Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Single figure portraits

-Jesper Ejsing









Doing a single figure portrait is a favourite discipline of mine. I try to minimize the background to almost only a texture surface at the bottom or even only a cast shadow to show that the figure is not hovering in midair. I put all in the figure. What I like about this kind of illustration is the clean and simple expression. I do not have to tell a story or place him or her in an environment. I do not have to consider all these things as: environmental light, bouncing light, readability compared to the background and all that stuff, that usually fills my head to the brim of disaster. I can relax and focus only on designing the figure and capturing his or her sentiment. ( I am getting a little overexcited here, since almost all of my single figures have one of the same two expressions: either sexy or tight-lip-angry and determined. I should try to jazz it up by combining the two?. Never mind. Tried it in the mirror; doesn’t work ) I always sketch these figures very large and rough at first trying to capture a twist or a movement to the body. It is kind of the same way as you would do nude model drawings on time. You have to get it down on paper very fast in 2 or 3 minutes.






Packlord Paragon, interior illustration for DND Primal Power




The female figure I captured in first try. After noting that date down on a calendar I proceeded with a little tonal value and then sketched the figure in full detail. The art description is mostly about race, equipment, weapons and character class. There is just so many ways to make a figure “just standing there” look boring and uninteresting. I would like the body to have small twist and turns and bends in the torso and wrist and so on, to make the pose believable and interesting. This means I have to stand in the pose myself. I get up and grab a staff and a knife and try to pose myself in front of a mirror. I really recommend doing this to every pose, to get a feel for what feels right. I just think the way she has the weapons actually slightly behind her body is carefree and shows that she can handle you even with the weapons not ready. They are out to the side saying: “come on. I´ll let you get one strike at me for free”. I used a H&M catalogue for facial references and almost completely stole the tiger pose from the internet. The colours I kept very close to red and orange. The only cool contrast is a small sky reflection on the back of the tiger, to not make the light look too flat. I added some small cuts and fresh scratches to her skin. And the usual mud on the boots. Even elves get dirty and have twigs rip their skin and clothes when running tree-hugging through the forest.






Vorthian, Interior illustration for DND Shadowfell


This guy is a Demon prince. The description of him sounded very complicated yet very free. He had no eyes, a halo, missing the left hand, having wings, and carrying a giant spear. The rest; armour clothes and, well the rest, was up to me. I have no idea why I chose the walking stance for him. But I went for a twisted torso with us looking more into his neck area and torso than right upon it. The hunched pose seems right for tough guys or fighting stances. They protect the neck by hunching and make the critical part of the body difficult to hit. I used a skull from my studio to get the structure in his face right. The wings I folded and bent so that they were more hanging or draping behind him like a cape billowing in the wind. The could have been stretched out basking or moving but I just liked them as a graphic element more than them being included in his weapon arsenal. I think they would draw attention away from the main part if they had been stretched out. Basically all my choices are moving around drawing too much or too little attention. The background I had to fill out, behind most of the figure, since I needed something to establish a contrast to the bluish white halo. You cannot paint light without framing it in something dark. Also this allowed me to exploit my favourite trick: rim-lighting. I did try to tone it down here. Kept it only on the face and the arm with the spear. “Oh well the hip also, for Christ sake, but that was only as a last resort to keep it clear of the wing behind the hip. Let it go!” There are two things that I really like in this illustration: One is the arm stump. I have never seen one and I didn’t dare Google picture-search that particular word. I just imagined the area around the bone would make the flesh bulk and grow uneven together. The little red dot and pinkish tone in the final makes the old wound look irritated. The other thing I really like, and it might sound stupid, is his left boot. The lowest part of the leg and greaves are captured and rendered with as few strokes as I possibly could. I always try to go less and simple instead of dotting and rendering layer upon layer. It almost always doesn´t succeed and I end up with much more nitty-picking than needed, but in this boot it came out simple and elegant.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Taking my own advice

-Dan dos Santos



So after imploring countless people to register their artwork with the U.S. Copyright Office, I am proud to say that I finally got around to doing it myself! My Certificate of Registration just arrived in the mail the other day, and I'm psyched!



I honestly don't know why it took me so long, the process is incredibly easy. Basically, all you need is $30 and half an hour... and you can register everything you've ever painted.





Typically, registering a work with the copyright office costs about $30 per piece. But the really nice thing is, the piece being registered can be a collection of work. Meaning all the material contained therein is then registered as well.



Further more, if the work in question has never been printed (ie. a PDF), you can register it completely electronically. If you have printed it, you need to mail a hard copy to the Library of Congress for their records. That's a bit more work, and expense. So for the sake of ease, I recommend creating a new, electronic version of said book, just for registration purposes.



So here is what you do:



1. Make a PDF called 'The Art of Whatever".

2. Toss every piece you still own the rights to in it.

3. Go HERE

4. Create an account and fill out all the info regarding your work.

5. Send $30 electronically.

6. Wait 2 weeks, and your Certificate of Registration magically arrives in the mail!



Seriously. It's that easy. You've probably wasted more time on Facebook today than doing this actually takes. So come on, people! I want to see comments from everyone who did something really productive today!

