Spotlight On: DAVE RAPOZA

Dave first made it onto my radar a few years ago when I stumbled across his work on Conceptart.org. I then later saw a piece he did for Jon Schindehette's Art Order Challenge, and that clenched it! In just a few short years, Dave Rapoza went from "that kid to watch out for" to, honestly, one of my favorite young artists.  Apparently I'm not the only one, as Dave has been working pretty regularly for companies like Wizards of the Coast and Paizo Publishing.

For me, it's his character portraits that show off his true abilities. He turns simple head and shoulder portraits into exquisite character studies, with some absolutely amazing lighting affects. Exhibiting phenomenal edge and color control, these pictures have a sense of depth that makes them look like worlds unto themselves.

Most recently, Dave has completed a re-imagining of 15 classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters... A really ambitious project which took him over six months. Dave took a little time out of his schedule to talk about this project, and more, in an exclusive interview for Muddy Colors.

MC: I have heard that you never attended a formal art school, taught yourself anatomy, and learned to draw from life. What challenges or advantages do you think it has had on your career?

DR: Yea I never really could afford art school but hoped at some point I'd be able to do something with illustration as far as a career goes. I was pretty much convinced that I wouldn't be able to get good without school but my dad really got me on the idea of teaching myself using online/library resources. In the beginning it was all about motivating myself and developing some self discipline. Basically I got to a point where I decided that there would never be a "right" time to start, the stars would never align and no situation would ever be perfect enough. I just had to start forcing myself to sit and study all day everyday. That was the hardest part, that and finding/taking on all the really awful commissions I had to do in the beginning. Probably the biggest advantage to learning on my own was the work ethic I developed over time. Because I'm all freelance its basically up to me how everything goes. The days are planned according to what I deem important. So making myself get into the habit of doing hours of studies everyday followed by practice work really got me in a good mind set and helped start my career working fulltime freelance. There's nothing like fighting yourself and trying to convince yourself that studying is better than going out and having fun haha.

MC: What are your "tools of the trade" and how did you learn to use them?

DR: Well as I mentioned before I never really had a lot of money so my family never got me any sort of real art supplies growing up. Generally I just sorta sketched around and used prisma color markers from time to time. It wasn't until I got my scholarship in 11th grade that I started really getting into "painting" in any way. At the time I had already decided I wasn't gonna go to college so the scholarship was useless. Instead I convinced them to use the money to help buy me a Wacom tablet. After that I got into painting in photoshop and learning how to use all the tools. Took me a few years to really get serious about it though. After I graduated and started studying I really focused on getting used to the tablet and improving my work. I used to spend hours browsing conceptart.org and cgsociety.org trying to figure out how everybody did what they did haha. Once I started posting though I realized, from reading the forums, that I had to focus only on fundamentals instead of trying to mimic everybody's finished work. Then it just came down to all the studies I ended up doing.



MC: Who, or what, is your biggest influence?

DR: Hmm, not sure if I can name any one thing that has influenced me the most. But I pretty much just try to boil down everything that I love and try and bring that into my work. That could be the mood of the music I listen to plus my favorite style film shots and whatever else is getting me excited to work at the moment. Another thing that gets me into my work is the business side of it. I get really into trying to do work that gets seen by a lot of people. Whenever I see a project that I think will be big I try and target it and do work for it even if I'm not getting paid. Awhile ago when I saw Super Meat Boy I decided to try and get their attention with a piece of work for the main character. From there they saw it and I ended up doing the poster for the game that got released later on. Things like that really motivate me and I always enjoy the challenge of trying to catch someones eye and achieve new goals.

MC: What advice do you wish someone had told you when you were just starting out as an illustrator?

DR: Its funny to think about that because I'm not entirely sure I would like to give myself advice. I believe that failure is a huge part of the process. Without failure you can't really appreciate any sort of success. Everybody can tell you about the downfalls of any line of work but its nothing like learning from the actual experience. I can think back to mistakes I made but I don't know if I'd really know what I'm doing now if I hadn't gone through that haha. Although the road is hard to becoming anything, and I am by no means near my goal, its all about the trip there and not the end. Without all that terrible crap I wouldn't be able to look back and feel the same appreciation.  

MC: What is your process for creating an image?



DR: Several progress pics, as well as a ton of videos capturing the entire process in real time, can be found at: http://daverapoza.blogspot.com/

MC: What inspired you to start your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series? How has it evolved?

DR: When I got started I was only going to do Bebop and Rocksteady. But pretty much immediately after I finished them they got passed around the internet so fast that I started to get pretty pumped to continue. Not to mention they were a lot of fun. From then on I made a list of characters I wanted to finish and decided it would be a test of my own self discipline. I'd never done a full series straight through like this, especially not one that was all personal work. After my 3rd image I figured I could maybe sell prints to make up for all the time I was spending on the series. When I finished April O'Neil everything really got propelled forward. The image got featured on reddit and instantly got around 100k views first day I put it up. Once that happened I decided to post up about the pre-orders. I wasn't expecting the boost at all and basically sold out of all my prints the day after that. Since then they've all been selling out consistently and being featured all over which is totally awesome. I mean, its just kinda funny considering I did all this other work before but as soon as I attached myself to the turtles everything took off. Went from Dave to the guy who does the ninja turtles haha. But I couldn't be more grateful to everyone who has helped me with these prints and helped push me to finish. Even got to speak with Kevin Eastman which was huge for me having grown up with TMNT as a kid. Couldn't be happier.

