Sharing time!

So...I was in Japantown, San Francisco for the Cherry Blossom Festival last weekend when I had the wonderful privilege of getting myself acquainted with animator, Willie Ito. Mr. Ito has worked with several animation companies since 1954, including Disney studios (he happened to be the one who animated that adorable scene in "Lady and the Tramp" where the two kiss with a spaghetti noodle).

Along with animation, he's produced several original comics, including Hello Maggie and A Boy of Heart Mountain, based on his experiences in Japanese internment camps. Despite the influences I found both books to be pretty lighthearted. If you ever get the opportunity, I definitely recommend taking a look.

Wondercon 2010 up date

    Just wanted to post a quick one about the con this past weekend and give you my thoughts on  such events.
   I got started by touching bases with Mark McDonnell. He is always a big encouragement and a very talented Fellow.  He gave me some great feed back and as always, a little gumption to press on. it is my hope that he will stop in every once and a while to give a little input on the groups work. Busy fellow though,  but still he just might.
   Popped over to the Archcaia booth to chat with Patrick McEvoy of Megaflow Graphics.  
One of the hosts of Ninja Mountain Podcast  Great Fellow and got some very helpful input from him.
I missed him Saturday morning. Was going to do a quick plug for the group for the podcast but Saturday was as crowded as San Diego CC gets. CRAZY!
Also met Chandra Free,  Brian Kolm of atomic bear press, Chated a moment with Steven Silver about self publishing.      If you know Steven you know what a great guy he is, very encouraging & upbeat and he is kind of a Guru on the subject of Self publishing. I've got to check out his seminar available at Imaginism Studios  on the subject.
     I've come to the conclusion that to get anywhere  today in this business you need to have a property already in the hands of readers. You need to be building a fan base showing the financial viability of your property in order for any serious attention to be given to your work by publishers. More and more so, the roll of a publisher is diminishing in importance of being successful in the industry. I find it exciting, and at the same time rather daunting. Getting noticed gets rather difficult with so many vie-ing for the attentions of readers. So, the question is, should you bother with trying to impress a publisher?
I think that getting your work to rise to a level of sustainability will need the resources of a main stream publisher. I can see finding many people out there willing to read your stuff, even pay for it, but to do this for a living and break away from the Salt mines will still take the representation of a publishing house.  So we press on...  

I hope that we will see a few new members us. Handed out several invitation cards, responded to one just last night.  Hello Marry! if you read this.

I'll have more to share on the experience later. hope everyone is having a wonderfully creative day!


  

Art post!

So...I recently submitted a piece for Doodle4Google, a logo-design contest open to K-13 students. Winning entry gets $10,000 and an additional $25,000 for their school so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. ^-^



Fullsize over here:
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/085/e/f/Doodle4Google_Entry_by_FireElfwitch.jpg

encouragement for Rodene and hopefully every one

1. Try to figure out exactly what most interests you in the arts. 
From your post here, I sense your leaning to animation and comics. Your choice in schools is CRUCIAL! Now some Fine Art schools might teach you that what drew you to the arts is juvenile and banal. (I speak from experience) so avoid the brain washing and keep true to your initial inspirations. You might give up like I did. Most of the interviews out there of those living their drams in the field express a similar frustration over their art school experience. If I would have done it different when I was your age I would have applied for Cal Arts. It's expensive, and HARD to get into, but most students there find jobs before they finnish. Not to mention exposer to the most influential artists; John Lassiter, Tim Burton, Pete Doctor, Andrew Stanton,... (You probably know all this already) It is the school of choice for the popular arts. 


2. Search the web for interviews of those who inspire you and learn from them. Check out;


http://www.Escapefromillustrationisland.com 


http://www.sidebarnation.com/  


http://chrisoatley.com/CHRISOATLEY.COM/podcast/podcast.html


And the interviews I've done with


David Colman;   http://web.me.com/samuelkirkman/Site/David_Colman.html

Steven Silver http://web.me.com/samuelkirkman/Site/Stephen_Silver.html

Mark McDonnell http://web.me.com/samuelkirkman/Site/Mark_McDonnell.html 






3. Learn all you can about art history. I think every artist needs a well rounded knowledge of art history. Really pay attention to where our visual language came from and how it developed over the centuries.


