SPA Studios Art and Process Video

Lately I've really been digging the art coming out of The SPA Studios (SPA stands for Sergio Pablos Animation). They're an animation and visual development company based in Madrid that has contributed to Despicable Me, Rio, and the independent feature Klaus that's been getting a lot of hype in animation circles.

Szymon Biernacki

Dany Fernández

Sergio Pablos

I pulled all of this art from their excellent blog (which I highly recommend following), where they also post process videos once in a while. I had to share today's step-by-step of a painting by Marcin Jakubowski! Enjoy.

The SPA Studios. Some tips and tricks from Marcin Jakubowski. from The SPA Studios on Vimeo.

I'm currently enrolled in CGMA's Color and Light class (more on that later hopefully), and as I start down the road of moving beyond sketches to attempt more full-scale illustrations, videos like these are invaluable. I'm learning there are many ways to tackle a painting and everyone must find their own way of doing things, but seeing a roadmap laid out so clearly like this does much to demystify the process... I stop hyperventilating and start thinking maybe, just maybe, I can do it too.

© Gina Florio Sous 2016

Wedding Art

I've been wanting for some time to do a post on all of the art I produced for our wedding this past September. I particularly enjoyed designing our Back to the Future themed invitations as well as our program, which surprised me, considering they were more graphic design than illustration.

By the way, all professional-looking photos in this post were taken by the illustrious Mary Costa, a fantastic L.A. based photographer as well as a friend.

 

I also did a number of 'fictional couple' illustrations to use as table markers to showcase some of our favorite films, books and videogames - Dave and I share a strong love of good stories!

 Finally, I made a Calvin-and-Hobbes-style illustration as a Thank You card. I used Photoshop to mimic watercolor, an experiment I'd been wanting to attempt for some time.

Bonus actual wedding photo! It was truly a happy day.

© Gina Florio 2016

Drunk Literature: "Game of Thrones"

One of the many benefits to not posting for almost a year is that I now have a nice buildup of my own work to post!

For realsies, though, I'm sorry for my absence, but this year has been certifiably insane. In a good way. But still insane. I'm happy to report that our wedding was great, A++, 5 star experience, would get married again. Also very happy that life is finally starting to resemble normalcy now.

Right after CTNx last year, my friend Ellen (who blogs for Garlic, My Soul, among others) contacted me to see if I would be interested in working with her fiancé Aaron, a DreamWorks TV writer, on one of his side projects, a 'Drunk History' spinoff called Drunk Literature. They'd done a full first season on YouTube that included The Catcher in the Rye, Hamlet, and 50 Shades of Grey, and they were gearing up for season 2. They had me in mind for their epic 'A Song of Ice and Fire' (aka Game of Thrones) episode. Being a huge fan of the book series and the show, I couldn't say no.

Clocking in at almost 8 minutes, it was their longest episode yet, covering the first three books in the series, which meant there was a lot of drawing to do (and there would be no time for polishing). I definitely utilized my skills from my Intro to Storyboarding class with Louie del Carmen here, especially when it came to the animation effects that I wanted to achieve.

Obviously, spoilers for Game of Thrones abound below.

© Gina Florio 2015

New Portfolio Pages

I'm currently keeping my head down working on a portfolio for this year's CTN Animation Expo, which is happening at the end of November. However, the deadline to submit a 12-page portfolio for their specialized recruitment event was today, and I'm happy to say that I just submitted.

After two years of taking classes and going to countless workshops and art events, it's a bit surreal to be finally submitting my portfolio to actual animation and game studios. No matter what happens, I'm proud of the work that I've done and the skill level I've achieved, and I'm excited for whatever the future holds.

Here's some of the recently completed portfolio pages I made to go along from my work from Jose Lopez's Character Design class. You can view my entire portfolio by clicking on the tab above, or just clicking here.

I had a lot of fun with these if you can't tell! Props = good times. Although I am officially over attempting to do solid linework using a tablet... yeesh... whose idea was that.

© Gina Florio 2014

School's Out: Character Design wrap-up

I recently completed my term in Jose Lopez's Character Design class at the Concept Design Academy. I relished the opportunity for a class that built on the foundational skills I had already gained, but also pushed me to think about how to best communicate the things I had in my imagination. I already see such a difference in my sketches from before the class and after. Here's my compilation of work for the class.

I've now been continually taking classes for 2 years straight. When I started going to CDA, I wrote down the classes I wanted to take on a post-it note, stuck it on my computer monitor, and have been crossing them off one by one as I go. 'Character Design' was the final class, and I had a real sense of accomplishment when I recently crossed it off, and was left with a 2-year-old post-it note full of dark lines.

I've decided for the first time in two years to not take another class at CDA this upcoming winter semester. My reasoning for the break is twofold: firstly, I'm not gonna lie, I'm a bit burnt out. Character Design was the 8th class I've taken. The classes themselves are only 3-4 hours a week, but combined with driving and homework, it's been a huge time commitment for the past 2 years on top of already having a 50+ hr/week job. And secondly, I'm preparing my portfolio for CTNx this year and I need all the art-time I can get to go towards that effort.

