which obviously is much truer:

J.C. Leyendecker at the S.I.

Being out in the NY area means, for an illustrator, much time spent at the historic Society of Illustrators. Part social club, part exhibit space, part illustration-services and lectures, this wonderful association was begun in 1901. In the years that followed, the list of illustrators who stopped in for events is a who's-who of illustration's greats.

A number of fully-painted "studies" like this one were done in preparation for each piece, from which he'd distill the folds and forms into very streamlined finals, removing unnecessary elements.

Among them, J.C. Leyendecker was a giant. Working about the same time as rival Normal Rockwell, on many of the same projects, J.C. was among the leading American illustrators in the first half of the 20c. While Rockwell took the major spotlight--and I confess, I prefer him to J.C. as well--Leyendecker was a powerhouse, bringing great drawing, simplicity in handling paint that belied the labor-intensive method underneath, and a stylistic approach that was eaten up in its day.

His hatch-work is an unmistakable stylistic motif. Note the almost Disney-like angularity of the hand pinning the medal, long before Disney.

Through mid-July, The Society of Illustrators is hosting a fantastic show featuring the work of Leyendecker, primarily, as well as other early illustrators who had in common early training in the European classical tradition around the time I've often described as the End of Institutional Greatness. The opening, on May 21st, was my first opening in a long, long time. The two show floors of the Society were packed full of wonderful paintings, sketches, and studies, including impressive works by Edwin Austin Abbey and others. Having missed the other traveling Leyendecker show, it was a pleasant surprise to learn about this show and to find so many incredible paintings there. Thankfully, the SI allows for photos.

Why is she kissing locked-up baby cupid? It's so gorgeous I don't care

Openings are interesting things--as much socializing as art-viewing. In attendance were a number of illustrator friends from the area, and I was introduced to a couple others--including one fella from my home town of San Jose, who also went to the same art school as I. We even had a professor in common, though he majored in Illustration, and I in Drawing. And he was quite a few years after me, making me feel old, at 33. I was so interested in the art that I failed to get pictures of people and the event. Then again, I'm not sure what interest there is in this blog becoming Access Hollywood for the world of Illustration. Maybe I can get Joan Rivers to dish on what folks are wearing.

Major respect goes out to Civil War painter Mort Kunstler. I got to know his work when my younger brother went through a few years of Civil War interest (in middle-school!). His subscription to Civil War Magazine always had Kunstler art in it. Mort happens to own probably a quarter of the original artwork in the show, and from what I'm told it's only a portion of his collection of classic Illustration. So, major respect for his collecting this fine work, and for loaning it to the show. I heard he was in attendance for a bit, but wouldn't have recognized him.

Anyway, being out in the area, you'll no doubt be seeing a number of entries relating to the SI. I may not be a giant in my own time, but it's nice to walk in the footsteps of those who were.

It's On

I've mentioned my running a few times here. After last year's half-marathon--a feat I never imagined I'd accomplish when I started running a couple years back, I decided that this year I would train for a real, full marathon.

Assuming we'd be in NYC at the time, I signed up for the NY Marathon. I found out tonight, however, that I didn't win a random-drawing and so didn't get a space in the very crowded field. If you haven't qualified through years of elite running and times, you gotta lump yourself with the shmoes and hope to get a lottery spot. I didn't.

BUT, I'd already scoped out other races just in case and found one a few days before the NYCM, a little further up the coast, near Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod. And so:

What the hell is Dunkin' Donuts doing sponsoring a MARATHON? Stick to what you know--making us fat!

After looking at a few different programs and working towards them, I'll be starting this schedule next week, if you care to see the torture-fest I am going to endure. Where a year ago I was training towards a half-marathon, in a couple weeks I'll be running half-marathons on run-of-the-mill training days. OMG.

Thanks, Hollywood

Ask me in 1995 or so about some of the paintings I thought I'd have done 10 years later or so and I think I'd have answered that I'd have done some Middle-Earth stuff in-between projects or, who knows, as projects. Larger, fuller paintings. Somewhere along the way I did a portrayal of Gollum that was 11x17", and that's been it. What stopped me?

Hollywood.

I love movies, as most of you do. This genre is custom-made for the big screen, with larger-than-life heroes and villains, action and drama-packed stories, and imaginative visualizations that are beyond the habit of most folk. But when I heard that the Lord of the Rings films were being made, I knew that things were probably going to change. I never did anything with the 24x36" canvas I primed in '96 or so, on which I intended to portray the meeting of Aragorn and Arwen, from the Appendix to LotR. I still have the canvas. I tried my best and squeezed out one piece in 2000, that Gollum, while knee-deep in what became a 2-year art crisis. Not a block, per se, as I painted some--just not very much. But that's another series of stories....

A part of me (a small part) hoped the films would be terrible, because I knew what would happen should they be very successful, which I believe they were: they'd define the world and characters for years to come. Now, imagination is free and everyone has their take on Tolkien's world, it being one of the most illustrated tales of the last century. But, inevitably, for some time I knew that Legolas would look like Orlando Bloom to the world. That sort of thing. Heck, the imagery even started to creep into my own inner vision of the world, one I've only tapped into that one time really. So, I figured I'd give Tolkien a rest for awhile. Unless you're Alan Lee (no site) or John Howe, there isn't much appetite for new Middle-Earth art. Don't get me wrong, I love both those artists. Donato Giancola is the only one who really picked up the gauntlet, executing a number of large, epic LotR canvases in the face of the films. And even he hasn't had a calendar made of his work yet.

But Hollywood has a habit of ransacking the cupboard of fantasy licenses when a couple do well. This forced me to finally read, for instance, the Chronicles of Narnia. I knew I'd watch the films, but wanted to have the imagery in my head be my own before I saw the films. Ditto with Watchmen, which I read late last year before I saw any production stills from the coming film.

But now Hollywood has me in a bind. Upon reading Watchmen, I really, really, had it in me to do a painting based on the world. I've got to do it soon, or I'll want to shelve it again once the film comes out.

And then there's Elric. I read the series a few years back, and have had an image rolling in my head since then. Elric's been done a million times, too--normally I'd shy away from adding to the noise, but I just haven't seen anything like what I'd like to do with the character. But the movies are in pre-production now, so it looks like I'm going to have to pull that bun out of the oven sooner than later, too. Thankfully the images for both the above are ready-formed, waiting their turn.

So on the one hand, Hollywood makes painting certain characters difficult. It's made it difficult for me and Middle-Earth. On the other hand, it forces me to squeeze out some images that can sometimes be in the waiting lobby of my mind for years and years. Elric has probably been sitting there for 4-5 years now. As for Aragorn and Arwen, they'll probably have to keep waiting, at least until I can get the bad taste of Liv Tyler out...and she's probably got 2 more films to go.