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Monty’s Month of May Giveaway – FINAL WEEK!

For the final week of my giveaway, I am giving away a copy of my training DVD, Cartoon Illustration Techniques in Photoshop! This is the first DVD that I’ve done for PhotoshopCAFE, and a $49.99 value!

Now, I realize that not everybody who follows my work uses Photoshop or has any interest in being an artist, so while this is a prize some people will want, it’s not one that everybody will want.  With that in mind, I’m offering a choice!

If you have no need of the DVD, I am repeating LAST week’s prize as the alternate, a 16″X20″ matted paper print of your choice from the ones I have available in my online store. That’s the BIG print!  You can choose the Moose, Wolf, Ground Squirrel or Grizzly Totem.

All you have to do is go to my Cartoon Ink Facebook page, click on Like (if you aren’t already following that page), find the FINAL WEEK post (look for the image of my DVD)  that asks you to comment, follow the instructions, and you are entered!

You have until Thursday, May 26th at midnight MST (that’s MOUNTAIN time), and I will announce a winner on Friday!  I’ll find an impartial person to pick a random number that will correspond to the list of entries.  GOOD LUCK!

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About Canada Gallery and Gifts

For just over a year now, my limited edition giclée canvas prints in my Totem series have been available at Editions Gallery in Banff.  I’ve recently realized that the relationship wasn’t a good fit, so we’ve gone our separate ways.  Fortunately, I found another venue in Banff that I feel will better represent my work.  About Canada Gallery and Gifts is located on the 100 block of Banff Avenue, a prime location for tourist traffic.  The owners were very receptive and I appreciate their taking a chance on my paintings and prints.  I’m optimistic that this could be a great summer for my work.  As in everything in the world of art (and tourism), time will tell.

I’m very pleased that my prints continue to be available in Canmore through Two Wolves Trading Company.  That’s a great venue and location, and hopefully I’ll have a long relationship with the owners and staff.  While it may not seem important to some, I place a high value on the people I work with.  If I like them and trust them, everything else can be worked out, and I’m happy to say that the folks at Two Wolves fit both of those criteria.  I just enjoy walking in there, because I’m always greeted with a smile and it’s a fun place.  I like that these people are representing my work, and am grateful they felt it worthy of taking up valuable retail space on their walls.

That trust goes both ways as well.  If somebody in Canmore wants to buy my prints, they have to go through Two Wolves.  The same goes for Banff and About Canada Gallery and Gifts.  I will often get people that try to get a deal by contacting me directly, figuring it will be cheaper.  If you’re an artist selling prints through a gallery or retail outlet, you will do a lot of damage to your reputation and your overall career by ‘back of the truck’ sales.  What goes around will definitely come back around.  Put your reputation first, and the rest of your career will be built on that foundation.

So if you happen to be in Banff and would like to see my work up close and personal, please stop into About Canada Gallery and Gifts! And if you’re in Canmore, please visit the good folks at Two Wolves Trading Company.  There’s always a chance you might even run into me there.

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Evolution

As you can see, my new website is up and running.  The site is cleaner, more efficient, easier to maintain and update, and incorporates all of the features I wanted, but could no longer create on my own.  To get the job done, I hired Erik Bernskiold with XLD Studios, and couldn’t be happier with his work.  I’ve included the testimonial I wrote for him at the end of this entry, which pretty much says it all.

If you look around the site, you’ll see that things have changed a fair bit.  Much of this will be self-explanatory, but here are a few details of some significant changes.

Editorial Cartoons

Rather than present them in a gallery format, I’ve used more of a blog post format, showing only the most recent ten cartoons.  Judging from traffic reports on my previous site, I had many regular visitors looking at the current work each day, but few people actually spent a great deal of time going through galleries from years past, so I did away with them, in favor of keeping everything more current.  I’ve turned the comments off on these images, as I would prefer to keep political arguments off this site.  I do post daily editorial cartoons on the Cartoon Ink Facebook page, if you’d like to see them there as well.

Portfolio

I’ve now got three portfolio galleries.  My totem animal paintings in one, paintings of people (caricature and portrait) in another, and commercial illustration work in the third.  I can easily add new images to each gallery as I create them and add more galleries if I find them necessary in the future.

