Something about me? Okay... let's see...
I've been drawing since I was a teeny bee, but didn't really get into it really seriously until 1998, when I was taking a few classes at the local community college. I had gone to pick up some art supplies at this little store in Dover, NJ, called Joe Kuberts Graphics Depot, and found out from the manager that the building this shop was in was actually a cartooning and graphic design school.
So after much begging and pleading with my parents, I left the community school and signed up at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Design. Took two years, learned a HECK of a lot there , some of the best instructors in the US *nodnod*.
I'm now in the yaoi artists group / circle, Sakuranbo Studios, along with D "Fablespinner", Ponderosa, Tsuno Pikash, and Spubba *bow to them, for they rocketh! X3*.
I'm hoping someday to get my stories published, or at least become an inker for comics *like Sandra Hope.. yes, she is my inking goddess X3*.
I know I normally have my luvies icons and clubs I belong to after my journal posts here, BUT this is something that's VERY important.. and I want to try and focus as much attention on what is quoted here than any ones icons.
In between coloring the stripes on my new Wee-Bee picture *which will be used for the new design for Bee-Hive Studios *, and shrinking and unshrinking naughtay AIM rp'ing windows *shifty eyes X3*...
I decided to hop in my friends list on LJ and check out everyone's newest posts. See what everyone's been up to, see that Ryoko made top ten favorites on SheezyArt *congrads girl! X3 I had a feeling that vector piece you did would get VERY well noticed!*, and more good and bad and so-so things going on with everyone else...
and I ran across this VERY wise nugget from my friend, Xavier Garcia
this is, I can honestly say, something I really think EVERYONE needs to read.. especially those of us here and everywhere else whom are artists.. any type of artist...
and trust me, if something can floor me enough to make me sit down and read through it thoroughly, word for word, two times through... you know its something that needs to be read and taken to heart.
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Quoted, with permission, from Xavier Garcia, *website: [url=http://www.ragingspaniard.com/]The Raging Spaniard[/url
---- "Some people I know look at artwork done by beasts of the industry such as Bengal, brasshorse killer or Feng Zhu and actually tell me "Hey, you can do that right?" Ha, sorry to break your bubble kids, but at my current level... thats not gonna happen.
Why is that? You look at these peoples work: http://www.cafesale.nethttp://www.wildpixels.com/brasshorse/ or http://www.artbyfeng.com and to the untrained eye.. well yes, I DO put more detail in my drawings to be sure, but there is soemthing in those drawings that completely blow mine out of the water
LAYOUT
COLORS
PROPORTIONS
VARIETY
To name a few
Now yes, I do have the advantage of having a very dynamic drawing style. which is in fact my strongest point. I can do mean designs too and add a lot of charisma to a piece... but details? Please, thats the easy part, those guys mentioned above dont put details in there because they DONT NEED them. Their use of elements in the illustration, the color theory assigned to them and the fact that they use the exact lines that they need in order to convey their vision makes them exceptional.. I can only hope I can be that good within the next five years.
The secret to proffesional success is an easy one to comprehend. Just draw every single day, do an illustration every day, or a comic, a portrait, etc, etc.. one a day and you will be incredible in no time (and by that I mean as far as exponential terms go, or as long as a year) The problem is of course, to stay inspired and to not fall victim of other artists influences.
Me for instance, I was veeery influenced by the work of Francisco Ibanez, Toriyama and Nomura, if it had not been for life drawing in college I would have followed what I thought were their guidelines and eventually succumb into mediocrity.. Why? Because my goal was to be as good as them, but I failed to realize what it took THEM to become that good.
The way they did it? Classical art. Any or most of todays successful artists became that way because they looked at the fundamentals of anatomy, design and color stablished so many centuries ago, they learned that from the ground up and then added their own sense of style, fashion and personality to it. If youre a fan of.. lets say Dragon Ball and you want to become succesful by incorporating Toriyama's style as your own, then youre doing yourself a disservice, youre missing a fundamental step.. youre not thinking the way THEY thought of, and it will make you suck until you realize it.
What is the secret to add details? Think in 3d space, think of the way things look inperspective and how they curve, after that, just sharpen your pencil cause youll need a fine line.