4. Do what your doing here, Get out there on Twitter and Facebook and Blogger or wordpress. set up a blog make connections, get to know artists in the biz. I't was a revelation to me to find out that PEOPLE actually do this stuff, not some art gods high on a mountain some where, and that most genuinely want to be of encouragement to ones like your self. But be cautious and smart.


5. Find your voice. You'll hear it time and time again how each of us as artists need to find what makes us unique and build on that. It will come from what inspires you in others, what moves you emotionally in life, and the experiences that lay before you. It happens. It's not something you can force, but something that evolves. How will you know you've found your voice? When that sketch or drawing or story you are working on suddenly elicits that prickling sensation, that "Hair standing up on the back of your neck" sensation, When you reach the point that you inspire your self. That's the horse you jump on to and ride like the wind.  


6. Always have a plan B. It is not an admitting of defeat or a compromise of dreams to think about what you would do if it doesn't pan out. You will always need a means of maintenance, a way to make a living. Planning ahead for this will help you find yourself doing something you want rather than being forced into the "Hi Welcome to Wendy's, Can I take your order?" nightmare. IT IS WISDOM! Plan as far ahead as you can.


Well, I hope your dreams come true Rodene. I hope this helps a little, And I look forward to what you have to share project wise on the GNN. Thanks for sticking around! -Sam

A bit more about myself

Reading all of your stories have all been very inspiring for me. My first "about me" post feels a smidge bit tiny and pathetic compared to what you guys have down. So, sit down, snuggle up, and let me divulge a little bit more about myself.

My name's Renee, but people seem to be in the habit of referring to me as "Rodene." I'm young. 16 to be exact. I live in a sleepy suburban community near Sacramento. I'm around for the same reason you guys are - I love art.

I've wanted to be an artist ever since I can remember. I grew up as a privileged kid from a good background. I did well in school - I got straight A's, stayed out of trouble, followed my parents religiously. Pretty idyllic, yeah. And boring. Never really did find myself in any of the stupid, outlandish situations that children seem to be in the habit of getting themselves into. I was sort of a lonely kid. I had a friend, just one, but he was sick a lot so I had to fashion most of my other friends from my imagination. I'd sculpt them out of sticks and playground bark or just draw pictures of them. I was always expected to grow into something good, like a doctor or a dentist or even some fancy lady engineer, but then I fell in love with art. Even as a kid, I was always enamored with beautiful artwork. Unfortunately, my passion has never quite coincided with my parent's dreams of what their darling little daughter will grow up into.
For the longest time, I tried to convince myself that that was what I wanted. It was a simple formula - do well in school, go to a university, earn my degree, get a career, continue living the comfortable, achingly monotonous lifestyle that I was accustomed to. I've always wanted nothing more than to please my parents. I've always studied hard and made the grade, but it always seemed like that no matter how hard I tried, nothing was going to make them happy. So, in about another year, I'm going to graduate high school and make the stupidest and hopefully the best decision of my life - I'm going to try and make it out there as an artist.
I'm on my way to graduating from an International Baccalaureate school which, by itself, pretty much guarantees me a spot in any UC or private school I apply to, but I'm forgoing it all to do something that I want for once, to attend an art school to study the one thing I've always loved. Do I feel a bit reckless and maybe a wee bit stupid? Well, yes. But I'm still practically a kid, and I figure this is a good age as any to act a little dumb and selfish. I think I'm well overdue, anyway.
M parents don't approve, my teachers are shocked, heck, I even poured my heart out to my priest once and he told me to think things through before acting any further...I'm just tired of tut-tutting adults constantly doubting me or guilt-tripping me for not choosing a path that will eventually make me bitter and miserable. All I'm asking is for someone to believe in me and tell me that I can do it for once. And I'm hoping to find that here.



