Phil Hale Interview

-By John Jude Palencar

There is a Phil Hale interview over at Sidebar Nation. Phil is one of my favorite illustrators and now an emerging force in the fine arts. Sidebar was started by two crazy art dudes, Swain and Dwight... think of Garth and Wayne from Wayne’s World but with art.



Phil Hale Interview link  (Downloadable MP3 link on this page)



Addendum page with Phil's work

Casting Director G. Charles Wright's Audition Advice

Explore Talent interview with casting director G. Charles Wright. Audition tips from a professional casting director. G. Charles Wright gives advice to how to approach an audition and win the part by doing your job by building and knowing the character you are trying out for. Explore Talent helps actors and models find auditions for television, film, theater, dance and modeling opportunities and jobs. Search auditions today and jump start your acting modeling career with exploretalent.com.



- Lena

Boskone

If you're in Boston this weekend, take the opportunity to see Dan Dos Santos in his role as Artist Guest of Honor at Boskone. I have it on pretty good authority that our Fellow Muddy Gregory Manchess and the effervescent Irene Gallo will be present as well...

A Question on Transitions

by Eric Fortune

Hey Eric,



I had a quick question I was hoping you could help me with. You say that you use thin layers of acrylic washes, are you using regular acrylics, liquid acrylics or something else? I've been using regular Golden acrylics for washes but when I thin down the paint too much the pigment doesn't go down too smooth. Also, with whatever you're using, are you able to pull any of the color back up should you need to? I like using acrylic washes b/c of the muted tones I can get but have had to switch to watercolors b/c of the less than smooth washes and ability to pull color back up but am now getting colors that are way too bright.



Anyway, thanks for the help, hope I'm not taking up too much of your time.

I shot another video to try and answer this question. I put emphasis on experimenting and practicing. The more we practice the more we learn and refine our work, technically and conceptually. Another important factor to acknowledge is that these things can take a lot of time and patience. But if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. If you're not happy with how you're paintings are turning out perhaps you're not quite finished yet.



In this particular case it seems the person may be going back and forth between watercolors and acrylics. I have nothing against mixed mediums. So perhaps a combination of the two will suit you best. As for color, I usually keep a test strip of watercolor paper that I brush colors on to in order to see if the colors actually look the way I want them to. Test out your colors on a sample sheet of paper first. If it's too intense make appropriate adjustments. With my technique I would either tone it down with other colors and/or thin it out with more water. Hope this helps.

Studio Time

by Donato

After those amazing posts these past fews days from my fellow Muddy Buddies, I am not even going to attempt to stand in their shadows with a lame attempt at advice.  Rather, here are a few shots of what's keeping me in my dirty painter's pants these weeks, and reiterate what I always say...back to work!



The Shipwreck (seen above) is on the drafting table now, and will likely be there for quite a few weeks more... overall size is 40" x 72", Oil on canvas.  The astronaut in progress is for a showing at the Richard J. Demato Gallery in Sag Harbor, NY later this year.

Promethean Seed, 36" x 48", Oil on Panel (in progress)

Lastly, some more Middle-earth drawings (which I always love to tackle!). Ents Roused and Zirak-zigil with Gandalf and the Balrog were for my Limited Edition Book.

MicroVisions 7 Contributors Announced

-Irene Gallo



MicroVisions 7 has begun and it’s a stellar line up.



For those new to the event, each year Greg Manchess, Dan Dos Santos, and I ask a dozen artists to create a 5x7 painting of their choosing. These miniatures are exhibited at the Society of Illustrators and then placed on auction, with all proceeds going to the Society’s Student Scholarship Fund. This year’s contributors are:

Scott Bakal

Julie Bell

Scott Brundage

Brian Despain

Nathan Fowkes

Rebecca Guay

Scott Gustafson

John Picacio

Dan Dos Santos

Peter de Seve

Chris Rahn

Terryl Whitlatch

The exhibit will run in May, with the auction taking place late in the month. We will post details as the event draws near.



The Society scholarships are among the illustration industry’s toughest awards. This year, over 8,000 entries were examined by 25 judges. Just over 200 students will be accepted into the exhibit, about half of them will earn cash awards. Not only do these awards help subsidize students financially, they also go a long way to boost the confidence of young artists (and their nervous parents) by proving their voices stand out amongst thousands of others. It’s never long before you start seeing the winners on their way to becoming the field’s biggest names. John Jude Palencar, James Jean, Tomer Hanuka, Dan Dos Santos, and many others have become noted illustrators since the Scholarship’s inception in 1981.



