Hartford Illustration MFA- New Website

As many of you may know I had the privilege of earning my MFA degree at the University of Hartford in their Low Residency MFA of Illustration program. This program is uniquely designed to allow working professional illustrators a chance to further their studies and earn an advanced degree without uprooting their family or abandoning their career to enroll in a full time program. It was the perfect place for me and I found it to be the perfect environment in which to be challenged, inspired and in which to cultivate new skills. In addition to my MFA degree, I left Hartford with a network of lifelong friends that I still talk with on a regular basis. I highly recommend this program to anyone who is seriously considering graduate studies in illustration. Program director Murray Tinkelman and the outstanding faculty (including the likes of Gary Kelley, C.F. Payne, Ted and Betsy Lewin) and inspiring guest presenters from the highest ranks of the industry make this an unforgettable growth experience.

Check out Hartford's Low Residency MFA in Illustration here.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly- Demo

I have always liked movie westerns so when thinking of what might be a fun subject for a class demo, I figured I would do a gritty cowboy. What movie cowboy was grittier and tougher than Clint Eastwood's man with no name? Eastwood made this character famous in  the Sergio Leone" classic A Fistful of Dollars and sequels A Few Dollars More and the iconic The Good, The Bad and The Ugly?  The first step was to pull a few reference photos and create a drawing.

The final drawing

I didn't want to simply copy a photo, but rather capture a bit of the character's persona and add in a little bit of stylization to the drawing. I used elements from several photos to come up with my drawing which I then projected onto my cold press illustration board. I refined the drawing and added some value using Prismacolor pencils. I like Prismacolors because they don't get scrubbed off when applying wet washes of acrylic paint.

The next step in this mixed media demo, a variation of the technique used by friend and fellow illustrator C.F. Payne, was to apply initial washes of color starting with a nice warm yellow under wash. This process . I followed that with washes of brown for the hat and a flesh tone on the face and then the chosen colors for the shirt and neck bandana. I keep these washes smooth and even by tilting the surface and "drawing the bead" or letting the paint fall along the wet edge to avoid any streaks.

With oil wash lifted out

Next comes the "ugly" step where things can get scary. I apply a purplish wash of very thinned down oil paint in one pass with a wide varnish brush. The oil is very thin and settles down int he valleys of the board texture but since the binders are mostly obliterated by the thinner, it does not fully adhere to the surface. I then lift out the highlight areas using a kneaded eraser and sometimes a pink pearl eraser.

After Prismacolor application

When I have lifted all the areas I want to remove, I spray the surface with a photo retouch varnish to seal off the oil and give the surface a little tooth in preparation for some Prismacolor. This step can be overdone, so I use the pencil fairy sparingly and apply it with a light touch.

Stopping place- still a lot of work to do to finish

After I am satisfied with some of the colored pencil application, I come back with more acrylic and keep working the surface, pushing the lights and the darks, alternating back and forth with a little more pencil if needed until I am finished. I stopped this demo after two and a half hours, but there is still quite a bit of work left yet to finish this one up right. I'll post the final version sometime later and link to this post.

Addendum: The Finished Painting

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - Mixed Media, 10" x 12'

Here is what the finished demo turned out like. I worked on it for maybe another3 to 4 hours in two sessions after I stopped the above demo. Total working time including sketch was about 8 hours. As you can see from the above photo, I spent a fair amount of time adding detail in areas such as the hatband and the beard. I also cleaned up and strengthened contrasts in the background while still keeping it ambiguous and non distracting. I added a stronger rim lighting on the edges to give the feel of bright sunlight.I'm pretty happy with how it finished up.

C.F Payne Visit

Yesterday I had the privilege of watching yet another demo and presentation by the incomparable C.F. Payne. For those not familiar with his work. Chris Payne has been a fixture in the illustration world for decades. He has won multiple awards from every notable illustration and design institution you can think of. He is perhaps best known for his 4 1/2 year run creating the back cover art for Reader's Digest called Our America.

I first met Chris in 1994 when I was just about to launch my freelance career. I attended a design conference in Park City, UT where he was a guest presenter and he was gracious enough to review my portfolio and give me welcome encouragement. We continued to cross paths every few years at conferences and drawing retreats and became friends. Chris and his son even slept on my pull out couch during their 2002 Winter Olympic trip to Salt Lake. Most recently, I had the pleasure of having him sit in on my MFA thesis defense at the University of Hartford. Yesterday I got to watch Chris in action once again as he did a demo painting for a room of over 50 students (including my class) as well as interested visitors at Brigham Young University. I've seen him do his thing several times over the years, but it never ceases to entertain and amaze me. Chris is quite simply a master at his craft. Rather than go through a step by step of his process, I'd just like to share a few nuggets of wisdom I jotted down from yesterday's presentation.

"You are only as good as your reference material- get good reference." 

"The only one taking a risk here is the illustration board" - in response to a student who claimed to have been taking a risk. 

"The work is the fun of it- just get to work. It's where you want to be- there is only pressure when you are not working." 

"You are a steward of what you are doing" - in response to why he got into teaching. 

"It is all about DESIGN- how you communicate an idea and make it make sense." 

"To design a picture, you have to see shapes. Look at the space and design the picture- don't get so caught up in the details. 

"Don't work in isolation. Communicate with other illustrators- network." 

"Experiment! Make a whole bunch of bad art and learn from it. Remember your mistakes."

Wise words from one of the best- thanks Chris!
Check out Chris Payne's portfolio here.