Illustration

by Arnie Fenner





All the chatter for some time now has been regarding the evolution in publishing from print to digital. E-books this, tablets that: get content on your computer, on your smart phone, on your Kindle/Nook/IPad. Print is dead, yadayadayada. Me? Though I've got all the gadgets and use them daily I still prefer to pick up a good ol' fashioned newspaper or book or magazine when I want to read, either for enjoyment or to learn something.



The New York Times recently ran an article discussing a study claiming that an inordinately high percentage of people who used only the computer for their information or entertainment--rarely (if ever) picking up traditional books or magazines--experienced significantly lower levels of reading comprehension and shorter memories of what they'd read on-line. Now how true that might be is anyone's guess: there's the old caveat coined either by Mark Twain or Benjamin Disraeli, depending on who you want to believe, of, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." Then again...a favorite server at the neighborhood restaurant Cathy and I frequent is going to school to be a nurse and during a recent chat she was complaining that the hardest part was having to use a regular book to study: "There's no 'search' option to find things for you! You have to read everything!"



What does all this have to do with Illustration magazine? Oh, not much, I suppose. Other than it gives me an opportunity to say that I love it, much prefer to hold a printed copy in my hands and savor each cleanly-designed page at my leisure rather than peruse it on-line (which is also an option publisher Dan Zimmer makes available for free), and believe everyone with even the slightest interest in art will find it invaluable and worthy of support. Whether you take out a subscription or buy it at your favorite bookstore, you'll be glad you did.



At the top: The most recent issue (#36) features heavily illustrated articles about John Berkey and Rose O'Neill.






Issue #35 features Joseph Szokli, Walt Reed, and Harry Clarke.







Issue #33 featured Jack Gaughan, Charles Copeland, and Edward Shenton.





Issue #32 featured Herbert Morton Stoops and Ed Balcourt.





Issue #26 featured Graves Gladney, Nan Pollard, and The American Academy of Art.





Issue #19 featured Louis Glanzman, Ed Emshwiller, and the Patterson & Hall Studio.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Authenticity and fairytales

by Petar Meseldzija



For a number of years I have been dreaming of illustrating the Serbian fairytales.  While flipping  through the books on fairytales illustrated by Ivan Bilibin, Arthur Rackham or John Bauer, I would often wonder how to tackle such a challenge. A few years ago I did illustrate one Serbian fairytale for a Norwegian publisher, as a part of the collection of fairytales from all around the world. In fact I was offered to illustrate two fairytales, but due to my busy schedule at that time, I declined the second one and did only the pictures for the shorter tale. I was so eager to do this job that, instead of painting a one page and a half page illustration, which I was commissioned and paid to do, I did a double page and a one page illustration. Unfortunately, the book was never published.



As it is the case with the most of our dreams, if we dream them long enough, they will eventually come through, in one or another form. Last summer a respectable publisher from Serbia with an appropriate name Čarobna knjiga, which means Magic Book, asked me to participate in a major book project on Serbian fairytales.  There are in total 11 illustrators involved in this project, the book will have 224 pages and will be published in Serbia in September this year. No doubt, a major and rather prestigious book, that is intended to set a new standard for that kind of illustrated books, as far as the Serbian market is concerned.



Due to my agreement with the publisher, I am not able to show you the finished paintings (in fact I am still very busy creating them), but I can show you some of the preliminary sketches and studies. 






























One of the illustrations from the Norwegian project.
You probably noticed that I did different sketches of the same character, which means that I take this task very seriously and that I am not easily satisfied with the first design. One might say that I search for something that I am apparently not able to struck instantly. The thing I am mostly concerned about at this stage of my work on this particular project is the authenticity and the national character of my designs and paintings.



When it comes to illustrating the national themes, one inevitably has to deal with the historical and ethnological authenticity. The specifics of a certain culture like traditional clothing, architecture, various artifacts, human physiognomy, landscapes, and all other things that have to express the national  aspect of the story in question, suddenly become an important issue. But while it is quite obvious that one has to be as authentic and as accurate as possible in terms of the costumes and props when depicting a specific historic moment , it is something quite different when you deal with fairytales, myths or legends. Although all these stories are mostly a product of fiction, never the less they are firmly rooted in a certain cultural frame. The question I have been asking myself since I have started the work on this book, is how authentic and historically accurate one has to be when dealing with a folk tale, a fairytale. It is clear that a certain doses of authenticity is required, because for instance, a knight from an English legend has to look as a proper English knight, otherwise it has not much sense to call it an English story.  At the same time too much history in the fairytale pictures might kill the magic.



How did a Serbian medieval knight, or prince, looked like? How does his castle looked like, what kind of dress did he wear and what kind of designs decorated his clothes? These are quite normal questions, but the answers are not easy to find. After the mighty Ottoman Turks invaded and gradually conquered medieval  Serbia and almost all of the Balkans at the beginning of 15th century, the radical and thorough change took place. In the subsequent 5 centuries of the Turkish rule much of the medieval  Serbian culture was lost, destroyed and reshaped on the basis of the conqueror ‘s culture. Apart from some indications in the old manuscripts, the more or less canonized depictions on the frescos in the medieval churches , and the poetic and romantic writings in the old epic poetry, there are virtually no solid indications of what a Serbian prince and his world looked like. Generally speaking the Serbian medieval culture was primarily influenced by the Byzantine culture. But, there are indications that the Serbian rulers have imported clothes and armor from Italy and Hungary. Some Serbian kings had married west European princesses, as well as the princesses from the surrounding kingdoms, who inevitably brought some of the fashion from their native cultures, influencing  to a certain degree the Serbian court.  Besides, it is known that the Emperor Dušan’s  personal guard consisted of the German mercenaries, who were dressed as the western soldiers and knights from that period (see the paintings of Emperor Dušan by Paja Jovanović).  So, when a fairytale starts with: “Long time ago there lived a king who had three sons…”, you know that you have to place the story in the pre-Turkish times and that you have to deal with the insufficiency of the reference material. 







