Detail

Detail is a imperative to any well-finished rendering. If overdone, however, detail can be a detraction. Too "busy" a rendering is bewildering, and its main purpose is smothered in a welter of minutia.

A talented artist recognizes this fundamental fact: what is left out of a rendering can be as significant as what is put-in.

Study of photography with a wide range of tonal value will help you understand how and where detail should be played down or limited. Notice its tendency to disappear in bright sunlight or dark shadow, how obvious it becomes in middle value areas, how much vegetation is massed together rather than seperation in isolated clumps. You will also learn much by examining the work of other illustrators

Cropping

An illustrator has a natural tendency to include too much in a composition. When this fact is clear, he has an equally natural reluctance to remove portions of a rendering over which has worked so diligently. Renderings are often improved significantly by some judicious "cropping" - removing areas that detract from the center of interest or interferes with the effectiveness of the composition.

None of the rendering actually needs be cut away or destroy. It may be crop differently (non-destructively) for another use, so keep the entire rendering and crop in a non-destructive way.

Get Paid, Not Played!

Good news: Senators Robach and McDonald have both signed on as co-sponsors of the Freelancer Payment Protection Act.
 
This crucial win puts us in a much stronger position to get it passed because both senators sit on the Labor Committee – the group that needs to review our bill. Even better, Senator Robach is the committee’s chairman.
 
And it’s a direct result of your work: many of you attended meetings with your senators to lobby them, and provided your own personal stories of nonpayment so we could share them with legislators.
 
That’s what it takes: all of us coming together to make our voices heard. And it’s working.
 
Please visit Senator Robach's Facebook page and email Senator McDonald to thank them and let them know we’re grateful for and counting on their ongoing support of freelancers.

 
Best,
 
Sara Horowitz
Founder and Executive Director

P.S. We’re not letting up now: we’re sending a new member’s story every week about how deadbeat clients affect their livelihood. If you have a story you’d like to tell, please sign in to share it in The Freelance Life.

Capture and Delineate Ideas

The primary pupose of design studies is to cature and delinete ideas. Attractive drawing is desirable, to be sure, but it is secondary in importance to the visualization of the tenitive, nebulous concepts that are the initial steps to any architectural project. By necessity, you must work very closely with architects, designer, and other planners to translate their thoughts into a tree-dimensional forms. Through all stages of an architectural project, your work is a valuable means of communication among the personnel and also between the architect and his client.

Nobody tells the beginners...

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

Whats its color

Whats its color is an image-color processing utility that will evaluate an image and give you the image's primary and complementary dominant colors of an image, how many visually unique colors are in an image, and the top ten visually unique colors in an image. Extremely useful when creating any type of designs around an image. The more colorful the image, the better the results. Results will display your image on the best suited background for that image... http://whatsitscolor.com/

Bridges of Hope

I was asked to create some art, for the non-profit orginization Bridges of Hope, to be used for a fundraiser. Here is how it turned out!  

New York Sun Deck

Here is a project, currently on the board, of a high-rise sun deck.  The deck is currently not being utilized, and the building is under new management, so the developer commissioned me to illustration the sun deck's potential.  

Shadow

To create the most pleasing shade and shadow pattern, light intesity should be greatest on the main facade (or facade at the least angle to the picture plane). Secondary or receding walls receive less intensity and are lightly shaded.  

Cast shadows should be deep enough to strengthen and emphasize the eve line, but not so deep as to overpower the architectural design with a too-heavy effect.

Deadlines

Ideally an assignment is given enough time in advance to allow ample time for proper thought and execution. Like it or not,  the tyranny of the deadline is one of the harshest facts of an illustrator's life.  The sooner you learn to live with it the better. It is also an excellent teacher; having to meet a deadline is a sure way to developed skills and temperament demanded for quick competent drawings.