Archive for October 2009

Bobby Chiu: Imaginism Inspiration

Let’s start with a bit of inspiration from Bobby Chui.

Escape From Illustration Island

If you haven’t already seen this great new illustration resources site and podcast by Illustrator Thomas James, now would be a great time to check it out (well, after you’ve finished reading this post obviously

Thomas has put together a fantastic site choc full of resources for illustrators with numerous links to everything from Artists Reps and Photoshop Brushes, all the way through to recommended printers for your promo items – and better still all of these links are on the one page, so you can favourite the site as your browsers home page and have this ever growing collection of resources readily available at the click of a mouse.

Thomas has also launched a companion podcast to the Escape From Illustration Island site too (also syndicated on Illustration Mundo) and has had some great interview guests so far like illustrators Nate Williams and Penelope Dullaghan.

Thomas was also kind enough to interview me for the podcast recently (which goes live on the EFII site this Tuesday)  – he is a super nice chap, a great interviewer and his hard work putting the site together clearly shows in this invaluable resource for all illustrators whether aspiring or established.

Brand Yourself As An Artist On Twitter

Fine Artist Lori McNee, has put together a great little guide to Branding Yourself On Twitter and although aimed at the fine art crowd, there are lots of great take-aways for Illustrators too. While you’re there, be sure to check out Lori’s beautiful paintings too!

Scott McDaniel – Art Analysis #4 and #10

In a previous resources round-up I linked to one of Scott McDaniel’s insightful art analysis posts of a James Jean Fables cover. Here are two more fantastic Art Analysis posts from Scott:

Art Analysis #4: Couple Descending Staircase by J.C. Leyendecker

Art Analysis #10: Dance by Alphonse Mucha

James Gurney’s fascinating blog post: Rockwell and the Camera

Don’t get me started on James Gurney’s blog ‘Gurney Journey‘, if I were to start listing other great posts from James (author and illustrator of the fantastic Dinotopia books), I’d be here all day – his entire blog is pure gold for illustrators and artists.

However, I thought this particular post by James would be a great one to share as it covers the use of photo reference in one’s work (a topic always hotly debated for both it’s evils and merits) and the great example set by master illustrator Norman Rockwell.

As we’re on the subject of James Gurney, be sure to check out his new book ‘Imaginative Realism‘ when it hits the shelves. It looks fantastic and if the quality of the content is half as good as the content of his blog, then it would be worth 10 times the listed price!

Amy Palko’s Creative Circle

Educator, Photographer and Writer Amy Palko has set up a creative circle over at her super ‘Less Ordinary‘ blog, providing fledgling creatives with a safe haven to share their illustrations, fine art, photography, creative writing and get encouragement from other like-minded creatives.

When you’re making that leap to follow your creative passions, it’s sometimes hard to take that nervous first step and share your work with others – but with a friendly, welcoming and nurturing environment like Amy’s ‘Creative Circle’, it just got easier.

Be sure to check out Amy’s excellent short stories (especially this one) and beautiful photography too.

Illustrator Spotlight

Finally a couple of illustrators to check out – you’ve probably heard of these guys as they’re established pro’s at the top of their games, but they both recently released re-vamped portfolio sites with tons of great new work to soak up…

Jon Foster

Sam Weber

Be sure to check out Sam’s amazing illustrations for the new edition of Lord Of The Flies

Well, that’s it for another resources round-up – I hope you enjoy the links.

I was going to apologise for the lack of posts around here lately, but I’ve been beating myself up about it enough already.

Things have been pretty crazy ever since my daughter was born 3 months ago and getting used to life with a little one has been a rollercoaster ride (just to see her gorgeous little smile makes all the hard times and sleepless nights worth it though….ooops, sorry the doting daddy side of me kicked in there for a minute) Combined with the fact that since Mali was born, I’ve been lucky enough to be totally swamped with freelance design work, my illustration aspirations have had to take a back seat.

After going from the gung ho feeling when I launched the blog, to having no spare time and being too tired to do anything outside of my daily family and work commitments – it just felt like yet another false start and I was getting quite disheartened about this feeling of going nowhere with my illustration aspirations.

To make matters worse, because I felt I was going nowhere, I then didn’t feel I had anything worthwhile or useful to write about on the blog either.

That is, until a few days ago when I came to a realisation…it’s a marathon, not a sprint!

Here are a few important points to remember when we hit those low spots:

• It’s ok to build up slowly to reach you goals – as long as you’re moving forward then you are moving in the right direction
• Working hard in your day job is also working hard on your illustration career too – it’s the means to an end and providing funding while you transition to full time illustrator
• There is no time limit – no one is going to tell you that you must give up on your illustration aspirations when you reach a certain age. You will be hired for your awesome work, not how old you are (this may be me being naive, but I’d like to think this is how the industry works!)
• Re-discover your passion for illustration – thumb through books of your favourite illustrators, make a list of your dream projects, set your self achievable goals appropriate to your current circumstances so that you get that great feeling of ticking something off your illustration to do list

What’s coming up on the zero2illo blog:

I’ve got a few posts in the works that I think you’ll find interesting…

• An interview with amazing artist Nic Klein
• A series of posts about comic book artists
• News of a podcast interview that is due to be recorded at the weekend where little old me and this blog will be the subject (more news on this early next week)

Illustrator spotlight

Finally, I wanted to leave you with some art from 3 amazing illustrators that are definitely worth a closer look:

João Ruas

Eva Vazquez

Brittney Lee