MC: Are prints available for the TMNT series? 

DR: Well, the series 1 & 2 prints are all gone from what I understand (my girlfriend handles the orders). But the last set of just the turtles should be available either when you're reading this or not long after. All you gotta do is check the link at the top of my blog for details!

MC: Are you looking to do more commissioned work, or are you going to focus on creating work for yourself and selling prints?

DR: I'm not entirely sure just yet. Its been awhile since I've taken on any random commission work but I still do World of Warcraft cards and Magic: The Gathering work. Really it just depends on the job, if its awesome I'll totally be down for it. But for now the prints have helped me stay sane just balancing regular jobs with personal work that actually sells well. Its been a big stress reliever past few months.

MC: What is your next project?

DR: Good question, I don't really know anymore. It was going to be G.I. Joe and I wanted to tackle all the not so popular characters like Snow Job... Only problem is that I talked about it a bit too much and in doing so have really kinda killed it I think. So I haven't really told anyone what I've had in mind just so that I can continue to stay motivated to start it without feeling like I've already set some bar for myself.

MC: If you could collaborate with any artist (living or not) who would it be and why?

DR: Don't know if I could ever collaborate with anyone, its one of the reasons I'm freelance. I never could see myself working with anyone like that because I'm a bit too controlling when it comes to work. When I get into an idea that I'm excited about I feel like nobody can stop me from doing it or I'll freak out haha. But just on sheer awesomeness I'd love somebody like Alphonse Mucha to paint over one of my Thrash metal monsters. Just be really good at painting terrible stupid concepts like that.

MC: If you weren't an illustrator, what would you be doing?

DR: Thats a good question, I have a ton of hobbies. Hmm, I'd probably be skateboarding everyday, making movies with my friends and breakdancing all the time. But if I had to choose one I'd probably choose pursuing skateboarding. A lot of my old friends I used to skate with ended up going pro or right around there and I always felt a little bad I never continued to push myself in that direction. But I'd love doing what I do either way. 

Be sure to check out more of Dave's work at http://daverapoza.blogspot.com/ !

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Dufflepuds

-By Justin Sweet



Working on THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER was one of my favorite experiences in film design. I got to work with 2 of my closest buddies on a project that was dear to me. This was one of my favorite Narnia books. The director, Michael Apted was great to work for. Our office was right next to his, and he would come in daily to see what we would draw up.  Great fun this one. One of these days when I update my website, I'll post all the stuff i did for this project. Today I'll post my Dufflepuds. Briefly, these characters were dwarves that had been transformed by a wizard named Coriakin into monopods, -one legged. I've always loved drawing dwarves, and drawing one legged ones with one huge foot were just to cool to pass up. Here are a few that I did...

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Pirate Paintings for National Geographic Pt. 4

Gregory Manchess



This was a critical painting for the series.



The problem: show Black Sam Bellamy chasing the slave-ship, Whydah, finally over-taking her after a three-day chase, firing a shot across her bow, watching its sails unfurl, while the pirate crew cheers and the defeated captain looks on.



The actual problem: too much information.



The client was asking for a long animation of events, out of which I had to pick one moment to tell the story of the sequence.



This is a major problem in the illustration market. The client nearly always wants to portray more than is possible because they want to make sure the viewer understands what’s going on.

They fail to realize that the viewer always comes with information already locked in, based on thousands upon thousands of images they’ve already processed. That’s what they bring to the painting: awareness. In my paintings I assume the viewer is already intelligent. I won’t have to give them too much before they respond immediately to a visual prompt.



So, the first thing to toss was the three-day timing. It wouldn’t work as a slice of time. The accurate moment to capture was the point when they overtook the Whydah. I could show that from many angles, but which one? I had to pick a pov to capture the pirate crew, Bellamy, and the entire slave-ship, and still make it look natural. I decided on showing the scene from the perspective of a pirate that might have been standing on the rail, watching the scene unfold.

Still, I had to take liberties with the timing of the scene. I wanted to show the shot fired, but the client was desperate to have the sails unfurling in the painting. The action of shot, the cheering pirates, and the sails already dropping would take quite some time in actual life. So, I compromised the scene, to communicate a somewhat lengthy process into ‘fantasy time,’ to get the point across. This way, they could tell the story through the exhibit narration, and I could show the visual sequence compressed into one moment.



I built the scene from this thumbnail by projecting some reference and redrawing directly to the canvas.

Just before I started painting, they reminded me that I had to get the young boy pirate into the scene. (More on him later.) So I had to push figures around to open a spot for him.

After they saw the painting, they wanted Bellamy’s head turned. This took an entire day out of the schedule that I didn’t have to spare, but had to do. It added to my anxiety about the deadline.

