IF: Early

Another EARLY image from See, I Can Read Too.
Coming Soon!

Janelle Monae

Just discovered this musical artist and I am LUVING IT! What great style and an infectious beat! I was familiar with her visual but not the music. This song in particular is a blend of Funk/Jazz/Rap and Soul. She's also beautiful and classy without being trashy. I like this sistah! Can't wait to check out her CD. The video concept and dancing are refreshing as well! The Michael Jackson, Off The Wall inspired suits and high waters mixed with the James Brown dance moves are awesome!
Rock on Janelle!!
Now Shetup!!!
Now put some Voodoo on It!!!!!

Some drawings...Please!!

I know I've been posting a lot of stuff other than artwork lately. Well, a lot of what I'm working on I can't show. But I am working on some Educational stuff. I have to do around 36 full color images for the client.

Here's a few of my favorite sketches that I've done up to this point!

Enjoy!

I will try to choose a couple of these to show the edits and progresses as I go to full color. I'm trying to keep it simple. I tend to over-work things. But we'll see how things progress!!

-Wilson

Watching While Working

Law & Order Seasons 9 & 10

These went a lot faster because I actually have seen quite a few of them on TV. They really start to shake things up in their personal lives and I'm enjoying it!


Avatar: The Last Airbender

I won't even go into all the controversy surrounding this cartoon series being made into a live action movie. But to be fair the previews so far do look great. I just hate the prejudiced premise Hollywood is taking with the casting. Anyways, it's good to know that I will always have this series to go back to. Right now only Season 1 is available on Netflix Instant. I wish they had the other seasons available.

Best Animated Series Evah!!!!


Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

Camp classic!!! Great Flick. Bette Davis steals the show. I didn't realize however that there was this huge feud between the two actresses. Man, what you can learn on Wikipedia! This is a movie you can never get tired of. Really makes you appreciate how artfully film makers used to approach their craft. Makes me want to have an Alfred Hitchcock marathon!!


Sparkle

Uhhmm...I'd never seen this movie. But I'd heard mention of it multiple times. Mostly that it was a precursor to the DreamGirls phenomena. A tale of three sisters who go from rags to....kinda nice dresses as a singing girl group and the pitfalls along the way. Interesting seeing so many faces that would become well known later. It's also obvious that some of their acting chops were still in their infancy. Most of them do far better acting later in there careers.
The movie overall is just so-so, predictable and drags in places.
But the Curtis Mayfield soundtrack almost makes up for it. The actresses sing the songs in the movie but Aretha Franklin sings the songs on the soundtrack. You know I have to track THAT down! A couple of songs in particular were re-recorded by EnVogue later. The most popular of which was. "Giving Him Something He Can Feel". Check the video below!

Wisdom Wednesday

PODCASTS PART 1
I have said before that I love listening to different things while I work. Podcasts became a staple for me quite a while ago! Listening to them is the closest I come to multi-tasking. I get to accomplish my work at the same time that I'm learning and growing from other artists, art directors, writers and fans. I may have highlighted some of these podcasts before, but they merit mentioning and highlighting again! If you get the chance to you should definitely check them out and let me know what you think! Also, let THEM know what you think! Just tell em Wilson sent ya! (Not that they know who I am!!)


Visual Artist Podcast Network
This week I'll be highlighting the Visual Artist Podcast Network Series of Podcasts. Next week I'll highlight other podcasts of interest not under this particular flag.

The name is pretty self explanatory. The following podcasts all speak of and feature interviews and conversation centering around the Visual Arts. Primarily various fields within the Illustration markets. All of them are great and insightful and even if you don't do work in that particular field that is highlighted in that podcast. There is always wisdom to be gained from how any artist approaches there profession.

W.I.P. is a podcast for Fantasy illustrators trying to break into the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Illustration world from the perspective of a few artists trying to do that themselves.

Every show has a few segments:

• Art Scene: What’s going on in the art community. Contests, publications, events, etc.

• 10kH: Malcolm Gladwell has hypothesized that it takes 10,000 hours to “master” anything. this idea applies to anyone from a master heart surgeon to a master lumberjack. We’ll open the show talking about how much time we’ve spent practicing, what we’ve been doing to improve and events/tutorials that we have been participating in.
• The Topic: An interview with a guest about their thoughts on various topics form style, education, networking or whatever is relevant to them. This lets an expert really talk about the big issues rather than us schmoes.
  
• Pictures in music: The last topic of the show gives us a little time to talk about what music we’re listening to while we work.

The Process diary began in July of 2007 as an effort to document the making of an independent sci-fi animated series. It quickly evolved into a popular blog about the creative process, with its mantra being: “Showing you how it’s done by going out and doing it”.

Paul Caggegi releases three episodes a month:

A conversation with a working artist in which he interviews a creative working in the field.

Feedback Episode in which listeners, watchers and readers write in to the show and comment or critique the content.

WIP Video in which Paul creates a video tutorial, usually related to his current projects.

SIDEBAR NATION!!
A series of interviews with artists, musicians, voice actors and writers within the Comic, Illustration and Sci-Fi markets. The best series of interviews you have yet to listen to. Interviews include but not limited to the following:
Drew Struzan
Adam Hughes
Wendy & Lisa
James Jean
Brad Holland
Bryan Hitch
Phil Morris
Andrew Jones
Eric Canete
Neville Page
Brian Stelfreeze
Phil Noto
Cree Summer
Greg Manchess

Escape From Illustration Island (EFII) is a website and weekly audio podcast devoted to providing resources, advice, and inspiration to freelance Illustrators around the world. Visit our main site to join the community and learn more about starting or expanding your business.

What is available to you at EFII?

