Helpful Resources

In this technological age, it seems that well all collect a little horde of blogs, videos, and websites. Here are a handful of mine.

Schoolism: Inspirational interviews with industry professionals, online schools and the chiu-stream
http://www.schoolism.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYeDibhb-hs

Chris Oatley's ArtCast: philosophy, tutorials, interviews, and cheerful ramblings.
http://chrisoatley.com/category/podcasts/

Paper Wings Podcast: philosophy, tutorials, and interviews. (All focusing on comics and the creation there of.)
http://paperwingspodcast.com/

Adventures in design: The business of print making.
http://www.aidpodcast.com/

Writing excuses: 15 minutes podcasts that cover everything you need to know to become a storyteller.
http://www.writingexcuses.com/

Write about Dragons: Brandon Sanderson's Creative Writing college course, online......for free!!
http://www.writeaboutdragons.com/

Muddy Colors: Artists and Art Directors talk about things you didn't know that you've needed know until after you've read the blog.
http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/

Skottie Young's Blog: Because it updates all the time, and everything in it is awesome.
http://skottieyoung.com/

The Self Absorbing Man (AKA Paolo Rivera's Blog): Tons of Great comic book related tutorials.
http://paolorivera.blogspot.com/

Proko: A fantastic resource for understanding the human figure. There is a ton on content here!!!
http://www.proko.com/

Figure and Gesture Drawing: A free site for practicing hands and Feet. (Thanks DemonJack, this site rocks!)
http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/hands-feet-practice/

Tutorial for scanning line art
http://graphicdesign.spokanefalls.edu/tutorials/tech/Line_art/line_art.htm

FZD School: A fantastic youtube channel for digital artists. There is a mindblowing amount of content on this channel. Like, put off art school for a year and work through these episodes. (Don't quote me on that)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1McYZX6KScg

Mark's Drawing Tutorials: This first video on the basics and understanding 3D geometry in terms of elipses is great. It will make your life easier.The other stuff is great too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk84EpHmZKQ

Will Terrell's Blog and Youtube Channel: Life philosophy, and the most cheerful voice you will every find. I listen to this guy just to get into a happier mood.
http://willterrell.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/willterrell2001

Stephen Silver's Youtube channel: How and why to tell your clients to PAY YOU!
https://www.youtube.com/user/silvertoons


I have many many more, but I don't want to give you an information overload.

Life Drawing at Mighty Good: Are you really sucking more than usual today?

Have you ever had one of those days where everything you draw just isn't that good? It doesn't necessarily suck, but it's just not up to snuff. Maybe it happens at the best possible time. Like when you're drawing in front of you friends, or even better, in front of a bunch of curious strangers. It's so tempting to say "I swear I'm good! Or at least, better than this!"

I had a day like that yesterday. It got me thinking about something I had heard in Chris Oatley's ArtCast ( http://chrisoatley.com/category/podcasts/ ). Chris Mentioned that students and new budding artists seem to be more afraid of or even paralyzed by failure. 

I admit that I'm guilty of this. It took me a year to get around to drawing a 3 page teaser for my comic idea. All because I knew that if I started right then it wouldn't be good. There is so much to learn right?! I have at least 10 great books about the best way to layout your panels, and another 3 about proper story telling. Oh yeah, then there's that great podcast about character development. Wouldn't it be hasty, or even irresponsible of me to start before I learn all I can about it first?

I think this mindset is a product of two things.

First- There are two types of artistic growth that are necessary to "level up." The first is an increase in skill....duh. Ok, that's a little obvious, but the second is the ability to discern when something is right or wrong. This is analogous to a chef refining his/her palette to detect when flavor of their meal isn't quite there yet. Maybe the soup needs some more salt and a bay-leaf. Or, a musician's ability to detect when they're flat or sharp, or slightly out of time. Artists go through the exact same process. I think the ability to dissect your work is necessary to consistently improve and deliver. The feeling I was having was do to growth in the second type of learning that exceeded my skill in the first.

Second- The internet. Yes, let's blame everything on the internet. My dog sheds everywhere. That's the internet's fault too.

I think that the fear that Chris mentions is a vicious cycle between these two things. The internet is so accessible and chalk full of tutorials that we can research art forever without putting pencil to page. This, in turn, increases our ability to discern good art way above our ability to make it. We'll start a piece and immediately think that it's terrible. So what do we do? Go straight back to the internet, because we haven't learned enough yet to attempt the piece that we started. 

Around and around we go.

So, what should I do to beat this thing? Well, I went to the internet. (Irony noted). Everything I found told me to just do the damn thing no matter what it is. Turn my internal editor off. (He's an ass hole anyway). Looking at art on the internet only increases that second type or skill. Putting pen to paper will increase the first one.

So, here are my life drawings from yesterday. Not perfect, but at least they're done. 

I also have the first page of pencils finished for my comic. I'll throw those up later today and prove that I'm not a total hypocrite. At least, not all of the time.

Sneaky Sketches at MightyGood: Round One

This was a great week for finding new resources for illustration. I stumbled upon Chris Oatley and Noah Bradley's websites and podcasts, which are all about creating comic books and the business of freelance illustration. Many of their talks can be found on youtube as well.
http://chrisoatley.com/
http://www.noahbradley.com/artcamp/
They also both host art schools of their own. One day soon, I'll attend and post about them here.

I also found Will Terrell's youtube channel. Among other things, Will is a fantastic Caricature artist. His channel is filled with great life lessons, art pointers and demos of his own sketchbook. He has a very bubbly personality that is just plain fun to listen to. I couldn't help but to smile.

In one of his videos' he recommends trying out a midtone sketch book. I picked one up yesterday and tested it out by sneakily drawing the patrons at Mighty Good Coffee. It's a great way to unwind before starting your weekend OT.

This man gazes sorrowfully into the distance. They ran out of scones....

This guy was contentedly doing his weekend sudoku.

I'm new to drawing moving targets, but this was a fun exercise. I'm going to do this every Saturday from here on out. I can't wait for the next one.