Services

For many years, I was a jack of all trades, accepting almost everything that came through the door, but recently I’ve decided to focus on my strengths.  I’m a cartoonist, cartoon illustrator and digital painter.  That’s what I enjoy and what I’m best at.  For everything else, I have a very large network of incredibly talented friends and colleagues who excel in their creative fields and I’m more than happy to recommend them.  For example, Elizabeth Gast with designbyfirgs.com designed the evolution of my logo you see at the top of the page.

Training

This is a very exciting addition for me as it showcases my first training DVD through PhotoshopCAFE.  I’m working on the next one right now, with plans for more in the future.  Additionally, I have more training opportunities that I’ll be able to talk about soon, as well as others on the horizon.

Shop

As regular followers of my work and ramblings will know, I have a line of limited edition giclée canvas prints for sale at Two Wolves Trading Company in Canmore, Alberta and Editions Gallery in Banff, Alberta.  Those can be purchased and shipped from each of those venues, and I won’t be selling them from this site.  I am, however, offering open edition matted paper prints of the four totem paintings you will see in the Shop, with more to be released this year.  The prints are available in two standard framing sizes, so framing them won’t cost you an arm and a leg.  The Shop operates through PayPal, and I’ll ship any purchases via Canada Post.  Takes a little longer, but then you avoid duty fees if you’re shopping from outside of Canada.

If you do happen to be in the Canmore area, or plan to be in the future, I would ask that you buy them directly through Two Wolves Trading Co. They’re wonderful people there, and they treat me very well.  The prices are the same, and you’ll also get to see the work of other talented artists when you visit them.

The Blog

All of my blog entries from the past few years have been imported from Blogger to WordPress.  Most of the transfer worked well, some of it did not.  I’m still updating categories for the older entries, and some of the links need to be repaired.  Bear with me if you find a broken one, as I am making these fixes here and there when I have spare moments.

It’s going to take me awhile to get used to this site, but I’m very happy with it.  It will allow me to keep moving forward, and is designed so that I can edit and expand it when it becomes necessary.  Some of the best parts of my business, the work that I enjoy most, were not things I’d planned for long term.  I love trying new techniques and believe in being ready for opportunities, so I wanted a website that would be ready to handle things I haven’t even thought of yet.  And if something does come up that I can’t handle on my own, I know who to talk to help me out, which brings me to the testimonial I wrote for Erik Bernskiold at XLD Studios.

Testimonial

After years of creating my own websites for my freelance cartoon illustration business, I had recently realized that my online image wasn’t keeping pace with my recent successes.  As such, it became apparent that I could no longer create my own site with the limited knowledge I had and still put forward the image I wanted to.  I needed a professional designer and found one with XLD Studios.

Erik Bernskiold came highly recommended from a number of colleagues and having seen the work he did for them, I knew he could build the site I needed.  While I fully expected him to have the technical skills necessary to get the job done, I was pleasantly surprised and very impressed with the service and support Erik provided as well.  He listened to what I needed, asked all the right questions, and offered suggestions I hadn’t even thought of to take my site to a higher level than I’d expected.

Having never used WordPress before, I was apprehensive, but Erik assured me it was the best solution for what I wished to accomplish, even going so far as to give me a very detailed walkthrough tutorial via Skype when it was time for me to begin populating my site with images and content.  During that process, he patiently answered all of the questions I had about functionality and addressed each concern quickly and efficiently.

Erik provided a level of service and professionalism that is far too often lacking these days, and I am very pleased with not only the site he built for me, but with how I was treated as a client.  I wouldn’t hesitate to hire Erik again, and would recommend XLD Studios without reservation.

Patrick LaMontagne  Cartoon Ink

 

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Now Available at PhotoshopCAFE!


While the hard copy of my first DVD will be making its debut at Photoshop World this coming week in Orlando, it is now available for purchase as a download from PhotoshopCAFE. The hard copy will be available in the next couple of weeks.

This is a little surreal, having my own training DVD, but part of the natural evolution of being an artist. ‘Learn it, do it, teach it’ is a fairly common saying, and it does tend to bring things full circle. While I will always have more to learn, and will never be finished working to make myself a better artist, it’s been an interesting experience teaching a little of what I’ve learned so far.

