Category Archives: Art Instructors

Personal ART Projects for Personal Progress

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All Artists Should be Working on Their Own Personal ART Projects

a personal art piece by artist, Will Terry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’ve got to be working on personal projects.

By this I mean, something that you want to do for you, a non commissioned piece. You don’t have to have someone tell you what to do in order to create a nice piece for your portfolio.

When I was in School I would do some things just for me, or for fun or just for my portfolio. Other students would often ask me what assignment “that was for” and I would tell them that it wasn’t for an assignment. They couldn’t believe I would work if I didn’t have to. But I was working for me.

Some of my best pieces, were little things that I did as personal projects. These personal art pieces were also a big help in me finding me, or finding my style, or niche.

 

Keep it Simple, Stupid

By this I mean no disrespect, I am going with the KISS ACRONYM.

The most important thing about these personal pieces, I would say is to make them small, and therefor doable. That is to say, FINISH them. If you think you are going to create this gigantic masterpiece for you portfolio, you might be right, but more often than not, you are less likely to finish a BIG MASTERPIECE than a sweet little doable personal art project, especially at first. So remember KISS, not the rock band, the acronym. Keep It Simple, Stupid.

 

Start with Small Art Projects

I suggest you start with something small. Make one finished piece that will go into you portfolio, or not if it doesn’t turn out. Maybe your goal could be, not to stop until you get that little thing finished. Here comes another sports analogy. If you were going to run a marathon you wouldn’t just start a marathon. You need to work up to it.

One of the dangers is to want to bite off more than you will chew. Notice I didn’t say more that you can chew, but more than you will chew. I know that you can do what ever you put your mind to, so I’m saying, that you are more likely to put your mind to something that is simple, and therefor finish it, especially at first.

 

Tell that Negative voice to shut up!

The danger of choosing a personal art piece that is too grandiose is that you are less likely to finish it, and if you fail to actually do it, you are training yourself that A, YOU don’t always finish what you start, and B, it is OK to fail. Like if you decide to do a complete comic book or picture book and put it out there on Kickstarter, you may fail or run out of time or just get sick of it. Then you have that stupid little voice in your head that is there for all of us, you know, that voice that says “you won’t finish this” then if you DON’T finish, it will say, “see? I told you soo”. So beet the negative little voice,  choose small, doable, personal little projects, and complete them. Tell that little voice to SHUT UP!

 

Graduate to bigger projects, if you want.

I am finally getting to the point where I am finishing a story app. It is a big endeavor, but I have done dozens of smaller personal projects in the past and several big projects too. Even though I have done a lot before, this one is still a little tough, I gotta be honest. I still have that negative voice, and I have to keep telling myself that It will get done. I have to remember to enjoy the journey and the process along the way.

 

Choose something the YOU want to do.

 

Choose a personal piece that you want to do. If you are creating something that you want to do, it will be more fun and more likely to turn out. I have a friend who loves animals, so she paints animals. If you have a hard time with people, stay away from people or work on parts that you can conquer, like a back or torso, then build up to the harder stuff, work on something that you can do. Cats maybe, or a plate with fish on it. Who knows what you will like. Take something boring and make it exciting. They don’t all have to be gems.

 

 Take Some Risk

I’m not saying to invest a lot of money here, But I do want you do invest a little time and energy, and challenge yourself. Not too much at first, we need to have some successes to build confidence and self esteem.

Remember in an earlier blog I mentioned that a child likes to draw and paint and create artwork because it is fun and fulfilling. Not because she thinks it will make her a lot of money. Don’t kid yourself that you are going to sell all of your personal pieces and make bank. That isn’t the motivation here. Ironically, that is the work that will get you closer to making money as an artist, Or making more money as an artist. And who knows, you may monetize your personal pieces. The more you have, the more likely you will be to sell a few. Who knows. Some artists create a little personal piece of artwork every day and then sell them on their website. And that’s all they do. Win Win Win. Artist improves and hones his skill, artist makes money and end buyer gets a valuable piece of artwork.

