Illustration work...what's missing

This piece is supposed to afford me the opportunity to do some work that will add missing elements to my current portfolio. What's missing from my portfolio? A lot.

I chose to base this illustration on my own writing, but changed my mind several times about which piece of writing it should be. My final choice was this story:



This is the rough drawing...



Here's the finished watercolor painting....


There are so many things wrong with it. I tried to correct one of the most glaring problems, but am wondering if I only made it worse. There are some wonky striations that are the result of scanning the painting in, in 2 pieces, but I tried to camouflage most of them. So I'm back to the drawing board to start all over...literally. I really like the idea of the shark as a shadow, but the painting didn't accomplish exactly what I wanted. I plan to take some time and do the original over again....better, this time.

State of the Union - Post 6

Review your responses to the above questions. What sort of an illustrator are you?

Besides an overly wordy one?

It seems pretty clear that I’m someone who’s on a completely different career trajectory than...well...I'm thinking most everyone else, I guess...but as far as the questions go, it appears that I’m definitely leaning in the direction of the stay-at-home freelancing of children’s book writing and art, book cover art in general, and/or greeting card art and/or writing…no surprise there. I’m an artist with some life limitations, who’s immensely interested in the story that inspires the art, and an artist who derives great pleasure from the fact that art can inspire emotion in people. I think doing freelance work for one, or even all three of these particular markets might be a good fit for me.

What sort of career do you want to have?
My dream career would be one as a rocking children’s book illustrator and writer, with time left over to do some personal painting, and maybe travel, but if that didn't happen overnight, illustrating for children's magazines, smaller print magazines, online magazines, and/or greeting card companies is something I'd like to look into (in the meantime, I'm doing pet portraits whenever I'm up to it), and I'd still like to try to make room for illustrating my own writing.

Because of the challenges I face with my less-than-healthiness, my intention when I started school was to hone the skills that I had and acquire new ones, so that I could do some sort of freelance work, strictly from home. Since the the health situation hasn’t changed, and is maybe getting worse, that’s still my goal. I didn’t originally have a specific art career in mind, I just wanted to find something I enjoyed...something that I had talent for, something that despite my physical limitations, I could actually do, that might help me to become a little less destitute, and at least a small part of the world-at-large, again. I declared Illustration as my major because I’ve had a lifelong interest in children’s book art, book cover illustrations, and to a lesser degree, greeting card designs; Illustration seemed to be an agreeable amalgam of Fine Arts and Design Arts, and it appeared to be a more financially practical path than Painting or Surface Design.

Does your present body of work reflect your aspirations?
Not completely.
After looking at everything two or three or four or five times, I think there are some pieces that might actually appeal to a children's book, book cover art, or greeting card market. I think the shortcomings of my body of work are...first...about the quality of the work—I need to show better skills, and after that, the types of work, and then the number of pieces in the portfolio.

Could it do so more strongly?
Absolutely.
I’ve been happy with many of the ideas that I’ve come up with for my assignments. That being said, at the very least, I don’t believe my present body of work is accurately indicative of my painting and drawing skills. I know that I’m better than what I’ve produced, at least as far as some of the work I’ve done in my Illustration classes, goes. I’m slow, and much of the time my completed pieces either look unfinished, or hurried, or both, and not in a good way. I think in many instances, I had solid, workable (maybe even potentially salable ideas to the right demographic and market); I even managed to come up with a couple of pretty good ideas once in awhile, and my preliminary drawings weren’t bad. In the end, however, the quality of my final pieces was often not what I’d hoped for. Looking back over my body of work…again, mostly from my Illustration classes…I’m not miserably disappointed with what I’ve done, but my portfolio definitely needs to be stronger and more substantial than it is now. There are just a few pieces that I'd be pretty comfortable showing to a prospective client, since the idea is to actually impress and attract them with my work, but I think that...over a period of time...several of the pieces could be reworked, or even redone from the original drawings, to add strength to my portfolio. It certainly wouldn't hurt to do some new pieces with a target audience in mind, either, and I'd like to offer as much variety as I can. Though the work I’ve done in Illustration has never widely appealed to the peer group, I’m certain that there’s an audience out there for my ideas and my ways of creating, it’s just a matter of finding that market, and then doing whatever I can do, to produce work that meets both my standards and the clients’.