This was a huge undertaking for me, and I wondered if I’d ever get it done, but I’m very pleased with the result, and already planning my next title. By all accounts, the second one should be a lot easier.

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Wacom eNews

The February Wacom eNews is out, and I’m very pleased to be featured in it. You won’t find a bigger fan of Wacom than me.

Having owned half a dozen drawing tablets over the past 12 years, I wouldn’t be able to do any of my work without one. I feel it’s important to note, I’ve only replaced tablets when new ones have come out with better features. I have never had one die on me and to my recollection, the only problem I’ve ever had is that a pen started acting up on me a couple of years ago, and Wacom replaced it right away, no questions asked.

I remember doing a painting demo at a gallery last year, and explaining to a parent why a Wacom was such a good investment for his daughter who was showing some real artistic talent. While I let her try out the tablet, I was telling him how inexpensive the entry level Bamboo tablets are, how they had a lot of the same great features as the Intuos4, and even told him where he could buy one.

He asked me if I worked for them.

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Photoshop User Magazine Recognition


Photoshop User magazine launched a new feature in their March 2011 issue called Notable NAPP Members. I’m very honoured that they selected me as the first one.

It’s always nice to have one’s work recognized, and lately I seem to be getting more than my share of publicity. I’ve had a lot of wonderful milestones and opportunities this past year, but I’m trying to keep things in their proper perspective and take it all with a grain (or a pound or two) of salt. Wiser folks than I have cautioned that you should never believe your own hype. While I’m grateful for the publicity, I think that’s excellent advice.

Even though being a freelance cartoonist and illustrator isn’t always a ‘wine and roses’ profession, it’s enough that I get to do what I love for a living.

(click on the article to zoom in)

Reprinted with permission by NAPP and Photoshop User Magazine.

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Digital Painting Interview with Psd Tuts+

Back in November, I was approached by Psd Tuts+ about an interview regarding my digital paintings. It was a good experience, but to be honest, I’d kind of forgotten about it. This morning, someone brought to my attention that the interview was online, so I went and took a look and found that I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. I especially liked that they put the interview in the ‘Inspiration’ category. It would be nice if another artist was inspired by something I love to do.

I’ve realized that I’ve been putting painting on the back burner lately because of other deadlines and obligations, but I hadn’t realized just how much I’ve missed it until I read the interview. With two paintings on the go, I really do need to make the time, especially since it’s the work I enjoy most.

If you’d like to read the interview, here’s the link.
Amazing Digital Animal Paintings of Patrick LaMontagne

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Legend In My Own Mind.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love movies. It’s not that I’m the type of guy who can name the cinematographer from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest or anything like that. I’ve never seen Citizen Kane and I didn’t really like The Godfather. Sacrilege in some movie circles, I know, but I’m not a cinema snob. I just love being entertained by a good movie.

I don’t watch awards shows, and I have no interest in celebrity gossip. I really don’t care who’s sleeping with whom in Hollywood, and don’t understand why anybody else does, either. I will admit, however, that I like hearing that somebody whose work I love is a nice person, too. For example, on the commentary track for Aliens, Bill Paxton tells a story about what a class act Sigourney Weaver is and how hard she works. I love that movie, and that somehow makes me like it a little bit more.

I do have my favorite directors, screenwriters and actors, but only because certain people consistently create or star in movies I like. There are a number of movies I’ve seen a dozen times or more, and I get something different out of them each time. A consequence of this affinity for the silver screen is that I have an uncanny knack for remembering movie quotes, and let me assure you, that’s a useless skill. Pretty sure I’ll need some bit of information that was discarded from my brain years ago, just so I could remember what Frances McDormand said to Billy Crudup in ‘Almost Famous.’

One of my favorite movies is Legends of the Fall. Not because I particularly like the story, but because I got to work on it. While it’s true that I was only an extra, I got paid well for it, and it was a lot of fun.

In 1993, I was an instructor at the Air Reserve Training School at Canadian Forces Base Penhold. It was a full-time job teaching basic training, and I enjoyed it. At the end of one summer session, my boss mentioned to us that she had heard that a major Hollywood movie was filming in Calgary and that they needed extras with military experience. Nobody else from the training school or my unit tried out, but since I had no immediate plans, and it was a paying gig, I thought it would be pretty cool.