Most of the projects I have done, I would say, well that negative little voice in my head that just won’t mind his own business and shut his big yap, would say, they mostly all failed. But did they? Well I didn’t capitalize on all of them, but they all helped me develop my style, my portfolio, my talent and my art stamina. So NO, they did not fail. They all succeeded in one way or another, even if just to keep me in the zone and to help hone my skill.

Just Do It!

Get on it and do a personal piece and then do another. To steel a quote from NIKE, “Just Do It”  and before that, Spencer W. Kimball, who used to say “Do it!” You just gotta do it.

My seventh grade, wood shop teacher, Mr. Swayze would always say, “Git-R-Done!”

“Git-R-Started might have been a better tag line because that seems to be the hard part every day when you looking at that blank canvas or work in progress. So Git-R-Started and Git-R-Done!”

Don’t Worry About Perfection

It’s a personal project so you don’t have to worry if it isn’t perfect or if doesn’t turn out. Everyone has at least 1000 bad paintings in them so feel free to get a few of them out of your system. You don’t have to hand it in to an art director, so you need not stress. Learn from it, try new things, this is where you can totally be you. If it sucks, don’t show it to anyone. Don’t throw it away either, at least not yet. You may want to use it as an example someday when you are teaching.

 

 

 

 

Tips for New Illustrators and Art Students Part 3

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 12 tips for New Illustrators and Art Students Part 3

Artist Paul Mann hard at work in his studio.

Artist Paul Mann hard at work in his studio.

            -1 Things I’ve Done as an Artist

Getting What You Want as an Artist

There are people out there who ask me ‘Other than being a big mouth and starting a YouTube channel what have you done?’ (And if there aren’t there should be, because it’s a valid question)

I started Folio Academy with my good friend Wayne Andreason, where we sell video tutorials. I have made 3 e-books, (see here, here and here) which have sold over 50,000 copies on amazon and Barns & Noble.

A story app called “I Eat You” for iPad and iPhone.

The school of visual storytelling.  With Jake Parker, where we teach live online classes.

Now I am working on an app called Gary’s Place, about a gopher who lives beyond his means.  I am working very hard on that right now. (Fall 2013) I even have my son Aaron learning how to program and animate for that. Yes I’ll pay him for his work.

These are things I’ve picked myself, and I’ve decide that I will try, and if it fails then so what? I can move on to something else.

Now as for helping you, I want to tell you.

                2- ‘Wealth is created in your spare time.’

Think about that a little bit, and my follow up is, I want you to ask yourself what you think you need.

If you could look into the future and see yourself after you’ve finished an amazing project. That is having great commercial success. And aside from all the money you’re making, and the conferences you’ve been asked to speak at, and the recognition and awards.

Now after seeing all that, if you could see what it took to get there,

Would you give up some of your Friday and Saturday nights to work on your art?

Would you live in a smaller apartment or house so you could work less at a job, and work more on your art?

Would you go for a cheaper cell phone, and save money to apply towards your art projects?

Would you spend less time watching TV and movies for your art, and I mean a Lot less time?

Would you play fewer or no video games for your art?

And if you are not willing to give up those things then I want you to say this and see how it sounds and feels coming out.

“I would rather hang out with my friends, spend this money, hang out with friends, watch TV, and play video games than have my dreams come true about becoming a (state your dream here)”

I see a lot of my students wasting time, and I’ll come clean I used to be addicted to Star Craft.  I lost two years of my life to that stupid game.  I have come to the point that if a game is really good, I can’t play it, because I don’t have the time for it.

You need to be able to fall in love with your art and creating your art.  Not the things that will keep you away from it.

        3- Make Great Art

The first step, as author Neil Gaiman said is ‘Make great art.’

That’s the first step, but it’s not the only step and it’s not an easy step.  It takes a lot of practicing, and work, a lot of NOT surfing on the internet.  A lot of just sitting down, drawing and painting and working on your craft.

