Telling It How It Is...

About once a year, Bob and I go to local art college, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and give a talk and slideshow each - to the students of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Illustration class taught by fellow artist, Nick Jainschigg. That's what we did today. We did a show and tell with Bob's art first, and discussed the pros and cons of working for the publishing industry. There are both pitfalls and successes to be had, but negotiating the illustration road and remaining both solvent, healthy, and sane at the same time can be rough until you find your legs. Even then, there are potholes. Bob and I have had different experiences on different levels of the process, so we shared our anecdotes and warnings, with Nick chipping in with his from time to time. Nick and I took turns moderating the discussion.

Afterwards, we all trooped upstairs to present our slides. Bob had quite a few - illustrating (no pun intended) finished product as well as concept sketches and finished paintings side by side on the screen. Added to this years slideshow was a selection of Bob's concept art from the movie, 'The Antbully', and the previsualization art from 'Seahorse' from the same studio. It was well received. My slideshow encompasses my first serious beginnings in painting fantasy art from 1988 to the present day. The styles and mediums have changed over time, but I always came back to the freedom I feel when using oils. Acrylics, while I find them useful for illustration work, were difficult for me to master and I really felt that I'd literally painted myself into a corner, stylewise, with them. Also, painting in thin acrylic glazes can be time-consuming and tedious. Where was the fun in that? I included several new slides with montages of my 'painting a day' images from my 'Daub du Jour' blog, to show what I was currently trying to accomplish. Using thicker paint, painting from life, challenging myself to keep painting because I haven't been giving it the attention it deserves in recent years. They were appreciative, thankfully. Maybe I'm not doing too badly.

Anyway, that was today. On Saturday, Bob and I are going up to Salem, MA, to do a painting demo with our friend Charles Lang at The Art Corner on Washington Street. But more about that later...

See you then,
Marianne