Steven Universe

This is a short post, I just want to say how proud I am of Steven Universe.

I believe it is one of the finest written television shows of all time.

When I first started watching Steven Universe, I admit that I did not like it, but by the third episode I was hooked into the characters and their stories. Lately the stories have been getting more personal and revealing about not only the characters but human nature in general.

The latest episode, Maximum Capacity brought me to tears at the end.

Thank you to the crew of Steven Universe, you have raised the bar for all cartoons and for television in general, and I hope one day to have the immense please of being able to work with some of the talented people on the show.

Watch This while you drink your coffee

I've been a follower of Bobby Chiu and his live streams for a long time now, and the insight that I have gained from watching the past ones is invaluable. I must say that these two videos of the most recent Chiustreams are by far the most powerful, most potent, most practical and inspiring videos he has ever created.

If you are a young artist or even a veteran, please take the time to watch these videos, they are interactive and require your participation, as you watch you are expected to be drawing along and following his instructions on how to listen to your inner child and create freely. 

I met Bobby and Kei at CTNX this last year and they are among some of the kindest people that I have had the pleasure to sit down and talk with. Kei Acedera is normally out of range of the microphone during these chiustreams but she is one of my heroes, nut just in terms of her art, but in terms of her personality, she is by far without a doubt a good and kind soul, and so is Bobby.

So please show your support for these amazing artist, share and like their videos on facebook, buy a print, take a Schoolism Class or do whatever you think might help to spread the word so that all the young up and coming artists will be able to access this wonderful resource.

Thank you Bobby and Kei

You can also watch the video on their blog at http://imaginismstudios.blogspot.com/

Making people happy

This is my dream job.

Its as egotistical as it gets, but I want is to be the reason why people are laughing and smiling, and I don't always know how to do that. But that Is the reason I create.

You need to find the reason you create, here are a few questions that may spark your brain and encourage you to think deeply about why you are an artist.

Who are you creating for?

Why are you creating for them?

What is your goal?

My biggest fan is a 3 year old little girl, and every time I make her smile, I feel like everything that I have ever done is worth it. I want to bring joy to people. and its selfish because I want to be the one to bring the joy. I want to be the reason they are happy, I want them to be happy regardless even if my name is not on the credits, but it sure makes me feel good wen I know I am the reason.

The Making of How To Train Your Dragon 2

This documentary about how the Inspiring people at Dreamworks created one of the best animated features I have ever seen is extremely well made and I believe that we can learn something by watching this and seeing how the creators of the project are filled with love, excitement, fear and hope to create the very best movie that is possible.

So give yourself an hour and watch this short documentary, I know you will walk away feeling ready to create.

http://www.dwaawards.com/video/

Sending your work out part 2

This is a slight continuation of sending your work out, there were some things that I felt needed to be covered that I was unable to get to last time. Mainly what happens behind the scenes, after you send your work to a studio or art director.

They probably won't call you

These people are busy, and there are hundreds of artists just like you (well not just like you, you are a special flower) sending their work to the same person. Don't expect a response, and if you do get one, be nice and write back. But to help settle the stomach here are some reasons the might not call you back right away. I am going to run through these pretty quickly as they seem straight forward to me.


If you are applying to a studio that makes television, or movies or games. They are not going to need every kind of artist on standby. For example if I applied to be a storyboard artist on a television show, they may only need me for a few months out of the year, if all of the episodes have been written and boarded. Why would they hire a new storyboard artist? But they may remember you next year. So it is important to know the production schedule of the companies you are trying to work for. Its hard to gain that information but they produce shows with a sort of logic that I will get into later.


It is very possible that they are fully staffed with a talented crew, and that does not reflect badly on you, but from a financial viewpoint it does not make sense to bring on more artists than you need.

keep sending your work out though, It's a good idea to remind you exist every 6 months or so, if they think you will be a valuable asset to their production, they will reach out to you eventually and they will keep you on file.

Are you sending your work out? part 1

Ever since art school I have been told that I need to send my work out, and I am sure you have heard the same thing at one time or another. But the question is, are you sending your work out enough or at all? It's pretty obvious, the only way for people to know you exist is for them to see your work, and the best way for them to see your work is for you to show them.

The chances are you are not showing an art director your portfolio "just because" hopefully you want a job, and I've thought of some obvious questions but they seem to really help me when I am thinking about who I can show my new portfolio piece to.

What do you want to spend your time doing? 

 I used the think that I wanted to be a fantasy illustrator, because I thought I could do it and I could make money doing it, but I wasn't asking myself, "what do I do when I am not working on anything for my portfolio?" and it was something more fun and playful than fantasy card art. not that I don't love the stuff because I do, I just should not be doing it for a living because my hearts not in it.

Where do you want to work?

Maybe you have figured out that you want to work in whatever for now. but what companies really light your fire? what companies so you want to work for? or do you want to work for yourself?

What position do you want?

This is small but important, and worth specifying, even if you want to work for yourself, you are still going to have to wear certain hats, and you need to decide which hats you like.

What is the persons name that you want to see your work?

Who needs to see your work? for instance if you were applying to a television studio, you probably wouldn't send your portfolio to the interns or the receptionist. They don't make the hiring and firing decisions, and you need to find out who does, it's usually an art director, producer, or director.