List ten images/themes/techniques/subjects/formats that your portfolio needs in order to become more in line with your aspirations.Besides the rework of some of what I've got,
1. illustrations based on my writing, because I don't have any.

2. a greeting card or two or three

3. something in a happy, colorful, fun style that's specifically aimed at kids; I don't think many of my pieces set a mood or elicit emotion from a viewer the way I'd like for them to.

4. something in a quirky, darker style to contrast with the happy, colorful, fun stuff, but still kid-friendly. I actually prefer darker-themed pieces, but I don't have any.

5. water - I've not done much water; what I did do, I didn't do well.

6. flora and fauna - I don't have many animals or plants in my illustrations. I don't think the dogs in my portraits count, because they're much more realistic than my illustrations.

7. photo collage - I've only used photo collage for an Illustration piece, once. More and more it's being used on book covers, though not always well.

8. ink - I only have one piece in ink, & it's a silhouette.

9. watercolor - I don't think I have any watercolor illustrations, & it seems to be popular medium with the children's book crowd, plus, I have a looser style with watercolor.

10. better, more consistent values in my painting

State of the Union - Post 5

If you had to spend the rest of your life illustrating one book, what would it be? Why?
I guess there are some obvious choices; the Bible, because it’s long, complicated, and full of stories that can be interpreted in many different ways, or I could go for some uber-long, historical-minutiae-of-the-world compilation...from what the dinosaurs ate for breakfast the day the comet hit, thru whatever Paris Hilton is planning for next week...that would certainly take up the time, or I could even illustrate MY BIG NOVEL that I haven’t written yet. If, however, I was going to spend the rest of my life illustrating one book, I'd really want to enjoy it, so my choice would be an anthology by Pat Murphy, called Points of Departure,

just because it includes some of my favorite stories, ever (my copy's falling apart, I've read it so many times). It would be a labor of love, and I think that would be a great way to live out a life.


If you could go apprentice with any two artists in the history of the world, who would they be? Why?

Leonardo da Vinci

image source 1 image source 2

Because he was a genius, so much more than an artist, and ahead of his time; I think learning from him would make you ready for anything.


and Leonor Fini

images source - previous Fini link

Though I’d have to do something about my cat allergy, because she was heavily into the felines, I'd like to apprentice with her, because she was a skilled painter and designer, she was a writer, she did illustrations, and she was kind of a wild woman, plus, she got to hang out with all the cool surrealist kids.

I guess I like multi-taskers.



If you were banned from the art world, but could have any career you wanted that wasn’t in art, what would it be? Why?
I wanted to be a singer when I was a little kid.

I loved to sing…it still gives me a huge rush...but then (as now), I turned out to be better at digging, than performing in front of people, so I began to dream of becoming an archaeologist. The idea of traveling all over the world, working outside on digs, and uncovering mummies and bones and pottery, while solving the mysteries of history and prehistory, sounded like the best adventure, ever. Sites like Pompeii and Herculaneum, the caves at Lascaux, anything to do with Neanderthals (you’ve gotta love those guys), discoveries in Egypt, and the exploration that’s gone on beneath the Mediterranean (how cool would it be if someone found that the contents of the Library of Alexandria hadn’t been totally destroyed?), all fascinate me, still. I think learning about history that we're not 100% clear on, is important. So if I couldn't be an artist, and it was possible physically, financially and in every other way to do anything else, then I'd want to be an archaeologist/paleoanthropologist, I guess. I could be Lara Croft,

minus the rocking body, the cool clothes, the independent wealth, and the weapons & fighting skills.

I’d still like to go on a dig one day, even though I am an artist, and a not-always-so-healthy girl.



Describe the project you would propose under the following circumstances. Describe the project in detail: what would it be, how would you spend the money (all of which must be spent on art expenses), how would you schedule the time allotted, and how would the work be presented upon completion?

So no paying off the school loans, huh?

image source


Ok....let's see...
1)One month, one thousand dollars:
A thousand dollars is a lot less than you'd think. Heck, if I had it, I could easily drop over $400.00 at Walmart and Whole Foods in just a few hours. I'm not sure I could even self-publish a book properly for $1000.00, of course, it's not like I could put a book out in a month at my turtle pace, anyway, so I guess it doesn't make much difference. But enough whining about what I can't do with it.

