August 2011 Issue Digital Paint Magazine by Digital Painting Magazine

August 2011

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Wohoo! August is upon us (and almost gone) which means fall is just around the corner. I love fall and getting away from the heat we have had in the midwest can’t happen fast enough. This month in the magazine you will find Victor Lunn-Rockliffe as the featured artist. Victor has been providing comic relief for the magazine since the beginning. If you have not taken the time to ponder his creative cartoons you are really missing out. Not only are they funny but they usually have some other hidden and deeper humor when looking a bit closer. I have always wondered how in the heck Victor comes up with his ideas. In this issue we get a glimpse of his workflow. Other things that are happening are Karen’s Fall Open Studio at Digital Art Academy and Session Five classes at Digital Art Academy. Skip’s Painter 12 class can be found here. Speaking of Digital Art Academy, the school is back with the original founder Karen Bonaker and no doubt she will have some great courses coming up in the next session. A piece of news you don’t want to miss is that of a few new webinars coming in the next three months. We actually start Monday, August 29th with Marco Bucci, then in September we will have Nathan Smith and October brings Heather Michelle to your living room or studio. You can see the information about the webinars at: http://www.digital-art-summit.com/membership/bucci_ webinar_aug2011/ Don’t forget we are always looking for images for our Readers’ Gallery and if you want to see someone featured on our cover let us know and we will check it out. Additionally we are always looking for contributors, let me know if you have any interest in writing a column or an occasional piece. Live well, Love much and Laugh often,

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Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

Tim

In This Issue Steroids in My Pallette by Victor Lunn-Rockliffe

Readers’ Gallery by Jose Robertson

The Old Masters Wassily Kandinsky By Nadia Lim

Kickstarter projects

A Blast from the Past Seaside at Treehaven by Mary Mortensen

Cover

“Undo turns to Nodo” By Victor Lunn-Rockliffe

Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

Marketing Buzz: 7 Steps to Positive Thinking by Tim O’Neill

4 8 10 12 13 17 3

STEROIDS IN MY PALETTE by Victor Lunn-Rockliffe

Where do I get my ideas from?

such conditions by “feeling” the model This is the most common question I get asked about my cartoons. My with sound waves. default answer has been to cop out, and mumble something about So why not get a having no idea. But recently, after some comment was made about one bat to join the class of my images being “creativity on steroids”, I got to thinking about and watch it plot why and how my ideas are conjured up. Mulling this question over, I the sound waves realized that the honest answer is that the steroids amount to no more around an upside than four simple principles which I unconsciously follow. down drawing of The first is to get into the right state of mind. When I embark on a the model – given cartoon, I need a spark to ignite the creative process. This requires that the bat would stirring up a strong feeling or emotion about the subject. I need to be hanging upside believe wholeheartedly in what I am trying to do and be completely down? Bringing committed to getting a message across one way or another. Unless I can together the world set fire to the idea, it’s likely to end up as a damp squib. If I find myself of bats and the enthusiastically cackling with relish I know that all will be well. But if I world of humans and start to get bored, then this is a warning I ignore at my peril. art was ridiculous enough to make me Assuming I’ve turned the crank handle and the engine has fired, chuckle and to draw the second thing I do is to put my mind into freewheel and let my imagination jump from one idea or image to the next. As my mind cycles a cartoon. This may not be the funniest through random associations, I watch out for what I call “colliding of my efforts, but it worlds”. The basic idea is to put together elements, people, things, illustrates nicely the concepts, or whatever, that essentially don’t go together and then develop the relationship. A whale inhabiting a cave on a mountain, the principle involved. classic fish on a bicycle, a bishop in a house of ill repute, Newtonian The collision of physics turned on its head, an academic playing football – you get worlds is evident the idea? The trick is to scroll through a whole range of improbable Bat learns to draw in this week’s cartoon relationships and then zero in on something which stands out, usually Colour Notes. It’s a the craziest and the most unlikely. bit of a cheat really, because Kandinsky handed me the idea on a plate with that wonderful quote describing how colours rather than sounds For example, some while ago I attended a life drawing class where might be generated on a piano – the soul. Kandinsky muddled up the the teacher refused to turn on the lights at the end of the day. visual and aural worlds which I then put into a semi-realistic scene with This meant that we ended up drawing in almost total darkness. The half-believable everyday domestic items: the piano of course, but also thought occurred to me that a bat would be better able to draw in Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

