Pj droppin' a line!

'Ello 'ello my kappa pis! I've waited long enough! I was just waiting on my scanner to arrive in the mail before I could contribute anything that wouldn't be a regurgitation of what's on my deviantart account. My winter break couldn't be more recuperative, in fact, I almost want to trade in my x amount of hours of sleep and lack of responsibility for some serious school work and stress. ALmost though, almost. I decided to share a little bit of my vanity, and a cute little monster head that I created while waiting for my mom in the car while she was at a doc appointment. But, that's not all I did, nah, but almost, unfortunately. The other new stuff I saved for my personal blog, yup, I gave in and joined the party, so check me out and follow me if you're so inclined and curious about what I did for the monthly Sketch Theater contest. I've shared this with Aaron and Don already but for those of you that didn't facebook stalk to see what it was about, I'll save you the trouble and share with you what I'm currently and will stay obsessed with 'til I kick the bucket.

Gnomon Workshop sponsors Sketch Theater, so all the rewards come from them, thankfully so, because they both hold monthly contests! While Gnomon rewards the top 4 finalists with their dvds (1st-25, 2nd-15, 3rd-10, 4th-5) more than sixfold in value (no t-shirts though) compared to Sketch, the competition is much much more fierce (these are international contests by the way). There are more applicants, that dish out some seriously humbling work. What's nice is that there are two categories, one being for the 2D fanatics and one for the 3D masters each with their own special theme to work on. Unlike Sketch which strictly has you work with traditional media, Gnomon's 2D/3D contests wants your most bada** piece of art you can crap out using whatever means to get to the desired ends. Granted in the 3D category you can only submit 3D works, but in the 2D category you can implement 3D elements into your drawing or painting.

Speaking of great artwork, over break I was lucky enough to have wandered into a Waldens Books store while they were having an out of business sale, which I wish I had picked up on earlier, but I did come out with a steal, being a book called The Future of Fantasy Art by Aly Fell and Duddlebug. It has some amazing digital and traditional artwork that emphasize the new standard put upon aspiring entertainment artists. Among other diamonds in the rough that I've stumbled upon, aside from having the worst class of my life to date with Mr. Miller, he did introduce to me the awesomeness of Spectrum. Another artbook, but with a lot more experience of judging Fantasy art and dishing out awards that people in the industry respect. You haven't "made it" in fantasy art unless you get your artwork printed in that book. Spectrum recently released their 16th volume, which I already have, and are still currently accepting submissions for their 17th. They have a pdf that you can download, and fill out. Though it's $20 an entry and $40 for each series of entries (containing of about 3-5 pieces) that share a common theme, but from what I remember they don't say that there's a limit to how much you can submit. It's an international artbook, so again, the competition for a spot is intense. The deadline is some time in late January, so if you have any fantasy artwork lyin' around finished before 2010 I'd say give it a shot. There's an Unpublished category that is encouraged to be submitted to by students and of obviously unpublished works. But if you happened to have made artwork that has been published, they have a comics section, commercial, advertising(?), editorial, conceptual, and sculpture section. I may submit one if I can retake a better photo of one of my oil painting series I did using Aaron in civil war attire.

Well it's almost 4 AM so my affinity for being informative with personality is fading so here are some other sites that I frequent besides the ones listed previous, some being online comics, some concept art friendly; Girl Genius (This comic is like 6 years old! Great storyline!), The Meek (I just came across this one through da, and I just have a thing for art rendered this way), ConceptOrg (not a big fan of how the site navigates or displays art but still, great stuff!), ArtOrder (I came across this before writing this post, but it looks like it's a great way to get yourself promoted by participating in their challenges. They have yearly artbook you can submit to though you will have had to participated in at least one past challenge from last year-shucks!) the deadline is January 18th.

Sweet dreams all, looking forward to catching up, makin' good art, and makin' memories.

Adieu,

Pj