At the time, Calgary still had fully operational military bases and the film crew was working in conjunction with the military to ensure they got the right people. I went down for the audition at one of the hangars on the base. The audition wasn’t about acting, it was just so that the production company could find out what your military experience was so they could assign you a position in this fake WWI Canadian Army.

The next weekend, there were 60 of us learning WWI foot drill on a parade square, being yelled at, marched around and basically being treated like we were all back in basic training. Since we were all reservists or regular force members, it was more entertaining than anything else. Their full intent was to run the movie WWI army like a real army WWI army.

We were given rifle training on authentic WWI Lee Enfield rifles. Mine had a stamp from 1917 on one of the metal parts. This was the main reason they wanted people with military experience, and only the 60 from the original weekend were going to be firing weapons. For those unfamiliar with weapons and firing blanks, there is usually something called a BFA (blank firing attachment) fixed to the end of the muzzle on a rifle during training exercises. Blanks can still cause serious injury at close range, and a BFA helps prevent that. During filming, however, the BFA’s were removed as the rifles had to look authentic. This meant that everyone was VERY serious about weapons safety as there was an added element of danger. Only those with weapons training were issued blank ammunition and rifles.

The following weekend, there were 700 more men, and those of us that had been trained the week before were assigned men that WE had to train in the WWI foot drill that we had just learned. Let’s just say that we weren’t ready to go on parade, but they were trying to instill at least a little bit of discipline. They divided us into companies and that’s who we were with for the entire shoot. I’m almost positive that these added guys didn’t have to have military experience, as they were only being used on the shoot for two or three days.

The week after that, we were working full-time. I stayed with a friend in Calgary for three weeks, sleeping during the day, working all night long. We had to be at one of the Calgary colleges each day by 2:00PM, where they would take us out to a location north of the city. Each morning, after shooting, they would bus us back to Calgary at 6:00AM. I never got more than 6 hours sleep those three weeks and almost no time off. That was what we had all agreed to when signing up.

Apparently they had paid a rancher for the use of three or four of his fields for the duration, and they ripped it to shreds converting it to a WWI battlefield. The first time I saw the battlefield, it was eerie. A field full of mud, burned trees, elaborate trenches, craters full of water, and barbed wire everywhere. I found out later, that they put that field back to it’s original condition after filming, and that the rancher was paid very well.

The main tent in the staging area consisted of two large connected circus tents, one full of tables and chairs like a beer tent where everybody would gather at the beginning and end of shooting and where they would put us if they had an hour or so with nothing for us to do. The other half of the tent was wardrobe and makeup and let me tell you, it was incredibly organized. They fitted each of us for authentic WWI uniforms that they got from a prop house in London. These were real WWI woolen uniforms. We were shown how to put them on, complete with puttees. It was a factory of efficiency, and everyone was incredibly professional.

They treated everyone fairly, but tolerated absolutely no screwing around, especially in the beginning. Because they were issuing working firearms, there was ample security on set and they double checked everything when it came to signing weapons in and out. The first day, about 20 of the 700 were kicked off the set for not following the rules. It wasn’t open for debate and they gave no second chances.

Each day, we’d be briefed on what was going to happen that night along with constant safety briefings. We would then march in formation, according to company, down to the battlefield. They really ran it by the book.

For those first three nights, the ‘army’ just basically ran across a muddy field, back and forth all night long. It was very well lit, but it was tough. Most of those runs were rehearsals. We were to pick our own path, know where we going to run, so that when filming began, nobody was running into each other, we all knew where we were going. We knew where the explosions were going to happen, and there were tech guys sitting in holes all over the field. From the camera side, they couldn’t be seen, but from our point of view, it was a bunch of guys in bright jackets in plain sight with control boards in front of them. Their job was to detonate the squibs (movie explosives) on the field. With 700 guys running across, these guys were pros. NOBODY was hurt by an explosive during the whole shoot, to my knowledge.

In the beginning, somebody would come up the line, I think it might have been one of the assistant directors and just start pointing at every third or fourth person before every rehearsal. “You’re dead, you’re dead, dead, dead, dead…” and this just meant that somewhere in your run, you fell down, and we were told specifically not to ACT. You just fell, and then stayed still. When they started shooting, a couple of guys were kicked off set for being ‘theatrical’ when they died, mugging for the cameras.

