Something's fishy...

I realized a while ago I've got some neat "old" work, from when I did line drawings to sell as rubberstamps. Most of them sold (not for much, I figured it would keep me in "pin" money and hone my line skills, and it did) but someone accusing me of plagiarizing my own work, of a drawing that had sentimental meaning to me and the resulting down turn of sales because of it, left a bad taste in my mouth, so I stopped marketing them. Fast forward to now, and I'm trying to think of ways of supplementing my income. I sold the rights to rubber stamp companies, but I can put the images on anything else I want because I didn't sell the copyright images away. Looking at them, I like them (all, mostly) they're nice as the line drawings, but I also got the great idea of "coloring" them and selling them in Photoshop. So here's the heart drawing to finish product:

So that was fun. Don't hate the results. May go back one day and play some more. The next thing was inspired by a friend who had done a mermaid, and I just loved drawing mergrrls as a kid. I decided to try something different; not sure how successful I am at it (and it's not completely finished). I wanted to incorporate my heart theme, and I decided to paint her like a tropical fish. Here's the photo references for the piece:

and how I applied it (so far). I still have to finish the hair and jewels, lighten up the upper torso, and correct the wet sheen on the scales and tail. But I don't hate it still, and had loads of fun. I loved the image to begin with, so I may end up rethinking this again as well. The light blue is actually just to see the layers above and what it would look like with a colored background, like if someone wants a colored t-shirt or other product).

For now, I will finish add it to my different stores (three I like a lot: Zazzle and Society 6 and Redbubble). Hopefully the masses will fall in love with what I'm doing so I can do some more of it! All art by Agy Wilson, All rights reserved.

I've lost my head!

I am pushing myself, and I like it! I'm sad to say my app projects with Margot are on hiatus for a bit. Money and my personal life has insinuated reality on my creaky brain and equipment, so I hope this is postponement, not abandonment.

Because of that, I felt I need to change the blog's artwork. And might as well blog about that!

Like a good cover for a book, I felt my artwork needed to reflect an idea. I hope that was successful. I try to inject humor in what I do, not always successfully ("That's not funny, Agy!") and I hope this is no exception. I measured the art that was here (the lovely Margot Finke had set up the blog for me,  so I'm really late to this particular dance). Set it up in Photoshop and rendered a sketch and then did a grey scale drawing.

I colored that and thought it abysmal. You will never see that--ha--because that's the power of editing! Then I "calligraphed" my name and lower sentence in Photoshop. In quotation marks because it's not the same as with a dip or marker pen, where I can manipulate the pressure and the angle to vary the line and buoancy of the forms. This is a new thing for me, so who knows if I can improve the process, but I intend on playing with it, as it's so much easier on my eyes and I can get in there and balance out the line, form, rhythm of the marks I make down to the minutia. I hope to play with this a whole lot more, and will probably include with the traditional  methods of pen manipulation as well as the Photoshopped versions.

I added a blue filter and decided it needed a bit something more:

The winner is:

A little bit of color, a border, and I call it finished! I make a committment, unless I'm under contract, I will change out the header with a bit of new work every few months. GREAT practice I think...

Judging a book by it's cover--- my process

I can't speak to how others commit art, and goodness knows I commit it in different fashions on a regular basis, but there are a few givens in the process. I thought I'd set this down, for those who have the tendency of liking to see how others do it (I'm one of those myself, I find it inspiring). Or to inform those who have no idea, especially those who may be foraying into the self-publishing realm, for what to look for, what to expect and what's realistic. It's difficult to know whether a price you pay for the artwork is fair or not without knowing the process 

Some of my covers I've done already:

I think you can tell these are my work, right?

What even constitutes a good cover? Harder than you think. A good cover not only embodies the spirit of a book. It needs to be eye grabbing, clear, reduce down to a small size and be legible and exploded up and still hold the design. Simply eloquent visually with a minimum of clutter. A friend with a BRILLIANT cover, Cynthia Lord's RULES is a great example of an exceptional cover. Intriguing, colorful, humorous, it conforms to all of these things.

