Author Archives: Tom

The Drum Magazine Feature.

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Turns out I’ve been featured in ‘The Drum’ magazine. Which would be nice, except that I wasn’t made aware it would be happening.

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My “uh oh” illustration is included in article which I feel is quite clearly an advert for my old university- a university which I have no desire to promote for free. After a short exchange of emails it’s emerged that The University of Central Lancashire apparently retains unconditional rights to use any and all work that I produced while I was there. A right they are now exercising for marketing purposes This isn’t something I was aware of, but it doesn’t surprise me, I expect there is some clause somewhere I once signed when I enrolled. I wonder how many students are aware that their old Unis retain the rights to their work?

Given that I probably have no legal leg to stand on (which always bloody happens.) and therefore both Uclan and The Drum can happily use my work for their own profit, I feel that all I can really do is to express my personal opinion here instead in the hope that anyone who reads the article and googles my name is left in no doubt.

I do not endorse the University of Central Lancashire in any way.

I should make clear that have no desire to offend my old tutors, I have great respect for some of them, but I simply cannot recommend Uclan on the basis of my time there, and I resent my work being used to do so when I have expressed an explicit wish to the contrary.

It seems ironic to me that a university that claims to give students such a good start in their careers will then go on to undermine them in such a way. I make (barely) a living from  producing and selling the rights to use my artwork, Uclan giving away the right to use my work in magazines produced for profit is not something I consider particularly supportive.

It could be argued perhaps that I ought to value the promotion, but I feel that in the context of the article- which includes only my name next to that of the university and then goes on to extensively detail the wonderful benefits of university education- the prime beneficiary of any promotion is Uclan. Any promotion I do achieve I’d rather forgo given the context.

Also, why do they always get the title of the piece wrong?

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General Wisdom for artists No. 7

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7. Get away from the computer!

I can haz things I should be doing

I’m typing this up on a computer. I ought to admit that straight away, you’re reading this on a computer too, unless you printed it out, which I know you didn’t!

Computers are great, everyone knows that. If it wasn’t for the digital age I wouldn’t be the artist I am today. I’d probably be doing some menial job I hate because I lacked the knowledge and the drive to follow my self-indulgent dreams. The internet told me how to be an illustrator and Photoshop allowed me to undo my mistakes, posting my work online has allowed me to work for people who value what I do.

Our lives would be considerably worse without computers. Obviously there’s the helicopter game, that’s good, there’s twitter supposedly causing the Arab spring uprising and Google maps helping Al Qaeda militants coordinate attacks and there’s lolcats and solitaire and all the other things making everyone’s lives immeasurably better.

So I don’t want to appear hysterical with this- but if you want to get things done you need to get away from the computer.

At least for the planning stages. Anything you can do just fine without a computer, you should. A good old pencil and sketchbook is perfect for getting down and refining ideas before you ever need to do any digital work.

You’ve probably heard this before, it’s not revolutionary information, but I thought I could say the same thing everyone else has been saying and once you’ve read it enough it may just sink it.

It’s precisely the same reasons that computers make us happy that they also hinder our plans and consequently make us unhappy in the long term. There’s just too many possibilities, too many directions we can inadvertently move away from what we started off doing. Because we rely on our computers to do everything from playing music, watching films and chatting with friends it becomes extremely difficult to maintain focus on our work- which is is vital for artist and especially for freelancers.

Facebook is the obvious example of contemporary digital time wasting. It’s a site full of tripe with links to more tripe. You can go on there for just a second with the aim of checking to see if someone has replied to a message and find yourself spirited away to some faraway website you don’t really care about.

In much the same way that if you click on any of the links I included above then you won’t ever finish reading this I imagine, you’ll be too busy giggling at cats. In fact, I expect the majority of people who see this post will never reach the bottom, they might mean to “read it later” but they wont. I wouldn’t.

But Facebook is only the most commonly vilified of time-wasting methods. Facebook is designed to distract so it can generate ad revenue, and conveniently enough we humans actively seek distraction! We don’t even need social media sites to do that.

Just think of all the things your fancy modern computer can do. How many of them are what you actually want to get done today? 

Just be aware that when you’ve been working on something a while, something meaningful and valuable perhaps- your brain will start seeking distraction, just a little break, and all the shiny icons on your screen will start to look oh so tempting!

Maybe not facebook, or twitter or even tumblr this time- maybe you’ll just check the news, that won’t take long right? But just think how even clicking the internet browser opens up all the different possibilities to be distracted. Supposing like mine your browser is covered with links to all your favourite pages- which you can see instantly with a single click- but you ignore them all to just quickly glance at BBC news? You spend ten minutes reading articles you’ll have forgotten about in a day or two, and then you wonder whether people are talking about this news article on facebook? Or maybe you could load up your instant messenger program and talk to a friend instead? Or maybe since you’re having a break and you’ve lost your focus you may as well play a video game?

I could go, but I’m just wasting your time as well really. if you’ve read this far, congratulations! Such focus! You must be over 30 at least.

