Month: May 2010

Q&A With Jacqueline Carey Event!

As many of you know (or perhaps don’t), I have long been an admirer of the works of Jacqueline Carey (specifically her Kushiel’s Legacy series of books). With some of the most unique spins on obscure angel and fallen angel figures I’ve seen in modern literature, how can I not love it? Not to mention her sumptuous writing style and palpable imagery always set my muse a-tingling. (This bodes for a ‘top ten novels that make my muse tingle’ post in the future!)

Anyways, the point of this particular entry is to set your eye on an event going on this coming Tuesday, June 1st! My fellow plotter, upcoming author, and friend, Hayley E. Lavik, is having a Q&A event with Jacqueline! Check Hayley’s entry on the matter for details, as this could be your chance to win hand-crafted swag of my creation and a copy of Jacqueline’s latest release in the series, Naamah’s Kiss.

Not to mention how wonderful and rare it is to have questions answered by a best-selling novelist in the themes of world-building and advice for aspiring authors everywhere!

So set your calendars and don’t miss this event!

Con Report – Imagicon

I’ve just returned from Imagicon in Birmingham, Alabama! While my personal artist alley sales were modest, enthusiasm from artists and congoers was pretty high all weekend. I get the feeling from the amount of curious and perplexed parents peering in at us from around the corner that the scifi and fantasy fandom is still a little new in the area.

Come buy my shinies! Or my evil eyes will get you!

Or perhaps it’s because the main part of the con was held in the middle of exhibits nestled in the belly of the McWane natural science center in downtown Birmingham? Most people were there to let their kids bounce around interactive exhibits and maybe learn something scientific along the way. This was good in that we got a lot of foot traffic from museum-goers, bad because many of them weren’t interested in the art show or dealers room and had no clue why they were standing next to an Alien in the elevator wondering whether they should cover their children’s eyes or not.

In truth, there weren’t many signs that even mentioned Imagicon was there. No signs outside the building and most of the noticeable signs tacked up by the elevator which said the 3rd floor was closed for Imagicon, sending mixed signals. There was even less signage to indicate the location of the art show, though due to the art staff’s quick thinking, computer printed signs appeared around the 2nd day. Even still, the traffic through the art show was minimal and I only sold a single piece (Archangel Uriel, which persists as my top seller, despite being an old piece).

What really made my weekend was shmoozing with other artists in the show who attended the panels. I felt like we were really able to give people good ideas in the website development and business panels, even if the number of artists hosting the panel on business outnumbered the people in attendance. It’s a great feeling to be around all these other folks making a living doing the same business of art and convincing one another that we’re not insane for it! I took some great notes on art licensing at Ash Evans‘ panel, who is an inspiring professional and outspoken lady.

I met a couple of ladies who also recognized my Ezio mask from the LeatherMaskArt group on DeviantART. Such a small world, it is! I put my mask to a stress test wearing it all day Saturday and even walking down the street to a hotdog stand, receiving many strange looks along the way. It was a good draw for my table, even if only a special few recognized its inspiration.

All in all, the show has a good heart, but just needs to work out it’s advertising and signage a little better. Art show staff was helpful and receptive and I’m sure the show is going to get more traffic as they improve their setup, especially with the enthusiasm of those involved in its management. I hope that if budget allows, I’ll be able to attend again next year!

Stay tuned for a little video I put together on what we packed for the convention. It will be up on my YouTube channel shortly!

This has been your con report from Angelic Shades. Sasser signing off!

Confessions of an Artist 5 – Why Sketch?

It’s been a long time since my last confession, where we talked about the nightmares of storing art incorrectly. Lately, I’ve come to realize a bad habit about myself that I’m desperately trying to break.

I don’t sketch.

By ‘don’t sketch’ I mean, instead of doing thumbnails or studies, I like to hop right onto the canvas and sketch, let the drawing go where it wants to, and then paint away! While this may work for some folks, more often than not, it’s led to the too-late realization of compositional problems, anatomy errors, or dysfunctional color schemes that made me not as satisfied with my work as I wanted to be or should be.

You may ask yourself, why take the time to sketch when you already know what you want to do? Why bother with sketching at all when it’s not guaranteed that you’ll use a sketch for anything? Just go straight to the finish line!

Only recently have I started to do more thumbnail drawings to figure out the best composition for an idea (a practice my college professors always pushed on me and one which I always rebelled against). But I’m not on my own time anymore, I’m on the clock. When my work is for a company, I just can’t let the pencil loose and trust it’s going to be the best it can be. I have more than just myself to satisfy and even then I shouldn’t just let my standards slip when I AM working for myself, either because I’m in a rush or just don’t feel like doing preliminary sketches thanks to the impatient niggling of my muse.