A warrior, fresco from the 13th century church
But (fortunately there is a “but” here) we are dealing with a fairytale, which in my opinion does not have to be exactly historically accurate in terms of clothing and props (it even sounds a bit silly – a historically accurate fairytale, right?). However  it is necessary to show a sufficient amount of basic elements that would suggest the national character, and to depict the rest as suggestive and imaginative as possible.
As long as we are suggesting or showing the right direction, and as long as we infuse our designs with enough imaginative and evocative material for the reader’s mind to be captured and inspired by, we are on the good road. It is all about pointing the “finger” towards the right symbols and archetypes. Our preconditioned and programed mind would do the rest.



Perhaps a good example of this can be found in the sources of inspiration that I have used while designing my King Marko, the main character from the Legend of Steel Bashaw. Because of the nature of this old tale, it  is obvious that this king comes from the obscured pre-Turkish times and therefore has to reflect something that the imagination of the public will unquestionably relate to the Serbian medieval  noble knight, although as I just said, nobody knows how these knights exactly looked like.









The sources of inspiration I used while designing King Marko were:


-          Blue trousers are inspired by the paintings of Paja Jovanović.


-          The design of his breastplate  was inspired  by the old coins that were found at the archeological location of the Russian city of Novgorod.  


-          King Marko wears a traditional Serbian shoes, that probably did not exist in the middle ages, and if they did exist, a king would surely NOT wear them.


-          He wears a yellow tunic under his armor that comes from the famous Rembrandt’s painting “The Night watch”


-          The general design of his armor is inspired by the relative complexity of the armor of the  Byzantine warriors/knights.


-          Marko’s exaggeratedly long mustache indicate a feature on the man’s face that was so common in the Balkans in the past. My grandfather, for instance, who was born at the end of the 19th century, for the most of his adult life had a long mustache.  As an old man (he died when he was 96) he looked like an iconic bard from the Serbian epics.


That’s it. Until now, I haven’t heard anybody complaining about King Marko not being authentic enough.



So, my conclusion is that as long as the sum of the details and symbols in our designs and compositions points out towards the right direction and brings the desirable associations and emotions to the surface of the reader’s/spectator’s mind, without damaging the magic, and maintaining and supporting the required illusion (the suspension of disbelief), we are achieving our goal as illustrators of this kind of stories. After all, as illustrators, fantasy illustrators in particular, we are a kind of dream makers. At its best, we help create dreams that make up the foundations of reality.



Dream well.





Studio Safety Pt. 2 - The Facts About Turpentine



-Dan dos Santos

Now that we know how to avoid the dangers of Solvents, let's discuss WHY we need to. First, some facts, as well as common misconceptions, about the hazards of turpentine.



*************************************************
-Turpentine is made from tree sap.
True.
Turpentine is made from the distilled resin of Pine trees. It is actually all-natural, wether or not it says so on the label.


-Turpentine is cancerous.
False.
Turpentine is TOXIC, and -can- kill you. Even short term exposure can have really bad effects, such as asphyxiation. However, long term exposure has not been proven to cause CANCER.


-Turpentine has health benefits.
True.
Turpentine has long been used as a home remedy for respiratory problems. Still today, Vicks Vaporub contains turpentine.


-Low-odor turpentine is safer that regular turpentine.
False.
Just because you can't smell it, doesn't make it less dangerous. In fact, toxic exposure is -more- likely with low-odor turpentine, because you may be unaware of it's presence. However, Odorless Mineral Spirits (which is a turpentine substitute derived from petroleum), is much less dangerous.


-I need to use turpentine if I want to thin my paint.
False.
Oils paint can be thinned with additional oil.


************************************************


Well... That's the good. So now you may be asking yourself, "If turpentine is all-natural, what's the big deal?" The problem is, even all-natural things can kill you... like bears, and mushrooms, and turpentine.



According to OSHA, The effects of turpentine on humans are as follows:

Turpentine is a skin, eye, mucous membrane, and upper respiratory tract irritant in humans. It may also cause skin sensitization and central nervous system, gastrointestinal, and urinary tract effects.





The lowest estimated oral dose reported to be lethal in humans is 441 mg/kg. Exposure to a 75-ppm concentration for 3 to 5 minutes irritates the nose and throat, and exposure to a 175-ppm concentration irritates the eyes and may be considered intolerable by human volunteers.





Ingestion of turpentine causes a burning pain in the mouth and throat, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, excitement, ataxia, confusion, stupor, seizures, fever, and tachycardia and may cause death due to respiratory failure.





Toxic glomerulonephritis and bladder irritation, with hematuria, albuminuria, oliguria, and dysuria, have been associated with overexposure to the vapor of turpentine in the past; however, the more purified form of turpentine now in use appears to have decreased the incidence of or to have eliminated turpentine-induced nephritis.





