Spectrum 19 Award Nominees

And the nominees are...

***EDIT***

For those of you in countries where the video doesn't work, the complete list is as follows:



Advertising:

Jutin Coro Kaufman: Mothead

Android Jones: Boom Festival

Tyler Jacobson: Talon of Umberlee

Tyler Jacobson: Daask Crime Lord

Lucas Graciano: Temple Guardian



Book:

John Jude Palencar: Bared Blade

Edward Kinsella: Wooden Bones

Petar Meseldzija: Eowyn and the Lord of the Nazgul

Dragan Bibin: Vid the Vampire

Jean-Babtiste Monge: Ragnarok



Comics:

Jim Murray: DOTA 2: Tales from the Secret Shop

Sonny Liew: Malinky Robot

Andy Brase: DarkSun II

Phroilan Gardner: The Destroyer

Alex Alice: Sigfried III



Concept Art:

Justin Sweet: Jack the Giant Killer

Brian Matyas: Spartan Victory

Robh Ruppel: Yemen

Daniel Dociu: Hangar

Allen Williams: Unknown One



Dimensional:

Jonathan L. Matthews: Batman, Black and White

Thomas S. Kuebler: I am Providence

Virginie Ropars: Jack

Allan Carrasco: Rhinatuar

Michael Defeo: Octopus



Editorial:

Chris Buzelli: Strength in Numbers

Jean-Baptiste Monge: Mic Mac Cormac

Bobby Chiu: Early Bloom

Ture Ekroos: Beneath

James Gurney: Kosmocertatops



Institutional:

Android Jones: Water Dragon 2012

Petar Meseldzija: The Rescuer

Bill Carman: Three Wishes

Raoul Vitale: Turin and the Glaurung

Omar Rayyan: Crow and the Picture



Unpublished:

Eric Fortune: Last Embrace

Andrew Theophilopoulos: Princess of the Pleia Dians

Justin Gerard: Portrait of a Monster #3

Kei Acedera: morning Chill

Michael Whelan: CK Unmasked

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Ralph McQuarrie, 1929–2012

Via CNN-



Ralph McQuarrie, the man credited with bringing director George Lucas' vision for "Star Wars" to the big screen, has died at the age of 82.



McQuarrie's conceptual designs were the basis for some of the trilogy's iconic characters such as Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO.



A statement on McQuarrie's official website, posted after his death Saturday, said his influence on design will be felt forever.



"There's no doubt in our hearts that centuries from now amazing spaceships will soar, future cities will rise and someone, somewhere will say... that looks like something Ralph McQuarrie painted," it read.



Lucas said he was saddened by McQuarrie's passing, calling him a visionary artist and a humble man.



"Ralph McQuarrie was the first person I hired to help me envision Star Wars," Lucas said. "His genial contribution, in the form of unequaled production paintings, propelled and inspired all of the cast and crew of the original Star Wars trilogy.



"When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph's fabulous illustrations and say, 'Do it like this.'"



McQuarrie also helped to create concept designs for the original Battlestar Galactica TV show, along with the movies "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."



McQuarrie's conceptual work on the 1985 film, "Cocoon," won him the Academy Award for Visual Effects.

www.ralphmcquarrie.com

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Student Interviews

by Eric Fortune



I get emails from students every now and then with art related questions. I've recently been getting more than normal and a request for a phone interview as well. I try to answer as many as I have time for. Unfortunately, my time has been quite limited. So besides sharing a few sketches I'm struggling with I thought I'd also share another Q & A.

Thanks, for such a quick response. I actually saw some of your work in an illustration annual. I'm doing a presentation on an illustrator that I feel is influential, for my introduction to illustration class. I compiled a couple questions below. Thank you so much!



1. It looks like your work involves a great deal of layering. What are some of your choice materials to use?



Yes, I paint in very thin, watered down washes of acrylics on watercolor paper. Nothing special but it does require a lot of time. Sometimes more than I wish to give.



2. How do you deal with limitations in projects, when you feel like you can't insert your own artistic voice into the work?



You always do the best you can. Not every job has the potential to be something great. Sometimes clients know what they want ahead of time or have certain criteria that must be adhered to. That being said, they called you for a reason. They like your artistic vision. So you should try your best to make it your own. A good illustrator can make a great piece of art out of a mundane idea. That's our job. I think that's part of what separates great illustrators from the crowd, the ability to consistently do great work regardless of the assignment.



