I attended my first Illustration Masters Class, a week long, art instruction workshop, in Amherst Mass. The instructors are some of the most amazing artists currently working. Truly, they will be called the Masters by history.
A month before, you get a list of assignments to choose from, or do your own thing. Each year, they structure the groups and focus a little different. This year the focuses were Storytelling, Book Cover and Gallery.
I picked Storytelling, and Alice in Wonderland. My groups instructors, were Iain McCaig, Mike Mignola, Scott M Fisher, and Irene Gallo. Though through out the week, you can and do get feedback from all the other instructors. The first day you come, with sketches and thumbnails and get critiques from your groups instructors, on how to make your idea's better.
That's the biggest aspect about IMC. The instructors aren't their to make you draw like them, or impose thier views on you. They are there to take what you came up with, and make it better. They offer their view on possible suggestions on what to do. It's all about pushing where you are, even farther, so to grow.
Then the rest of the week, you spend working on the piece. There isn't any need to have a finished piece at the end. Some do, Some don't.
Below is my final piece. That's followed by where I started from, and based on the various feedback I got, and suggestions, how the piece progressed. And finally, it was Friday night, I was about 97% done, when I felt what I was working on wasn't quite my voice.
So Saturday morning, I did some sketching for a slightly different composition, looked around for some inspiration, and started over, and keeping only about 5% of what i had done, redid the whole image, and got about 97% done by Sunday morning, the last day of the class.
I was much happier with my new version.
A month before, you get a list of assignments to choose from, or do your own thing. Each year, they structure the groups and focus a little different. This year the focuses were Storytelling, Book Cover and Gallery.
I picked Storytelling, and Alice in Wonderland. My groups instructors, were Iain McCaig, Mike Mignola, Scott M Fisher, and Irene Gallo. Though through out the week, you can and do get feedback from all the other instructors. The first day you come, with sketches and thumbnails and get critiques from your groups instructors, on how to make your idea's better.
That's the biggest aspect about IMC. The instructors aren't their to make you draw like them, or impose thier views on you. They are there to take what you came up with, and make it better. They offer their view on possible suggestions on what to do. It's all about pushing where you are, even farther, so to grow.
Then the rest of the week, you spend working on the piece. There isn't any need to have a finished piece at the end. Some do, Some don't.
Below is my final piece. That's followed by where I started from, and based on the various feedback I got, and suggestions, how the piece progressed. And finally, it was Friday night, I was about 97% done, when I felt what I was working on wasn't quite my voice.
So Saturday morning, I did some sketching for a slightly different composition, looked around for some inspiration, and started over, and keeping only about 5% of what i had done, redid the whole image, and got about 97% done by Sunday morning, the last day of the class.
I was much happier with my new version.
