MicroVisions 5 auction now live!

MicroVisions 5 auction is now live on eBay.
Opening bids start at $50.00.
Auction ends Wednesday, May 26th.

Each year, Dan Dos Santos and I ask about a dozen artists to create a 5x7 painting of their choosing. These miniatures are exhibited at the Society of Illustrators and placed on auction with all proceeds going to the Society’ student scholarship fund.

This year’s contributors pulled out all the the stops and created an amazing exhibit. A huge thank you to the artists that have given so generously of the time and talent: Scott Altmann, Scott Bakal, Rick Berry, Bill Carman, Jon Foster, Donato Giancola, Michael Kaluta, Tim O’Brien, Omar Rayyan, Allen Williams, and Boris Vallejo.

The Society Scholarships are among the illustrations industry’s toughest awards. Less than two hundred students are chosen to be in the exhibit from nearly 6,000 entries—about half of them earn cash awards. Not only do these awards help subsidize students financially, they also go a long way to boost the confidence of young artists (and their nervous parents) by proving their voices stand out amongst thousands of others. It’s never long before you start seeing the winners on their way to becoming the field’s biggest names—John Jude Palencar, James Jean, Tomer Hanuka, Dan Dos Santos and hundreds of others since the Scholarship’s inception in 1981.

For those of you in New York, the exhibit is on display at the Society of Illustrators through May 22nd.

Michael Wm. Kaluta’s MicroVisions

Okay, who called Michael Kaluta and told him I have a thing for cranes? It’s true. I love cranes and herons, and pictures of cranes and herons. And I love the ballet of necks and beaks in this drawing.

Michael, a huge thanks to you, good sir! Like the rest, it’ll be a heartbreak to send it away.

MicroVisions 5. Or, The Return of 5x7!

Think small.

Each year, Dan Dos Santos and I organize “MicroVisions”, an exhibit and auction to raise money for the Society of Illustrators’ student scholarship fund. Over the past four years it raised $20,000.00 which was given directly to students displaying exceptional promise in illustration.

I am proud to announce this year’s line-up of participating artists. I cannot thank these guys enough for dedicating their time and talent to this endeavour. To carve out time for anything beyond work and family is not a trivial thing to ask, so, applause to:

Scott Altmann
Scott Bakal
Rick Berry
Bill Carman
Jon Foster
Donato Giancola
Michael Kaluta
Tim O’Brien
Omar Rayyan
Jordu Schell
Allen Williams
Boris Vallejo

Bravo guys! Rest assured, the students really appreciate the support these scholarships represent.

The works will be on display at the Society beginning April 26th. Painting and auction updates as I get them.

RELATED: Past MicroVisions here.

Wallpaper: Michael Kaluta and Seth Fisher

This week's wallpapers at Tor.com:

Michael W. Kaluta -- Michael is always a delight, on paper and in person. Here is a recent post about a lecture he gave at SVA.

Seth Fisher — Seth was an amazing artist who passed away tragically young. Rick Berry introduced me to him many, many years ago. I only saw him briefly but I have a clear memory of looking through his portfolio. I don’t follow comics as much as I’d like so, I was amazed when a few years ago Tor editor, Liz Gorinksy, showed me a comic page of original art she had just bought and it turned out to be Seth’s. It is a beautiful drawing. I’m happy to be able to show his work here.

Michael Kaluta at SVA

I crashed a Michael Kaluta lecture Monday night. Donato Giancola was having his SVA class create complex futuristic environments and so he had asked Michael to talk about world building in his picture making. Michael showed some of his comic work and then focused on movie concept drawings. Below are some random thoughts and notes.

• The thing that struck me the most was, how much his drawing looked like reportage. He is creating vast cities and interiors with such spontaneity and freshness that you would think he is simply reacting to what's in front of him.....but none of these worlds actually existed. His understanding of detail (both when to use it and when not to) and perspective is so dead-accurate that you buy every squiggle as information from an existing object.
• He talked about the rhythm between information and breathing space. And the repetition of abstract forms to give meaning to those forms. (The difference between a single spear and a forest of spears.)
• He talked a lot about knowing the back-story to am image, even if the viewer will never know it."Knowing what is going on behind every window" in the image. This became particularly clear while listening to Michael and Donato banter about minute details of Tolkien paintings. Clearly, both of them have a love for world building that is strongly rooted in Tolkien.
• He talked about illustrating some of the more mundane lines of a story. Focusing on a simple statement gives him the freedom to create the world around that line. „Ignore the line and add a layer."
• He talked about fetishizing various objects within a painting. „Someone spent time designing that sword, that piece of armor." Keeping items from being too generic adds history to them.
• He talked a bit about the real world issues facing an illustrator -- diversifying your clients, stretching your abilities, always networking and keeping your connections open.

...and....that's all I can remember at the moment. I was truly inspired to see such a fluid hand and facile imagination let loose on pure concept work without the burden and constraints of trying to sell a novel or comic in one image. He mentioned that he is working on a book that will display some of this work, I forgot to ask when it will be published, but I'll be sure to mention it here when it’s out in the world.

Thanks Michael and Donato for letting me crash the party!

IMAGES:
Michael. (I got clearer pictures, but I liked the smile in this one.) One of Micahel's Tolkien paintings. And the eating afterwards: Donato, me, Greg Manchess, Kristina Carroll, and Michael.