Life and art
So, back in High School, I could barely draw stick figures. I decided one day in my junior year that I wanted to learn how to draw. I tried those "learn to draw" books that have you draw a circle, then a line, then poof it's magicaly spiderman, and those never worked. So, instead I traced stuff I liked. That ended up being a lot of Pokemon, Gundam Wing, Sailor Moon, and Batman: The Animated Series.
Keep in mind, these pere pretty much 100% traced. As in I took tracing paper, layed it over existing artwork, and traced line for line. I was pretty good with tracing, as you can see.
Then I decided that I could draw on my own..... with results that I thought at the time were awesome and now... well....
I look at those pictures and I cringe. Not in a "Oooo....a hangnail" kind of way but a deep viceral "Omg that man's eyeball just exploded" kind of way. Granted, those arent terrible. I know that. But....Guh.
I didnt take any art classes until college, and even then it was just to boost my GPA. It made a drastic difference on my ability.
Here is a drawing of Sirius Black done before my first art class (Nov 2000, so quite a while before it... and up to that point, this was one of my better drawings. I spent hours on it):
And after: (2003)
Need more evidence? Ok:
Harry Potter done in 2001 VS
Done in 2003. And, incidentaly, all on the computer in an Oekaki program, which is pretty much a java based art program with slightly more features than MS Paint.
I took a grand total of 3 art classes in college: Drawing I (AKA: Basics and still life, very basic portrait), Design I (AKA: Color and balance and bullshit), and Drawing II (AKA: a semester of drawing portraits and chest up). I got a lot of encouragement from my art teachers though, and went to a couple of after hours figure drawing sessions where I felt waaaay out ouf my league because those were full of art majors.
After College I got back into comic books and my art work improved more. I know it did. But here's the strange thing: When people ask about my artwork, I think of myself as still being on that same level I was at 7 to 5 years ago. When I draw something awesome looking, I am the most surprised by it of anyone. My first couple of times of drawing stuff for Pendant I had this nagging tone in my head saying "It's just a fluke. Soon your artwork is going to go back to sucking" Only now, after 6 months of doing covers for Dixie and other shows am I starting to think that maybe I am not suck.
Then, today,
djfanboy throws me for a loop. I did some artwork for Seth's site Audio Goodness.com which I thought wasnt too terrible. It was in Watercolor pencils, which I am still learning how to use, with some filtering work done in Photoshop to clean it up, but over all I thought it wasnt a bad peice. Then Seth asked how much I wanted for commission. My brain kind of froze. What? Money? Real cash moneys?
Long story long: I have no idea what my ability is worth. I've always just drawn because it was fun or because it was fandom or whatever. I say things like "Maaan wouldnt it be awesome to get hired by DC or Marvel or something?" but then I look at all the artists out there that are better than I am who are trying to break into comics and I kind of think, 'Sure, and when I meet my editor I can look out the window to see pigs fly, then I'll win the lotto and take that skiing trip hell I've always wanted to go on." Or when
heatherizcool and
suomynonakun get their publishing company going, I'll work on that comic book idea I have and release it through them. But that's getting two friends to publish me, not, you know, Dan Didio or Joe Queseda.
So, now faced with my delema, I looked up on line for guidelines on how much you should charge for art commissions. Basicaly they said "Charge what other people in your talent bracket charge' and we're back to issue uno: My brain says I'm at somewhere between novice and intermediate skill. Also, the art websites that I look at normaly are pros, serious serious pros. People who not only make their living drawing comics and animation, but have large fanbases and names like Jim Lee and Ed McGuinness. Also, most artists dont list their commission rate on their websites, but have forms you fill out describing the peice then the artist says "Oh that will be XXX$ kthxbai".
So, I look to you, FList. How much would you pay for stuff I draw? Seriously? I dont mean in a 'omg ur so awsum i pay billion dollers lolol!!!!1111one" but for realz. Though, if you want to stroke my ego, go ahead. You'll just make be blush. A lot. But yeah, right now this is actualy a real issue I'm thinking on, as I am planning on starting my own art website soon, now that I have a bit of a portfolio together.