The long and short of it all is this: use your computer when you need to use it for working, or when you allow yourself dedicated time to relax, but always be aware that because it’s so easy to NOT work- your brain will probably manage it.

Because we can’t afford a computer and a room for every task, here’s a few tips to get the most productivity out of your multi-task distraction-box.

  1. Have web browsers closed whenever possible.
  2. Consider making a new account on that doesn’t have access to games or things you don’t need.
  3. Unplug/disconnect from the internet so it becomes more effort to use it.
  4. Be aware that not all time is equal- If you play first you’ll not have then energy to work later- playing is easier than working.
  5. Get as far as you can with your work using analogue means- trust me, sketch books are the future!
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Dead Artwork.

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It’s a long and winding road that a piece of art takes from concept to completion. There are countless perils, obstacles and pitfalls, and not every piece makes it. There are many reasons I choose not to continue with a picture:

  • Boredom .
  • Change of opinion in some idea central to the artwork.
  • Having a better idea!
  • Forgetting about it.
  • lack of satisfaction with the progress of the work
  • Leaving a piece un-worked on for so long that by the time I return to it I’ve improved so much that the work is obsolete and it would be preferable to start again.

For the above reasons I’ve found that a quick look through my hard-drive reveals a number of forgotten and discontinued pieces suitable for little more than nostalgia…

…or putting on my blog for the amusement of all!

So here, in vaguely chronological order is my select collection of old dead art.

Disclaimer: To any potential commissioners - Artwork shown here does not reflect the current skill level, (including but not limited to knowledge of perspective, anatomy, lighting foreshortening etc…) taste or even opinions of Tom McGrath. Thank you.

Crusader

My old drawings all involved a sword or two. Always.Maguma rooftops…And preferably some flowing apparel such as a cloak or little samurai style sash belt that was always blowing in the wind.Monsoon

This airship is actually the precursor to another airship in the foreground of my airship battle piece.NinjaAnother bloke with a sword. I think it was a bloke anyway. Though he does appear to have enormous breasts.princess brat

My sister insisted that we end the portrait session as she didn’t think I’d captured her likeness.SexbyI didn’t capture this guy’s likeness well either.wickerman 2

Or this guy.zombieThis one was from a tutorial in Imaginefx magazine. I decided I was better doing my own stuff rather than following steps to replicate someone else’s work. though I did capture his likeness rather well.sketchStranger 1This old man is sad that his proportions are not correct.

Wisdom and Willpower

This one isn’t exactly dead in concept. I’m working on version 3 currently. I would show version 2 here but I may yet reuse part of it.Assassin_bakAnother chap keeping the fictional sword economy afloat. Note the flowing garments.
blue wyrm

I find that dragons are less imposing when they have no limbs.
gray lady

“Please finish this painting” she screamed.Hot water balloonA Hot water balloon. I like the idea so I think I’m going to redo this soon.Strangercomp1That old man still hasn’t got over his dodgy proportions. Alas.

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General Wisdom for Artists No. 6

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6. Strive to learn stuff outside your own discipline.

Scientists say that new and original ideas are the product of new pathways forming in the brain, like a join the dots picture of sorts, but with an almost infinite number of pictures hidden within. If you have a lot of dots to draw lines between then you can make a lot more pictures!

That’s perhaps a rather simplistic metaphor for cutting-edge cognitive science, but nonetheless it does hold true. If you have a number of different interests and sources of inspiration to draw from, your art will be that much richer and more personal to you. This is really important. There’s lots of artwork out there, and much of it is so similar to other things we’ve seen before that we just skip over it in search of the original stuff.

On top of this, learning principles in one discipline may transfer surprisingly well to another discipline. I’ve recently started trying to teach myself 3d art. It’s quite a steep learning curve, but I’ve found that a lot of knowledge from my 2d digital work transfers exactly into 3d, which has given me a considerable advantage over those starting without any knowledge of digital art at all. This new knowledge of 3d art benefits my 2d artwork as well. Being able to create 3d models and apply different lighting conditions to them gives me a great source of rudimentary reference for anything I want to draw from difficult angles or in unusual lighting.

Another example might be photography. A good understanding of how light reacts through a lens and how to compose a cinematic shot through a camera can only benefit you when composing a picture with a paintbrush. Even if whatever else it is you choose to do doesn’t help your art so directly, it will help if you ever have to draw, paint or write about it!

Having multiple projects or interests in different disciplines also stops you from getting bored doing the same thing all the time. If you’re fed up drawing for the day, you can always go snowboarding and practice some flips. (I’ve got a niggling but baseless certainty that skill in snowboarding benefits skill in drawing. Sadly I’ve never been snowboarding, so have yet to prove it.)

Basically, the more things’ you’ve tried, the more ways of thinking about things are open to you, and the more informed your artwork will be. It’s a no-lose situation right?