It was cold and rainy some of the time, but they had constructed the trenches with shelters in them that the cameras couldn’t see, and they would get us back to the circus tent to get warm regularly. Lots of coffee and tea, plenty of food for everybody, ample time to rest up for the next scene.

Once the first three days were over, that’s when the real fun began. Initially we had to go through metal detectors going through to wardrobe in our underwear and t-shirts, just so you couldn’t bring in cameras or recording devices. Anything like cigarettes, lighter, stuff like that, you could just hold in your hand so they could see it.

Interesting side note about cigarettes. They’d let the smokers smoke during filming of the daylight trench scenes to add to the authenticity, but they’d give out hand rolled cigarettes that looked like they’d been run through a washing machine and then rolled in mud. I tried one, and it was horrible.

With just the 60 of us, and the cast and crew, they slacked off on the security a little because we’d earned a certain degree of trust. They started to allow us to bring in cameras, with the understanding that they could only be used at certain times and never be pulled out during filming. While I didn’t take these photos, they were taken with permission. Unfortunately, all of these you see here are scans of small prints, and my scanner sucks. Still, you can click on any of them to see them a bit larger.

Our company went from about 50 guys down to 10 after the first three days, and we all got along really well. With no women on the set aside from crew, it was just a bunch of overgrown boys playing army in an amazing playground, and what could be more fun than that. The cast and crew were fantastic, and I don’t recall one personal bad experience the whole time.

Some memorable moments:
Brad Pitt.
The first night the actors came into the trench, everybody was a little nervous. Close quarters in the trench, so they had to squeeze between us. One guy in my company got a tap on the shoulder and when he turned around, Brad Pitt was trying to get by. He kind of stammered, “Oh excuse me, Mr. Pitt,” to which Mr. Pitt replied, “F**k off, call me Brad.”

Aidan Quinn.
One morning, when we were all getting ready to board the buses back to Calgary, the crew needed one company to stay behind to film some daylight stuff. Turned out that whoever stayed wasn’t going to get to go back to Calgary at all that day. The 10 of us were asked, and we said, ‘sure.’ We were having fun, although we were exhausted. The scene was with Aidan Quinn and he felt bad that we had to stay behind. After the scene was shot, we were told to get back to wardrobe and they’d give us a clean change of uniform, and then we could find a place to nap.

While we’re getting changed, Aidan Quinn walks in with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, carrying a flat of Labatt Genuine Draft and said, “where do you want it?” He sat and had beers with us for about an hour, posed for photos with some of the guys, and said thanks for sticking around.

No Egos
One night, had to be about two in the morning, they kept having technical trouble with something. Could have been a camera, lights, I don’t know, but it was a very cold night. They kept debating whether or not to send us back to the tent. Finally, somebody called out for runners from each company and they brought back heavy duty coffee containers to the trenches. We all had our own cups in the kit they gave us, so while they didn’t want us to leave the set, they still wanted us to be warm. This happened once in awhile, and there were strategic holes in the trenches for modern items to be hidden when shooting started, including those coffee containers.

Thinking they had the problem solved, they brought Brad Pitt and Henry Thomas into the trench, and by this time, we were fairly comfortable around them. They were nice to us, kidding around, that sort of thing. The problem, whatever it was, persisted, so they were going to pull the actors back to their trailers until it was solved. Brad Pitt said, “we got coffee, we can wait here.”

He and Henry Thomas sat and chatted with us for over an hour, answering questions, telling stories, laughing a lot, just hanging out in the cold like the rest of the guys.

Taken Care Of
One very telling experience about how well we were treated. One night, near the end of the third week, our company was running across the battlefield in some scene, explosions going off everywhere, firing our weapons, and a squib exploded very near me. I wasn’t in any danger because I knew that whoever set it off knew exactly where I was, but we had been told that if an explosion went off near us, even if we hadn’t been told to die, we were to fall down. So, myself and the guy nearest to me both collapsed, right into a crater full of water. We managed to keep our heads out of the water, as well as our rifles when we fell, but just laid there until we heard CUT. It was a good two minutes in that cold water and I was soaked. As soon as the director yelled cut, he sent in a crew to get us out of the water. They got us out of the field quick, into a van, drove us to the circus tent and into fresh dry uniforms very quickly. They gave us coffee and wouldn’t let us leave until we assured them we were warm enough to keep going. Best of all, we didn’t ruin the shot.

