2009 Illustration Master Class registration now open.

I will write about this more in depth on Tor.com in the upcoming week but I have a feeling it will sell out fast -- in fact, it's already half filled by from last year's alumni -- so I wanted to mention it quickly here first. Illustration Master Class is a one week intensive class that is i-n-t-e-n-s-e!

Illustration Master Class
June 15-21, 2009
Amherst, MA
$1,850.00 - includes studio class, lectures, room and board.

Full and guest faculty:
Julei Bell
Dan Dos Santos
Scott Fischer
Jon Foster
Irene Gallo
Donato Giancola
Rebecca Guay
Greg Manchess
Boris Vallejo
Charles Vess

Some notes from this year's class here, here,and here.

Message Board.

Flickr set here

Master Class, Days 1 and 2

Two days into the Master Class and before I say anything else, Rebecca Guay is a god for having put this thing together. This is the most hard working and inspiring group I have ever been in.

Class is run from 9:00am to 11:00pm and every minute is packed with information. The focus of the week is serious hands on, nuts and bolts, instruction. Studio time is spent with the attendees working on an assignment. Afternoon and evening lectures have covered concepting, inspiration, reference and lighting, business practices.....And we're only two days into the program.

A few weeks ago we gave a choice of five assignments: Robin Hood, a character inspired by Jay Lake's short story Green, Toby Buckell's Pepper character, a futuristic Amelia Earhart (steam punk or far future) or a plant life creature. We told the attendees to have some rough thumbnails to show, but warned them that we may ask for any number of changes.

The first hours of studio time was spent doing crit of their sketches, including digging in drawing over the attendee's sketches. All of the instructors have been stressing the importance of careful planning before picking up a paint brush.

I was amazed how open the students have been to changing their ideas on the fly and working out new drawings in such a strange environment, on such a tight deadline, and surrounded by so much other activity. Hallways have turned into photo studios, people are grabbing the guys next to them to help figure out a hand position or twist of the hip. By Tuesday morning people kept walking us through a series of drawings saying, "This is where I was around midnight. A few hours later I got to this point...." It’s now day three and, as I type this, I can smell that jars of paint and medium are starting to open up. To be continued.....

I'm in Amherst

We drove up tonight and did some last minute prep for tomorrow's start of the Illustration Master Class. Rebecca Guay has done an incredible job putting this together. The students look very excited to get going, as is the faculty. Amherst campus is drop dead gorgeous -- it's almost intimidating. Unlike my school, Copper Union, this looks like such a "real" college. I mean, we never had mastodons on campus...or even a campus for that matter.

Illustration Master Class Prep

Rebecca has been hard at work on all the details of the Illustration Master Class. She called for a summit meeting of all the instructors to finalize the curriculum. Here we are in Society's library doing just that. And, of course, the eating Indian food afterwards.

There are only 5 positions left for the Master Class. If anyone is debating attending, now is the time to decide.

Illustration Master Class
June 16-22, 2008
Amherst College Campus
$1,700.00 - includes meals and housing.

Instructors:
Julei Bell
Dan Dos Santos
Scott Fischer
Irene Gallo
Donato Giancola
Rebecca Guay
Greg Manchess
Boris Vallejo

Ilustration Master Class

Rebecca Guay is organizing a fantasy and science fiction illustration workshop in Amherst, Mass, and has asked me to be a lecturer. All of the instructors involved are interested in making this a highly focused and intense week of learning.

Attendees will benefit from a full schedule of classes in figure drawing from an illustration perspective, use of reference, drawing from the imagination, digital and traditional painting technique, live demos and industry q&a, as well as extensive individual one on one critique from 10am to midnight each day.

Illustration Master Class
June 16-22, 2008
Amherst College Campus
$1,700.00 - includes meals and housing.

Instructors:
Julei Bell
Dan Dos Santos
Scott Fischer
Irene Gallo
Donato Giancola
Rebecca Guay
Boris Vallejo

Race Brook Lodge

I’m back from the awesome Race Brook Lodge. Twenty-plus artists friends and I were there for a week -- some working on assignments, others working on personal projects, and then there was me, doing absolutely nothing but hanging out, eating, and sleeping.

Sadly, the waterfall was sans water, but a lovely hike nonetheless. The pizza was amazing...until Baba Louie's burned down. (I swear we had nothing to do with it.) And teaching whiffle ball to the Hungarian artist duo Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai was more amusing than the actual game. It also seems that I am an excellent first-game bowler but suck at any subsequent rounds.

Unfortunately I can’t show any of the work that was done since some clients are more sensitive about that than others. But a quick run down of a few of the projects:

Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell were working on their next calendar. This time they will be telling a visual story throughout the months.

Tony Palumbo was working on a few “sword” cards for a tarot deck that he, Julie, Boris, and Dave Palumbo are all collaborating on. (It was fun to hear Julie talk about being in the art director’s seat on the project.) The set is being published three cards at a time in Heavy Metal magazine, starting now, and will take three years to complete.

Dan Dos Santos was working on a Tor cover, the sequel to Dark Warrior Rising. When the painting is done I’ll post a few shots in progress.

Greg Manchess was finessing a few sketches of Egyptian pharaohs for National Geographic -- a cover plus two large scale interior paintings that will run in the February edition. (Progressions on that, once published.)

The only bit of work that I did was to go through a few Spectrum books and start making a first pass stab at curating the next Spectrum exhibit. Based on the post-it notes, we are not in for an easy ride. Somehow we’ll need to select just 150ish works of art out of four editions.

Everyone else was working on private commissions and personal works. Some stunning pieces that I am very much looking forward to seeing done.

Our "Free To Be You and Me" photo::

TOP: Dave Palumbo, Ben Foster, Dave Seeley, Scot Brundage.

MIDDLE: Dan Dos Santos, Donato Giancola, Christine, Tiffany Prothero, me, Rebecca Guay.

BOTTOM STANDING: Steph Laberis, Wesley Allsbrook, Greg Manchess, Tony Palumbo, Julie Bell.

KNEELING: Arkady Roytman, Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai .

THERE IN SPIRIT but sensible to get out before people started climbing on the rafters: Boris Vallejo, Steven Stroud, Lars Grant-West, Cyril Van Der Hagen, Giancola’s Carrie, Naomi, and Cecilia, and Dos Santos’ Chris and Uno.