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Working with Artsts: Reviewing Portfolios

28/7/2022

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Ahoy Mythopoeians! 

Welcome back to Working with Artists, where we go over the fundamentals on how to collaborate with visual artists on your original world. 

In Part 1 we talked about how to convey your vision to potential artists.

Part II covered where to find artists online.  



Before we hop into this week's topic, I had one last note on where to find artists that I forgot to mention last time:  

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CONVENTIONS

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Conventions are great places to find artists! Many will be exhibiting their wares and portfolios for you to see. All have created a career in the arts. For me - I tend to stay local as I’m spoiled for choice with conventions out in LA. Here are some of the ones that are great places for meeting artists: 

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San Diego Comic-Con was this past week and there were artists all over the place! Comic, Anime, and Art Conventions are a great place to meet artists in general. San Diego is a bit less comic focused specifically and more of the pop culture comics have spawned with Hollywood having a big presence every year! You’ll find many working professionals from the entertainment industry roaming or exhibiting in the halls, on panels, and of course Artist’s Alley and Small Press - both of which are application based - but compared to other comic-cons like New York and Emerald City, San Diego tends to be a little bit more pop-culture / entertainment focused. 

Anime Expo has a huge artists alley and just a ton of people in general. The lines are an absolute nightmare but there is plenty to see and do once you get in. Anime in general is huge and you’ll find a ton of great artists like Mythopoeia's very own Hamm Liu and Dia Ja here. You can find tons of talented artists influenced or steeped in anime at A/X, so if you're looking to create a project in that style it's a great place to search. 

CTN also bears honorable mention as one of the premier gatherings of soon to be art school grads every year. You can find a lot of really talented artists here. It’s pretty crazy in that it’s the best of the best students and makes you realize just how insanely talented people are, and how ubiquitous talent is! 

Comic Con LA is an up and coming show which has made major strides since 2019. Previously Stan Lee's Comikaze, they've since shifted from more of a Silver / Golden Age collectible focused show to capturing the zeitgeist of current comics and pop culture as a whole. I'm very bullish on this show and think it'll grow tremendously over the next few years. 



EVALUATING ARTISTS' PORTFOLIOS

Okay, back to our regular programming! Now that you know where to find artists, how do you actually evaluate their work? This is a tricky question because we’re not artists ourselves in the sense that we can’t draw or render. We do however have big imaginations and have worked with some pretty incredibly talented artists over the years, almost all of whom we’ve had years long working relationships with. 

So with all of that said, the following is just our own opinion about artists and what to look for when evaluating portfolios. Take it or leave it as you will, but it's what we do when on the hunt for talent. 


The Secret - It’s Intuitive.

You know it when you see it.

Good art captivates you right away. Yes or no. Like or dislike. It’s as simple as that. It’s all subjective, but there are radiants of taste, style, culture, and identity that help us identify the universal we see resonating to those who see. 

You know it when you see it. 

We’ve always relied on our instinct to determine what we like in artists. Find what matches your vision. The highest form of whatever it is you want it to be. Go from there, and see if you can find an artist that sees. 

Bah, Ray! What a wishy washey answer! You know it when you see it? 

Okay, fine fine fine you can go all art nerd on this kind of stuff, and it does help bring guidelines to the decision making process. So here's a list of things to look out for, in no particular order:

fundamentals

Anatomy. Proportions. Sketches. We always like seeing sketchbooks because it indicates training and dedication. Mastering the anatomy of our world gives the basis for us to imagine others.  Physics!  

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A study of hands in an artist's sketchbook.

PERSPECTIVE

Are things in perspective? Does the horizon vanish? Do the lines line up? Very important when working on the wide detailed shots we’re so fond of, but a difficult and important aspect of an artist’s technique.
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An early ink work in progress from Skies of Fire #2 by Pablo Peppino.

EXPRESSIONS

What can they do with the mouth or face? Expressions tell the story of emotion. What kind of facial expressions can be expressed by the artist? Is there a variety of feelings? 

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Expression studies for Myra the Witch done by Anny Maulina.

MOVEMENT

Capturing kinetic energy on a static image is impossible. Great artists capture the key frame - the moment needed to move the story visually. This is the art of the movement, and also a little bit the art of the cut.
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From our upcoming projecting, Wanderer of the Wastes.

DETAIL

How rendered is everything? Rendering is the process of adding detail to a piece. Maximum or minimum detail isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing, but the amount of detail is a consideration.
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Another work in progress from Skies of Fire #2 showing detailed cross hatching from Pablo Peppino.

STYLE

What style is the artist most comfortable in? How malleable is the artist to style? Is it the style you’re looking for? Can they stretch or blend into something amazIng with the other artists? Is it what you envision for your own project?

