Wednesday, May 27, 2009

W.T. Woodson Alumni Art Show - June 2


Yep, next week I'm showing work at my high school's Alumni Show. According to one of the art teachers, I'll be the oldest one showing. Ack! If you're a Woodson grad or just want to come for the heck of it there will probably be free food, and the new art wing they built is a friggin huge and amazing sight to behold.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Art Remixes


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I just had to redo the mer-people! I got a lot of good critique on the original version of this piece, and decided to act on it. Honestly the original was done as figure practice— not sure why I took it seriously enough to ever post it anywhere, but by putting the mer-folk in a new context I think I really made this work. I've gotten even more good input on this in the cgsociety.org and conceptart.org crit forums since yesterday, which I'll carry on into my next onslaught of work.

Also last week I reworked the 2007 painting Shall we Count His Rings?):


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Digital Art lecture & demo at WT Woodson High

Last week I got a great opportunity to visit the digital art/animation/AP portfolio prep classes at WT Woodson (my old high school) and give a slide presentation and digital painting demo to the students.

The first part of the lecture was focused on how I got started; My teacher, Donna, even had some [embarrassing] examples of digital artwork I did when I was in her classes for effect. Then I talked about some of my methods, and about the business side of it all. We're business card-carrying members of society too! Tell your parents we're like lawyers and executives, only way more fun.

I think the demo was much more interesting. I let the students pick the subject and they said "people!" so I borrowed one of the students.

This is the 10 minute portrait doodle that ensued:


Meanwhile, I've got all my tips turned in for an upcoming Imagine FX article, along with my bio, headshot, 5 pieces of recent work. Their latest issue is on the gaming industry, and I have a business card in my pocket which Donna gave me for the game studio EA/Mythic. It's down the street from our apartment. I'm thinking of calling them and scheduling a review or something, if they're interested in working with contract artists.

I've got to draw line art for a "Professor Gizmo" today at the office, who I imagine is a steampunk wizard chemist guy. We'll see what the client actually says.

And lastly, here are some macros of me reaching for my coffee mug during the school presentation, courtesy of Livejournal user oldsmobile_mike.