Christmas Contest

Kristi G.

Instead of thinking of someplace you would not see yourself at Christmas, I made a quick picture of the perfect place to be during Christmas....At a party, in a beautiful dress, dancing the night away. OK, you might not get it, but ask Aubrey - she gets it.  (Forget Christmas Story - Meet me in St. Louis always gets me in the Christmas spirit).

Nate S.

For my picture I didn't have a lot of time to develop my idea but it was centered around Christmas in the desert, celebrated by a little owl that lives in a cactus and always wishes Santa will stop by and visit him. I haven't thought about the logistics of the story much but essentially what I was thinking was animals that wait for Santa's visit and what interesting things he brings for animals. A big, ugly final has been on my mind so that's all I have so far.

Christmas Illustration - Story Contest

Grab those pens and pencils because we've got our second to last contest of the year and this one's a quick draw contest. There will be little time for developing this entry completely but I'm more just challenging you to submit something in the small time frame, for an illustration it can be a quick sketch, some ink, or even throw some color on if you get the chance. A story could just consist of the beats of the story or the general idea and story arc. For this contest we will aim it towards the Christmas holiday.

Your mission is to come up with an illustration and/or story that centers around Christmas. The plausible idea I'm throwing out there to offer as a challenge if you want to push yourself further is Christmas in a place that you wouldn't normally picture as a Christmas setting. Submit a general storyline centered on the theme or a quick sketch on the same theme. If you're going to do an illustration I have a second additional challenge to throw into the challenge: your illustration needs to demonstrate a sense of depth. I think this will push us all a little further. I'm excited to see what comes out of it.

You can do it. Put a little thought into this one and then quickly sketch out your idea and submit it before you let your eyes burst from fretting over all the errors and details. Just get something in for this one. Have fun with it; I dare you.

Email me your submission by: Monday, December 13th, 2010 at 7 AM.

Tangled Review

Okay I had to take a moment from the normal flow of the blog to interrupt with a special message. I was totally broad-sided last week, somewhere from behind. I wanted to share my experience.


Last week my wife’s family went to see Disney’s new production Tangled in movie theaters the day following Thanksgiving. I was skeptical and in my opinion Disney pictures deserved it. They have put out quite a few feature films that had little heart and then to top it off 5 sequels for every Disney picture to date. Anyways I was skeptical, I think I mentioned that. Before we went to see the movie my mother texted me and said they just got out and she thought the movie was amazing (she shared my opinion from their pictures over the last few years). Hearing her say that sparked my interest, she’s very critical of movies, a difficult eye to please with art.

I must say that I loved the movie. I squirmed in my seat with laughter; I drooled over brilliant animation and visuals, and ended up shedding a tear or two. (I won’t ruin any scenes though and explain where.) The music was so fun. I grew up when Disney was the factory of animation gems like Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Lion King. I drew those characters over and over again, wishing someday that I could be an artist for Disney and make movies like that golden age of feature films. That was my greatest dream.

Slowly as the story quality degraded so did my dream although it’s true, other companies were coming out with films that sparked my creativity and interest; as the third golden age of Disney animation declined so did my dream. Tangled surprised me in a way that left me smiling and dreaming again. While I’ve read that Disney isn’t going to go down the fairytale pathway anytime soon (not my favorite piece of news) I still have to say thank you to the artists that helped make the film. You’ve inspired my passion for films with heart, films that the whole family can gather around, laugh, cry, and dream. Fellow contributors to this blog: do something today and every day this year about your dream; believe in it with every fiber of your being and then get working and make it happen.

- Nate S.

(I had to draw a picture to celebrate how much I loved it. It didn’t turn out very well but it was based off one of their promotional posters/pictures. You really have to see the movie though, the art in the movie is beautiful sometimes and breathtaking at other times.)

Thanksgiving Story - Illustration Contest

Here's the final collection of entries for the Thanksgiving Contest. Thank you everyone for participating in this contest. Great work.

                                                                         Kristi G.


