Fantabulous visions...

Value Based Communication

2012-01-10T07:16:00.000-08:00

Wouldn´t it be nice if everyone has their priorities pinned on their forehead, or better in the shape of shiny sliders floating over their head?

Yes, silly idea, but it would make life so much easier.

During the last year I have deepened my understanding of psychology, marketing and social phenomena to find the most intriguing topics the outcome based thinking and personal values.

Everyone has values or priorities, in doing freelance business I found that it is vital to learn your clients values, this makes it easier to satisfy a customer and it brings the fun back into work at the same time.

Basically everyone has a set of sliders, just the settings develop and adjust as we grow older, through experiences, through persuasion, belief and through advertising. In fact: media and advertising have a great impact to our slider settings and how we perceive the world.

When does this affect you?

Everyday.

If you learn to see the sliders besides or in relation to everyone you have -or want to deal with, be it your parents, your boss or your best friend, this will help you gain an even better understanding of their values.

And let´s be honest, to please somebody you want to convince is easy if you know what exactly they want.

The big question is how to get this information, or the "slider-parameter", especially if someone is not specific about an inquiry?

Well this is something you have to ask for. It is professional to ask questions. It is not unethical if it serves to deliver a better service or product. And it shows sincere interest in the clients needs. I can just speak about freelancing business and therefore services, but this applies to so many other businesses as well.

It just hurts to see people bothering about their colleagues or bosses or even clients, this isn´t just a problem, this shows that at some point they havn´t asked the right questions.

Value based communication is the key here.

If you know what your opposite´s values are you can´t seem to fail - theoretically, at least if you don´t intend it.

And it is definitely communication that is causing such issues.

Wrong communication methods are the first instance of a problem in most cases.
This is the reason I mostly insist of communicating through e-mail, if I have a question that might be answered beforehand, I can go back and review it, if I send a reply, its nearly a commitment, a promise to "get-things-done"! While a phone call just steals time in many cases, it is unpleasant to find yourself later with an unanswered question, and more often than not we didn´t want to bother with a follow-up call, but a follow-up e-mail isn´t such a bother, it shows interest and is proof of active listening.

So many problems could be avoided if we learn to communicate effectively. In my opinion this should be a school-subject of its own. On the other hand it takes time to find your best communication method.

I found out that I´m not really good at talking on the phone (for a first contact), my personal or direct contacts still need to get better as also the ability to speak in public, I feel most comfortable by writing, because this way I don´t forget anything that might be important.

Another noteworthy thought about that matter perfectly illustrated in the picture above, is to find out if a prospect is acquiring something from you because he wants to, or because he has to.
The latter is more promising, because time might be short, or a company is behind him but it also tells me that less creative freedom is in a project. If someone is asking because he is self-publishing and is directing the art all by themselves - less money might be an involved, but more freedom and the chance to create something really outstanding are a deal for me.

Outcome based thinking is in my opinion something that artists invented, it is being told that Michelangelo started to work on his famous sculpture of David after a year of just imagining it from the rough block of stone. This is outcome based thinking in its purest form, visualization and the feeling that it will be good in the end are the main ingredients for a great result.

Very often we effectively make use of this techniques but don´t even know it.

We also create and live in our very own reality, we feel most comfortable with people whose reality seems to be very close to ours. In terms of business this is an opportunity as also the key to rejection. Any application letter and CV will be judged to see if you fit into their corporation keyholes, if your data doesn´t fit, you will most likely not fit.

Easy as pie.

Doing freelancing business appears to be even more complex, but after 3 years of doing this successful, I can say it is not. Because no data is required to gain rapport with your clients need. Sure, data is helpful, but what is most important is the rapport and personal values.

However, there is a chance of a mismatch here and there, we all went into this trap at least one time, but what helps in a case of doubt is the simple rule: "Win/Win, or no deal at all". If there´s nothing in for everyone involved, it is better to walk away and not accept to do work continuously.

I don´t talk about money here, collaborations seem to be always a Win/Win situation if you learn something out of it. Many businesses require that you do an intern at your own cost, the only thing you can earn is to learn something.

Make the world a better place and be aware of your values and take care of others.

It is just not worth putting your face into the sand because of failure in communication...

Artbook Review - Erotic Fantasy Art, Volume 2

2011-12-15T03:12:00.000-08:00

I don´t want to bother you again with Artbook reviews, but since I am in the process of working on my own book and getting featured in some annual Artbooks such as Machines and Magic or Exposé#9 recently, it is naturally to show at least some of the work and efforts others put in their publishing works.

For this book I have to thank Paul Peart Smith for asking me to participate and the team of ILEX for gathering awesome talents and tasteful imagery for a really inspiring coffee- table book. I´d say this is a book that is for sure a conversation starter if you have it on the table when your mother-in-law visits you. In a positive way:)

Its a real honor to be along so many great artists that I admire, such as Charlene Chua, Jason Juta, Pascal Blanché, Daniela Uhlig, Uwe Jarling, Lorenzo Di Mauro, Matt Dixon and many more.

I think I don´t need to say anything big about the quality of Ilex- books, they are hardcover with a dust jacket, bound really strong and even the hardcover is printed. A fabulous print, paper and color quality sums up the obvious brilliance, the paper is a semi-glossy heavy one that flows nicely without reflecting light too much.

Below you find some interior shots I did with the camera, just to get a glimpse of what you are missing out if you don´t get yourself a copy. You can purchase the book directly via the publisher ILEX-Press or Amazon.

The Problem With "Doing Well"...

2011-11-25T08:30:00.000-08:00

Did you ever notice, wherever you state in a conversation that you are doing well, the conversation is soon dying? No? Then try it for yourself.

People like to small talk and sometimes we enjoy a little compassion too.
And that is totally OK, because the human nature is that we are sincerely interested in solving problems.
We are most eager to solve problems we have created by ourselves.

I hear outcries like: " It´s crisis, how can you do well?" or when the newspaper write about another catastrophe here and there.
To be honest, I care about problems that people carry to me with passionate interest in creating an outstanding solution, why should I waste time with problems I can not fully grasp, especially when they happen to take place far, far away?

Sure thing, terrible things happen in the world, every day, every hour and every minute, and an equally number of great things do happen at the same time in the same world, how is this possible?

Simple answer first: Ying and Yang. Black and white, cup half-full and half-empty. Day and night.
Makes sense, right?

It always depends on how we see things and if we are able to change our worldview through others. If you believe in the BS television will make you believe, its your own fate, and please don´t wonder why the cup is always half-empty.
Its totally important to know your conversation partner, because you can´t tell heaven from hell, blue skies from pain and a green field from a cold steel rail. (From Pink floyd - Wish you were here)

If I do well, for whatever reason, its my own luck and its absolutely crucial to know with whom I share this luck. With the right people this luck can double, with the wrong people, it can grow anger and envy.
In this regard, the lyrics and hidden advice from Pink Floyd are golden, like so many of their songs.

An interesting thing I noticed, is that it is vital to share any positive vibe and happenings with clients and true friends, with people who enjoy hanging out or working with you. These people are multipliers for positive mindsets and "doing well"- notifications because they invest, time, money, or both and love to see you grow.

I think its good to know that, and its important to filter what you share with people around you.
Last but not least its also important to treat the people who invest in you with appreciation and not forget their confidence in you.

If you do that, there is no competition, only collaboration, only full or half-full cups and always a steady change of days and nights.

So, how do you do?

Artbook Review: Machines and Magic

2011-11-09T02:56:00.000-08:00

Just got my artbook order from Amazon the other day. Included in my order was "Kris Kuksi´s "Divination and Delusion, Jason Felix´s Salvaged, and the international sci-fi and fantasy artbook edited by Craig Musselman: "Machines and Magic"

About this Machines and Magic artbook I wanted to write a little review, not only because I´m part of it, but also because I think it fills a gap between Spectrum and Exposé.

Here is a video that shows a flip through to get a glimpse of what you can expect from this book.
Flip-through preview:

The artist list includes names like Peter Mohrbacher, Rob Rey, Liiga Smilshkalne, Dimitri Sirenko, Raoul Vitale, George Patsouras and yours truly.

So what can I say about the book and am I supposed to say even something?
Well, I am a collector of artist books myself and I have seen a lot, my current collection counts over 100 art books! Standards of expections are often depending on the price and with $29.99 its not a steal, but its also in the middle field for a book of around 150 pages with pure inspiration, especially for a book on demand.

I know I could have got a pdf as a complimentary copy but when it comes to artbooks I prefer printed and physical books, which was the reason I supported Craig with this project.

For artists, especially illustrators working in the genre art, sci-fi and fantasy sector, its important to get published and these artbook compilations are a nice way to get exposure for little to no cost.
Ballistic books gives every included artist a free printed copy of the book and even entry is free, but its important to note that Ballistic does no book on demand and has the financial background to handle shipping and around 150-200 copies to artists worldwide.
Spectrum on the other hand has a fee on entries, no ftp submission - so basically artists have to pay in advance per piece + shipping costs for no certainty to be included. Some other publications like "Illustration Now" from Taschen are invite only, which is a system that in my opinion can´t show the true gems of what´s great out now, only what the editors know, and that can, but has not per se be to the best in fact.

Artwork: juried quality and a wide variety of technique
From the quality of artworks included I would say this is always depending on many factors: Artworks submitted by the artists for consideration and the taste of the editors for example.
The latter is a subject that I find even in books like "Spectrum" questionable at times, but in all these books it can be summed up to just a few percent of images that I´d have cut as editor.
The 91 artists included in this book span a wide variety on techniques, ranging from pencil to oils over digital painting to sculpture and photomanipulation. Unlike the Ballistic "Exposé" books where only CG-art is featured and even photomanipulation is not really considered CG!

Now to a little scarcity of the book that isn´t really an issue: the quality of the print is definitely great, just the paper of the interior is matte and has a mild structure. Which results in the impression that the prints are roughly rastered, but they are not! Its just the light on the paper structure that reflects oddly.

Other than that the colors are pretty great and the resolution of the printed images are excellent, opposed to some fuzzy pictures from the "Kris Kuksi" -artbook, which seem to be shot with a 3megapixel camera (which is a pity to say the least, but especially considering the price).

Conclusion:
Overall I can give out 4 of 5 Stars because of the paper choice of the publisher.
I know that all the editing and acquiring - to get the artist to participate in this project - has been a lot work for one person, this fact alone deserves to look over this little paper issue.
All in all it can be said its a very good overview over the genre art, sci-fi and fantasy illustration scene and my recommendation for an inspiration overdose is to buy this along with the most recent Spectrum #18 and Exposé #9 artbook!

You can order your copy either here via Amazon, or from the website of the editor.

Now some photographs of the book, (please note the images were made with ISO 800 and may not be perfectly reflecting the colors and the quality).

Find the best in everybody

2011-11-02T14:32:00.000-07:00

Ancient Blades Cover / personal version

Sometimes it feels so tempting to shout out loud what we think about a situation or a circumstance.

The most recent example I can tell where this happened to me is when I contributed some of my works to art communities.

Actually I don´t care if my work is accepted in the CGSociety/CGTalk* gallery, because otherwise I would have much to do ranting about what kind of "art" is accepted over there... I also know that most colleagues there have also just 50% of their works accepted. I guess they agree its funny to read their reasons for rejection and the suggestion that we might consider to submit a finished and printed image to the "work-in-progress forums".

Honestly, I have better things to do, but occasionally when this happens, I think about how others feel about such a reaction, artist who might not have the self-confidence might take this very personal.

When it comes to work, I have learned to take things never, ever personally!

I had submitted a piece once to the epilogue.net gallery which took me a long time to finish and it got rejected for some minor lighting issues, I thought that its not my problem if their eyes are hurt from looking at 10k images a day that cause severe eye injury and I tried again around 6 month later without changing the work at all, that time the image got an editors pick, how´s that possible?

Because the first attempt was most likely bad timing.

When it comes to rejections in our life there is one thing that counts, persistence, Randy Pausch said in his last lecture: "Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out."
No comments about a work -can be a critique too, but only if you don´t know how to deal with it. The art communities, be it deviantArt, Artwanted, Artician, are all nice and fine, but they can give artists only a glimpse of a general opinion. A good portion of luck and sympathy also decides if your work gets featured or awarded, but if not, don´t blame yourself, it might be just bad timing.

Personally, I know that my commissioned work does only sometimes become the attention they deserve in these communities, but these works allow me to make a living as artist. Also these works help me to get better at painting and sharpening my skills on a daily basis to deliver quality work in return.

Personal versions of client based artworks are not necessary at all, so why do I make them?

Because it feels great to make a good artwork even better, to play the "Director´s-cut" and it shows very good that I don´t take my artistic self too serious.

Which brings me to a last important saying: "Never take yourself too serious, because no one else does."

* For those not familiar with CGTalk: Its a professional platform for CG-artists,(http://cgsociety.org) every submitted image can be directly submitted to a user portfolio and is visible over there, (for example: http://fantasio.cgsociety.org) but along with the submission process it can be submitted to the cg-gallery for discussion / additional exposure and to take part in the regular cg-choice awards.

1955-2011

2011-10-09T02:47:00.000-07:00

Steve "The Pear" Jobs / caricature - 2009

A true artist is gone.

When I write about people, its only because I see something that is worth learning from.

If you start out as freelancer or artist its good to see how successful people have done things before us to adapt and apply it as far as possible to our own business and time. This is why I recommend to read biographies. Warhol and Dalí where also great entrepreneurs who were equally personally connected with their art until today.

I guess the one of Steve Jobs will be a great inspiration to geeks, artists and entrepreneurs alike.

One common thing all great artists share is the passion and the sense to put the status quo into question. This is not an option, this is necessary!

When Jobs decided to connect himself with the "product" publicly on the stage for the first time, he eventually acquired a taste for attention.

I guess the change of the target market, from creative people and designers to mainstream in the last 10 years, made the product no less than a productivity tool, but additionally a status symbol. And like it or not - this is art.

Changing the way we interact, communicate and see things, is art.
Making connoisseurs out of customers is art.
Building companies whose goal it is to always raise the bar (Pixar, Apple) ... is art.
Moving an audience with moving images is art.
Giving always the best and pushing others to do the same is what makes great art possible.

Promises and shipping deadlines go very well together if you can focus and Steve definitely knew how to focus even in hard times.

The one difference between Coca Cola and Apple will always be that everyone will know who (Co-) founded Apple, but only few know who founded Coca Cola ( its John Stith Pemberton btw.) The other difference between Coca Cola and Apple is that Coca Cola will probably stay the same in 50 years, because they only need some campaigns and a new product every 2 years, while the market of Apple develops so fast its even possible that a big company just starting out will buy Apple in 10 years, who knows.

Sure, we don´t need the founder of a company to know that a Ferrari is worth the bucks, their vision is incorporated in the products through strict principles that are there to maintain the quality even when they are gone. But in the most cases we only know the products, or did you ever saw Mr. Starbucks giving a keynote, or Mr. Lufthansa talking about the new airbus? Its not necessary, and yet we embrace if a company comes through with personality. But personality is just there to create momentum, what stays is the product, maybe a biography and a lot changed minds.

I don´t know how Jobs was personally and I never saw a Keynote, but eventually I don´t need to know all this to see a great inspiration in him.

Only a few entrepreneurs are brave enough to start over just because they have to and do it successful.

The only person which I recall that had done something similar is Richard Branson who created a magazine with the age of 16, later Virgin Records and an airline.

When reading quotes from Steve Jobs, he stated that money wasn´t the driving force. But when you know that money is the thing that makes new inventions possible and keep a company running, he eventually did it all for the money.

Satchel Paige once said:"“Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.” I think Steve did all this and even more, and I guess he had a more fulfilled life than others with 80+ years.

And in the end the amount of money a person earned in his life isn´t important at all, it only matters what he/she does with it. I think its important to realize that we always have the chance to do better, to get better at the things that matter to us, but we have very limited time.

The worst scenario I imagine is to have ideas for a whole century and just a few days left.

"Stay hungry, stay foolish." - (only a fool will accomplish what everyone else thinks is impossible, because only a fool will try)

R.I.P.

5 Principles For Outstanding Book Cover Art

2011-09-09T03:09:00.000-07:00

The dying of the light, book one

OK, lets make one thing totally clear:
"I don´t know it all!"
That´s why I´m here, writing about the stuff I´m passionate about and do my best in order to improve.

Here´s a little story about my youth that explains a bit about my ongoing fascination for cover art:

When I was a teenager, I often went into that indie- record store in town, with some mates after school. It was totally clear that we weren´t able to buy all these great albums with their great painted cover art. But while my friends enjoyed to listen to the albums, I picked up always one that stood out the most, studied every detail for a long time and when I got home later, I did a colored pencil drawing from memory. I did that regularly. Later on in school I learned the raster tracing technique, I applied this when I was able to buy the albums to do my own poster art of them.

Back then, I was intrigued like most in my class, by Iron Maiden covers, later by the covers of Front Line Assembly, Testament and Skinny Puppy, not long until I found out that these were done by my all time favorite inspiration: Dave McKean. From this day on it was really clear to me that I wanted to create a similar impact on others and that awesome stuff could be achieved with the means of a computer.

Today I have to come up with gorgeous ideas to create covers that communicate and I use nearly the same technique like what I did in the record store - just in my head - my mind comes up with some great ideas and I just pick up the one that I think is worth to be done.

The reason to write this post was inspired by a link from Jason Kristopher to a post about self-publishing cover design mistakes, which I find is a good starting point for any author. I don´t care if a book is published by a big company or by an author, the reason for me is that I embrace the freedom to create things that are new, taking chances and working with authors who are pioneers - instead of doing the same thing over and over. I mean, what Francis Ford Coppola says in his Interview inspires me, and also proves that I´m right.

So I decided to publish this little and hopefully helpful list of cover design principles, if you are in the process of finding a cover artist, read further and keep these aspects in mind for any decisions regarding book covers.

The purple cow - weirder = better
This might be helpful to some genre, such as belletristic, science fiction and fantasy, but probably not in nonfiction books. Ask yourself if your content can benefit from such a stylistic exaggeration or if it suffer from it, if there is the slightest chance that your book can suffer from it, simply stay away. There is also a pitfall in having a purple-cow-cover - it cannot stand out in a row of other purple cows, research the competition and find your niche.
(Exception to rule: Some scientific nonfiction books can benefit from science-fiction or character driven art to stand out)

The rule of consistency
For a story that is split into more books, its for sure the best way to make a whole series recognizable. This is common practice and for a reason, but its important to know if it is good for your content and how to incorporate the recognition factor from the onset, is it a specific color? An item? A character? Different characters? A specific mood? A specific typeface? (The exception to the rule of consistency would only be an intentional different look or if you´d be forced to find another illustrator, I am able to match styles and have finished a series another illustrator couldn´t finish, but this should be an exception)

The mighty face recognition machine
When deciding what to have on your cover, keep in mind that we humans have the ultimate "face-recognition-mode" - always turned on. This article illustrates quite good the mechanism and the power of faces in advertising, it can be powerful to catch attention and to draw a viewer into a composition. The only valid reason to stay away from this, would be if your content is about plants or animals, but even then I´d suggest to find facial features, as abstract as it may sound, when people recognize faces in clouds by accident, they´ll be happy to pick up a book with a plant that shapes a face by intention.

Sex sells - not always...

..but very often. I´m more for the teasing aspect of this one, because it allows to be applied and shown to all audiences and there is nothing wrong if its done nicely and alongside a content that can benefit from the tease. This is even more a question than a fact: "Can your content catch up with the tease and come up with a golden thread in the readers mind?" If not this is definitely a thing to think twice about. (The golden exception to this would be if you don´t care what readers think or if you are out for a short term sale)

Less is more
I´m all for simplicity, it has been said that your book has only 3-5 seconds to attract prospects from the shelves or from the thumbnail, its important to focus and use contrasts, colors and simple compositions to create the "tease" and create that important "first impression" that makes the viewer interested into your book. Sure some can come up with a fancy type or "that awesome idea" that turns out to be a whole universe as you get closer, but its rare that it works. I won´t say a fancy or sophisticated cover won´t sell, but advertising is about the catch, "if you chase two rabbits, you will lose them both" - go for the one simple eye catcher that communicates the message in a split second and create the golden thread with your content later. (Sorry, no exception to this rule)

These principles - or rather a combination of all these - help me to get the most out of my work and I´m sure it will do the same for you, regardless if you are an illustrator, editor or author. They are part of my daily process when I work on covers and if necessary or possible - I discuss these specific points with my clients.