Unfortunately this also means I won't be taking a class again for at least a year, which is strange to think about - CDA feels like a permanent part of my life at this point. But next spring we're doing a fair amount of traveling, and next summer I will be swamped in wedding planning hell, drowning in tulle and sparkles (there are worse ways to go). In the meantime though, I'm planning on taking advantage of the many online learning options that are available in this golden age of internet education, particularly Chris Oatley's self-paced Magic Box course.

At the end of the day, all I really have to say is this: I don't kid myself about the reasoning behind why I've improved so much as an artist over the past 2 years. I've worked hard. But the only reason I've gotten to where I am is because I've benefited from quality education. My unparalleled teachers and incredible fellow students have given me invaluable feedback and pushed me in ways that I never thought possible. If it weren't for them and for CDA, I'd still be buying new pens thinking *this* is the one that will make me a good artist, and doodling dejectedly in spiral bound sketchbooks for 15 minutes before giving up. I'm no Rembrant. But I have more confidence in myself as an artist with each passing day, and that growing confidence has been a really great joy in my life.

© Gina Florio 2014

Portfolio Reviews: round 1

Hey everyone, just a quick update - I've been off the grid for the past couple of weeks while I had a couple of (informal) portfolio reviews with two former CDA teachers (which went well!). Also wedding planning. Every once in a while I remember "Oh right I'm engaged" and spend a couple of days glued to Pinterest. (Which I actually think is pretty unhealthy but that's a story for another blog. The best thing I've read on the subject is this post: "My Fantasy Football Wedding". If you happen to be planning a wedding I do recommend the A Practical Wedding blog as a go-to for your daily dose of sanity in an otherwise insanity-dominated endeavor).

My takeaways from the portfolio reviews:

• Give yourself enough time to research and get solid prints. My prints came out kind of shitty because I was rushing to get it done.
• Both teachers said put your best piece first, 2nd best piece last and 3rd best piece in the middle.
• Both teachers emphasized having a sense of flow throughout the portfolio.
• For a design portfolio, one recommended putting ideations and sketches on one page and the finished product on the opposite page, to show that you can take an idea to a finish.
• Do NOT be a sucker like me and get one of those pre-bound art portfolios with pages for loose-leaf prints like this. They're nice, but the shiny-ness of the plastic page covers make your prints hard to see, and since they're pre-bound you're going to end up with a bunch of empty pages, which looks bad. Both teachers commented on this. They recommended printing up little books through Blurb or Lulu, OR just using an iPad. They both said iPads have become the portfolio device of choice.

But my biggest takeaway was,

• Everyone is going to have a different opinion of what your portfolio should be. Both teachers recommended wildly different approaches for me to take. 
• One of them said it's basically impossible to become an environment painter or character designer, so build a portfolio out of only props and vehicles, don't even include characters, and only use 2 or 3 pages of observational sketches and studies in the back. Completely focused.
• The other one said to take a more holistic approach and design an entire world (or two), with characters, environments and props, to show your storytelling ability. But he also recommended keeping the sketches and studies to a minimum and letting design be the majority of the portfolio.

That's all I can think of for now, feel free to ask any questions you would like!

Also here's a painting I finished since last time I posted! It's from a sketch that I drew about a year ago.

© Gina Florio 2014

Self Portrait, Helen Chen style

I Helen Chen'd myself.

I've wanted a cartoon self-portrait to put in my Blogger profile for a while now. After I read Muddy Colors' recent post on Mingjue Helen Chen, I fell in love with her style and decided to try illustrating myself in that way. Ultimately it's not a style I'll be keeping (mostly because it's not mine to begin with!), but it was a great exercise in texture and I definitely think I will be adding more texture to future paintings.

Read the Muddy Colors post, Mingjue & Me, for insight as well as a real-time video of her process (I LOVE real-time videos!), and check out her blog for some truly great art. She also put up a post with links to the brushes she uses. I know it's not the brush that makes the artist, but as someone still building and experimenting with their Photoshop brush library, these helped me a lot - they handle very nicely.

Here's my favorite recent piece of hers - I love the idea of reinterpreting comic book costumes into casual outfits! Anything that appeals to my fangirl side and my "omg, clothes" side is a win in my book.

© Gina Florio 2014

Studies, Still Lifes, and Semester Review

How to pluralize "Still Life"... Still lives? Still lifes? Livfeszzs?!? I'm gonna go with the second one since the first sounds like I'm proclaiming the status of a dying monarch.

Here's some of my work from the tail end of Digital Painting class.

In-class exercise - costumed model

In-class exercise - still life with different colored lights

Homework still life.

I call this piece "I'm never painting a football helmet again"

I had my FINAL class session this week! So sad. I owe a big thanks to all of my teachers, Jason Scheier, Toby Shelton, and Louie del Carmen for giving me such great feedback and guidance, and also to all of my classmates for helping me to learn and grow as well.