Splashes of the liquid in the eye produce severe pain and blepharospasm; conjunctival redness and temporary corneal erosion may also occur, but these effects are reversible. Chronic skin exposure to turpentine may produce a hypersensitivity reaction, with bullous dermatitis and/or eczema.





A case-control study of workers in particle-board, plywood, sawmill, and formaldehyde glue factories demonstrated a statistically significant association between chronic exposure (longer than 5 years) to terpenes (the principal component of turpentine) and the development of respiratory tract cancers.


So even though turpentine is pretty darn bad for you, the good news is that you can usually tell that it's doing something bad. If you can identify the problem, it's a lot easier to rectify it.



Now, some people have incredible tolerances for harmful things (me, not so much). It's quite possible that you could work in a studio FILLED with turpentine fumes for a lifetime and never have a problem. It's also quite possible that your Grandmother smoked 20 cigarettes a day for 90 years and lived to be 105. However, many (if not most) people will develop breathing problems, skin rashes and migraines when exposed to turpentine in levels that are quickly achieved when painting with oils in an enclosed room.



So what do you do about it? Well, like Justin said in part 1, you try to minimize the amount of vapor in the air. You can do this two ways:

1. Increase the amount of air.

2. Decrease the amount of vapors.



Personally, my primary approach consists of #2.



I never, ever, ever, paint with an open jar of turpentine in my studio. Not even to clean my brushes. I do however, use a small jar of medium, consisting of equal parts odorless mineral spirits and linseed oil.



(Odorless mineral spirits [also known as OMS] is an alternative solvent, which evaporates slower than turpentine, and is FAR less toxic. However, it is also not as potent a solvent, and therefore cannot be used to dissolve certain resins, like Damar.)



Why the mixture? Oils can be diluted with the addition of other oils, but they can not be dissolved. This is important when dealing with fat and lean layers of paint. Basically, a lean layer has more solvent. A fat layer has more oil. By mixing the two together, I achieve neutrality... a good thing for a painting medium to be.



But the mixture serves an additional benefit. The addition of oil slows the evaporation rate of the mineral spirits. By slowing the evaporation rate, you considerably reduce the amount of harmful vapor in the air. In fact, there are certain mineral spirits, like Gamsol, which are designed to evaporate 4 times slower than regular turpentine.



To clean my brushes, I simple dip them in the medium (without touching the bottom of the jar), and then squeeze out the excess paint with a rag. Anything that doesn't come off from that, is then washed away with plain soap and water.



Here's another way you can reduce the amount of vapor in your studio... Choose the right medium jar.



A large, wide mouthed jar provides a greater surface area by which the turpentine/oms can contact the air. Think of it like leaving the door wide open on a cold day... with zombies outside. By using a smaller, narrow mouthed jar, you greatly reduce the surface area of exposed solvent. Cutting your jar's mouth size in half will literally cut the vapors in half! In the same respect, if you plan on taking a break from your easel for even 5 minutes, cover your medium jar!






The absolute worst thing you could be using to hold turpentine while you work!!!
For me, just by reducing the amount of turpentine vapors in these 2 simple ways, I found that I can work comfortably without any noticeable adverse affects. Large double-doors bring in fresh air when I need it, and that's it.



(Edit: There is now a lot of useful info in the comments section. I guess an additional post is in order!)



Up next... the real killer.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

John Carter

It's great to get a chance to work on stuff that meant much to me when I was a kid.

Dejah Thoris.... How I wanted to be John Carter...and for that matter,  Tarzan, Thor, Hulk, Scalphunter, and probably Earl Cambell....





More soon on this...



-Justin Sweet

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Frank Duveneck Study

-Gregory Manchess







This is the first painting I remember that froze me in place. It’s the piece that caused me to paint the way I do. One of Frank Duveneck’s many fabulous studies, a preparation for some of the more rendered pieces made during his career. He was a virtuoso with the brush, only thirty-one when he painted it.





This face dwells in my head whenever I hold the brush, whenever I lay down the paint, guiding my efforts by reminding me to stay loose and keep details to the essential elements and values.



I’m taken by the deep shadows, and how he’s worked back up from there to the lights, the value range remaining quite close. Duveneck mixed his colors quickly and confidently, most likely not creating piles of pigment ahead of time, but rather mixing on the fly.



The drawing is incorporated by shape and value, giving the face the structure it needs by defining the planes. Notice the ear; even the underpainting stands in for shapes, by contrasting the middle values.





The forearm stays alive by rendering the subtle values across the muscle, leading up to the bicep where the lighter paint captures the light, and subtle flesh folds. The rougher flesh of the fingers gets chiseled strokes, the thin planes of skin grabbing light between the index and middle finger.





The laced fingers here establish a phenomenal range of color value that runs from the nearly imperceptible shadow side, to the few bold strokes of flesh near the knuckles. The wrist is a superb example of brighter colors against muddy colors--ahem--allowing the wrist to just barely make it into the light.



For those students studying how to paint volume, look no further than these hands for learning to cut strokes across the form, not along it.





The older man’s head study is gorgeous. Minimalism at it’s very core. Unfinished and yet providing everything we need to know. It is modern art at this point, exposing the essence of painting that others, in later years, would strive to exemplify in wild passages of sensation. What some would wail about for attention, Duveneck captured honestly, in reality.