My inspirations:

Gee whiz, if I'm not an animation and comic book junkie. There are three artists who I consider to be my biggest influences. Heck, if it weren't for them, I'd probably still be geared toward some exciting dentist career.

Jhonen Vasquez - I was 7 when Jhonen's show Invader Zim first aired on Nickelodeon. Gosh, if that show didn't freak my out as a kid. I revisited it again later when I was a smidge older and a little less horrified of flailing cryptozoology and sweaty, pizza-pigs and eventually grew to love it. From there I went to discover his older work (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Fillerbunny, Squee), which well, made me throw up in my mouth a bit at first, but like Zim, I grew to love it.
But seriously, the guy was a college drop-out, a community college drop-out, and at 19, able to immediately land a deal with a publishing company, using only comics he did for a school newspaper as his resume and then later, at 22, start a cartoon on a major network with no previous animation experience. In a world where most artists are living it out on the ramen life, I find that pretty darn amazing.
Brianna Garcia - Illustrator to the incredibly cute webcomic, When Curiosity Met Insanity. I discovered her through her deviantArt account and immediately fell in love with her adorable Disney renditions, especially of Alice and the Mad Hatter. Brianna, an aspiring animator, has inspired me to take up a career in animation as well. I can only hope my art will do the same for someone else someday.
Bill Watterson - Yes! Calvin and Hobbes! I bought a copy of Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages, 1985-1995 through a book order in elementary school and instantly loved it. Even as a kid, Watterson's charming color pictures and dialogue never ceased to amuse me. The commentary at the bottom of every strip was what really got me interested in comics. It showed me just how broad of a medium it really was and how much can be achieved through it.

My other influences include (in no particular order) the art of Don and Audrey Wood (Heckedy-Peg has to be my favorite children's book ever), Quentin Blake, Dav Pikey's Captain Underpants, Alan Moore, Mary Blair, Mary Ryden, Walt Disney, Jim Henson, Tim Burton, Henry Selick, and any Art-Noveau styled work

Thanks for reading. Hope I didn't put anybody to sleep. :)

My Tale So Far

ME:

Hello.  I finally found a little time to write up a post about myself and my work and influences.  Prepare to be fascinated.  I live in Milwaukee.  It is a cold icy grey place for half the year and it smells like beer the other half.  My day-job is far from fulfilling.  I run the vinyl department in a fairly large sign shop and I do so strictly to pay the bills. There was a time when we made a lot of fun custom-designed signs for smaller businesses but we mostly focus on 10-15 large businesses now.  Creativity level... I'll give it a generous 1 out of 10.  

Coming home to my family is what I look forward to every day.  I'm a lucky one who actually found my perfect girl and convinced her to marry me.  We have a daughter who is almost 5 and our son is 1 and a half.  A growing family is time consuming, but full of joy, love, and laughter.  

I dropped out of school about ten years ago after making the mistake of majoring in FINE ART.  Call me naive, but I really didn't realize that the kind of art that I was interested in (illustration / cartooning) was not part of the snobby (in my opinion) fine art world.  I became very disinterested with art and spent the next 10 years playing drums in some pretty cool punk, rock and roll, and country bands.

About a year ago, I finally started taking a more serious attitude with my true passion - illustrating and cartooning.  I started a blog: denverwagner.blogspot.com, set up a portfolio site: denverwagner.com, and began networking with other artists via Twitter, podcast communities, and art forums like deviantart and conceptart.  Even if I never find any success with my art, these steps have helped me to become a much happier and more productive creative person.