3. Illustration students often hear about the importance of developing a style that defines their work. How do you think you arrived at having the style you have today?



No one lives in a vacuum. We all have our influences. I think we should all be looking at other great artists and be open to all sorts of other creative venues. Try to be aware if you’re being too influenced by one artist in particular. If so put them on the shelf for a while and surround yourself with different artists in different fields. Constantly expanding our range of influences can be helpful, especially since it can be easy to get into a cycle of predictable solutions for problems. I try to do what appeals to me the most and make art that I like as opposed to what might seem like a trendy style. I’ve never really considered myself as having a very notable "style". Although, over time it kept developing further and eventually became more distinct. However, this was something that happened naturally over time and for me was less about forcing myself to find and stick with a style.



4. What sort of illustrations would you say viewers tend to be the most responsive to?



The paintings that I really enjoy working on also seem to resonate with the viewers. These are often the paintings where I have just enough art direction and freedom to make good art. For example, the pieces that have been accepted into Society of Illustrators or Spectrum also tend to be some of my own favorites.



5. What do you think are important things to consider, when a student is putting together a portfolio?



1. This sounds obvious. But good art work! Be honest with yourselves and your peers. You help each other more when you’re honest and constructive. Compare your work to the people you admire and other professionals or even the best at school. Are you up to par? It's a very competitive world out there.

2. Presentation. Whether it’s your website or your physical portfolio it should be clean and user friendly. The images should be consistently sized with similar borders. Everything should feel cohesive. In a physical portfolio it’s best to have the strongest image first, 2nd strongest last, and the 3rd strongest should be your second page etc with your weaker pieces in the middle.

If you’re at a convention or meeting an art director in person be sure to have a business card or postcards to leave behind after a portfolio review.



You may have heard this before “an Art Dir. may judge you on your weakest piece”. Because if they hire you that's what you may deliver. You're weakest piece should still be up to a certain standard. If you have a boring assignment it’s up to you to develop an engaging visual. See each assignment as an opportunity to push out the current weakest piece in your portfolio.



6. Students that work traditionally sometimes feel pressured by the growing presence of digital work in the market. Would you say that there is still just as great a demand for traditional work as there is for digital work?



Ultimately, I think if it’s a good image it’s a good image regardless of the medium. That said, I’ve heard art directors say that they sometimes miss getting a great painting in the mail that would then be shared around the office. Personally, I’ve been to some illustration openings where I was hoping to see some originals only to be let down by small prints. I guess it depends on the context. But overall I think it’s become less of an issue.



7. What do you feel is the most challenging thing about working as an illustrator?



Besides trying to have a consistently outstanding body of work promoting yourself is a challenge. Getting that first opportunity to prove your self can be frustrating. Constantly trying to expand your network and clientele is very time consuming in the beginning. Hopefully, at a certain point people will begin to recognize your name and work. But one can't be complacent. Have a website, start a blog, do whatever you can and keep people updated on what you’re doing.

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Krampus

-Dan dos Santos



Anyone who has been keeping up with Brom's work has likely noticed that he has moved away from commercial illustration, and instead has been producing his own illustrated novels. Not just picture books, but full blown novels. 'Plucker', and 'The Devil's Rose' are both both recent, and fantastic examples of his current work.



Yesterday, io9 posted an exclusive sneak peek of Brom's upcoming book "Krampus: the Yule Lord"...

Santa Claus...



How vile your name upon my tongue. Like acid, hard to utter without spitting. Yet I find myself capable of speaking little else. It has become my malediction, my profane mantra.



Santa Claus... Santa Claus... Santa Claus.



That name, like you, like your Christmas and all its perversions, is a lie. But then you have always lived in a house of lies, and now that house has become a castle, a fortress. So many lies that you have forgotten the truth, forgotten who you are...forgotten your true name.



I have not forgotten.



I will always be here to remind you that it is not Santa Claus, nor is it Kris Kringle, or Father Christmas, or Sinterklaas, and it certainly is not Saint Nicholas. Santa Claus is but one more of your masquerades, one more brick in your fortress.