hammers with eyes, real paint slopping around and a fan for blowing the paint onto the canvas; three worlds mixed up in the same pot: aural, visual and domestic. My third ingredient in the mix is ‘exaggeration’. This speaks for itself. The principle is very simple. You just need to make differences or characteristics as big as possible. Very often, a cartoon will be the product of a whole series of drawings where a key feature, which started off not particularly funny, has been steadily expanded and exaggerated to a point where it assumes a life of its own. My Undo turns to Nodo was inspired by an earlier drawing where I was simply trying to turn the electronic Painter Toolbox menu/icons into a believable tool box that you could flip open. I took ages to figure out where the hinges should go to allow the boxes to fold out realistically, but I felt that somehow the drawing was lacking. However, it did spark the idea that the richness of Painter and all its options is simply overwhelming, so much so that it can inhibit the creative process, as much as inspire. So why not turn the toolbox into a whole hardware store of Painter tools and equipment? Simple exaggeration. There is even a device within the cartoon which turboboosts the size of the store – Exit is 5 minutes walk away. Judging from previous feedback

Silicon Valley – Homage to Rene Magritte - “No object is stuck with its name so irrevocably that one cannot find another which suits it better”

on this image a lot of people found the Exit joke particularly funny. Exaggeration works! Finally, it’s nice to be able to incorporate a play on words. This is not strictly essential, but I like to try and incorporate multi-layers of meaning to make it possible for the image to be read in different ways. My Silicon Valley is a good example. Some people don’t see that this image can be viewed both as a landscape and as a woman. What I really like about the title is that the same words perfectly describe the contrasting realities. And, to cap it all, as the image is painted a bit in the style of Rene Magritte, I added his quote in the title “No object is stuck with its name so irrevocably that one cannot find another which suits it better.” The twist here is that I’ve done the opposite of what Rene Magritte is advocating: I’ve kept the title the same but made the object change depending on the interpretation of the viewer. This is almost certainly too clever by half, but it makes me chuckle and I like to think would have been appreciated by Rene Magritte. A private joke embedded in the cartoon.

Painter Toolbox

Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

Idea is all. The stronger and more compelling the idea, the less attention will be paid to execution. Some of the funniest cartoons I have ever seen are drawn very crudely. Who cares how it is drawn if it is a great idea and results in howls of laughter? But if the idea is weak, viewers will tend to look more closely at how well the drawing is made and as likely as not start to get nit-picky about style. Being an insecure sort, worried that people will think my drawings no-good, I’ve adopted what might be termed ‘high production values’. The cartoons are often more like paintings than cartoons. I rationalised that if my idea turned out badly, the viewer would nevertheless appreciate skillful execution. Sadly, I have come to accept this is a big illusion. However well drawn, execution alone will never carry the day. Rubbish idea, Rubbish cartoon. But, as I started off going down the ‘elaborate’ road I continue to develop the same style for no other reason that I enjoy the challenge of putting together a detailed picture in colour with light and shade, textures etc. I have to admit that my best ideas are not really mine. They do not all spring unbidden from my murky unconscious. Ideas are often harvested from everyday life: a chance and vivid remark overheard in conversation, a ridiculous situation described in a newspaper article and so on. And

Rough sketch

Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

Pencil Drawing

sometimes people say: “Victor, I’ve had this great idea for a cartoon”. We might chat around it and often something really funny emerges. So, if anybody has a bright idea I’m always open to suggestions . . . .

Ink Drawing

Currently I’ve mining what is truly an almost inexhaustible and rich seam of raw material. These are artist quotes to be found on Robert Genn’s wonderful site Painter’s Keys. The artist quotes section is huge and contains an amazing wealth of wisdom and insight. Highly recommended.

are either real pencil and paper or Real 2b in Painter (there must be a cartoon here lurking in the confusion between real pencil and Real Pencil in Painter). If the sketches are on real paper I will scan into Painter. I might do up to 10-20 of these sketches until I am happy with the concept. This is the most important stage.

http://quote.robertgenn.com/ The practical steps of drawing and painting which I normally follow are pretty straightforward. I start with very rough pencil sketches. These

Get this wrong and the image will flop. On another layer in Painter I develop a more detailed pencil version in Real 2b. On a third layer I ink over the detailed pencil version with the scratchboard tool in the ink

Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

category. In places I will go back and change the detailed pencil version if it doesn’t seem to be working in ink. Finally, I add colour and tone. I usually spend quite a lot of attention to devising an interesting light and shade regime. For my Colour Notes cartoon I used watercolours in Painter 12. I built these up gradually using many layers. For other cartoons I’ve used oil pastels and oil and acrylic brushes. The brushes are less important if the cartoon is based on an underlying pen and ink drawing as the black ink tends to attract more attention than the quality of coloured brushwork. That’s it, no steroids, no magic ingredient, just a few simple principles and, oh yes, I forgot to mention, lots and lots of practice. Victor Lunn-Rockliffe

http: //cargocollective.com/victorlunnroc Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Color Notesâ&#x20AC;?