I hand render my work. Keep in mind it will look like my art. So if you want a certain kind of cover, you need to find out who does it, or EMULATE (do not plagiarize, or you could get into a world of hurt on that!) Think about the character of the book and the character of the cover, not only the imagery, whimsical does not a horror story make, for instance.

Ingredients for your cover: You need to have the title, byline. Personally, unless your book is an award winner, any blurbs, etc. I believe should be on the back, for the most part.  The less busy ness the better!

I just finished a cover for my friend Margot Finke, and she's given permission for me to share the process. I will not only explain the reasoning, but will also be upfront about the expense end of it, because I'm not the only one doing this for extra credit, and if you're an author buying someone's services it may help you to decide if the money is worth it or not. Again, realize this is MY process, so if you're doing this, you need to talk with the illustrator you hire, so you don't have many glitches.

The first thing I do is talk with the author. Some authors are so specific, they can tell me exactly what they want. There are times I won't take that particular job. Just as authors need to own what they do, barring critique and editorial input, illustrators are alike in that regard. If it feels as if there's no room for me, there are other artists as well as Photoshop and Clip Art out there for the author to make a cover exactly the way they envision. Personally I want them to want ME with my style.

Also if they balk at my price (covers range from $100-300, depending on the detail and time involved, more often than not it comes in at under $150. Sounds like a lot but when you realize I'm not working on my stuff, and it works out to less than minimum wage most of the time, and other than my promoting the cover as my work- which also helps the author-- they own the artwork in my eyes. The only thing I ask is if they need to make changes to it, they give me the opportunity to do it, because my name is on the work as well.

If I take the job, it's one third - one half down, depending on the resources available and what the author is comfortable. Next I  read the book. I'm a slow reader, have difficulties with my eyes, so it can take upwards to a couple of days if it's a longer work.

 Then I will sketch it out, keeping in mind the original conversations. This is the first sketches I showed Margot for her upcoming book, Down Under Calling:

This wasn't what Margot had in mind so we spoke a bit more and I reworked it to this:

and a colored version fleshed out a bit more to give an idea of the palette:

 This is usually where I get the author's approval to go on. In this case, talking further, we lost the clothes line, and I put a pair of kookaburras in, then edited further:

Now we start playing with the titles, Margot liked my calligraphy from Nana's Gift. I haven't got my pens with me so I play in Photoshop. In the end I used a combination of Photoshop rendered and hand rendered-I can make a broad edge with a couple of pencils, papertowel and rubberbands for a small amount of text-- and Photoshop edited Title and byline. Here's the playings with:

Decided to lose the Kookaburra, then the Frilly, the color of the shoes, a few little details.... 

And VOILA! We have Achieved Cover!

 There is still the adjustment of the title so it's not hitting the top of the page to make, but over all I like this, composition and the color.  If someone has paid me one third, they will pay the second third when I give them the color study. Final payment is due with the finished art. I send them the 350 dpi and a web version of 72 dpi. I tell them I can resize specifically (it's better to do it in Photoshop, the resolution is far superior) if they give me the dimensions they need. 

P.S.

Another trick to see if things clearly, if your composition and forms are working,  but you have to do it to a COPY, is to DESATURATE the work. Rendered in grey you can see if the work holds and reads well. Here's the study I did for that:

Hope this helps!

A method to the madness. Now that I'm painting a few things in the new Photoshop, I'm beginning to feel my way around again. It's not that it was so different, but different enough. I will say I'm liking it just fine now, and look forward to becoming more familiar with other features.

It's imperative if you want to make good work you are at home with not only the process, but the materials.  And technology is no different. I'm posting a couple of details of the drawing I'm working on. Now why take the time away from learning how to animate? If the drawings aren't good, then not only will it be harder to make an effective animation, it won't be clear.