Another note on young artists versus developed ones: when an artist is young, their style tends to be more malleable. As they make their way through the freelancing and professional ranks, they tend to either adapt their own style or be molded by the studio or school that they draw for. That's why you can sometimes tell what training an artist has - Art Center students have a certain look, SCAD another, Disney artists have a bit of Disney in all that they do, Riot artists similarly, etc. etc. 

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An early concept for The Wildsea by Omercan Cirit.

PINUPS

Pinups, or compositions featuring mostly character art, are relatively easy to draw and can be deceptive. That said, cover work is always very important. We need to see more than just pinups in a portfolio. We’re looking for a variety of scenes and landscapes, to see if an artist can visually convey a story.
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A variant cover for Glow #5 by Hammond Liang.

SCENES

As opposed to pinups, scenes involve the interaction of characters within environments. Characters must be placed within the confines of a setting, which may or may not be rendered out with landscapes, architecture, and perspective. Scenes are difficult to master as they require a grasp of all of the previous categories and are the primary reason why sequential art - comics - are one of the most difficult mediums for any artist.
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A page from the forthcoming Sansha and Blanco by Vinse Suriantoo.

COLORS

A whole entire can of worms that warrants its own article.  Again, the primary rubric is binary:  you know it's good when you see it.
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The first color sample of Skies of Fire done by Bryan Valenza.
Like with all things, the study of art can go ever deeper and taxonomize ever further. Use the above categories as a starting point, but remember the fundamental rule: you'll know it when you see it. 
Use the rubric to help guide the discussion otherwise. Agree or disagree with the points above? Comment down below! 

Until next time,

Ray 

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Working With Artists: Where to Find Artists

13/7/2022

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Ahoy Mythopoeians!

Welcome back to Working with Artists, where we go over the fundamentals on how to collaborate with visual artists on your original world. Last time we talked about how to visualize your world even without an artistic background using words, mood boards, and story bibles as a guide.


This week the topic on hand is where to find artists. Over the years Vince and I have gone through almost every avenue of artist search you can imagine, and as you can imagine, the artist landscape has changed drastically over the years! Nonetheless, these are our go-to spots when it comes to scouting for new talent. 

THE TRIANGLE: CHEAP, FAST, AND GOOD 
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Before we get into where to find artists, I want to take a moment to review the age old adage of Cheap, Fast, and Good. If you haven’t heard of it, the Cheap, Fast, and Good paradigm basically states that for any given project, you can have it done two out of three: Cheap, Fast, or Good.

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Image courtesy of Art of a Manager.
Achieving all three though? Basically impossible.

Now while I’m sure there are exceptions to this, in our experience when it comes to art this adage very much is true. When looking for artists, keep the triangle in mind and correlate it with both the artist’s experience and social media following. An experienced artist will indicate strong ethic working under deadline, while a high social media following will indicate a higher commission rate. Good - that’s really up to you decide, and something we’ll be going over next time when we talk about how to evaluate an artist’s portfolio. 

Okay, with that out of the way, let’s get into where to actually find artists…
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​ARTSTATION

Artstation is the self proclaimed “leading showcase platform for art and design.” The community on Artstation is huge, and you’ll find an abundance of professional visual artists who work in commercial industries like animation and games. Artstation also has a large community of aspiring or hobbyist artists, giving the platform a wide range of users.
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That, coupled with a clean user interface, has made it easy for Artstation to supplant old vanguards like DeviantArt as the social gathering place for artists online in recent years. On ArtStation you’ll find many polished portfolios, and its discoverability features make it easy to latch onto a specific style you find attractive to find other artists working in a similar fashion. 
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​BEHANCE

Behance is a platform put out by Adobe, and like Artstation features the portfolios of many professional artists. The interfact can be a little jenky as Adobe is constantly updating the site to add new features including most recently streaming and short form content (why…? I have no idea). 
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Nonetheless, you’ll find a great amount of artists on Behance, though they tend to skew towards the more established, professional end rather than the aspiring amateur ranks. 
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DEVIANTART

From the mid 2000’s to around 2014, DeviantArt was THE place for artists online. Unfortunately, a lack of updates to its UX led to competitors like ArtStation and Behance to fracture its once unified community. The website has seen a major overhaul in recent years to bring it in line with its competitors, but many of the professional talents that once showcased their portfolios on the platform have since moved on. 
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That said, many aspiring and emerging artists still upload their work on DeviantArt, and it’s a great place to uncover hidden gems or those looking for their big break. Both the artists from Skies of Fire and The Wildsea were first discovered on DeviantArt, so you never know what you might find, so long as you’re willing to look and ask around. 
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INSTAGRAM
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Instagram is a popular showcase platform for artists with strong algorithmic discoverability. As a platform, its best days are probably behind it (word on the street is that Gen Z is treating Instagram now how we millennials treat Facebook - for family only), but its foundation as an image based social media platform means that artists will always have a home on the platform.
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When browsing Instagram, keep in mind the note above about followers and how that may correspond to the commission rate of artists and their availability. The algorithm will naturally push artists with many followers, but those with several tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands probably are using Instagram as one of their primary sources of income, meaning their desire or need for freelance work will be greatly mitigated. 
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REDDIT

