Illustration Master Class 2011 - Day 5

DAY 5! By Day 5 I had begun to loss all track of time and the days began to blur together into one continuous span of learning and working. Everyone was had at work and paintings began to take shape in both pixel and paint. Still a lot of time to go before the end of IMC and still some great lectures to attend. Speaking of lectures, there have been more then I have mentioned here on the blog. All of the faculty give one to two lectures and they cover a wide range of topics. Many of the faculty talk about their journey as artists, discussing childhood, education, breaking into the industry and what they did to define them as an artist. In addition, some faculty, like Greg Manchess, spoke about topics that affect all of us, as in his lecture on the myth of talent. Greg's lecture on this was amazing! Can't speak highly enough about it. You want to be an artist? You want to be a good artist? You want to be a great artist? Then you are going to need to work very hard for a very long time. There is not magic gene that makes some of us artist and some not nor is there a gene that makes up mediocre artists and great artists. It is all about having goals, deep practice (really concentrating as you work to improve your abilities, it is not enough to simply work a lot, you need to focus and try to improve while you do it - if not, you simply reenforce old bad habits) and accepting that it is hard work and it is going to take a lot of time and energy which is not going to be very fun at times. Enough of that for now... lets get on with Day 5 and some lectures...

Adam Rex was one of today's speakers and had a lot to share with us. As with all of the other lectures you get to see the long and winding path that he took as an artist to get to where he is today. We all have different goals and ways of getting there and it gives a lot of hope that if you keep at it and work hard that you can make it there.

Adam shared with us a piece of his first attempt at story telling from his childhood. It was an epic tale and involved his mom knifing fighting with dinosaurs. I think we were all in agreement that this was a story he needed to revisit and maybe finally publish.

Some images from Adam's sketchbook. He draws cool pandas!

Jeff Mack put on a good lecture as well talking about his adventures in the children's book industry. I sometimes think it was/is hard to navigate the gaming art industry until I hear about the struggles it takes to get a children's book made and I think maybe I am doing okay.

Digital lab is a hopping and a jumping with activity... though it might not seem that way from this photo. It was really great to see so many different ways to approach working digitally. We all had our own methods and styles. There is no one correct way to approach working with any tool, be it traditional or digital.

Drew Baker is hard to at work on his painting. I learned at the IMC that Drew likes to sit on the floor while painting. That is pretty cool and would have never imagined. Like I said, we all have our own ways of working and it was really exciting to see how everyone approaches creating art in their own way.

Upstairs painting studio hard at work.

Aaron Miller is putting paint to board and his Paul of Dune is starting to take shape!

Sam Flegal hard at work on his painting. Though I think moments later he was seen gnawing on the corner in frustration. I thought it was looking pretty cool!

Greg Manchess back at work on his *SECRET* painting.

Downstairs painting studio is a buzz with energy - though this one still image might not be conveying that very well.

Today I will leave you with Cynthia Sheppard and Lauren Cannon hard at work on their paintings in the downstairs painting studio.

That is all for today, Day 6 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