Keeping Things Fresh

In-progress painting, ~5 hours

Before we get on with our usual blog fare, we just wanted to remind you about some of the many events coming up in the next week or so.

This Friday, Feb. 11th, both Monkey + Seal will be in Wonderland SF's group show "Just Because.." along with 16 other talented artists. The opening night reception is from 6-10pm at Wonderland SF in the Mission, 2929 24th Street to be exact.

This weekend at Big Umbrella Studios, we'll be having a super duper trunk show! There will be vegan fare and baked goods, along with other awesome vendors on Sunday, from 12-5pm at 906.5 Divisadero St (x McAllister). You should also stop on by on Saturday to see an entirely different slate of vendors and show your support. Same time, same place, different food options.

Monkey here.

I recently started taking classes at City College of San Francisco (CCSF, for those in the know). As you probably know, I already have a (expensive) degree from Academy of Art University. Why would I go back to school?

Three reasons. The first, which is NOT what this post is about, is so that my student loans might be deferred just a little bit longer.

The second, more interesting reason (but still not what this post is about) is that I wanted to get back into printmaking (other than silkscreen), and by taking printmaking classes I'd have access to some presses.

The third, most important reason is that I wanted to keep things fresh. While at the Academy, because I was pressured to paint in the style of classical realism (ie realistic paintings, rendering form, strong light sources, etc.), I ended up feeling confined and frustrated and that's how I ended up going into my current style of looser, outlined, messy-background paintings that I do now, even going so far as to sometimes including text.

However, after painting in this loose manner for the past year, I started to get a bit bored with my current style. Fortunately I had been changing up subject matter over the past year or so, but I still saw things getting a bit stale. Because I had been fortunate to have a fairly filled schedule of shows, most paintings were paintings done under a deadline, and I didn't have a lot of time to experiment.

By taking painting classes at CCSF, I've given myself the permission (and time) to paint in other styles. Instead of drawing sketches on canvas with pencil (or completely making something out of random brush strokes) like I usually do for my current body of work, I've gone back to my Academy training of painting from reference, doing quick underpaintings with paint, and (albeit stylistically) rending form instead of using line to create the image.

Painting in this way helps me to keep my speed up and is just a great way of practicing my skill set. Regardless of the finished product, I'm practicing more, which is one of the keys to success. After all, practice makes perfect with art, and it's really all about mileage. While it might not be obvious how painting in different styles helps, there are a lot of things that I can practice regardless of the style. How to get my paint to the consistency I want. Brush control. Color mixing. No matter the task, creating with paint on a daily basis is super helpful if you want to improve your craft.

All in all, I think that it is really important to keep things fresh here and there, in order to make sure that you're not getting tired of the same thing. Experimentation and trying new (or older) styles or themes can be really helpful as even if you don't learn something new that directly applies to your current style, you'll be rehearsing the basics, which will just make you stronger.

Whether taking classes at a community college or going to art school (if you haven't yet), by changing stuff up and making time for a change of pace, you'll be able to keep things fresh and, most importantly, keep art fun. After all, when art stops being fun, then it's just a job.

Choose Your Own Life Adventure

“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. Which road do I take? she asked. Where do you want to go? was his response. I don't know, Alice answered. Then, said the cat, it doesn't matter.”

- Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

Choices and decisions: we make them all the time. Should I accept this freelance, gallery, craft show? What kind of art medium best fits the story I want to tell? Should I pursue art? Get a day job, internship, or go for a studio job? The choices presented are endless. On top of the everyday anxiety, artists are also have the high pressure to produce work that is new, challenging, and full of personality. We are constantly having to choose, What is my next creative project? What is my art style? Do I create what is popular or the obscure projects that I want to work on?

Sometimes we choose consciously with intention, but for most of the time, we are unaware of the decisions we make or why we made them. Days, months, years, past by and we are wondering what it was we dreamt of in the first place, what we hoped to accomplish, why we are not where we want to be or have accomplished the things we wanted to do. Hopefully, you are one of the rare creatures that knows what they want all the time and live by your intentional choices.

However, for most of us, when it comes to our dreams, our art, our life, we float randomly through life. We continue to live. We "choose" to do illustrative art, but in fact, in reality, we want to make films. We continue to make art, but absently with chaotic energy that dissipates because we have not CHOSEN our rightful place and meaningful task as an artist.

I'll take whatever is on today's special menu please or I'll have what he's having or I'll have the usual, what I always have before. Then when the steak and potatoes arrive, we complain "This is not what I ordered. This is not what I was expecting." My hunger is physically met, but my taste for life remains unsatisfied.

Of course, like Alice, we want the choice at the fork of the road to matter. We may "not know where we want to go initially," but in reality, perhaps in the deepest recesses of our hearts, we already know the answer. You already know the choices you are meant to take.