Yesterday I walked into the kitchen and noticed Liezl and Quincy working on a project together while Ava stood watching, hoping to join in. I asked what they were up to, and Liezl responded by saying they were planning a Thanksgiving play. She was the Indian princess and Quincy was the beautiful pilgrim girl. I asked them if they could include Ava in the play, and they both said she already had an important part. Ava was thrilled to be their turkey and did a terrific job. I am so thankful for my silly girls!!!!

                                                                Nate S.

For about a year now, really it began about when I began this blog, I heard a story that just made me laugh, it was so sweet. My niece heard about the wonderfully magical properties of turkey wishbones and began scheming how she could insure she was able to make the wish and also presure her younger sister to wish for the same thing in case. I wanted to make some story off that idea somehow, about a girl that wants to make a wish or that does and the zany things that follow. So far I've only had ideas on this story, no direct storyline but the girl would have to be a compeling character.

                                                                            Scott W.

I almost didn't have time, but I do have some quick sketches. I have been toying with the idea of vegan twins...my family liked the fat ones the best...the idea for thanksgiving would be that they don't want to eat the turkey, but I'm also toying with the idea of the same twins not wanting to be secret agents - as a short story. Could be fun.

(Sorry Scott, I have attempted to fix the squashing of the picture. I have attempted to repost this and add the image in various ways but it comes out squished horizontally everytime. Great picture though.)

Illustration / Story Contest: Thanksgiving Adventure

Hey group, let's get going on a quick contest. I want you to do a quick sketch and/or story idea centered around the wonders of Thanksgiving. You can explore the idea as you wish but I want it to center somehow around the famous holiday for food, family, and fun (for most). Have fun with it and don't feel like you have to develop the story or illustration past a rough sketch.

Deadline: Sunday, November 28th at midnight.

(If you send them in to me before Thanksgiving I'll do my best to post them before Thanksgiving as a visual treat to munch on while you're digesting turkey or cranberry sauce.)

Final Book Cover: Book Illustration

Here's what I've received thus far for the final developments of the book cover contests. I've been promised some more entries...well, ha ha...that includes my own final copy. It's all on the way. Keep up the hard work everyone.

 *Edit* Here's another entry that came in a little later.

                                                                           Kristi G.

I am happy with the characters and am feeling more confident in my drawing skills, but once I pull out the paints, I feel like I ruin the piece. I am a little frustrated with my picture - I have the intended look in my mind, but totally failed when trying to put it on paper. The background was not supposed to look that way, I just thought if I filled it with doodles, it would cover the shabby painting job - but I am afraid it just turns out looking way too busy and messy. I know this is a working progress and I am excited to grow and learn more every day. -Kristi

                                                                           Nate S.

I continued with the Tooth Fairy book cover. After thinking about the critiques that were given I decided on the design with the border, somewhat subdued. As for the character in the middle, I am going with the tooth fairy by herself, looking at the tooth…the one in the middle from the last submission. I stayed up too late and I have to get to bed tonight for Biochemistry tomorrow morning at 7 am. I’m still working on this one, specifically with my costume designer (my wife) on exactly what she will end up wearing. It’ll be done soon; I promise. I wanted to see what everyone thought of the border first as I spent a whole day on it. Whew!

*Edit* I added two more pictures above with words to show two diverging ideas on the background, either fading the objects or leaving them in all their boldness. I brought the tooth out to make it stand out better. Let me know if either are working for you. After spending 3 or 4 hours on it last night I gave up on the picture of Nellybug, the tooth fairy for the middle of the picture. I'm going to try it another way.
 

Scott W.

I'm going with the bottle. I wasn't going to at first, but it became a great part of the story idea...and I love flipping the whole situation on its head. Thanks for the suggestion! Sketched in Pencil, rendered in Photoshop.

Illustrator Highlight: Heather Dixon

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing a very talented artist named Heather Dixon that is working with story and illustration. She was kind enough to let me ask her a few questions about her work, background and process. Some contributors to the blog provided some questions, thank you. And I would like to extend a big thank you to Heather; your work is wonderful and we're highlighting it with the intention of inspiring future illustrators, story writers, and other forms applied artists. Below you'll find her responses to our questions and some examples of her work. Please check it out using any of the links below her pictures. (The Poppins pictures on her blog are my favorite.)