Victor Lunn-Rockliffe 8

Jose Robertson

Sunmanco Photography & Art 7EB WWW 35.-!.#/ COM s "LOG WWW 35.-!.#/ ME Facebook: Sunmanco Photography (484) 883-4477 As a child, Jose loved photography (he has a collection of cameras photographers/artists in the industry. Finally, in April 2010, Jose took dating back to when he was just four years old). Yet it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t until the leap and became a full time professional photographer/artist. He 2006, that Jose began to spend serious time in photography taking now loves creating wonderful memories for his clients. numerous courses and workshops with some of the best Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

The Old Masters The Father of Abstract Art: Wassily Kandinsky By Nadia Lim Who would’ve thought that someone who chose to study Law and Economics would be the first Abstract Painter known to the world? Such is the perfect description of Wassily Kandinsky, Russian Painter, art educator, accomplished musician and theorist. Kandinsky described Abstract Painting as the expression of the ‘invisible life that we are’. Church of St. Ursula, Kandinsky, 1908 Kandinsky was born in Moscow and spent most of his childhood in Odessa. Before becoming a famous painter, Kandinsky was first a musician. From the influence of his parents who played the piano and the zither, Kandinsky himself played the piano and the cello. He is well known for saying this, ‘“Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.” Although he was quite into music as well, he opted to study law and economics, and quickly after graduation, taught at the Faculty of Law. As he was a man of great intellectual capacity though, he broadened his horizons to different philosophies and spiritualities. In fact, he wrote extensively on these subjects. An experience that ultimately brought him to his painting life though was when he was 30, when he attended a French Impressionist exhibition. He saw there the works of Monet, Haystacks at Giverny. He said of the work, ‘I was upset I had not recognized it. I also thought the painter had no right to paint in such an imprecise fashion. Dimly I was aware too that the object did not appear in the picture...”. This was an ironic statement to be sure as Kandinsky veered towards a more ‘imprecise’ form of painting. From Moscow, he went to Munich to learn the basics such as sketching, drawing and anatomy. He gave up his career in Law and Economics, and because he was not immediately admitted into the Art School in Munich with Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

Anton Azbe and the Academy of Fine Arts, he started experimenting on his own. Soon after learning the basics, he continued his experimentation and ultimately became the Father of Abstract Art. He was enamored with the study of colors and their symbolism. He constantly used bright colors on dark backgrounds. Moscow became restrictive for him so he eventually moved to Germany where he was involved in other movements such as the Blue Rider and Bauhaus. He taught at the Bauhaus school of Art and Architecture before it was closed by the Nazis in 1933. Kandinskyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s art was, least to say, controversial. He caused plenty of ruckus with the public and the art critics. Nevertheless, he gained plenty of recognition especially in the United States with patrons such as Solomon Guggenheim on his side. In Paris where he settled during late 1933 and further on, he also gained the respect of many younger artists such as Tauber, Arp, Magnelli and Miro.

On White II, Kandinsky, 1923

The Father of Abstract Art was also involved in several other movements such as The Blue Rider and Bauhaus. In terms of Art, Kandinsky had quite a happy ending. He continued to paint until he died in June 1944. Even during his slow years, he continued to experiment with bolder and deeper art forms.

