What sort of an illustrator are you?
Does your present body of work reflect your aspirations? Could it do so more strongly?
List ten images/themes/techniques/
Coffee shop, restaurant owner. I always want to open a store, and that is what I am going to do when I retired. I like to manage a restaurant, and I can go for a vacation and still make so money.
1.) You have one month and one thousand dollars (all of which must be spent on art expenses).
I will go to New York and take a one month illustration class. I will make a piece from what i learn from that class.
2.) Six months and ten thousand dollars.
Traveling and sketching. I will make a book that records all my sketches and things that I collect from any where I have been through those six months. I will use one week to plan out where i want to go and booking ticket. Second week, I will start my journal. For the last month, I will stay at home and organize my book and sent out to print.
3.) One year and one hundred thousand dollars.
I will make an animation movie. First of all I need to find some investor, use money to make more money. I will spend money to hire all kinds of great artist and technique people that i might need for this film. Durign the first month, the story and concept will be decided. Second and Third month, I will look for the team members. I will use the rest of my time to try to make the animation film. About the half way mark, may be around six month, start the commercial for the film. And we will play this movie in the theater around the world.
There are many illustrators that I love, but these ten are the name or their work come up my mind the first ten; Peter de Seve, Yuko Shimizu, Norman Rockwell, Charles Dana Gibson, Peter Hoffmann, Bobby Chiu, Kei Acedera, Sergey Tyukanov, Nick Dewar, Robert Carter.
Peter de Seve’s work is used in many areas that including magazines, books, print/television advertising, and animated feature films. He is most know for illustrating New York magazine cover, character designs for film Ice Age movies. I think his client is looking for a character. Every character that he illustrates has a special personality.
Yuko Shimizu’s clients include Microsoft, Pepsi, VISA, MTV, TARGET, The Gap, T-Mobile, Neiman Marcus, Warner Elektra Atlantic Music, NPR, FUSE TV, M.A.C. Cosmetics, Pentagram, Sagmeister Inc., TIME, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, PLAYBOY, GQ, etc. Shimizu’s works mostly are ink and color in Photoshop, and has lots of line work and detail. Her client must be looking for some ink work and it has Japanese style.
Norman Rockwell’s client was The Saturday Evening Post magazine and he also worked for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) for their publication Boys' Life and calendars. For Both Saturday Evening Post magazine and BSA, I think they are looking for the work of illustrations for everyday life scenarios.
Charles Dana Gibson works for Life magazine over 30 years, best known for his creation of the Gibson Girl. He also works for major New York publications, Harper's Weekly, Scribners and Collier's. Later he became the editor and eventual owner of Life. Most of his clients are magazine publication, and they are looking for a black and white inking work that illustrates about our society at the moment.
Peter Hoffmann is working as a lecturer for drawing and layout at the University of Applied Sciences, Trier, Germany. He has been designing logos for person and company. Hoffmann is not only an illustrator and also a graphic designer. And I think that’s one of the big reasons his client chose him, his work is very playful with lines.
Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera are working in the Imaginaism studio, there work specializes in movie pre-production and children's books. Bobby has designed Disney, Warner Bros., and Star Wars toys at Thinkway Toys in Toronto, Canada. He presently works as an illustrator for film and teaches digital painting online at Schoolism.com and publishes art books. Kei is the art director and co-owner of Imaginism Studios Inc. Kei's works in upcoming films from Sony, Warner Bros. and Universal Studios, and in children's books from Harper Collins. Their client is mostly deal with children, so I believe they are looking for some work that is playful and full of imagination.
About Sergey Tyukanov, I cannot find his client list, but his work is displayed in a lot exhibits around country. And he is also a children’s book illustrator.
Nick Dewar has work for many companies, such us GQ, The New York Times, Times, Playboy…etc. Corporate work has been done for Abercrombie and Fitch, Ann Taylor, Citibank…etc. Illustrated book jackets for Bloomsbury, Little Brown, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House, Viking and Vintage. Nick has a lot of clients. According to his work, I think his client is looking for work that is simple but also strong. His work is very clean and simple but it communicates very clear on the idea.
Robert Carter also has a long client list. There are American Airlines, Boy’s life magazine, Washington Post, CAA, Penguin Publishing…etc. His clients are looking for an illustrator that can communicate well and focus on today’s society environment.
Go to a bookstore with a large magazine section, like Barnes & Noble or Borders. Find at least ten magazines that you think you could work for. Consider both the content of the magazine and the type of illustration, if any, that they use. Record they names of the art director and any assistant art director's listed, and their contact information.