Why Wacom´s Inkling is a Marketing Fail

2011-08-31T02:32:00.000-07:00

As artist or designer you have probably heard about the new product Wacom is promoting currently, the "Inkling", with a specific pen and hardware that can interpret the movements on paper you are even able to digitize sketches on the go:

The idea is good but when viewing this "promotional video" with the "why-how-what" principle in mind, I realize there is no why, no actual reason for me to say "Yes" to this product - big fail from the marketing department here.
When viewing the enthusiasm around me about this fancy thing, I realize that Wacom created a really big wave, which is not bad. But its connected to a big promise, and as far as I can see they show everything the product can do in the spot. The problem with promises is that they require to be kept. The success of any Keynote from Steve Jobs was that he picked just a few of the great things any new product he showed can do, so that customers find out a big list of additional goodies themselves, any promise was overdelivered, with any apple product ever made. Simple tactic and it still works.

But back to the promise:
Sure would it be great if my idea can start as traditional sketches and immediately become digitized, but can you tell me one reason why I should not stick with the sketch-on-the-go-and-scan-later-at-office practice?

The reason I predict this product to be a fail (please note: this is my personal opinion) is that the benefit for artists in general is much smaller than the costs and that it targets at artists of all classes but forgets that only digital experts can think in invisible layers.

The benefits that are evident at the first glance might be time saving aspect and the ability to digitize on the go.
This might be true if you are a comic artist and if inking digitally over pencils is a pain for you.
I´m not bothering about the prize here, this gadget might be good for any doodler or early adopter who wants to show something fancy to their friends, but professionals who have to deliver on a tight deadline need a better reason.

Above all it requires from me to get used to a clumsy pen. I wonder what happens when the battery is empty "on the go" and if you even can see the layers you are creating, some people have even issues with layers they see in Photoshop, what about "invisible-layers" then?

I can only speak for myself and I work on sketches with an F or H pencil for a rough and an HB mechanical pencil for detail works. Its comfortable enough to scan the sketch and work from there in Photoshop for shadings, coloring and finalizing the work. And I know the workflow of most professionals who still work on paper is similar. The main problem is time for a really good workflow, changing the workflow means less productivity, in the worst case a failed investment and even worse: lost time.

Show me a presentation where an art-director utilize such a gadget to demonstrate the use of it in a meeting for example or a comic book artist who really can benefit from working into vector inks directly from a sketchbook.
This would be for sure a smaller target audience, but the promise wouldn´t be too big to keep, just realistic.

But Wacom, I will not leave you in the dark about any reason for sales reluctance:
If you can find a better reason for artists to use such a device and say "YES" to your product, you are on a good way. Or if you learn to target a specific audience within the artist community, instead of speaking to all artists with one Ad. And by the way; not everyone is an expert in imagining invisible layers:)

MY prediction for an epic-win would be pressure sensitive stylus (or support) for the iPad, but I´m saying this since years and no one is hearing me, go on you fingerpainters and inklings, in a few years you come back to this blog and say:" you were so right" :-)

How To Inspire Action

2011-08-25T23:42:00.000-07:00

There are some things that fascinate me lately, the one thing I currently read much about is psychology, perception and a lot about human behavior.

One might think that I´m an artist and so I better should draw and put up my sketchbook or latest works here for the world to see, yadda yadda...

If that is your view of what artists should do, then please move on to another artists blog, this space is reserved for my personal growth and interests that I share with those who are genuinely interested in achieving their goals too.

There is a reasonable difference between calling to action and inspiring action.

Website designers build sites around the -popular "call to action", which might work to get you to download the newest skype version but to get someone to submit an inquiry to ask for your service as a freelance illustrator, requires a bit more.
That´s where inspiration comes into play. Inspiration has the big advantage that it is free, it feels good and in the best case it sends chills down your spine, which create an emotional interconnection. This makes the experience unforgettable - that´s when you feel the need to connect with a person on a deeper level and share your views and conceptions to bring them to life, even years later the linkage is still active because its connected with the person, images, whatsoever... which is practically more worth than any big website "call to action"-button.

Simon Sinek had an interesting TED-talk about the power of inspiration which I´d like to recommend:

The justified question which might come up by visitors to this blog, is why I don´t post more tutorials or walk -through´s and images, the answer is simple, there are a lot other artists who show what they have done and how they did it, but that´s not what I want, my ambition is to inspire action to create works that are not yet created.

A few month ago I considered to change my blog. Now and inspired by this TED talk, I contemplated again, critically focused on my purpose. Rather than to go for the "how" and "what" I found that I am just on the right path with my blog, instead of updating just with my recent work (what) or tutorials (how) I rather like to understand why the world works the way it does. People expect from me to paint the things they imagine, but at the same time they silently expect to get inspired. This is the point where you either deliver just what the client wants, or you act and go a step further by pushing a concept or idea to a higher level. Sure you have to be in a position to do so, I can just speak for myself here and I believe I wouldn´t stand here where I am now, without giving more than I was asked for, every time.

I like to inspire people, with emotional labor and creativity, I feel sense and purpose in finding solutions, that´s my honest reason why I prefer illustration and commercial art over fine art. With international publications I can inspire far more people in the world than with a gallery reception and works that are only affordable to a few.

The "what factor" is not important to me, because once a work is done and out of my head - its done, it might be great and getting better with every new piece, but the really exciting process is when a concept comes to life - (every author/editor knows or should know how that feels) and that´s why I do what I do and why I chose to do this over and over again, until I´m old and boring.

I really believe in things not yet created and I feel good going a different way as artist. Whilst others misuse the medium blog for their picture-dumps(what) and tutorials(how) I find that it is especially necessary to go the opposite direction to attract the just right clients, people who go for the same value as I do, the confidence, the vision and personality that lead to an extraordinary and successful collaboration.

The personal reason why I chose to be creative for the long run is the driving force that is connected with the happiness that comes when a project launches and leads to new connections, new challenges and most important: satisfied, inspired clients and their happy customers.

Average is everywhere, to stand out you not only need to think different, even outside the box isn´t enough, you need to walk outside the edges of the box to have the perfect view over in-and-outside.

Satchel Paige puts a summary of my credo in just three sentences:

Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.

-

"Get inspired"

Art Theft or Theft-Art?

2011-08-22T03:29:00.000-07:00

You might heard about this big online-art-theft from Chad Love Lieberman, for those not familiar with that case, its an imposter who describes himself as a multimedia artist with a diverse style who makes a celebrity lifestyle out of it, while in fact all works were taken from other artists, most of them from deviantArt.

For some evidence, here are blogs and more info around the theft:
- http://dametora.deviantart.com/journal/Massive-Art-Theft-Updates-253362644
- http://blog.deirdrereynolds.com/2011/08/art-theft-scam-list.html
- http://sflchronicle.com/chronic-featured/chronic-art/2011/08/calling-all-deviantart-artists-that-have-been-screwed-by-chad-love/
- http://www.fleen.com/archives/2011/08/17/one-thing-i-didnt-expect-to-do-when-i-woke-up-today-call-a-us-senator/

Screengrab from Alexiuss deviation

Alexiuss has setup a PayPal-fund for being able to
pay a lawyer for this case, many of his works were stolen, compared to others and its becoming a really popular thread, so anyone whose work is also ripped should donate a few bucks.

Two of my work including SayNoGood where the screenshot is available, was also in his catalog of works:

Thanks to Andreea Cernestean for the links.

SayNoGood by fantasio

Would be hard for this guy to show proof of the image above, since its a sculpture and not a painting, here´s a WIP shot from the piece when I worked on it:

SayNoGood WIP

And it wouldn´t also be possible for this guy to make a turnaround picture of the same sculpture like this one:

Actually I have not the time to worry too much about rip-offs or plagiarism, if the value is high enough, I have a lawyer for this, but in this case the value is still not enough to have a chance for an overseas lawsuit, especially since the site is taken down its hard to show proof and to get things to court.

The only thing I hope is that the community of artists and helpers who track everything down and put every piece of the puzzle together to show evidence of the theft will have success. This blog post and a donation to Alexiuss fund, is my way to help the community of artists to raise awareness.

Actually I don´t bother if artists chose to copy my work, or someone elses, even when the edge between inspiration and plagiarism is suspect, I don´t really bother, because eventually the artist in question learns something out of this. But in this case the artist in question has shown only one ability and this is theft. Theft itself is an artform, an underappreciated, but its art too for some people. But in this case, the thief was so dumb to mess with a whole community of artists and the battle as also the informations about the whole persona, will be manifested into the memory of the internet for generations to come. Hopefully in a daunting manner.

There is a nice article about "short-term-capitalism" on Seth Godin´s blog, that tells in other words what art4love connected with Lieberman was all about.

Feel free to share, blog or repost this article or write your own to make people aware of this fraud, thanks.

Social Media - Evolution On Two Ends

2011-07-22T14:42:00.000-07:00

The hype around social media does not fade, at least not since Google launched its new "Plus" -experience.

I have to say I didn´t thought it was that worth of a hype, I skipped "Buzz" and "Google-Wave" - but this time it smelled like a different story.
After playing a while and getting the hang of it, it feels natural to use. Since I use gmail from the web its even natural to check in to G+ instead of facebook because it sits there, all the time.

Here a more visual approach to show the use for G+ :

Sure the first thing to decide is if you give in to the "real name policy" of google, I´m used to it, so no problem for me, I run a business and its important to show up as a real person, not just as a fictional character. And I assume google is trying to leave gamers and spammer out of their networks to increase productivity and fight procrastination. To be honest there are enough platforms for this, everyone whining about this real name policy hasn´t understand what G+ is about.

Here´s a great example of productivity, google tools and the network in action: A plain artist listing table, which grows every minute: (click here to see the G+ post) Share and participate to find other artists!

My impression so far is that Google+ offers the productivity and usefulness of twitter, combined with a professional ambition of LinkedIn and the social connectivity of facebook in one place.

I think we are a lucky generation to experience social media, the sunny side of globalization.
When talking about this phenomenon, people not familiar with that topic shrug and feel like being left outside the field. I try to bring a comparison on the table that changes the perception for most people easily.

Lets go back in history for this:

We first learned - and still do that in school - through books about different countries and events that changed the history.
Later when the media stations controlled the Television as tool to bring their news to the masses, we learned that things happened in the world that changed our state, right then and there.
Today we have the ability to get first-hand information about people from Iraq, politicians, or our favorite artists and what they really think about this or that.

This is plain awesome, but with such a pool of possibilities, it happens that we feel lost.

Whom to trust and whom to follow is a question, not a lifestyle.

People might ask now, why is there a need for another social network and yet another and yet another?
I´d say simply because there are always other people. And the same people do not share the same stuff on all networks.

When I first started to get my feet on the ground over at myspace, it felt good to use all the css hacks to create a stunning profile page, but does it help me to build and maintain trustful relationships or to get business at all? No.

Then there was twitter, it changed a lot - I learned to put thoughts into 140 characters that means more than 10 sentences. It also helped me to find engaging people to keep business motivating, some trustful relationships were built and existing ones were maintained.

Facebook was hard to come by at the first time, it took me a while to get through all the settings and terms of services, but finally I managed to separate business from personal space, a thing I simply forgot to do on myspace and also maintained successfully personal and business relationships.

This is an evolution and one where not only the developers of these sites have to learn, also the users have to get into the matter as well and learn to use the given tools properly. I think G+ is in this regard what OSX is for the MAC. Its not all about customization, its about usability, interaction and ease of use.

If there is one thing to say about the social media platforms and how users can be divided, there might be one simple answer: There are only two different kind of entities - active and passive.
These two types of people are always around us, those who do something and those who just enjoy the show.

It only depends which type of persons you want to have in your circles and what opportunities you want to gain. My conclusion so far is that G+ is for the active!

The Half Life Of Art

2011-07-17T03:26:00.000-07:00

Everything has a half life, so they say.
A half-life is the amount of time required for half of a given substance to decay. Half-life is applied to materials that experience exponential decay, meaning that the rate of decay is directly proportional to the amount of the substance, slowing down as the substance depletes. Read more

Half life is also a mighty business factor and can be metaphorical applied to goods and services.
However everything that has a rule has exceptions that confirms the rule, exactly that is what makes considering average things in the shape of half life so interesting and surprisingly measurable.

The average bestseller book makes most of its sales in around two month of its entire life. A point that artists need to consider if they submit works to print services might be the half life of an average featured print that is just a few days.

Art featured in traditional galleries or art shows can develop a different half life. Popular art from names like Picasso or Michelangelo define either their very own half life or are exceptions to the rule when a piece of art is getting another "highest amount ever sold for" at Christies or other auctions...

Regarding the niche you are going for its important to measure instead of trusting in god or lying to yourself.
This makes the process of uploading content to the web more professional. And with professional I´m not referring to quality but the quantity of works presented at a give amount of time.

I suspect half life even works for friendships, I mean the personal interactions in real life, not the facebook friendships. You see yourself often connected much at the first time with a new friend, because its exciting and after a while it is just boring to do the same stuff alltogether. I believe that half life also works in social media and business connection. But don´t fear, if you have the Poem "Steps" from Hermann Hesse in mind it doesn´t matter:

Let me cite the following part to show you why:

High purposed we shall traverse realm on realm,
cleaving to none as to a home,
the world of spirit wishes not to fetter us
but raise us higher, step by step.
Scarce in some safe accustomed sphere of life
have we establish a house, then we grow lax;
only he who is ready to journey forth
can throw old habits off.
I bet art is the only thing in life that is able to define its very own half life.

In Search Of Divine Proportion

2011-07-04T07:53:00.000-07:00

To avoid confusion: I´m not affiliated with the Lord™ in any way.

But I began to realize on what kind of a journey I am with art. Like many artists before and around me, I´m striving for perfection, but artistry also demands that you know when to stop. Striving for perfection is rather a curse than a blessing, tenacity can help to overcome perfection.

If we start to strive less for perfection and more for divine proportion, we see things different as artists.

In search for the divine proportion we are on a path, maybe an expedition to find the awesome anatomy that uses to blow minds. Proportions are usually based on anatomy rules, this is where the artists have a playground to raise the bar, by bending, stretching and changing anatomy in a fabulous, even surprising way, sometimes more, sometimes less.

Below I will feature some art and artist that inspire me by both, finding and verifying that its possible to create awesome anatomy that is sure to become legendary.
I hope you enjoy!

Bao Pham

Jason Chan for Wizards of the coast

Holdeen

Warren Louw

Chichoni

Kai Spannuth - dpi-graphics

Jace Wallace / Wakkawa

Brom

Mark Newman

James Ryman

Stanley Lau / Artgerm

Serge Birault / Papa Ninja

William A. Bouguereau

Khary Randolph

Yangqi

Jeff Simpson

This list will be updated with new inspirations from time to time.

Why Lying To Yourself Is More Powerful Than Belief

2011-06-26T02:34:00.000-07:00

When it comes to high pressure and very stressful situations in life its better to know than to believe.

Johan Lorbeer

We humans are a fascinating species, we make everything complex out of simple things like black and white.

That may be the reason why religion and science exist, why we can fly to the moon but can´t cure cancer.

My approach to successful self affirmation is whether driven by esoteric means or spirituality, its part of my being to believe in myself rather than a god. Ah wait... the belief was yesterday, today I know, or better said I know how to lie to myself.

I have to say its part of my daily routine and whenever the situation occurs I tend to see why something is working and why some things are doomed to fail.

The title may sound bold, but here is a solid explanation why its absolutely right;

As children we learn to believe in a god and it might even be a kind of knowledge that we feel, we have no proof but our parents do believe too, right? Depending on our growth the belief can decrease as young adults and in later life god is only a mere assumption. But what is lost with the belief is the knowledge, or better said the process of the belief how knowledge, or lying successfully to ourself, works.

We can learn to lie to ourselves again when we learn how marketing works

Seth Godin has a nice example in his book "All marketers are liars" Where he describes this process with the taste of expensive wine from a $2 Glass and a $50 Glass. Tests have shown to a lot persons, not knowing about the price differences, that there is no change of flavor. The only thing that´s left is the price, maybe the design and the fact that it is expensive so it has to taste better. What works here is a lie. A lie that we tell to ourselves and to others. In the mean to buy such an expensive glass and lead arguments to friends who are in doubt we come into the "marketer" position ourself and being successful in converting our friends we turn into liars too, or we accept the lie as a truth which makes our conversation with a friend feel better.

This example literally happens several times a day to us, we lie to ourselves in the belief that it is the truth. We believe newspapers, we believe the diagnosis of a doctor, we pretend that the price for an apple is justified, etc. But do we know all of these things? Either we tell ourself a lie or we believe it, but no one knows for sure.

When it comes to situations described in the first sentence, lets say facing a meeting with an important client, and our work is just halfway done, why isn´t it possible to lie to ourselves in a way that we can ensure a wonderful outcome for both parties? Like with the converted friends who drink overpriced wine out of overpriced wine glasses?

Because we are trained that believe is inherent and that lying is wrong, blame your parents for that.

If we can learn to reconnect emotions with the aspect of knowledge, we can adapt this connection to really powerful affirmations that work.

An example: You can associate that feeling of knowledge that you are right, when in that thriller movie you can exactly say why someone is the killer from the onset and the ending shows proof of that.

It is simple as that, observe this behavior and especially the emotional connection and try to reproduce this feeling when doing a self-affirmation, lets say you want to be successful in the meeting tomorrow- its all about knowing how to lie to yourself in a way that you believe it, and you´re done.

The Fear Of Failure

2011-06-18T01:54:00.000-07:00

Milton Glaser is a graphic designer,
best known for the I Love New York logo,
his "Bob Dylan" poster, the "DC bullet"
logo used by DC Comics from
and the "Brooklyn Brewery" logo.

"Know or listen to those who know."
Baltasar Gracian

This quote is so important that we forget about the meaning from time to time, I´m glad someone mentioned on twitter the link to a Milton Glaser speech about the fear of failure.

In this Video below he describes the process of failure which seems to be contradictory to professionalism as an important asset for creative people.

He encourages to embrace failure and that by transgression an artist can develop a unique style that leads to a unique selling proposition.

In a world where everyone guesses that everything is already invented, the only way to find a niche is to allow, even embrace - failure.

Milton Glaser – on the fear of failure. from Berghs' Exhibition '11 on Vimeo.

In my opinion its important to be careful with the experimentation and failure part and its something that needs to be kept like a secret behind a curtain sometimes. The reason is simply that the public or target audience want to see results and repeated success stories. And its important striving to see how other artists have become a success through failure to find inspiration, but if it comes to the unique selling proposition - this should never be the main topic of any conversation.

I have written about the many disciplines an artist has to master and like a big company like Coca Cola or Sony or Google have laboratories and special departments to find new ways of making things, any artist should spend some time in the lab.

I highly recommend to read "Ten things I learned" from Milton Glaser´s page as part of AIGA talk from November 2001, very good insights about the industry and creative professionalism.

You Get What You Give: How To Deal With Criticism

2011-06-11T13:50:00.000-07:00

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."
Sir Winston Churchill

You can think what you want, believe in what seems best for you, but one thing cannot be denied: there are some universal rules like gravity around us that apply to all and every individual. We can learn how to cheat on these rules, like closing the eyes in hope that they might not see us, but sooner or later they will get us.
There is a reason why there is lie in believe, in in pain and if in life.

When it comes to these rules you either have an ethical understanding for them, such as knowing that breathing fresh air is good for you. Is this understanding inherent, you no longer believe, hope or guess, you simply know.
Its the same with giving and receiving constructive critique as an artist. Its absolutely important and helpful for those getting the enlightenment through another individual who takes their time to point out flaws or weakness of another artists work.

Lets talk about some online-community habits...
It does cost time,yes - it even forces you to outline your thoughts well and it needs a writing that does not hurt the artist in question.
But the most important aspect of giving helpful and constructive critique is that it does help the critic far more than the one who is being criticized.

In fact: if appreciated from both sides, the act even creates a true connection between those two parties.

Sounds weird, doesn´t it? But the reason why its true is simple. It just is a basic rule that applies here: you need to be objective to realize whats wrong to point out any flaws, which in turn helps you to avoid this error yourself. (Assumed its a constructive critique) Do this often and you are (theroretically) a master.

How to deal with inappropriate criticism is material for another post, but being objective is the key here, regardless on which side you are. If you or your work is put into critique, it means you´ve done something right, I´m quoting Bruce Lee here; you only attack someone who is in possession of the ball.

This means on the other side you need to be interesting enough to get even criticized.
No one would want to put 5 minutes writing on a piece of art that is done or looks like its done in 2 minutes. Hard but true.

Another quote about that topic is from Randy Pausch: When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care.

In terms of social media and the possibilities we have today with the internet, it means that its far more important to make real connections to true people. That is the key to find people who care for you and who wholeheartedly support you in whatever you do. But this should always be a 2 way street. Without these "true" friends, you will get nowhere, not 10k myspace friends nor 100k twitter followers stand behind you if you fail, because the habit of accepting the - oh so easy to fawn on getting praise, will evoke exactly that you´ll fail...sooner or later.

Which lead to another conclusion, that its always easier to believe the praise than the bad words.
The best attitude you can develop is to see the "words of praise" as motivation factor that is reason to get your butt up in the morning and the critics are the ones that give you reason to work harder on yourself - to get you even later to bed.