Reddit is a great place to find mood board inspiration, particularly around the /r/ImaginaryLandscapes/ and Imaginary Network family of subreddits. 
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Finding artists on Reddit will often require a little bit of hunting for the contact information of any particular artist, which will naturally lead you to one of the other sites listed above. Again, same principles as the advice above: large followers will oftentimes translate into limited availability or high commission rates. However, unlike the portfolio based sites, Reddit curates on an image by image basis, meaning that just because a particular illustration is highly upvoted doesn’t necessarily mean that artist has a huge following. 

In our experience, contacting artists found on reddit  for whatever reason takes longer than on the other platforms. Still, it’s one of our go-to’s when we’re searching for new talent. 
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ART SCHOOLS

If you have a local art school nearby, it’s not a bad idea to head over and scout for some talent! We found our first artist for Glow, Dia Jamandron, this way at Art Center Pasadena. 

Doing so will take a little bit of work. First, you’ll need to print out physical ads with your proposed commission rate followed by cutouts of your contact information. Ask for their portfolios and a cover letter. From there, you’ll get a trickle of artists that will self select to be highly interested in the proposal.
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The Art Center College of Design, my local Art School.
Another method is contacting professors / instructors directly, sending a proposal or introductory email and hoping that they can introduce you to some promising students. 

The advantages of hiring out of art school is that students are a lot cheaper than professional artists, and can oftentimes be just as talented, if not a little unpolished! The disadvantage is that they are not yet professionals, and so many need extra development time and hand holding when it comes to deadlines. 
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—------

Do you have any other places to find artists? Let us know in the comments below!

And now that you know where to find artists, how do you evaluate them? 
Stay tuned next week as we delve deep into portfolio reviews - what to look for! 


- Ray 
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Working With Artists: cONVEYING yOUR vISION

5/7/2022

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Ahoy Mythopoeians! 

Welcome to Working with Artists! In this series, we’ll be going over the fundamentals on how to work with professional or aspiring artists on comics, games, and other collaborative mediums to build your story world and artistic process. This series should be useful to writers, producers, content creators, and anyone else who wants to work on their world-building collaboration skills. More particularly, in the next few weeks (aiming to release an article a week) we’ll be going over the following topics:


  • Conveying Your Vision - how to develop a strong visual identity for your work even before beginning the artist search.
  • Where to Find Artists - where on the world wide internet to look for artists, and how to gauge their potential interest before approaching. 
  • Artist Portfolio Reviews - how to look at portfolios, examine fundamentals, and unearth red flags.
  • Partnering with Artists - how to approach and audition artists, contracts, and how to be a professional. ​
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The first ever artwork we received from Pablo for Skies of Fire.
Hopefully you’ll find the information useful, whether you’re an aspiring or seasoned creative. In our eight years of making comics and games, one of the strongest aspects we’ve had is our strong visual development. And although both Vince and I have art degrees (BFAs of Film & TV from NYU Tisch), we really see ourselves more as directors, producers, and collaborators who draw upon and bring out the best in a team of talented individuals to create our work. 
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We’ve always been known for our beautiful art, which is no coincidence. We work with talented artists from around the world and have been able to develop the skills and portfolios of those who have collaborated with us. That’s in turn opened the door for us to work with more established artists, and so and so forth. 


So without further ado, let’s hop into Part 1: Conveying Your Vision after the jump.​

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Comic Spotlight: All Star Superman

30/6/2022

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Ahoy Mythopoeians! 

Today I’d like to introduce a new feature on the site - the Comic Spotlight - where we highlight amazing comics from other creators that are noteworthy, influential, or for whatever reason worth a read. In addition to reviewing the comics, we’ll also be diving deep into the mechanics of the book from a craft standpoint, examining how and why it ‘works.’ 

Our first spotlight is: All Star Superman by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, and Jamie Grant. 

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A very tiny rendition of the trade paperback cover. Superman chillaxing cause yknow what it's good to be sunny.
PUBLICATION

All Star Superman was first published as a limited run series by DC Comics from November 2005 to October 2008. The series was initially intended to be published monthly, but numerous delays led to the twelve issues to be published over the course of three years instead.

The All Star line for DC Comics was an attempt for the company to establish iconic, out of continuity series comics akin to Marvel’s Ultimate universe, which at the time was at the zenith of its popularity. Only two series were ever produced - All Star Superman, which received universal acclaim, and All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder by Frank Miller and Jim Lee, which, well, did not… 




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The goddamn Batman meme spawned from Frank Miller and Jim Lee's All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder.
All that said, both series  made an indelible impact on the publisher at large. Both featured legendary creators and both were severely delayed… reinforcing the notion that good art can’t be rushed! 
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STORY

All Star Superman follows a terminally ill Superman with only a few months left to live. In mythical fashion, Superman is given a prophecy of his 12 Labors by the time traveling Sampson & Atlas.