Composition VII, Kandinsky, 1913

Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

Kickstarter Projects

If you have not seen the site kickstarter.com I encourage you to check it out. Kickstarter was first introduced to me by friend and awesome artist Dwayne Vance. Dwayne has used kickstarter to launch his book. Kickstarter can be used for a variety of projects and is great for creatives wanting to fund a project as well as for those of us that are also big suporters of the arts to find interesting projects to support while at the same time getting a great value on a book, cd, DVD piece of art or whatever. We currently just launched a new kickstarter project to obtain a hollander beater that we will use to make handmade paper for a new print series I have coming. You can see it here: Tims kickstarter project. We will also be using it at the end of the year to gift prints for patrons that support a artist residency I have in Thailand coming up in March 2012. It is a very cool concept in that instead of a patron simply donating money to a project they can find a project they want to support or find an item they want such as a print from an artist. If they want the print they can pledge the gift required for the print and know that the money will go specifically for the project mentioned. In this method backers or supporters can find a project they are passionate about and they will get a gift of appropriate value to backing it, in many cases the gifts are far more valuable than the pledge required such as the case with our prints. We sell our prints for a much higher price than backers are pleging so even if a person could care less about the project they still can win by uporting it as they will be getting a good value for the item listed. There are no guarantees that the project will be funded. In fact many projects are not funded. If and when the target dollar amount is reached the project is wholly funded and monies then are collected from patrons using Amazon and then the Artist is responsible for getting the gifts to backers usually within 30 days. If the project does not meet 100% of its goals no monies are collected from backers and the project is dead. Cool huh? Regardless of whether you choose to support our projects, check out kickstarter and see what type of awesome and creative projects people are cooking up. Warning though, it is addictive and you may spend more time than you anticipated. I also find it a great source for inspiration and have put it on my morning dailies. Morning dailies are the sites I visit daily as I am going through my calendar and preparing for my day. Here is the address again: kickstarter.com. Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

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A tutorial by Mary Mortensen

The cover image (Kaitlynn) was the final result of a recent class that I taught with my son Shawn at Treehaven (a PPA Affiliate School) located in the northwoods in Rhinelander, WI. The class was a “Creativity - Use ALL The Tools in Your Box” to create an art piece. The first day we studied master artists and their work and styles and how changes in their lives affected style changes in their work. My point was to make the students aware of where they were in their own lives and styles and watch how both will change over time (and to embrace that change). The second day we studied how the use of light was applied in art pieces and we completed exercises on seeing light and how to manipulate light to “mould” our image. In studying the master artists it also is apparent that the use of clothing, props, and scenery all work in harmony to influence the piece. We then spent a late afternoon in “sweet” light to photograph. I was already familiar with the “campus” at Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

Treehaven and remembered there being a pond with a pier, having been there quite a few years before. In my mind I was already creating the “feel” of my image. When we arrived at the pond to my “surprise” the beautiful pond with a wooden pier had dried up to almost nothing and the pier was gone. Well my students did not know it, but I knew I was going to Kaitlynn before RAW paint this scene so with a little imagination and technical expertise the image “Kaitlynn Before” was created. Back at the computer the image was first worked on in Photoshop CS4 to do minor color correction and cleanup. (Kaitlynn Before RAW). As you see, the reflector was taken out and the water was extended. I did this because I wasn’t sure yet how much of the water I wanted to keep in the final image. My feeling is that it is better to be safe than sorry! Cleanup was minor because I knew the entire image would be painted. In Corel Painter XI a clone was Kaitlynn Before tiff 15

made of the corrected original and color was applied in areas for accent and details using the Den’s Oil Bristle Brush in the color mode and selecting colors and complementary colors from the original image. See “KaitlynnColor”. After saving and cloning the color file the paint clone was made and in the clone mode the entire image was painted. See “Kaitlynn-Paint”. As you can see from this image, I was creating a soft, peaceful look and the water was “pond-like”. After creating a clone of the painted image, I created three different “mucks” with the first using the color mode and the other two using the clone mode. See “Kaitlynn-muck”, “Kaitlynnmuck2” and “Kaitlynn-muck3”. By the third “muck” my heart was pounding. My image was transforming right before my eyes. My class didn’t know it yet, but I knew right where I was heading. So did my son Shawn who was sitting next to me and whispered in my ear “Boy did you luck out!”. I would call it luck because I had the perceived image but it sure is nice when a good plan comes together. And I knew right where I was going to go from here!!! From the third muck the painted image was “gently” emerged beginning with the subject’s Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

face. The soft cloner was used for the emerge at about an 11% opacity. The emerge continued exposing the whole subject and her immediate surroundings. See “Kaitlynn Emerge”. In working the image through the muck my “dried up pond” had developed into a misty seaside. And the photograph transformed into a delicate painting titled “Seaside at Treehaven”. The image was brought back in to Photoshop for final touches. I usually “clean” things up that might have been missed and adjust the color for my printer. Kaitlynn Color I use an Epson 7880 Stylus Pro with archival inks. At this point I evaluate where I am at artistically and determine if I want to enhance the image with other “tools”. Then because I want to enhance my brush strokes so they will show better on the canvas I use the Highpass filter (Filter-Other-Highpass) two to three times (depending on the image). After signing the image and applying a vignette, the final image is ready to print. See “Kaitlynn Final”. The canvas I use is from Breathing Color called Lyve Canvas. Most of my paintings are embellished with water-based oil paint and then coated with Glamour II Veneer Gloss Finish also Kaitlynn Paint from Breathing Color. 16