                                                                                                     - Nate

You can find her blog here.

What has been your journey in developing your artistic skills, starting from childhood on through educational endeavors? Where did you study?  What did you graduate in?

"I actually wasn’t a very good artist growing up. I was never the best artist in my class, but I enjoyed drawing quite a bit. I feel I never really started to draw and improve until I was accepted by BYU (Brigham Young University) animation at the tender age of 21. I got several internships while I was there, one at 8fish, an advertising studio, then at a feature animation studio, where I was hired after I graduated. Right now I’m working freelance, which is a lot of fun. Even as a professional artist, I still feel I have a lot of catching up to do."

                                                          Artwork by Heather Dixon

What has been your biggest obstacle with your work and how did you overcome it?

"Two answers to that. The first is an ongoing obstacle—fighting artist’s depression, trying to improve my work and become a better craftsman. I’ll never overcome it, but the best way to battle it is to constantly work and improve.

"Less philosophically, the other big obstacle was learning how to do things digitally. I entered the animation program with no idea how to use a computer. I remember staring at a computer screen, at a loss of how to even scan something in. I was pathetic! So you can imagine how enabling it was when I learned, piece by piece, asking friends for tips and doing projects digitally, how to work Photoshop. And then Corel Painter, and then Illustrator. Each new program became easier and easier, and my art turned out better and better. It’s amazing the whole new world that digital opened for me. I felt like I could do anything!"

Artwork by Heather Dixon

Do you make a living at writing and illustrating? How do you make your artwork work for you?

"I do! Being a starving artist is great! I’m a terrible business person though, so I don’t have much advice other than: Work hard improving your skills, and the rest will follow."


Work and Process)

What is the creative process you use for your illustrations?

"I gather references first and put them in a project folder. Using them I do a whole bunch of thumbnails, and then I work the composition and sketch from there. After that, I mess with the color and value and work on rendering.

"I’m a fan of “the best at each stage” method, which means I try to get the best ref pictures I can, draw until I have the best thumbnails, the best sketches, etc. Which means it’s really relaxing when I can just open up a canvas and make a quick, raw picture for kicks."

Artwork by Heather Dixon

Do work mostly with your computer, or pencil and paper?

"I start out traditionally, doing thumbnails and the basic sketches with a .9mm blue pencil & regular paper. Then, I scan it in and render it in Corel Painter, Photoshop, or Adobe Illustrator. I love doing things digitally. It’s the undo button, I think I’m addicted."

Artwork by Heather Dixon

We'd like to know how you think about style: whether you work to push past your emerging style or whether you just let that come naturally. How do you keep your work looking fresh?

"I always try to push myself into learning new styles and trying new things, and trying styles of artists I admire. The first few times I do something new it’s super ugly. Eventually, though, it gets better. I like pushing myself to do new things because it keeps me from feeling boxed in, and it helps me improve quickly."

                                                                Artwork by Heather Dixon

Inspiration)

Where do you find inspiration for your illustration work?

"The Internet! How did we live without it? I am constantly looking up tutorials, artists’ blogs, google image searching. One thing that every artist should do is build a picture file. Find pictures from the artists you love and gather them all together in a resource file. My picture file also has textures, tutorials, screen shots from movies, and links to my favorite blogs."

                                                            Artwork by Heather Dixon

What helps you to release your creativity when you’re having a block? (Or do you never experience blocks in creativity?

"Creative block is my evil shadow. To fend it off, it sometimes helps to take a break and go to the library and look up books, or watch movies with great art, something to inspire me. A lot of times it just means I need to work on a different project, something a little easier & smaller. Sometimes it means I need to relax the art for a little bit, and spend some time with family."

                                                          Artwork by Heather Dixon

What recommendations would you make to others aspiring to add to the world of illustration?

"I’m reminded of Sebastian Gallego’s parting advice to us, the last day of digital painting class. He told us to work hard and be humble, but what really stuck with me was his last advice: 'And remember: be a good person first, and a good artist second. Don’t be like Norman Rockwell, who spent his life in his studio painting happy families scenes and never spent time with his own'.”