The concepts of size and color, contrast and temperature I think will play a big part in how decent my images will be. By taking the little bit of time to reacquaint myself with the concepts and put them into action, I can fully concentrate on the animation, because most of this was in the background for me. By bringing it into the foreground, it will help with creative decision and flow of the work. I love that with the Photoshop I can get in there and make the detail sound. I should have this drawing done in the next few days. I think I need to work a few things on my billabong back ground, and then I will do more detailed comps (Will went into great detail on how he works out the designs for his drawings, so I think I will take a page from his book and freehand the illos then consult Margot. Still have character designs to finish, but not as worried or obsesses as I was with that.  Going to be busy next few weeks!

When does learning become procrastination? I know I'm borderline at the moment, so within the next couple of days I will be getting right back on the horse. The first problem was banging my head against new technology. Usually I don't mind a good whack or two upside, because it often loosens things I hadn't thought of, and after a good sinus cleaning, I "get it". The second there are enough other things that I felt wonky about, on a professional level and it interfered with my processing the info. The insecurity fed the infernal editor.

With holidays and other events (that are not quite over), the decision for me was to zag. Instead of immersing myself in the new technology, I reviewed things from art school, thirty years ago, and a lot of it was overlooked. Ah such was the education of a prodigy and a renegade. Often times the core was skimmed or left out entirely. There's a lot you can do with raw talent, but it really only goes so far.

I finished the snake painting, did a caricature entirely from scrap on the Wacom and though it wasn't a best effort, it was decent for a first time and more importantly I did something new and something I didn't hate. Heck I wanted that feather boa. I presently have a couple of past drawings I want to rework in Photoshop, before I reengage Oscars project. The reason again is two fold. I need to feel comfortable and conscious of what I got from the two tutorials (Designing a Drawing and Working with color, Folio Academy). Yes I knew most of it, but I hadn't actually been DOING it, and a lot of it's easier said than done. I can see a couple of things happening within the exercises, as well as getting more adept. I tend to work busy, so more than likely it'll not only make me more considered, but simplify. I think one of things I also really like about Will's tutorials, we come from similar aesthetics. I think it's about the story and communicating first.
THEN it's about the art, which isn't to say art is secondary, it's just that if it doesn't fulfill it's purpose, doesn't matter how pretty or colorful it is.

I hadn't realized as well, as autocratic, dictatorial as I am (come on! I have to write, draw and sometimes even calligraph, and now I'm publishing?! Course my caveat and Achilles is I want to do it all well enough so no one will ever pooh-pooh it with well she did DO it by herself, sniff, sniff!) I'd not really given myself permission to design my drawings. It was a strange thing to come to me, because I get images that pop in my head all the time. What happened was Will completed some of the thoughts and questions I had and it just zinged, connected.

The other reason to take the time to be comfortable with the process, Margot's book is a bit "more". Adding action as well as the considerations, of image, color, value, line, space, form, etc. to a story, and the challenge of different sized devices ranging from 7-8 inches down to about 3.5 inches, having those concerns not be a misunderstood distraction, I'm most definitely glad for the review.

In doing,I gain bits of confidence I misplaced along the way of my life as well. I have a short story in adult land that needs to be published this week and will be visiting a friend for a few days. The holidays are pretty much over, and I'm knee deep into trying to figure out how to make the animated GIF. I know once I master that I'm finest kind for a while. Then the only other hurdle will be the actually publishing of the project. Who knows what skill I'll renew or learn then?

Anyhow, this is the very rough reworking of Beauty Shop, the beginning. Will post this redone here, and if I do the two drawings from my Whateverafter, will post those as well.

The bottom will be the reworked one. The upper one , I liked the concept, but couldn't render very well, and was playing with materials-- the plastic-y paper that others make look delicious, I made caca-de-poopoo on. It will be interesting to see the differences, when done, I think.

So I will share my "other" art for the next few months as most of the character assets will be under wraps at least until we publish the app. But I have other quick art to share along the way and I can still talk about the process and provide the resources and journey textually, right?

