So I've spent the week showcasing New York illustrators, and I gotta end the week (and the 2nd month of this series!) with Donato.
I've met Donato several times now at IlluxCon and some other conventions, and he is an incredibly personable, inspiring, and above all, *nice* guy. His work basically speaks for itself. Amazing oil paintings. Amazing drawings. Overall - amazing!
Tomer is one of those guys whooften uses colour in a way that shouldn't work...but it totally does. I've seen people try to copy his choices, and it looks like someone poured Pepto onto an image...but when Tomer picks a palette, I like it.
Yuko is one of my personal heroes. Like me, she started in a completely different field, worked for ten years, and then went back to school to do something she was passionate about. I only hope I have at least some of the same success she has seen!
Seems like I'm doing an "Artists of NYC" week, but that's ok with me!
Zelda is one of the most motivated and down to earth artists I know. I first "discovered" her when she was working more as a part of "Teetering Bulb", but now she's gone solo.
Like me, she's a huge believer in the 10,000 hours to mastery theory. It's not about "talent", it's about having faith in yourself and the discipline to put in the focused hours. I can certainly see that her results speak for themselves.
There are a whole crew of New York City illustrators that I'm going to get to eventually, but we are going to start with Sam Weber. Sam is one of ACAD's great illustration successes, and once you start looking, you can find his work everywhere.
When I first started looking at animation artists, Paul Felix was one of the biggies I focused on. Disney movies, in particular "Lilo and Stitch", "Tarzan" and "Emperor's New Groove" all owe a lot to this man's drawings.
"Cheeks" is a comic book artist, character designer and self-motivated "go getter." He's always got things going on 4 different burners at once, and I love his point of view. He turns characters we know into his own. His version of Hellboy was Mignola's favorite, because it wasn't trying to copy the original, he took it someplace of his own.
What a difference an extra 'o' can make! My friend Carlos introduced me to Alex Tooth in December on that "Fill your facebook page with art" meme that was going around. I had to make sure he hadn't typo'ed the name, and he had not.
I am afraid I can't share too much info about the artist, but I like his environment paintings a lot :)
Kay Nielsen is one of my favorite artists from the "Golden Age" of illustration. He started out on books, and then moved into visual development for animation at Disney. I wish I could say his life ended well, but his illustration style fell out of favor and he died broke and depressed. His friends and family literally couldn't give his work away to museums.
I'm featuring Peter Han today because he is changing my life. He is my dynamic sketching instructor at Concept Design Academy, and in 2 weeks, has helped my figure out how to express myself with a pen more than anyone else...well...ever. I feel like one of those kids who gets an operation and starts to see after a lifetime of blindness.
Going to Art Center life drawing this afternoon, so posting a bit early.
When I first started drawing and painting, I was living in Japan teaching English. My wife was with me, but unlike me, she refused to let Japan keep her from going to San Diego Comic Con. She brought me back 2 art books by Stephan Martiniere.
In many ways, his stuff reminds me of the classic sci-fi illustrators of the 70s, like Berkey. At the time, I was trying to integrate photography and 3D elements, and I was definitely inspired by Stephan's process.
Hans Bacher - If I could only study composition from one working artist, it would be this guy. He's worked in animation for 40+ years, has a tongue that could strip paint from a wall, and he still gets work, because a) he's right and b) he's that good.
His book Dream Worlds should be required reading for every single illustrator, storyboard artist, photographer, or anyone else who wants to communicate visually. What, you don't have it? Why are you still here?!? Buy it and come back, this post will be here!
Robert Valley is like the Ramones of the animation world. By that, I mean that while regular folk may or may not know who he is, pros often credit his work as being completely inspirational. If good character design, and art in general, is about having a point of view that shines through in your work, Robert is a GOD of character design.
I've known his work for a LONG time, but until 2010, I was in the regular folk camp. I found a European sketchbook of his when my wife and I were in Paris, and I finally had a name for the work I had been appreciating for years.
I met him in 2012 at San Diego ComicCon, and it turns out he went to my school! Small world, eh?
Oh yeah, he designed the characters for the Tron cartoon!
Another character designer/comic book guy today, Ben Caldwell. I first found Ben when I was going through that phase most noob artists go through, where they go looking for "How To Draw" books. I found Ben's, "Action Cartooning" book, and the rest, as they say, is history. I really like Ben's designs, they are quirky without being stupid-flat cartoony, and they emote well. His comics are equally fun.