Curate your work to that job

This was my big problem with fantasy art, when I started to show around my portfolio, it was not that they hated my paintings, although I doubt they loved them. But there was not a home for them, they were not serious enough to be card art, or polished enough to be card art, and they were too playful.  I've since stopped painting like that, I was painting like someone trying to be something else. And that was a bad idea.

How will you stand out?

This is a topic that probably requires it's own post, but standing out is important, and its something that you need to figure out how to do on your own. If someone else told you how to stand out and be different, that wouldn't be very different. But one thing that I can say is that you can tailor your physical portfolio to the job, for instance I heard a story about someone who got an interview at Laika, and the portfolio they brought with them was not in a 11x14 black book, but a hand crafted quality book that represented that they understood Laikas values,


Thanks!

Routine fueling creativity

I'm probably misquoting but I think it's been said before by some old lady,

"Routine replaces strength" 

This really touched me when I heard it. And it is absolutely true, I am not talking about waking up or going to bed at the same time every night although that has countless health benefits and will no doubt lead to greater productivity. That doesn't necessarily mean sleeping less or waking up early either, you can get more done.

I think it is very straight forward, as humans our bodies and minds crave routine, and regularity. For example some artists have only one set of clothes so that they never have to think about what to wear, a black shirt and jeans. Every single day. That frees their mind up just a little bit more to think about more  important things.

Setting aside an hour or half an hour a day to do ONE thing, it can be anything productive. For example, every morning I spend 30 minutes writing, I write about anything. And immediately after that I spend 30 minutes drawing figures from photos. 30 minutes is not a lot of time to practice these things, but that time is not the only time that I do them, I may write later in the day or I may figure draw all day, but I do those two 30 minute sessions every day.

Eventually that has grown and leeched onto my other working methods, now instead of working on "this" for a little white and letting four hours go by without doing anything I'll open a file and decide, "I will work on this for one hour, then I will evaluate what I accomplished at the end of the hour."

I encourage you to try it, set aside 30 minutes each day when you know you will be free and do something that you know will help you, for me its writing and drawing, but for you it can be anything and it can be at any time of day. Stick to it for one week, I think you will notice a difference.

Creative Trek

Recently I discovered a new podcast, that is absolutely amazing. Creative Trek hosted by Sean O'Daniels. I have been listening to the interviews back to back as if they were all chapters on a larger and ever updating book of interviews. Theres a lot of helpful insight that I have gained from the first listen to all of the episodes, even when it is an artist that I am unfamiliar with, their thoughts and experiences are still touching and relatable to me.

The show runs with a (successful) theme of asking all of the artists the same questions and sometimes having to prod them back to the point when they start to get off topic. Every now and again Sean O'Daniels came off as a bit aggressive but that didn't bother me, he knows what it takes to be a good interview. He only has these incredibly busy people for one hour and he has to make sure that they can talk about the things that really matter to them and other creatives.

I could go on talking about this show and how it works but you should just check it out yourself, this is the kind of resource that people would kill for and it only has 59 reviews on iTunes! we need to spread the word and get this show out there!

http://www.creativetrek.com/

Nathan Fowkes Interview

One of my favorite artists, Nathan Fowkes did an interview with the wonderful podcast creativetrek It's a truly inspiring and wonderful view of an artists journey from being a working professional to becoming a successful freelance artist.

The interview is lined with wonderful insights and reflections as Mr. Fowkes graciously shares his personal life with us

You can listen to the podcast through this handy little streaming service, It gives play counts to the podcast creator just to make sure that the person who created this gets the credit. You can also visit their website at creativetrek.com/ and browse their other interviews.

Thanks!

Generating Appeal in writing

I feel like every time I create and finish a new story, I learn one or two new things about the very elusive art of writing. One of the most elusive of the things that I have started to understand recently is appeal, appeal exists in drawing just as much as it does in writing. Even if you learn all the rules and you know your grammar and story structure, the thing you write just might not be interesting to people you are trying to reach. The actual content may be boring, but more likely is that there is no emotional growth or emotional connection with your characters.

Why do you read a story?

Did you read wizard of Oz because of its flawless story structure? Or was it because you felt connected to the main character and her ambition to want more out of her life, when in reality she had everything she needed? Great stories have these kernels of truth within them, look at any of your favorite story and you will see that the author is trying to communicate one simple idea through a complex narrative.

To show a better example of how I finally started to apply this thinking we can look at a story that I recently wrote to be a short comic book.

I wanted to write a story about wizards, so I started to write a story about wizards, and it turned out very badly for one reason, it had no emotional content. There were lots of cool wizards and fight scenes and some kissing even, but none of my characters really WANTED anything and none of them grew or learned anything, most of all, I didn't teach my audience anything. Someone who read that story would walk away looking at the world in the same way, and they would be unmoved.

So I went back to square one and I decided that the wizards were incidental, and before I could even touch the fun wizard fighting I needed a kernel. And this is where is got difficult because this is where you have to look inward and ask what do you care about? Whats eating you up inside and what will help people?

So after a week of bashing my head on a brick wall and trying to be deep I finally realized that I wanted to talk about parental abuse and how an older child deals with it. I wanted my main character to learn that it is not okay to run away from his problems, that he needed to stay and fight. not for his sake but for the sake of his family.

And then I wrote all the stuff about wizards on top of that truth, stopping frequently to make sure all of my decisions reflected the message I wanted to tell people.