Incidentally, here’s some of my first attempts at proper 3d art: (I don’t count google sketchup as proper 3d)

3d1 3d2

These were done in blender, which is an excellent and importantly free program which you can download here: http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/

I’d encourage other artists to get it just for the sculpting features, which allow you to quickly sculpt all sorts of things. I find it’s a very good test of one’s anatomy knowledge. I was doing cheeks wrong.

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Guitar Adventure background

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Here’s a little something I did recently for an old college friend who’s working on a game to encourage people to learn guitar. He wanted an “epic mountain”.

 

Guitar Adventure

 

Oh, and it had to be colourful, very colourful. I think I managed it.

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General Wisdom for Artists No. 5

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5. Be informed, be organised, be inspired.

I my experience creativity is fed by new experiences and new ideas. So, for us artists it makes sense that if we want to be more creative, we should open our minds to as many potential sources of inspiration as possible, and when something clicks- we should grab it! Here’s a few methods that have worked for me:

1 Be informed by the work of other artists.

This one is a no-brainer perhaps. For many of us the reason we chose to become artists is because we were inspired by the work of someone we saw when we were younger, and now with the information overload culture of the digital age it’s easier than ever to be swamped with amazing and inspiring artwork. What I would suggest to you is to whenever you see a picture that you feel can teach you something-  you grab a copy of it and put it in a folder on your computer. Once you’ve got a few images have a look through them and study what it is you admire about them so much. What can you learn from them and apply in your own work?

2. Be informed by your own boring life- make notes.

Yes I wrote boring, but I’m of the opinion that great ideas are not delivered from heaven in  golden envelopes accompanied by fanfares and cherubs- more often than not the best ideas are accompanied by showers or bowel movements.  When you’re out and about and some fleeting event or idea makes you smile; record it. It doesn’t matter what it is, every trivial little idea can be mixed up with another one and combined to make something else. Ideas are conducive to more ideas and all these little ideas are the fuel we burn to create artwork! I suggest getting a tiny little notepad or sketchbook and a little pen so you never have to be without a means to record stuff.

3. Be informed by your own boring life- Observe

You can do this almost any time, anywhere, all you have to do is look at something and ask yourself “why does it look like that?” Why did the designer make it that way? if I was going to draw my own version what would I do differently. Or why is the light reacting that way on it’s surface, what am I actually seeing? Internal questions like this encourage you to actually understand something in detail so that when you come to create you have an internal knowledge base to fall back on rather than needing to simply copy something like a camera.

4. Inform your artwork: gather some reference

Similar to point no.1: Have a folder on your computer where you save every potential reference picture that may prove useful later. Have sub-folders within that folder to organise all the different reference photos you’ll end up with, one for animals, one for landscapes, people etc…

I should point out here of course that common sense applies when using other people’s photos. Don’t ever directly copy someone else’s photo and try to pass it off as your own original piece, but don’t be scared to study different photos to inform your own work. Credit those who offer their photos for artists to use and ask only for accreditation in return, it’s not such a big deal.

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General Wisdom for Artists No.4

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4. Don’t let “better artists” depress you

A common occurrence for any creative (especially when we first start out) is the feeling of profound and debilitating inadequacy when comparing our work to other “superior” artists. Don’t think this ever stops, it becomes less common as you advance your skills and increase in confidence but ultimately, it never really goes away. Someone always has some edge that you don’t.

Consequently we as artists and creatives have to find a way to deal with it.

Now some people, very few people, a tiny minority of people- are born with near superhuman abilities in some particular discipline and consequently can make the rest of us feel like we shouldn’t even bother. These people are freaks. Ignore them. They probably struggle with relationships or have terrible allergies or something to compensate*.

With that aside, for the rest of us humble humans the pursuit of skill is a matter simply of sustained and quality practice. And I’m sorry to say that because it’s so incredibly boring isn’t it? We’ve all heard it before and we didn’t like the sound of it then. That inane old adage is almost true “practice makes perfect”. Of course it never quite does make perfect, where would the fun in that be?

Ask yourself this question: If you could instantly learn everything there was to know about your discipline, skip all the years of slow improvement to become the very best creative you had the potential to be, knowing that you were at the top and had nowhere left to go, would you?

I wouldn’t. Personally, looking back at my sketchbooks from just a year ago it gives me great pleasure to see how much I’ve improved and how much I’ve learnt in just that time. The idea that every year I continue I stand to improve even more fills me with great excitement. More importantly, it gives meaning to my life and my decision to be artist, despite the challenges, deadlines and somewhat limiting financial prospects.

Take pleasure in your own small achievements, be inspired by others, not intimidated. If there is one thing in life that you care enough about to persevere with it, to keep climbing and to keep trying no matter how far behind the people above you are, then rest assured that you can only improve and that therefore if you keep going long enough you will one day be as good as those you admire.

There will always be people better than you, the trick is to shorten that list.

Now, because I’m so confident in the validity of my argument, here is an artist better than you to be inspired by :)

*So do the rest of us I suppose. But they’ll be worse!

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