Like Alice, although we answer with, "I don't know." We do know. We honestly want to be directed "home": the place where our creativity and abundance soar.

So how do we get there? How can you become more attune to the choices that are presented to you? How can we become more conscious of our choices and make for a meaningful art? life?

Luckily, we are all born with the innate ability to tune into our heart's most desires. As children, we knew what we wanted and what we didn't. "No" was one of our favorite words. We drew clear boundaries. We said, "This is who I am and what I want." We did everything we could to get it. We cried, threw tantrums, reached, kicked, wail, screamed, our mind was a tunnel vision towards our choice desires. As adults, it becomes more complex. We no longer have the privilege and knowledge to simply choose. We have to navigate through our emotions, socialization, negotiations, compromises, and juggle many different priorities. But here are three facts that will help you get closer to your inner genius and decision-making:

1. As a artist and as a human being, we are always presented by choices and regardless of how the situation looks, we always have the agency and courage to make a choice towards our heart's desire.

2. Explore all options, your choices may not be an either / or option only. As artists, we have the gift to "think outside the box."

3. When you are presented with choices, and one of them is your heart's desire, your physical body cannot help but respond. You get excited, your heart races, your eyes dilate, you feel at ease. Your body is your best magnetic compass. You are filled with energy and excitement. It is crucial to look for this physical response.

So, what choices, what forks in the road have brought you to where you are today? What choices lie in the present? And potentially the future? (Are they towards your ultimate goal?)

"The artist is the only one who knows that the world is a subjective creation, that there is a choice to be made, a selection of elements." - Anais Nin

Pursuing Your Dream

Monkey + Seal, as you probably know by now, are pursuing their dreams of living their lives as financially successful artists who are able to change the world (for the better) through their art. In the very subjective art world that is usually only interested in sure-sales (after all, who goes into the business to not make money?), this can be difficult.

Most people grow up learning that art doesn't pay the bills, that professions like engineering or medicine or law are the way to go, since they're higher-paying jobs. Acting is too competitive. Dancers don't make money. Artists are always "starving." With such a background, we get asked (and sometimes we ask ourselves) "How do you do it? How do you follow a dream that seems impossible?"

The super-cool, quotable movie-one-liner is "How do you not?" (and then we put on our sunglasses and walk away, with the person asking the question totally dumbfounded and cut scene to us back in the studio painting). In all seriousness though, it's really the honest answer.

To abandon one's dream, to give up what you want to do with your life is an incredibly difficult choice. While we often think that it's not a choice, that it's the safe, responsible, socially-approved way of going about life, it is a choice. It's a choice that goes against your inner you; it defies your core self and is a constant day-to-day battle. If you're unhappy at your job, because you'd rather be doing something else, it's obvious that you're not doing what you really want to be doing, because let us tell you that if you're doing what you love, it doesn't seem like work.

If we hated painting and making art and screenprinting, we wouldn't keep doing it even after working a day job then coming home and doing laundry and cooking dinner and ohwaitwhyisitalready2am and then still deciding to break out the paints. We wouldn't spend three days reworking our webstore, or using our savings to buy t-shirts to print on, or show at craft fairs without sleeping if it wasn't what we really truly loved.

Doing all that stuff, which seems crazy and difficult, is still crazy and difficult, but we do it because in the end, it's working towards our dream. Is it scary at times? Oh most definitely. But what we find more scary than trying and maybe failing is not trying - after all, not trying has a 100% rate of failure.

If we have kids, we never want to force them into following a dream because we never chased it. At the end of the day, failure is okay. Failing is learning what didn't work so you can make it work next time. Failure is more experience. Not trying..well, not trying is nothing to write home about, and that lingering "what if" will always be there, haunting you.

Following your dream is scary, but what is scarier is the thought of growing old and having regrets. When faced with these two options, what will you choose?

Is Art School Right For You?

For those that didn't know, Monkey + Seal have about 18 or so years of higher education under our belts. We both have Bachelor's degrees from UC Berkeley and Academy of Art University. Monkey alone has nearly $200,000 worth of student loan debt. When most people hear about that, they ask him "Was it worth it?"

Many people who we've talked to have told us they'd be interested in going back to school, or taking some classes, etc., etc., but are worried about the cost. Additionally, they're worried that they might have to leave their full-time job (making money) to spend money (or take out loans) to go to school again to learn a field that they might not be successful in. Basically, they want to know "Is it worth it?"

Well, the answer to both of those questions is: "It depends."

For Monkey + Seal, it most definitely was. Even though it might not be obvious, our educations (both in and out of the classroom) at both schools has helped shape who we are today. Besides the fact that Monkey + Seal met at Cal, and that they almost certainly would not have pursued art if they hadn't met, their education at Cal informs their art now. Seal's degree in English and narrative theory allow her to dissect, examine, and create stories. Her stint studying film influences how she designs backgrounds and her composition. Monkey's degree in integrative biology influences his creature (and more strongly) plant design. It also helps him learn new media quickly as he analyzes his experiments with scientific rigor. Our theater experience makes live painting easy (and pleasurable), and our activism in the fields of feminism, animal rights, Asian American studies, environmentalism, and social justice affects how we do business as artist and inspires some of our subject matter.