I will not speak your true name. No, not here. Not so long as I sit rotting in this black pit. To hear your name echo off the dead walls of this prison, why that...that would be a sound to drive one into true madness. That name must wait until I again see the wolves chase Sol and Mani across the heavens. A day that draws near; a fortnight perhaps, and your sorcery will at long last be broken, your chains will fall away and the winds of freedom will lead me to you.



I did not eat my own flesh as you had so merrily suggested. Madness did not take me, not even after sitting in this tomb for half a millennium. I did not perish, did not become food for the worms as you foretold. You should have known me better than that. You should have known I would never let that happen, not so long as I could remember your name, not so long as I had vengeance for company.



Santa Claus, my dear old friend, you are a thief, a traitor, a slanderer, a murderer, a liar, but worst of all you are a mockery of everything for which I stood.



You have sung your last ho, ho, ho, for I am coming for your head. For Odin, Loki, and all the fallen gods, for your treachery, for chaining me in this pit for five hundred years. But most of all I am coming to take back what is mine, to take back Yuletide. And with my foot upon your throat, I shall speak your name, your true name, and with death staring back at you, you will no longer be able to hide from your dark deeds, from the faces of all those you betrayed.



I Krampus, Lord of Yule, son of Hel, bloodline of the great Loki, swear to cut your lying tongue from your mouth, your thieving hands from your wrist, and your jolly head from your neck.

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Single figure portraits

-Jesper Ejsing









Doing a single figure portrait is a favourite discipline of mine. I try to minimize the background to almost only a texture surface at the bottom or even only a cast shadow to show that the figure is not hovering in midair. I put all in the figure. What I like about this kind of illustration is the clean and simple expression. I do not have to tell a story or place him or her in an environment. I do not have to consider all these things as: environmental light, bouncing light, readability compared to the background and all that stuff, that usually fills my head to the brim of disaster. I can relax and focus only on designing the figure and capturing his or her sentiment. ( I am getting a little overexcited here, since almost all of my single figures have one of the same two expressions: either sexy or tight-lip-angry and determined. I should try to jazz it up by combining the two?. Never mind. Tried it in the mirror; doesn’t work ) I always sketch these figures very large and rough at first trying to capture a twist or a movement to the body. It is kind of the same way as you would do nude model drawings on time. You have to get it down on paper very fast in 2 or 3 minutes.

Packlord Paragon, interior illustration for DND Primal Power

The female figure I captured in first try. After noting that date down on a calendar I proceeded with a little tonal value and then sketched the figure in full detail. The art description is mostly about race, equipment, weapons and character class. There is just so many ways to make a figure “just standing there” look boring and uninteresting. I would like the body to have small twist and turns and bends in the torso and wrist and so on, to make the pose believable and interesting. This means I have to stand in the pose myself. I get up and grab a staff and a knife and try to pose myself in front of a mirror. I really recommend doing this to every pose, to get a feel for what feels right. I just think the way she has the weapons actually slightly behind her body is carefree and shows that she can handle you even with the weapons not ready. They are out to the side saying: “come on. I´ll let you get one strike at me for free”. I used a H&M catalogue for facial references and almost completely stole the tiger pose from the internet. The colours I kept very close to red and orange. The only cool contrast is a small sky reflection on the back of the tiger, to not make the light look too flat. I added some small cuts and fresh scratches to her skin. And the usual mud on the boots. Even elves get dirty and have twigs rip their skin and clothes when running tree-hugging through the forest.