Once again, I would like to thank the artists involved for heir generosity. The illustration community is incredibly supportive. Not every profession would donate time and energy to support their future competition.

Collaborative Painting

-Dan dos Santos



Here is the latest installment of the 'Alien' series I do for Daw books, titled 'Alien Diplomacy'. This one was a lot of fun to work on. Not so much because of the subject matter, but because of the company.

The deadline on this piece was really tight, and I honestly thought I would have to turn the job down. That's not something that I, or the client, wanted to do. I had already painted the first 4 covers in the series, and it would be a shame to just hand that off to someone else. So I did what any person does when they're in a jam... I asked for help.



Knowing there was no way to get the job done in the allotted time on my own, I asked fellow illustrator, and good friend, Dave Palumbo to help me out on this piece. Dave and I have really similar working methods (right down to the substrate we both use), so I knew he would be a good partner on this piece. I also know that he has similar tastes to myself, and was experienced collaborating with other artists.



Dave traveled from Pennsylvania to my home in Connecticut, and over the course of 4 days, we managed to turn out a rather complicated piece from start to finish.



I've done collaborations before, and not always with great results. I think this collaboration was particularly successful due to a few factors:

1. As I mentioned, Dave and I have very similar working methods.

2. The 'look' of the series had already been established, so we had a clear goal in mind as to what the final result should look like.

3. Rather than both paint a little bit of everything (and likely un-do a lot of each other's work), we decided to divvy up the various elements of the painting. I would paint one specific element, Dave another.



The collaboration actually started before Dave got to my house. Days prior, we bounced sketches back and forth via email, refining one another's ideas, and getting the Editor's approval before Dave drove up.

 



Once here, Dave and I immediately went reference hunting. We took a trip around town, and even stopped at Wal-Mart, photographing all sort of junk that would help us compose the robotic elements of the painting. Industrial backhoes, Transformers toys, and even vacuum cleaners all made their way into the painting.

We hired one of my favorite models that same day for a late night shoot, and later that night settled on a pose.

Dave helps with the drapery as the model poses.

We spent the entire next day compiling the reference, making sure we were both happy with the composition. Dave then began the process of transferring the image to the board, and did a rough acrylic lay-in.



Once the lay-in was completed, Dave took a well-deserved break, and I began the process of painting the background elements... working well through the night. When Dave woke up the next morning, he began painting the mid-ground. We alternated like this, back and forth, Dave working during the day, and me at night, so that we could clock a good 16 hours worth of work on the painting each day.



Just 4 days after his arrival, we had a pretty impressive, albeit completely wet, painting to show for it.

First thing the next day, we took a drive to a local photographer that I often use to scan my paintings. With a 10 foot flatbed-scanner at our disposal, we were able to get a wonderful hi-rez scan of the image, regardless of it being wet.



A few hours later, scan in hand, I imported the image into Photoshop, and began making adjustments. I digitally added the male figure into background, as well and the furry critters up front. Both were elements that were really important to the story, so they had to be there. However, Dave and I discussed these elements early on, and both felt that the original painting would be much stronger without them. So we knew that we were going to add them digitally before we even started.

The final cover with additional characters.

There are a couple of serious considerations when collaborating with someone on a professional job. Most notably, who will retain the copyrights, and the original art? I was tempted to hire Dave to help me as a work-for-hire arrangement, as this would keep things really simple. Dave would be well compensated, and the painting, for all legal purposes would be mine. I decided not to do this for two reasons.



Firstly, this would mess up my taxes. It would mean me claiming incoming I didn't actually receive, or possibly having to list Dave as an employee. That is territory I didn't want to tread.



The other reason, and the more important of the two, was that I thought it would be insulting. Dave is really talented, and I didn't want him to be a ghost on this project. I wanted his input, and fully expected that his sensibilities would show through in the final work. As such, it was only fair that he receive credit too. In the end, Dave and I each own half the copyright, both received cover credit, and each invoiced the client separately. I currently have the original art, but it technically belongs to both us. Should we decide to sell it, we would both split the income.