This realization was especially reinforced when I saw Stephanie Pui-Mun Law’s Major Arcana Tarot book, a lovely compilation including her thought processes and the many sketch revisions she did for each card in the Majors suit. I was amazed by the fact she went through so many sketches before arriving at any single figure.

For instance, in the Justice card, she went through multiple figural sketches. In each sketch, she evolved her symbols and improved her composition, from a sword to a feather (for truth), from a classical blindfolded Justice to a figure with blind eyes. Sketching and toying with the concept helped her to arrive at something more profound and dynamic, in the end, than it would have been if she merely sped through the concept. Even then, many of her ‘discarded’ sketches ended up being used for later work, making it even more worth it to play around with sketch ideas because it helped to prompt even more ideas for future artwork.

So while I may get fussy at the idea of not being able to explode into drawing the final composition that’s bursting to get out of my head, sometimes the muse needs to sloow down. Enjoy a nice cup of tea and coax that coy idea out with thumbnails and sweet nothings.

How about yourselves? Do you find it hard to sketch? How do you go about developing your ideas for a concept? My confessional is always open!

IMAGE SOURCE:
“Justice” by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

Burnout: The Artist’s Greatest Enemy?

There’s nothing worse than that creeping feeling of doubt. We’ve all felt it before at one point or another. Is my art good enough? Will I ever land that art job I’ve been dreaming about? Will I ever really be able to make money at this? Am I going to do well at this next convention?

Things have been winding down and gearing up for me all at the same time. With the end of one big project, I’m finding myself in search of another and completely overwhelmed by trying to rope more means of income AND keep my portfolio up to date at the same time. I’m also in overdrive at the thought of doing more conventions this year, which I’ve only ever done a couple in the past. Just seems like there isn’t enough time to prep inventory and create new works!

This burnout phase follows another realization that a creative professional cannot merely hope to make a living from a single royalty check from a single book. I knew the statistics before, but nothing brings statistics to life more than when you get to that point in your life and realize your paycheck will not be enough to pay rent.

An artist (or a writer) must have many prospects going to call it ‘a living’. When last I checked, that average was 20 books to an author’s name before they could live off of royalty checks alone. For an artist, this also means pursuing various streams of income, from licensing, to commissions, to selling prints, and the ever daunting task of putting forth one’s portfolio to various companies of interest for that one job that adds a bit more cash to your money pot.

Argh it is a wicked game, this art industry! I’ve had to step back from it all and try to regain my focus. I’ve tried a few things that seem to be keeping the edge off:

* Video Games – Yes I know, ‘time suck’ you say! But nothing keeps your brain from overthinking more when you have a repetitive and completely reality unrelated task to focus on. Not to mention games like Folklore always get my art muse going again with its artful designs and surreal worlds. Yes, I confess I’ve even tried WarCrack (Warcraft) for the first time recently! (Shhh!) We are only human and cannot work every single moment of the day and night without losing some sanity!

* Making Lists – Being the visual person that I am, it helps to list out all of my ideas for projects, my goals for my career and also prospects I’m hoping to work for. It’s amazing how many you might have forgotten just from worrying so much! You may have more going for you than you realize when you list things out.

* Scheduling – It’s easy to get overwhelmed and then lose track of just where you’re going when you work at home. I’ve been leaning heavily on Google Calendar these days to keep me on track. There’s nothing like looking at the agenda and realizing that yes I do have physical goals that will pay off in the form of conventions and events.

* Return to Nature – A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.

I always think of Thoreau when I’m feeling burned out. I like to sit by the pond and watch the dragonflies buz about in dizzy colors and think of just what paint hues make up the sky. Nothing refills my muse and sense of peace better than quieting the mind and meditating in a tranquil place. The internet, computers, and constant worrying about promotion can really distract from what’s most important.

* Switching Gears – Instead of sketching at night, I’ve taken to working on other skillsets, from leatherworking to my old bad habit for creative writing. Writing, especially, is something I’d like to do as a conjoined part of an illustration career, but it’s somehow fallen to the wayside next to art these days. It feels good to get back to it again and get to know these characters who used to be such a big part of what inspired my art in the past.

So here I am…hitting the ‘Reset’ button on my current lack of motivation for art. I’m certain I’ll rise up from this slump with a little spit and shine. Thankfully, for me it is a lack of motivation and not a lack of ideas!

Till then, won’t you share your strategies for easing burnout? I’d love to hear them!