For someone who cannot go to school at the present time, what kind of self-teaching approaches would you recommend?

"Learn and teach yourself to improve. Take Internet and library resources and apply them to your artwork. Every morning I get up and spend an hour drawing from anatomy, cartooning, storyboarding books and blogs, then spend 30 minutes on an animation background speedpaint. This has helped me improve fast! It helps after that to analyze what makes the artwork you like appealing, and to bring that appeal into your art.

"Also, try to learn Photoshop. There are lots of tutorials and online help for that, and I think you can download a trial version, too. Photoshop is the foundational building block, and I strongly recommend that every artist learn it."

                                                        Artwork by Heather Dixon

What other artists/illustrators inspired/inspire your journey in illustration?

"Sam Nielson, who taught me how to digital paint http://www.artsammich.blogspot.com/

"Adrian Ropp, who I still learn storyboarding from http://www.toonbaboon.blogspot.com/

"Bryan Beach, who taught me retro style & adobe illustrator http://www.bbeachouse.blogspot.com/

"Kelly Loosli, Ryan Woodward, Kevin Keele, Brittany Lee, Nicolas Marlet, Sebastien Gallego…Some awesome blogs: http://www.animationbackgrounds.blogspot.com/, http://www.todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/, http://www.characterdesign.blogspot.com/ …much too many to list!"

Thank you once again Heather, your work is inspiring.

Sorry for the delay

Fellow contributors, I'm sorry we haven't had the most recent contest entries posted. A small emergency emerged and I'm sorry for getting this delayed. This does mean however if you wanted to email me your book cover final draft I'll extend the deadline through this next weekend. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused but life demands flexibility sometimes. Please get those in if you haven't yet so far.

Happy Birthday Blog!

I just wanted to take a moment to celebrate the birthday of the blog. One year ago it was launched, inching us closer to realizing our dreams, day-by-day. I encourage everyone to work a little harder towards those dreams and notch up your ambition and imagination. Congratulations to all the contributors.

Illustration Contest: Final Book Cover Design

Alright team. This next contest will consist of making a finalized rendering of the book cover you submitted for the last contest. Keep in mind it doesn't have to be one of your submitted drawings with color. Start from where you left off and really push towards producing a final draft of a book cover. Think about all the details you want to include. Make sure the proportions are true to the proposed final dimensions of the book. Ask for input by leaving comments. If you have a version you want to put past people before the deadline, email me your submission and I'll add it to this post for others to see while you work out the details. (I'll do my best to post it the same day.) Let's see what you can come up with. Keep up the hard work!

Deadline: Midnight, Saturday, October 30th, 2010.

Illustration Contest: Book Cover Design

Thank you to everyone who made submissions to this week's illustration contest. We had some great drawings showing potential covers for future book ideas. Great job everyone; keep up the great work!

Kristi G. (Top 3) So I am going to focus on working on the story I had a while ago with the play date of boy and girl siblings.  I am changing it up a little bit.  I needed to simplify it to make it not so overwhelming.  I am going to have just two characters.  I am still going to contrast their likes, resulting in frustration, but ultimately they will learn how similar they really are and have a fun time doing it.  My first cover idea was both of them posed back to back looking frustrated, but I felt that was a little negative.  My favorite (and the one I put more time in) is the one with both of them side to side happy to be who they are and even happier to be with their friend (even though they are different).  Something I need to change with this picture that I am noticing now is that they are too far apart.  I was worried that this one was a little posed and stiff, so I thought about them on a swing (something they will be doing in the book).  I like the idea, and obviously need to put more time on proportions and angles.  I would like the title (which I am still not sure about) to be in block letters across the top.  –Kristi

Nate S. (3 previous) I wanted to explore different layouts for the cover of the book I’m writing/illustrating for my daughter. It centers on the tooth fairy, the one from my last contest entry. I used some ideas from the covers’ of books that we like right now to rough out some general ideas. Let me know what you guys think. -Nate

Scott W. (2 above) I have one that actually would be near the climax...one with the wild idea of having them both in the bubble jar....and the last of a close up with the entire world rendering in the background.