As a subsequent conclusion it can be said that the level of critique you´ll receive is always dependent on what you give and how much popularity you gain. Sometimes not a really justified or pleasing system, but in that aspect not much of a difference to the real world.

After all you´ll always have to do with people not just numbers, screen-names or machines, and people live by rules, right?

Artmarketing Lesson From Mr.Brainwash & Banksy

2011-05-31T02:32:00.000-07:00

Quick edit in OBEY style

Recently I watched "Exit through the giftshop" - the Banksy movie for the second time and I won´t get into detail, or do a review, since these exist from far better sources.
I just assume that you´ve seen the movie (trailer here) or know the outlines, to understand the following.

I think that it is a really good exercise about marketing, if you ever want to get an idea of how the artmarket does work, this documentary is a must see.

The sad message and my conclusion first: Really successful art comes not from artists it comes from marketers, and marketers are liars (according to Seth Godin) A marketer can be anyone. And since the profession artist isn´t protected, everyone can proclaim to be an artist if in reality he is a salesman, because thats what Thierry Guetta, pretty obviously, is to me.

The even more sad part of the message is that artist like Banksy and Shepard Fairey who worked a decade on building a reputation through Streetart in the art market, can watch their art being auctioned on the secondary market for 50k $ (-and up) while they have sold it in the first place for literally, an apple and an egg.

Here´s why this will never happen to Mr. Brainwash due to his unique art marketing method:

He makes mostly derivatives of known imagery, this increases recognizability (Warhol principle)
Makes even more parody, or different takes on even more known imagery
Learns from the best of the scene to know what works and what is possible to achieve
He does make sales beginning at the upper prize segment and avoids the apple and egg problem
Uses quotes from well known artists to boost credibility in the media and public relations
Is confident enough to invest a lot of money to create rather an event than just an artshow
Knows how Damien Hirst and other big-players run their business and outsources the creative aspects of the work and concentrates on generating just the ideas and delegating tasks
Appears in a movie with well known artists to underline the value of his work as promotion for his upcoming artshows and to deliver a story that is meant to be told, describing him as a phenomenon
Has no problems with reproducing stuff and copyrights at all, because he is not an educated artist and therefore has not to worry about that matter, because the public doesn´t do either

As silly as it sounds, these are the shortcuts to success that no artschool ever teaches, and a concept that cannot be franchised. To be honest, in my humble opinion it will only work for non-artists, because artists are usually a very passionate folk and do rather work and create fancy ways to standout rather than to please others with the tenth derivation of a work that the public already knows.

The good thing I see in this development, is that when streetart has become the potential to be marketable on the stock market and places like Christies, its just a question of time when digital art can do that. Because screen printing is not art, its a technique and if an artist utilizes it- the result CAN be art.

Fact is that there is not much difference between streetart and the internet or digital art, if you have a message with your creation and you don´t hesitate to post it everywhere on the net and dare to make it viral, the effect is similar to a Banksy graffity between two telephone booths.

The biggest question is to ask ourself what we really want. Banksy has left the actual grafitti-scene because he wasn´t really good at it and devoted his style towards the stencils. When he crossed the borders between street and fine art, he switched to installations which even better transported his messages. My conclusion is also that Mr. Brainwash reflects the extreme of a "worst thing that could happen" to the art world. And its interesting to see that it would not have happened if Banksy wouldn´t existed - he may benefit from Guetta´s success, but its a sad event to know that one is the cause of such a "worst case scenario".

Which obviously lead to the thought if Mr.Brainwash really exist or is it a figure created by Banksy to just smack the artworld? Even if it is an experiment that should only show WHAT is possible to achieve, its a big slap in the face of everyone who believes this stuff, because it shows that artists are replaceable by cogs in the machine.

The Dr. House Guide To Indispensability

2011-05-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

“I take risks, sometimes patients die, but not taking risks causes more patients to die - so I guess my biggest problem is I've been cursed with the ability to do the math.”

Dr. Gregory House

I don´t think this guy needs any explanation, but in case you are not familiar with House, M.D. you should fill in the blanks with this bit of information first: Wikipedia.

Its obvious that the character played by Hugh Laurie isn´t a fancy guy that everyone loves, but he is intelligent.

If Vulcanians could be humans, I bet he´d be one. But how on earth can a story around a doctor, who is immune to emotions of others become so impressively successful?

The most fascinating effect might be having the urge to beat that guy while at the same time you´ll hug him (manhug:). I believe its the epitome of a stereotype that we expect from a demigod in white.

But with the difference that this doc doesn´t wear white, is drug addicted, a cripple, cheats, and expects that everyone is a liar. This makes him a human, everyone has flaws, he just accepted his and compensates it with a passion for his job.

It doesn´t matter if you want to become a better artist, illustrator, freelancer or CEO, you think you are indispensible because you run a business? Then read on:

Push the limits, if you think your idea is great, think twice (differential diagnose)
Don´t believe that any result is a dogma and need to be worshiped, counterproof
keeping a clear distance to clients can help being more objective
Learn to let go and the art of the head fake in order to solve difficult problems
You cannot please everyone, make clear decisions and stick to them
Put everything and the status quo into Question, even, or because everything seems to be fine

The last one is the most important one, be hard to yourself and your peers, work hard on that part and the world becomes a better place.

I´m not too fond of medical TV series, to be honest I don´t watch TV, (sometimes a series on DVD) but the main character is too interesting and the little truths about human psychology give a lot food for thoughts.

Well, House encourages and motivates himself and his colleagues with the methods above, which are absolutely substantial to becoming indispensable, regardless of what you do.

Incorporate these rules listed above in your day and you are ahead of your competition.

Do You See the Work?

2011-05-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

This is a personal answer to a blog post from someone not related to art or the artists business.

Nonetheless, I feel its important to take the time and contemplate myself as a part of answering the following question:

If you have ten minutes unscheduled and the phone isn´t ringing, what do you do? What do you start to do?

Again a Seth Godin post, according to him, you can judge an organization or a person by what they do when they have a bad day, or the extreme opposite, when no routine or crisis is on the schedule.

What I have learned through my apprenticeship was worth a full time business, such as the one I´m running right now, and the rule is simple:

See the work!

I had filled three years of my life in an apprenticeship with just seeking the work. And unlike others who just seeked work to look busy, I learned to pick up and see what I CAN do and what seems to be the most fun to me.

OK, that wasn´t always possible, but I had asked to do the work I wanted to do, so much that others gave me the chance to do it.

This has changed my view and there is no such thing as laziness, probably my 10 minutes that I have without a ringing phone, business email or commission to work on there is a big pile of options I can chose from:

Writing a blog post like this one
Putting up new works on my web portfolios
Trying out a new tool or technique
Going through my folder with started but not finished works
Tidy up desktop or workplace (no kidding)
Reading blogs community news and see what the competition is up to
Backup data
Updating website with new works, text or searching for flaws
Trying out a complete new technique that I always wanted to do, but never had the time to
Go for a stroll with the camera and trying to find some nice textures
Just making a nap and take a small break
Tidy up mail-inbox
Writing invoices
Doing the taxes

You see: no idle time ;)

I think its also quite important to acknowledge that as artist you have not only the big responsibility of putting the "status quo" into question, its also important to expose yourself to failure every here and then.

Its not possible to be a true artist if you are not able to make failure and experiment.
No one wants you to climb the Mount Everest unsupported, but a different perspective on the craft you have mastered can bear a crucial enlightenment.

I spoke with a so called local artist after a show / event, where I represented my work and she discussed that its only possible to define a "style" by narrowing the focus, she was very much surprised that I said that the only possibility to create a "style" is to make failure, or better said expose yourself to failure by doing experiments.

That said from a person like me who does 70% digital art, maybe comes with a surprise-tag to her in that discussion and I found it funny. But sad at the same time that people often are so shortsighted.

What is the driving force for artists?

2011-05-11T02:32:00.000-07:00

As artists we face several problems and this post is speaking about the problem "That people don´t get, its actually work I´m doing" - resulting in the next problem "Getting asked to do work for free"

Which are, according to this poll, very highly voted problems for most artists.

The first problem in question is depending on how artists speak, act and create a public image of what they do.

We never would estimate that someone with the name Hajime Sorayama would do a single work for free, even if you find tons of his work in fan-galleries across the globe. This is simply due to the fact that he has built a reputation around his work as an authority. If you ever want a reference on how to paint "chrome" or even "gynoids" you´ll stumble about Sorayama.

Sure it takes ages to create this public image and its a long personal growing process, that begins with the serious recognition in the family. Artist raised by parents who are professional artists have it easier to deal with this problems, and probably grow faster into the habit of showing professionalism to anyone.

The first problem I see is that most artists are obviously too easy enthusiastic about new ideas and fall into the habit of speaking to early about things they will do, but havn´t done yet.

RSAnimate have a nice animation about the motivation and the driving force behind it.
The interesting fact is it purely applies to artists that money isn´t the driving force, but the reward of:

Satisfaction - mastery of skills - autonomy

The problem with these above mentioned keywords, is that some clients (black sheep ) do exploit this very often.

While in a factory you won´t find autonomy, satisfaction and a mastery of any skill, people tend to do art as a hobby. No wonder that some scammer, even commercial ones try to exploit this and motivate artists to work for "great exposure", promise them that its a great chance to get better, facing a challenge and on top of it all,you´re autonomic, this means you get exactly all these things any one can dream of...but wait, where is the hook?

You got it, here´s the hook, you should do work for free, or very low.

The video shows the example of Linux with the idea of enthusiasts doing exactly this.
But this is a whole different story, since anyone who contributes to Linux does only a fraction of the whole work. Today it would be labelled as crowd sourcing, but the video describes it better, its called contribution.

My solution and how I deal with this problem is simply that I do only work "for free" when it is a personal work or a by-product of a commercial project and share it with the community, which in turn is also a contribution.

The trap most artists fall for, is to think that great exposure will bring them fame and fortune, and business as well.

But forget it, its hard work and these three cornerstones: "Autonomy, mastery and purpose" must be inherent if you ever want to be a freelancing successful artist. Anyone who wants to sell you something else is simply a scam.

Even modern artists like Banksy or Hirst have built their capitalistic business of art around these cornerstones, just with a slightly bigger public image and the fortitude of the stock market in the back.

Photoshop Brush Tutorial Part II: Digital Painter´s Toolbox

2011-05-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

When you followed the many links and instructions from the first Photoshop brushes tutorial, you have gained a good insight in the capability of Photoshop as a sophisticated painting tool.

This guide gives basic advice on how brushes do work in Photoshop, get to know which dialogs are important to create your digital paintings and to create your own toolbox.
To get the most out of this tutorial, you should have basic knowledge about Photoshop, such as setting up a document and how layers do work.

Digital painting is as much work like oil painting, you can work out many or less details as you please, you can work one hour on a painting or hundred. But one thing is for sure: its not possible to produce great imagery by pressing just one button.

Painting digitally has some advantages such as "undo", changing the size of the canvas or cropping at any time and most important: layers. If you are good at drawing traditionally, chances are that after time and tenacity, you´ll reach a level where your digital creations look similar or even better than your traditional works. You can try out more and be brave with colors or perspective.
A foundation in traditional painting is not a prerequisite, but it helps, even if it is just drawing with pencils or ballpen.

TIP: Be honest to yourself, cheating, painting over or tracing from a photograph will NOT help you get better or faster there.

The secret "keys" to a magic workflow
Fortunately there are shortcuts, make use of them often and treat yourself with a better workflow.

Below is a list of tools and brushes I use all the time:
Note, this is my personal list, changed shortcuts are marked red, have a look at the standard PS keyboard shortcuts. I highly recommend to customize shortcuts and keys, this makes you more familiar with integral parts of the program and leads to more workplace ergonomy and speed.

Painting related:
[B] The brush tool - allows you to paint with a wacom tablet like with a brush
[R] Smudge - In earlier PS versions R was the smudge tool, so I changed the shortcut
[E] Eraser - allows you to erase something from a layer
Canvas related:
[A] Canvas rotate(since PS CS4) usually the key [R] I have set the shortcut to A
[SPACE] Hand tool - to move the canvas
[Z] Zoom - allows you to zoom in, I use CTRL++ and CTRL+Ü for in and out zooming and
[CTRL+Ä] for actual pixel view of the image
Color related
[ALT] The eyedropper tool - this tool picks colors from anywhere in a picture
[X] Switch between fore -and background colors - great for black and white sketching
Layer related:
[V] Arrow tool - to move and place objects or layers
[L] Lasso tool - allows you to select a specific area
[CTRL+T] Transformation - this allows you to freely transform a selection
[CTRL+SHIFT+N] Create a new layer
Process related:
[ALT+SHIFT] color picker tool - allows you to pick another color on the fly
[CTRL+Z] Undo - allows you to undo a step
[CTRL+ALT+Z] Step back - allows you to undo more than one step
I recommend to set the key for "step back" to F1 for example, most people don´t read the help anyways.

So much for the theoretical part, now on to the practice:

Make the most of your brushes
Its intriguing to see how many brush resources are available for Photoshop, but if you are here for painting, its important to get the fundamentals down, otherwise the fancy stuff isn´t going to work*.
I have done a tutorial of an X-Men character with just 2 brushes, if you follow this tutorial, you understand why there is seldom a need for more than 2 brushes.

To make the most out of even the standard brushes, make yourself familiar with the brush-related dialogs

#1: The toolbar dialog:
Its useful for opacity, pressure sensitivity and flow, I mainly use opacity between 55%-75% and flow 75%-100% but this is a matter of personal preference.

#2: Right-click-menu
The next toolbox can be reached with a right click while a brush is in use.
You can always change the brush size with the key [ALT] pressed while holding right click and then moving the pen either to the left or right, softness can be changed by moving up or down. But when you want to reset a brush size or chose another one, this dialog is quite useful.

#3 The brush settings dialog
The next dialog is the most powerful one, its the brush main menu.
On the left side you see the main properties and if you click on one, you´ll instantly see options on the right hand panel. On the bottom you see the direct impact of your settings -pretty simple?

TIP: Get yourself into the habit of doing random warm-ups before starting to work on an actual piece, that gives you enough reason and time to explore this dialog pretty much.
There is no universal receipt of what works and what not, its all about habits, preferences and goals, but I can´t stress enough how important it is to make use of it!

I like to achieve naturally looking works that contain realism and a traditional look. The best way to master the settings is to experiment when looking at traditionally painted reference works. Go to a museum, study the old masters, make photographs and try to match colors and strokes/textures.

#4: The tool-presets dialog
Try to imitate crayons or pencil, if you have created an outstanding brush, you can save it into the tool presets dialog, the last and also important dialog box related not only to brushes:

click the icon to add a
brush to the presets dialog

#5: The agony of choice: Colors
For colors and palettes, you have several options: Kuler, standard color dialog, or swatches:

Often suggested by professionals is to create a layer just for mixing colors. Then pick a color with the eyedropper tool and mix it on that layer, this allows to change colors in your paintings intuitively .
An advanced technique would be to duplicate that layer and change colors via [ALT+U] to expand the one palette to pick colors from.

The "essential" Photoshop brushes in action
I won´t limit anyone, but if I´m asked for a useful advice, it will sound like this:
Less is more!

Better get the most out of one brush than to get entangled in a mess of brushes you don´t know anything about. Get an expert in the round brush and you´re nearly a master of all brushes.

Nr. 1 The simple round brush, lets see what that one can do

I use this brush for most detail works and areas which need fine definition such as skin, clothes, etc, its really a reliable allrounder. Its something like crayon, pencil, airbrush and pen in one even more powerful in combination with the smudge tool.

Below you see an example of the round brush in action, no other brush was used for this sketch. Only the above shown settings and variations thereof were used in this somewhat detailed drawing.

Whatever you are going to paint, the round brush can do it. I´d go as far as saying that this is the most important brush to master for any beginner of the medium.

Nr. 2: The rectangular brush
The only other brush you´ll need

This one is different, you cannot soften it in the right-click menu, but you can combine it with a dual brush setting, add the scatter element, or add texture to make it even more powerful.
The best use for the rectangular shape lies in creating rough concepts and defining landscapes, applying textures is also fun with this brush.

Below you see an example of this brush in action. The aim of a rough concept is not to deliver a final rendition, its best to use low contrast values to paint random shapes and work them out as you see something in them, this is also a great exercise.

Its easy, once you got used to see the shapes, a great tool to train this potential is called Alchemy.
In another blog post about imagination I explain a bit more about shapes and pattern recognition ability in general.
Concept artists and industry professionals use this technique to begin their outstanding works, one mentionable fellow is daarken, from whom you find highly recommended video tutorials using the rectangular brush in a masterful way.

See the video teaser below for my process from a rough concept to a semi- final artwork

Or if you have the time, the full video (25 minutes) with explaining subtitles can be watched at dtuts.com for free.

Questions or comments are welcome!

The Spotify Way of Sorting out Good and Bad Clients

2011-04-27T05:18:00.000-07:00

When I discuss music with friends, it becomes more and more evident that so many people still don´t know what a bliss Spotify is.

A friend recently mentioned to me they have not the time to get through it or assume it consumes more time, when in fact the opposite is true.

If you´re like me, you want to enjoy music, whenever, wherever, without the hassle of piracy and without the waste of time to go into a shop or worse, shop DRM protected iTunes products for that matter.
And I don´t need fancy booklets or CD-cases from most artists. I also don´t need crowded record shops which don´t have what I´m looking for anyways. If you are freelancer and / or have children, you know that time is precious. I don´t want to own music, I just want listen to it.

I often gave radio stations a try but can´t stand the blurbs, news and commercial breaks in the long run.
In this aspect, my guess is that Spotify will change a whole generation if their success continues.

Spotify is a great example on how good marketing can work.
Good marketing makes you enjoy the experience, while promoting it wherever you can, because it has a lot of pro´s that outweighs the costs.

As of May 2011 they plan changes to spotify free/open, in my opinion this step is absolutely important to separate the wheat from the chaff. Everyone wants a super awesome service for free but only a few want to pay for it, as a service provider, who do you like more?

Those who love your products, make free of charge promotion for your service and come back often?
Or those who love and want everything you do for free and bother if you start to charge anything?

Applied to the work and service a freelancer offers, there are a obviously some similarities, no one wants clients from hell. And from time to time its important to show that.

My decision was clear from the onset of using Spotify, and after a year of using the free service, the change in their system had made me switch to the unlimited account instead of leaving them.

For me the use of the service outweighs ten times what the unlimited membership does cost me.
On my workstation I don´t want to save or collect music and I always want to learn and stumble about new songs, without having to spend hours in a record shop or Amazon / iTunes, I just want to listen to songs while working.

Also when I favorite a song on my workstation, automatically I have it in my playlist at the living room - hi-fi or mobile.

The related artists feature makes it really easy to access many new artists.
And even if not every album is available right now, they do a lot to make it available in the near future, and the more labels and artists get onto this, the more will be available.

The benefit from all this is a lightweight program that delivers a whole world of music without having to worry about disk/space or money.

What Do You Like LEAST About Being An Artist?

2011-04-20T01:08:00.000-07:00

Quite recently I read through the interesting post by Christopher Burdett about " why artists do what they do", its a huge post interviewing several artists and professionals from the industry about their motivations behind being an artist.

The first thing I read, was the answers to the question: "What do you like LEAST about being an artist?"
And find it intriguing, that a lot responses shows a big aversion against the "business side" or the paperwork.

Note: I´m not looking at this to see how bad someone is at something, rather I try to find what problems are out there, what can be solved?

I also did a poll about this matter here, to go through each topic with a different blog post, this one is dedicated to help with the business aspects of being an artist.

We should not judge people by how they deal with the things they hate, but if you turn any aversion into the opposite, you´re up for a win.

Seth Godin has a very nice post about that matter:

The worst moments are your best opportunity

That's how we judge you and how we remember you.

Its indeed a great opportunity to tell people how you have dealt with something that most people hate. In my case, well, I do not love the business side and paperwork, but I embrace it, everyday more.

Every signed contract is a bliss.

Since I started to work in a career as full time freelance artist, I understand how important this aspect is in my daily life and now I see it just like color-theory or a new software that I can use to optimize a workflow.

Even if we are not aware of it and a lot people do not know how to utilize it right, blogging is also a business aspect and part of promotion, but in my case, I turned the blog into a personal thing to have more fun and less pressure.

Marketing is also a part that most artists hate, I grew a personal interest in how to develop marketing that actually works for artists.

When it comes to communication, a lot peole are afraid to get direct responses from the clients and prefer an agent as a middleman, who knows which words they have to use in order to keep the artist going.

I skip this part, I enjoy honest clients who know what they want and even more if they can articulate their desires directly to me. Thats the reason I appreciate to work with authors directly in most cases.