In terms of the Academy, while Seal was already skilled in painting, Monkey had no formal training whatsoever when we started. Thankfully most of the faculty at AAU (at least the instructors we had) were amazing, and after 3 years of doing 32 hrs in class and 30+ hours of homework each week, we got to where we are now. Our growth at the beginning was exponential, and even towards the end we developed many times quicker than if we were to try and grow on our own. The critiques from peers and instructors, new techniques and mediums in each class, new ways of thinking about composition, and color, and line, and space, and weight, and all these crazy things have allowed us to express ourselves like never before.

So all in all, for us, it was worth it. But before you go off spending hundreds to thousands of dollars on a new education or you quit your job, you have to ask yourself - is this what you really want? When we signed up for classes, we decided we'd be in it for the long haul. We're both extremely lucky to have figured out what we want to do in life relatively early on, and have had the chance to chase our dreams. But are you willing to put art first? If your goal is to get better and become a professional artist, then I guarantee you that you have to put art as #1 or #2. Any lower than that, and you're wasting your money and time. If you are willing to prioritize art and your craft, and you want to really get good quickly, then by all means art school can definitely be a tremendous resource.

If you're not sure about whether or not art is your end goal, then see if you can test the waters without jumping straight in. See if you can take a night class at city college. Take some workshops at places like Center for the Book or at Paper Source. There are opportunities for people to learn about art all over the country, so if you aren't based in SF, there's definitely places for you as well.

You can also go about it totally DIY and learn from online resources like the Gnomon Workshops or ConceptArt.org, or watch videos on Sketch Theater. There are also tons of amazing books out there that we constantly refer to - if you have a topic in mind, let us know and we can recommend something. Two books that come highly recommended are "Drawing People" by Barbara Bradley, and "Creative Layout: Perspective for Artists" by Budiono, Denmark, & Ng.

Regardless of whether or not art school is right for you, if you want to improve your skill set, the most basic (yet most important) advice is this: practice drawing everything, and practice all the time.

Rejection = Not so bad = Try again next time

Like most of us, there have been times Monkey + Seal have been rejected. Many of these times, it's not the end of the world. Even if you have been rejected, there's nothing wrong with rejection as long as you are using these setbacks as learning experiences to better your chances next time.

Monkey really wanted some Academy of Art University recognition, and the annual Spring Show is the best of the best of all student work. It is a juried show, with a jury that consists of both Academy faculty as well as outside professionals. Monkey, when he first started at Academy, decided he wanted to win Best of Show at one of the Spring Shows. He would have three chances to make it.

The first year, he submitted a portrait of Seal rendered in charcoal. Looking back, there were a lot of small technical mistakes, and those slight mistakes are the difference between Spring Show material and good student work.

The second year, he submitted a bunch of illustrations, paintings, and a screenprinted multimedia sculptural work to the Fine Art and Illustration departments. Out of a total of 10 pieces submitted, he again didn't make it.

The third and final chance, he submitted seven illustrations, a screenprinted book, and three paintings. One illustration made it, and his screenprinted book made it as well.

Monkey considers himself to be fortunate that he got anything in such a highly competitive show, but at the same time, he failed at winning the highly coveted and prestigious Best of Show Award. And this was it. After graduating, there would be no more chances of making it into the show, as only students are allowed to compete.

Monkey could have gotten depressed about the fact the failure, but instead he realized that his style of painting would never win any awards in a school that promotes classical realism. After some retrospection, Monkey really wanted recognition from an authority figure - and AAU happened to be the most authoritative figure at the time. So, Monkey has revised his goal - he'd now much rather focus on being featured in Juxtapoz, which is much more of his style, rather than trying to get a school that promotes a non-Monkey style to fall in with him.

Seal was recently reading a blog entry about Aaron Hartline, Woody and Buzz (Toy Story) animator for Pixar.

"The day I saw Toy Story was the day I knew I wanted to work for Pixar. Well, it ended up taking me 14 years to get my dream job. For a long time, I had a board so full of rejection letters next to my desk that they were literally falling on the ground because the pins couldn't hold that many papers layered over each other. But after a mile long of rejection letters, many demo reels, interviews that didn't pan out, and countless hours in front of a computer working on the next thing that might get me into Pixar, I'm actually animating a Buzz and Woody." - Aaron Hartline, Animation Tips & Tricks.

Keep in mind that no matter how bad you think it is, there's always a second chance, and many more after that, whether you can see it or not. As an artist, you have to constantly try and try again - rejection and failure are unfortunately a part of the livelihood of an visual artist. The thing is, you can't take it personally and you can use these as learning experiences as ways to step up your game.

