The Zirngiblog: September 2011

Saturday, September 10, 2011

TAD Summer Workshop 2011 (Catching Up, pt. 5)

Another thing I did this past summer was the TAD workshop! Busybusy... Anyway, it was a great experience, and brought back memories of the 2009 Illustration Academy.

It was also great to be able to meet some of my classmates (and teachers!) from the previous spring's semester in person. Though it seems like everyone in my group went to last December's workshop instead...

I didn't really go out and experience Kansas City, due to having no transportation and being busy with the workshop. But that's OK.

Anyway, the main project we had that first week was to design a new character class for Team Fortress 2. Much of it was about paying attention to silhouette, making the character unique from the others in shape, but fitting in with them well. Just like the IMC, we had so many demos and lectures going on, plus figure drawing, so it was hard to get a whole lot done. But honestly, it's more about learning than producing.

Here's what I ended up with (orthos were done later though):

I had to leave halfway through the workshop, so there were two other projects I missed, but I'll take what I can get!

Here's a totally unrelated Environment of the Week entry I worked on while there too. Definitely stuff that could be fixed on this though.

So... here are some photos!

Flooding on the way to KC. Don't remember where this is but I LOVE it.

Anita Kunz paints Michele Bachmann. Originally done for a news magazine, but you can see it here: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/michele-bachmann-iowa-frontrunner

Jon Foster does a head painting demo in Painter and Photoshop. Lots of great stuff here.

Demo party: 3 for on1 (George Pratt, John English, Vanessa Lemen)

Ted Kinsella watermedia demo.

Andy Brinkman being... Andy. Haha

We really have a ton of room, the whole 6th floor of a fairly big building. Great space!

Figure Drawing

Mark English and Colin Boyer going at at.

John English, figure painting

Vanessa Lemen giving an imaginative head painting demo. Love the way that red bounce light pops it!

Ron Lemen giving an excellent rush lesson of human anatomy. He drew out a crapload of boards like this, super-fast.

George Pratt painting his entropy character in a demo.

Talking w/ class

Marshall giving an anatomy demo.

I love this face! Artists...

Me working on my character.

Boy, Kansas City looks a whole lot like it could fit right into the Team Fortress 2 world.

View from the (unsafe) fire escape outside my window. I love this ivy place. Supposedly a waterfall goes down that building when it rains, which is why it's so grown in the first place...

Jason Manley critting our TF2 characters. Was great to finally meet him!

Marshall Vandruff and Terry Brown just talking with us casually. I think we were discussing introversion/extroversion here.

Our building used these cool old industrial elevators. Here's Brent Watkinson coming up!

Terry Brown giving and American illustration history lecture.

Right before our zombie character design lecture.

Hahaha, I knew this would become a common sight...

Artists...

Awesome building ouside my hotel. Dieselpunky goodness.

At a rest area on the way back. Who knew state governments could actually have a sense of humor?

The Illustration Masterclass! (Catching Up, pt. 4)

(OK, so I'm a little late to the party on this one, since this happened all the way back in mid-June... but here goes!)

I went to my first Illustration Masterclass (IMC) this summer, and I certainly hope it isn't my last. It was amazing. I got to meet and hang with some of the greatest people in the fantasy industry today. Let's just say that my Spectrum autograph collection has grown...

To save myself some work, James Gurney has an article here.

The artists included:
Ian McCaig, Donato Giancola, Greg Manchess, Dan Dos Santos, Adam Rex, Julie Bell, Boris Vallejo, Rebecca Guay, Scott Fischer, Irene Gallo (AD of Tor), Scott Allie (Comics writer, editior of Hellboy/Buffy and others). Guest lecturers included Peter De Seve, Mo Willems, and James Gurney. I want to shout out a big Thank-you to Rebecca Guay for putting it together.

One of the best things about it was the social aspect of it. There people from all walks and stages of life (some great pros among the students, people who have had careers like matte painter, concept artist, Nickelodeon animator, children's book illustrator/author), toy illustrator, architect, and many others). It was great to all have our meals in the same place and talk to new people every day.

And at the end of it all, I still managed to do a painting. (Well, not finish it, but get a good start!)
Here be it:

16" x24", Oil

The class photo. Lots more people here. Guess where I am? Yep, hanging from the tree!

Shot of faculty, courtesy James Gurney.

Interior of conference room. We probably had nearly 20 lectures here in the course of a week!

Setting up in the upstairs (traditional) studio

Critique with Adam REx, Irene Gallo, Boris Vallejo, and Dan Dos Santos

This is priceless - Donato Giancola and Greg Manchess fighting over who's the best artist. Either that, or giving a demo of taking good ref by roleplaying a slave and master... or something. I'll let you take your pick.