• Over 200 Illustration Resource Links
• A weekly audio Podcast, featuring interviews with professionals in the field
• Tutorial of the Week, sharing some of the best tutorials to be found online
• Resource Reviews, introducing you to useful books, websites, products, and more
• Articles on freelance business, creativity, and inspiration
• A growing Community of like-minded Illustrators eager to share

Chris Oatley is a visual development artist, a writer and a podcaster who lives in Los Angeles.

He is the host of Chris Oatley’s ArtCast, a podcast about life as an artist in the entertainment industry.

On ChrisOatley.com, you can find digital painting and character design tutorials, interviews with industry artists, free photoshop brushes, articles about painting, drawing and storytelling and Chris’ own artwork.

We are a loose collective of artists from all over the world, working in the fields of fantasy and science fiction. Our main blog and podcast can be found at: ninjamountain.blogspot.com

Along with the undeniably existent Ninja Mountain Podcast, you can expect to find the latest member news and gossip, along with the occasional tutorial and opinion piece from the world of fantastical illustration. And our listeners have lots of fun talking to us and each other in the messages after each show. So drop on by and see what all the fuss is about!

Rest in Peace

May they rest in Peace.

Lena Horne

My family used to crowd around the television once every year to watch "The Wiz". It was broadcast once every year just like The Wizard of Oz and those Charlie Brown Christmas Specials.
For my family and community the Wiz meant more to us than many can imagine. It was one of the few opportunities we had to see "us" on television and in FANTASTIC roles. While the movie is panned by upper crust critics. It is a classic and loved by us pan bottom minority children.
This movie was my first true exposure to Lena Horne and her guest appearances on many minority shows helped me to recognize her visually, but not really know her and what contributions she'd made to our community. Being older we now have a wonderful opportunity to explore the many contributions of earlier generations and appreciate the sacrfices they made to afford us the opportunities we now have.

Thank you Miss Horne, may you rest in peace.

This song should be the mantra of us all. I always listen to it for a good pick me up!

Frank Frazetta

Frank Frazetta was the progenitor of many of the artists that I followed and admired when I was in high school and college. His work always captured an energy and magic that was translated with powerful gestures, implied shadows, shapes and a vast imagination. He taught me that your imagination should have no limits. And that there was nothing wrong with having a thick bottom! ;)

R-O-W-Whoo-D-Y!!!

One of my favorite commercials EVUH!!!



I'm gonna tell all you folks a secret. You don't really know a man till you see him with his children.

I remember going over to a co-workers home for a party. His little girls were dancing and singing away! (As little girls will, and boys for that matter!) Now this particular co-worker had a kind of emotionless reputation with me up to this point. Definitely a good guy, but on an emotional scale he was always a 5 on a scale of 1-10. When his little girl said, "Daddy, come dance with me." He was up and dancing and singing like it was nobodies business. He could care less who was there or what they thought. The only thing he cared about was his children and making them happy. That's a man. That's a true Father. It felt like I had a window into his spirit.

He was not the first Father that has shown me this (Mr. Skelton gives out examples like it's free candy!! He knows who he is.)and hopefully he won't be the last. But this is the kind of Father I want to write stories about. These are the kind of relationships and testaments of manhood that should be used as examples to our little boys and girls.

Manhood isn't gauged purely on testosterone and not crying in public. To be honest it is considerably braver and more manly to cry in public and dance in a silly way with your children. Because when it gets right down to it, a real "MAN" could care less what YOU think and his primary concern is in being a Father and role model to his children.

I may not be a Father, but I hope that I can be an example of this to my Niece or Nephew that is on the way!

Wisdom Wednesday

I love drawing characters!! And sometimes I loathe doing backgrounds. Probably because I have yet to figure out how to squeeze character into inanimate objects.

I was watching Princess and the Frog and Lady and the Tramp the other day and continue to be blown away by the backgrounds and settings that they have painted. They make sure that all the elements tie into the story to create a cohesive and believable story.



So I went trolling for a website that had painted animated backgrounds from films. Lookee what I found! A blogsite called, Animation Backgrounds. It's a blog dedicated to showcasing the painted backgrounds of various animation studios in all their glory, with no characters over the top. WOW! Beautiful, gorgeous, traditionally painted work that makes me feel teeny weeny when it comes to how far I need to grow. But this site will provide plenty of inspiration without me having to bust out my VHS tapes or DVD's.

Browse and enjoy folks!

Watching While Working

Thank you so much Netflix Movie Viewer! I spend many a night,ok who am I kidding, almost EVERY night working with something playing in my ear or in the background while I work. This can be one of a few things depending on my mood, and what program I'm working in. Podcasts, Audiobooks, Music, Movies or Television episodes on Netflix.

Television Shows from Netflix tend to be my faves, but I have to admit that I get a lot more work done when it's just Music or Podcasts. (No visual disturbance possible!!) But anyways I thought it would be interesting to put up what I'm Watching or Listening to while I'm working. Help to give a better insight into my personality, as scary as that may be!! Enjoy!

This is what I'm currently Watching While Working!



BUFFY SEASON 5!!!
Yep, I'm a geek and proud! Buffy is always great and even better with repeat viewings. I haven't decided which Season is my favorite but I'll let you know when I do. I do know for sure though that it won't be the "Goes to College" one. Yikes!



LAW & ORDER SVU SEASON 8
I wasn't really watching TV when the whole Law & Order series started up and got popular and then spawned multiple children across the broadcast waves. The main reason I started watching SVU now and again was Christopher Meloni after seeing him on the HBO series OZ. I'm working my way up to current and I haven't seen any of the seasons on television. But so far so good. Which is obvious since I've made it to Season Eight!!