Building Fantastical Worlds

Communication Arts magazine has just posted an article by Lisa Cyr based on interviews with Spiderwick creator Tony DiTerlizzi and me.


The article explores how imaginary worlds from illustrated books can develop into other media, such as  film and games.


"Building Fantastical Worlds" at CA
Tony DiTerlizzi's official website
Wondla to be adapted by Paramount
Images from Simon & Schuster and Paramount

Cloud Streets

Cloud streets are parallel rows of cumulus clouds that line up in the direction of a steady wind.


The lines are typically about five miles apart, with clear sky between, and they can extend for hundreds of miles.

Also called "horizontal convective rolls," they often form over flat country in spring or summer when the wind is blowing beneath an inversion layer. As the wind travels under that layer, it divides into a series of counterrotating cells. Where the air in two adjacent cells lifts upward, a line of clouds forms, and where they join to spin downward, clear air prevails.

Glider pilots can stay aloft for miles by following cloud streets.

Wikipedia on Horizontal Convective Rolls
Photo by Stu Ostro from Weather.com

Art makes us feel like we’re in love

In a recent study, Semir Zeki, Professor of Neuroaesthetics at the University College of London has shown that artwork stimulates the same centers of the brain that are active when we fall in love.



His research has shown that looking at an inspiring painting activates reward centers and releases the “feel-good” neurotransmitter dopamine.

Previously on GJ: Neuroaesthetics, with Semir Zeki interview
Professor Zeki's Blog
Zeki's book: Splendors and Miseries of the Brain: Love, Creativity, and the Quest for Human Happiness

Where is Your Head?

My friend Nenko Genov of Bulgaria made a short film recently about our mechanical way of life, where we do things without using our heads.


Where Is Your Head from Nenko Genov on Vimeo.
A little dinosaur sketch that I sent him makes a cameo appearance in the film, pinned on the refrigerator door at 2:59. Thanks, Nenko!

Illustration Master Class 2011

Illustration Master Class was in full swing in Amherst, Massachusetts, when we arrived yesterday.


Here's student Mark Helwig with his dragon reference maquette, made of Super Sculpey. He told me that it's his first time using Sculpey. There are about 100 students from all over the world, some using digital, some traditional, and some combining the two.

The workshop lasts a week, and at this stage the students have already gotten their sketch approved, gathered reference, and transferred the drawings onto the painting surface. Many of the students are professionals themselves, but everyone is trying something new, sharing techniques with each other, and staying up late hours.


IMC is team-taught by a faculty of guests and regulars, so students get plenty of opinions (not always agreeing opinions) about their sketches. I'm here for a day and a half as a guest speaker.

Back row: me, Greg Manchess, Dan Dos Santos, Irene Gallo, Scott Allie, Jeff Mack, Donato Giancola. Front Row: Adam Rex, Scott Fischer, Iain McCaig, Rebecca Guay, Julie Bell, and Boris Vallejo (Peter d.S. was away on a phone call).

 
Here's a sketch of Mo Willems, who did a slide show, explaining the anatomy of a children's picture book.

Peter de Sève did a wonderful presentation about his life in caricature and character design. Later on, Rebecca (left) treated us to a faculty supper at a Chinese restaurant, where Peter and Mo showed us other ways to think about those take-out containers.

New Composition Lecture

Jeanette and I are on our way to the Illustration Master Class in Amherst, Massachusetts, a team-taught workshop with about 80 fantasy and science fiction art students.


IMC goes on for a whole week, but we’ll be there just two days. I’ll give the Color and Light talk tonight, and a brand new lecture on Composition tomorrow.

I’ll also be presenting the composition lecture in a seminar this October at LAAFA in Los Angeles.

Composition has traditionally been taught in abstract terms, using concepts such as eye pathways, golden section, or balancing masses. Most art schools and books teach it this way, and I believe it’s useful...up to a point.

I’m going to take quite a different approach, focusing on three things:
1. Visual perception (how do viewers really look at pictures?)
2. Storytelling (what does the picture hope to communicate?)
3. Tonal design (how can the lights and darks be arranged for maximum effect?)

My thinking draws on the science of visual perception, and on the ideas of American illustrator Howard Pyle.

Pyle revolutionized the teaching of composition by making the story paramount. Pyle’s student Jessie Willcox Smith recalled how one’s awareness of the story influenced the choices in composition:

"At the [Pennsylvania] Academy [of the Fine Arts] we had to think about compositions as an abstract thing, whether we needed a spot here or a break over there to balance, and there was nothing to get hold of. With Mr. Pyle it was absolutely changed. There was your story, and you knew your characters, and you imagined what they were doing, and in consequence you were bound to get the right composition because you lived these things. . . . It was simply that he was always mentally projected into his subject.”

If you live in Los Angeles, I encourage you to sign up early for my October lecture/demo workshop at LAAFA.

This will be the perfect material for you if you’ve developed good figure drawing and painting skills but you want to know how to develop a multifigure scene. 

The Jessie Wilcox Smith quote will appear in the essay I recently wrote for the upcoming exhibition catalog called “Howard Pyle: American Master Rediscovered.”

