My Artistic “Influence Map”

There’s a new meme for artists floating around the internet called an “Influence Map”. It was started by Boston artist Matt Laskowski over on DeviantArt.com. Here’s how it works: you download a template that contains a grid of white squares. Then you paste in samples of artwork from other artists who have inspired and influenced you over the years. The bigger the influence the more squares his or her sample takes up on the grid.

Here’s my Influence Map (click to view larger):

It was really difficult to decide who to include, or more accurately who to leave out. There are *so* many great artists out there whose work I have studied and learned from over the years, and the list continues to grow.

To make things a little easier on myself I left out some mind-blowing artists whom I have only recently been exposed to (Nico Marlet pops immediately to mind). Though their work inspires and challenges me, I haven’t really followed them long enough to say that I’ve really absorbed what I can from studying them.

The artists I did include are (from left to right, starting in the upper left): Glen Keane, Mort Drucker, Jack Davis, Norman Rockwell, John Nevarez, Stephen Silver, Milt Kahl (he represents all of Disney’s Nine Old Men), Dennis Jones, John Byrne, Heinrich Kley, E.C. Segar, Carter Goodrich, and Rik Maki.

Like any artist my style is still evolving and (I hope) improving. As I continue to learn and grow I’m sure my list of artistic influences will ebb and flow as well. This is just a snapshot of where I’m at today.

What are you waiting for? Zip on over to Matt Laskowski’s DeviantArt page and make your own Influence Map. [EDIT: Feel free to post a link to your Influence Map in the comments section below, as well as over on Matt's Deviant Art page.]

Mort Drucker Clip From “The Master Series”

Artist Stephen Silver has put together an amazing new video that cartoonists are going to love. “The Masters Series, Vol. 1″ includes lengthy interviews with three living legends: Mort Drucker (MAD Magazine), Stan Goldberg (Archie Comics), and John Reiner (The Lockhorns). Over the course of 2 hours and 15 minutes we get to see each artist hard at work in their studio and listen as Silver interviews them on their process, technique, inspirations, and a host of other topics. An extended preview of the Drucker segment is shown above.

This video is the first volume in what will hopefully be a long line of videos. You can watch “The Masters Series” on Schoolism.com starting January 20, 2010. The cost is $39.95. Pay once and you’ll be able to watch the video online over and over again to your heart’s content. Unfortunately you won’t be able to download a copy due to pirating concerns. That’s disappointing but I can’t blame Silver for his decision. In art and animation circles inspirational nuggets like this often get traded and shared like candy, regardless of copyright concerns, so I don’t blame him for being overly protective. He put a lot of hard work into the video and deserves to earn a bit of coin for his efforts.

See you at Schoolism.com on the 20th!

Artists On YouTube

Here’s a few YouTube videos I’ve stumbled upon recently from some artists whose work I admire:

Dennis Jones is a phenominal illustrator. He draws very fun, entertaining cartoon characters and then paints them with a master’s eye for color and shading. Here’s a quick demo of him painting in Photoshop. View Dennis’ YouTube channel for more videos:

Here the very talented Denis Goulet posted a link he found to a quick tip about how to get more out of your Faber-Castell PITT brush pens:

Caricaturist Joe Bluhm discusses his process while painting Bill Murray:

Finally, Stephen Silver demonstrates a “memory sketch”. Memory sketching is a challenging exercise where the artist stares at a subject for a few moments (no drawing, just observing) and then later sketches the pereson from memory:

Stephen teaches a terrific class on character design over at schoolism.com. I took the class myself and I learned a great deal. Highly recommended!

Do you have any favorite YouTube artist videos that you’ve found educational or inspiring? If so, please post a link in the comments section.

Memory Sketch Video by Stephen Silver

Last year I took a character design class online from Stephen Silver at Schoolism.com. One of the lessons dealt with memory sketching, which I’ve written about here.

Here’s a video of Stephen Silver doing a memory sketch and discussing it as he draws. Fun stuff. If you have an interest in character design I’d highly recommend taking Stephen’s class. You’ll learn a ton!

Review: Stephen Silver’s “Life”

Yesterday I received my copy of Stephen Silver’s latest art book, Life.

For those who don’t know, Silver is an amazing animation character designer whose credits include Disney’s Kim Possible and Nickelodeon’s Danny Phantom. He’s a versatile artist and I find his work very inspiring. Silver also teaches an online Character Design course through Schoolism.com. I took the course last year and I learned a ton. It’s expensive but well worth the investment for anyone serious about character design.

Silver has published several popular sketchbooks in the past, each one jam-packed with his amazing drawings.

My Schoolism.com Character Design Assignments

A few months ago I took a character design class online through Schoolism.com. The instructor was Stephen Silver, one of the top character designers working in animation today. Stephen’s video lectures were very inspirational and full of meaty content. I probably learned more from Stephen than I did from some of my professors when I was in art school. If you have any interest in character design and can afford to take the class, do so!

I posted my weekly assignments here on the blog and tried to share my thoughts without giving away too much of the actual content of the lectures. The blog posts were quite popular and were even featured on Drawn!, a popular art blog.

For those of you who may have missed it, I’ve now compiled all of my Schoolism.com blog posts onto one page. Here’s the list:

• Lesson 1: Fat Joe
• Lesson 2: Silhouettes
• Lesson 3: Portrait Study
• Lesson 3: Jeckyll and Hyde
• Lesson 4: Hand-y Drawing Exercise
• Lesson 4: Jeckyll and Hyde Part 2
• Lesson 5: Clean-Up and Feedback
• Lesson 6: Turnarounds
• Lesson 7: Attitudes and Expressions
• Lesson 8: The Importance of Sketchbooks
• Lesson 8: Memory Sketching
• Lesson 9: Fat Joe (Final)

Schoolism.com: “Fat Joe” (Final)

This is it. I’ve finished my nine-week character design course with Stephen Silver over at Schoolism.com. It’s been an amazing experience. Stephen is not only a brilliant character designer but also an inspiring teacher.

Our very first assignment was to design a character based on Fat Joe from the play The Long Voyage Home. We were given this description: