Notes

PDW ARTIST AND ANIMATORS INFORMATIONS #3;

Inspiration: Shawn Alexander, James Jean, Jordu Schell, Chien Rouge (good use of graphics, good comic book and good use of black vs white) Kris Kurski, Faeries (book), title designs for movies, pink floyed the wall (movie), Ashley Wood, michelangelo, the art of urban sketching (GREAT BOOK WHEN TRYING TO GET INTO ART COLLEGE book), Walt Diseny the art of bambi (tyrus wong art)
good to use variety of line and dark values, good sense of exaggeration, uglier mark more beautiful drawing, calarts is looking for something exciting, try not to make your work too clean. make the drawing feel right, don't just think about making the proportions right, keep in mind point of view.
Inspiration binders are very important to keep yourself inspired. Keep books around to inspire you, you can download things and print them out, keep yourself inspired from these books. thsee different types of art helps you find your own style. Have something tangible that you can look at. there's different ways to inspire yourself, but having something physical with you really helps.
try to find a love for the art that you do so that you spend hours getting it so perfect and right cause you enjoy doing it so much. try and copy from your masters, it really helps, if you like something then copy it, or mix two or three characters, it's about what you learn from doing the copy, not the copy itself. title movies have same designs from graphic designers, graphic design plays big part in title sequences of movies. concept artists need to be realistic in their concepts because they want to see the actual frame before its actually made. you can get overwhelmed, and you can do all of it, it's just going to take a long time, try and slow down and copy one thing you want, do your own person in the exact same style, get a thing ring binder to keep the art you like by others and maybe even yourself, just anything that inspires you. THINK OF WAYS TO EXCITE THE PAGE, think of something exciting, don't just draw the figure, make it dynamic and take chances, blow people away, as an artist you're going to focus on what's attractive, remember reportage drawing, (if you're serious about portfolio, you should get the book urban sketching)
art of bambi, is great for like finding these lovely mood paintings, its really inspiring., you have to say to all these great concept artists that you're going to be part of that world too.
try to copy things you love, and become inspired, be excited with your work.
John Mahoney on career advice and all:
resumes aren't as important as portfolio, he went to Pratt as a prahic design major but quickly switched into illustration, he did a lot of figure drawing to become a better artist, he also did drawing classes, Disney suggested them to come for an internship, and John wanted to apply he did it 7 times, he worked as internship around Lion King, he looked on story reel and liked it but didn't want to be a inbetweener, he did a lot of work after working at Disney, people recommended him to go to California, he went and had some friends in LA, he hanged out with them, if you want to work at the studio, just hang out at the studio. Someone asked him what he's doing here and then hired him based off his portfolio, he started as an inbetweener on Hercules and then left, he got a phone call from Roger Allers who asked him to give viusal development a try, and he worked as a concept designer on more Disney films, he then left to go and shoot his own indie films, he showed this work to a teacher at CalArts since his own teacher went to calarts, he went to calarts looking for feedback, they asked him to teach or so, he decided to give it a try to learn how to talk to groups of people and inspire them, he had 60 students who were kind of freaked out, but he really enjoyed it, he was teaching character design, and went to teach figure drawing and illustration, and sculpting. lately, he wanted to teach zbrush, and he is the first teacher to teach online, CalArts wanted him to teach online for them. His advice is 1. figure drawing (don't skimp on it, the more you do it, the better you will be, keep taking it serious and d a lot of it, they become much higher level than just squeaking by, there will always be better people who want your job, have a good knowledge of art history as well and know how to use the computer really well, the hardest thing is figure drawing but its the most beneficial as well, you need to put your ideas down clearly, idea don't count everyone has ideas, you have to get it out on people, if you keep doing life drawing and copy masters, you will continue to grow. He also taught CSSA program about animation, look at animation from all over the world. John been at CalArts for 12 years so he very experienced. About portfolio, ask anyone to write a recommendation letter from someone you know, for the artist statement take your time and make it personal, and *DON'T WRITE THAT YOU WERE INSPIRED BY ANIMATION AS A KID, EVERYONE DOES THAT. DON'T SAY I LOVED DISNEY/PIXAR EVEN SINCE I COULD REMEMBER HAVE SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU STAND OUT* your portfolio will be the biggest thing they judge. it is good to enjoy the idea of improving. (mahoney web: mahoneyart.carbonmade.com)
http://studiojsa.com/paper/