So. $1000. and a month. I'd like to buy some canvases, boards, paints and brushes...good stuff...and any other supplies I might need, to try to work up a few ideas I've had for paintings, for quite awhile. I have a journal that I write my ideas down in, whenever I have them...sometimes I go back and look at them and it's a real WTF moment, but I think there are a few ideas that have some merit...to me, if maybe not to anyone else. A cash windfall would allow me to explore one or more of those ideas.

If I bought really good supplies, I could probably spend $1000., but because I'm so slow, I doubt that I'd be able to get more than 2 or 3 really good paintings done in a month, so I'm not sure the cost would be justified...but maybe the kind benefactor who gave me the cash would be ok with that.

Time allotment? I'd pretty much be painting non-stop all month...eating, sleeping and painting, I guess; I don't get out much, anyway. For presentation of my 2 or 3 paintings, I could have a very, very small show, but it might have to be in my living room.


2)Six months, Ten thousand dollars:
A little over $1500. a month. Depends on exactly what "art expenses" means. I'd like to do something indulgent. I'm really slow, but since I'm a hermit anyway, and if it was all I worked on, I might be able to produce a children's book in six months...of course, maybe that's naive, from a time perspective; I'd have to do more research. $10,000. would cover plenty of proper (not cheap) supplies, with possibly a computer upgrade, or at least some software purchases to help with putting it all together (no sense in trying to create something big with obsolete equipment and wonky programs); the $10,000. would also hopefully cover self-publishing, copyright expenses (even though sending something to the Copyright Office now is like sending it into a black hole, it's probably necessary), as well as some advertising and marketing, maybe, and miscellaneous costs that I haven't thought of.

Time...again, pretty much non-stop work, I'd figure: write a story if I couldn't use something I already had, and then get up and paint every day, and occasionally eat and sleep, for the whole six months. Though, now that I think about it, the book has to be created, put together and printed, so that would require some creative time-juggling. Plus, some of the 6 months would have to be devoted to online set-up and marketing, and I'm pretty sure they'd want me to have a book before I started trying to do that.

I know someone who's self-published a couple of books. She markets hers through Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and maybe some other Internet booksellers, so I'm reasonably certain I could do the same. She's also been able to tie her books to the Internet book launches of smaller, niche publishing companies, so that's a thought, too. I'd have to do more research to figure it all out, preferably, before the six months began.

I think there would definitely have to be some sort of real world launch, though...maybe I could talk Burke's into letting me have it there, and I could try to get the local paper to run a story, in conjunction with the opening.


3)One year and one hundred thousand dollars:A little over eight thousand dollars a month. Again, I'm not exactly sure what "art expenses" covers, but I'll go ahead and outline something that's been rattling around in my head for awhile. It's a proposal for an art-therapy center, specifically for veterans; something that goes beyond whatever services the VA offers, which from what I've read, often aren't much, if any, at least as far as art therapy goes.

There will be so many returning soldiers, eventually, and I've read that while art therapy helps them with PTSD and other disorders, both emotional and physical, there aren't nearly enough treatment centers available. I'm not a fan of war in general, but I believe that if, as a nation, we send people to war, then we should absolutely be taking better care of them when they return, and I believe in the benefits of art therapy.

This proposal would get the idea into the real world to see if it was doable, and hopefully attract the attention of people who could expand it. I have no idea how much something like this would cost, but I'm hoping $100,000. would be enough. I'm thinking a lot would depend on the kindness of strangers, and the cooperation of government people who aren't known for being cooperative.

It would be a place where the vets could go to hang out for a few hours a day, in a laid back, but semi-structured environment, with people who've been through what they've been through, with them all using art to try to get above and beyond those shared experiences. The services would be provided free of charge.

It would probably, hopefully, be possible to get a facility, maybe with utilities included, donated for a year (there's an atelier I know of here, that has a similar arrangement), since it would be just a trial run, happening over a finite amount of time, and it would be for veterans. I don't know if you can get a non-profit status for something temporary, but if so, that might help with expenses. It's possible that a proposal could be made to solicit more funds from the government, in the form of a grant, if it looked like more capital would be needed.