Vorthian, Interior illustration for DND Shadowfell

This guy is a Demon prince. The description of him sounded very complicated yet very free. He had no eyes, a halo, missing the left hand, having wings, and carrying a giant spear. The rest; armour clothes and, well the rest, was up to me. I have no idea why I chose the walking stance for him. But I went for a twisted torso with us looking more into his neck area and torso than right upon it. The hunched pose seems right for tough guys or fighting stances. They protect the neck by hunching and make the critical part of the body difficult to hit. I used a skull from my studio to get the structure in his face right. The wings I folded and bent so that they were more hanging or draping behind him like a cape billowing in the wind. The could have been stretched out basking or moving but I just liked them as a graphic element more than them being included in his weapon arsenal. I think they would draw attention away from the main part if they had been stretched out. Basically all my choices are moving around drawing too much or too little attention. The background I had to fill out, behind most of the figure, since I needed something to establish a contrast to the bluish white halo. You cannot paint light without framing it in something dark. Also this allowed me to exploit my favourite trick: rim-lighting. I did try to tone it down here. Kept it only on the face and the arm with the spear. “Oh well the hip also, for Christ sake, but that was only as a last resort to keep it clear of the wing behind the hip. Let it go!” There are two things that I really like in this illustration: One is the arm stump. I have never seen one and I didn’t dare Google picture-search that particular word. I just imagined the area around the bone would make the flesh bulk and grow uneven together. The little red dot and pinkish tone in the final makes the old wound look irritated. The other thing I really like, and it might sound stupid, is his left boot. The lowest part of the leg and greaves are captured and rendered with as few strokes as I possibly could. I always try to go less and simple instead of dotting and rendering layer upon layer. It almost always doesn´t succeed and I end up with much more nitty-picking than needed, but in this boot it came out simple and elegant.

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Taking my own advice

-Dan dos Santos



So after imploring countless people to register their artwork with the U.S. Copyright Office, I am proud to say that I finally got around to doing it myself! My Certificate of Registration just arrived in the mail the other day, and I'm psyched!



I honestly don't know why it took me so long, the process is incredibly easy. Basically, all you need is $30 and half an hour... and you can register everything you've ever painted.

Typically, registering a work with the copyright office costs about $30 per piece. But the really nice thing is, the piece being registered can be a collection of work. Meaning all the material contained therein is then registered as well.



Further more, if the work in question has never been printed (ie. a PDF), you can register it completely electronically. If you have printed it, you need to mail a hard copy to the Library of Congress for their records. That's a bit more work, and expense. So for the sake of ease, I recommend creating a new, electronic version of said book, just for registration purposes.



So here is what you do:



1. Make a PDF called 'The Art of Whatever".

2. Toss every piece you still own the rights to in it.

3. Go HERE

4. Create an account and fill out all the info regarding your work.

5. Send $30 electronically.

6. Wait 2 weeks, and your Certificate of Registration magically arrives in the mail!



Seriously. It's that easy. You've probably wasted more time on Facebook today than doing this actually takes. So come on, people! I want to see comments from everyone who did something really productive today!

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Illustration

by Arnie Fenner





All the chatter for some time now has been regarding the evolution in publishing from print to digital. E-books this, tablets that: get content on your computer, on your smart phone, on your Kindle/Nook/IPad. Print is dead, yadayadayada. Me? Though I've got all the gadgets and use them daily I still prefer to pick up a good ol' fashioned newspaper or book or magazine when I want to read, either for enjoyment or to learn something.



The New York Times recently ran an article discussing a study claiming that an inordinately high percentage of people who used only the computer for their information or entertainment--rarely (if ever) picking up traditional books or magazines--experienced significantly lower levels of reading comprehension and shorter memories of what they'd read on-line. Now how true that might be is anyone's guess: there's the old caveat coined either by Mark Twain or Benjamin Disraeli, depending on who you want to believe, of, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Then again...a favorite server at the neighborhood restaurant Cathy and I frequent is going to school to be a nurse and during a recent chat she was complaining that the hardest part was having to use a regular book to study: "There's no 'search' option to find things for you! You have to read everything!"



What does all this have to do with Illustration magazine? Oh, not much, I suppose. Other than it gives me an opportunity to say that I love it, much prefer to hold a printed copy in my hands and savor each cleanly-designed page at my leisure rather than peruse it on-line (which is also an option publisher Dan Zimmer makes available for free), and believe everyone with even the slightest interest in art will find it invaluable and worthy of support. Whether you take out a subscription or buy it at your favorite bookstore, you'll be glad you did.



At the top: The most recent issue (#36) features heavily illustrated articles about John Berkey and Rose O'Neill.

Issue #35 features Joseph Szokli, Walt Reed, and Harry Clarke.

Issue #33 featured Jack Gaughan, Charles Copeland, and Edward Shenton.

Issue #32 featured Herbert Morton Stoops and Ed Balcourt.

Issue #26 featured Graves Gladney, Nan Pollard, and The American Academy of Art.

Issue #19 featured Louis Glanzman, Ed Emshwiller, and the Patterson & Hall Studio.

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