Portfolio, Industry Recruiters, Life as an Artist

Last week, Seal attended her art school's senior industry portfolio day, where big-name industry recruiters such as Laika, Pixar, Dreamworks, Illumination, Lucas Arts, and Blizzard were conducting one-on-one interviews on the spot. There were many recent grad students like myself who were vying to break into the animation/film industry. The students were filed into a small room and waited to be sent to the various industry representatives for their respective interviews. As soon as an industry stated what they were looking for ("we're looking for 1-2 concept artists"), all students with the "right" portfolio were called in. Sometimes the line to see a certain company snaked around the corner and your peers could hear your every exchange with the rep during your interview.

Although Seal is very grateful and she personally had a lot of fun, she also noticed a downside for her fellow artists. Unfortunately, these kinds of situations breed what Monkey and Seal calls a "mentality of lack." What I noticed was that many of the students around me were thinking in terms of limitation. Many felt that this "one day" is the only one shot to their dreams, the "be all, end all" moment. Rumors started spreading around, "they are looking for only one artist, etc." Although it may be true for a company to state such a thing, it does not mean that perhaps they will not be looking next semester or even a month from now. I can see negativity in the students' demeanor. One guy in the elevator (whom I did not even know) randomly asked me, "so, . . . how many interviews did you get?" I (don't like thinking in terms of numbers) replied, "I don't know, I wasn't really counting" and he scoffed at me, "I was called into six of them." It saddened me to think that this "artist" defined his craft and himself by how many interviews he had.

It shocked me to see that so many of my talented peers, whom I aspire to, and consider my friendly rivals, were downgrading themselves. They defined themselves by how well their portfolio was received, or how many interviews they had, not by how far they have come, where they want to go, and what they need to do in order to get there.

Although it was intense, I had a lot of fun. I heard a lot of good feedback regarding my work and also how to improve it. I now have a direction to evolve my art. I was so happy to be able to speak with creative directors/ and artists from the all the different companies and had the opportunity to pick their brain and experience. Their knowledge, time, and feedback is invaluable. After all, some of these folks have worked in the field 5-20 years. Although I understand that everyone is looking for a job, would like a job, and would like to be recognized for their artwork, the one-on-one feedback from these creatives for even just one minute - was the most rewarding and important piece of the entire experience.

With all due respect and perspective, when these experienced artists of 5-20 years, see a "recent grad student's" portfolio, they probably come to similar conclusions: "I see potential, but needs polishing."

In these kinds of situations, an artist must have pride in their work for what it is, but also see into the future of their growth. One day, I will throw away everything that is in my current portfolio because I will have grown, my work may change, and I need to move forward and constantly experiment in new ways to best express the images in my head.

There were plenty of people who had talent and a kick-ass portfolio, but the people who really did well that day, who seemed as if they shone above the crowd, were people who believed in their own potential, accepted the situation as it were, and at the same time, had the generous heart to root for their comrades during such an intense situation. A couple of people came to mind, but I was thinking specifically of my friend, Nathan. He was giving everyone the thumbs up, reassuring his colleagues, really, genuinely, was wishing well to all of his "friends and simultaneous competitors." His personally was gold. And the industry recruiters could see that. I'm happy to congratulate him on his new work in the animation industry.

The way I like to look at it is this: There are jobs for each and every artist, it's just about finding the right fit.

Your portfolio, your current skills, who you are as a person right now . . . it is what it is, but ultimately, it can be molded into anything. In the end, you are not defined by your art portfolio, but your character as a person and an artist.

Graduation

Yes, Monkey just had to silkscreen/heat emboss his cap

Today, Monkey + Seal will be graduating from the Academy of Art University. After 3.5 or so years of all-nighters, cutting mats, and painting like our life depended on it, we will be trading all that in for all-nighters, framing paintings, and painting because our livelihood does depend on it. While that may sound grim, in all honesty we get to paint, draw, illustrate, and generally live our dreams, so we're not really complaining!

Although we're excited about the commencement, we look at this milestone as a marker in our lifelong journey as artists. Now is the time to really focus our energy and move on to bigger and better things - to keep learning, to keep striving, and to keep moving forward. Graduating is a stepping stone that will open more doors, and create new opportunities for us. We'd like to thank all the people who have supported us over the years, whether it be financially, emotionally, or simply understanding why we always seem "too busy" to hang out. To our teachers, parents, siblings, friends, and everyone who came to our shows, bought our art, commented on our blog, followed us on the blog or on Facebook or on twitter - Thank you. We couldn't have done it without you.

Congratulations to all the other graduates who are all embarking on a new stage of life everywhere! Party, celebrate, and take a short breather, but don't let it get to your head and make you lazy or complacent. Keep on working and chasing after the dream.

