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.

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.

Publihed/Unpublished

Well, I guess I'll start with the bum news.
-My inclination about Spectrum this year was correct - I didn't make it in. But I'm not at all surprised by that. I wasn't really feeling like the work I submitted from '08 was on par with what I could have accomplished, or what came immediately after the deadline. So, I will try again this year. Won't hear about Exotique until June or July. It would be nice to get into just one book this year.

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Now, on to the awesome stuff!
-First, I just got an email from ImagineFX (best fantasy/digital arts magazine ever) asking me to contribute some work & artist tips. I'm extremely excited about this!

-Also, on May 4th I'm taking a blast into the past— I'm going back to my high school to talk to my old art teacher's AP Studio & Digital Arts classes. Has it really been 8 years since I graduated? There's a lot I want to talk about. I love inspiring young artists, as hard as it can be to reach them sometimes.

-And speaking of high school, I've been invited to participate in WT Woodson's first annual Alumni Art Show in their new Gallery wing. Kids these days don't know how good they've got it; gone are the days of two stuffy art rooms competing for space in the chorus & band hall.

-Last week I was asked to submit a "Making of" tutorial for the latest piece to It's Art Magazine, which I did, and they're including me in their upcoming Masters Edition.

So all in all things are going smoothly with exposure at the moment. I need to get back to the drawing board, though.

Daily Deviation

Half Her Heart's Duet has also just received a Daily Deviation on deviantart.com. Woo hoo!

New Painting Featured in It's Art Magazine

In addition to a Choice Award on cgsociety.org, Half Her Heart's Duet is also a front page feature for the next week on It's Art Magazine and they're going to have a tutorial for it I'm creating available online. :) I'm really excited about all the fervor this one's generating; it feels like a few very important doors have been opened in terms of artistic exposure.

I didn't realize until I physically wrote out my to-do list just how much I have on my plate right now, so it was good to spend some downtime last night sketching out thumbnails for new projects.

CG Choice Award

My newest piece Half Her Heart's Duet won a CG Choice Award late last night! I'm absolutely thrilled, and very grateful for all the positive response.

Shortly after that news, I received a very nice note from Paul Hellard (from Ballistic Media) encouraging me to submit this piece to their book, Exotique, which focuses on digital character art. Aside from the story, the thought of creating something better for a Ballistic publication was A HUGE part of what drove me to do this piece, especially after hearing I'd missed the boat on Exposé 7 last week. When you fall off the horse, you get back on, right?

I think this is all a good sign...

Half Her Heart's Duet

There's so much I could say about this piece. I'm really satisfied by it. I feel like in the end there's a rich story that comes through, and makes me want to see more of what's beyond the fence.

My husband was responsible for some of the symbolism, like the burning sheet music, and the shape of the instrument - he saw what I was working on at the start when it was just a lass and an amorphous instrument, and I was kinda stuck on where it was going and asking around for ideas. He sent me an excited email detailing the life and times of our red-haired protagonist, and some of the imagery really stood out for me - "...she's an only child, no older brother to take over the farm when her dad dies, or to keep the family name. She's been trying to adapt for so long, and in this moment she's wandered off to have a moment to herself, in her nice dress instead of her daily farm clothes." I changed some things around, then he'd make new suggestions, and in terms of idea exchange it was a really fun process.

Technically I think this one is worth a look, too. I took much longer to consider certain elements than I normally do, and I switched up references a couple times. For example, the hands I originally had drawn in looked too stiff to be holding an instrument properly, so I had to change that. I'm really trying to get better about making decisions like that that benefit the final image, especially because when you work with photo references there tends to be an instinct to let the photo dictate what ends up in the final piece.

Enjoy!

Exposé 7 - the Verdict

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Well, even though One For The Past made it to the final round of judging, I got the word today that it won't be appearing in the book.

Back to the drawing board.

Escapism

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A continuation of my Trial by Water series.

Detail 1

Detail 2