Whas up with that?

Clarification of sorts folks.  There is an individual from the Czech republic on a number of freelancing sites who is now using the artist tag IIID.  I'm not saying that it is anything other than an innocent coincidence and accusing this chap or chapet of nothing.  The simple fact is, I've signed my work as 'IIId' since the early 90's.  My work and posts are always signed with the graphic tag you see on work in this blog or with IIId(I always use the lower case 'd')  I am not from the Czech republic.  I live right here in the United States in the midst of our fair Great Lakes.  Lucky me!  I thank the emailer who brought this to my attention.  Best Wishes to all!

IIId

IIId man, do you do manga? Yeah, I do manga too........

After The Mission...

After The Mission...I was just in the mood for some classic 007 action today, and what's more 007 than girl, martini, beach and sunset?  Best Wishes!

IIId

Less can indeed be more......

Drawing sequential artwork in any form is challenging, stressful at times, but very rewarding.  I'm not going to go in a lecture to any extent about this but I really wanted to comment on something I see a great deal and certainly have done in the past.  It is a huge faux pas you want to avoid.  DO NOT draw your artwork panel by panel in all medium shots.  It is very natural to do this because of how we visualize our world, but you must think in a cinematic way when laying out panels or pages.  There are a number of reasons to use many angles both uber far and uber close.  Firstly is it adds a ton of appeal to your pages.  Secondly and more important is it saves you tons of work.  Learning to do your pages this way allows you flexibility and often less is indeed more.  Also your pages with have more emotional depth as well and visible impact.  This also allows you to control the pace of the story allowing you to speed the reader up and slow him or her down.  It's a very powerful tool in that respect.  Lastly know that publishers can spot this instantly and consider endless pages full of medium shots a real flaw.  Some even call it a 'rookie' mistake. They also know that you'll never finish your pages on time.   I think it can happen to even a veteran artist at times.  Sometimes it just reflects your mood about a scene or a story you are working on.  Sometimes it's even ok to do a slow moving page like this and works well for that, but it really is to be avoided throughout your work.  Try to really vary your panels up a lot and think in terms of a dynamic camera and you really will do faster, smarter and simply better sequential artwork.  An eye can say as much as a face.....Hope this is a helpful bit of insight.  Best Wishes and Blessings to all!

D

As an aside to this try writing short one or two page stories and drawing them.  It forces you to vary up your shots.  It's a good exercise and teaches you to work on one or two pages at a time thinking of each as a mini chapter or story with it's own problem, climax and conclusion.  When I go through a script I usually chop them up this way.  I also like to sometimes draw all my panels for a pages or series on separate sheets of paper, then either cutting them up and pasting them together(yes paper and glue was how they did that before digital)or just using Photoshop to composite them. 

SOPWITH FLYBOYS!

The new 'Sopwith Flyboys' design.  Hope you all love it!  I just love old fighter planes and what not and that episode of peanuts from back in the day with Snoopy flying one of these bad boys against the infamous Red Baron.  I just had to do it.  This one is already up in our Cafepress store.  Best Wishes to all and stay blessed! 

Does She Talk?

Alright technical skills aside I want to address something that at least to me is important in every piece of art I work on whether it is fine art, or design work.  Does it speak to me?  Sometimes the answer is actually no.  I've certainly done what I considered good painting and what not and then looked at it after the fact and just felt flat.  No response.  No stirred emotion, Nada.  These usually get stuck in a folder, or sent off to the island of misfit art, etc.  Never shared and often forgotten.  I just feel like if it doesn't speak to me before during and after producing it then it isn't art.  If it doesn't speak to you then it has almost no chance of speaking to anyone else.  Even if they think it's good they won't think it is inspired and that's the point.  You have to let yourself be inspired to produce work that you feel strongly about.  Anyone can learn to draw or paint a picture but it's those inspired cats that really flirt with disaster and achieve greatness in their work.  Academic drawing and painting skill is great but it isn't always of primary importance.  Getting the message in there in some clever way that shouts it out to your audience, that is never secondary.  Vibrance, Dynamism, Message, Technique,  they are all important and need to be addressed in every piece of important art you put out.  If you produce inspired work you really believe in you will be that much more confident in selling yourself and standing behind your body of public work as an artist.  Experiment, take chances, overcome challenges, in every piece and you will come out of each a stronger and better artist.  Comfort zones and niches while sometimes necessary from an economic POV, are easy places that don't push your skill or repertoire at all.  There is nothing wrong with consistency or making money, but don't be afraid to try new styles, subjects, improvise, or to blaze new trails within your artistic realm.  Don't be afraid to to mess up something you love, or be afraid to fail because you can't.  Keep trying, don't accept failure, and the concept of failure is banished.  Don't work at art, have fun with it.  When you begin to have fun and take chances in your work.  When you actually 'get fearless' with it you have reached new heights as an artist.  Others will notice the attitude shift in your work as well.  Your art is the chronicle of a journey and the way that story is told can hold others rapt or leave them passing by disinterested.  Tell your stories well, and remember shortcuts are often the long way around.  Best Wishes.

IIId

Don't worry Leia I 'tuned' up the Falcon already....

Had to do it!  I was just doodling one day last week and came up with the rough sketch of this.  I'm a self professed Star Wars Universe Junkie so I went ahead and finished it in Photoshop.  I had so much fun doing this one I'm sure you'll see more Star Wars fan art up here real soon.  Enjoy and Best Wishes to all!

IIId