That said, we've reached the official Art Dump section of our show: Rene and
licie_oic asked me to do some character sketches for their pendant show Once Upon a Tiime in Vegas, which I do have a part in. I came up with ones for the three main girls: Chloe, Terri, and Tessa. Presented in that order:
They also asked if I would do a character design for my own character and her mate, which I did gladly:
Other artwork I've done recently you can see at Pendant Audio or Audio Goodness. The stuff I'm working on now, you can wait for Dixie 14 and Wonder Woman 20. I'm excited about 20's cover. I actualy finished it before Dixie's, because I've had that picture in my head since I read the script months ago. The first draft of the picture was done while waiting in line for Spiderman III, just to give you a clue.
Here's the cover of WW17. It was done in ball point pen on a peice of scrap paper while at work. I did have a reference for the statue (a bust of apollo, incidentaly) but it wasnt traced, just referenced and also very modified so it had girl hair and Hypolita's crown. Also had reference for the broken vases and I made a tiara out of paper for that reference. Still... I like this version. The colored version up on the pendant site is still one of my favorite things I've ever drawn.
Here's some concept artwork done for the newest Wonder Woman Villain, that I can show now that she's been revealed in the show. I love Cheetah. I always wanted her power when I was a kid. When I read the script for WW19 the first time, to do my lines for the Realtor part, I literaly screamed upon reading the name "Barbara Minerva". I knew exactly what was comming. Then, when I got the part doing the art for the show, Cheetah was one of the first things I worked on. I'm really dont do a lot of anthropomorphic artwork, so I played around a bit:
Incidentaly, the design I went with were the ones on the bottom of the page. This was done while waiting in line for Spiderman III.
In completely unrelated news: I'm in training at my new job. It's interesting, if not too brain taxing. I'ts so far been easy to learn. Today our team went out for drinks after work then to see Superbad. Very funny film. I nearly hurt myself laughing. All my stuff is packed except for the stuff that will go in my back pack like computer and sketchbook and external harddrive and some misc things. Movers come Friday.
Bad news: I wont have net access in my house until the 22nd. Hopefuly one of our neighbors will have unsecured wireless. If not, I'll be spending a lot of time at the public library.
Keep in mind, these pere pretty much 100% traced. As in I took tracing paper, layed it over existing artwork, and traced line for line. I was pretty good with tracing, as you can see.
Then I decided that I could draw on my own..... with results that I thought at the time were awesome and now... well....
I look at those pictures and I cringe. Not in a "Oooo....a hangnail" kind of way but a deep viceral "Omg that man's eyeball just exploded" kind of way. Granted, those arent terrible. I know that. But....Guh.
I didnt take any art classes until college, and even then it was just to boost my GPA. It made a drastic difference on my ability.
Here is a drawing of Sirius Black done before my first art class (Nov 2000, so quite a while before it... and up to that point, this was one of my better drawings. I spent hours on it):
And after: (2003)
Need more evidence? Ok:
Harry Potter done in 2001 VS
Done in 2003. And, incidentaly, all on the computer in an Oekaki program, which is pretty much a java based art program with slightly more features than MS Paint.
I took a grand total of 3 art classes in college: Drawing I (AKA: Basics and still life, very basic portrait), Design I (AKA: Color and balance and bullshit), and Drawing II (AKA: a semester of drawing portraits and chest up). I got a lot of encouragement from my art teachers though, and went to a couple of after hours figure drawing sessions where I felt waaaay out ouf my league because those were full of art majors.
After College I got back into comic books and my art work improved more. I know it did. But here's the strange thing: When people ask about my artwork, I think of myself as still being on that same level I was at 7 to 5 years ago. When I draw something awesome looking, I am the most surprised by it of anyone. My first couple of times of drawing stuff for Pendant I had this nagging tone in my head saying "It's just a fluke. Soon your artwork is going to go back to sucking" Only now, after 6 months of doing covers for Dixie and other shows am I starting to think that maybe I am not suck.