If you’re starting out right now, you may not be making great art.  Nobody starts out great.  The idea of child prodigies in art is a debunked myth. An artist like Mozart who has had movies made about him, and books and is really well known was virtually unknown for the first ten years of his career.

Next step is… Continue reading →

HOW TO MAKE A STORY APP (for iPad) – STEP 5.5

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How To Make A Story App – Step 5.5

Finish the artwork.

(for earlier steps scroll down or click the following links)

How to Make a Story App – Step 1
Scene of Gary in his little house.

Shoooeeeee – that took a while! But it was worth it… I hope.

I’m not going to even try to explain how much fun I’ve had with the art work in this story app…like…nope…not going to even try. But Hey, I had a LOT of fun.

Of course it has been an incredible commitment and sacrifice. Lots of work with little or no guarantee of financial reward. I even had to turn down PAYING work and slack on my duties at FolioAcademy to have enough time to work on it – which will cause some to question my sanity. But those same people will probably say it was a good move if this pans out financially.

Do I suffer form insanity? Nope, I enjoy it.
Show me any thing of value in this world that didn’t come with some crazy idea and a lot of sacrifice? For me the journey is worth it alone. I’m content because I’m seeing my idea come to life. How many people can say that? Will it make money? We’ll find out as I plan to publish all my sales figures right here on this blog. Get ready to say, “I TOLD YOU SO!”This week I’ll be adding text and finding sounds…
Now available, Step 6.

Tips for Illustrators & Students Part 2: Why Are You an Artist?

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We are Artists Because IT USED TO BE FUN!

I became and Artist cuz art is fun.

I became and Artist cuz art is fun.

I want to start this by asking you, how did you get into art?  What made you start producing art?  Was it just for fun? Were you just a kid?  Did you get into art because people asked you to draw things for them?  I honestly doubt that you got into art because other people asked you to. Most of us got into art to make cool stuff and because it was fun and fulfilling.

There is much amazing stuff out there, and we looked out at it and decided we wanted to make our own and show it to the world.

Do you want to be an Illustrator, an Artist, or an Employee? 

Art is fun.

Art is fun.

Yet so many artists who have spent so long learning, and practicing get to a certain point, like when they’re about to finish school, and they start thinking about getting out of school, becoming an Artist, an illustrator, or just thinking about how to make money with their art skills.

After that all of a sudden we want to get hired. So we can get paid. So we can eat. We want to be employees.  We start looking for someone else to tell us what to do (or draw) so we can make a living, and so we can eat.

We get asked to draw something that isn’t fun or we get asked to do something that takes away from our vision.

What can I do To Make Money as an Artist?

I don’t want to discourage you, there is nothing wrong with working with and helping other people. I want to help open your mind to other possibilities.

It started with students across the country, and now it’s students all over the world. People want to be hired.

The main thing I am asked is, “what can I draw to make money?” I think it’s backwards, is that why we became artist? I’m not saying it’s inherently wrong, but it’s not why we started.

I’m in a position now that I can pick and choose. I’ve put in a lot of work that I ended up hating but I’ve also put a lot of work into my children’s books that I’ve really enjoyed, and I enjoyed the people I’ve worked with.

THERE ARE A LOT OF OPTIONS.

But is that the only way or are there other things that we can do? Have you ever thought that musicians, authors, actors, videographers, and gallery artists are more entrepreneurial than illustrators. Think about that, are they?

What is wrong with Illustrators.  And this is a generalization. Musicians move to Austin, or Nashville, or they record in a friend’s house, and now with the internet a lot of them are starting their own YouTube channels. Comedians are starting their own YouTube channels. Actors move to Hollywood or start YouTube channels, Gallery-Artists make something and try to get someone to buy it. Writers write something and hope publishers buy it, or they publish it on Amazon and sell it directly. Like Amanda Hopkins.

Illustrators Want to be hired, commissioned, or just get a job. 

What’s the difference between us Illustrators, and all the other artists? Ask yourself and try to answer that question. A graphic designer decided to publish his own small books. I have a friend who owns a graphic design studio, and we first started working together about ten, fifteen years ago. And he would hire me, he was getting contracts from Children’s book publishers, and he would hire me to do covers and inside spreads.

