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Disney Character Designer answers your questions about Concept Art, Character Design for Animation, Digital Painting & Illustration.

Illustration

Year In Review with Ward Jenkins, Kevin Cross & Josh Kemble :: ArtCast #35

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My wife and dog and I traveled to Portland, Oregon for the holidays.  It was awesome.

During my trip to that awesome city, I was able to meet my awesome friends Kevin Cross and Josh Kemble (illustrators and hosts of Big Illustration Party Time) and an awesome artist whose work (and blog) I have long-admired, Ward Jenkins.

I recorded an awesome conversation between the four of us about our failures, victories and lessons of 2009.  We also went on a couple of awesome tangents: one about professionalism and one about Ward’s new children’s book and his illustration technique.
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Interview with Thomas James of Escape From Illustration Island :: ArtCast #29

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The future has arrived, for better or worse.  Artists and storytellers are facing a fundamental redefinition of their craft, not to mention a fundamental redefinition of themselves.

The industries that have traditionally supported, distributed and promoted those crafts have proved less resilient than we once thought and the audience’s appetite for the traditional incarnations of those crafts has evolved.  However, that appetite is not gone nor is it satisfied. It remains insatiable as ever.

But all bets are off. The tools and techniques are changing. There are almost no preexisting models of success. “The box” is now a cloud.

Is this a future of intimidating uncertainty or one of infinite possibility?  I believe that it is incumbent upon us, the creators, to decide.  It is my opinion that for the artist and the storyteller, the web world is just another blank page.  And really, is the blank page so intimidating?

Join me for an inspirational, fear-destroying, artistically-empowering series that I have titled, simply, “Artists and The Web.’

And now, for the second installment, I am honored to present to you the curator of all things illustration on the internet, Thomas James of The Escape From Illustration Island Podcast.
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Interview With Dani Jones & Paul Caggegi :: ArtCast #17

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[ download the mp3 ]

IN THIS EPISODE ::

The future has arrived, for better or worse.  Artists and storytellers are facing a fundamental redefinition of their craft, not to mention a fundamental redefinition of themselves.

The industries that have traditionally supported, distributed and promoted those crafts have proved less resilient than we once thought and the audience’s appetite for the traditional incarnations of those crafts has evolved.  However, that appetite is not gone nor is it satisfied. It remains insatiable as ever.

But all bets are off. The tools and techniques are changing. There are almost no preexisting models of success. “The box” is now a cloud.

Is this a future of intimidating uncertainty or one of infinite possibility?  I believe that it is incumbent upon us, the creators, to decide.  It is my opinion that for the artist and the storyteller, the web world is just another blank page.  And really, is the blank page so intimidating?

Join me for an inspirational, fear-destroying, artistically-empowering series that I have titled, simply, “Artists and The Web.’

And now, for the first installment, I am honored to present to you the ubiquitous and prolific illustrator Dani Jones along with the clever and ambitious indy animation artist Paul Cageggi.

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Hulk Struggles, Milt Kahl & The Economic Spectre: ArtCast #14

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IN THIS EPISODE ::

Episodes ten and eleven of this show were the most spontaneous and unproduced, but they were perhaps the most honest of all.  It was those kinds of episodes that you have requested more of and so more of those you will receive.

Today I present to you yet another unprecedented episode.  I want to call this new species of podcast a ‘collagecast.’ That is to say that I bought a portable digital recorder and I have been recording on-the-go, at different points throughout the week.  At the end of the week, I stitched all of those files together and that is what you will hear now.

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In the rest of this episode, I give a general update on my freelance and personal work, I talk about my recent struggles with the Hulk Vs. Wolverine painting, I share and experience that I had at an event that was held at The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in honor of Disney Animation Legend Milt Kahl and I respond to a few emails.

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Interview With Grant Gould :: ArtCast #9

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IN THIS EPISODE ::

I discovered the awesome work of illustrator Grant Gould after I heard an interview with him on The Force Cast.

When they plugged Grant’s website I checked it out and immediately became a fan of his work.  He has a confident graphic style, a serenely balanced design sense and it is all sustained, primarily, by a contagious joy for drawing.  His interpretations of the Lucasfilm characters are perhaps the most commercial pieces in his portfolio, but his own original creations are just as compelling.

I had the honor of meeting Grant when I attended Wizard World Chicago last summer and I was pleased to learn that he is also a remarkably friendly guy, easy going and humble.

I knew that I had to interview him for this show.  And as I suspected, he generously obliged.

My dear friend Brian Campbell also joined us for the conversation.  You can learn more about Brian’s life and artwork by listening to Episode 7 of this ArtCast or you can visit his website.

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