Friday, April 24, 2009

Tips on the Bizz from the Pros

Baltimore Jan 2009





















I miss you all!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Monday, April 20, 2009

William Wegman

i want poochie to be the next this
www.wegmanworld.com

not redhead, but .. great at posing and not moving..

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Why can't I have a puppy NOW?

It is April 12 of 2009. In a month, it will be a year from our glorious graduation from the M-I-C of A, and I still don't have a puppy. Ok, let me explain. It's April 200 and fucking 9 and I don't have a puppy running in my yard. I don't, because I don't have a yard. I don't have a yard, because I live in a very limited, very carpeted apartment complex that makes it virtually impossible to have dogs. I would live in a place with a yard, or a balcony, or some kind of space where to put my plants...if I could afford it. I could afford it if I had a real job. A real art job. See where I'm going with this? It's amazing how everything that's wrong with my life right now can be traced to that lingering fact. I know most of you can painfully relate, and I'm sure that many of you have more urgent things to worry about than puppies. Things like rent and utilities and groceries.

In a month, it will be the fateful anniversary of our birth into the "real" world, and many of us still don't have art jobs, or freelance assignments, or puppies. 2008 was a shitty year. 2009 promises to be equally shitty. Some of us are starting to feel desperately frustrated because we are still not where we thought we would/should be at this point.

THIS IS THE HARD PART ABOUT BEING AN ARTIST.

Deciding to study art is not hard. Becoming an artist, going to school... that is not (too) hard.
Continuing to be an artist. That is the hard part. Not giving up on your career. That is the hard part. Continuing to apply for job after job after job regardless of the assholes that never even have the common courtesy of letting you know they got your email/portfolio/resume. That is the hard part. Creating things even when nobody hires you to. That is the hard part. Keeping on, that's the hardest part. This is what separates artists from people that went to art school.

So lets not give our shitty economy the last laugh. Continue to be an artist. Keep making things. Keep applying to jobs. Yes this sucks. And yes, as a class we got a really bad year. But this is still our life. We will still be artists nonetheless.

Let's support each other through this. Let's not hate when one of us is doing well. As tempting as that may be, that's what Shepard Fairey is for...

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

I made this video from other videos

one more for the night... ... (morning?)..

This body of work quenches my soul.
Shinichi Maruyama

From Bagel with Love...

I want you all to share more! I was super excited when Judith started this, but this blog is beginning to look a bit pathetic. I'm guilty of it, too; I know. It did have a pretty nice start, thanks to a lot of you :) but we need to keep this thing going! I'm sure you know that it really only takes 2-5 minutes to post something. I know it's easy to forget, which is why I'm posting this as a reminder in case you visit from time to time.

Whether you've got anything going on as a professional illustrator, or whether you've been titled employee of the month at the Q Mart (congratulations if you have.. though I don't know if there is such a thing as Q Mart), I think it's really important that we share our work, resources, ideas, concerns, or anything else. If you're going through some tough times not having a job/clients, then that's something to talk about; ask for some advice, support, whatever you want or need. Or if you've had success and found some clients/jobs, then that's a wonderful thing to share too! Those of us who aren't having a lot of luck would LOVE to know that it's still possible. From personal experience, I know how easy it can be to begin to feel that it's hopeless. Even better is if you've found a job or potential client(s) that might be perfect for someone else here. If you don't care about any of that, then maybe there's a website that you frequent for inspiration, ideas, whatever. Maybe you saw some awesome .. movie or .. heard some great song.

OR... maybe you don't even care or like this blog idea. Maybe you have a better idea for a way to keep in touch? Maybe you'd rather this be on tumblr.. twitter.. etc. .. (actually, twitter sounds like an excellent idea) ooor maybe you're happy with just a few of us updating...

Whatever your reasons for lack of participation might be, I hope you all will remember this little blog and post from time to time. I'd love to know what's going on with all of you: what new things you're seeing, what you're creating .. WHATEVER. There are days when I visit everyone's blog/website to see what's up, and... quite frankly... I'd rather see all that in one spot.


I ONLY SPEAK FOR MYSELF HERE. SPUR OF THE MOMENT KIND OF THING. and .. don't mean to seem like I might be making a big deal out of this, cause I don't mean to... I just thought it might help a lot of us if we kept in touch this way... also, I'm going to try and post something at least 4 times a month.

Stay healthy!

ANIMATION BACKGROUNDS

This blog (ANIMATION BACKGROUNDS) is a true gem and for a long time, I've been visiting it for so many things (inspiration, nostalgia, color, environment, entertainment, what have you). Sorry for holding out! I chose this picture because Cinderella is my mom's all time favorite Disney movie. I can't believe I didn't name Poochie, Gus-Gus. I'd forgotten that I kind of promised myself I would name my first dog after him... Oh well. Next time!

Here's a background from my all time favorite Disney movie (101 Dalmatians; storyboarding + design done by Bill Peet, my all time favorite artist/illustrator):

Friday, April 3, 2009

carrillo carrillo

thought i'd share something i just did