A couple years ago he hired me to do some work for a children’s book with a publisher I had never heard of before, why because it was new, it also happened to be him or his publishing company. He decided ‘you know what, I can make one of these myself’. And he’s still publishing books, and even some e-books online.

The Internet has Been a Real Game Changer. 

If you are a teenager or in your mid-twenties, you probably grew up with the internet. Not knowing life without it. I wonder if the internet is more impressive to me someone who lived without it. I can’t speak for someone who lived without cars, or plains.  But I worked without the internet. I don’t want to just assume that I appreciate something more than you, but I wonder how I ever got along without it.

There are thousands of people on YouTube who picked themselves.  People who just decided to utilize this wonderful tool. Some decided, “Hey! I’m going to broadcast the news, and I’m going to make money doing it”, and they’re doing it.

You got the guys who did kid history, (Bored Shorts) and the guys who do honest trailers, (Screen Junkies) look them up, or click the link. But don’t get sucked in, your focus is here right now.

Prank vs prank, there’s that guy from Utah “tipping servers $200”.  Video recorded it, and put it on Youtube.  By my calculations I’d say he cleared $20,000 just posting that one idea.

Now you don’t “NEED” the middle man.

You can now make a free service like Youtube, get your own channel (FolioAcademy has one right here that is grossly underutilized by the way).

My Kid History friends at Bored Shorts are talking to Disney right now, who may end up buying their channel of videos and if they do it’s going to be big.  By the way That guy who filmed the tipping video has over a hundred million views, when you do that, you get noticed, and even make money with advertising. There are tons of review channels too. Someone decides “Hey! I am going to review this product.” Have you ever noticed that whenever someone decides something they start by saying “Hey!” My friend Jedd Henry who did Yukio Heroes. Michal Dowdled who makes his own puzzles of all the famous cities.  He picked himself, Kazu who made flight, People who made their own web comics. That oatmeal guy (I love that guy) Music,  everyone in music is getting involved,  Indie Music, it’s when YOU decide that Hey! you are a musician, you don’t wait for it.

They don’t teach this stuff in public schools. 

The guy’s running public school never taught this, because so many of them didn’t create anything.

My slam on public schools, they do not teach creativity.  They teach people to obey the rules and math and language and science. And WE need that, OK we do but we also need creativity.

We have not been equipped for this world, and public schools haven’t either, our parents and friends and the world is all telling us what to do.  Go to college, get good grades so you can get a job. It makes sense, it’s safe. But ask these guys who have “picked themselves”, they don’t worry about safe.

This is starting to run long so I’m going to have to have a part 3 and maybe part 4 and more.

Okay my next posts will share some strategies, like: Things that I’ve learned, Things that I’m trying to apply now, and ways for an artist to be more entrepreneurial.

COLOR STUDIES FOR A PHOTOSHOP CLASS

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Color Studies 

Here are a few color studies I did in preparation for a Photoshop class I am teaching soon. I like having everything ready to go long before I get into the classroom so I can pack as much information into my lesson portion of the day and not waste time.
Having some color ideas worked out ahead of time takes some of the decisions away so I can focus on the techniques I’ll be teaching. Working digitally has made it much easier to make these experiments in just a few minutes…I have about 20 minutes into these studies but being able to move forward with confidence is invaluable.
Also, I teach a “How to Use Color” course as well as a PhotoShop course here at folioacademy that you may want to check out.

OUR FAMILY PLOT IN MY NEW HALLOWEEN CHILDREN’S BOOK!

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Our Family Plot in my Book!