Illustration Master Class
LAAFA workshop on Compositionhttp://reg125.imperisoft.com/LAAFA/ProgramDetail/3132393637/Registration.aspx

Envelope Contest Winners

The votes are in from the Group Mind.

Congratulations to Kenneth Fairclough for winning the Envelope Art Contest with the mountain riders drawn in markers and colored pencils. Emily Willoughby came in second with the very delicate drawing of the Anchiornis huxleyi. Patrick Waugh was third in the adult division with his tabletop still life covered with Dinotopian artifacts.

Arthur M. had the most votes in the young people's division with his impressive knight fighting the dinosaur (just the tip of the iceberg of his stack of envelopes). His brother Paul was right behind with his dinosaur origami menagerie. And Cassidy W. got a solid third with the multi-eyed spider and the sauropod. And kudos to Dmitri who did a wonderful drawing, too. At nearly age 5, he's off to a great start.

Everyone will receive a poster (some of you may have received them already), and the finalists will get a set of them. Thanks again to everybody for entering--I'm pleased as punch with the fantastic work you all did.

"Dear Mr. Rockwell: You painted one of my sons black."

From the Norman Rockwell fan mail archive:


“Dear Mr. Rockwell,
Let me start this letter by telling you that I am the mother of two of the boys that posed for the 1974 Boy Scout Calendar.

“This is a very difficult letter to write as my boys happen to be twins and you painted one of them ‘black.’ Of course, they are both ‘white.’




“The boys have been eagerly awaiting the calendars and so have all our friends. Yesterday I received 20 copies I had requested from Brown & Bigelow and I haven’t had the courage to show it to them.

“I realize nothing can be done now but maybe you could write Steve (the one you painted black) a little note of apology so he’ll know it was a mistake. Steve happens to want to be an artist and he has some talent (he’s been drawing since he was around 2 yr. of age). A note from you would mean a lot. He even has your book, “60 Years in Retrospect.”

“The twins never even cashed your check as they are saving them as a souvenir of the day they posed for you.

“Mr. Rockwell, if there’s anything you can say to Steve to explain this I would be very grateful.

Yours sincerely,
Jennie Negron”


For the 1975 calendar, Norman Rockwell cast an African-American young man for the role.

Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art

A new book has just been published called “Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Art.”

The lavish volume spotlights 28 artists working in the field of contemporary fantastic art. It is written by Karen Haber, a Hugo-nominated science fiction novelist and writer for Locus Magazine.

Haber drew extensively from personal interviews and published material to give a biographical sketch of each artist and a description of their philosophy and working methods. In addition to finished works, some artists include step-by-steps and preliminary sketches.  The text emphasizes the tools of the trade. Artists are grouped according to digital, traditional, and combined digital / traditional.


Like its predecessors “Infinite Worlds” and "The Chesley Awards,” this volume will become a standard reference for the field, with plenty of useful tips for beginning artists and unique insights for collectors. Each chapter is around eight pages and includes about 10-15 images, beautifully reproduced.


Limiting the selection to 28 artists inevitably leaves out some really important people in the field, so not everyone is here, but the group includes: Jim Burns, Shaun Tan, Dave Seeley, Avi Katz, John Picacio, Pavel Mikhailenko, Ken Wong, Brom, Greg Spalenka, Bruce Jensen, Scott Fischer, Todd Lockwood, Stephan Martiniere, Tomasz Maronski, Camille Kuo, Galan Pang, Marta Dahlig, James Gurney, Kinuko Craft, Charles Vess, Donato Giancola, Rebecca Guay, Dan Dos Santos, Petar Meseldzija, Terese Nielsen, Bob Eggleton, Don Maitz, and Gregory Manchess.   

The book is 9x12 inches, softcover, 224 pages, with a dust jacket that folds out to a poster.
Masters of Science Fiction Art From Amazon
Masters of Science Fiction Art from the Dinotopia Store, signed by me if you like (send $30.00 plus $4.50 shipping. Item number is MSFFA, though it's not officially listed yet.)

Envelope Art Contest: Please Vote!

I’m very pleased to present the amazingly creative entries for the Envelope Art Contest, and I invite you to vote in the two polls at left.

The entries are divided into two groups: Under age 17, and the rest of us grown-folks. Each envelope has a blue sticker with a letter or number corresponding to the letters and numbers in the poll.


There are four entries for young people, labeled A-D in the blue labels (Click to enlarge). The ages are 4, 9, 12, and 14. Multiple entries form a stack (We had to pick just one to put on top). Please vote for the ONE that is your favorite. One vote per person, please.

The adult entries are placed in order of ZIP code, starting with one from Europe. If you click on the image file, it should open up to one big file two big files where you can scroll down through all the entries.

Part one

Part two:
 
  After you’ve checked out all the images above, please vote for the ONE you like best in the “Adult” poll at left. 

Winners and finalists in each of the two separate divisions will receive a group of signed and remarqued posters. Everyone who entered will receive a signed poster, too.

Thanks so much to everybody for voting and everyone who entered. Even if your piece doesn’t get a lot of votes, I will treasure it. The folks who work at our Post Office kept stopping us to say how blown away they were by all the work!