Time: D.W.Pine
Baga Traveler: Phillip Lee
GQ: Warren Jackson
Crafts: Stephen Coates, Henretta Mdiuavo (info@stephencoates.co.uk)
Communication Art: Tricia Seibold
If you were starting your own magazine and your livelihood depended on it selling well and your sanity depended on it being something you wanted to spend all you time on, what would it be? What sorts of writers and artists would you hire? What subject matter would it deal with? How would you want it to look?
If I were starting my own magazine and my livelihood depended on it selling well. It will be a magazine about Asian stuff, mostly will be art and it will also be about the culture, living and new invention. I will hire of course Asian writers and artists, who are from all over the world. Also some foreigner that live in Asian. Most important is that they have talent, their creativity make the reader not just like to read this magazine but buy it! Since it is a magazine about Asian, I want it to have mystery feel to it. I want it to attract the viewer’s eye, and would like to open it.
I like working in acrylic, oil, cut paper, and Adobe Illustrator. All those are very forgettable. I like oil more than acrylic, because oil dries slower. Cut paper just remind me about the art class in the elementary school, and I like the feeling of having lots of paper around because it makes me feel that I work really hard. Specially, you always can lay other media on top the paper to create different result. I just learned how to do draw in Adobe illustrator last semester, and I fell in love with it. I figure I can easily create a paper cut feeling in illustrator; I also use Adobe Photoshop to help me some time.
I hate working in watercolor and painting on Photoshop. Maybe I should not say hate, simply because I am not good at it. I do not have much patient, and watercolor is all about laying color. It is not much forgettable. I am not good with color, so to the end everything will become really dark. Coloring in Photoshop I just do not get it. I feel like I might be able to do faster in Acrylic or oil.
I would like to try gouache but I have not. It is because the money I think. I do not have any gouache with me, and every time I want to try and I think I have to spend money on it. And I heard you have to mix the color you want in one time, to make sure you can get same color again. I amused that it need a lots tubes to finish a painting.
There are three non-illustration classes, Idea, Process and Criticism (IPC), Design system and Drawing composition, have influenced my work positively. Even though everybody hate this course. But it really help me learn how to do research and process them. From the design class I know how to arrangement my illustration and text and choosing a right type face. Although I am still not very good at choose a font. Through the drawing composition class, I know more about how to create a dynamic drawing composition and not afraid to try mix many different media.
In my class, every body is an illustrator but everyone has their own style or working process. I do not like to talk in front of lost people, but I like to critic. I like to hear about how my peers process their work and what their new experience. The work of my peers has influenced my work. If I see somebody’s work and style are attractive to me, I will try to apply it in to my work also.
I do not have a typical subject matter that I like to create work about. But in the future I would love to create a work that may teach people a lesson or make fun of some thing, everything that is around our live.
I do not like to read, even in my native language. And I know I need to work on it. But I do like to read magazines that teach you how to cook and become healthier. I also read fashion magazine sometime and to dream about I can have one of the purse one day. Actually, I just borrowed a book from library last week, “notes from the dog” by Gary Paulsen. It will be the third book that I have completely read in English.
I like to listen to pop music and love songs. I listen to radio every day and they usually play pop music, that is easy to remember but they do not last long. Love songs, they could easily touch my heart, and I think I am pretty emotional. For the love song part more classical more tasty just like a bottle of wine.
Except art, I know a little bit about Html and CSS coding, to make a wed site. I am interested in surfing but not well at it yet, and trying different type of foods and cooking. I love to travel, especially after I came to America, I know more people that from every where in the world and every where has there own culture. It push my desire of traveling more deep.
There is not a thing that I can think about I likes but nobody else likes. I like to laugh out loud. But usually when you do this in the public, people do not like it.
If I had to run the world’s museums, I would like to own as many original art as I can. If I can only chose three, which will be The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, The Luncheon on the Grass by Edouard Manet and Along the River During the Qingming Festival by Chinese artist Zhang Zeduan. Three pretty different style of painting. I appreciate Van Gogh’s work since I was little, his usage of colors are very attractive to me. I learn a lot of about Manet in my fist year, from his work I found bravery. The last one is a Chinese painting, describe people’s activity during the Qingming festival. Amazing about this painting is it is 208 inches long.
My weaknesses are being lazy, lazy, and lazy. A lot of things I think I can do but I never do them like I think I can. I need to have more practice on drawing and painting(either on traditional or digital media). Also look at more artists’ work and remembering the artist’s name. Most of the time I do not know what the artist is talking about. I might see the artist’s work before but I won't ever remember their name. Also English is a big part that I need to improve. I need to read more books to increase my reading speed, writing skill and my vocabulary. Thousand of thing that I need to achieved but did not finish one during this summer.
By the way, I am also afraid of the dark and horror stories.