So the next couple of days I'm looking at PERSPECTIVE. I need to nail it down for my Duke Day For Annie as well as for the other projects (Whateverafter, Becoming and Lytee).  As a matter of fact as soon as I finish the post I'll be sitting through this one: Four point perspective, and later on review some videos on animating in FLASH.

When I say nail it down, that means at one point I'm going to have to get obnoxious about drawing everything I see. I've found if you do it so much you don't have to "think" about, have a REAL grasp, it has an immediacy and power and you become fearless. I had actually learned this in artschool. I had avoided hands and feet as a kid, because they were too "hard". Granted my then-drawing teacher Ed Douglas had the modernist mantra droning in my ear, but it was still a joke enough that when I would draw it I would also label it: "This is not a CHAIR!".

Even then with the text and image.

But we were to draw hands and feet for a week, and a strange thing happened. After a few days of frustration, I not only started concentrating on the relationships, but fell in love with creating their image. I did compulsively, obsessively, can't-sit-my-butt-down-without-drawing-hands-and-feet for a month. Now I understand their forms so well, I can "draw" a hand from memory, because I understand how their forms work and relate. Which doesn't take away from the best way to draw, LOOKING at what you're drawing. It all just adds to the image, I think.

I did the same thing with the letters "r" and "s", when studying calligraphy. They were my problem letters. So I did them ad nauseum with the same process. By gummy my "r"  have rhythm and my "s"es are downright springy!

In other words, embrace what you avoid, often times you do it because you KNOW you lack. So give yourself that spontaneity and power.

Last night watching a bit of the tube, I could only allow it if I were drawing. To my surprise, I'd drawn Oscar enough he fell off the tip of my Sharpie. Which is fabulous because it will be easy to create a number of images of him and more naturally animate him.  Probably to get a little freer with him as well. Now to give myself the rest of the characters this week. Today I think will be kingfisher, koala and if I have the time, Duckbilled Platypus, because I keep "seeing" him.

Till then, this is my current "Agy" project for my Cafe Press Store, Imagyne. I have another one that is more calligraphy and writer, oriented, Agy Shtuff. My sister had suggested doing a series of "eyes". I had thought about play on words (this means Snake Eyes, in case it's not clear, lol).

It's been too long. I know. Some of it has been personal stuff. Life's disarray can creep up and it must be addressed. That's happened to me all year, and it finally caught up. That being said, I will say the really great thing that came out of the turmoil. I really LOVE what I do. If I can go through the crapola of life and deal with it, then I most certainly can wrap my mind around this new thing.

The secrets, take it in small bites, find good sources of information and BELIEVE in myself.

One of the best things I've done has been availing myself to Will Terry's and Wayne Andreason's Folio Academy. When I haven't been learning something, what I know was being reinforced, which led to more confidence. By no means do I know it all, or even yet, how to put it together, but I have this notion that I shall put it together in it's time. The turmoil oddly enough helped with that one too. You do what you got to do. So now I'm ready to get back to it.

I will share this part of my art process because I'm not sure if it'll VISUALLY work, until I have the characters. Thinking about OSCAR and KOBI and most of the other characters, they are black white and gray, so I think it will, but at this point it's an intellectual thing. I love the painting of the billabong, to refresh your memory:

 The idea is to crop in different places, so the backgrounds look different, but they are all consistent. I may have to redo a few of them at different perspectives, but I think for the most part it'll work. And the grays of the the characters, which will be animated will "POP". I'll have to remember the words, haven't decided if they will be a part of over the image or if the text will read underneath the images. Lots of decisions to make along the way, so I'm happy for this first project of mine, I will have Margot helping with all the decisions, because these "assets" (as the characters to be animated are called) are her babies first of all.

I really can see them frolicing and grousing, and adventuring in this place. I hope I do justice to the project and kids (and maybe the old kids) will enjoy this book app. And like Will has said in his video the most important thing is to FINISH. So this week's timeline is to nail down the characters (perhaps with Margot's and one of the characters I will show you one of them, perhaps not, an air of mystery can be a good thing....
next week I hope to be animating characters and text. Wish me luck!