From start to finish, I think I have had 12 weeks total off of work to concentrate on art. (I go back to reality TV editing work full-time next Wednesday, although right now it's only for a month-long gig.) I started this 'semester' very unsure about what I was doing, worried that I was wasting time and money, still very insecure about my own skills, but the way I feel finishing out these classes is almost completely the opposite. I feel like I've broken through some huge artistic and personal barriers. I know I'm not making great art yet, but I feel... on the verge. Like I've just got to keep pushing and grinding and learning and it'll happen. I don't beat myself up for my shortcomings anymore. I just push on. I've come so far that there's really nothing else to do but move forward and make more art.

When I originally started the semester, I was thinking I'd attempt to break into storyboarding, but after having had two storyboard-centric classes and one more design-centric class, I've discovered my real passion lies in concept design for characters, props and environments. I don't know why I wasn't aiming for this from the start - I guess I just figured it'd be too hard or I wasn't good enough - but it truly is what I love. I love thinking about the different types of plant in a particular environment. I love swapping out noses on a face. And I plan to do a lot more of it from here on out. 

In my final review for Digital Painting class, Jason said that I clearly understand the mechanics of drawing and painting, but what I need to work on is my design - and he's right. Way back when I first started taking classes, I SO BADLY just wanted to skip ahead and take the character design class first - but I knew I wasn't ready yet. So I took Viscom, and Perspective, and Figure Drawing, etc. etc. I have gotten to a point where I feel like my foundational drawing and painting is on somewhat solid footing. So now! On to educating myself about design.

I'm in the process of putting together a portfolio (which you can see the beginning makings of on the new tab above, My Work), but will need to create a lot more concept-design-centric art in order to do it (as opposed to filling it with still lifes and Viscom sketches). I'll continue to post stuff here as I do! For anyone reading who is also putting together a concept art portfolio, I've gotten a TON of great advice from the various internet outpourings of Chris Oatley - 

• Paper Wings Podcast - Ten Steps to a Winning Portfolio Part 1 and Part 2
• 5 Common Pitfalls of Concept Art and Illustration Portfolios
• Is Your Concept Art Portfolio Versatile or Just Confusing?

- Just to name a few! Good luck to us all...

© Gina Florio 2014

Red-Haired Explorer Chick

Character design concept for Digital Painting class. I LOVED doing this!

Someone on my instagram commented simply "Dora Croft" which amused me to no end.

© Gina Florio 2014

Material Spheres

Whoops - forgot to post this! Material Spheres for Intro to Digital Painting class. Apparently this is generally regarded as a tedious assignment in art schools, but I actually really loved doing it. Painting is fun, you guys.

Classes are almost done now - I wrapped up Intro to Story Development and Figure Invention class this past week, and I only have one more session left of Digital Painting next Monday! It's gone so fast...

© Gina Florio 2014

Treehouse Magic

No April Fools' pranks here - just a quick art update!

Here's a digital painting I did a few weeks ago. (You may also recognize it from the new banner at the top of the blog.)

I know this isn't the best painting in the world, but when I finished it, I felt a great sense of accomplishment. It was almost exactly two years ago when I saw some random guy's blog post with a digital painting he'd done and said to myself, "I have to learn how to do that." It wasn't like one of those offhand thoughts you have when you look at a singer or a dancer and think "Wow, I wish I could do that..." It was a life-changing shift in my mindset and goals: I must learn this.

Of course, the farther I come, the more I realize how far I have to go, as is always the case with learning any craft. But I let myself feel good about it for an hour or two.

Here's my Digital Painting teacher's paintover.

This might be sacrilege to say, but I actually don't like one thing about it - the change of the light from within the cabin from purple to red. I really liked the contrast of the purple light to the green forest. But the composition is obviously much stronger, and the other changes to color and light are spot on. Much to learn still...

© Gina Florio 2014

NoHo Park - digital plein air

I've always liked North Hollywood park - it has lots of huge old trees and nice big swaths of green grass. I used to run there when I lived up in NoHo in my first apartment in L.A. This was done for week four of Digital Painting class, in which we were asked to do a digital painting of a landscape from observation. It's also my first painting done entirely in color from start to finish.

Process shots:

© Gina Florio 2014

Digital Painting work so far

Here's what I've been up to for my Intro to Digital Painting class with Jason Scheier!

We started out with some basic-shapes-from-observation-in-grayscale paintings... like ya do.

Then we moved on to a greyscale master study. The original is by Anders Zorn. I fell in love with it while creating my copy; it's a beautiful piece.

For our third assignment we did a master study in color from Mian Situ's "Chinatown Delivery". I wasn't feeling so confident in color yet, so I started in greyscale and then added color later using a layer on the 'color' blending mode. I saved some process shots from this one.

Overall I've really been enjoying and learning a lot from this class. I wasn't unfamiliar with Photoshop, I've used it to create art and even a few paintings before, but I haven't had an opportunity  - or a reason - to learn it this well until now. I have to say, I enjoy it more than traditional oil painting, for the sole reason that it's an extremely forgiving medium for a beginner. Also it doesn't involve 40 minutes plus of setup and breakdown (which went to waste all too often when I would make a single bad stroke that I couldn't undo). And thus I'm more motivated to sit down and, you know, actually make art than I was during my landscape painting class. Whatever gets me to do that is OK in my book.

© Gina Florio 2014