When you look close enough, this painting embodies decades of advanced levels of abstract art.

ACTORS: How to Create Your Own Perfect Project



ACTORS! TODAY IS YOUR LUCKY DAY.


You remember Ryan Gosling's DIY advice to struggling actors, right? We'll here is the perfect follow up:


Below, you will find some success stories from other actors who took matters into their own hands, created their own show, film, or short, and landed some of their dream gigs. Before moving forward, it's important to note a few major words of advice:

1) The most important part of a journey like this, is to first determine who your perfect character will be, and what kind of project facilitates such a character. Build around this first. You know what your gifts are, and what you always have dreamed of playing, or at least showing the word what you play best, and using this to your advantage. But don't fixate too long on writing a perfect script. First, get the perfect project, and write just a simple outline. An outline is step by step, what happens in order. It can be as short as 10 lines or a full feature's outline of around 25 lines.

2) Do Not allow the "I'm not a writer" excuse to scare you out of writing the piece. Get your outline down, then contact a talented writer or writer/director. Pay them something. You may not have a lot of money (most actors don't). But factor in how much you spend on a cool pair of shoes, or how much you spend on drinks when you go out, and simply replace that money with what you will give the writer(s) for writing your dream piece. Or, get investors (aka family and friends) and pass your hat around (stay away from Kickstarter and Indiegogo too - they are over-saturated and now have the lowest success rate they have ever had). Let them know you are jump-starting your own destiny, and they're helping you help yourself. Whatever it takes, just do it.

3) It takes enough concentration and focus to deliver a great performance and not waste your investment, so don't feel you all of a sudden have to turn into an expert filmmaker and know everything there is to know about lights, camera equipment, and the best lav mics to use and when. This is a major distraction away from what you have been working for the most of your adult life - mastery of your craft. So in this case, try to do the same as above - find the experts to do this for you.


Here now, after the jump, is Jessica Gardner's very empowering article from Backstage about how to finally take your acting-career destiny in your own hands - once and for all.

- Lena



How to Create Your own Feature, Short, Pilot, or Web Series

By Jessica Gardner
May 20, 2011

Falk Hentschel felt frustrated with his acting career. He had been trying to get good representation and auditions, but neither was happening for him. "I was trying everything in my powers," Hentschel says. "It was the usual problem: You need credits or a good reel to get representation, but you need good representation to get auditions or high-profile jobs for your reel."

Close to giving up, Hentschel decided to at least fulfill his childhood dream and play the lead in a film that looked like "a real Hollywood production." With a limited budget and not much screenwriting experience, Hentschel made a 16-minute short-film thriller called "Who Is Bobby Domino?" He used almost all his savings, refusing to be stingy on "anything that had to do with the look and the sound of the film." He met his director and co-writer, Jesse Grce, on Craigslist.

Hentschel gained a lot from the experience, including being a part of the production process from start to finish, forming friendships and partnerships (including with Grce, with whom he would collaborate on more shorts), and gaining a true understanding of what it takes to make a film as an actor and a producer.

Most important, it helped move his career forward. Hentschel made a reel out of the short, plus others that he and Grce made, and that got him great representation. It also helped land him a role in the feature "Knight and Day," playing Bernhard the assassin alongside Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. Since then, he has guest starred on numerous television shows, such as "CSI," "The Closer," and "NCIS." He recently landed his first starring role in the feature film "StreetDance 2," which he is filming in the United Kingdom.

Hentschel is one of many actors who have decided to stop waiting for the phone to ring, and to start taking control of their own careers. Whether it's a short, a feature, a television pilot, or a Web series, if you have a camera, you too can "do it yourself." But should you?

Manager Steven Buchsbaum of Ad Astra Management in Los Angeles warns actors to be careful when doing it themselves. "With the advent of digital technology," he says, "a lot of actors want to make their own films. Technology is cheap. Everyone can shoot a film. However, do not send out films [to industry people] that aren't any good. You better have good writing and a good story. You don't want to shoot a film that makes you look poor."

With that in mind, before you embark on a production that might cost you thousands of dollars, you need to weigh why you want to shoot something, how you are going to do it, and what the potential rewards might be.

From Frustration to Inspiration

Like Hentschel, many actors who have done it themselves started because they felt restless and out of control of their career. Nate Golon felt that even though he had done theater and booked independent films and commercials, no one in L.A. knew who he was. "Every time I went to an audition, I looked around at the 20 other blond guys who looked just like me, and I felt like I needed something to set me apart," he says.

One night, frustration led to inspiration. He took a talent manager workshop that was accidentally overbooked by 25 people. While waiting for about five hours to meet the manager, he chatted with a guy and a girl about how ridiculous the whole situation was. The girl said she thought it would be funny if someone wrote a show about casting director and agent-manager workshops. "A light bulb went off in my head," says Golon. "That's how I met Kimberly Legg, who I co-wrote Season 1 of our comedy Web series 'Workshop' with, and Phillip Jeanmarie, who [plays] one of the main characters." "Workshop" was picked up by Hulu and premiered in April as the first-ever independently produced half-hour comedy on the website.

Jessica Mills has a similar story. Tired of classes and workshops yielding little result, and also feeling like casting directors weren't seeing her in the types of roles she knew she could play, Mills decided to produce something on her own that would show off her quirky characteristics. Her Web series, "Awkward Embraces," is now in its second season and has more than 100,000 views.

