Illustration Ah-Ha! Moments
Вставка
- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- In this episode, Jake Parker, Samantha Cotterill, and Will Terry share lightbulb moments that have impacted their careers in illustration. Tune in and see what lights come on for you!
Join the Patreon Family!
/ 3pointperspective
Get a 14 day free trial of SVSLearn: courses.svslea...
Over 80 courses of instructional content. Your clear path to becoming a working illustrator starts with SVSLearn.
SUBMIT YOUR PODCAST QUESTION HERE
www.svslearn.c...
______________________________________
Show notes and links- www.svslearn.c...
Illustration by Analise Black: / ajugabee
_____________________
3 Point Perspective Podcast is available at: SVSLearn- www.svslearn.c...
iTunes- itunes.apple.c...
Google Play- play.google.co...
Spotify- open.spotify.c...
______________________________________
Jake Parker- www.mrjakepark...
Will Terry- www.willterry....
Lee White- www.leewhiteil...
Produced by Daniel Tu at Clover Studio: cloverstud.io
Shownotes by Lily Howell: lilycamille.com
I had a big ah-ha moment while watching one of Lee's courses on SVS. I think it was light and shadow. He did a section on stylizing light and shadow, and mentioned that it doesn't necessarily have to be realistic. Placing light shapes on dark shapes and vice versa works! It was like a puzzle piece clicked into place. Realistic lighting doesn't fit very well with the style I like to work in. Before watching that class i used more realistic lighting because I didn't know how to do it any other way. After learning that i was finally able to stop thinking so much in terms of light sources and cast shadows, and instead use value simply to define shapes. It made a huge difference!
Big ah ha moment, when I realized it’s ok if everyone does not like my art. I love it. If you love your art the worlds a big place someone out there will love it too. And get critiques from those who want you to grow and they also love what you’re doing.
My ah-HA! moment was a few years ago when I realized I could not rely on my talent alone. My whole life I’ve been told that I was good at drawing and so I never practiced, believing that everything that came out of my hand was gold (it wasn’t). I’m 36 years old and I’ve seen significant progress, more than I’ve seen the whole rest of my life because I decided to apply myself and draw everyday. Thanks for the podcast, new listener. Love it.
@willTerryArt - Thanks for sharing those early paintings. As with all things, you gotta put the work in. And then some. And then some more. Forever and ever. Maybe that's my aha moment.
My big ah-ha moment was inviting our kids (4 & 8yrs at the time) to draw in my sketch book. One of the best decisions I ever made as a dad. Another helpful episode. Thanks guys!!
My aha moment was when I realised to not be precious with my sketches. They're just sketches. They're supposed to suck. I'm just pushing ideas around until I get something worth investing more time.
This mindset also helped me with my writing to not overthink every single sentence.
Also Sam's sweater is adorable!!
All of this is spot on ! And thank you …Boden in case you want to know ;)
Big Aha moment: I'll choose one of my favorites, and it was after I dug up two books I had illustrated years ago, for an author who was totally art directing everything, I will not put these books on my website, or anywhere! They ARE AWFUL. So bad... I was doing all the wrong things, And the subject matter for the 2nd one was so tasteless and embarrassing I know for a fact this was my moment. RUN, from this client. Nothing good ever comes from me if I am drawing for someone else like this, and to only do projects I fall in love with. You guys helped me to realize this. I agree, learning will never stop, and it IS so good to crank stuff out... but keeping your eye on the ball makes you focus and stay hungry to create.
First aha moment: watching one of my illustration teachers drawing a figure and how he held his body, how his hand moved across the paper in a casual, relaxed manner, demonstrating a lack of self-consciousness or tension. When I’ve watched less experienced artists draw, there is a hesitation and tension, perhaps performance anxiety, like the stakes are way high. I learned to just put down my strokes with ease and that actually helps to make the drawing look better by loosening the line-work.
