Artist Lecture 2 - Patrick Lichty

My impression of Mr. Lichty was not of the same professional nature as Sam Viviano.  Patrick seemed a bit flustered/random and unprepared for his lecture.  He showed some of his digital works, that were mostly videos, but he didn't really explain his intents or have a clear structure of the speech.

His main emphasis was on "People, Affect, Space", but he didn't clearly explain what he meant by that.

His performance art with this group "Second Front" within the Second Life video game was a pretty interesting way of creating and observing art in a very different space.

Most of his videos were political in nature, but some of the in-game performances were interesting to watch but I feel that almost anyone could do that if they had a character.

I believe his strength is as a writer and theorist, but his (still developing) photography Urban Sprawl project on decimation by globalization sounded fairly interesting.

Artist Lecture 1 -Sam Viviano

I found Mr. Viviano to be an intelligent and well spoken guest speaker.  He explained his own path from starting as a "starving" artist and how he worked his way up to his position at MAD.

One of his main points were about branding, and how to personally "Brand" yourself.  An example of this is how MAD used the Alfred E. Newman red-head child as their "Logo".

He said the one thing he did right when looking for work was to create a unique type of self-adverstisement (his caracature illustrations as ads)  The main thing (in his opinion) he was doing wrong was that when he first began his job hunt he advertised himself as "Jack-of-all trades" insetead of being a specialist in one area.  Versatility is not a huge asset when competing against other specialists for jobs.

Overall I learned some good tips and advice of how to find a permanent position as well as gain freelance work.

Another Prominent Concept Artist - Tim Warnock

While I tend to create art that focuses on particular characters and creatures like Dan Scott, I want to start making more realistic landscape pieces.  Another concept artist who does this with great style is Tim Warnock.  He works on movie mattes and storyboards/concepts and really knows how to create an entire environment within his work (not just focus on the person, or thing).  Here are some of his pieces, especially pay attention to the way he builds up his work with digital strokes, rather than smooth them out and hide them.

Concept Artist - Dan Scott

A modern concept artist that is very well established and highly regarded is Dan Scott.  He has done work for World of Warcraft, DC Comics, Star Wars, and Magic the Gathering ; he is at the pinnacle of the concept art industry and has created work for books, comics, and video games.  His realistic rendering of fantasy/non-real entities is something I am striving to achieve on my own.  The following are various images I found best represent his work:

Artist Research (cont'd.) - Hale Woodruff

The second of the pioneering African American artists who's style I enjoy is Hale Woodruff.  He, like Charles White, uses a very graphic and graphic novel-like style but his art doesn't read as flat or static.  Also his use of bright shapes of color, in the card players, to create form is done in a very stylized and with intentionality.

The first is called Mutiny Aboard the Amistad 1839 - 1939 and the second is the Card Players - 1930

Artist Research - Charles White

I found a couple interesting prominent and early African American artists that I find interesting in their artistic style and approach.

The first is Charles White - I can relate my fairly graphic work to his and try to emulate the way he uses very detailed graphics (almost comic-like) but blends them well and really develops dimensionality and shading.
I also enjoy his manipulation of size and scale, creating an emphasis on certain areas of each piece.

The first one is harvest talk (1953) and the second is titled the preacher (1940)

Finished Tribal Giraffe Concept