Imaginism Workshop Day 24: Life Sketching and Poutine with Stephen Silver.

Today Stephen Silver graciously gave us a morning lecture about the art industry, character design, his life, our life, and just about everything in between. It was very very cool. I think it's going to be difficult to go back to the real world and my regular job after spending so much time on art and meeting so many motivated and successful people.

After that, Stephen wanted to see what all the fuss was about concerning some dish in Canada called "Pooh-Teen." See? I bet Stephen Silver reads my blog too.

So, we went to our favourite poutine shack, but my body couldn't handle any more starch/cheese/gravy stomach bombs, so I opted out and did a handful of caricatures of the patrons while we ate.

When we got back, T showed us about the next step in our Acrylic under-painting. Picking out the highlights.

Since my piece is set almost entirely in the light, I could skip this step and move into color. At this point, words cannot express my new found appreciation for digital painting. I think longingly back to my time spent with the color picker and the opacity control. *sigh*

And lastly Franklin the Duck returned. Though, I think our duck dinner left an impression because he brought along his crew Mafioso style. They were quite menacing so we GTFO.

Imaginism Workshop Day 23: Eating Franklin and Trying Acrylics

Today we embarked on the journey through "The Acrylic Lands." T's method for traditional painting is very very similar to his approach to digital painting. He said "if the word 'painting' didn't exist, they'd call it edge control." Like 5 times. Still, it's a bit more difficult than that (for me at least). I feel like I'm bargaining with the paint during every stroke. OK, that's a lie. I'm pleading with it.

Either way, Thierry said that my under painting was coming along well.

We aslo got to watch Stephen Silver draw an original in T's Travelling Sketchbook. Stephen also generously offered to give us a lesson on character design tomorrow. Score!

Apparently, the bigger the woman, the more fun she is to draw.

Lastly, T's parent made dinner last night. Holy cow. Grilled duck with bread fried in Duck fat, and tomato mozzarella  basil salad. It was so good that we all had to roll away from the table. I noticed later on that Franklin the Duck was conspicuously absent. Was it worth it? .........Yup.

Imaginism Workshop Day 22: Burgers with Stephen Silver

Yesterday started with the unfortunate realization that I was feeling ill. Very very ill. I believe the appropriate term is the "struggle bus." Regardless, I apologize for missing my post deadline.

I'm just going to pretend that the last 2 days were actually just one really long one. That's what it felt like anyway.

It's my birthday, Woo! I turned 25 and am now a real man. Like a really manly adult like looking man. I celebrated by getting my butt handed to me in Foosball and eating copious amounts of spaghetti.

Class has taken a turn for the traditional now that we've all finished with our characters. We're putting down our styluses and pick up our paint brushes. This week, we'll be working to recreate our concept characters  in acrylic.

I've never worked in acrylics before. So, this should be, uh......interesting.

This is the corner where T keeps all of the Art Supplies. Magiks happen here.

As a bonus reward, Stephen Silver dropped by last night and he'll be staying with us until Thursday! If you didn't know who Stephen Silver is, he's the character Designer responsible for this:

And this:

And also, this:

Having created a pretty substantial amount of my childhood, it was pretty surreal to meet the guy. I also have to say that Stephan is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. HE asked US to show him our portfolios, and asked us about OUR backgrounds and view points. It's weird to have someone of that level stardom act like you're the most interesting person in the room. 

He also has a pretty great youtube channel about working in the industry as a starting artist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWXYoD7wfOs 

All in all. It's going to be an awesome next few days.

Que The Montage Music

When I interviewed for the Schoolism workshop in Montreal this summer, I asked Thierry what I should do to prepare. Should I learn photoshop? Study anatomy? What about perspective? How about color theory. He said that the best thing I could do before the workshop was practice painting from life.

I don't really own anything worth painting, so I went and bought some fruit. I've never really worked with water color or acrylics. So, this was a fun little experiment. I will do more of these soon.

This is a pear in acrylic

And an Apple in water color

Coming soon, squirrels.