There would need to be consultations and/ or brainstorming sessions early on, with different art therapy experts (and maybe some brand new art therapists, just to get a fresh take on things) to determine how to set up a program that would go well beyond what's currently available, and be specifically geared for returning soldiers. With Skype, and other Internet means of communication, the participants would not have to be in the same location, and maybe that would help cut costs. It's possible that the experts would donate their time and expertise, but maybe not. If not, then their (hopefully reduced) fees would come out of the pile o' money. There would have to be at least a couple of licensed/certified/educated art therapists on hand, on-site, during hours of operation, and unless they wanted to donate their time, part of the money would go for their (hopefully small) salaries, too. It would most likely be possible to get some assistants, preferably people from local art programs or local artists (art students and artists are used to volunteering), to donate their time and skills.

Money would also be spent on art supplies and tables/furnishings/a single phone line/whatever, but we'd get everything donated that we could...I know some people who can talk anybody into just about anything. I don't know if you have to rent snack/soda/coffee machines, but I'm guessing we'd need to have a few. If we could get the VA and vet agencies on board, we could get vet referrals from them, and no advertising or solicitation would be necessary. I think it would be important to periodically arrange exhibitions of work that the participants would be comfortable showing, either at the (hopefully donated) facility, or maybe at a local gallery, so there might be a few costs associated with shows. If, eventually, these art groups were to spread across the country, maybe there could be state and national shows, as well.

My role would be to oversee the creation of the center and implementation of the program, coordinate the efforts, report on its progress, or lack thereof, be an art assistant, and make a final presentation to IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN AUTHORITY, at the end of the year.

Overall, my hope would be that by the end of the year, the center would have proven to be something that would be viable for veterans' agencies to consider adopting nationwide, but even if we weren't successful in accomplishing broad change, I believe we would have made a difference in the lives of quite a few veterans over the course of the year. You can't just drop people from any kind of therapy though, so something would probably have to be in place at the outset, to allow for referrals in the event that we couldn't continue beyond the first year. If the program did manage to be implemented nationwide, and/or our facility stayed open (with some other source of funding, because the $100,000. would be spent), and someday, miraculously, the country managed to run out of wars and veterans, the facilities and therapy program could be adapted for other types of participants.

Time...this is such a huge idea that I have absolutely no idea how to begin to imagine the allotment of time. First, I think I'd have to get some art-therapy professionals and veterans on board with the idea, then maybe try to secure support from IMPORTANT PEOPLE. Then, the appropriate agencies and groups would have to be contacted, necessary approvals and support procured, grants, if needed, applied for, brainstorming sessions held, a program finalized, facilities secured, personnel acquired, and all of that takes time, before the first client ever walks in the door. Once all that was done, and everything was in place, the launch could be held at the facility; we could have an official "opening"...maybe A.C. could come down, cut a ribbon and say a few words.

State of the Union- Post 4

Yeah..."updated editor", right. Not really crazy about that feature. It made everything all wonky, so I freaked out for awhile trying to figure it out, & then went back to the old editor, started all over & voila!

List ten illustrators whose work you admire, or whose career you would like to emulate. Who are their clients? What sort of work do those clients look for? Provide images.


Cedric Rivrain - I like fashion art and I like his style. He’s a fashion illustrator, and some of the designers he’s worked with are John Galliano, Maison Michel, and Martine Sitbon.





Lauren Mills - I like the delicacy in most of her work. She’s very skilled with watercolor. She’s done children’s book illustrations, and portrait and sculpture commissions. She’s been published by Little, Brown Young Readers, and Dial.



Michael Whelan - Not a bad career…over 350 books & magazine covers, and some album covers. His eye for detail and his technical skill are amazing. His work has been published by DAW, Del Ray, & Ace books, almost all, Sci-Fi and Fantasy. He doesn’t even accept commercial commissions anymore, and he’d finally won so many awards, he started withdrawing his name from competitions.




Ingrid Sundberg - Her children’s work is bright and fun and a little quirky. She’s done work for books and magazines, including The Mountain Astrologer, Sage Woman, and Half Price Books.





Stephen Gammell - I love the loose and splattery children's book illustrations he’s done, particularly for Monster Mama…I bought it just for the illustrations. Some of the publishers he’s worked for are Knopf, HarperCollins, Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books, and Henry Holt and Co.




Tony DiTerlizzi- He did freelance work, and then began writing and illustrating children’s books. He’s worked mostly for Simon & Schuster, Children’s Pub.



Wayne Anderson - I really enjoy looking at his work. I'd buy those books. His work is featured in books, mostly children's books, on greeting cards, posters, magazines, and more. Some of the publishers he’s worked with are Jonathan Cape, Paper Tiger, David Bennett Books, Templar,, Walker Books, and Delpire.