What many artists forget is another important thing:

When they are sitting in their studio, office, whatsoever, they imagine a commission as a long neverending task that is just tiring and one-sided. always with the client in mind.

But reality is: its communication and its two-sided!

And even if you are locked in your studio, this doesn´t mean you cannot deliver a performance like an actor. You guess what? Clients expect a performance!

Not directly related to the one you´ll most likely see in a theatre, but close.

See it just like this, the process of a commission can be a wonderful experience and enlightenment for both, but it can be also a dull experience that buries creativity faster than an eagle can say good bye to a stealth fighter.

But it has not to look like that. You are the actor and opposed to an actor you are even an artist, you can put a certain amount of control into a communication by articulating authority.

And to come back to the actual topic of how to deal with the paperwork, lets face it: most business CEO´s would really love to change with the little paperwork artists have to do. And probably can´t understand why any artist is bothering about 1-2 hours a week of that.

I do not have fixed times for that, since its always depending on the workload, but there are weeks where I have to deal with 3 contracts at once and I deal with them like with a bunch of emails: I go through them, one by one in a row. This can for sure take up a hour or two, but after this time I can focus again on the work that matters.

Do you stand or sit at work?

2011-04-15T03:26:00.000-07:00

After reading this article about health on the desk: http://health.yahoo.net/experts/menshealth/most-dangerous-thing-youll-do-all-day which I came across through a tweet from a twitter friend. I was kind of enlightened and felt frightened at the same time. Mainly because I have found the source of my main problem - the ongoing feeling of doing no actual "work". I was used to stand and move at work constantly before switching to the full time freelancing work, two and a half year ago.

The first time it wasn´t a problem either, to be honest you have other things to worry abnout if you start to do self-employed business, but after a year I found out that I havn´t really any fitness or hobby I can turn to. Doing WII-fit excercises doesn´t count, really.

Realizing that I roughly sit for around 60 hours a week, the effect can be enormous.
I´m not overweight, but after just these two years sitting on a desk, I feel a lack of constitution, which is not a state I want to keep forever.

This article confirmed my assumption that I have to change something in my working day: http://smarterware.org/7102/how-and-why-i-switched-to-a-standing-desk

I don´t wanted to incorporate a ready -built standing desk or a treadmill, but I am really fond of ergonomic workstations and how to change things for better.

Below is a before and after shot of my current work place, which promises more movement and productivity:

Before

After

So far it has been the best decision ever.
The total cost for this ergonomic change was around 100,00 Euro, but the effect is an improvement measurable in even 48 hours.

So if you´re not a plein-air painter who is always on tour this might be a good advice for any desktop artist or freelance designer.
The benefit from a changed posture and habit can only be told after years of working, but its up on you to decide what consequences you might face.

In times when my day job kept me physically active I was happy to switch on my mind and PC in the evening and doing what I love the most, and relaxed while sitting. But now where the passion has turned into a day job, and it seems I´m there for the long run, its time to change.

When do you switch?
If there are any concerns, I´d really like to answer any questions about that matter, or like to hear your experience.

The Power of Doubt

2011-04-11T01:47:00.000-07:00

Doubt is, without a doubt, powerful.
It can be destroyer and a honest critic at the same time!
Doubt is unlikely one of the most interesting states of the mind.

But what is doubt?
Is it just lack of confidence?
It occurs in very different situations and can obviously be labeled as a dialog.

The bad news first: its a part of you, the good news: you can learn to put it in control!

Whenever we experience the feeling of satisfaction, there is this little voice in the corner of our mind that asks if its not a little unfair that we are satisfied after a great meal while other people have to starve?
Doubt is the thing that makes a vegetarian and inflames protest against politicians or their decisions.

In its existence, its neither good nor bad.

Imagine doubt as a cop
Well, obviously these are very common scenarios and it seems that doubt is just the watcher of our consciousness, but somehow not a counterpart of the unconsciousness.

I imagine doubt as a cop, the prosecutor who is sitting next to both in my humble mind and observing the processes that are going on, with a succinct comment thrown in about whats happening every here and then.
I describe doubt as an independent prosecutor and not as judge, because its purpose is not judgement. But to put the status quo into question.

While very often doubt is useful (take the vegetarian or protest aspects for example) it can be a nagging bitch at times.
There are only two things in my opinion that can keep the prosecutor in a warm & fuzzy state:

Knowledge - the definition of knowledge that something is true, or has happened, or will happen
Intuition - the kind of intuition that is based upon knowledge

Intuition as I imagine it, is a real-time-engine that pulls out results from an "experience-database" , considers mood, unconsciousness and the conscience to verify information and allows reactions based on these factors at an alarming rate.

This means it is important to learn and grow on everything you can get your hands on.
To make the best use of intuition as possible you should never stop learning. If you let intuition judge what doubt puts into question, doubt will not longer be a fat and lazy bum who knows he is always right.

He has to run, verify and compare informations a lot, that keeps him busy and at the end he is not the first to raise his hand. He does it only if things really seem to be dangerous or on the edge of morality.

This leads to two conclusions:

Doubt is not always bad, it just puts your behavior into question, or in the best case into a dialog.
Self-doubt and too much doubt can be counteract with intuition, and prevent success.

This might be a personal conclusion. I´m just an observer, who is fascinated by how our mind works and I use my imagination to illustrate these processes to others.

Probably someone has a more valid explanation how these psychological aspects work, but I find this imagination quite interesting.

My approach is just to make living with these techniques easier. Especially for artists doubt and self-doubt are destructive, acquired and every too often unnecessary. In short: its the most known preventer of success.

From experience I can say that keeping the prosecutor busy, makes life soo much easier.

Is Your Business a Big Question Mark to Prospects?

2011-03-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

I´m not a preacher
But I like phrases, especially those that you get told from your parents. They come in handy every here and then in life. Thinking about these quotes, its interesting how much truth lies in a short saying like: "Barking dogs do not bite."
This sentences are self descriptive, no questions left, nothing to get wrong.

As complex as any freelancers business is, Some people tend to carry a specific intricacy out to the prospects they want to reach. Unconsciously.

This scares the hell out of people, let alone interested parties.
Its easier to sell more to someone who is already hooked on your products.
The same mechanics that McDonalds use to launch and successfully sell a new menu offer.

Whats your Promise?
My cornerstone is to keep things simple, at least to prospects and existing clients, and I guess that is why I´m asked. No one wants to hear about your sophisticated process and how difficult it is for you to achieve this or why it cost a dime to change that.
People (prospects included) turn away when they read some keywords that bear difficulties, especially those that you may not be aware of. The best examples are blog posts or messages filled with vampire words.

The reason why Apple sells Mac´s is that they don´t leave a questions unanswered.
The way Wacom has climbed the top of input devices for digital graphics is, that it is pretty self explaining and...you guess it, leaves no question mark at the very bottom.

I have to admit its a process, life is a sophisticated process, but from above everything looks plain.
My credo is to do it like a duck, sweat and run like hell under water, but keep things calm on the surface, this keeps a cool brain and looks even nicer than the other way round.

What also confuses people and prospective clients is when we change.
Sure, artists try to experiment and change minds like trousers, but its not good for the business of doing client work, if you´ve played the Piano yesterday, paint today and create FX for movies tomorrow.

Even if this is your nature, separate things and run every action as a very own project that you nurture. This way people get an impression "what else" you can do, but if you can communicate what your main area of expertise is, its not that confusing anymore, it underlines your value instead of ripping it apart.

It all boils down to this:
When you are talking with friends and parents about what you do. you feel annoyed by the same questions over and over. The more its important to get a clear and especially a fast explanation of your business. The "elevator speech" is a practice that is common today and used by professionals all over the world. It describes the ability to talk to a stranger and communicate in less than a minute what exactly you do.

What I observe is also a lot that people cannot apply the "elevator speech" to their web presence.
You know that has happened, when you browse a website for around 10 minutes and didn´t get the idea what the creator will tell you.

Get simple, or better said: "simply get it".

The Genius in us

2011-03-18T13:08:00.000-07:00

Just recently I stumbled through my blogs and found a link on muddy colors about a documentation called "My Brilliant Brain" which is indeed a very great scientific and visual exploration about how brains do work.

While it reminded me on the BBC episode Glad to be mad ( just found the German version here) it gives great insights into three different kinds of geniuses:

The born genius
The genius made through education
The genius by accident, through brain damage ie.

The history of the genius is as interesting as the scientific results of our days.

When viewing these documentation one thing was totally clear to me: either of these "child prodigies" or geniuses has been nurtured by their parents to go on with their gift, or by themselves to do what they have to do.

Is there a difference after 10000 hours?

This is interesting, because it arouse a question in me: " If a born and an educated genius both arrive at the 10k hours of practicing, will there be a difference at all?"

From the technical point of view, I´d say no, but from the mental ability how to create things and deal with learning, I guess the born genius has a little advantage.

But when it comes down to the 10000 hour rule everyone has to be clear to themselves; is that really what I want to do in my life? It seems to me that people with a genius have just one advantage; they are totally clear about their objectives and about their profession and never, ever put in question why they are on earth.

The earlier in life you get motivated from everyone else, its obvious that you don´t need to spent a dime on self doubt.

With that in mind, isn´t then everyone a genius who just practices hard enough, breaks the 10k, 20k hours barrier and insists to have a profession? Maybe.

According to Seth Godin, everyone is a genius at times, and no one is a genius all the time, I love this phrase, because its true. Everyone has had the HEUREKA™ moment and to me it describes exactly how to achieve it. Look at Musicians for example, Depeche Mode has at least 2 hits on every album they´ve released, is that genius? Or just great observation of mainstream? Or compare artists who dare to sell shit in tins to museums, are they geniuses?

No, I guess not, they are just rad and play with audacity and authority to gain media interest in what they do.

But to have at least 2 hits on every album released, needs more of a genius in the long run, and it describes very good what S. Godin wants to express.

Autistic dedication to a craft

There are some things all these people from the documentations have in common; dedication, autistic features and a burden.

I cannot arrogate to know anything about what makes a genius, but I´m as much interested as anyone else to find out more about that matter. One great observation I share with a lot artist-friends whom I know personally is the fact that a healthy, autistic features in combination with dedication often referred to as "flow" helps us concentrating. I also won´t like to share the pressure a child prodigy has to live with, the expectations of others must be incredible and somewhat daunting.

There was even this child Kieron, who paints like an old master, but to be honest, this isn´t a prodigy and even not something that works out in the long run. 680 + people on a waiting list is a lot of pressure for a seven year old kid and I bet when he´s 15 and want to play soccer for fun or want to do anything else for a living, the childhood is gone for the sake of success.

I´m sharing the same opinion as Seth Godin when it comes to the statement that our society is drumming the genius part out of us for the Faustian bargain, in which we trade our genius and artistry for stability. But everything comes with a prize tag and paying with a "gone" childhood is probably something that isn´t for anyone and its twice wasted if its not spent wholeheartedly on something, so again the born genius has the advantage that in early years a chance of a lifetime can appear, if nurtured positively.

The scientific results combined with the right motivation can empower the impossible and the combined power of a lifelong student and learner with the artistic dedication of an artist has enormous possibilities in the long run.

And guess what, this is true for anyone who wants to achieve something in life. I say, and these documentations are the proof, that our brain needs constant updates, bits of learning and measurements, pushing the boundaries and challenges on a regular basis. No wonder that the higher educated have the better jobs Did you ever wondered why those working from 9-to-5 are more likely to stop their abilities to grow when falling into the trap of the factory worker, where the end with alcoholism is programmed?

I´ve worked in factories too and have seen those people, without a future, without a perspective and the groundhog day repeating again and again and again.

If you have spent a few weeks on the assembly line you know what is meant with "drumming the genius part out". Working from home isn´t easy either and I doubt that some geniuses can live without help, let alone reminding them to eat or make breaks... again, everything comes with a price tag.

To end this observational post, I found this quote from Randy Pausch very fitting: "We cannot change the cards we dealt, just how we play the hand."

The Art of the Head Fake, or How to Let Go

2011-03-11T00:44:00.000-08:00

The art of letting things go.

Our mind is a tool, keep it always up-to-date and you don´t have to worry about a bluescreen.

This is true, the things we experience, like failure, pain, depression, frustration, setbacks and also success are based on our mindset. Our mind connects feelings and keywords with people and things, just like a big database. The thing is, its often outdated.

The result of this: we are all just player in a game and the rules change every day, but you have to find out about the change by yourself, no one is going to tell you.

The art of letting go is deeply connected with success and personal growth.
As a freelancer and entrepreneur its good to know how to use this power, because believe me, its a power to be able to do so.

There are 2 things which are very important to every creative:

You need to know when your work is done and finished
You need to know when its better to "let go" and try something different

While you get better at these two things with every piece over time, its often the case that we overdo a piece, or spending too much time on something that ends up being mediocre.

Sure, no one is a genius all the time, Einstein had trouble finding his home (citing Seth Godin here)

But if anything is important in the development of skills for an artists, these are the key-skills that separates great artists from the good ones.

It begins with the idea.

My recent post about breeding ideas has led to a nice discussion with an art student, and it came to mind that the solution to their problem was to "let go". It was about the urge to bring an idea down to paper because of the fear to cling on that if they don´t do it.

Being too attached is bad for anything you do. Being too less attached will prevent HEUREKA™ from happening at all. Its about finding the right balance.

There are 2 everyday examples of this problem that everyone has faced a lot times.

Its time to study the cause of this problem in order to find the solution.

Have you ever wondered what helps when you are searching for something very hard? Thinking about something different maybe?

Have you ever felt the pressure of writing an important letter, and the more you are stressed the less you are able to find the right words? Is writing at all useful? Should I send the letter?

I don´t need to write a book about these examples, because I guess you know the feeling described by now.

If we are under pressure or stress, our lizard brain -which is concepted to survive, is too busy keeping our search engine at power and cuts the energy to bypass it to our basic functionality. Think of it as a fail-safe-mode.

Intellect is not available in "fail-safe-mode"

When we are transformed into a "lizard" we have not the extra of intellectual powers like creativity or imagination, we can only make use of our gut instincts and the ability of propagation, if present.

And in exactly this situation, it seems impossible to let go. Because that would mean we would give up, something that is a no-go for the lizard in us. But its important to give yourself a head-fake to be capable of letting things go.

Sometimes its as easy as saying to yourself: "I better have a coffee (or whatever you like) now" or have yourself realizing, that it was the first 10 minutes of workout for today.

It appears that turning the bad thoughts into something good, is difficult, but very helpful and in 99% it doesn´t work without a head-fake, so check out the link above, if you don´t get what is meant with that term.

Randy Pausch coined the term with the best meaning in my opinion, in his "last lecture" which can be found here where he explains how it works.

The virtue of the open minded

In another scenario I suggested to let go in asociation with breeding ideas.

I said that its better to keep the ideas in mind instead of putting everything onto the sketchbook for a later use. But this seems as well not very easy.

The problem with ideas is, that it is important to treat them like your partner, have trust and confidence in them and they will come back, treat them better and they will grow and bring even their friends to you.

What I wanted to say is; in order to breed ideas and have very good ones, you need to find a holistic way of thinking. A different mindset. One that allows your mind to be open all the time to gain input and find a glimpse of inspiration in everything you do with all senses. Whereas everyone elses mind is trained to shut down when routine occurs.

Every bad experience has a good thing - its on you to find it.

Instead of bothering, that because of the broken bottle you have left the house 5 minutes later in the morning, give yourself the head-fake that your unconsciousness has saved your life, probably because you could have had an accident otherwise, arriving 5 minutes late to work is the minor issue, in this case.

This is a head fake that will be saved by our unconsciousness and applied on new operations as well.

If you don´t burry what is good for you, you can make it work for you.

Make others believe in that too, and the world is a better place.

Can You Prevent Inspiration to Cause Mimicry?

2011-03-03T02:31:00.000-08:00

It has to be said, that in terms of learning and growing, nothing speaks against mimicry. In fact you´ve learned in school and everywhere that copying in the name of study seem to be helpful, to some extent.

Fact is that copying can lead to quite usable results, but it skips the part that is called understanding.
Understanding on the other hand is important to know what´s possible and what not.

This post is for reader @Galendara, who inspired me to do a post about this topic. In this blog post I will bring light to some mechanics that keep us from achieving our goals.

First: To fully understand you need to find out where you are. Make a map.
If you are not fully aware where you stand with your "art", you cannot measure if you´re becoming better at what you do. Its also vital that the aspect of understanding what inspires you and your art becomes more attention. Otherwise the confidence in your abilities will shrink over time.

To better illustrate this aspect, I will explain it with a comparison:

Lets say you learn to play the guitar: Before you´ve ever played a note, rock-songs were just great and the mainstream bands seemed so unreachable. After a few lessons where you learned the basics and some chords you can replay some of the songs you liked so much. After a year you can play along with over 20 of your favorite rock songs, since they consists of only 3-4 chords. In art there is a similarity.

If you can depict your position in the map precisely, you have a decent advantage, this illustration describes it very good. The ladder to artistic success is top -and bottomless.

How art looks to a "non-artist"

Above: To a non artist all art looks great, with no exception. Nothing to worry about. This is how art looks from a recipients point of view who has nothing to do with the creation part.

An artists view of art

Wherever you are in the process of developing your abilities, the above illustration shows how you see things, when you dive into the matter of creating art. You are inevitable accessing the ladder to success, it will never change. Even if you reach the stage of being a very great and always inspiring artist, you´ll have a list of inspiration that you´ll never be able to touch. But its important to find your own way of describing art into these 4 (or more) categories.

Start sorting art like a curator

In order to develope your own style you must first define what you like and what not.
This is the hardest part.
It helps to put yourself into the shoes of a curator, a decisionmaker.

If you run a gallery based on art you like, you´d have to find gems.
In fact, you better be an Otaku to find these. To be a great artist you need to be an even better curator.
Curator is not a profession that can be studied, it is something that comes from observation. And luckily this ability can be trained.

Develop the curator in you

Unfortunately there is no shortcut for doing so.
The only thing you can do is to be active in art communities or visit a lot museums and galleries and make notes about works you like and why so.
Deviantart has a great potential in delivering a big quantity of images depending on your flavor directly to your messagecenter.

If you make it to your daily routine to go through your deviantwatch, the chances are good that over time you find yourself in this position of sorting images out like in the above illustrated manner.

You don´t need a background in art history to be a great artist

Most curators have a background in art or art history. If your goal is to be a better artist, your background can be replaced by the obsession of an Otaku. But you don´t necessarily need a professional background in art history.

You just need to develope a flavor and the ability to say what you like and why. And even more important: you need to internalize the process of separation to rely on it within a split second.

How to measure successful art?

Luckily we live in times where success in all of its facettes can be measured!
If you make use from services like deviantart to watch other artists work, its a good idea to focus on the works that are featured as a Daily Deviation or that find great recognition in the community, by exploring other "admired artists" -favorites folders.

Deviantart has a nice way of tracking and measuring success of art and artists, with public statistics.
If you can read the statistics quite good, you can easily separate authentic art from a copycats work.

In general I tend to compare the basic stats:

Image views: If its a great image that is featured than it has anything from 10k views up to 100k.
Favorites: this is the more interesting stat; how many people find it that great, that they feature it on their profile page?
Comments: Its not that measurable than views and favorites, but within the 100-500 comments under a great or featured work can be gems of feedback that exactly points out what some people like in a piece and what not.
Even better is critique, but since this feature isn´t used very much, its rare to find good critique there.

Note: Depending on your taste and preferred style of art, these stats can differ, its important to find out what statistics define the bottom and top of your favorite style of art and start to measure art inbetween this data.

The next step is to find out if this featured work is just a lucky number the artist has thrown on the table by happy accident, or is he/she able to put up such a great work on a regular basis?

The Profile: There are a lot stats too, like pageviews and community activity that gives a short overview about the authenticity of the artist. The gallery which can be even customized to be a portfolio reveals more about the artists work and the consistent quality.

Then it is important to find a conclusion: Is this artist doing art for a living, just for fun, still studying.
These are aspects that make me decide if I want to follow/watch someone or not.

Still the question is: how to prevent inspiration to cause mimicry?

Worst answer ever: This is something every emerging artist has to find out by themselves. A constant overflow and lack of confidence in your own art can lead to a creative block.

Sometimes we are inspired and feel motivation to get back to "our work" to reach the next level. But sometimes the inspiration is accompanied by frustration, anger and stress which causes us to feel bad about the otherwise good inspiration. A typical scenario for the latter, is that you find the artist is too good and you could never reach such a level of professionalism, etc.

The positive thing is: this is all mentally. But it depends on our ability to sort inspirative art into the categories mentioned before. This helps to say: "OK, here am I, this is possible yet, this is what I want to achieve within the next 12 month."

Viewing other peoples art this way is important to your health too.
Everyone has a diferent pace to accomplish things, here´s a post about finding your own pace.