Sharpening the Saw - Mileage

We're not quite certain where the phrase "sharpening the saw" came from, but it is a concept we learned about in an old X-men comic that definitely applies to art. Monkey + Seal finished with our classes at the end of 2009, so for January through March, we weren't doing nearly as much painting/drawing/making art as we were previously. However, with Seal's recent freelance project and Monkey working on his "art every day" over at his blog, we've found that we've gotten quite a bit rusty after so much time organizing and less time painting.

However, now that we're in the swing of things, we find it way easier to create. But just like exercise or any other activity, you have to keep practicing constantly to ever be great. Monkey completed the above digital painting in about ~2 hours, which would have taken him easily 6-10 hours about a year ago. How did he speed up and improve? With increased knowledge (and new tools, ie. brushes) and lots and lots of practice.

Our instructors in our Foundation courses at Academy always told us "You know what the difference between you and me is? Twenty years." Our teachers create art for our demos, then go home and create more art for their professional practice - and they've been doing it for twenty years.

When Monkey first started at the Academy, he hadn't seriously tried to draw anything in about 8 years. He had never used charcoal, and so obviously he was not going to be able to render things photo-realistically - he could barely keep things in perspective! However, three years of four studio classes per semester, look how far he's come!

It's not about inherent skill, or natural-born artistic talent. It's about drive, determination, and practice. And don't think that you have to create a masterpiece every time. As long as you are learning something, and refining a skill, whether that just be a refreshment on anatomy, your line work, or just learning more about what colors work well together and what don't, it's all good.

Draw every day if you want to be a visual artist. If you're a musician, you should rehearse every day. No matter what you're doing, make sure that you're practicing and you'll find yourself steadily improving. Just keep pushing, keep working, and keep on keeping on. It's how we do it here at the Monkey + Seal studio.

Making Space and Congrats to Monkey

First off, we'd like to announce that Monkey also received word yesterday that he got a piece into the School of Illustration's Spring Show! Yay! Seal also got a piece in for Illustration as well! Double-yay!

Second, the Monkey + Seal studio has been quite cluttered and busy these past few days as we've been cleaning up and going through old work and organizing our studio. We bought yet another rack for our art supplies (we already had two 72" x 36" x 20" racks, now we have three), and a nightstand for our printers.

Some of you might be all tidy tidy, but we're both (especially Monkey) pack-rat-ish, and we're always stocking up on different mediums, surfaces, and paper, so with all of the stuff we have going on, a perfectly tidy apartment is not the highest priority.

Although it's a time consuming process for us to move everything around and clean up (especially when we both could be doing more things to directly bring in money), it is a necessity for us. As artists, we have to constantly make space for new creations, new art, and new phases in life.

Purging old things that you no longer need doesn't just clear up physical space but also a psychological space. Old clothes can be donated (or repurposed), and we find that when we get rid of old stuff that "doesn't feel like us anymore," it allows us to think about stuff that does "feel like us" now. Although we're still not there yet, the moves and new fixtures have already made the space much more spacious, and we can already feel the difference in the energy level of the apartment. It is a much more conducive space to creating, and we hope to keep it that way for the year to come.

Are there any tips you'd like to share on making space? We're more interested in the metaphorical than literal, but if you've got some great cleaning tips we'd love to hear those as well!

Congrats to Seal and a Question for You

Today we got some good news - The visual development project she worked on all last semester has been accepted to the Academy of Art's Spring Show! Yay for Seal! The best that can come of this is that Seal gets a job offer from an animation studio, the worst is that she now has another award to put on her resume!

In other news, for all you readers out there, Monkey wants to know what your dream guide would be. Would is be about how to make a living as an artist? Would it be how to do prepress for commercial printing? Would it have something to do with the wedding industry? A design for dummies? A guide to essential tools for self-promotion? A beginner's guide to painting?

We want to hear about what YOU want. Ideally. Even if we've never talked about it before, what would your ideal guide consist of?

Submitting to Art Shows, Not Submitting to Fear

Monkey is especially proud of that headline. So on Sunday, Monkey + Seal prepped their artwork and submitted it to the Academy of Art's Spring Show under the Illustration and Animation schools. Monkey is actually going to finish submitting today (since the Fine Art department's submission process has a later due date), but we wanted to talk a bit about submitting to shows.

The thing that we never could understand is why more people don't submit to the Spring Show. It's free (so it doesn't cost much, just the cost of the mounting materials), so why not? We know that it is really competitive, but regardless of how low your chances are, your chances can't be lower than zero, which is what your chances are if you never turn anything in.

This year, Monkey + Seal have faced some rejection - we didn't get into Renegade Craft Fair, nor were any of our pieces juried into Spectrum 17. But we realize that rejection is part of being an artist (and of life in general). Unfortunately, most people in life don't get everything they try for, but if you never try for anything, you won't get anything at all.