Then, today,
djfanboy throws me for a loop. I did some artwork for Seth's site Audio Goodness.com which I thought wasnt too terrible. It was in Watercolor pencils, which I am still learning how to use, with some filtering work done in Photoshop to clean it up, but over all I thought it wasnt a bad peice. Then Seth asked how much I wanted for commission. My brain kind of froze. What? Money? Real cash moneys?
Long story long: I have no idea what my ability is worth. I've always just drawn because it was fun or because it was fandom or whatever. I say things like "Maaan wouldnt it be awesome to get hired by DC or Marvel or something?" but then I look at all the artists out there that are better than I am who are trying to break into comics and I kind of think, 'Sure, and when I meet my editor I can look out the window to see pigs fly, then I'll win the lotto and take that skiing trip hell I've always wanted to go on." Or when
heatherizcool and
suomynonakun get their publishing company going, I'll work on that comic book idea I have and release it through them. But that's getting two friends to publish me, not, you know, Dan Didio or Joe Queseda.
So, now faced with my delema, I looked up on line for guidelines on how much you should charge for art commissions. Basicaly they said "Charge what other people in your talent bracket charge' and we're back to issue uno: My brain says I'm at somewhere between novice and intermediate skill. Also, the art websites that I look at normaly are pros, serious serious pros. People who not only make their living drawing comics and animation, but have large fanbases and names like Jim Lee and Ed McGuinness. Also, most artists dont list their commission rate on their websites, but have forms you fill out describing the peice then the artist says "Oh that will be XXX$ kthxbai".
So, I look to you, FList. How much would you pay for stuff I draw? Seriously? I dont mean in a 'omg ur so awsum i pay billion dollers lolol!!!!1111one" but for realz. Though, if you want to stroke my ego, go ahead. You'll just make be blush. A lot. But yeah, right now this is actualy a real issue I'm thinking on, as I am planning on starting my own art website soon, now that I have a bit of a portfolio together.
That said, we've reached the official Art Dump section of our show: Rene and
licie_oic asked me to do some character sketches for their pendant show Once Upon a Tiime in Vegas, which I do have a part in. I came up with ones for the three main girls: Chloe, Terri, and Tessa. Presented in that order:
They also asked if I would do a character design for my own character and her mate, which I did gladly:
Other artwork I've done recently you can see at Pendant Audio or Audio Goodness. The stuff I'm working on now, you can wait for Dixie 14 and Wonder Woman 20. I'm excited about 20's cover. I actualy finished it before Dixie's, because I've had that picture in my head since I read the script months ago. The first draft of the picture was done while waiting in line for Spiderman III, just to give you a clue.
Here's the cover of WW17. It was done in ball point pen on a peice of scrap paper while at work. I did have a reference for the statue (a bust of apollo, incidentaly) but it wasnt traced, just referenced and also very modified so it had girl hair and Hypolita's crown. Also had reference for the broken vases and I made a tiara out of paper for that reference. Still... I like this version. The colored version up on the pendant site is still one of my favorite things I've ever drawn.
Here's some concept artwork done for the newest Wonder Woman Villain, that I can show now that she's been revealed in the show. I love Cheetah. I always wanted her power when I was a kid. When I read the script for WW19 the first time, to do my lines for the Realtor part, I literaly screamed upon reading the name "Barbara Minerva". I knew exactly what was comming. Then, when I got the part doing the art for the show, Cheetah was one of the first things I worked on. I'm really dont do a lot of anthropomorphic artwork, so I played around a bit:
Incidentaly, the design I went with were the ones on the bottom of the page. This was done while waiting in line for Spiderman III.
In completely unrelated news: I'm in training at my new job. It's interesting, if not too brain taxing. I'ts so far been easy to learn. Today our team went out for drinks after work then to see Superbad. Very funny film. I nearly hurt myself laughing. All my stuff is packed except for the stuff that will go in my back pack like computer and sketchbook and external harddrive and some misc things. Movers come Friday.
Bad news: I wont have net access in my house until the 22nd. Hopefuly one of our neighbors will have unsecured wireless. If not, I'll be spending a lot of time at the public library.