Zach Book had just finished the play "Jesse Boy" at the Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica, portraying an autistic boy who was abused. He enjoyed playing the heavy part, but wished there was a way to show casting directors footage of the type of dark role he could do. Book was packing for a trip home to Baltimore when he heard that his best friend there had bought a Canon EOS 7D camera. Book and his friend decided to spend his entire two-week trip filming the short drama "Frostbite." "Putting that footage on my reel has gotten me in for so many auditions," says Book. "I've even booked a few roles based solely on the footage on my reel."

Other actors are motivated to make their own work out of, well, boredom. During the Broadway stagehand strike, Brie Eley was cold and bored in New York. She felt an itch to create something, so she and a couple of her friends got together and shot comedy sketches. "They were pretty awful," admits Eley. "But I learned about sound, lighting, the importance of coverage, and a little gem called iMovie." Six months later, one of her friends from the sketches asked her to act in and help produce the film "We Are the Hartmans," starring Richard Chamberlain.

Marty Papazian already knew how doing it yourself could yield results. Without representation, he put himself on tape for the film "Jarhead" and walked it in to casting director Debra Zane's office, asking her to please watch it. Zane loved it and sent it to director Sam Mendes, who cast Papazian in the film. "It wasn't luck," says Papazian. "It was preparation meeting opportunity." The experience inspired him to produce his own short film, "In the Wind," which won best picture at the New Orleans Big Easy Film Festival and the Vail Film Festival. He is now producing a feature from a script he wrote called "Least Among Saints," which begins filming this month.

Getting Started

Like manager Buchsbaum says, the most important aspects of a successful project are good writing and a good story. Mills agrees. "Send your script out to people to get notes," she says. "Make sure you do multiple drafts and it's really good." She adds that casting talented actors who fit the parts is equally important. "Make sure your actors are good enough to make it relatable. Otherwise, people aren't going to want to watch. I don't care how many car chases or flashy special effects you have—people want something to identify with. The nuts and bolts are in the writing and the acting. Make sure that's solid first."

Comedic actor Chad Ridgely had to work on perfecting his characters before he could start filming. He decided to put together a compilation of comedy sketches in the vein of "Saturday Night Live" or "MADtv." "People's attention spans are very short when it comes to watching videos online," Ridgely says. "People want quick and very funny." Ridgely advises future do-it-yourselfers who want to do comedy to keep this in mind when writing their scripts. "Make it short and sweet and funny—three minutes or less," he says. "No agent, casting director, or producer has the time or the desire to watch a 14-minute short film of a sweeping epic drama. They want it to be quick, and they want to laugh. That will get you noticed."

In addition to good writing and acting, Hentschel believes that passion for the project is a must-have. "Do something that really speaks to you and makes you happy thinking about it," he advises. "Don't try to guess what the industry wants or what the latest fad is. Do what fulfills you. That joy will attract your success."

Book says the best way to get started is just to dive in and have fun. "All you need to do is take the first couple of steps," he says. "Write an idea, call a friend, and the rest will work itself out gradually. Everyone starts somewhere. I highly encourage people to take a blind stab at it. There is no better way to get experience than actually doing it."

Choosing the Format

One of the first things you will have to decide about your project is what you want to make: a feature, a short, a pilot, or a Web series.

Mills and her friends originally intended to shoot a full-length feature, but they later realized they didn't have funds for the type of film they wanted to do. "I got to thinking: If we could build some sort of online fan base through a Web series, maybe we could get attention for ourselves and then come back to the feature and make that," Mills says. She started brainstorming and came up with the idea for "Awkward Embraces." Now that the series has been successful and she has gained knowledge about the Web, she's thinking about taking the feature idea and turning it into a Web series as well.

Golon and his partners decided to do a Web series because they believed it was the most inexpensive way to get their work "out there." "If you do a short film," says Golon, "you have to enter it in festivals, which costs money, and those festivals may or may not decide to accept your film. Then if your film gets accepted, and you want to go to that festival, that takes money. A Web series is great in that once it's online, you can just send anyone the link."

Eley and her partners chose to do a full-length feature. "The feature format allowed us to give the crew and actors something really strong to add their résumés or put on a reel," she says.

Hentschel says that if he could go back, instead of making a short he would have shot his project as a trailer based on one of his feature film scripts. "I'd then use that to get attention and raise money for the script to be made."

Gathering Money and Crew

Often, doing your own project means using your own money. All the actors interviewed in this article spent at least some of their own savings to produce their projects.

Eley had no idea what putting together a feature would cost when she and her partners started. "I probably have invested at least $1,000 of my own money and countless hours of work," she says. "But I think that's immeasurable when you're talking about your career and what you're willing to spend to make your dreams come true."

Sometimes, if the story is good or the project is inspiring, it can help you raise funds. Eley believes her feature came together thanks to a lot of passionate people who invested in and believed in her story. Her team raised $14,000 in one month through fundraising website IndieGogo, a live fundraiser with bands, a "Tweet-a-thon," and asking their churches and families to donate. "We had an outpouring of generosity," she says. "We had shooting locations and rehearsal spaces donated. I even had a gentleman agree to let us use his truck after I saw it on Eighth Avenue and explained the project to him."