My Influences:

Animation is a huge influence for me.  I love a good story but it's usually characters and their designs that draw me in.  I love Disney and Pixar and Muppets and Hanna Barbara and Looney Tunes and children's media in general.  Illustrated kid's books are also influential for me.  Here are some links to a couple posts I wrote on some favorite picture books:  Wallaby Story Time   Panda Story Time: Wallaby Story Time Part Two

My other main influence is horror stories.  I especially like short story collections like Stephen King's "Night Shift" and "Skeleton Crew", Clive Barker's "Books of Blood" volumes, and the Borderlands series edited by Thomas Monteleone.  I'm a sucker for classic tales of terror and I love Poe, Lovecraft, M.R. James, and Saki among others.  There are some great downloadable audio versions of their short stories available for free at Libravox.org

Now I'm adapting a series of bedtime stories created by my daughter and me into graphic novel.  I've been looking through my book collection for some examples of sequential art and came across some old favorites like Eric Powell's "The Goon", Sam Keith's "The Maxx", Gary Larson's "The Far Side",  Bill Waterson's "Calvin and Hobbes", and Bill Amend's "Fox Trot".

Stop yawning :)

-Denver

What are your sources of inspiration?

Who inspires you?
If you have a sec, throw up a post here about any note worthy sources of the Muse that you use.
For me it is the work of Saun Tan. In particular The Arrival 

I can not recommend a book more highly. It is probably due to the illustrator in me, but this work in my opinion is a break through. Was for me anyway.  I thank our own Cynthia Narcisi for tuning me in to this man and his work. Completely

wordless, The Arrival tells the immigrant story like you've never seen it before. Reading his notes on his site on the development of this work is in my book required reading. It took him over four years to complete this work. 

Also of interest are a couple of essays on Originality and Creativity and Picture Books: Who are they for?
If you've got the time I think you will find these essays very rewarding & inspiring.

Other books Of Shaun's that I have found inspiring are The Viewer. To Dark and Scary to be a kids book,
It accomplishes what I intend to do with GREW, a Picture Book for grown ups.
 Filled with incredible visuals,  The Viewer Intrigues rather than enlightens, but is still a very note worthy pice.  



Tales From Outer Suburbia is the last I'll mention.
 
Another incredible feast visually with some unusual and at times, Quirky story telling.
as an example, a haunting short entitled Stick Figures. Disturbing on a couple of levels.
It is good to be disturbed every once and awhile. your thinking always seems to settle
after with a tighter grasp on things significant, while loosing grasp of things that are not, but
which float to the surface like refuse.

OK, if you get a sec to, Add a post about who or what inspire you!
Thanks again for being part of the GNN!

Keep on working on what you love.

Sam


         

Hello!

Hello everyone, I am new here, my name is Ben, I am a freelance illustrator and self publishing comics noodler. It's a pleasure to be invited to partake in your little community, here is a small selection of my newer work by way of introduction:





Thanks for looking, I look forward to sharing more with you in the near future!

Hey Guys! Steven Silver interview.

Just in case you guys haven't had the chance to listen to this interview I did with Steven Silver I thought I'd share it. He is always so encouraging. Hope you enjoy!

So, I blog a lot

It's new to me, and I'm really excited about it these days. Another new post:
Insights Into Script Analysis from an Actor/Writer
http://zachbosteel.com/?p=129

IF: Propagate

Here's what I'll submit for Illustration Friday this week. I'm hoping to get some sketches for my Morgan book up over at GNN soon. I need some advice on her design. Also, I'd like to work on a little "about me" post for over here. I know you guys are just dying to know what kind of freak you're dealing with here. :) In the meantime, I try to post 4 or 5 times a week over at my blog: http://www.denverwagner.blogspot.com/. I know some of you have been over there and I appreciate the looks and the comments.

New blog post...

Hey guys. Wrote a new blog post about why I love the Hulk. If you feel inspired to read it, I'd love to know what you think.
http://zachbosteel.com/?p=121

formspring.me

Ask me (almost) anything. The Gorilla's got my back. http://formspring.me/Kellylight

Introducing Zach Bosteel...

I don't want to seem cheap or anything, but I wrote this on my blog the other day and I'm not sure I can write it better.

