Monday, July 8, 2013

is ANYbody out there---no one comments anymore

ANYone???

6 comments:

Bret A. Melvin said...

We're here! Keep up the posts! I check your blog every day to keep me going :)
Reminds me why I do what I do. I get up every morning, check my email, Drudge Report, Cartoon Brew, and your blog...not always in that order.

Question for you, Gary...

Have you ever thought about doing a Schoolism-type class?
I actually took Jason Seiller's self taught class there last year and it was the absolute highlight of my year! I know you're friends with Thomas Fluharty who does one as well, but man, I would be the FIRST person to sign up if you'd offer a Start-to-Finish tutorial or lesson to show how you go from sketch, to gethering reference, to doing revisions, to final art.

You just let me know and I'll be there!

Keep up the great work and be encouraged!

-Bret <><

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

This is such a different format from what I'm used to, I guess I didn't realize that you could leave comments. My bad. I'll make an effort to compensate for this oversight in the future.

Gary Locke said...

YAY___PEOPLE ARE there!!!! schoolism!!??!! wow---hadn't given that much thought---- interesting---but what if you found out i am a fraud, and copy every thing form a bunch of artist i have working in my dungeon under the studio????


Erik----yeah---i'm not so sure i love the format i picked here----think i should switch it back to another look????

Bret A. Melvin said...

Ha! Sadly we can't have dungeons here in Florida (the water table so I'm told). Guess that means we could have a moat though, so there's that. And of course gators.

But seriously, man, I'd love to see more of how you work and would love to hear some of your thought process about your technique, etc. I work in merchandise design, so if I'm doing a painting for a t shirt in particular, there's such limits placed on it due to the printing process that it always fascinates me to see how other folks think, how they start, and ultimately how they finish a piece.

We have to be super methodical and organized with our file setups. By the time I'm done with a painting for a licensed character or something, I've got anywhere between 50-100 layers that are named and arranged by body parts or objects (usually because even after approvals, an arm will need to be moved or a hand tweaked, etc). I usually have to paint each tree on a separate layer in case the clients need me to scoot it over and I often have to paint behind everything (almost like an animation background) so things can be shifted and changed up until, if not even after, things have gone to production.

Since you come from a traditional airbrush background, I'd be curious to see what things you've carried over from that or if you had to completely rethink your illustration process from the ground up.

If I had to pick a couple things about your work that I've always admired and would love to learn about, it would be the way you handle your textures and some of your intricate foliage and backgrounds. (I'm thinking especially about the great foliage and details you did for your Panda illustrations, or the grass and rocks in your Adventure in Odyssey car illustration)

Again, it's probably just due to the way that we have to set up our files, but I'm just picturing spending days having to path out each plant in Photoshop and separate them by layer for production (almost like traditional airbrush frisket). Anything with a hard edge is typically pathed out methodically, given its own layer, named, and grouped by object. (crazy huh?)

Anyway, keep it up, man! And if you do a Schoolism class or a Livestream demo or whatever, I'll be first in line.

Cedric Hohnstadt said...

Hi Gary. I love your work and enjoy following your blog in my RSS reader. I hardly ever comment on art blogs anymore, mostly because it's too much work when it's much easier to "like" something on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Behance, etc. Do you have accounts on any of those services? I would definitely follow your work there. Keep up the awesome art!

Gary Locke said...

@garyartgood on the twitter---Gary Locke on the facebook