Storytelling Workshop with Iain McCaig, Notes

I recently returned from Kansas City, Missouri, where I attended the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live (SFAL) event. The event was relatively small—being the first organised by Spectrum—which made it very intimate and personal. The cosy size also meant that it was easy to meet, learn and share ideas with some of the best contemporary illustrators and concept artists, including Mike Mignola, Phil Hale, Iain McCaig, Andrew ‘Android’ Jones, and BROM. SFAL will hopefully become an annual event, so I highly recommend following it on Twitter and Facebook to stay informed.

The lineup up of artists at Spectrum Fantastic Art Live was incredible, going beyond the headliners featured above to include, among others: Sterling Hundley, James Gurney, Paul Bonner, and Gregory Manchess.

The talk that I will remember most was Iain McCaig’s visual storytelling workshop. If you ever have the opportunity to attend one of Iain's workshops—GO!—because his hyper-energetic personality and extensive experience are sure to inspire. As artist William Stout wrote:

"Iain's infectious enthusiasm is extremely dangerous. In less than an hour with McCaig, the people in his presence soon begin to believe they can do anything."

The workshop was particularly useful for me at this very moment in my career, as I’ve just begun working on my first full-length video game for which I must write a story; something I've never done before.

Picasso's, Seated Woman (1921)

I've never particularly liked the majority of Pablo Picasso's abstract work, so I was surprised to discover the powerful impression that the figurative painting below made on me, and many others currently hanging in the Picasso retrospective at the Zurich Kunsthaus.

Seated Woman (1921), Pablo Picasso, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany

The painting is larger than life but what makes it particularly impressive is the sense of depth that gives you the impression that the figure is a three-dimensional sculpture rather than a two-dimensional painting (an effect that is lost in photo reproductions).

Storytelling / Jon Foster

This illustration by Jon Foster is a great demonstration of how to reveal a story in a static artwork, with its excellent composition and unusual cropping.

You'll probably first notice the passengers expression because of their direct gaze (eye contact being the strongest way to attract a viewer's attention). Next, your attention will likely cycle around the passengers flapping t-shirt (which has been deliberately painted in green; the complimentary colour to red, which is used for the vehicle) to the passengers arm, which leads you past the driver, down to the cartoon character, and on to the twisting tubes and detailed engine, before coming back up again to the passenger.

Skyborn, Jon Foster

It's only once you've cycled around the composition and become familiar with the larger, more detailed and colourful elements that you notice the vehicles in pursuit—painted in muted colours and softer contrasts—revealing the images context as a chase scene.

Quotes from Alex Kanevsky

The following are extracts from an interview with Alex Kanevsky, who is a fantastic fine art oil painter. This interview was conducted by Vivianite

What inspires you?

...[The] naive artist works with first-hand experiences, uncompromised by self-analysis. Sentimental are works that are self-aware of their place in history, theory, etc. One usually sees this kind of work accompanied by an artist statement. I think I am more naive than sentimental in the things that inspire me.

What would you say to an artist just starting out?

Build up your self esteem to the level that might seem unwarranted. This will help you to ignore both positive and negative responses to your paintings. Both are usually misguided, since they come from the outside. Be your most severe and devastating critic, while never doubting that you are the best thing since sliced bread.

The moment something works well and is under control - is the time to give it up and try something else.

Put all your eggs in one basket. Precarious situations produce intense results.

Forget subjective, it is mostly trivial. Go for the universal.

Delacroix on Multiple Personalities

He is like everyone else, a compound of strange and inexplicable contrasts, and this is what the writers of novels and plays will never understand; they make their characters all of a piece. But people are not like that. There may be ten different people in one man, and sometimes all ten appear within a single hour.

—from The Journal of Eugene Delacroix