" am 25 years old. This July I will be 26. I was an actor for most of my young life. I did at least two plays a year, community, school, professional or otherwise, from the fifth grade until two years ago. Or three now, I guess. Through high school, college, and my professional career, it actually averages out to four plays a year. It was a huge part of my life for most of the time that I was turning from a child into an adult. There were, understandably, a lot of parts of my identity that were inimically tangled up with what I did and how well I did it. Which made me utterly unable to do it professionally. I did not have a level of objectivity that allowed me to deal with failures in that arena. And like any field, a theatrical career is full of failures, and, more significantly, perhaps, compromising successes.

In the midst of deep introspection, totally unhappy with my artistic pursuit, feeling like I was letting down my friends and family who had expectations for my acting career in addition to totally failing myself, I began drawing again. Dredging the canals of my imagination, turning it all into what had, as a youth, occupied an even greater portion of my imagination than acting. Illustration, comics, and mythology. It has been a long, cathartic road, realizing that I had spent my life and entire school career (unless I go to grad school, which feels unlikely) studying something that I didn’t want to have to study to finding a something I had always been passionate about in addition to truly afraid of.

I am smart. I always got good grades. Acting was, for me, pretty easy. This made failures especially riling, because it was always the fact that I wasn’t trying hard enough that was at the root. But most of the time, I didn’t have to try hard. Conversely, though I may have had some advantage over other five year olds in the realm of art, I lost that edge long ago. I am, generously speaking, an average artist. I see objectively in my more successful work an unexpected aptitude for color selection, but if I have any natural advantages in this field, that’s where it ends. Everything else that I do right, or close to right, has been absorbed the hard way, through tens of thousand of truly crap drawings, to the level of only sort of crap drawings. And I have loved every minute of it.

It feels like failing. But it feels like failing up. It’s hard to really feel like I’m failing when, even though I’m not great, I’m better than I was. Because I look at drawings from three years ago, and I SUCKED. Fantastically. And I can see what I’ve learned in the drawings now. And I forgive myself what I don’t know, because I’m getting a late start on all of this. I only know as much as I have taught myself, which is extremely liberating. Like a freelance illustrator, I am my boss. Or more specifically, my instructor. I have to determine the methods by which I learn the best, I have to apply myself, produce the dedication to create the assignments and then complete them. I fail all the time. And every once in a while, I succeed. I have a feeling I’m doing everything the hard way, the wrong way, but I also have a feeling that it’s valuable to me because it’s my way.

Right now, I make my money working a non-creative day job that rankles me at the best of times. But it pays bills. I have the liberty to study my interests in the off hours. I’ve even started to make a little money off of illustration projects here and there. I just got engaged to my beautiful fiance, who’s been with me for these last very challenging six years. We are shopping for a condo. We will turn part of it into a studio where we can each pursue our creative careers. We put in an offer this last weekend, but it got rejected. Another upward failure, because now we know what putting in an offer is like.

My day job is an upward failure, because even though I’m not doing what I want, I’m using the money to push me closer to where I can do what I want.

I think, honestly, from the outside, a true creative professional (or anyone, really) might look at my life and think it a mediocre, unfulfilled existence. That I’m floating along, halfway in between a lot of things, with no guarantee of them lining up in the future. But one thing I learned from failing at what I thought I would do only to find joy in failing at what I didn’t think I would do is that the rewards in my life are simply where I choose to see them.

Here is a very simple way that I apply this idea to my artwork. Everytime I look at something and see that I’ve done it wrong, have I failed at doing that thing? Yes. Sure. Undoubtedly. What I created was not what I set out to do.

But is noticing, knowing that I did it wrong a failure? Absolutely not. It is a success. A success of mental evolution. It is the very mechanic of auto-didactic success. If I have learned that lesson, will I do it wrong again? No! At least, not in the same way.

Everybody says appreciate your failures. I say remember that SOMEBODY has to teach you what you don’t know. Might as well be you."

Really interesting Sam, how we went mirroring directions in college. Nothing quite like the real world to let you know what really makes you happy and what is just something to do.