You cannot submit to the fear of rejection. You have to go into each competition with your eye on the gold - aim for the sun and hit the highest peak sort of thinking, you know? Monkey, who has never been selected for the Spring Show always says "Let someone else tell you that you're not good enough." If you can't bring yourself to believe in your work, then why should anyone else? Like we have said in past blog posts - it is all about finding your audience. Sure, you shouldn't submit a painting of a dragon to a landscape competition (or a landscape to a dragon competition) but you have to just power through your fear of rejection and keep moving forward, keep submitting, and keep getting your work out there.

Additionally, Monkey + Seal prefer not to dwell on the negative - sure we didn't get into Renegade or Spectrum, but there's always next year, we already had one successful gallery show this year, and now we're doing a gallery show in collaboration with Hyphen magazine, we just released our first e-book, Monkey is pushing himself to create and post a piece of art every day, and Seal has a freelance project for an upcoming animation studio. We're also helping to organize the SF Zine Fest and have applied to the Alternative Press Expo.

All in all, it isn't about comparing the good to the bad and weighing out your year - it's about choosing to focus on the positives, the accomplishments and accolades, and learning from all the missteps and failings. Finding this balance is definitely not easy (as we both can attest to), but it is what we strive for, and what keeps us going at all hours of the night. No fear, dear artists, no fear!

Giving Up is for Quitters

Life can definitely be discouraging at times, especially when you're trying to be a professional artist. Now, not to say that other professions don't have as much personal investment, but when you are a visual artist, it is easy to get down on yourself and quit. I think a lot of it stems from the personal investment that you have in your art, especially as a fine artist. It's not like a car salesperson is going to take it personally when a customer asks for that Civic in blue, not red. The car salesperson doesn't care - they're still making a sale. For us artists, sometimes something as simple as that defeats the entire purpose of the piece. For designers, "just change the font" can completely ruin a piece. For artists, changing color schemes (besides potentially taking a huge amount of time) completely shifts the mood/symbolism/feel of a piece.

It's easy to take stuff like that personally. It's easy to feel like crap when you don't sell anything at a craft show. It's easy to feel down when you post a new painting on facebook and no one says anything about it. But you know what? It doesn't matter. There are so many billions of reasons why XY and Z happened, and I bet you that it has nothing to do with you as an artist. How do I know this? Because art is subjective. Yes, we have classical realism which is often touted as "good" art, but even if you draw like a two-year-old with no fingers, I guarantee you that someone out there is going to dig it. It may be hell trying to find that person, but someone out there is all about your art. The trick is finding that person, or those people.

Case in point: This was a painting I did in a class at the Academy. As 1/3 of my total grade, I did not do well, grade-wise. I was told to integrate my text into the image more. I ended up barely passing the class with a C-. Not the best feeling in the world, but when I made giclee prints out of these and took them to a craft fair, I sold out of the prints. Just because my instructors (who, granted, are trying to teach classical realism) weren't into my painting, doesn't mean that others won't be.

So, what I'm trying to say is: Don't give up. Maybe you won't be able to live solely off your art. Monkey + Seal both aren't able to do that. Right now, we have to work day jobs to support ourselves. This won't be the case forever, but it is a reality right this second. But we're not giving up. We're marking ourselves and doing what we can to get our art out there, so that people who are interested will buy. It's all about finding your audience.

But at the end of the day, it really isn't about sales. It's about knowing that you're doing the very best you can on every single piece, and doing it because you love to make art. Now, just because you could spend 50 hours on a painting doesn't mean that you should. If your best is 30 hours, then spend 30. If it's 5, then spend 5. Hell, if your best, for that given time, day, energy level, and general circumstance is a 5 minute sketch, then do that 5 minute sketch. Just make sure you're doing it for yourself, and buyers, and fans, and people into your art will definitely follow.

The World of Jasper Morello

Tonight, Monkey re-watched "The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello." This animated short was a 2005 Academy Award Nominee for best Animated Short. I highly recommend checking it out if you get a chance, as the animation is simply stunning.

An interesting stylistic mix of rendered 3D mixed with paper-cut-out-like silhouettes, the first time Monkey watched this, he was hooked. He recently visited the Jasper Morello site and was pleased to find out that there (in theory) are more shorts slated to be produced.

All in all, Monkey freely admits that this film was a huge inspiration for his book arts project of his silkscreen portfolio class last Fall. After a lengthly lack of posting, hopefully he will put scans of the project up very soon. In the meantime, if you can get your hands on the 2005 Academy Awards shorts program, do so now! Most of the shorts are great!

AAU Print exchange

Monkey is taking part in the Academy of Art University's 2010 Print Exchange! He is very excited to receive prints from 29 other artists in exchange for his humble 3-color serigraph that he's made. To honor the fact that we completely forgot to do a process post yesterday, Monkey wanted to share a bit about the way that the prints tend to change from concept to actual execution. He's pretty sure that's not what's "supposed" to happen, but he doesn't care and likes that bit of uncertainty anyway. Take it away, Monkey!