Another thing that decides how good you are in sorting inspiration, is the ability to let go.
Letting things go is a key skill and will be a hot topic for an upcoming post, so stay tuned.

How to Breed Ideas

2011-02-22T00:19:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I woke up and had a question from an interview roaming through my mind: "Isn´t the amount of ideas you have to develop on a daily basis exhausting?"

By the weekly amount of inquiries an illustrator has, it indeed feels like pulling rabbits out of the hat all the time. And apparently that is what an illustrator does, conceptual magic.

How is it possible to keep that pool of ideas so fresh and new?

The thing; is everyone recommends to carry a sketchbook around, do studies here and there and draw from life as much as you can. This is OK if you are student or if drawing from life makes you money as artist, (if not you should put that into question).

Sure thing is that it helps to train observation skills and such. And I agree, its better to draw from life than from a bad photograph.

But sketching down ideas just for the sake of having them pulled out, the moment they appeared, is not the best idea.

Here´s why:

If you were taught to draw on a daily basis for study, again, this is OK, but don´t begin to manifest your ideas in a sketchbooks like a journal. You might think that, once the ideas are brought to paper, you can later go back to them and work them out, one by one, but you will not.

There are too much of them, and the ones that were initially brilliant ideas turn out to be just flat and unimaginative, depending on the mood you are when later reviewing the sketchbook.

Sure you can go through the sketchbook in a winged mood, but its not the same.

The reason is mostly because our subconsciousness thought we have pulled the idea out and thats it! Our mind forgets about the emotional connection we have about that particular idea, the moment we manifest them. If thats just a rough sketch, thats it. If you are later going to work that out (you can try that for yourself) you will most likely don´t find a reason why you had done this or that sketch.

The thing is, you will never put much energy into an old sketch, since the accompanied emotional connection, I call it emotional linkage, to it, is gone. Thats why I say inspiration is ephemeral.

There is no better treasure for great ideas than between the heart and the unconsciousness.

This way ideas can develop themselves and find their way onto the surface when their time is just right, be it an assignment or a personal project.

I grow most ideas out of personal projects and experiments. I have developed my very own way of breeding ideas. In fact, everyone has to develop their own way of breeding them.

Looking at other artists work is also a way of getting inspired, but inspiration does not last very long its very momentary and not adequate to fill the "idea-pool" with valuable material. Lets say, its OK to look at how other artists work out a solution to a problem, but don´t let your soul be burned by the searing touch of the influence. Here´s my take on the difference between inspiration and influence.

My method of breeding ideas looks like this: assigning myself to do personal projects, this gives a platform to let my imagination run wild. But there is a flood of ideas hitting that theme that I do not manifest in sketches or pieces at all. I do keep these ideas in the back of my mind and try to combine them with some older, still present ideas that I have in mind.

Only the strongest ones survive, if they are still there after some days or weeks, they are good enough to be manifested in one or the other way. The medium is secondary. This way unconsciously and persistently new ideas were generated. This process does also train the "initial-conception-ability" that allows to bring ideas on the table upon request.

And how do you breed ideas?

Or better said, what do you do to keep them fresh?

Finding Your own Pace

2011-02-17T08:18:00.000-08:00

When starting out with painting and doing some creative stuff, I embraced the process of doing art.
I enjoyed and celebrated this process as something special.
Every time I bought new pencils, brushes or a new canvas I felt so inspired to do something so great and new with them.

But to be honest, in retrospective it took way too long to imagine I could ever make a living from painting/drawing and when looked at the works created at that time, it must be around 15 years from now, they were not even good.

But it was a start, a beginning. I had some ideas and it felt good to bring them onto paper somehow.

When I studied, I was assigned to do things I did not like, but over the years learned to enjoy this process too. It felt good to accomplish things in my own kind of way, where others followed the manual I found my personal way to hit the goals. And succeed. In retrospect this was stunning! This was around 8 years ago

Today I create 5 works or more in a week, from sketches to final illustrations and I´m still far from being perfect. In fact I hope to never reach perfectness. And to cite Socrates:"The only thing I know is that I don't know anything."

I think I hit the 10000 hours a few years ago and I´m onto the next level at my own pace. I´m really looking forward towards the things that are possible to accomplish when the 20000 hour goal is in reach.

The biggest difference between now and then is the number of images I create in a year and the way I look at these. Even the way critique or rejection does touch me. I still do embrace the process of creating an artwork today.

But calling this process production is degrading, probably because I worked too long in production companies and at the assembly line besides study, that I know what production is. Dully producing thousands of products that all look the same and are not even worth the material with which they are produced. That is not what an artist does.

Creating a cover artwork, interior illustration or anything else that a creative freelancer artist can do, is so complex, that is by far more than producing just something. I call it:"creating an experience". Doing client work is always a win-win experience.

When you are at this "beginning stage", embracing the creative outlet is the utmost and most important thing in the world, so enjoy it. Looking too much into what others have achieved and done is a killer. A creativity killer.

Most artists blocks come from looking too much at other peoples pace".
How about your pace?

Keep Your Imagination Active

2011-02-08T13:18:00.000-08:00

Hellbound II done with Alchemy

Recently I have had a read through my blogs, one of them was a post by James Gurney Activating your imagination which I have commented, but somehow my comment disappeared. I will not shelter James for deleting my post, and if so, it might be by accident. (Its probably a bug;)

James mostly cited from Howard Pyle, but in my opinion Howard Pyle is outdated. He was obviously a photography antagonist in the time he lived (March 5, 1853 – November 9, 1911). To deny something that might help is not the best suggestion to a student either. My suggestion would be to put everything into question: references, casts, lighting, shapes, anything and the status quo.

Drawing things from memory might also not be a clever suggestion, since when doing so we make flaws, and that is what leads to the need for a reference, a vicious cycle. It might be a nice practice but won´t help to cure the itch.

OK, I went on with my thought about this topic and realized it was too important to be lost in a blog post of someone else and so I went on to resurrect this theme for a very own treatment.

As artist, the activation of imagination is useless, since as artists we are constantly expanding the ability of our imagination, more important is keeping the imagination areal active.
While in the daily routine we are often distracted or have to rely on references, in personal works we can explore the shape recognition patterns of the brain.

Have you ever wondered how comics work?

Thats what visual imagination is all about: shape recognition. Even when you imagine pictures to a story, you visually recreate known images, places and faces. These are familiar. But these are boundaries. Shape recognition allows the brain to imagine things that are not there and not known, but depending on the appearance and the knowledge of the viewer, as possible. Training of this ability can bear a great learning potential.

An interesting practice option is to do sketches with only a candle light illuminating a room. While it isn´t only a romantic mood, as artist you can try to see shapes in a stack of clothes thrown over a chair for example, or even better the shadows these might cast.
Try this with different kind of fabrics or objects and sketch what you see.
In daylight its the easiest to see and force yourself to paint from clouds and trees.
Leafs on a tree show so many shapes you can easily be inspired to see faces or a complete scene.

Everyone and Dan Gerhartz recommends artists to always paint from life whenever possible, but this isn´t always possible, I recommend to paint from shape. Shapes are everywhere, shapes are your friend and so should imagination be your friend.

In an interview that I have read from H.R.Giger a while ago, I found it interesting that he used to spray kinda clouds with the airbrush onto the canvas and develops what he sees in them. Combined with his very own style a great approach, he constantly challenges his imagination with this method. A thing that would not be possible if H.R.Giger had painted from life.

If you are more computer savvy, maybe the solution I suggested at Gurneys blog maybe helpful: Alchemy is a sketch tool that can be useful to generate shapes to inspire artworks from.
In the forums of Alchemy I have seen a number of known artist names of the industry showing their approaches with this awesome tool.

This little program is totally free to use and on the website you find an introduction from Andrew Android Jones about the possibilities. You can set the tool to make snapshots of your experimentation every 5 seconds and later go through a generated pdf to fish for useful shapes. This is outstanding.

When I used this for a couple of days my "shape-recognition-areal" was better than ever. The sketching in the dark becomes even more potent when trained to see in patterns.
For the piece displayed on top of this post, I used some shapes with layer-blend-modes in Photoshop and added some elements here and there.

This is merely a sketch and absolutely experimental for me, but I love to explore new possibilities.
In an upcoming post I write about breeding ideas, and how to find your pace, keep follow my blog if this is interesting for you.

I really like to hear how you train your imagination?

An Artists Guide to Blogging, Fame and Fortune

2011-02-03T11:57:00.000-08:00

Why running a blog might be good for you
It can reveal something about the artist, that their work alone cannot communicate. Its something personal. Everyone has a very subjective perception. For example:"when I say artists, I mean people who paint great figurative paintings with impact". For someone else an artist smashes just paint onto a canvas to create abstract art.

Through a blog you gain more knowledge about the person behind the art and their goals, and its a matter of a few sentences to find out if there is a "same wavelength". Sure when you like the art of an artist, you don´t necessarily need to like the artist behind and vice versa. But in case you want hire an artist for a project this wavelength thing suddenly becomes more weight.

I have another post discussing this question:" artists, why do you blog?" and I´m still interested to hear my fellow artists reasons.

When I get asked why I do blog, my answer is simple; its my opportunity to share my passion in a personal manner. I want to help others. I want to make a difference.

In a perfect world....
... probably everyone should just do what they can best, a writer should write, an artist should paint a salesman should sell and a blogger should blog.

But, in our world, an artist has to be the blogger, copywriter, marketer, manager, salesman, creative director, designer, web-developer, programmer, entrepreneur, coach, psychotherapist, clerk...
you name it.
If any artist would ever get the financial compensation for all these jobs he has to do on a regular basis, no one ever would become a manager anymore:-)

What to blog
I have mentioned it before and will keep on posting this pointer until artists check the fact, that posting images without any words on a blog is plain useless.
People search blogs for help, advice, solutions and probably in a few percent, for inspiration.
As fast as a visitor views your images on your blog, so fast they are forgotten.

Bottom line is, that (except your name is Jason Chan) you will not stand out with just posting images on your blog, without any keywords connected to them. Or even without a bio at all.

Lets take this a step further; as curator or art director I have to chose between 20 artists who are blogging and showing a little of their works. I´m not sure if these are official blogs, because 19 of these artists just post shiny pictures with little to no description.
Just 1 artist writes articles and shares a creation process of their work, which one stands out? Which one of these makes it easy to be recognized as an original creator and not just as a re-poster of other peoples content?

You should blog,

If you are an artist and have developed a new technique, a blog is the perfect space to show the progress step by step. Or promote your workshop along with it.
If as illustrator you have developed a sophisticated artwork for a novel, a blog is the place to show a progress and describe it! Advertise it!
If you are an advisor or coach, a blog is the perfect solution for giving and receiving advice. And make use of content marketing besides.
As art director you can write about your side of the business and reveal case studies to interested parties, illustrators for example.

Continuity is a requirement, not an option

Continuity and quality are equally important. I always say its important to write only if you have something to say, otherwise people won´t listen when you really have something to say.

But continuity is a requirement, not an option. If you as artist are serious about your profession in creating new works, blogging is a great way to get the story out and told.

It took a long time for me to realize that I want to write more than just a journal or a press release here and then. Something that can help and inspire others at the same time. I found with this way of utilizing a blog I have still a lot to learn, but can give advice at the same time. Because I see a lot more artists at a stage where I have been a few years ago and they can develop their voice too, if they just want to.

For me communication through writing has become my daily bread and butter and I do enjoy it more than anytime before in my life. I just learned that writing or blogging the right way is similar to painting, if you are successful, you create a picture in the readers mind that connects you to the reader in a stronger manner than any image alone posted on a blog could ever do.

What has this all to do with fame and fortune?

Hm, probably this was a teaser, but if you are good at doing the blog thing, fame will be surely yours. And my definition of fortune is to make a living from what I do love the most, thats what I´m doing and I´m pretty sure when I can achieve it, someone else can do too.

Spectrum Call for Art: To Submit or Not To Submit, That is the Question...

2011-01-19T04:36:00.000-08:00

Recent poll about how artists prefer
digital over traditional submission processes.

Probably you´ve read about the reminder to participate in the Spectrum competition at James Gurneys blog or muddy colors and what Donato Giancola wrote there the other day.

FTP or snail mail, that is the question...

It has to be said ( for those not familiar with the book) it is the holy grail of fantastic contemporary art I´m touching here.
With this post, I dare to put the status quo into question, (which is part of my work as an artist), and want to debate if submitting to Spectrum is really worth the stress.

As artists its important to show your work to as many eyes as possible, a competition can be such an opportunity, but it also can be a waste of valuable time and money.

I mentioned in another blogpost that putting just images without tags or context sensitive keywords on a blog is nonsense, since search engines are blind and so its equally a waste of time participating in each and every competition.

If you want to stand out, be picky and better tell a story instead!

Why are book competitions like Ballistic Exposé, and Underwoods "Spectrum" to name just these two books, so popular, and what is it about anyways?

The reason artists should participate is simple; some of the competitions have a jury or judging panel that has decorated names in their list. Being seen by these judges alone is reason enough to participate. The entry fees can pay off without being included in the book either; when a juror asks you for a commission or put you on their specific whitelist of "artists-to-hire".

To think as artist you can benefit from being included in the book, by submitting once, is ridiculous.
To the disadvantages of the artists who doesn´t properly keyword and highlight their work, some art-directors prefer to search online for images or artists.
I cannot say how many decision makers buy these books, but I know that a lot artists do, however, to benefit from being published in a book like Exposé or Spectrum, you must be in it more than 5 times to be recognized at a certain level.

A lot artists buy artbooks, but do decision makers?

Sure the artist of today, can be the decision maker of tomorrow, and vice versa - its always important to keep that in mind. Although its better focusing on their story instead of plain publishing just for the sake of being published.

I can agree and understand what Donato said about it, from his point of view he is part of the book Spectrum like a brand, everyone loves his work and there is a decent pressure on the judging panel to include him. People expect it. My cutup here is not that always the same artists are in it, not only...
The general critique is that the submission process for the SPECTRUM competition is too uneasy to submit "just in time", that I can´t believe all the great artists from the world are really in the book.

$150 for no guarantee to be published?

A bargain, I know.
I have experienced that express shipping via UPS which still takes long to deliver overseas, plus the participation fee makes for 2 submission pieces a little expense of $150.
Some artists from Russia, China or somewhere more off like Australia may have easily twice the cost. For no guarantee to be in it!
If you multiply the number of artists who did submit once but then not anymore and how they have developed their work to be much better since their first submission, this judging fees and process isn´t just "not economic" it keeps the growth out of play.

If one even think about how much Co2 is wasted on the process to transport all the submissions via airmail... but I guess, THIS would go too far.

Randy Pausch said in his last lecture:" Walls in your life are there for a reason, those who really want something hard enough, will find a way through, the others just stop and turn."
The only thing that I would add to this wise quote is that you have to be absolutely sure you want through that specific wall, because you have to hit through it 5 times and more, if this conception comes uncomfortable to you, you better leave.

Be polite, be different and make decisions by yourself and stand behind these decisions

Another thing that a lot people forget is that Spectrum is a book and brand that was established when the internet was not so sophisticated as it is today, while Ballistic is a publisher that takes advantage of the sophisticated networking possibilities of today, they can afford to skip the entry fee.

What medium you use to reach your goal is absolutely unimportant. It will eventually open up different doors if you jump on the publishing / competition train but depending on what someone will achieve in the long run, it can lead to the same ultimate goal, sooner or later.

I do not need to justify my reasons why I am not part of Spectrum,
If the submission process will be more economic and environment -responsible someday, its possible that I can identify myself better with the book.

What are your reasons to submit or not to submit?

Who Put the "Pro" in Procrastination? Thoughts about Time-management for Artists.

2010-12-21T01:02:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of icanhascheezburger.com

I have to admit, I never was a procrastinator, in fact things always
couldn´t go faster for me, this is my nature, this is who I am, a restless full-time-entrepreneur with plenty of creativity.

I can say this now, but this self-awareness came after a long time of being reckless and forced to be "just average" through my parents, society, schools and the jobs I did.

In years when I worked on the assembly line and try to fit into the 8-to-5 job this restlessness made me ill, literally and physically. I had a hard time to become mentally calm and find my inner pace and balance.

Since 2 years now I work freelance and since 6 month now we have a daughter, and I have never been so busy and never been so calm at once, how is that?
This blog post is personal and the points below work for me, this doesn´t necessary mean they work for everyone. But chances are that you find something useful in it.

What is Time?
For me time is valuable, a precious gift that was given to me from my parents, it probably lasts the lifetime of an average human and is limited to just one. I embrace what I can do in this time and I´m thankful that I´m healthy enough to enjoy and share my time with like-minded people..

Quality Time or Waste?
I found that quality time is for every person something different, for me its time to be with the loved ones as also being with my artist self and create art for me or for others.
Since I started out freelancing its also that time I use to market, promote, share and everything else that is needed to get the word out about my passion. And so I enjoy interacting with fellow artists and clients.
Earlier in my life I had this feeling that 8 hours of my day were simply wasted. Now there are at least 12 hours a day that I enjoy.

Time-Thieves and Things that Seriously Steal your Time
There is something that I observed for quite a while and found no workaround except for keeping my eyes open all the time. For what you ask? For things or persons who steal time. Its obvious that we waste a lot of time on friends who we thought were friends but when we are in need they don´t care, the client who wants the best thing but won´t pay anything, technical things that always break, a car that only works half the time... you get the idea.
Its not only the time we waste on such things, but also a waste of emotional labor that would have been better applied to people around us who deserve it.
Call them vampires, they sit everywhere lurking and waiting for a victim to turn to. Just be no victim.

The Myth of Multitasking
You´ve heard of that myth that women can better multitask than men, its not true, at least not 100%.
If you have a hands-free-set, you can do a phone call and make household work or drive a car while doing so. You can also hear a useful E-book or a podcast while working on a computer instead of music this is both valuable and time-saving. OK, reading and listening to your wife can still cause issues, so I wouldn´t take responsibility for any harms through that one.

Online = Procrastination?
No not really, at least for me.
I sure use twitter and facebook and this blog, but I see updating these as a gift and duty to give the community something back. A contribution if you want so.
Sure, if you have a deadline approaching and feel tied to twitter or play games instead, than it can be a serious problem, one that should be solved before it is too late.

The TIA -"Think-In-Advance" Approach
I use to be a pragmatic all my time, so it comes naturally for me to think in advance whenever I have to go my route or one way. Taking the used coffee-mug, the empty water bottle and the laptop down into the kitchen after waking up, to fill the dishwasher, the bag for empty bottles and to read my news after that., then, time is saved and its simple as that. Multiply these over 5 times a day, a week, a month and a year, you can guess how much time can be saved for important things.

Here is a list of everyday things I can do to save a little time for important things:

First of all: learn to set priorities, otherwise the fancy stuff listed below isn´t going to work

Make use of the Pareto-principle

If you can´t solve a problem at first, get away from it, and use the "anger-time" for something useful, get back to it at a later time with a fresh pair of eyes and mindset.

Try to get the right friends, clients, roommates, partners, etc it saves a huge amount of time.

Get the right mindset, that helps you turn down the lizard-brain and achieve your goals.

Learn about the GTD -(Get Things Done) method

Think (not plan!) eventualities ahead as far as possible, for the next hour, for the next day

Write sticky notes and don´t read them, do the things so you can throw the notes away after the "things-are-done"
Do multitasking, wherever possible and whenever no quality or security has to suffer through it

Avoid time-thieves, bloodsuckers, vampires and time-robbing things that break all the time, buy stuff that works, not breaks, even if its more expensive, it will save you time.

Don´t drive faster, plan ahead and take the fastest route instead.

Keep your mail-inbox clean, make use of the GTD -method and use a mailprogram that supports smart inbox -handling like Gmail for example

Don´t work just hard, work smart and put emotional labor in what you do.

Don´t do everything alone, learn to delegate and to outsource tasks you can assign to someone else

Don´t procrastinate and thrash yourself at the end of a project, do it in advance or at the beginning

Find a job that is fun to do and you never have to work a single day in your life (quoted)

Be rather active than passive (limit television for example) a passive lifestyle is counterproductive and unhealthy too

Shop online if the city is crowded and parking a horror

Eliminate distractions

Be patient and forget about sent letters, this is the key to stay calm while doing all the things above

Below you find some valuable sources about time-mangement for freelancers, I highly recommend also the video from Randy Pausch about time-management, I promise these are the best spent 70 minutes about that topic ever.

http://freelancefolder.com/how-to-get-more-work-done-in-less-time/

http://freelanceswitch.com/productivity/10-ways-to-eliminate-distractions/

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/how-to-multitask.html

http://lifehacker.com/398049/get-productive-with-social-media-and-stay-sane

http://workawesome.com/productivity/the-8020-rule-revisited/

Other than that, this is part of my "end-of-the-year" reflection and I´m astounded how much I´ve achieved throughout this year, so this post is rather a note to myself.