Second, and please forgive me: the Apple Pencil. Once it was possible to paint digitally directly onto a screen, have no limits in terms of tools, brushes, color selection, flexibility, layer separations, that just transformed me from a hobbyist to a professional. And I’m still improving to this day. It just blows my mind how modern technology has swung the door wide open and not be limited by what I could afford in terms of traditional media or the hours to master each medium, be it watercolor, oil, acrylic. The possibilities are limited only by my imagination.
Ah ha moment was during a critique, teacher had us lay our drawings on the floor, and as he walked around talking about them was walking on them. Made me realize each drawing is not so important. I started drawing a lot and throwing away a lot of drawings and still do.
Thank you! Love your energy so much!)
Ah ha moment would be when i learned not to draw hard lines from the get-go. Instead, draw lightly, and then not only is it easier to erase and fix things as you go, but you can go back and render after you have the shape. I used to render as i drew the pictures just to end up with a badly proportioned finished product.
I actually had a big Aha moment with your podcast one time when Lee mentioned to either put dark characters on light background or vice versa, like Will is also saying at 29:00. I used to stuggle like Will with values scattering all over the image and making it very confusing for me to take decisions, and after hearing that tip, things got much better. Definitely a big Aha moment in my career so thanks guys!!
Jake, Samantha, and Will, thank you for the presentation.
Every accountant and church lady were once kids. I still love these illustrations from Will. Re: Sam, did she ever actually tell you she was trying to push you? Seems like that would’ve helped right up front vs having to decipher passive behavior.
I feel like i haven’t had a career shifting "ah-ha" moment, but rather a lot of little "oh-ok" moments...
The most recent being from the weekly art challenge I am doing, where I found out that I can still create good pieces of work even when I don’t feel like doing the drawing or am not excited about the topic.
I took a portrait painting class at studio Incamminati (a fine art atelier) when I was in college and they taught how to paint the planes of the face and how the eye and eyebrow is foreshortened when the head is at a 3/4 view. They also told me to paint the brightest most colorful version of what I saw instead of dulling down my colors. None of these topics were covered at my regular art collage and my ability to paint improved more from that one class than all the painting classes I'd taken at collage at that point over three semesters.
I work at a daycare where we hold book fairs every fall and the teachers can ask what books they would like to have at the book fair and I put in for Pickleball Paul, little bot and sparrow and this pretty planet. So hopefully one of those wholesale orders was from me lol.
A big Ah-ha moment for me was when I sneaked into some art history lectures as a penniless student. For a few weeks I learned so much about composition from a great tutor & the work of masters…..then I had to do a runner when I realised I couldn’t afford to do the course 😖
Great episode! Relate to everything you say! An aha moment for me was in like 5th grade we took a field to the Boston Globe building. They showed us a movie where a photo was on the screen, and then they zoomed in so tight it was just dots. That was so cool to my little 5th grade mind at the time.
UA-cam deleted my comment, not sure why, but basically my Ah-ha moment was about composition and creating focus in comics. My first several comic projects tried to cram all my ideas in at once and the same level which muddied the focus and readability was lost. But I started reading more western comics and seeing how creators maintain focus and while also building out their worlds.
I had also recommended two of my favorite independent comic creators I thought would be good for an interview Aaron Lopresti and Fabrizio Aeillo.
So, I am stubborn and haven't taken Jake advice to heart as much as I should. Jake has always said start with a small project before you do your epic graphic novel. Well, I went straight for the epic 200 plus page graphic novel. I'm over 150 pages of finished art, but it's been a project that I start and stop all the time. Mostly because I keep thinking that I need to get an agent first who will then find a publisher because an editor will want to make changes. I have submitted it to several agents, who give the nicest passes on it. And this is where a more recent Aha moment came,
but it occured to me that I don't need an editor's permission to work on my own project. So, I've just kept going. And if a traditional publisher balks at that much finished art, then I'll probably be taking your self publishing pro class in the spring.
Less an Ah Ha moment and more a Word of Caution: If you want to be a professional artist, draw everyday. If you want to break your back working blue collar gigs and only pump out something creative once every year or two, follow the muse, lol.
I have had no aha moments
How much extra will office hours cost?
Good question.