Mary Engelbreit - Not a bad career: children’s books, greeting cards, and then you’ve got the plates, T-shirts and all that other stuff....she's obviously been successful in marketing her work. Her work has been published by Andrews McMeel Pub, Harper Collins.



Jerry Pinkney - Children’s books illustrator, illustrator of novels, and doer of commissions, he’s won too many awards to count. He’s done work for Knopf Doubleday, Macmillan, Dial-a division of Penguin Pub., and National Geographic, just to name a few.





B. Kliban - Cartoonist for Playboy, creator of cats ; his work was compiled in books, & even though he died in 1990, it’s still being reproduced on greeting cards, mugs and t-shirts, etc. Most of his books were published by Workman Pub.

Go to a bookstore with a large magazine section, like Barnes and Noble or Borders. Find at least 10 magazines you think you could work for. Consider both the content of the magazine and the type of illustration, if any, that they use. Record the names of the art director and any assistant art directors listed, and their contact information.
I love magazines, but I'm afraid printed ones may soon become extinct. Everybody's got an online version, or they're scrambling to create one. Some previously impressive magazines, like Smithsonian, are now just shells of what they used to be....it's sad. Especially since illustrations just don't have the same impact for me if they're not on a printed page. I think if I'm going to think about submitting work to magazines, I might like to find small, financially solvent magazines that can still afford to pay, but that might be easier to get my work into. That will take more research, so in the meantime:

Cricket Magazine Publishing (14 children's magazines)
Highlights for Children
Brain, ChildYes
Know
Modern Dog
Asimov's
Analog
Fantasy and Science Fiction
Realms of Fantasy
Interzone

If you were starting your own magazine and your livelihood depended on it selling well and your sanity depended on it being something you wanted to spend all your time on, what would it be? What sorts of writers and artists would you hire? What subject matter would it deal with? How would you want it to look?
If my livelihood depended on it, it would have to be a magazine that could tap into an unoccupied market niche. So maybe something for women over 50... there aren't a lot of those around...magazines for that specific age group, I mean...there are plenty of women over 50....and they generally have disposable income. I'd want the magazine to steer away from the "women's magazine" or AARP vibes that everything else for that demographic seems to have. I wouldn't want it to feel old, or present that age group as marginalized, or isolated from anything and everything current and relevant to people younger than them. I'd hire starving-type artists and writers, but good ones....try to find new talent, but not necessarily young; it would be ok, maybe even a plus, if they were over 50 as well.

The subject matter would include the issues that women from that particular age-group face...like the fear a lot of grannies have of the Internet, maybe, or how they feel about single men over 50 being given a free pass to go out with younger women, while women over 50 are ridiculed or vilified if they choose to date younger men. But I wouldn't want it to be a whine fest, nor would I want it to fall into the self-help vein. I'd want it to be entertaining, so I'd make specific interests they have, including, or maybe especially, art, a large part of the content. Serious art, though...not scrapbooking and stuff...not that I have anything against scrapbooking, mind you. And since I'm really interested in science, I'd want to include fun, science-y factoids in there somewhere---I like the way Mental Floss presents their information. I'd want the magazine to be smart...but not too dumbed-down or too intellectual to be off-putting to anyone who might think about buying it. What I wouldn't want it to look like, would be old, or stale, or stiff or cheesy, or unoriginal, or cheap; I'd want it to include a lot of photographs and original art.

List ten non-magazine clients that you would like to work with. Why are these dream clients? Find and record their contact information.
Book Publishers - I've seen some really crappy-looking paperback covers, and have often thought: surely, I can do better. Many of the large houses have quite a few children's book publishers under their umbrellas, and children's books really interest me:

Haffner Press
MacMillan (includes St. Martin's & Tor)
Penguin (includes several children's publishers, Dial Books for Young Readers, Ace, & Daw)
Random House (includes Bantam, Dell, Golden, The Dial Press, Ballentine, & Del Ray Books)
Simon & Schuster (includes Gallery Books)
Hatchette Book Group (includes Little, Brown & Co.)
Bloomsbury
Andrews McMeel

Greeting Card Companies: Greeting cards are small, they have few words, I'm not sayin' it's easy, but I figure I can do that:

Recycled Paper Greetings
Papyrus
Hallmark
Designer Greetings
Oatmeal Studios
P.S. Greetings

State of the Union-Post 3

Describe your typical creative process, from getting an assignment to finished piece.
It’s not unusual for me to become confused about what I’m doing from the get-go, so I always spend time at first just trying to make sure I’ve got all the assignment details right. Fairly often, I’ve gotten some part of the instructions wrong (though even when I don't, I usually think I do). I’ve found that I get things accomplished more quickly, if I’m away from, well…everything…I do better in a solitary confinement sort of situation, because I’m very easily distracted.