My new book Skeleton For Dinner by Margery Cuyler takes place in a graveyard. So I put tomb stones on most of the pages of art…and then an obvious problem hit me. There were no names on the head stones. So I placed a call to my editor – Nick Temersma at Albert Whitman and said, “ummmm…what should we put on the grave markers?”…….”hello”…..Then Nick said, “I don’t know – what do you think?” Having been around this business for a while I’ve learned that it’s better to have a solution that works for you when you call with a problem. So I suggested, “What if we put our family names on all the tombstones – I could put yours, mine, Margery’s…” Eventually the answer came back, “Sure, sounds good”.
I had enough markers to put names from both sides of my family, my mom, my editors, and authors family names, and all the dogs I’ve had over the years – including pooch who is still very much alive but hey – never hurts to think ahead.
What better way to start October than with a cheesy pitch from Will Terry and a copy of Skeleton For Dinner? Click here for Amazon
Here’s a review from Kirkus
Happy Halloween from Folio Academy.

WHAT TEACHING ART HAS GIVEN ME

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Teaching art was scary at first


I’ve been teaching on and off now for the past 20 plus years. At first I was petrified. In fact I really feel sorry for the first students I had back in the early 90’s at BYU – I wasn’t very good at my craft which caused my teaching to suffer. I hadn’t put in enough time to formulate my opinions about image creation. 

Be committed to your students and your Art craft. 

Fast forward to the present – boy am I glad I didn’t quit after those first few teaching experiences! I strongly believe in exposure therapy. Afraid to skydive? Go skydiving, still afraid? Go a bunch of times. Afraid of a tax audit? Good you should be, don’t mess with the IRS. But,  I really believe that if you’re committed to helping your students learn it will improve your understanding of the subject 10 fold – especially in a subjective subject like art.

The Process

You do something that’s working in your painting. You have to explain it to someone else. You have to formulate words to describe your process. You hear your own words like you’ve never heard them before. You make a stronger connection. You make other connections with other principles. You now have to live by those principles for accountability to your students. Your art making improves. Apply, Rinse & repeat.

Making a difference in the lives of others is priceless.

But it doesn’t stop there. Because as you help someone else attain the satisfaction you have gained you are rewarded emotionally as well. The connections are so much a part of the teaching. Feeling like you can make a difference in the lives of others is priceless. I have made many friends over the years from some of my former students- and can you have too many friends?
And it doesn’t stop there either because it has helped me heal. I’ve talked about my horrible public school experience as a child on my other blog in the past so I won’t go into it again – but finding what you’re good at and feeling valuable doing it has been very therapeutic.I can’t begin to tell you how rewarding it has been to teach at UVU and be able to start Folio Academy with Wayne Andreason and now SVS with Jake Parker. To be able to dream up a class and offer it online is such an amazing turn for me. When we get together the ideas just start flowing and we think of all kinds of classes. Early next year we plan to offer a  “Luminous Color & Light” class. You can check out our Digital Painting class here.

My suggestion to artists:

Start by mentoring another artist or volunteer at a community art program. Donate your time at various art events and offer pointers. Work to learn. You’ll be amazed at how it will inspire you to want to create more…and you might find yourself teaching at an institution or online sometime down the road. The world is getting connected and if you embrace it – it will embrace you.

How to Make an App – Step 5

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How To Make A Story App – Step 5

 Adding color using Photoshop!

Design it all before you start to color it. First things first.

Making progress! I have the opening screen finished! I’m now adding color to all the pages. This step is going to take me a while so don’t think that I’ve quit if you don’t see step 6 for a few weeks. I had to make sure that every screen/page was working with the story and that the animations made sense. The last thing I want to do is start my finish work before the framework is in place. It’s much easier to alter a sketch than a painting and if I were doing this 10 years ago (even though there was no such thing as an iPad) I would have most likely started on the color before I was ready.

So the way it will work is that the user will be prompted to touch Gary at which point he disappears into his hole and hopefully entices the user (kiddy) to want to know where he went and what it looks like down there.

If you’re new to this blog you can scroll down to see my first steps on this journey – and I haven’t forgotten that I plan to share all my stats with you when I put this baby in the app store. (Cross your fingers) I’m always so curious to know how other people’s apps are doing – but nobody shares that info – like it’s classified or something…think of me as your own personal Eric Snowden – I’m going to leak all the intel on my app – good or bad – we’ll all see how it does.