So here's the original illustration, done by scanning in the background paper, and using photoshop to do the coloring:
And here's the final print (although the top green tape needs to be trimmed off):
As you can see, a lot can happen between the master sketch to the actual print. One thing I realized is that because I was printing on lokta paper, the pink vegetable dye actually seeped into my white paint, thus the stripes still show through. This gives it a sorta ghostly effect, which at first I wasn't into, but I think it reinforces the concept of being jailed by the expectations and fantasies via pornography (which is why I chose the striped paper in the first place...pink jail bars anyone?).

Also, I added a lot of line work, as when I was making the screens, I ended up wanting to sculpt the form of the woman's face a bit more. The pale blue made a good shadow, but I still wasn't happy, and after sketching out a new version with the linework, I decided it should stay for the actual print.

Finally, when I started printing, I wasn't 100% sure that I knew what I wanted the woman to be thinking. After talking it over with Eve and Carrie-Ann (who also was working on her print exchange print), I decided to go with the "*yawn*" as it makes the print more open-ended than I originally I was thinking of making it, and it also makes it funnier.

I hate it when people say "the new caption was better than what I thought originally" but never tell you what they were thinking, so here are the other possible captions:

-"I'm faking it for all my fans out there"
-"I'm faking it all for you, baby"
-"I wonder what's on tv"
-"to all my fans: I'm actually faking it"

If you disagree and would have rather seen a different caption: too bad!

Paper Hat Productions Features: Alyss Estay

Featuring Alyss Estay
She is an incredibly creative, talented and articulate artist. Her fine arts serigraphs have those hard-to-execute beautiful gradient washes, subtly-mixed muted palettes, and innovative scenes. And all of it is screenprinted! To produce something of this detailed caliber takes an unbelievable amount of accuracy in registration.

We are happy to have her on our March gallery show. March 12th 8pm at SPACE Gallery, 1141 Polk St.




If you are connected on Facebook, you can RSVP here.

We're Graduating!

So Monkey + Seal have a confession to make - the pictures above are not from Academy of Art's graduation ceremony. They're actually from 4(!!) years ago when we both graduated from UC Berkeley.

However, the big news is that after meeting with our awesome department chairs, we have successfully petitioned to graduate! Yay yay!

So we should be walking come the end of the Spring semester, but since we are both not taking classes in the mean time we'll be making art for art shows (we hope to have another show lined up in February, and we're working on a March show as well) and keeping busy! Thanks to everyone who has supported us through the past few years and for understanding when we disappear for months at a time to focus on our classes. Congrats to everyone else graduating this Spring!

Seal Process: Tyger Tyger series in acrylics

Above is Seal's most recent illustration. Normally she works in gouache or watercolor, but for the next couple of illustrations, she is trying out acrylics.

She is inspired and repulsed by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster of 1986. Although not a historical accurate presentation of Chernobyl, her piece is set in a similar imaginative setting. She wanted to feature a resilient resourceful young female protagonist, a survivor, who utilizes her art and imagination to navigate through the decimated world. Below is Seal's painting space. She has her inspiring artistic references close by when she is painting: 1) Cannabis Works by Tatsuyuki Tanaka and 2) Revelations of Chernobyl by Nakasuji Jun.


She recently noticed that she also keeps her coffee dangerously close to her paint water bucket. Which is probably a bad idea. Next to her painting on the right is her original thumbnail. Every 30 minutes she checks the thumbnail and adjusts her values as needed. Below: this is what her palette looks like after 4 hours of painting. She has two side by side so she doesn't have to change the palette as often. For the purpose of this painting, she wanted the colors to be muddy and muted. Ideally, it's a good idea to change the palette more often so you have "cleaner brighter colors."

Below is a zoomed shot of a corner of her illustration. She gives herself at least a .25" bleed all the way around and paints beyond the edge. It makes all the difference in cropping if you give yourself extra room for flexibility. All in all, she had fun painting old rusted pipes and the light coming in through the window.

Thanks for visiting!

Art, Video Games, and Procrastination

Today Monkey will talk a little bit on art and time and procrastination:

So if you've ever asked me "how busy are you," I'll usually go into some long-winded tirade on working 5 days a week, going to school 2 days a week, and then fitting in art, Monkey + Seal business stuff, planning a craft show, trying to write a novel, a zine/book on wedding invitations, get freelance illustration/graphic design/craft work, and spending time with Eve. Actually, I guess that is the tirade. Anyway, yes, I do a lot, and I naturally keep piling things up on my plate of things to do. Ask Eve and she'll tell you that I have problems just relaxing and not doing anything.