I write a lot after I get an assignment…it seems to make sense to take the ideas from my head and put them into words, before I begin to draw. After I finally come up with some ideas that seem workable, I might do a little research first, maybe look at a few reference images, and probably do some reading. Then, I agonize through stick figure thumbnails for composition. (If I get much more elaborate with my thumbnails than stick figures, I get bogged down, trying to perfect them.) Sometimes I have to stop and write some more. When the thumbnails are done, I’ll eventually be able to choose a few that I like, but decisions are difficult for me. I usually try to pick at least 3-5 that I like, maybe see if I can make them better, and then eventually try to pare the selection down to one, if that’s what I need.

My process for the portraits I do outside of school doesn't include thumbnails. I usually take photographs at a client's location, then, most of the time, I put them on the computer and collage dog parts and a client-approved background together in Photoshop, to create a composition that the client likes. I then use the collage as my drawing reference for everything.

Once I’ve decided on the direction I’m going to take, composition-wise, I either make a larger, more finished sketchbook drawing, or I move directly to full-size graphite drawing on tracing paper, using reference material. If I’m really confident in the composition of the thumbnail(s), and am afraid I can’t correctly size it/them up manually, I’ll enlarge it/them via the computer to the drawing size. It seems to help a lot to have a full-size composition reference.

I usually do massive amounts of reference research. I often have a lot of trouble drawing out of my head, so I try to make sure I have as many specific photo references as possible. It's possible that I overdo it on the reference material. A few times, I’ve collaged my reference photos into the correct composition in Photoshop and used that to draw from, because I also have a hard time putting the different reference elements of a drawing together properly in my head and then transferring them to paper. A collage takes a little time (though I’ve noticed I’ve gotten faster); it adds a step or two, to the process, but it seems to work for me, because when I’ve tried this, the finished drawing always seems to be better.

Once the tracing paper drawing seems right, I transfer it to the working surface for my final piece. I’m still trying to find an easier way to do that at home. Sometimes I rig up a sort of rickety replica of a light table, but if my painting/drawing surface is too thick for that to be of any use, I either use graphite transfer paper, or I trace over the back of the tracing paper drawing, & then transfer it onto my painting surface. I’m not a huge fan of graphite paper, because the lines sometimes bleed through paint.

If I’m painting, I try to mix my colors first. I just realized it’s been so long since I’ve painted that I’ve forgotten what I usually do next. Paint, obviously, but how? I think I try to get the mid-tones down, leaving highlights if I remember to (adding ‘em back in if I don’t), and then I darken the shadows. This is usually where I manage not to go far enough with the values, or maybe this is when I usually run out of time.

My biggest problem is probably that I get bogged down with very small details when painting or drawing. I can spend an inordinate amount of time trying to fix or figure out, one tiny thing. On the previously posted Invisible Cities piece, I think I worked on one tiny cart and itty-bitty person for days, because I had such a terrible time getting the perspective right.


Describe what you think your creative process should be like.
I’m not sure there are any huge problems with the process I have, since I’m fairly sure I’m essentially following the process we’ve used in class (with a change or two to try to compensate for a couple of specific problems that I have); it just seems to take me forever. I'm open to any helpful feedback. I hate thumbnails, but that’s obviously something I just need to get over---I’d like to come up with a magic number of thumbnails that would be enough to generate good, strong ideas, but not so many that it feels like torture. It’d be great for my process to be easier and quicker, but I think that probably only comes with practice, and maybe a better-working brain. I’m reasonably sure that some of my problems are due to the brain-wonkiness I experience, that I don’t have much control over. I try to work around that dysfunction, but the severity and effects change, and I’m not always successful.


Research and describe a professional creator's creative process.
Here's James Turner's take on the creative process.
source


And then there's Nate Williams' creative process. I ran across it and thought that at least parts of what he had to say were very relevant to what I'm trying to do.