Kaitlynn Muck 1

Kaitlynn Emerge

Kaitlynn Muck 2

Kaitlynn Muck 3 Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

Kaitlynn Final 17

Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

Marketing Buzz By Tim O’Neill

7 Steps to Positive Thinking Back in the day, (a euphemism stolen from my kiddies) there was a time when I spent a considerable amount of time teaching and writing about positive mental attitude, critical thinking, self improvement, personal development and areas directly related to that area of study. Realizing how our world is directly affected by our own attitude has always been fascinating to me. The last year has not been a great year for us. As I began to take note of what things needed to change I first looked at me, my attitude and how I influenced those I talked to and came in contact with. Scary. As I looked I realized I needed to fall back and change some things yet again. Keeping a positive state of mind takes a tremendous amount of work. A positive attitude towards whatever you do though will make things easier, and even enjoyable. Having a bit of positive thinking can help you realize goals that were never thought possible. Here are a few tips that will help keep us on track. 1. Take passionate action towards living your life by design. Talk is cheap. Action = deposits in the bank of a passionately authentic future. Without it, passion is void. This is a perfect example where dreams are made of where you start by tinkering with your mind, then with your hands. And if the idea weakens, you can always go back to it later until you finish it. also action conquers fear. Attack the things you are most fearful of and most generally the fear will dissipate. Here is a personal example. When I was a kid in boy scouts I wanted to get my badge for climbing a tree. I have no idea exactly what the badge was but I was paralyzed by fear of climbing so high. I had fallen off of a tire swing and sprained my neck when I was a little shaver and I remember the first hours of not being able to move. I don’t even remember if I ventured high enough Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011

to get a check mark for the badge, I don’t think so. That fear of heights stayed with me into young adulthood. In the military I wanted to be a combat photographer. That entailed many things involving heights but I was passionate about my goal. The first step for me to alleviate that fear was to begin skydiving. Sweating, puking and nearly blind with fear I managed to get through my first freefall jump. Of course I lived and even enjoyed the ride down...you can fly! Amazingly my paralyzing fear of heights left. Action conquers fear. 2. Commit to yourself as well as those you love to create a life you can love. Instead of reacting, commit to creating from your heart and soul, out of love rather than fear. The American Dream will always be there, but a dream will still be a dream without motion. Be amazed as the transformation begins. 3. Recognize and embrace the thought that each moment is perfect regardless of its outcome. Every time you hit on something that may appear too extreme, why not give it a shot and see if it will work. You will be surprised to see that many times there are many ways to get the task done in time. If you are not pleased with the outcome, decide to use that moment to learn from and make the appropriate shift. You are probably tired of haring me say it but “failure” is part of the ride, a piece of the puzzle that makes one more whole. Failure is absolutely necessary to living fully and succeeding. 4. Dwell completely in a place of gratitude. Learn to utilize what you have in your hands and make use of it in the most constructive way. Slipping into neediness will become less of a habit when you repeatedly shift towards gratitude, away from poverty consciousness. Even through ones most grave trials there are many things to be thankful for. Another tip for this area is to give out of your own need. When we have a need 19

and we give anyway it opens up our hearts and minds. It also helps us to realize that there is always someone with a greater need than our own. 5. Use a Passion Formula of Recognize/Reevaluate/Restore in place of the Shoulda/Woulda/Coulda whirlwind. The former is based in increased knowledge and abundance while the latter focuses on scarcity and lack. 6. Keep humor at the forefront of thought, laughing at and with yourself when possible. You may find yourself quite entertaining when you loosen up! Life has to much to offer to allow us to mope around in self pity. Humor is very attractive, very passionate: life-giving. 7. Believe that you are the architect of your destiny. No one can take your passionate future from you except for you! Create your life authentically. As long as thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still breath in your body, there is no end to how much you can accomplish in a lifetime. The concept of thinking big is all about enjoying your work, which would lead to celebrate a discovery that is born within your hands. Watch everything flow into place with perfect, passionate precision. I believe gifts, dreams, passion all come from our creator. We are not given any dream that is not possible if we utilize the gifts and passion for the dream that came with it.

Digital Paint Magazine - August 2011