In many cases, your cast and crew will be working for little to no money. It's important to find other people who are as eager and excited to work as you are. "Try to find people who want to build up their résumé or get an IMDb credit," advises Mills. "Find people who want to do it for the love of doing it, and you can get it done."

Hentschel agrees. "Work with people that you feel good around and that excite and inspire you," he says.

Getting It Out There

Ridgely sent DVDs of his completed comedy sketch pilot "all over the place." Papazian and Eley got their films into festivals. But most of the actors interviewed stuck to putting their projects online at such sites as Vimeo, Blip, and YouTube.

To get their Web series seen by as many people as possible, both Golon and Mills bought websites and posted their series on YouTube. Mills also posted hers on Blip. "Blip, as far as revenue share, is a bit better, because [on] YouTube you have to qualify for partnership, which is very difficult," Mills explains. "With Blip, everything you upload has ads and you get revenue share into your PayPal account. The player is also a little higher-quality than the YouTube player. I embed Blip on our homepage but I also keep our YouTube channel going because YouTube has such a community in and of itself, like the subscribers and the people that comment and talk, and the likes and the dislikes and all of that stuff. I didn't want to not take part in that huge community. Plus, YouTube is better to see on a phone, so I feel like it's best to do both."

Papazian believes that now is a great time for actors to get their projects out because more studios and executives are looking to the actors, the storytellers, to see what they are creating. "There is a new artist emerging, a hybrid of sorts, because now as filmmakers we have the technology to create media of the highest quality and the distribution platforms are opening up," he says. "The paths are ours to create."

The Rewards

To create your own project costs money, takes time, and can be a lot of work, but all of the actors interviewed say they are glad they did it.

"I love the fact that if somebody's not familiar with me, I can say, 'Go to this website. This is what I do,' and be proud of it," says Mills. "I no longer feel like that really talented actress no one cares about. I've done something and it's mine and I'm really proud of it. I can walk around Hollywood, network, and hold my head high."

"It leaves you accountable to yourself and others," says Eley, who has since scored an agent and a manager.

"My original goal was to make a name for myself as an actor, and 'Workshop' has definitely helped do that," says Golon. "Since Season 1, I got a great talent manager, booked some commercials, TV, indie features, and theater. At the same time, it's made me realize the strengths I have as a producer and writer."

Ridgely was contacted by Fox Digital, which loved his comedy sketches. After a few meetings with him, the company decided to produce some of his sketches. They packaged everything together and called it "The Chad Ridgeley Show." "The Fox deal helped me tremendously," says Ridgely. "I got an agent and a manager, which in turn got me a lot more auditions. But the best thing to come from this experience was the validation. Knowing that the stuff I thought was funny really is funny, and that people see it and laugh, is just a great feeling."

"The most important thing is to be confident and believe in yourself," says Ridgely. "Chasing your dreams and aspirations takes more than moving to this city and waiting for it to fall in your lap. You have to make it happen."

Monday, February 20, 2012

Studio Safety Pt. 1 - Ventilation

-By Justin Gerard



In this article we are going to cover proper studio ventilation for the artist, with a focus on dealing with solvents. We will cover the various options for setting up a studio, and a few options you can use if no ventilation is possible. 



Almost all illustrators working in oil use solvents.  They are used for a wide variety of tasks: mixing, thinning, dissolving and cleaning paint as well as for making mediums, varnishes and so on.  If you work in oil, you will likely be using them at some point.  


Painters have been getting debilitating illnesses from solvents ever since they came into widespread use in the 1700's. 


What are the hazards of inhaling solvent fumes?



Initially, exposure to high concentrations of fumes result in forms of temporary narcosis, (dizziness, fatigue, loss of coordination, nausea).


But it is the slow, unnoticeable build-up of harmful chemicals within the body over time that is the true danger of solvents.


Long term exposure can lead to more aggravating conditions that are sometimes irreversible and sometimes fatal: Contact dermatitis, respiratory system damage, kidney and bladder disease, as well as chronic brain and nervous system damage. (Yes, I said, permanent brain damage. And yes, I have worked a great deal with solvents in the past.  This may confirm some of our reader's suspicions about me.) 


Many famous artists in the past have fallen victim to illnesses acquired from the use and over-use of solvents. Their lives irreversibly damaged from it. There is no reason that with the knowledge and tools available to us now that we shouldn't be able to take sufficient steps to safeguard ourselves and our loved ones from any such fate.  


The first step is always to know the dangers of the materials you are working with and limit how much of them you are allowing into the air. 
If you are pumping too much of a chemical into the air then you will encounter problems no matter how good your ventilation is.  According to environmental hygienists, studio air should be replaced 10 times every hour. (Though some experts say that anywhere from 6 to 10 is permissible with 10 being the gold standard.) 


The Studio Environment


The Basics:
Choose a studio space that has windows that you can open, and if possible, that has more than one window. In general, the larger and more open the room the better.  This will help prevent extreme concentrations from developing in the air. Even with good ventilation, a closet may kill you.  



If you ever begin to feel light-headed or nauseous, leave the room, go outside and get fresh air.  Your studio is not properly ventilated and you need to reconsider either your materials, your method of using your materials or your ventilation system. 



Always consider other people who work in or around your studio space, and wether your setup is going to adversely affect them.  


