daily.

Yet another attempt at daily drawing. Drawing daily and practicing everyday is something I know is very very important if one wants to be a pro illustrator, yet it's something I find so hard to do for some reason. I like to make excuses. So I am making a project for myself. I also want to get back into journaling, so, killing two birds with one stone, my plan is this:

1. Write down what I do during the day - thoughts, lists, etc.

2. Pick one thing that I have written about/listed.

3. Draw/illustrate it.

I am trying to develop some creative discipline here. This may be tricky once schools gets into high gear, but I'll give it a go. I find when you draw/paint/create more (for me, this is during the school year), your brain and hands talk to each other easier.

I'll try to post these daily exercises every week (probably towards the end of the week).

Ready, set, go!

Saturday. Went and saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Enjoyed it, I thought it was good. I liked the fact that they didn't put subtitles on for all of the ape sign language parts. Could sort of understand what they were signing.

Me needs some more practice with the pastels. :) And I also need to draw on bigger paper (this is in my sketchbook). I like how using pastels feels similar to painting (in the sense that you're putting down a shape as opposed to a line) but it has less set-up and is fast.

chalk pastels

Sunday.

collage (cut out magazines and a popsicle stick)

This is a really quick tiny sketch I did before the pastel drawing of Cesear. I actually drew this without my glasses on, so everything was really blurry and the values pop out better (little trick I learned from an instructor). I just like how the sketch looks.

pencil

success!

Yeah! Goache resist conquered!

Followed the steps on the tutorial I mentioned last time, and it worked! I love the look of this technique, you get a print-y look in waaay less time. :)

sketch (marker)

Part way through painting with the goache. I tinted the white goache with a little bit of raw sienna watercolor paint, so I could see what I was painting. Very helpful tip from the tutorial.

Finished goache. I learned that you shouldn't paint with goache in the sunlight and when it's really hot in your apartment. The paint dries ten times faster than it normally does (which is already really fast). Actually if your apartment is really hot you should probably go outside, I'm just silly and stayed inside. Meh, felt like doing artsy stuff.

Covered whole board with india ink. This is the scariest part of the whole process.

This is the awesome-ist part of the whole process. The reveal! Rinsed off ink with water and also some gentle scrubbing with an old paintbrush. I also learned that the Arches brand watercolor illustration board holds up better during this part than the Canson (with the Canson board the paper started to rub off a bit when I soaked it with water).

When I have access to a scanner and Photoshop, I think I would like to play with some digital color. :) Or I guess I could try watercolors.... hmmm....

fail.

I just failed clown school. Not very many people will get that, but that's okay. :)

Attempted a technique called goache resist. We were shown it in one of my illustration classes, but we never had to apply it to any projects. So I thought I would give it a go on my own. Results are: fail. I got a little confused as to how this technique actually works. I thought the goache would stay on the paper, but apparently it's supposed to wash off (being water soluble and all).

Here's a neat little tutorial I found via Google that explains the process and what is supposed to happen. :P

Below is my attempt. I'm glad I tried this as a "sketch" and not on an actual project. :)

pencil sketch

goache

painting covered with ink

Washed off ink with water. Cool texture but not what I had pictured in my head. :(

This image is from this book, illustrated by one of my fav illustrators, Gary Taxali.

play.

paper collage and felt marker

Just playing around with paper and not thinking too much about what I am doing. Letting my mind wander and do whatever. Sort of inspired by Jillian Tamaki's blog posts. She posts doodles and drawings/collages she does for fun/play outside of contracted projects. Of course her doodles look a lot more finished than my doodles. :)

an all text post. this hasn't happened in a while.

Came across this rant today on Craigslist. It's in response to someone posting an ad requesting illustrations for the book they're working on. The gist of the original ad was - please do ten illustrations for this book that I'm writing, and I might pay you if/when it gets published. It's a "small" book, so ten drawings isn't very much work, right?

Re: zombie and children's book illustrator (east/van)

Students, hobbiests, or professional artists (me) all deserve compensation for their time. Say that each illustration takes them a min. of one hour. You should pay them a min. of $200- that's only $20 an hour - for something that not very many people can do. Its a trade- you can't do it, that's why you're looking for someone. $200 wouldn't get you sh*t with me, maybe one illustration, depends on the detail and TIME.

WOULD YOU PAY A PLUMBER OR A MECHANIC NOTHING FOR THEIR TIME? Like: my car needs work because I'm going to sell it, if it does sell, then I will compensate you.

Besides, you obviously don't know what you're doing [name], because when you have a book illustrated, you generally buy the images outright. You own the rights to the characters - you can use those images and characters for any and all merchandise thereafter. That means to pay - and you pay extra since someone is literally selling the rights not just the drawing and their time. That way you don't have to keep track of these artists to pay them when/if your book ever gets published. This is your 'baby', your project. If you want to spend your time on it that's fine, but you can't expect other people to invest/waste their time in a project they don't believe in.

If someone isn't willing to invest a few $ in their own project- I have no faith in that project ever getting published.

ARTISTS: DON'T TAKE THIS BS. IF NOBODY UNDERVALUED THEMSELVES AND GAVE THEIR WORK UP FOR FREE OR DIRT CHEAP- THEN PEOPLE WOULD KNOW BETTER THAN TO OFFER SO LITTLE FOR IT. DO NOT BE FLATTERED TO BE PART OF A PROJECT- DO NOT DO WORK TO 'EXPAND' YOUR PORTFOLIO- UNLESS YOU SUCK. IF YOU HAVE REAL TALENT, YOUR WORK WILL SPEAK FOR ITSELF. ACCEPTING LOW PAYMENT FOR YOUR TIME AND TALENT DRIVES THE PRICE DOWN FOR US ALL. - DEMAND CONTRACTS AND COMPENSATION

I understand this person's frustrations. I've only casually looked at ads for freelance illustrators, just to kinda see what's out there (I realize Craigslist is not the best place to look for work, but it's pretty entertaining sometimes). And a lot of the ads listed online are offering squat for compensation. Professional artists should be treated the same as any other profession: with professional pay. If I spend 20+ hours on a project, I would like to be paid money.

This is also a good reminder for me to be confident in my abilities and not do work for free just because I am still a student. It is tempting tho for the "experience", but probably not worth all the effort for zero compensation.