A week ago Saturday we held the third Art Out Loud series of painting demos at the Society of Illustrators. This one featured Donato Giancola painting with oils and Todd Lockwood painting digitally. While many convention panels like to pit digital and traditional painting against each other, we wanted to show how similar they can be. We had a sold-out crowd of students and artists, including Bruce Jensen and Tristan Elwell. Most came in from the tri-state area but others did come in from Boston, DC, Utah, and Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai (recent Chesley award winners) get the prize for flying in from Hungary just to attend.
Donato painted a science fiction female portrait with a slight fantasy feel to the costuming. Todd recreated a Drizzt cover from the popular R. A. Salvatore series. Both artists came close to finishing the painting, which is remarkable in just four hours. (And not expected in a demo where they spend as much time talking as painting.) We projected the artists working so that it was easy watch both paintings develop at once. They both started with some simple reference and worked their images up from that. I, for one, always appreciate it when profesional artists share their reference. Too many students think they need to pull details out of thin air and that looking at an object is, somehow, cheating...Which is nonsense.
Both Todd and Donato seemed relaxed and said they enjoyed the experience. Donato brought in a bunch of drawings and a painting in progress (Tor's new David Drake novel - more on that soon) and let the audience go through everything while the demo was in progress. After the demo Todd publicly unveiled a new painting to a client that had attended. (It's an amazing poster for a tattoo company. Once the posters go on sale, I'll link to them.)
...All in all, a great time! I'd like to thank Todd and Donato for giving up their time to share their techniques with others. I'm sure they could have utilized that time for working or relaxing with family, instead they gave up their day to give back to the community. I'd also like to thank my tireless co-chair, Dan Dos Santos -- his optimism and my skepticism seems to be the recipe for a well balanced event. And, of course, thanks to Greg for helping out in everything that I volunteer for...without ever complaining.
Photos: The crowd. Todd Lockwood, Todd painting, painting with reference, Todd with Greg and Bruce Jensen looking on. Donato Giancola, Donato projected, painting with reference, nearly done, palette.
For many more photos, check out this thread on Conceptart.org -- scroll down on page three.
Next up, November 11. Art Out Loud 4 with James Bennett, Gary Kelley, and Greg Manchess!