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The 12 Deeds of Superman. Morrison always instills his supers with the spark of divinity.
PictureMorrison's Superman sees the good in all of us...
The story follows Superman as he accomplishes each of those 12 Labors, touching upon all aspects of the Superman mythos: from his relationship with Lois Lane, relationship with Jonathan Kent, jealousy from Lex Luthor, weakness to kryptonite; am no meaning you Bizarro, Kandor the Bottle City - it’s all there, except for perhaps the presence of Brainiac.

In the end Superman does transcends life, sacrificing himself to save all humanity yet again. 

In my opinion, this is the best Superman story of all time. The only ones that might have a case are the two Alan Moore Superman tales: For the Man Who Has Everything or Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

THEMES

What makes All Star Superman so good is the interpretation of Superman as a mythological god. Grant Morrison has revisited this theme time and time again, and it’s, for me, the core of DC Comics as a whole; unlike Marvel superheroes, who are presented as fallible humans, DC heroes are divine heroes upon which the symbols of man wrought large.  ​
All Star Superman distills many of Grant Morrison’s beliefs, including his belief in Chaos Magic / Alchemy, into a story that is heartfelt, nostalgic, and pure in its intent. There’s no hint of cynicism in this Superman; he does good because he is good, sees the good in others, and believes in all of us. 




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Grant Morrison, giving context to the phrase As Above, So Below.

PANELS 

For the most part, All Star Superman sticks to around 4-6 panels per page. This results in a lush, experience that is not unlike our own sensibilities. The way that Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely manipulate the pages to condense so much into so little is breathtaking. Take, for instance, the opening page… 

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Four Panels. Origin Unfold.
ART

Frank Quitely is one of the masters of the craft, with his wiggly linework and distinctive way of drawing characters. What stands out most to me in All Star Superman is his ability to distinguish between the oafish Clark Kent, with his hunched shoulders and clumsy nature, and Superman, who stands upright and is filled with the confidence of invulnerability.

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Otaku Kent unlocked!
Frank Quitely is one of the masters of the craft, with wavey lines and expressive features. What stands out most to me in All Star Superman is his ability to distinguish between the oafish Clark Kent, with his hunched shoulders and clumsy nature, and Superman, who stands upright and is filled with the confidence of invulnerability.
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Who doesn't love Lois Lane - a girl boss who is confident, sassy, and independent, but with a vulnerability and authenticity to her that makes it obvious why she’s the love of Superman’s life. 

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Sniff sniff.
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COLORS

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention colorist Jamie Grant, who provides a soft, pastellike palette that channels the iconic americana of Superman. Colorists are oftentimes the forgotten third artist of the comic medium, so it’s nice to see Jamie’s name right next to Grant and Frank’s on the titles. 


I especially love the coloring on Mr. Quintum’s technicolor dream coat, which steals the show every time it comes onto frame.


All in all, rereading All Star Superman this past week has reminded me why I love comics and reinvigorated my own approach to the medium. This is an iconic superhero story that reflects the best in all of us. It’s mythological in its approach and timeless in its execution. If you haven’t checked it out already, I recommend you do so immediately. It's one of the best superhero comics out there! 

​- Ray 



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on writing...

21/6/2022

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I'm back to writing regularly again. Feels like going back to the gym after a longtime out. My writing muscles are out of shape, but I'm hoping there's some muscle memory that will kick in and the rust will fall before too long. It's funny how the thing I love and define myself based off can be so difficult to do. Most of the year I've been in triage mode, juggling our behind the scenes, getting various projects launched, fulfilled, etc.

It's not an excuse. I need to not forget that I'm a creator first and foremost, and that my bread and butter is my words. 
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The highlighted is my rough outline / stream of consciousness in an informal style which will hopefully help me break the story.
I found myself having a hard time with shot (panel) selection and scene direction, so instead I decided to focus on dialogue and 'breaking' the story by outlining / stream of consciousness writing what could and maybe would happen. I'm hoping that when I revisit the scene tomorrow I'll be ready to flesh it out fully into a more refined version.

This is my way of tricking myself into moving forward and not being stuck with analysis paralysis (otherwise known as writer's block). Just get some words out, even if it feels like vomit, even if nothing is quite usable in the form that it currently exists in. 

Writing is Rewriting. One of my mantras in life. Still, to rewrite you have to write. It's easy for me to get stuck on all of the other stuff going on, but I guess this here blog is a reminder of what's important. 

Write, Ray, Write! 

- Ray

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