There are plenty of other things that happened on the set, but what I remember most is that the actors in that movie were genuinely nice guys and treated everybody with respect. The crew treated us well and on the last day of filming, the director, Edward Zwick, told us all that we had performed beyond his expectations. He said that it was like working with stunt men, not extras, which was nice to hear.

The experience of Legends of the Fall reinforced my love for movies. It didn’t make me want to be an actor. Hell, it didn’t even make me want to be an extra again, but working on that one movie just reinforced my love of the art form. It even changed how I watch movies, because sometimes I’ll see a certain camera shot in a movie, and I’ll remember that I know how they do that. It’s probably one of the reasons I enjoy Director’s Commentary on DVD’s so much, too. That’s where all the stories are told.

I’ve still got photocopies of the script and some storyboards, some photos I took and others took for me. I’ve even got some videotape that somebody from the crew sent to one of the guys in my company weeks after filming, showing unedited dailies, including some with the actors.

There are a number of scenes that I can pick myself out in the movie, just because I recognize myself or guys in my company. But for the most part, there’s only one place you can definitely see me in the movie, and that’s this one below, that I copied from a YouTube clip. I haven’t seen it in awhile. When I showed it to my wife, she said, “you look like a baby!” It was, after all, 18 years ago.

Incidentally, this was a breakfast scene in the WWI camp, filmed at sunset. We were told that Brad Pitt’s character Tristan was riding into camp with scalps around his neck, and we were supposed to part the way. They wanted us to look shocked at what we were seeing but not to exaggerate it too much. While Brad Pitt did come through on the horse and we did get to see that, what we’re actually looking at in this photo is an ATV coming through with a camera on it.

If you’d like to see the actual clip, here’s a link to one somebody posted on YouTube. You can see me on the left of the screen from 2:56-3:00.

I’d like to work in movies again someday, but in an artistic capacity, maybe as a digital painter or a character designer. But for now, I’m happy with the memory that I got to do it once, and it was great. If you ever get the chance to be an extra in a movie, paid or otherwise, I would advise you to do it, just for the fun of it. It really was one of the best experiences of my life.

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Farewell to 2010, a very good year.

Well, that year went pretty damn fast!

I’ll be honest, I tiptoed into 2010, since there were warning signs that the economy was going to hit me pretty hard. Thankfully, I came through relatively unscathed, even though I suffered some bumps, bruises, and frayed nerves. In the end, however, it was a better year than the one before, which is saying a lot, since 2009 was pretty good.

I went back and skimmed some of the blog entries from this past year, and I’m pretty pleased with the way the year unfolded.

Editorial Cartoons

When 2010 began, there had been some pretty big shakeups in the industry. I lost a bunch of newspapers in January when Sun Media told all of its editors to ditch their freelance cartoonists. It seemed every week in January and February, I’d get another phone call or email from an angry editor (not angry at me) telling me my services were no longer required. Some of those editors I’d worked with for years.

Canwest News Service was in severe financial trouble as well, and it was a very scary time for anyone working in the newspaper industry. I seriously thought that this might have been the beginning of the end for the editorial cartoon portion of my freelance career, but as the year went on, I recovered those losses and then some, and it really didn’t hurt me. If anything, it was the wake-up call that I needed to start planning for a future that likely won’t include editorial cartoons.

A few of my colleagues didn’t fare so well, and in the ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’ category, I’m very thankful that I never did get that daily newspaper job that I wanted so badly when I was still new at this ten years ago. Turns out there was a lot more stability in freelancing.

While you never know which cards newspaper budgets will deal in 2011, I’m a lot less nervous about it than I was last year at this time. The big lesson is the same one nature herself has been teaching throughout history; those who adapt, survive. In this economy, that’s true for every profession.

Freelance Illustration

I was more selective about work that I accepted this year. Clients that I like working with who pay their bills took precedence over the ones who began a conversation telling me they wanted it cheap and fast. When I was just starting out, I took whatever came through the door, as most of us have to, but I’ve learned from most of my mistakes, and can now recognize which jobs will advance my career, make best use of my skills, foster relationships with long term clients, and in a perfect world, will be enjoyable to work on.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t make mistakes this year, because I had a couple of big ones. One of them could have cost me a fortune had I not recognized it for what it was before I’d invested too much of my time and money into it. So, I did need to relearn a couple of lessons in 2010.

