Dungeon Training

Beast sketch .1

Beast .2

Final Beast sketch

Finished image, Photoshop

I recently created a logo for my friend Will's blog, Dungeon Training. Shown here are the rough sketches of the troglodyte beast character, as well as the finished image.

Random Sketches 2

Thai man

David Grove

Chef

troll

waitress

norton

flying machine

dragon

I am bored so I am posting some random sketches.

Some new some old, some for work some for play.

Coming to an art director near you

Mini tapestries

(one included in each box , along with a print sample)

The Full Pkge.

The boxes in which contain the tapestries and print samples

Recently as a part of my MFA studies at the Hartford Art School I was able to partake in a great promotional class with Professor Daniel Pelavin, and Professor Chris Spollen. Together Danny and Chris took a topic that I have avoided like Sunday mass and turned it into something completely exciting and fresh. For me their class(with out deploying smoke and mirror tactics) solved the mysteries, and debunked the myths surrounding promotion. During the week of classes we came up with some fun ideas and I think I ended up with a pretty decent promotional package that I hope can lead to some work in the future. Big thanks to Danny and Chris for teaching one of the best classes I have had throughout my educational experience. Included in this post are some shots of the package we created, as well as a quick rambling on what I learned from a great week in Hartford.

As Illustrators the creation of pictures is something that we all have in common . Luckily there does not happen to be one way of creating an image and the variations in which we all do so are limitless. Whether it be commercial or personal, our motivations for creating pictures differ much like the techniques we use. One big aspect of the business of Illustration that is often overlooked, or that remains a mystery to many(certainly myself included), is how to handle promoting illustration in a personal and effective way. Promotion I believe should not be handled any differently than the way in which we create Illustration. Techniques should be different from person to person. Promoting illustration should become a unique process in which we find a way to showcase our work in a way that says something about who we are and what we do as illustrators. As creative people we must find a way that goes beyond the typical postcard or email.

WMCC Poster

The Western Mass. Climbers Coalition president and long time friend Jeff Squire recently asked me to put together a quick poster design for an upcoming event/fundraiser . Being pressed for time while I am working on a big illustration promotional package I needed the poster to be completed fairly quickly. I figured I would experiment with photoshop and try to create an illustration that would serve as a throwback to the early comic strips created by Winsor McCay. Heavily inspired by the work of Winsor McCay I tried to keep the color palette fairly limited, the rendering quite flat, with prominent areas of a faux halftone pattern . This style is reminiscent of what we see in many of McCay's comic strips such as Little Nemo, or Little Sammy Sneezy that were being produced back in 1905.

The text was later added by Jeff Squire, which made for a fun collaboration of efforts. It has been the enormous efforts put forth by Jeff and the WMCC that have made possible the preservation of some of the best climbing areas in the North East.

If you are interested in finding out more about the event or finding out more about the Western Mass. Climbers Coalition and their efforts to promote access to climbing areas in New England check out the WMCC web site:

www.westernmacc.com

Chief Bromden

Chief Bromden

6"x13"

acrylic on board

Contained in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest are numerous passages that beckon to be illustrated. In particular are the passages that describe the visions/daydreams/delusions of Chief Bromden. I started to create a series of Illustrations from theses passages , but they were put on the back burner while I worked on my thesis. During the week long workshop with Gary Kelley and Chris Payne, held this past July in Hartford, I had the opportunity to work on one of these illustrations. In an earlier post I showed my preliminary sketches and a digital color comp and so I decided to show the piece close to finish. It is a relatively small piece measuring 6"x13" , and is acrylic on illustration board. This painting was done using a very limited palette consisting of five colors, ultramarine blue deep, cad yellow lemon, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, and white.

MFA

Below are a few photos I shot during my last contact period with my MFA group in Hartford.

Here is a photo of me with some of the great teachers I have had the opportunity to study with over the years. Ted Lewin, Vladimir Shpitalnik, and Murray Tinkelman.

My wall of paintings hanging in the Silpe Gallery , Hartford Art School.

A shot of Gary Kelley during his demo at the HAS.

A shot of C.F Payne during his demo HAS.

Last week I had my thesis defense, which went fairly well. Included in the defense committee was my thesis advisor Doug Anderson, UHA professor Bill Thompson, Program Director Murray Tinkelman, and Visiting Artist C.F Payne. I was a bit nervous about this, having guys like that in front of my paintings made me feel pretty vulnerable to say the least. Murray being the great guy that he is calmed my nerves by reassuring me that this was not the time to bash me and my work, but to rather celebrate the accomplishment and discuss the overall experience. So I relaxed , the Thesis was approved and I graduated with an MFA in illustration.

The overall experience of being a part if the program at Hartford was incredible. The friends I made along the way, the teachers that I worked with, the speakers that I saw, and the places we traveled to all made up an incredible journey. Personally I watched my own work grow with leaps and bounds, this was largely due to being a part of such a great group of artists.

I have to give the biggest thanks to Carol Tinkelman, the person who holds the entire program together, and Tom Bradley associate dean of the Hartford Art School.. If it was not for them I would not have been accepted into this program due to accreditation issues with my undergraduate school.

So Thanks again Carol and Tom. And thanks again to everyone else that has been a part of the MFA in Illustration program at the Hartford Art School.