Even with changes, this was one of my favorites to paint. Five down...five to go, about three weeks left at this point.

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Flying Monkeys

By Justin Gerard

Quick post today to share a speed-painting I put together recently to demo the brush sets. It is Photoshop CS5 over traditional pencil.  

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Wyeth at Work

By John Jude Palencar



Some of you may have seen this clip on YouTube. This video shows the only know footage of Andrew Wyeth at work. In this short clip he’s painting a small portrait of Thomas Hoving, the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. It is nice to see how informal this session is... Wyeth is a lap worker, sitting on a small stool in his father’s (N.C. Wyeth’s) studio. Although you can’t see how he is developing the image ... he does take frequent breaks to evaluate the painting by constantly checking measurements and proportions.  

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Strip Festival Breda

By Petar Meseldzija



A few days ago I came back from a comic convention, named Strip Festival Breda, that has been held in the charming city of Breda, in the Netherlands.  I was attending this convention as a member of the Flesk Publications group of artists, alongside such notables as Gary Gianni, Mark Schultz, William Stout and Craig Elliott. This was my third convention in the last two years and it was certainly one of the most pleasant, refreshing and inspiring events I have ever attended. 

A section of the Flesk Publications booth. From right to left: Gary Gianni, Craig Elliott, John Fleskes, Mark Schultz and Guido de Bue.

Mark Schultz talking to a fan. Craig Elliott and John Fleskes are behind him. It the background the collection of the Flesk books and Craig Elliott’s prints.

The convention itself was very nice, the fans were numerous, some kind, some shy and some a little pushy. I was told that the main difference between the European and the US conventions is that, in Europe, the artist is expected to answer to (almost) all the fans’ requests and to do the sketches for free, whilst the US artists often charge for the convention sketches. Being always eager to improve  and to learn new things and ways, and inspired by my US peers, I decided to apply this principle to my European fans. I did a little sketch if somebody bought a book, and I refused to do a sketch in the sketchbook of a fan if he/she did not want to buy a book. There was only one fan who wanted to pay for a more elaborate sketch. So, it was fun and I enjoyed it very much, in spite of the fact that I was very busy doing sketches for two days (just like the other four artists) in order to accommodate the wishes of my fans, and not to leave anyone without at least a quick sketch. As a consequence I did not get the chance to see the convention. However it was really great to be there, to see the fans, to talk to them, and to taste again that remarkable atmosphere of an art convention. 

Gary Gianni sketching.

Craig Elliott doing one of his girl sketches.

But, for me, the best part of this event was the time I spent with these four fellow artists, talking to them during the show, or at the dinner table of one of the cozy Breda restaurants, or in the hotel lobby, or even better, in a café  while drinking a glass of good Belgian beer (mostly Leffe Blond, or Leffe Bruin !) and recuperating from a rather stressful day of much sketching and talking. The camaraderie and the friendship that I was fortunate to experience while with them, the wise lessons and the useful advises that I got from them (for these guys are true masters, each in their own field, and as such they are a huge source of precious knowledge and experience); all these things contributed to the creation of an unforgettable atmosphere. I have learned many important things just by listening to their stories and through observing them create their art. It was priceless!

Beside these four man blessed with various talents, and kind and generous personality, there were a few other persons that made this event possible. Firstly our publisher John Fleskes, ever sensitive and omnipresent, in the best possible way, who brought us together and made sure we felt comfortable and happy. His insights and his attentiveness have always impressed and inspired me. Needless to say, without him the Flesk team would not be able to come together and the Breda experience would probably never happen in our lives!

William Stout doing one of his zombie sketches.

Me, doing a Tarzan drawing.

The Flesk Prime: Mark Schultz, Craig Elliott, Gary Gianni, Petar Meseldzija and William Stout.

And last, but not least, there are a few other individuals whose passion for art, dedication, perseverance, extreme generosity  and  hard work, made this extraordinary experience possible. In fact it was they who invited Flesk to attend the show, together with the artists, and organized our part of the event in a way that was impeccable and impressive. So, Mark Thelosen and Guido de Bue - Chapeau and Salut, guys! 

Good friends: Mark Thelosen, Petar Meseldzija and John Fleskes.

William Stout

Craig Elliott

Gary Gianni

Mark Schultz

Petar Meseldzija

Well, you know, most of us artists spend much of our lives alone  in our studio, and when this kind of opportunity is presented to us, I think we should embrace it. Who else is able to understand and support us better than our “brothers in arms”, especially when it seems that we “vibrate” on the similar, if not the same, wavelength together with them.

At the end, I guess you could conclude that one of the main points of this post is – in order to feel happy, content and inspired, you need a friend, a comrade, or a kind of professional soul mate. You need to share your passions with them. You need to enrich their lives, and to let them enrich yours.  I think this is a very important aspect of being an artist. We need each other in order to grow better and less crooked. We need each other’s shadows, for when in the shadow, we will work (grow) harder  in order to get out of it.  My father always told me that when you want to plant a birch tree in your yard, you should plant three of them together, saying that it helps them grow better. I never found out whether this was really true or not, but I always liked that idea.

Cheers!

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