He gets the specifics of a job from a client, and then (sometimes) pulls his inspiration from the environment around him. If this is his aim, he does his preliminary sketches somewhere away from home, on an aimless bus ride, on a park bench, taking a walk. He says that this kind of activity fires up his creative spark.

He also uses words. He tries to think of 2-4 words that relate to what he’s trying to create. Then, for each of those words, he thinks of other things…either words or images…associated with them, making columns of words/images under each of the original words. He then rearranges the words, one word from column A, one from column B, one from column C, etc., to create ideas. (An example of this part of the process is here. He gives an additional link for helping with the idea process, here.)

Next he creates rough pencil sketches to use when he talks to his client about his ideas. He takes digital photos of the sketches, because he says that’s quicker than scanning and the quality at this stage, isn’t important. Then the concept sketches go to the client, he gets phone or email feedback from the client, and revises the concept until he has something the client is happy with.

His next step is to begin creating the work. He says he likes “organic textures and loose free-flowing lines.” He uses a lot of different media, from acrylics to watercolors, to Sharpies to India ink, and more. He says that he’s trying to “create a library of modular pieces” that can be put into his computer and then changed and used repeatedly. He says this allows him to change things easily and turn his work around quickly. He frequently re-uses bits from other work, and says this helps speed up the creation of new compositions. He then modifies the work, and tailors it to meet the needs of the current illustration.
Source

State of the Union Post 2

Of the artwork you have done, what is your personal favorite piece?
There are two.
#1 This one, that I did for the Invisible Cities assignment:


#2 And this one, that I did with the little monster fella:



Why do you like it?
#1 There are problems, including the values, with the original...the scan came out darker and off-color...but I like the composition, and the choices I made for the details of clothing, hair & shoes. I also like it, because it looks like there's a story there.

#2 I like this one, because I rocked the litho-crayons, and did some not-too-bad drawing on this one. I've not been able to reproduce that kind of success with the crayons, since. I like the composition, I'm pretty happy with the other technical aspects of it, and I think my interpretation of the idea is good.



What piece do other people like most?
There have been a few different pieces in different classes. The Pretty Hate Dress in Surface Design, a couple of landscapes in my watercolor class; the painting class liked Susan:



But probably the piece that I've received the most positive feedback on overall, inside and outside of class, was my Hannibal Lect-Hare t-shirt design for Illustration:

Do you agree?
The pieces I've done over the years that've received more-positive-than-usual-feedback have almost always been those that I've been reasonably happy with, the ones that feel at least mostly finished, and that don't have too many mistakes to fix...so the answer's yes; I can't recall ever having done a piece that I've disliked, that other people really liked.

Why do you think they like it?
What's not to like about a homicidal, cannibalistic bunny? Maybe people liked it because the style makes it look very clean, it looks finished, the colors work well together, the workmanship is good, or maybe they liked it because it was an idea that more people could relate to, for a change. Once in a while, I think I surprise people.


What piece surprised you the most?
The 100 demons scroll piece. It was a difficult assignment for me, but it turned out to be a good exercise that helped me see how a lot of sketches can help with the idea process, if you don't lose your mind first. I ended up surprising myself with some of what I produced. A lot of it was lame, but there were a few characters in there that weren't too bad. This is the one that got the most positive feedback, even from people who'd never commented on my work, before...which is funny, because this little guy is me:




And here are some others:






Five doodles or sketches that you like as much as any of your finished pieces.
I don't doodle...which is probably against the artist's and Illustrator's code, or something. I usually always like my final preliminary drawing better than my finished piece...the drawings are done in a dry medium though, & the finished pieces are almost always done in a wet one, and I just never seem to get the final one quite finished, especially where the values are concerned.

This was a less-than-an-hour, in-class drawing of Cody, which miraculously actually sort of looks like him, and probably has more life in it than the final Sinbad piece.



This was some sketchbook work that was done fairly quickly with no preliminary drawing or planning.



This one's from the same sketchbook assignment, & I did as much sketching with the paintbrush as I did with the pencil, which is unusual.


One of the sketchbook sketches from The Peabody. They were originally just supposed to be sketches for ideas, but several turned out well enough to be stand alone work, I think.


Another sketch from the same bunch from The Peabody. I don't think anyone else who looked at it, liked it as much as I did.