Illustration Master Class 2011 - Day 6

DAY 6! If I had thought I was tired before now... If I had thought I had even previously experienced the days and even time itself blurring together into one indistinguishable moment... Day 6 proved me wrong. Despite my best efforts the amount of sleep I was getting each night had dwindled to a few hours while at the same time I increased my work efforts. Day 6 is the last full day that can be devoted to your painting and the people were really giving it their all. Many foresaw a very late night ahead of them. All that aside, there was still some great lectures and the group photo that needed to happen as well. I did get my painting to a finished state the evening of Day 6. Jeff Himmelman and Marc Scheff had to practically rip the stylus from my hands to get me to stop messing and futzing with the painting. More on that later in the week when I talk about the piece directly. How onto the pictures of the day...

The product of Iain McCaig's watercolor demo in all it's glory.

Rebecca Guay's work station. Something tells me the piece might still be wet, I hope everyone knows.

RC Torres keeps working away on his great piece. It is really coming together!

Even with all their help extended to the student body, Boris Vallejo (left) and Julie Bell (right) have had time to work on their pieces which are beginning to take shape.

Scott Fischer and Greg Manchess tag team on a painting, infusing it with a double dose of awesome.

Rebecca Guay back at work on her piece.

FINALLY! Iain McCaig did his creature design demo in the digital studio. That big white wall that you may have seen in my pictures of the digital studio turns out to be a well placed screen for projected demos. I had the perfect seat for it as well! Been waiting all week for this one. Iain placed on himself a real word deadline and criteria for the demo. 30 minutes to design a new monster for the Harry Potter universe. He would call out options and which ever option was repeated back by someone in the room would be the direction he would take the design. The process was broken down into three stages: One, do a really bad drawing laying out all the choices (pictured above); Two, find real world reference and draw that to help make the creature more real; and Three, draw the creature design. Each step received about 10 minutes. The design ended up being an aquatic apex predator with lots of teeth, eight arms and wings...

Iain draws at an amazing pace. Simply astonishing to see him work.

The final creature is almost done. He completed the entire process with time to spare and none of us was later for the the next lecture.

Scott Fischer's demo was a real hoot and full of the Zim Zam. Though it might be an altered document, Scott claimed from the age of four that he wanted to paint like Greg Manchess.

Time for the group photo! We thankfully had one patch of sun to get the photo. The rain and overcast skies had been the norm all week.

I had not expected it to go as smoothly as it did. Apparently artist are much more easy to direct into a group for a photo compared to some other group photos I have been present at. Everyone seemed to know their place and where to go.

Jason Cheeseman-Meyer noticed that I was taking some of my own pictures from the back.

The backs of more people's heads.

Iain's finished creation was on the display in the digital studio for the rest of the day. The creature was named the Blu Arcy.

Dan Dos Santos did a painting demo in the evening.

Aaron Miller hard at work on his painting.

Scott Fischer took pity on Green Man offered him some much needed junk food.

I will leave you today with a shot of the digital studio. It was a buzz of energy as people approached the end of the 2011 IMC and the completion of their paintings. I printed out my painting in preparation for the open house and work presentation the afternoon of Day 7.

That is all for today, Day 7 coverage will be up on the blog tomorrow! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com