Feel free to comment if you have any additional suggestions or share your own experience about that topic.
What is time for you, or how do you solve problems regarding work, freelancing and time?

For this is my last post in 2010 I wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

15+ Great Portfolio Services for Artists and Illustrators

2010-11-11T05:17:00.000-08:00

A great portfolio can be an enlightenment to the viewer!

Most established illustrators and graphic designers know exactly how important it is to cultivate an up-to-date portfolio.

CG-artists, digital painter or designers who have their work available as a digital file but not the time to built a sophisticated gallery page just want to keep work up to be seen.

So the need for a ready-to-use customizable portfolio page which serves as a fitting frame to existing artwork is steadily growing, but where to go?

There are different venues and leagues where you can play, so if you are new to the arts, CG-art, illustration or design business, this post might be of interest for you.

As artist you might think a blog is all you need, but this is only 50% of the truth the other 50% is : it´s all about presentation!

Most people think of a portfolio as something static, like a website and believe in terms of SEO that a dynamic content site like a blog is much better and easier to maintain, but let me show you in this post why this is not the case.

If you have a blog you need to maintain it, and you need to write, in fact you have to write a lot.
When I scroll down through my huge feed of blogs, I see many artists post just images with less to no words of a description.

In terms of SEO this is just like putting a blind man in front of a television. A search engine cannot view pictures by god´s sake, so please do yourself a favor and at least describe in a few sentences what "a blind man would see".

Try to see a blog like a stage: Compare it to a concert and ask yourself which concert has left the most impact on you, the one show that was just brilliant but with little to no personality from the artist, or the one that was not big and technically imperfect, but with that absolutely personality that spread from the stage across the room (that also made you think about it, even years after)

A portfolio on the other hand is a page that you forward to potential clients and where a short bio describes to that special art-director or curator why they should work with you. Period.

There is often a big misunderstanding about what a portfolio is; some artist use it as a website, some throw in all of their work, some don´t update it and some just don´t need it at all.

My suggestion is:
If you want to keep online time under 3 hrs a week then just setup a blog with "written" updates and sketches or finished works once a week and put together one or two portfolios to link from that blog. This way you have dynamic content in a growing and searchable site and a portfolio that people can forward or have a fast overview about the body of work.

Here is a short guideline what a portfolio is, because we all love bullet posts:

A portfolio should reflect only your best works, think of it like a chain: the weakest piece breaks it all.
A portfolio is something to target a specific audience,
different audience = different portfolio
A portfolio is not a website or homepage where you post holiday or party pictures
A portfolio is always up to date and reflects current works that represent consistently your quality and style
A portfolio should consist of a maximum of 15-20 works (per gallery) and galleries should be limited

Always keep in mind that a director or curator has just a few seconds up to a minute in which he/she needs to get that "first impression that counts".

In most cases its also a matter of minutes to setup a portfolio service site, assuming you have all images, text and profile pictures at hand.

Here is a quick overview of different portfolio types :
Its important to know what types are out there, so that depending on budget the time invested don´t lead to a disapointment.

Free Portfolio services
Pro: Free Contra: Advertising, No promotion at all, No personal setup service, No SEO, Tied to subdomain, sometimes invite only or beta test mode
Paid Portfolio services ( $30 - $90 per year)
Pro: No advertising, affordable, often combined with network promotion, SEO Contra: Tied to subdomain (often) No personal setup service, No personal promotion
Premium paid portfolio service ( $99 - $650+ per year )
Pro: No advertising, Personal setup service and promotional plan, Not bound to subdomain, SEO Contra: Expensive

Note: I´m not talking about homepages, or webdesign, wordpress themes or anything like that, there are a lot tips and tricks out there for these kind of portfolio utilization.
I just gathered my personal experience from over the past 5 years and put it into this post, in the hope someone might find it helpful .

Free of charge portfolio services | category #1:

Glossom:

Quite recently (after I posted this blogpost) I got an invite to Glossom, a very new service (AFAIK) and I have to say its a very intuitive way of managing a portfolio, with very sophisiticated showcase options (such as different size of thumbnails), for a free service I´m very impressed! The uploading can also be done through flickr and other services. Its recommanded to check this service out, its possible that they´ll get costly in a year or two.

Carbonmade:

Carbonmade is a free service with no advertising (AFAIK), no html knowledge required, tagging possible, but it has limitations; users can only upload 5 projects and 35 images to a free account, definitly something for a quick and clean setup.

béhance.net

béhance is rather a network of creatives and has its advantages, but is invite only and powered by advertising, but if used right it can be utilized and personalized as a great portfolio. Think of it as a profile and portfolio page on the creative-freeway. It makes sense to utilize such networks since searches on the whole site can lead towards your page.

Artician.com

Artician is similar to béhance but without invite and has an "import-from-deviantArt-feature" which is quite a timesaver, its fully customizable even with CSS hence usable as a portfolio page, but it has advertising. The history of artician was a different approach, they started out as an invite-only site and changed to a good deviantArt alternative.

CGArena

A bit more specified towards CG-art, similar to CGhub but more neutral, possibility of feature promotion, also advertising and no customization except for a banner header.

CGHub.com

A site for professionals in the CG -industry and the profile pages can be used as a portfolio page, works similar to béhance and CGPortfolio. But there is also advertising and you can see the presence of the community-site on every page.

World top designers

This site is relatively new, the registration application and submissions need to be approved by a staff member, the site itself is content -edited which makes it a nice resource for art-directors and the likes. The layout is pleasing on the eyes and there is only little advertising and a fast setup process.

Paid services that are affordable | Category #2

Ononano

Recommended! Ononano.com did a great job with personal service at such low cost and the setup of this comprehensive portfolio with css and logo customization took just one day. Benefits are: it looks just like I wanted it too, and no advertising at all. A growing list of templates to chose from makes it easy to find something that goes well with the art and makes it complementary to any existing website or blog. (This specific layout does cost $30 per year)

deviantArt portfolio

The service from deviantart. com has some nice features, you can have more than one portfolio, no advertising, entry page, however the site has just a few fixed layout variants with some cusotmization features and it takes some time to go through the setup process but its definitely worth the premium membership that cost around $30.

CGPortfolio

Paid membership in the CGSociety include unlimited number of images to upload and customizable header banner and the ability to have animation hosting also the inclusion of books represented on the left panel is a valuable showcase (only in case you are published in ballistic books of course) If one makes use of the blog its a very nice homepage-replacement next right to the CG-art-freeway.

Portfoliopool

Portfoliopool is a relatively new site and still in development but has all in all nice features, the pricing is depending of number of images one want to display, up to $75 per year, not that much customizable.

Artlimited

Artlimited has a free feature, as also lot options for a paid service, which includes highly customizable layouts for a fee of $50 per year, which is reasonable. The site is more targeting at photography and fine arts, preferably in the square or 6X7 format. Works meeting their criteria are likely to be featured regardless if premium member or not.

Premium portfolio services | Category #3

Altpick.com

Altpick is similar to theispot.com but less expensive, has a focus on a magazine / editorial related target audience and the startpage resembles that quite clear. Pluspoints are awards, curated member features and online promotion. Standard listing account is free but limited to one picture only. Premium account is $99 a year which is still affordable if you are serious.

Dripbook

Dripbook is a different kind of portfolio, making a projects appear like a book through which a user can browse or flip. This service can cost up to $350 per year for the premium membership. Online promotion and no advertising plus highly customizable portfolio pages make it an interesting alternative.

Creativeshake

Semi-premium to premium service. Its possible to shose between 3 different types, the most expensive one "platinum" is about $588 per year with the most amount of images to add and a bigger listing in the directory, keyword refinement and personal service included, the quickfinder is something notable about the site.

As free listing only 5 images are shown, similar to CGPortfolio.
TheIspot

Theispot is definitely premium when it comes to pricing, with a setback of $650 + $100 setup fee you are in, red carpet included.

I have no experience with them so I cannot tell much about the service, but I know they promote a lot via social media and I guess the concept behind connects serious reps or agencies with the needed talent via the website, directory and daily features.
It can pay off if you get one commission through the site, but depending on the style this can take longer than one year. Had made this experience myself with creativeshake, so take this just as a word of advice.

Conclusion:
Finding the right place to showcase a portfolio is a long process and consists of "trial and error", if you accept portfolio -refinement as a neccessary part of the job and learn to have fun doing it, you are on the sunny side.

In general there are a few things that more or less are accessible in most of these service sites and that a paid service should ultimately have to be considered:

Analytics and page statistics
customizable layouts
different folders for differnt projects
personalized page adress (yourname.ourpage.com)

If you have more intersting links that fit into this direction and are the "place to be" in your opinion, let me know! Always remember: sharing is caring.

Useful resources:
Illustration Island (EFII) recently had a topic about fine tuning the portfolio, which is definitely a recommanded read.

ArtOrder has a great series of articles answering questions on "what to put into your portfolio" most interesting for fantasy and sci-fi illustrators.

Freelancefolder and FreelanceSwitch have vast number of articles about this topic.

What else is there?
Besides these more or less time-consuming setups, there is a growing number of sites that enable you to just submit one or two images into a pool of many free of charge, I´m not sure in which regard the artist is benefitting out of that concept, except you have a very own high-profile page in the end like coolshowcase has. Freshcharacters allows users to upload works without registration and illustrationmundo allows illlustrators to setup a mini- representation profile.

Complete the list:
Before you complain why this or that service isn´t listed, please read carefully, this post is a result of my personal experiences with portfolio pages and services over the past 5 years.

If you can share in a comment your experience with one of the above or another service, this would be highly appreciated and a great addition to this topic.

Is Artmarketing an Oxymoron?

2010-10-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

I´d say no, but well, I can only speak about my story here, maybe about applied and commissioned arts but not about the beast that is called the "art-market" on which I don´t really waste a thought at the moment.

Art should have a value and a message, but it should still be affordable and tangible, empiric perceptible at its best.

Let´s face the reality; most people not familiar with an artists-life, do associate "artists" with dead painters whose works are sold for millions of Dollars between Museum´s, Galleries and Millionaire collection. Everyone who doesn´t fit in there is a starving artist, who´d be better making something else for an income.
Most people, even some artists, don´t even know the today´s options of making a living from their art.

In the 20 month of working fulltime as illustrator and artist, reading and contemplating about the meaning of marketing was good, but it was even better to apply what I have learned directly!

I see marketing as a part of my job and this essentially pays off!
As artist I tend to act and behave like a company, while being 5 professionals in one person (salesman, marketing expert, artist, designer, clerk, etc) ain´t always easy.

It´s crucial as an artist to recognize how important this commercial aspect of your career actually is. It helped me to get more joy out of marketing, which used to be merely a ball and chain back in the days when I had a day job. Its crazy how much perception can change if you understand how things work. Observing the art-business from the view of a company helps.

Luckily we live in times where everything can be learned via YouTube, blogs, tutorials, tele-summits and symposiums or even through newsletters that allow everyone who wants to achieve a goal find the perfect method of learning their desired stuff. As nice as painting and learning new techniques might be, be sure that marketing is on your to-do-list to study everyday!

What ultimately helped me better my marketing skills, and find out deficits, was to make a list:

What can I do ?
What can I do but need to get better at?
Where do I have deficits ?
Where do I need to ask or hire a professional ?

Its important to find out what I can do and where the limit are, for example: I´m better at writing (Email communication), online promotion, updating portfolios, blogs, website, design, but I´m not strong with phone calls especially first time calls, speaking in front of an audience is also something I tend to ask a professional for (if possible).

The next step is to define the target market through observation and statistics, finding a niche and a way to penetrate that market; for example: locally and regionally the demand for original art is low and more often than not, the territory of established artists. So I followed the path which Gottfried Helnwein took, going international, with licensing art and illustrations for covers on mainstream media and doing the fine arts to provoke with bold messages besides, is something suitable to my time management and possibilities as well.
Also I focused more on digital creations; since for publishing and promoting online, it not only saves time, its easier for revisions and sharing files with agencies, authors and publishers = more time for family and personal art projects.

Currently my time-management-schedule looks like this:

40% Commercial commissions (licensing, book covers, etc.)
25% Private art commissions (characters, portraiture)
20% Promotion (blogs, community, portfolio updates, social networking)
15% Personal art projects and sales (and physical exhibition of these)

Sure, if in 5 years exhibition possibilities expand and the demand for my personal art increases around 10-20%, I wouldn´t bother, but change the focus, so far I embrace the mix of challenges and projects, it´s what satisfies me the most.
Essentially what helped me (and still does) to get better at online-marketing are these guys from my twitter marketing list, which I highly recommend to read through! Feel free to suggest some in the comments that I might have forgotten or simply didn´t know yet!

Additionally there are some nice posts on ArtOrder (here, here and here) about marketing ideas for artists and illustrators, Freelanceswitch and Artmarketingsecrets have some interesting stuff about that matter too.

Being good at painting, sculpting and being full time -creative is one thing, but putting the name out there, so that interested and searching parties get a hold of you is the crucial part. Getting to know your clients and the market is the key that decides if you have success in your niche or if you are forced to resign or change the path.

Time management helps you to reach these goals and define the importance of things, I also highly recommend the 70-minutes lecture about time-management by Randy Pausch here.

Artists, why do you blog?

2010-09-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

While following many blogs, including a lot creatives lately, I find it stunning that many artists post vast amount of artworks, but tend to write very little in addition to them, in terms of description.

This is not a bother but this observation makes me wonder and question, how or what people think make their blog interesting?
This behaviour always remind me on the following surreal scenario; Imagine this: An art-directors or curators office; the door opens, a strange person went in, throws a pile of artworks on the desk and then leaves the room without talking any word, period.

Sure an image can speak more than thousand words, but if an image has such impact, its even more delightful to get hold of the creator and his thoughts!

For the above mentioned kind of posting artworks there are platforms like posterous and tumblr. But I follow blogs because I want to gain information's about the author and artists behind the work, in combination with the art, commonly referred to as content, which in return makes consuming blogs worthwhile, IMHO.

I have some principles why and when I write my blog entries, first rule is:"write only when you have something to say, not just for the sake of posting." the other reason is that I work a lot through Email contact and I find maintaining a blog with my personal flavor attached to, is the least thing I can do on my end for interested parties to get to know me before getting in touch.

Another important point many artists do miss when just updating blogs with their illustrations or artworks, is that images need to be tagged, or be in context of keywords in order to get found. Not a big deal if you have 100k readers but if not, the most readers stumble about your blog via search engines or referrals. Think about it.

By writing all this, I have not added any obvious keywords about the image above, but that is not as much important as attaching a profile to it in this place. But for someone interested, the description about, and the artwork attached, can be found here. Print available here.

Artists, please think about the platforms you utilize and use to share and present your works, any links to new services are welcome too!

The Difference Between Inspiration and Influence

2010-09-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

Not just recently I was confronted with the subject of inspiration or influence and besides determining it for the video tutorial in which I shortly wrote something about that matter, I also wanted to get closer to the specific differences, or better said: what is the difference between inspiration, influence or even a copy?

OK, simply put, I don´t think there is much to say about copy in terms of artistic expression, copy means copy, copying something existing either for the purpose of learning or stealing for whatever else reason but the result will never be something original.

The difference between inspiration and influence is far more difficult;
I will not cite Wikipedia here, I´d rather share my own view about that matter and invite you to discuss in the comment section.

I see inspiration as something that can´t be grabbed, a holy grail if you´ll call it so, the untouchable artistic spirit also referred to as muse, if you watch the video tutorial on dtuts.com or the image to the above -right, one can see some inspirations from Clive Barker, the band Tool, The movie Pan´s Labyrinth and Brom.
These are indeed inspirations, but not necessarily influences, they have rather fleetingly had a remark on the development and the desired outcome.

For those of you interested in the process of the image, the video below is a teaser cut to roughly 5 minutes that you could spend while reading the rest. I´d appreciate if you will head towards the full length and of course free video tutorial here

I think there is nothing wrong with "being inspired" or "being influenced", in fact the opposite is true. Sometimes it makes it easier for art-buyer, other artists or just interested parties, friends or co-workers where you as an artist come from.
But I´d like to differentiate between these two terms very strong, because influence can be a bitch if you´re as artist too much in love with another artists work, yes even the reason that you started to paint like a maniac, the result is a one sided and very easy to recognize style, that will put you in a drawer sooner or later. I was in that trap in very early years and it took a long time until I found out how to fix that: with inspiration.

"If it were about chemicals, I´d describe influence as toxic and inspiration ephemeral."

Inspiration can be everything, a model pose, a wonderful song, a commercial, watching leafs on a tree, you name it. But influence is in an artists case almost comparable to a stamp, like an exquisite evening at the discotheque for example, however the stamp cannot be removed that easily and its also that important to know where you are coming from and heading towards as an artist.

Because that way you can leave the path, tryout things and come back to the roots at every time, but its definitely important to not just copy or learn from one person alone, exactly as it is in school to have different teachers who have different approaches in teaching things.

To the left I have put my "influence-map" on deviantArt you can find in the artist-description something more relevant info´s about each artist in detail, while these are my roots, inspiration can take over and help me explore absolutely new paths and ways to redefine whats possible.

These are also just artistic influences, music and writing are nice too, but people behind all that and in general have an even bigger effect. I´d say even quotes have a big influence, well at least they help to keep the head up in tough times.

When it comes to mind-popping quotes or making the brain-bend, I highly suggest some inspiring words from Oscar Wilde, Bruce Lee, Steven Wright and Randy Pausch, below I´ll just post some that I find very thought-provoking.

There are for sure others that might be inspiring, please feel welcome to share your favorites as well! What quotes or authors would you put in big letters on your desktop wall?

Oscar Wilde: "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative!"

Bruce Lee: "If you are being in critique, you have done something right, a player will only attack another one who has the ball."

Steven Wright:

“To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.”

Randy Pausch:

"You’ve got to get the fundamentals down because otherwise the fancy stuff isn’t going to work."

If you have a look on deviantArt searching for "influence map" you´ll find a lot visual input and its clear that not one artist is without influence, it just depends if you "stick to your roots" or if you "branch out and explore", what type are you? I think I´m a little bit of both.

The Cover that Should not be, how to Deal with Rejected Cover Illustrations

2010-08-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

It happens to every illustrator, photographer or designer who is working for hire, but you´ll not find many who talk about that "dark -side" of the business very much.

Duncan Long has put it into the right words about the "death by committee" in this specific publishing industry. Maria Brophy has put the general illusion of rejection together into a blog - a recommended read.

It seriously has it advantages to have independent Authors who know what they want.

The problem most creative in this industry are facing is not a fickle temper of some art-directors or the editors, its the committee and/or conferences, mostly consisting of salesmen: "those-who-know-what-works-and-what-not-because-of-the-numbers"

I was working on this cover for a German edition of Mike Resnick´s Stalking the Unicorn (Jäger des gestohlenen Einhorns) and it usually would remain in the nearly empty drawer of rejected works, but this one was different. The only given guideline was a "not-so-busy" version of the original cover created by no less than Dan Dos Santos, huh!

Something told me this will be a very nice work, me was given a great deal of freedom since no one, even the publisher didn´t knew what they wanted, ( actually this is a very bad sign) but however, I decided to finalize it with my own personal vision and also with the motivation to add this different "spec-work" to my portfolio, and wanted to put it up here into my series of "Book-cover- walkthrough´s" for those interested to see.

The left one was an initial pencil sketch, a rather Graphical approach, which should give the Agency more space for playing with colors and typo.
The right one, was done after the first round of feedback a perspectively digital sketch of the idea, since the editor liked the idea of the unicorn to be a neon-sign, which was, all-in-all, approved.

Based on the approved sketch, I did a colored one, the palette above is basically everything I used to achieve this mood. I work with 70% color on a new layer for each object, usually I group foreground, middle ground and background for later editing and changes.

Since the Editor didn´t like the Zombie-Gorilla with his umbrella *sniff*, since it would be too comic-like, I rather think of Japanese humor or English trash, but anyways, I left that funny detail out in the further work.

It appeared that some characteristics of the protagonist and some architectural details in the background needed to be adjusted, so that was in this version, but still some details are wrong, if you compare the different versions, you see what I have changed.

Here I added more details to the Newspaper, fur of the Gorilla, the hat and the trench coat, some effect on the lighting and corrected the perspective of the street-view.

The word Roman should be display of the genre also, which is a nice idea, in this pre-final version I rendered out the face more realistic and added also more detail and light to it, while keeping the characteristics. But on a second look, the head is still to low which makes his appearance look wrong somehow.

After I got the message of it being not used, I put another hour of work into it, to add the umbrella to the gorilla which I liked so much in the sketch, set the head higher and added the rain to achieve a more dramatically, even "bladerunner-mood" effect. All in all, this illustration does resemble the ingredients of the original cover, without being so busy but still teasing, in my opinion.

To come back to the Headline:
How to Deal with Rejected Artworks, in General?