There are 2 types of Ventilation: Dilution Ventilation and Local Exhaust Ventilation.


Dilution Ventilation does not eliminate the harmful elements and vapors from the air. Instead it attempts to lower their concentration by bringing in clean air to dilute the contaminated air.  



Local Exhaust Ventilation attempts to trap the fumes and airborne elements at their source, before they can enter the air, and then vent them outside and away from the studio. 


With that, I will discuss some options for studio ventilation that employ one of these 2 methods of cleaning the air.  


OPTION 1: An open door or window.
(Dilution Ventilation)


While this is a good start, it is not adequate to effectively dilute harmful elements from the average studio space. A single open window or door does not provide sufficient pressure to move or circulate air, so while there is new clean air coming in, or some of the contaminated air may be going out, there is not enough air replacement to prevent exposure.
You need to find a way of getting fresh air into a room, and the exposed air out. Which brings us to:




OPTION 2: Open a second window and place a box fan in it.
(Local Exhaust Ventilation)


Opening more than one window provides a route for air to flow through a room.  But this alone may not move the air fast enough in the studio to prevent a harmful concentration of chemicals from lingering long enough to hurt you or contribute to a long-term build-up that will be harmful down the road.  


In one of your open windows, place a box fan facing out. This will act to pull air through the studio from the other open window and out again through the window with the box fan.  This will refresh the air more effectively than just a single open window.  


See below:










A few rules to follow when using this:


-Never vent into another room in the house. Always vent the contaminated air OUTSIDE.
-Always have sufficient (equal) clean air to replace the contaminated air you are removing. (If you have a fan in a window, always have another window of equal size open.)
-Do not recirculate any of the exhausted air back into the studio. (The windows shouldn't be directly beside each other.)
-If you are using materials that are highly flammable, make sure your fans have spark-proof motors and fan blades.


OPTION 3: Simple Continuous Ventilation system.
(Local Exhaust Ventilation)


While option 2 has been an effective solution for my own studio, it may not be practical for everyone.  Some people live in climates that do not allow for this, or do not have access to 2 windows.  



For a studio whose location precludes Option 2, a simple ventilation system may be a suitable alternative.  And installing one may not be as terribly expensive or as time consuming as you might expect. Depending on the amount of air that needs moved, it may only require some 6" HVAC ductwork and a 6" duct fan from the local hardware store. 









Bquin from the wetcanvas.com forums shows his setup here. The fan captures the harmful vapors at their source, and forces them out and away from the studio.  


OPTION 4: Local Exhaust Ventilation


The hood.  This is in essence, an industrial-sized version of the ventilation system seen above.  You probably remember seeing one of these back at your school science lab.  Local exhaust ventilation captures harmful elements at the source by the use of an overhead hood.  It then transfers them directly outside through a duct system.




This is the ideal and most comprehensive solution… if you have piles and piles of cash lying around. They can be very expensive and difficult to install in the average studio space. But they are very effective at removing harmful elements from the air.  


Here again, it is necessary to have a secondary source for replacing the air that is being vented outside. With some of these it may only require an open window.  For others it may require an air or heat transfer system.  


OPTION 5: Air filter and Purifiers
(Dilution Ventilation)


Air purifiers take the exposed air in a studio and pass it through a filter, which captures much of the harmful material, and then releases the cleaned air back into the studio. While purifiers can help significantly reduce the amount of harmful materials in the air, they cannot completely eliminate the hazardous elements. Most of the models made for homes are excellent at servicing small jobs, but lack the power to handle larger projects. 




My Austin Healthmate Jr. can exchange the air in my studio space almost 5 times per hour, just shy of the minimum recommended 6, and half the hoped-for 10. 
-If you purchase an air filter, charcoal and active carbon are the best. A good activated-carbon HEPA air filter, such as the Austin Healthmate, costs about $600 with replacement filters priced at about $200.


OPTION 6: A Respirator Mask
(Wait, wear a gas mask?  …Sure, I'll get right on that.)
A respirator mask is the absolute last line of defense, used only when all else has failed.  If you cannot otherwise properly ventilate your studio, or you are deathly allergic to even a trace of the chemicals you are working with, then this would be something to consider.  But if it looks like the job will require a mask, you really need to ask yourself if it is worth it.  


There are artists who do work with masks and if you find that you have no other choice, then there are good ones available. Make sure the mask you purchase is OSHA or NIOSH approved and that it has an organic vapor filter cartridge.  (Simple cotton filters will not suffice.)


Always consider the health of the other people in or near your work environment who are not wearing respirator masks.


OPTION 7: Place a tiny little fan beside you that gently blows the air away from your face.
(False)


This option does not work at all. It merely stirs the air up, but does nothing to either dilute or replace the air in the room.  The concentration remains. However, many people still seem to use it and believe that it works. They may tell you that it is a genius idea that Leonardo Da Vinci invented and that it makes you totally safe from everything. Do not heed their words. In that way lies destruction. 


IN CONCLUSION... 

If you are going to use solvents, you need to consider studio ventilation.  For your immediate comfort, your long term health, and the health and comfort of those who live and share a space with you.  




***Note!***
This ventilation described above is for dealing with vapors only. It is not sufficient if you are dealing with particulates (as with airbrushing or grinding paints). Be sure to research everything about all of the tools and paints you intend to use before setting up your own studio ventilation system.