I’ll be making my app with Kwik – the DIY Photoshop plugin that allows a non-programer to create their own code behind the scenes of this wysiwyg. Our Kwik class starts tonight – can’t wait!

Check back for step 5.5. coming soon, I hope. Thanks.

coming November 8, 2013

How to Make an App – Step 4

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How To Make A Story App – Step 4

Work on character sketches, Interior sketches, and animations.

If you’re new to this blog you might want to scroll down to see my first steps…

Keep in mind that I’m making this up as I go

– I really don’t know what I’m doing but I’m going about this as systematically as possible. And the others here at Folio Academy are still letting me so there you go. I’m using my experience from illustrating children’s books to guide my process but apps are a whole new beast so we’ll see if this works out. Right now I have the entire app sketched out and am checking all of my animations to make sure they work and communicate.

What should you NOT animate?

The hard part was figuring out what to animate but more importantly what NOT to animate. I really want this app to be able to do more than a book but I don’t want to get into full blown animation. I like the idea of page breaks to let the reader fill in the missing visuals with their mind – so not getting caught up in time consuming non-important animation is key to making my self imposed deadline and keeping my sanity, or what’s left of it.

But what if you’re not an animator?

Good Question, I’m NO animator – This is my first time. I’m taking a serious crack at it so I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew either. The little guy above is my main character and I’ll be able to re-use this animation over and over in my story. Of course I still have to paint him so my work isn’t finished but you can see that even an old illustrator can learn a few new tricks

Where can I learn more about creating my own apps?

Glad you asked.

– I made a video tutorial on how to prepare this kind of artwork for a story app here.

Alex Sousa is going to show us how to make these kinds of animations work in Kwik in our upcoming class that begins in a few weeks. We still have a handful of slots left for the live class but many are opting for the LITE, or video recordings of our class.

Check back October 4, 2013 for step -5.

How to Make an App – Step 3

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How To Make A Story App – Step 3 

Set yourself apart from the competition

Decide what you can put into your story app that will be unique to set yourself apart from the competition. This might take some brain storming but it’s worth it.

Be a leader or a follower that surpasses the leader

Are you a follower or a leader? When I look at many of the story apps available in the app store I notice that many creators seem to be playing follow the leader – and some aren’t even following the leaders. It’s hard enough to actually make the app but to put something out that is painfully predictable and average at best is a waste of time. It’s already hard enough to get noticed so don’t make your app forgettable by just doing what the other guys are doing.

If they are all putting coloring book activities in their story apps don’t add a coloring activity – unless you can do it better or different. If the other guys are making every object wiggle with a silly sound when you touch it – yeah you get the picture. We’re at the front of a new technology so don’t assume the other guy is doing it right. This is your app. What do you want to do? Then do that and don’t look back!

Don’t be afraid, Take some risk.

Afraid that you’ll do something other people will scoff or laugh at? Perfect! It’s not art if there’s no risk! Better to fail big and learn than to copy and be forgettable. Be remarkable.

So how can you be original? I think it’s by having one or more unique aspects in your app. Suggestions:

Great story
Great artwork
Animation that is unique to your story
Great voice acting
Integrated music
Unique navigation
Teaches niche moral or principle
Appeals to a niche market
Insert other unique aspect here.

So what am I planning for my app?

Another good question, glad you asked.

1. I think Rick Walton wrote a unique story for us – but the market will decide that.
2. I’m going to work hard on the artwork so I’m hoping to impress in that category.
3. I’m working on animation that helps further the story.
4. I will hire voice actors to enhance the experience.
5. Instead of page turns my app will navigate up, down, back, and forward.
6. The story has a sustainable living theme running throughout.

Like I’ve written before – none of this is a guarantee of commercial success but all I can do is put out the best I’m capable of in a reasonable amount of time and then begin work on the next app.

I’m really looking forward to beginning the Kwik class in a few weeks! Learning how to program my own app without any programing experience is going to enable me to take control of my app creating bug! More info on the class here. 

Tune in September 30, for part-4.