But, you don't care about any of that, you just want to know how to make more time for your art. Well, to be perfectly blunt about it all, you have to learn to prioritize your life. If you want to make it as a successful artist, you have to constantly be drawing. If you don't draw, then you need to be rehearsing your violin, or researching different materials to sculpt, or you need to be making soap as often as you can. Even I often say "oh, I don't have time," but really, you have a choice. If you really want something (like to hang out with a friend or to see a concert), you need to make time for it. Sometimes, this will lead to sleepless nights where you're exhausted at 6am but you still need to fix the colors in your print file that's due in three hours.

However, I find that the greatest amount of time is time spent procrastinating. From browsing blogs to playing facebook games (like that damn Vampire Wars and Bejeweled Blitz), I truthfully waste a lot of time. I also play Improbable Island (if you decide to play, sign up from that link I gave you and I'll get referral points...wait, what the hell am I doing?), which is another great time sink.

The point of the matter is that I probably spend at least an hour or two playing those dumb games per day. I also spend maybe 30 min to 1 hr reading every day. That adds up to up to three hours of my day that isn't taken up by work or art or anything productive. Now I'm not saying that you need to give up your facebook games, or stop reading, or anything like that. But it's all about management. Play less. Read for only 15 min a day. Cut back. This frees up a surpising amount of time. I used to play World of Warcraft, and as much as I love that damn addicting game, I would lose myself in it for hours at a time. Eventually, I just had to cancel my account as if I wanted to keep making art at a decent level I had to give it up. I'm now working on cutting back my online time to only an hour per day.

So games aren't the end of the world - if I didn't have a little bit of a stress-reliever, I'd go nutso. But it's all about moderation.

If you can't kick the habit (or even if you do), the trick then becomes to maximize the use of idle time. If you have a bus ride to and from work or school, if you have a seat, you can use that time to draw. Or, if you don't want to try and sketch on the shaky bus, stay up an extra 15 minutes to draw the night before and sleep on the bus ride. If you have a 15 minute break at work, are you just hanging out outside your store, or are you in your break room sketching out ideas for paintings? Seal talked about this earlier - make good use of your time.

One of our instructors at AAU managed to get his BFA in Illustration while raising a family and working. Having to take care of a child while taking four classes and working is crazy beyond anything I could ever do, but that shows the determination and excellent time management. As so many professional artists have told me: "draw all the time."

I thought this was sort of ridiculous at first, but as time has progressed, I've realized the truth behind that statement. Yes, you have to be sustainable, and you have to take care of yourself, but if you really want to make it as a commercially-viable professional artist, you have to take the time and prioritize your art.

Looking at yourself and your behavior objectively is never easy, nor is it fun. But you have to figure out what you really want in life, and what you are willing to do to get it. Do you want to be the biggest painter out there? Then paint. What do you want more in life? Getting epic purples in WoW or getting into a gallery? Time is fleeting, so it's up to you to choose wisely.

Waaaah, we missed a post!

Hey everyone! Super sorry if you were looking for a post this Friday...kinda lame, but Monkey was off winning a $160 Chrome bag at Litquake's Underground Exposed zine retrospective (put on by none other than Sean Logic of Ashcan) and Seal is madly working on finishing her 3 illustrations that are due tomorrow. Wooo!

Anyway, if you're still up reading this, once again (I think we mentioned it earlier) Monkey will be selling our collection of zines as well as some of his screenprints (some never seen in the store yet!) at the Book Arts Jam today (Saturday) from 11am-4pm at the Academy of Art table. Yay!

Monkey hopes you stop by to say hello and we'll get back to the regular schedule of blog posting.

Overworking

Hi all, sorry for the late post...Monkey has been fighting the flu, and Seal has been taking care of him, so the idea of sustainability has definitely come to mind.

Both being workaholics (Monkey by far being the worst), M+S need to constantly remind themselves that the world doesn't end if you have to call in sick to work, or if you only can finish 50% of a project. Yes, there are consequences (you miss a day of pay, you get a lowered grade, etc.) but if you constantly push yourself too hard, too fast, too long, you'll eventually burn out and then you'll be out of it for days.

Monkey has been unable to really do anything for the past three days now, which is not the best timing since he's trying to prepare some new prints for the Book Arts Jam (where he'll be exhibiting at the Academy of Art table) due to his illness. After trying to work his dayjob while sick, he ended up going home early one day, then he slept in the stockroom for an hour the next day, and finally he decided that he couldn't come in.

Life goes on, people may be inconvenienced, but the longer you are sick, the longer the minor inconvenience goes on. It's best just to take a full day off or two, rest (don't do other stuff!) and recover.

This is not to say that there aren't time when going all out 200% isn't necessary, but that shouldn't be the way of life. Monkey thinks you should definitely push your limits as necessary and as much as you can, but know your limits so you just don't push too far. Be sustainable!