First thing is to not get angry about it, in most cases the artworks are great and the AD´s are happy, but one of the deciders may have a bad day, which makes your day bad as well;-)

Well, you´re basically free to do with your work as you please.
In my case I add them to my "Art-archive" for Art-buyers to see. And if I´m really happy with them, I post something like this in my blog. Besides that, there are a lot of options, making prints, postcards or merch products, if you can identify with the work, or making a tutorial for a Magazine (payed) are the most useful actions.

But I´m also curious to hear other possibilities or stories, where turned down art shines in a new positive way.

Thoughts about Spec Work and Crowdsourcing

2010-08-14T01:41:00.000-07:00

First off: this is my personal view about this matter, and its mainly focused on the creative field -art, illustration and design!

Yesterday I got that tweet from TheIspot, via @andrewhyde who had a blog posted about his view on spec-work, which was very specific and as a statement of fight against "bad-spec-work" IMHO justified in its own right.
But I felt there was something missing, the good side of things - which made me think about a response post- or sort of.

Some basic definitions first:
It appears that often crowdsourcing and spec-work are mixed up, I´m especially afraid how many designers are mistaken by these wrong misinterpretations.

Crowdsourcing:
...is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to a large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call. source: Wikipedia

Spec work:
“Spec” has become the short form for any work done on a speculative basis. In other words, any requested work for which a fair and reasonable fee has not been agreed upon, preferably in writing. source: no!spec

When Jonathan Zittrain explains crowdsourcing as part of this video on youtube it sounds even very useful; websites through which thousands of people connect to playfully find solutions to mathematical or even economical problems. My opinion about crowdsourcing is: as long as it serves the general public, its all fine.

My thoughts about spec-work are a little complex, mostly because i tend to separate good spec from bad -spec:

Bad Spec is the above mentioned, an exploitation of creative talent to get a custom made work done to primarily achieve commercial success in a pitch situation (for example)

Good Spec is doing the pitch yourself, which means:

Personal work: Artists are at the beginning of our career their own patrons, this means creative freedom and play of imagination, publishing or showing this to the right recipients, this output can appeal to interesting projects and lead to a possibly successful career.

Contests / competitions: this is a tricky one and it requires a keen eye to find out what is a serious contest in the mass of opportunities today . Its also important to do the guesswork about the time -input and what can be gained, if this is not equally 50/50 (speculative) , than its not worth entering in my opinion.

Collaboration: A collaboration with other artists, is mostly fun, but can be also considered spec, because every time we try new things out , just for fun, a new trend, new styles can be shaped -which can result in request for more work, think about it!

Advertising: Every time you update your portfolio, submit a new piece on your website, post a link to or from facebook, doing interviews, displaying your work to the public in a mag, or web portal - this is also spec work -ever considered how much unpaid time it consumes to do all these things? In the tax computation- this is called "promotion".

There are a lot other kinds of spec-work situations that one might even not have thought about, but exist:

Financial spec: Do you knew how many from your money on the bank is used for speculations on stocks by the bank itself, and do they ask you for permission, huh?

All in all, I will sum this up with this last sentence:

If your project is important enough to hire a professional who will take care and the time to understand YOUR situation and invest the time needed to create a suitable solution, then any professional is definitely worth their money regardless if that is a photographer, designer, illustrator, or a motor-mechanic.

The Essence of Daedalus Rimes - Two Minds are Better than One

2010-07-20T02:04:00.000-07:00

When I was asked by H.W. Lewis get the
permission for S.t.i.l.l.i.f.e. resurrection
piece as a Cover for his second book, I had no clue what its all about.

(half plaster sculpture and photomanipulation, special credits to suzi9mm)

But since he is the Author and not an Agent (whose job it is to hunt for images) I found out and felt honored that Howard is a fan of my work. Publishing a book as independent Author is a very difficult task and every step needs to be contemplated and considered carefully, I´m glad we came together to realize this project, and hopefully there will be more sculptures that find a way onto the book-shelves.

He was so nice to send me a copy of his first book to get me an account of his story, or rather the story of "Daedalus Rimes".

At this point I have to say that I am not a big reader at all, and this is just a personal review (for making book covers a short briefing is usually the only bit of information's I get about a project) additionally my mother tongue is German and therefore I had to get into the foreign language of the book first, which is a more demanding task than just reading or writing "everyday- comments or mails"

After I got past the first pages I had the impression of a blockbuster going on in my head, very visually and emotionally communicated! I can say the first book is not only a refreshing change to typical sci-fi, or what you expect from it, its a wonderful and great debut!
And once you think you´d know a bit more about the protagonist T.e.e.l.a. this Character captivates the reader in a way that cannot be compared to anything, at least to what I´ve seen or read, I can only say so much: two minds are better than one

Without a doubt the book will raise thoughts about our life on earth from a point of view that makes you think really different about the human race *a shiver runs down my spine*.

However, I´m a fan of technology, especially alien technology and crossings of humans with ..whatever... which I always explore in my personal, artistic experiments, (like my trans genetic metahumans reflect quite good:) So if you, in a slightest way, share this fascination, this book is for you.

What most fascinated me is the way Howard describes the characters and specifies habits or circumstances in a familiar manner, without wasting precious space or interrupting the tension, both books are page-turners that will satisfy.

There are some comments about the first book at AMAZON here and after I read them, I can only relate and second every comment about the book, my only addition is that I wish Roland Emmerich would make a movie out of this book, and Independence day would turn pale.

I had a hard time deciding whether I should write about the story here, but this blog is not about reviews of books, thats the job or hobby of others, occasionally when I´m moved by something (especially when my work is involved) its possible that it will find an outlet here.

I will not post spoilers here, simply to avoid cut and dried opinions.

Build your own opinions and discuss!

10 Reasons why working on a Mac Sucks for Creatives (Bigtime)

2010-07-12T23:53:00.000-07:00

MAC vs. PC, this discussion will never end, but the times have changed: when Apple/Macintosh started out about 30 years ago, their main focus were creative, nowadays the graphic designers and illustrators are served by Adobe, and Apple can focus on the mainstream -end user.

Why should I bother? Lets say I had an experience the last couple of weeks and need to share it:
Recently my 4 year old PC left me with a dead main board, and I thought its time for a new one,
The big question arises always then: Mac or PC, but after working on finishing some commissions on a 2009 Macbook Pro from my spouse with the GeForce 9500M card and an external Monitor, I got to know what a royal pain in the *** is;-)

(I end up building a custom i7 920, compared to my 2 Ghz macbook the picture above describes the differences very well:) I link this image here in the thinking of fair use and I don´t know from whom it originally is, let me know and I´ll credit!

Statement:
My observations and OS-comparisons grew over the years and its time for me to share this, but please respect that this is only my view, I write about the OSX here as WORKING -platform for mainly graphical design and digital imaging.
In no case I´ll offend someone, if you will, you can call this my public wishlist to Steve Jobs in the hope that the products and especially the OS will get better someday;-)

If you are a proud Mac user you should avoid reading this, it could cause anger and frustration, I will not be responsible for any thrown away Mac´s

Reason 1:

The task bar contains all menu options

OK, for Mac natives on a 13" display and use of single monitor work, its saving space,
but dual -monitor -work is a pain, because of the next reason:

Reason 2:

The task bar cannot be moved to another monitor

If you are used to WINDOWS, its naturally that you want to drag and drop the taskbar wherever you want it to save space, especially if you have Photoshop opened on the big-screen and have to search menu-options on the other smaller screen... fail! @ceoSteve_Jobs

Reason 3:

No database import, no files

I don´t know if this is because of the underlying MACH Architecture of OSX, this essential function is missing and apple sells this missing function with an extra program that is needed in order to get your images listed, tagged and whatsoever through libraries. In fact; whatever you want to use, itunes, iphoto, iweb, it all depends on libraries -want to connect a huge external device and search a file instantly? No way, it needs to be imported to your favorite software to be found in iweb for example or you have the big fun in Finder...

Reason 4:

The Finder sucks

No customization options like tabs or viewing pane plugins..., no essential database and indicating options, nothing useful in this tool. If you want open a file from within Photoshop for example, browsing to your folder of choice (if its not a recently used one) is a royal pain.
Someone like me who knows what the explorer is capable of appreciates the speed the new i7 processors browse and search with ease through folders with 1000 of images without a lag and database need (!) regardless if on the local folder or external storage.

Reason 5:

iWeb produces too much useless code

I know, every WYSIWYG-editor produces a waste of code, but from a list of ten I bet Iweb is near place one, I use it because its ease of use and because its built in and integrates nice with the OS, but buying dreamweaver instead the Macbook would have been the less expensive choice. Also: iweb ftp functions still not properly working in ilife 09

I know there are possibly some useful updates, but the one i waited for in ilife 09 was the alternative to directly publish to an ftp, especially because Apple promised this feature would work, now, a year later it still doesn´t work= fail!

Reason 6:
Mac is more stable than a Windows -PC
Every Windows user had experienced it, a crash, a bluescreen, a blackscreen, and every Windows user thinks, the Mac users do have it better, no crashes, perfect designed hardware that fits all qualification for a long, stable Mac-life...wrong!
I experienced both, and since Windows XP and Windows 7 the OS on a PC hardware are extremely stable today, sure malware is an issue, but google this for MAC and you be sure to find updates that Mac´s aren´t that safe as they were in the nineties with only a handful of viruses, malware can also affect Mac-users, welcome to reality;-)
I also have a Macbook and sometimes use the Macbook Pro from my spouse and its safe to say, the Mac hangs as often as a PC, if not even more, freeing up resources would might help to avoid this, but Apple rather choose to complain about FLASH than to reduce resource waste on their machines, that would allow problem-free watching of youtube videos for example.

Reason 7:
Too much distraction from colorful icons and a dock that can´t be disabled
Its true, until OSX 10 the OS was capable of working without being distracted, the main surface was grey beneath a greyer grey, when Apple discovered the colors it has to become clear to every creative that their intention and market has changed.
When everyone moaned that Windows was too full of blingbling in the early 2000, now its OSX 10.5/6
As a special point here I wanted to show the problem of disabling the dock, there is no function to disable this feature, why do I need a zooming Icon that pops up if I want to run a program or open a folder? - Big fail!

Reason 8:

Fully Photoshop power only under 64bit OSX Snow-Leopard?

Yes its true, even if CS 4 is not based under Rosetta anymore, its a shame all CS- versions before were all setup on a virtualization kernel, that allowed the user to wait 40 % longer for any process to run. Now the 64bit capability of OSX 10.6 and the new Photoshop CS5 allows full range support of the 64bit that Apple offers, the downside, it starts to be fun above 4 GB RAM, so if you are on a Macbook, Macbook Pro, or iMac, you´ll probably not enjoy the benefits of 64bit Operating systems, invest some 3-4000 bucks on a MacPro and you can have some fun with at least 8-12 GB RAM;-)

Reason 9:
The Mac always runs on half the power it has in order to run silent
This is also true and can be easily tested on your device in hot summerdays with above 30° in your room. The "all-in-one" built MAC´s are designed to work silently, to work silently the processor should not get hot, to not get hot it needs to NOT operate with high usage, the solution to this is design the machines with full hardware and let the user feel that its better to not use the full power if they won´t hear the sound of a raging fan! This is also a good shopping advice: if you want to work in photoshop for example, buy a macbook pro, with 3,3 quadcore, 8GB RAM and an SSD-drive and at least a GeForce GTX260+ to have fun and silence...Ah wait that doesn´t exist? OH, the irony...

Reason 10:

Clicking on the desktop hides your current program

I know there is a workaround for this and gladly in Photoshop there is an option for this in "View", but when you are used to open files from the desktop and drag them into an opened Photoshop window on another screen, its nice if that program doesn´t hide at the moment you click on the desktop, isnt´it?

There is for sure plenty of more reasons, but for now and "just" a blog-post should help to make me feel better when I share this experience, and eventually make others aware that not everything is gold that shines.

I surely will turn some "Stockholm Syndrome Apple Users" away who will not accept these facts, but having this experience for nearly 2 and a half year now, its safe to say I will never switch completely to a Mac.
If you are in the process of buying a Mac or want some insights, here is also a nice site that makes you aware of the usual apple defects.

There are also other Mac´s that don´t deserve to switch on if you have to "get work done"
(since I mostly complain about the OS in the list:)

The iMac lacks modular hardware update operability, for everything hardware related you need to call the techy, and work is not getting done in this time, except you have another machine = expensive.

The Mac Pro is still too expensive, the Xeon Processors are competing with the i7 in one high-end -league on Passmarks benchmark page, so with all the warranty extensions you want to save your expensive baby, in 3 years its old and needs to be updated (or apple wants you to replace it with a shiny new one) I have calculated that even with 3 years warranty and on location parts exchange service I can buy 3 High-end up to date PC´s to fill a working range of 9 years, way to go Apple...

The iPad is still missing the essentials: USB- and pressure sensitive stylus support.

Website Meme

2010-06-21T17:11:00.000-07:00

Recently I redesigned my website fitting to this blog-layout and colors.
Then I thought it might be time for a recap of the evolution of "fantasio.info"

Funny thing is that the picture below was a long time my under-construction sign from around 2002-2003 or so. Funny to read that today and its still true.

The very first version was kind of a CMS -system with little to no possibility for me to change the layout:

Later the "splash-screens" were very common, so this was what the entry page looked like in 2006-2008:

In 2008 I got my macbook and Iweb, the first try was not that bad, but still a bit too Mac:

In 2009 I changed the color and fitting to my new CI the header changed back to V.01 since its still timeless and reflects Fantasio fine Arts very well, but still a little too fancy and dark:

In 2010 the design is inspired by this blogger template from Josh Peterson to create a bridge from the blog to the website and vice versa. Less blingbling, faster loading and focused more on the important things. I guess the whole marketing, design and web-design tutorials I found through my twitter pals: http://twitter.com/#/list/Fantasiox/web-and-graphic-designer has finally helped:

But while the blogging experience is taking over and justified, there is still a need for a not so dynamic site due to press releases, publications and the ever-growing Art-archive.

Festival D´Aerographie :: A Personal View on Participating in Artshows

2010-06-14T06:28:00.000-07:00

The Artshow is over and a lot has happened, this will not gonna be a review like the ones before, or what everyone else posts, the following is a personal experience and thoughts about this event, and why I´m glad to be a part of it.

The "Festival D´Aerographie" was held since 6-or 7 years if I remember that right and I have participated since about 6 times now, which makes it more than "just an event", so maybe this justifies a little retrospective view about it.

We have no "Dragon-Con" or "Comic-Conventions" which I´d really like to attend and always envy my illustrator-colleagues from America who have it nearer to these events. And in Germany is not much going on for such a scene if one could call it even so.

Another problem is the pricing, sure game-conventions have artists-alleys, but then this is not really what an artist calls a great space to display or promote their art and get feedback from the public, neither is it a "real" chance to grab any art-directors or possible clients interest.

With that in mind, the art-show in Spa / Belgium is like a totally different world, have a look through the slideshow below to get a glimpse of what the show was all about:

Airbrush Festival, Spa, Belgium, June 2010 from Brian McCaffery on Vimeo.

If someone has more photos or a video, then please share it in a comment below.
I will add anything I find related to this event with a link back too.

This official video was just released yesterday:
http://www.spardennestv.be/Festival-d-aerographie-au-casino-de-Spa_a73.html

I didn´t had the time to make photos myself because I had worked on these 2 days on one of my digital paintings,the other time I was talking and hanging out with the nice folks that also attended and exhibited there, colleagues and friends alike.

What make this event stand out so much? Besides the Casino with its classy look, I bet its the mainly familiar atmosphere, and I guess this is the reason some artists drove more than 700 Kilometer each way, to get their tent up there.

Its always nice to have a place to display art, this is surely important for every artist, its also nice to have publicity and participation from visitors in such events, to cover costs and such, but when I return home from this show, I felt its more important to have talked and connected with so many nice people, learned so much new and also inspire -and being inspired to new work and keeping it up.

When I started out with airbrush, I thought this would be it, but then while attending this artshow, "stars on wheels", and the airbrush-show in Rosmalen, over the years I found out that the "Airbrush-scene" is too much connected with a bad image, custom, copycats, cars and such, so I concentrated more on the sculpture works with using airbrush -here and there, but working towards digital illustration and the transition process was not an easy one in itself, and displaying this "digital art" on a place where someone would expect only traditionally done works, could be considered brave.

But the reaction and the acceptance of colleagues and the organiser, as well as the public makes this a proof, that either I do something right, or that the technique really does NOT matter, as long as the result is fitting.

Over the years there is a little routine that comes with installation of the booth, public show, working with eyes that lurk over my shoulders, interaction and the live-representation, and I´m really thankful to make this experience and hope that the show will live on, many years to come.

There is a reason I don´t highlight a specific artist here, because what I wanted to express was indeed about the event, no one stands out, there is no star that gathers all the attention, its the absolute friendly atmosphere that makes it possible that French, German, Belgian, Dutch and even Swiss artists participate on eye-level to have fun and show their talent.

Keep it up, you know who you are.

Angels Don´t Spit! :: A Science-Fiction Cover Art Process

2010-05-31T05:29:00.000-07:00

This Is a cover- illustration for Simon Halo´s book "Engel spucken nicht" - "Angels don´t spit" a German science-fiction book.

Since it was a very interesting project, the techie -stuff was challenging, I decided to show off a little of the cover process here.

I use this blog not only to show off my work, but also to give the independent Authors who hire me, a little exposure back and promote this "collaborations" to the public.

I treat every commission as if it will go to my portfolio, when working on 2-4 covers +- personal works a month, clearly NOT every piece is going to the portfolio, but its good to know every piece could. And a blog like this fulfills the desire to give the works that extra-bit of exposure, to show how much work really went into a piece.

First briefing was about a little more steam punk, and therefore metal and stuff, like the sketch shows off:

Since the briefing was clear and I had a little freedom on how to execute this, the detailed sketch above was what I worked out after a few raw loosely sketches.

There were some changes on the headpiece /helmet and with the bleed for print, additionally the cabin was changed on some parts,. This basic colored sketch shows the idea for different lighting.

To get more of a clue what the cabin is all about I worked out a quick model in NSP-clay and some findings. The reason why I put a little more time into this is, that I have another idea with that cabin - a personal work with a Fantasio-girl, so be prepared;-)

While working out the details and over paint them in photoshop, I go basically through the image step-by-step, starting with the difficult part first and then out to the neighbour parts.
Every part is first grouped into new layer-groups and when that specific part is finished, I safe a new version with layer-flattened, in the next version then - and if changes are due -I work on a new layer on top to get the details in.

At this stage, the rough basic painting and base -coloring is, again, step-by-step overworked with details. References help to define more details at this stage and is by far the part where the illustration starts to make real fun. (The skull and skeleton is from a poser render, stock photos just for getting the idea of the materials, etc) Its important to know that a photo or 3d-reference is there to help, but not to make me a slave of the reference. It helps to get an account for the folds in clothes, seems and such, nothing more, nothing less.

This is the final layout then, (which is not my work) but it makes the book look futuristic and the crop of the illustration teasing.
And since the format screams to make it a wallpaper, below you find a 1440x900 sized Wall for your desktop or laptop screen:

Here you can also find the original colored wallpaper versions from the authors page:
http://www.engel-spucken-nicht.de/load.htm

D&D Pin-up Challenge entry :: Dragonette

2010-05-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

Since today is the final day for the D&D Pin-up challenge over at ArtOrder, I decided to put the process on the blog.

I got my shiny new copy of Photoshop CS5 on Thursday and after setting up, it was such a motivation that I skipped another piece I actually was working on for a challenge-entry to ArtOrder.

Actually, it would be a pitty, if I´d miss that chance to do a "Fantasio-girl" and a themed one too;-)

OK, here we go that´s what I came up with, the new brush-engine in CS5 took a while in itself to get into, but overall this was done in about 2 days from idea, process to finish.

A lot has changed while working in the piece, so that´s the reason the sketch looks different than the final piece.

And yeah, the dragon should be a "pet" kinda size, but for any Pin-up fan this should come through...
and pre-colored sketch:
Sketch:

All I had in mind and focused on was the pin-up like face and pose, something that would raise the "oops" character of a typical pin-up piece Vargas and Elvgren would be up to.

Converting such an idea into a modern and especially into a fantasy or D&D world is a tricky task, not impossible, but its important to keep in mind that the pin-ups originated in times when war was daily routine to give soldiers a fantasy while keeping it clean at the same time -a difficult task then and obviously today.

The idea with the Dragon pulling on a cord that keeps together her bra was rather a simple idea, but it worked. At least to fulfill the "pin-up" cliche.

The other benefit of such a genre is the simplification of the style and therefore the possibility to experiment with it. I tried to get the character and the landscape in a kind of watercolor / gouache type of style which I also like.