Get EVERYTHING in writing, and if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Those Animal Paintings

In January, I posted my third painting in the animal series, the Bull Elk, and in that blog entry, I said, “Hoping to get at least 15 of these done before April.”

I laughed out loud when I read that again this morning. 15 by April?! Sure, if I had NOTHING else to do, that might have been feasible. Not sure where the line is between optimistic and delusional, but at least you can’t say I didn’t aim high.

At year’s end, I have seven of them finished, with two more in the final stages. While I still would like to have fifteen done by April (hey, I didn’t say which YEAR in that blog entry), I’m not going to beat myself up if it doesn’t happen.

When the year began, I was just starting to look into getting prints done, and talking to galleries. As the year closes, I’m regularly doing painting demos in Banff and Canmore, the paintings are selling well in both locations, I’m now getting queries for commission work, and I’m making long term plans for many more Totem paintings in the years to come. It’s exciting, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it leads, because I can’t remember ever enjoying my work as much as I do when I’m painting these animals.

The challenge is, of course, finding more time to do it.

Surprises

I was asked to illustrate a 1970 Mach 1 Mustang in a somewhat realistic but still cartoon style by a friend for their annual car club auction. This friend handles all of my computer work, builds my custom computers every couple of years when I upgrade, and is only a phone call away when I need help, so I agreed to do him this favour.

This was very difficult and I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off. I didn’t have much fun while working on it and wished I’d said No. In the end, however, I was quite pleased with how it turned out, and I’d like to try something like this again in the future. I’ve had some nibbles from other car enthusiasts who’ve seen it and while no real bites yet, it was a nice piece to add to my portfolio. And I’m sure I can do better on the next one.


Another surprise was that I bought an iPad, and I’m really not a ‘gadget guy.’ I spent weeks going back and forth on whether it was just a toy or legitimately worth it for my business. When I finally decided to buy one, I kept waiting for the buyer’s remorse to kick in, but honestly, I love the thing (and not just for Angry Birds). It’s a great portfolio display device, an enjoyable magazine and book reader, and an incredible portable sketch pad. Who knew that I would love finger painting so much?

Photoshop World

Las Vegas was easily the highlight of the year for me. I had known before going to Photoshop World, that I’d been nominated for two Guru Awards from the three images I’d submitted, and while I wanted to win, I went into the event expecting to lose, especially for Best in Show. The number of talented people that attend that event means you can’t take anything for granted, so as cliche as it sounds, it really was an honour just being nominated.

I could play humble and say that awards don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but I’d be lying if I said that these particular ones didn’t mean anything to me. I was very pleased. The icing on the cake was the Wacom Cintiq tablet that came with the Best in Show Award. While I still use my Intuos4 every day for cartooning, that Cintiq is a joy to paint with.

While I plan on returning to Photoshop World again in 2011, it is very unlikely that I will enter the Guru Awards. The work that I would submit would probably just be another in the Totem series, so while it would be new animals, the style wouldn’t be anything they haven’t seen. It would also be very difficult to top the experience I’ve already had.

I’ve met some wonderful new people this year through my work, formed new relationships, built on old ones, and for the most part, I’ve kept moving forward, even though I ground the gears a few times while shifting. It hasn’t always been the smoothest of rides. Despite a few errors on my part, I wouldn’t have done anything differently in 2010, because I’m happy with where I’m at right now. I will, however, be starting 2011 with some course corrections.

But that’s a blog entry for next week. Happy New Year.

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Final Painting Demo of the Year


Last Saturday, I was painting in Banff, but this Saturday, I’ll be in Canmore again for the final painting demo of the year. Still working on the Owl and the Bighorn Sheep, and they’re really starting to come alive. I’m working on the fine details of both paintings and while they won’t be done ’til January, they’re awfully close. Probably another five or six hours left on each.

If you happen to be in the area on Saturday the 18th, and would like to see some digital painting, ask some questions, or just stop by to say Hello, I’ll be at Two Wolves Trading Company from 11-3.

Hope to see you there!