Jumping In: Our First Craft Fair...Sorta

Monkey + Seal get a lot of questions regarding what it was like to show at our first craft fair. Believe it or not, we started out very humbly, with only two zines and two comics. Monkey had a little comic called "Comic Shorts," the first issue of "The Bad Date Zine," and his "True Ghost Stories" zine. Seal had the beloved "The Story of Seal." That's it. Oh yeah, and we had lots of 1" pinback buttons.

However, even though the SF Zine Fest where we got our humble origins was all the way back in 2007(!), we constantly have had "new experiences" at craft fairs. We had our first Alternative Press Expo, our first Bazaar Bizarre holiday show, our first anime convention, etc. etc. Each time, we find a new audience, new vendors, and new experiences in terms of setting up our booth, new product, signage, and all the other stuff that we think about when we sell someplace.

One thing that we have never done before, however, is do an out of town show. All of the places we've sold have been in the city limits of San Francisco. This is mainly due to the fact that we don't own a car, so we haven't been very keen on racking up transportation costs to vend elsewhere. However, during the summer of last year, Monkey heard that Spectrum (a very competitive illustration/concept art annual) was going to have their first conference, and were looking for vendors.

Monkey jumped at the opportunity, and the two of us decided to throw our hats in the ring and see if we'd get in. We did, and now we're busy preparing for what is easily the biggest show of our lives. It's a three day event in Kansas City, Missouri, where we will be vending next to some of the biggest names in the fantasy art arena. If you know anything at all about fantasy art, we're down the isle from JP Targete, Chris Rahn and Jason Felix, and we're about 8 booths away from James Gurney. Also vending will be people you just might have heard of: Dan Dos Santos, Stephan Martiniere, Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo, Todd Lockwood, and just like a bajillion other awesome artists who we look up to and are inspired by.

Suffice to say, it's hard not to be intimidated by the competition. Not only that, we're having to learn how to manage booking airfare and hotels, getting our goods over to Kansas City, etc. etc. However, we're doing our best to set ourselves up the best we can for success and even though we're "not ready," will we ever be ready for this type of competition?

Although it's terrifying, expensive (more on that later), and difficult, no matter how tight our portfolios are, no matter how prepared we might be, it'll always be a new type of event, and we will never be truly ready. So, we can just do the best we can and go for the gold. Just like everything else in life, sometimes you have to make that deadline for yourself that you can't escape and just go for it. Sure, maybe your first mini comic might not be very good. Sure, maybe your first convention experience will lose you money. Sure, maybe the first gallery you submit to might turn you down. However, if you constantly wait until you're "ready," you'll have missed your opportunity. Better to live with no regrets, than to wonder "what if?"

So, here's the part where you can help us "totally pwn" (Seal just stared blankly at this phrase) this Spectrum Live! event. We're bringing a bunch of new products, and since this is easily the most expensive event of our careers (with travel and lodgings, shipping, etc., we're at around almost two month's worth of rent), we're offering you all first dibs on some of our newest stuff to help offset our costs. We weren't really going to launch any of this until after we "tried it out" at Spectrum, but you all are our supportive fans, and we wanted to let you get it before anyone else did.

So help send us to Kansas City, and check out all the new stuff here. As a preview of what's to come, we've got a brand new tie design, two new Monkey prints, two new Seal prints (one of which is being released before the show that it's in even opens!), and our Create or Die shirt, re-released in a classic black and white version.

Live with no regrets, and grab some great stuff while it's on sale here!

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.

Saturday Process: The monster lady

Today's process post is by Monkey, who will take you through a coloring of a illustration of some monster lady (who is holding a fish).

Hi everyone! So today I decided to work a bit more details than I usually do in terms of my pencils/linework. I started out in my sketchbook with a HB pencil, and roughed out this drawing. I then had Eve add something, and she chose to just add a little fish. Honestly, I was hoping she would do an environment for the character (since she's amazing and I'm not as experienced as she is), but I got a cute fish, so I'll take it.
After scanning the pencil drawing in, I then proceeded to multiple the drawing layer, and create a new painting layer underneath. I then started in blocking in color, not worrying too much about light and darks (as I took care of the basic lighting via pencil), and more about overall color harmony. Everything is a bit pastel-like at this stage, as I don't want to get too saturated yet, and since I'm dealing with a triad (yellow hair, blue jeans, pinky (ie red) skin and lips), I have to be careful not to make it clash too much.
Next, I throw in a gray gradient to give it a sense of a light source, which has to match with the light source that I first indicated by the shading of the character. I also decide to give her green eyes and blood-soaked red lips.

I want to give the illustration a bit of a mood, so I decide that the values are all waaaay too high key (ie. all the values are really light) and thus I play around with contrast, brightness, and levels to bring it down quite a bit. I add some blood splatters to her shirt, fish, and teeth.



Next, unfortunately, comes the "and then you suddenly have a cake" part, as I got a bit carried away fixing things and I forgot to take more intermediate steps of the painting. At this point, I realized that with the way I lighted the monster's body, her shadow should have been going behind her, not in front of her. Thus, I had to correct that, make a lot of the values darker, I threw in some wood textures behind her for a background, created a plane change where the wall hits the ground, added an overhead lamppost (outside of the picture plane), and hid more of her body in shadow.


So there you are, from pencil sketch to sort of a finish. In reality, I need to either move the light source over (to justify why so much of her face is lit up), or make more of her face and body darker. Also, the value change from light to shadow on her feet, leg, and arms could be made more apparent in order to really put the rest of her body in the shadows. Well, an artist's job is never really done - generally you just run out of time, motivation, energy, inspiration, or money, and that's when you call it a day.

Hope this was helpful and interesting, and thanks for reading!

Back to school and a work in progress

Hello! Monkey and Seal just started their fall semester at art school last week. Thanks to the many generous acts of kindness from friends, family, strangers, Martha, and Monkey, Seal is able to attend her much needed senior portfolio classes. She has been busy juggling daytime work, school, and nighttime art. She is very excited about this semester and is learning a lot. Seal is working hard to come up with new illustrations and paintings for APE (the Alternative Press Expo) in October. Although they are number 44 on the waitlist, both Monkey and Seal are very hopeful. They also recently bought a new Epson printer that can print archival large poster size!

On another news, Monkey is hard at work meeting with other artists in San Francisco to create more venues to showcase everyone's work. If you are an artist interested in selling your art, please contact Monkeyandseal@gmail.com.

Now it's back to art time! Here's a quick sneak peek at some of Seal's newest concept art!