LadyJudgement

Will do.

Ooooo a year of Wassyness, gonna be hard not to be able to post... my account's done next month.

SO is this starting up again in a month? And who will be running it? And if I'm not playing COH, who's gonna post for me...

WHOOPS! Before I forget, Big CONGA-RATZ to the FOO!

Anything an artist does to reinterpret an original source is part of their process. NOTHING is new under the Sun. Whether or not however that that work is something better, original in itself, or even a worthy hommage is up to either the intended recipient who will hopefully have some connection to it, OR is somehow not connected to the original enough to warrant a deja vu from a casual onlooker.

I'm not condoning stealing, but a swipe file was a term used in the 70s for illustrators, who kept photographs from magazines, etc to showcase what they needed on any given subject. I've also come across colorists who say using a reference to help build proper light and shadow is a valid addition. If you're doing an hommage based on subject and style, which I just did this week, then it's only natural to get it as close to the original as your skill level can.

It doesn't give you cart blanche to pass off someone else's style as your original style. Everyone can recognize famous sources both in comic books and certain photos. The fact that Juggy used a source is irrelevant to whether he could do it from scratch, he wasn't trying to do it from scratch. The source conveyed what he wanted to capture, and it was more expedient and efficient to use it than to start over.

It was not a photo manipulation, and it DID require a lot of skill to make it believable. People who don't draw seem to think it's as easy as any physical skill, that is not true. Sure using sources can be a crutch, but were talking about the merit of using them, not whether they should ever be used or not.

I always pick a model to inspire a piece, I have a folder called Models on my desktop, my brother in law calls it the Boob Folder, and in fact it has so many I've lost count. Sometimes it has just the right image, sometimes I can go through the thing twice and not find anything I like. And I have gone without it, it almost always depends on the subject matter. Today in that other thread about who IS your character, I saw that pic of Famke Jansen, and you can best believe I will use it for my next GH piece. It would be silly NOT to use it, as there's the client telling me, this is who I think she is... I don't have to interpret it now out of my head, I know what they want.

Hey I like originality as much as the next person. But every artist is a creature of habit, when Adam Hughes or Jim Lees draws, they do so from a mental swipe file of how to make things, they've done it so much, they don't need an actual source. They are the source... I could draw eyes all day like that, and boobs... sometimes though it pays to have reference, to make the most of that reference, and with humility, to state what you used, so that everyone can compare how far you went...

Top 10 things I could do besides give my hard earned money to CR for an Ubercomputa:

#10) Buy two 52" plasma screens - for porn of course.
# 9) Go to 10 college art courses - well at a fashion school in 1994.
# 8) Redecorate my kitchen - counter top, I likes marble.
# 7) Get a washer/dryer on those pedestal things - with front loading windows to watch the suds.
# 6) Buy everyone I know a lottery ticket. - I live in a really small town.
# 5) Donate it in CR's name to the Human Fund - NOT.
# 4) Send my cat's left foot into space - hey it could happen.
# 3) Have a lot of wings at Hooters - oh wait they do have wings right?
# 2) Stay married. Nuff said.

and the Number One thing I could do besides give my hard earned money to CR for an Ubercomputa is:

# 1) Pay for electric, internet, cable, groceries, car insurance, phone, mortgage, and xmas...

OR - I could play COH GR on it and pawn you all with my skillz!

I had my doubts, but they were only based on not knowing the guy... turns out he's a HUGE comic book fan, he's been collecting for 12 years, the dude is in his 30s. In fact he owns Iron-Man 125 - 250 of the original run. I used cover #76/421 but I'm sure he's seen the image after the first movie. Anyway he's very happy and touched by the piece, and is looking forward to the print, which he's asked me to sign.

This is a tribute to my wife's friend - Pai.

He just ran his first "Iron-Man" triathalon - 2.4 miles of swimming, 122 miles cycling, and a 26.2 mile run... ALL on the same day! He did it as a continuation of the marathons he already runs for Blood Cancer Awareness (Lymphoma, etc...), which that IM was also a benefit for... and also worth mentioning is that every two weeks he and his wife give blood platelets at the hospital for 2 hours, a much more involved process than giving blood normally, as it requires 2 tubes to cycle blood from your body.

Pai is from California, he's a photographer and my wife's friend from work, I stylized his real life face into a "comic book" look, but it's pretty close. The rest of the piece was inspired by the amazing professional Adi Granov, who did the original Iron-Man! Was a lot of fun trying to emulate a pro...

I will let you know Pai's reaction as we just sent him an email with the image, though we are printing him a poster size version. The actual image is 5,000 x 7,000 pixels and over 18MB in size at 300 dpi, so it should print pretty good, up to 19 x 27. I hope he likes it... Total work time about 8 hours.

Stages are on in the DA link, inlcuding a side by side stage next to Adi's. Okay enough goofing off, back to the queue...

LJ

EDIT: duh I corrected my post, while Pai does this for Blood Cancer awareness, some of the monies they help to raise does get donated to Breast Cancer research as well.

Sorry just a doodle for now... but will try to finish this, this weekend.

They started the yule log early here in Canada on some cable channel, was kind of nice at 4am...

I just did a memory lane through all my art, let me just say, I would like to thank all my clients for buying my schlock... and I vow to get better, for the both of us.

I've made some of his mistakes and then some, but unlike him, for me it was a learning process of things I want to fix. I look back at my older work and some of it sickens me, but that gives me inspiration to do new versions.

BAH! Geometry, schmometry! Don't impose your herectical math issues on us...

Okay he's not someone else's, I had to make him... and yes he's only 4 ft tall.

I think I've seen 3 or 4 Buffys total, and never from start to finish. Same goes for Charmed. I am just NOT a vampire lover... so you can Imagine how I feel about Anne Rice, True Blood and Twilight. All wasted on me...

I would like a 1080p screen, in fact I would like 2 or 3... and some razzleberry dressing.

We should sticky a Liefield tribute... maybe someone will think it's the new how to request fan art thread, and stop asking.

I don't use them, unless I am worried I can't pull it off without one, OR I want a good breakdown. What I can say is this, it almost always makes the difference between a good piece and a great piece. So I should use them more. But that whole flipping the image backwards. Okay I refuse to do that, I don't care if it shows...