If you want to be a succesful artist, there are some differences between that and becoming a good artist. A lot of people draw to pelase themselves, not the public. That in itself is a double edged sword. How can you make soemthing good if it doesnt please you? Or how can you sell a product that nobody will be interested in? The secret to that is to find general themes that people like, then add your own original twist to them.. THAT denotes originality. Why? Well I am sorry to say but if you consider yourself a very creative person and you only do completely orginal designs.. then youre full of shit. That does NOT demonstrate creativity at its fullest. What does? What I said before, grab something boring, something people get jammed down their throats every other day and MAKE that thing awesome. Starting something original from scratch and make it likable is hard, Ill admit, but if you do that people will not have a preconception of the thing, they will have no expectations and that gives you an edge. Add a creative spin to something done a million times (like a world war 2 soldier, a futirstic mecha, a medieval peasant) and you will have a winner.
Artists, as a general thing, suck at one thing. Time management. The rule of thumb is picture how long something is going to take you,a nd muiltiply that time by 3. More often than now, that is how long it will actually take you. Crazy shit eh? That little fact alone turns people off, cause at the core we dont want to be done with a piece till its done, till its perfect and we have to learn to let go of that. If you are going t be a pro, you need to start thinking about production quality. Once your work has reached that level, d a bit more to make you look better than the rest and then let go. Its over. The secret to being succesful is not how much you can do, but how much you can do in a LIMITED TIME. Im confident I could do the most badass piece ever if took 20 years to do it, but whats the point? In the world of tday we have to make sure that quality stuff is done in the smallest amount of possible time. For you, the artist that will mean, more jobs, more opportunity and hey, more cash. So where does "being an artist" fall into place you ask? Well sure, none of us wants to be devoid of our love for drawing and to have our full freedom and time put into soul less graphic work, thats why separate projects are made. Make your own little illustration company on the side if you have the time. Pay your dues to the art society so that you can have some cash to spend, and spend it on yur own expression of art. Make shirts, posters, illustrations, designs, and profit from it on the side. The idea of being an artist and living solely on the products that come out of your heart is nice and should be evaluated.. but people still have to pay their bills you know? I, for one, will gladly pay my bills doing half assed drawings than flipping burgers or writing insurance forms.
To be able to live from drawing is a blessing, not many people in the industry seem to remember that. Good artists get cocky fast because of the single reason that art is a very visual medium. Its what people see and it makes a very recognizable figure out the people behind it so obviously it makes the artists ego become this giant bubble that.. of course, its full of hot air. Why get annoyed about this I ask you? I see little to no sense in that and Ill tell you why. The drawing industry is at the same time, huge and small. I havent been in Holland for longer than 6 days in my whole life, but because of dutch born sites like http://www.mangaworkshop.net I am a little known in the dutch manga circle.. aint that weird? My friend Jason, who lives in Connecticutt (Ive NEVER been there btw) got stopped in his way to art class by a girl, and the girl asked him "do you know Xavier Garcia by any chance?"
My friend was floored.
Out of nowhere a girl that didnt even know me asked my name around to a friend of mine! Apparently she had seen my reel online, in the thank you section I mentioned Jason, so the girl recognized him and asked Jay to tell me she really liked my work. Weird eh? My point is that if you do good work, good HONEST work, if you respond well t critiques and treat people the way yu like to get treated, youll get respect. If you dont, if youre a cocky bastage that doesnt reposnd well to praise or criticism.. well, this industry is ruthless to assholes I can assure you. It matters little how talented those guys are, they wont last, its happened a billion times (except notable exceptions, like Rob Liefeld)
Right now, I am trying hard to achieve that balance between pro work, my own portfolio work and actual work. I teach a drawing class (sorta, I assist) 3 days a week for about 8 hours a day. I do game models for student games, which takes care of my 3d work. I am part of a project Fullsail is putting together for a contest, I do freelance graphic design every other month, I also enter as many contests as I can find.. and all that while doing my own portfolio to get hired at a studio. It is crazy work, crazy schedules and crazy sleep depravation.. but listen.. living as an artist is one of the hardest things you can do as a young adult, but its also one of the most satysfying tasks youll ever have to "endure".
Are you willing to get old and tell your grandkids you never fought for your dream?
I didnt think so
Get back to work guys, we have a lot of people to prove wrong"
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. Took two years, learned a HECK of a lot there , some of the best instructors in the US *nodnod*. 
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