Below are some close-ups to show a little texture that reflects also the efford to make it look like watercolor on a linen or old paper.

Not that I´m too much into RPG´s, but Tieflings and Fauns are to me the most fascinating archetypes, especially when they are female;-)

The dragon is also completely painted freehand, no reference used, but it helped to have such a dragon modeled in clay a little time ago for another piece called Dragonwhisperer I used to paint one.

Photoshop Brush Tutorial: The Foundations

2010-05-07T07:27:00.000-07:00

I was asked often if I can do a tutorial or howto on "just" brushes for Photoshop for how to achieve such realistic imagery like the "Neko-cat"

I must say that I´m still learning the right usage myself, and i´m not perfect in teaching things.

For this howto, I assume that those interested, are familiar with where to find the brush-tool in PS and how to use a Wacom tablet.

I also link to a lot other resource sites, check these out and you have comprehensive resources about brush work in Photoshop.

I have also seen people asking in forums :

But what are the basics, the foundations in CG- art and digital painting?

Well, lets make it clear, digital painting is hard work, though easier than to use a physical airbrush, but more difficult than oilpainting, just to clear things up right from the start!

I was taught physical airbrush in study, and I can say bringing a color to a ground that is immediately dry is a tough medium to learn, nothing can be undone, there is no ctrl-z if the color is applied, its applied.
Oilpainting in comparison is an airing, one can throw in some color, wait a day or two and change things later a layer on top...sorry to dissapoint the fine-artists here, but Oilpainting is easy compared to physical airbrushing with acrylics.

Digital painting can be classified right between these two disciplines.

To master either the digital or the traditional way, one need to learn the basics, which means Pencils, Pencils, Pencils!

I don´t will even speak about the composition, lighting, texturing, mood and color-theory here.
The technique used, is a technique used, not more not less - may it be digital, traditional, mixed media or whatsoever, so the basics are fundamental to every artist!

There are a lot tutorials on brushes, walkthroughs and what not, but lets face it: if you are not able to bring a simple idea to paper, you need to learn the basics -period.

Before even thinking about holding a Wacom pen, one should know how to use the Pencil right, you should be capable to do outlining and shading as also a crosshatch gradient right, like this:

If you´re stuck at this, try to see this as example, it should not take more than 10 minutes to draw this sheet freehand without overdrawing the boxes and without a need for an eraser!

A lot people have problems drawing a really round circle freehand and without technical help, which as a fact, is quite scary!

Master the crosshatch and Wacom is your friend!
If this is no problem for you, you can read on.

Man versus machine

Digitally this is no problem, create a circular selection, fill it with a sphere-gradient and you have the below thing done in about 10 seconds. Wrong!

That´s not digital painting and everyone can tell the difference between a digitally calculated fill algorithm and a hand-painted sphere.

You can make this experiment yourself, make a circular selection and paint in it like above and use the smudge to work it out like painting with oils and do the same with a gradient fill, the difference is like "human" versus "machine".

Below is an introduction to an outliner-ink brush and a fill brush that can be compared to a bristle brush from Corel Painter.

I found this particular from a package which Dan Luvisi has put online for free download, I can only encourage to load this package as it is full with great brushes for clouds and skin-textures as well! Play with the configurations in the brushes settings to get the most out of this brush(es):

The eye above is drawn with only the outliner to show how versatile it is. The mountain example shows a nice usage for the texturized bristle brush.

The fundamentals in working digitally contrary to traditionally is, unless you work on a cintix tablet, the different hand / eye coordination (painting here,looking there) practice can take up to mere years until drawing is fun again.

Also digital painting consists of 3 important parameters which constantly want to be controlled from the artist:

pen pressure / sensitivity (hardware and software)
transperency and flow
color and layer affection

My typical brushes for everyday use can be count on one hand.
Occasionally some projects require custom brushes, here you find out how to do custom brushes in Photoshop

There are some important tips that should help making the digital painting practice easier:

Make a shortcut for strg+alt+z to F1 for example and set the "step back number" as high as possible
Work every new object on a new layer
begin every piece with 72dpi and later add more resolution(150dpi/300dpi) when more detail is added.
Learn all important shortcuts from photoshop
Use the eyedropper-tool for quick colorchanges
Save very often and different versions
Never use filters except for some Gaussian blur or sharpen
start either from dark to bright or from bright to dark
Never use black for shadows
Smudge or brush tool use with 60-70% pressure and 90% flow
Learn from the old masters

The below is a standard brush in photoshop and even if it looks generic, see the below example that this brush is far from prducing generic results.

Better you master one brush in Photoshop and know how to use it right, instead having 100 and not knowing how to handle one.

This should lead to a keen observation of your brush and put in question if you could do 80-100% of your work with this one brush alone.

The myth about the evil smudge tool

I will also make some points clear about the smudge tool, it is a sword with two edges:
Used right, the smudge can lead to a feel and results, comparable to oilpainting, Charcoal or even Watercolor, but if used wrong it eats just resources and the results looks plain and obvious.

The smudge can also be a bitch: when used without spacing, it is direction sensitive, which means smudging to the left makes the basic color brighter, smudging to the right makes the basic color darker. smudging with 50% pressure allows perfect gradients, while 85% pressure produces hard/Watercolor like edges.

It should only be used to spread a basic paint.

I had an art teacher who told us students to rather invest 150 bucks in one great brush, than in 10 cheap ones, so I guess Photoshop is an expensive brush, but the message comes through, pick one favorite and stick with it and it can do magic for you !

This sheet shows the use of my favorite brush (a standard one used as brush and smudge).

When picking a favorite brush its important that this brush is versatile as possible, has no generic feel and this must not always be a custom brushes.

Now experiment for yourself and try a quick "from life-drawing" like I did below:

Looks everything but generic, ain´t it?

This blog post should just give an insight on how digital painting can be used, brush settings are subject to everyone´s own experimentation, many ways lead to Rome!

I spare people the exact settings because these are irrelevant, but all important thoughts are in this post, pick the information right, study and master them and results like this should be no problem:

Last but not least, here are some helpful links, tutorials and videos that helped me -though it cannot replace the experimentation, go forth and explore:

Don Dos Santos Warbreaker Illu -process (check also other Massive black´s dvd´s)
Diane Özdamars painting-process(Check her channel for more parts)
The Artcenter-blog / helpful resources from industry professionals
The CGtalk-forums huge database
DomenLo´s tutorial-page archive
ConceptArt forums are not to miss

If this was helpful, (or not) a comment would help me to keep on doing some more howto stuff in the future.

Guardians of Legend: A Cover Illustration Process

2010-05-03T12:58:00.000-07:00

I´ve done a lot book covers lately and feel guilty to not give
them the exposure with some walk-through or process
descriptions here, they deserve.

With the most recent work I´d like to change that and like to
begin a recurring series with cover artworks, that were challenging to me in retrospect, the one or the other way.

When i was asked by J.S.Chancellor to do the cover for her novel, part one of a trilogy, she was gladly open to what should be on the cover.
Usually strict briefings were given or a direction is evident.
This project was in itself notable because of the freedom to co-determine the direction of the art.
Even if this sounds like a dream of creative expression, it is a demanding efford to find out what is important, how can it be incorporated and put into one striking piece that will make it through.

As illustrator you need to be the designer, marketing expert, artist, psychologist, salesman and history-teacher all in one person.
The designer need to be aware of the layout and "corporate identity" of the publishers, the artist -part lets things happen, the psychologist for the unconscious and symbolism, etc...

First there was a big empty canvas in front of me even with the detailed info´s about the book´s story.
But some information helped to direct me very good, I list them below to help Authors to provide any Illustrator the useful information:

providing reference images of artwork that quite good reflects a "to go for" style
having a look at my gallery and tell which of the different styles are the preferred ones
writing up keywords which describe a mood, character, correlation to other characters, etc.
leaving artistic freedom / creative space for ideas and concepts
Being aware that "less is more" in book publishing, even if a scene screams for a sophisticated outcome, colors, symbolism and faces tell more than a high detailed scene
Think about various other use and merchandise in advance to increase possibilities

The first rough draft is considered scrap to most artists, but its also the initial part of the beginning magic.

At this stage proportions and expression are not as important than to put in the creative thoughts which set the boundaries for the further work, like design ideas, composition, focus, etc...

I leave it as rough and open for ideas as possible.
The sword then became a more intriguing part than i actually thought so I developed it in a separate sketch (above right)

The detailed pencil sketch indicates that I successfully co-determined the idea to give the main character of book one "Garren" the spotlight on the cover.

What I did not knew, but was a happy accident, is that the sword (and the character itself) has a special role in wandering between light and darkness.
So this pose and idea of the "dividing sword" is essential to the content -double win!

The resulting sketch did not reflect the reference at this time, but was influenced by the following approach.

The shoulder dragon armor were another difficult but yet important detail to me, so I did an NSP-clay -model of both, the sword and the dragons skull:

Surely this would be possible to model in zbrush, max or blender easily (for someone who knows these programs very well) but until I have the knowledge on how to use these tools properly, I have done Clay models in twice the time, these took me about 3 hrs. to make:

And its a difference if you do something and feel it with your own hands or just work on it in a virtual environment.
3-dimensional things are meant to be felt, there´s nothing like it.

References are important, regardless if you paint from life or from photography, the important part is always to put the things we seize into question.

Never accept things for what they are, put work and imagination into it to get a better artist, always.

The following is a quick coloration of the sketch with the approach to set a background mood.

My idea was to chose the sky as a background. Not only because its my favorite background, its possible to express good and bad, dark and light, in nearly every thinkable way.

Timeless, mystical, and always fitting to any desired mood.
The coloring was too hard so I decided to get more muted tones for the sky in the final WIP piece.

The pastel-palette was the best way to go, this way it would not distract from the character too much.

In the "progress" I used to incorporate the references for composition purposes, but the final version shows that there was a lot work that went into the painting to get a believable character.

The overall process raises the question how the "wrap around" part for the cover should look like.

My initial response was to just extend the sky around the whole book, which adds space for the layout, blurb and usual info required, by giving this space and keeping the mood from the front cover.

I´m glad this idea makes it into the final, because this way a wonderful "wallpaper" is developed besides, which is another interesting promotional giveaway option to think about for every serious Author.

The link to the larger resolution Wallpaper will be available soon on J.S.Chancellor´s website and on my deviantArt page. Until that feel free to have a look or download this laptop sized 1440x900 version below.

I´m currently working on a "brush tutorial" for digital painting, so stay tuned or subscribe if this sounds interesting.

Artorder: Discovering A Muse challenge entry

2010-04-23T05:46:00.000-07:00

There is this challenge over at the artorder -blog that really speaks to me, not only because its for a good cause the judging panel is sheer awesome, or that Veronika Kotlajic from (The Muse: A Pictorial Journey of Fantasy & Pin-Up) is indeed a Muse, also because it is something i can really grow and experiment as an artist with this participation.

If you are on the artorder -network, feel free to add me.

Please forward the "call for art" info about this challenge so that it gets more attention and participation, really looking forward to all the other finished entries, deadline for all entries is
1 June, 2010 midnight (PST).

So today i got the confirmation that my entry "Skywalker" for artorder´s challenge "Discover a muse" is accepted, after it took around 4 days to work on it besides other projects.

The main keywords to go along

with a concept were just : "strong, independent and sexy"

with that in mind i came up with a concept like this one:

A first very rough draft (on the right) usually takes not more than a few minutes, but it shows if an idea could work, the less detailed it is, the better.

The next step is to gather references and inspiration for poses, colors, contrasts and feelings of the pic i have in mind, and changes.

In this case i changed the roof top and cityscape view to a more wider interpretation of independence, the sky has no limit.
I think the sky is for most people the innermost description
for freedom, eagles, or birds in general are for me pure symbols of this independence.

The mixture of this costume describes for me the frame for allowing this composition believability, like if she is a shaman or a shapeshifter whose wings are blades when she is changing back shape to human.

I know there might be people telling either that is not possible or whatsoever, so the intention was to render this in a way that it is believable to some extent, painterly but also gives the subtle feeling of being free, like an assassin from above.

When looking for coloring i tend to use complementary contrasts wherever possible, as a cover artist its the guarantee for getting attention from a far.

The psychology behind is that it usually is a pain for the eye but when this rule is broken properly it works like magic.

Complementary colors are very helpful for finding natural tones and colors, when working on a palette its good to be inspired by the masters, but it can never be false to try and experiment in some digital versions playfully with variations that lead to new, interesting results.

We live in times which are technically improving and enhancing the artists possibilities, and i did not speak about tracing or photomanipulation, I think the possibility of getting a preview with different colorswatches, changing moods with just a layer-effect is a wonderful tool that daVinci would possibly had loved to use.

The finalized work and below some close ups:

Constructive criticism vs. Banana peel on a ski-slope

2010-04-22T06:14:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to someone who unconsciously throw in a barrel of fuel in my "fire of passion" for blogging about things that happen to me, especially when it comes to art and composition.

Today a comment that had an impact on me like a Banana peel on a ski-slope - it does not bump you out of the chair, but you think:"what the heck does this come from!"

The reason for this entry is the below quote from Oscar Wilde:
“The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.”

And in order to educate the critic, this blog post should help any emerging artist, or people who will skip this step and become a critic with shortcut.

The piece which caused the following comment:

"criminal zombie rock people who have consumed 40 ounces of miller are on the prowl for violin playing, thong wearing fawns... in the future of america (as miller tips us off) people have evolved into extravagant versions of humanity.

If this is surrealist work in a modern era, it is not relevant. Your symbols will remain yours (aside from the angsty college freshman who love rendered sex symbols).

flat... even composition... gestures aren't pushed... taken to a full render suggests you missed the point entirely...."

First off, if you are going to critique an artists work or a piece of artwork, make sure you follow these simple rules to be taken serious and cause an effect:

Never just create a profile just for the purpose of doing critique,
show who you are, and if you have professional background to do so
If you critique do yourself the favor and only critique in a field you are expert in or at least have a fundamental understanding of the theoretical approaches, never get personal
If you are targeting on rules or fundamental basics, be sure to link to references or sources that underline your critique in a constructive or educative manner
Always understand that a critique is a reflection of ones self, treat others like you want others to treat you
Write more than 200 words if you want to be taken seriously, and if you can/ or will not show who you are

I´m not going to have anyone flaming this Person just for this nonsense ramblings, instead I´d point out for myself what is good critique and what´s bad:

What seriously uncovers this Person as blissfully ignorant, is that he obviously put the piece into a wrong category and even asked for being uncovered as such with that sentence:

"f this is surrealist work in a modern era, it is not relevant"

Its not surrealist work, its a fantasy -genre art and a modern interpretation of the "Pied piper of Hamelin".

"flat... even composition... gestures aren't pushed "

The composition of this one was an "out-of-the-box" experiment, that i used to invent also in other personal artworks like "the box of pandora", or "the disquisition" not reinventing the wheel here, but in a manner of "learn the rules and break them properly".

The idea of developing such a complex compositing is to create a flow that leads the viewer into the piece; starting with the fawn, tease over to the "Wanted" posters in a tie over the violin through the number "40" to the Golem brothers, who then throw the lead back on to the legs of the fawn. At this point, the pied piper must come to mind to the more educated viewer.

"taken to a full render suggests you missed the point entirely"

Really, and for whom does this count?

Like I twittered earlier about this today, because this is so rad: "Odd how the words seem to shape the appearance of a comment under the work, but content and meaning is completely absent"
I couldn´t help but laugh out loud with a tear, because of the bizarre pointlessness of this post!

This is how constructive critique should look like:

If this comment need to be put into words for a constructive critique that should help the artist to learn and grow in a positive way, this could be how at least I would appreciate it:

"Its obvious that the classic version and imagery of the pied piper did not appeal to the youth of today, this rendition is a bold approach to bring the essence through into today´s world that is full of over-photoshopped-beauties shining from billboards suggesting consumers to buy.

Fantasy causes viewer and readers all over the world either in literature or imagery to abscond from reality, this worlds where elves, fawns and golem are mythical creatures that are at least equally common than humans, such an evening scene of a modern fairytale could nearly take place, or at least imagined by the viewer because of the realistic rendering.

As a nitpick I would only describe the flat feeling which is omnipresent because of the wall that takes up around 2/3 of the piece.
Even if this is an approach to the rule of thirds, the empty space between the golem could either filled with an interesting subject, or could have more depth.

Another, but more personal impression would be that the gestures are a little expression -or emotionless, but this could also be intended. Comparing the look and expression with your "body of work" its obvious that there is a coherence and love for "out-of-the-box" and experimental approaches to compositions, it might be a question of taste, but there are sure people who like this modern-fantasy-sci-fi-postpunk-experimental mixture of genres."

This at least would be a critique I´d value, even when the writer has no profile or backup of knowledge, It shows respect and a deeper understanding of things.

Always treat others like you want to be, isn´t that too much demanded?
Is there hope?

Should artists take donations as kind of general support?

2010-04-16T08:06:00.000-07:00

Why should artists take donations?
Two thoughtprovoking happenings changed my perception of taking donations in general:

"All artists who represent themselves everyday on the web, should take little donations from visitors who appreciate their work just for the sake of keep `em doing"

1.)The first is a case in which a friend of mine did have the worst thing happening to an artist:
thievery in his home of equipment and everything.
2.)The other case in which a not so familiar artist has a difficult situation that causes high costs of meds and living.

Get a better opinion about these happenings when comparing the cases linked above for yourself.

Fact is, because Mario (1.) gave in the supportive comments from friends and colleagues he linked to his paypal account, I didn´t hesitate to donate.
While I didn´t knew the other artist (2.), I would have donated something too, just for the sake of helping out without wanting something in return.

I tend to think that everything happens for a reason and from anywhere this comes back, mostly from a direction we never mind thinking about, thats a universal fact / experience.

I understand when artists don´t want to declare themselves as beggars or in need for help, I thought about that matter and especially that simple act of putting a donate -button on a blog, profile page as nothing to feel ashamed about in todays online society, where even IT-gurus and social -media specialists do have the "buy me a coffee" button on their page.

Donation model for musicians is OK, aha...
Going through myspace and having a look at all the musicians it feels like walking through the citystreets and have musicians begging for your attention, the one that you like the most is likely been given a few bucks in the hat, nothing wrong with that in real life - so why should it in online life?

Sure most musicians don´t have a big payoff from donations, compared to commercial advertised and labeled promotions. While this is right, some do their stuff for fun and music is better listened to in live, os putting music online for downloading just costs to run a server what can they ask for more?

The main difference is that artists / musicians in the street playing their stuff are not familiar to me, so why should I give them a buck? A online friend whom I know about years now, and as a follower have seen that always stuff is popping up on their page, I feel good when supporting them with a little cash here and then.

And then all have something in common, the musician who is popular did something to get to that point, like Radiohead for example.
The simple secret for this is consistence and persistence.
Whenever someone is capable of something and works hard on developing themselves to grow over the years and gains a fellowship, chances are good that it will pay off in the end, but it needs persistence to get through to this point.

Will next generations have generosity "built in"?
I think this is a fact and a behaviour that needs to be changed by the artists themselves, most likely the next "online" -generations will have this behavior more "built in" everyone ticks different, but especially when it comes to money - artists want to hide, this is just wrong.

If you do work, you should be payed, period.

http://fantasio.deviantart.com/journal/poll/1150000/

Above is a little statistic gained from a poll which is from about the last two days.

Not something that could generalize things, but it proves to me that theoretically 50% visitors want something in return and the other nearly 50% would donate something, just to support the artist. Interesting fact is that 53 voters would spend a total of 826,00 $ against 58 people who want something in return!
Also it might be taken into account that some misunderstood the intention of this poll, and a lot of visitors are artists too.

The result is more than I´d ever suspect, which motivates me to encourage artists who hesitate to ask or simply put the donation button on their page unless they make 100k in a year, (and even then; if their work is great, they deserve it!)

Thinking about subscription or patronizing...
I really think about doing a kind of subscription/patronizing model that makes it possible to a donator gaining influence and benefit from the personal work that others don´t have.
Supporting a motivational behavior towards the artistic development of the art leaves more space for the creative freedom that is not so big in most temporary patronage like commissions for example.
This would be a very nice initiative for supporting ones personal work, which commonly is only possible rarely while artists patronize themselves but then investing time, which is usually short for artists.

Another thought about the (this kind) patronizing of artists of today can be found here.
I really like the comparison between the gallery consumer and the benefits for a patron, in our times and through the wire we have the possibilities to get in touch with the consumers, clients, patrons, whatsoever..

Find a gallery, make the big deal...
Why chose some artist the "cold way" and frontline assembly work through a gallery which result in speculation rather than in pure interest of their customers?

I´d really like to read some insights from artists and galleries about that subject.

When realizing the capitalization of artists through galleries and collectors alike, theirs a shiver down my spine that makes me think more on a machine than on colorful, creative and exceptional things that can be called art.