Anyway, thanks for sharing, Sam. I think your life, as you describe it, is pretty inspirational, and something to aspire to in and of itself.

Welcome to our discussion page!

I thought this would be a good place to get aquatinted with one another, discuss and share any subject you would like to. And so to start off I thought I'd share a little bit about myself.

I'm what you might refer to as a purloined artist. I finished high school with top honors in Art and Drama. When it came time to chose a major in collage I had a hard time deciding what direction to take. I dove into the visual arts with dreams of being the new Picaso. HA! Well, Art school wasn't what I thought it would be. I wanted to learn painting techniques and really learn to draw & sculpt. Long story short I should have gone through commercial art instead. I've heard so many others with the same experience at art school. I just grew disillusioned and dropped out.

Years passed life happened, and now some 30 years out of high school I found myself with the full time job and family with it's connected mortgages, monthly bills and responsibilities.

All through this time I never gave up the dream of doing something with my art. I would walk through Aaron Brothers, sniffing the turp & linseed oil, dreaming of being an artist.

Something got into me around five years ago and I realized I wasn't getting younger. If I was going to do anything I had to start NOW!

So I started painting again did a little stain glass work for friends and myself and slowly the juices started to flow. Long story short, I'm still working the day job, selling plants for LOWE'S here in Fresno. (I mean, four weeks paid vacation, ample sick leave, full medical & Dental, Paid holidays, even a 10% discount on stuff, it's hard to argue with that.)

I just couldn't ignore the call any longer. So how do I do it.

How to juggle a family, a full time job, and a burning passion.

1. have an understanding mate.

2. do a kick @$$ job working for the bacon.

3. get up at 4:30am to work on the passion.

4. carry a sketch book around all day. Even if you never make a mark in it, having it there reminds you of what you really are about. Besides you have to catch those fleeting moments

of the muse or they are lost forever.

5. Put yourself out there and share what your doing!

6. meet people you admire! the best artist is after all a human just like yourself. (a little secret,

not all great artists are good people. I deeply feel you should strive to be both)

7. Do it because you LOVE it. I may never get to quit the day job. I may never be considered an artist by anyone else but myself, but one things for sure, what I am not is just a Live Nursery Sales Specialist for LOWE"S home improvement center. When I die maybe then my family will benefit.

Isn't it a shame that most successful artist become so posthumously?

Any way that's me and haw I do what I do.

Now it's your turn!

New resources

Hey everyone. Sorry for the gapping chasm in time that has erupted on the site.

I've been pumping tons of time into my book, but not to fear, all's not lost!

I wanted to post a few links that have been keeping me busy. first of all a few pod casts

that have been really encouraging to me. first off,

Chris Oatley's Artcast Here you will find interviews & video tutorials from a fellow working in Hollywood at Disney. He has been busy with the Tinkerbell movies. Chris will definitely inspire you!

Escape from illustration Island Thomas James is a working illustrator who is really going all out to help support the on line arts community. With I think 11 podcasts under his belt he sounds like a seasoned professional. Very informative, Enjoyable. But that's not all! Check out his entire site! Tons of resource to get you busy & be sure to join the community. It's really taking off in a great way with people posting the work & questions, sharing feed back and more of what I hope that this site could be some day. So come check it out!

Big Illustration Party Time Josh Kemble & Kevin Cross get together for a great podcast loaded with info & fun. Be sure to check out there sites. They are working Freelance illustrators Who are going through all the ups & downs. Great Time party!

Art & Story Mark Rudolph & Jerzy Drozd Like Josh & Kevin are Freelance illustrators Whit another great podcast show. they occasional get together with each other For a big art & story time and share more of a comics based show again loaded with info & enjoyable content.

Please take a look & listen to the shows listed. I think you will really enjoy the info, and hopefully we be abel to someday build our site into something similar.

David Petersen interview posted to the VSS!

Incase you need a little encouragement, Check out my interview with David Petersen.

I turned out a little long, but he shared a lot of excellent info. and I hope you enjoy it!

http://vsschat.blogspot.com/