I'd love to know what you think! -Scott

Illustration Contest: Design Your Book Cover

Everyone did a great job for the last contest. It took me a while to decide where to go next for this next week’s contest. I’ve been debating between moving along with book illustration or continuing loosely related subjects chosen at random ‘whim’. Sorry for the delay but I’ve decided to give a very different challenge for this next contest.


Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to come up with a cover design for the book you’re interested in completing. You could reference other books you love to figure out a composition you enjoy but for this week’s contest I’m looking for a book cover design. You could submit up to three designs, rough submissions, and I’ll post them for others to comment on. That way we can find out from the community what is a preferred cover and for a future contest you’ll come up with a more polished version. Good luck; you have until:

Deadline: Midnight, Saturday, October 9th, 2010.

Character Design Contest

Here's the entries for the character design contest. There were some great entries, good job everyone.

My picture was inspired by Nate’s story that he’s currently working on and the hardworking fairies in it. I’m not good at faces but I love costumes so I wanted to explore what they would wear.

Aubrey S

I wanted to work on giving my character emotion this time around and also see if I could create the same character twice in different settings and different angles and see if they really looked like the same character. I am happy with the emotions - one being quiet and focused, and the other proud and excited. I am not sure if they look at all alike though. Thank you for the book ideas. I am excited to learn more.

Kristi G

I was exploring the character design of the main character of a story I’m currently writing for my baby daughter. It’s all about the Tooth Fairy and how she becomes famous all over the world. I’m pretty happy with where I have gotten to, although it may not be the final product.

Nate S

Here are some quick sketches followed by explorations of the gestures applied to the character designs:

Scott W

Illustration Contest: Character Design

Great work everyone in the last contest. It's fun for me to see how everyone is progressing individually. Keep up the hard work. For this next quick draw contest we're going to center it around developing characters for a story. (Thank you Scott for the idea.) In this contest you're to come up with a character, could be for a story, and to work on developing who they are or how they look. Possible interpretations of the contest could include: various designs in appearance, different poses to explore personality, different clothes or coverings, or whatever else you come up with, just keep it centered on a character.

I'm excited to see what you come up with, so please start working. Our deadline is Saturday, September 18th, midnight. Good luck and happy drawing.

Story Backgrounds

Hey everyone, thank you for your contributions. I hope you felt good about what you got done. If not, well that's totally fine. That's what next time is for. Hopefully we all learned something about ourselves and the process and can get it working for us next time. I liked what we received. Here are our submissions.

Becca W

Kristi G

Liezl G - The Lion and the Lion Tamer

Nate S - Picture I wanted to paint, inspired by the mysteries of China.

Quincy G - Mommy and Daddy

Scott W

Scott W

Illustration Contest: Theme/Background

Alright everyone. The next contest is centered on creating a theme for a book, which can be interpreted however you wish. It could mean that your backgrounds have a certain stylized appearance or that you use words as part of each image sewn into the image itself. Use your imagination. You've got two weeks from today; get going.

Submissions due: September 2nd, Midnight

Backyard Neighbors

This newest contest was centered around the idea of all the crazy fun times you miss out on when you're not in your backyard or the park. I'm sure mythological creatures will take good care of everything though until you return. Great work everyone, here's the entries:

Kristi G. - The gnome brothers noticed their belts were fitting a little too tight around the middle, so they asked the Zen master flamingo to help them shed some pounds. By moonlight, we see them working on their downward dog and the standing, sideways split.

Liezl G. - Every night this color fairy makes sure all of the colors in nature are ready for the next day.

Nate S. - My idea centered around the games that fantasy creatures play when we aren’t looking, like this leprechaun, currently in the lead of the cat races.

Quincy G. - This silly clown performs for all of the animals in the forest to laugh.

Scott W. - So I was at a family reunion and saw Brock Guymon drawing this character (above). As he explained the drawing...I thought of a character made of stones and held together by fire. With his permission, I made these sketches:

Thanks everyone for your entries; they look great. All I can see is improvement and growth, aside from all the fun, creative ideas.