Illustration.org

Hi Everyone,

It is Fall again and we are visiting Laguna College of Art + Design for our annual group workshop (2 days, 4 instructors).

Date – Sept 26th & 27th
Time – 10 AM ~ 5PM
Price – $240 (lunch included)

If you haven’t attended our Fall Special Workshop before, it is a tasting menu of the best classes that CDA has to offer.

*** Learn how to create believable designs that the viewers can relate to. Learn how various artists of different discipline approach their designs to keep their ideas fresh. ***

Sign up soon as the spaces are limited~!!

Enrollment will start on Sept. 1st along with the rest of the Fall term classes. To enroll, visit our website for enrollment form & instructions:

http://www.conceptdesignacad.com/1340.html

Thanks for your time and hope to see you there~!!

Kevin Chen

www.conceptdesignacad.com

Gnomon Workshop LIVE exists for a simple purpose — to allow students and professionals from around the world to come together and share production experiences, techniques and artwork. Located at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood, California, these weekends have been tremendously inspiring for all that attend.

Reserve early, this event will sell out! One ticket allows full access to the 2-day weekend event.
Students save $75.*

	Location Soundstage 15, Television Center Building (TVC) Next door to the GNOMON School of Visual Effects 1015 N Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90038 Get Directions
	What’s Included
	DEMOS BY PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS See presentations and demos by highly accomplished artists who will take you inside their own personal projects and processes. This event provides a rare opportunity to meet these artists, learn from their experiences, and discuss issues important to the entertainment industries. The artists in our line-up for this event have worked on such projects as Star Trek, Avatar, Cloverfield, Iron Man, Transformers, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Tron, Monsters vs. Aliens, Kung Fu Panda, World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Quake 4, Warhammer Online, Warhammers 4000, Bioschock, Hellgate, and Darksiders to name a few.
	RECRUITING ROOM We are also excited to announce the return of our recruiting room! This is a great opportunity to meet supervisors and art directors in the industry, so bring your portfolios and bring your questions. Our Past recruiters have included representatives from such studios as: Nickelodeon, Blizzard, Naughty Dog, NBC Universal, ESPN, Top Cow, Insomniac, Activision, Digital Domain, Gentle Giant and Rhythm and Hues. The Spring 2009 list will be announced soon, keep checking this event’s page for updates!
	FOOD & DRINK Lunch will be provided by Gnomon for both Saturday and Sunday. See schedule

Hi Everyone,

We have a quick news update. 3 new openings just became available for this weekend’s Fall Special Workshop at Laguna College.

Cash payment at the door is required along with enrollment form.

If you are interested, please contact us at contact@conceptdesignacad.com to reserve your spot.

For more information, you can visit us at www.conceptdesignacad.com

Thanks for your time,

Kevin Chen

Concept Design Academy

818-669-4657

Here is an interview I did with Rohin Guha, Online Writer for BlackBook Magazine this morning. Click here to read the interview. It’s a quick read for those of you who are on the run.

Toto is a successful artist from Taiwan who is known for her colorful and surrealistic images of characters and environments. She is very happy and excited to be making new friends and fans outside of Taiwan and has overcome huge obstacles in her life to be where she is now. Diagnosed with a rare disease that eventually causes the patient to lose their vision, she has courageously battled the disease to continue with her life’s passion – to make art that inspires people.

Her use of color is done in such a way as to move the eye of the viewer deeper into the piece. Once inside her drawings, viewers will not find a simple black and white meaning; rather, her artwork engages people by allowing them to relate their own interpretations and choices upon the work.

Memory and life are commonly intertwined with symbolic meaning in Toto’s images. The reason for this is tied to her own experience with the disease, as she spent a short period living in darkness. During this period, she gained much from embracing sound and music as a means to escape the possibility of never seeing again. When she could draw, she used her memory to choose the colors in the computer programs she was familiar with. Now, with her sight restored she has grown immensely from her struggles. Thus, the rhythm and harmony in her art is comparable to the experience of music.

And now, Toto is happy to be able to share her art with a much broader and engaged audience here in the United States.

Here’s a interview with Shawn Toshikian. He’s the current writer and creator of several series being produced by Stand Alone Comics, a new new comics publisher that looks to put out some great titles this year with great art to match their great writing. Oh and he just happens to be currently the Animation Supervisor on Cartoon Network’s show Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends!Character Design from an Upcoming comic

Comic panel from uncoming comic

When did the idea for Stand-Alone Comics come together?

I work at Cartoon Network as the Animation Supervisor on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, but in early 2007 I realized that I needed something outside of my day job, something of my own, that belonged to just me.

Believe it or not, that originally was going to be a Robeks* franchise. I met with the Robek’s people and was moving to the next level, when the people in my life stepped in, a kind of intervention of sorts. The consensus was, “Are you high! Do you seriously dream of making fruity drinks!?”

Well I wasn’t and I don’t. So if it wasn’t going to be fruit drinks, then of course it had to be comics.

So I called my friend Michael Huang and said, “Dude, you want to start a comic book company with me?”

He said, “Yeah, but I can’t right now, I have too much going on.”

And then I said, “Dude, we’re not getting any younger we need to do this now or never!”

And Michael said, “OK.”

So we started Stand Alone Comics and established the SAC Manifesto; which states…

All stories must have a beginning, middle and end.*

No gimmicks, storytelling first and foremost.*

No late books or unfinished volumes.*

*Note: Robeks makes fruit drinks. And I love fruit drinks.
*Note: No, continuous series. Like my friend Dana says, “Seriously, how many times can the Joker escape from jail before it’s just retarded.”
*Note: You know the rotating death thing.
*Note: Seriously people. You know what the difference between a professional and an amateur is? Deadlines.

Read the rest of this entry »

Doug Tennapel talks about his graphic novel Flink! as well as his creative process, in part 1 of 3 interviews

- How did you first get started in art? What was it that caught your interest initially?

As far as I remember it was trhu my mother’s ad agency when I was in my teens. I liked the buzz in their agency but didn’t like the type of jobs they had on at that time. Nonetheless, I started to craft little mishaps on those ancient computers with very basic software. I remember it being very intriguing and tempting. Back then, when I was in a band with my mates, we were doing all sorts of artwork for our demos, gig posters … then I stopped for a while to re-think what I wanted to really do and naturally picked up my passion for illustration where I left it off.

Read the rest of this entry »

- Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I was made and raised in the midwest and found my way out to the left coast. I went to school in San Francisco, at the Academy of Art. Currently, I’m a graphic artist for a toy company here in beautiful, sunny Los Angeles.

- Are you doing what you’ve always wanted to do?
Yes and no. I’m super-duper thrilled to get paid to draw everyday and that’s cool. However, I’ve always had my sights set on the Animation Industry and I’m working towards that ultimate goal. Character design is my true passion.
Read the rest of this entry »

For anyone that is interested in my artwork, there is an interview with me in the current issue of Hi-Fructose Magazine. I share my deep explanation into the stories behind the pieces I create, which I should be posting here also. Right? Anyways, you can pick it up at newsstands now. Special mahalo goes out to Annie Owens who interviewed me for this write up!