Seattle Sketch Group: Friday, Oct 8, 7 pm Caffe Vita, Capitol Hill

[S!R]

13 hours of driving on snow & ice yesterday to get to the in-laws.
Fuuuun.

Have a safe & Merry Christmas everyone.

[Earendil]

Thanks you guys, Merry Christmas to y'all. We're buried under 48+ inches over here.

[Undertow]

Merry belated Christmas everyone! Next up, new years party. This year our theme is, "Party like it's 1988!"... yes there will be pictures.

[oXYnary]

Sooo... any plans for any sketch or tut meet ups soon?

[2100]

Yeah... you guys should meet soon! Ideally this Friday or Saturday, when I'm in Seattle.

Happy New Year!

[S!R]

Regarding our next meetup I'd like to get some feedback as to how many folks ar interested, as well as potential dates that the majority of us can make.

This group is what we make it. The more feedback and expressed interest the more we can actually make things happen.

I would guess that we won't have a meetup whilst you are visiting, sorry.

[Fire Moth]

Kim is looking for volunteers to cast a big sculpture


Molding the Big Mermaid, volunteers needed

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: kim graham <kimsculp...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jan 3, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Subject: Molding the Big Mermaid, volunteers needed
To: kimsculp...@gmail.com

We are nearly ready to begin putting the large mermaid into molds. We
are going to start pinning her up on Wednesday. I think it will take
about a week to do her, but my estimations on time have been
optimistic recently. We will start at 10am and go till about 9pm each
day. If you can show up at any time during those hours there will be
plenty of work to do.

The biggest reason we are asking for volunteers is this, it is a
remarkable opportunity to teach people how to put things in molds.
Typically this is a complex, expensive process using weird materials
and obscure knowledge. This week will be a chance to learn the basics
on a monumentally sized sculpture in a professional studio. If you
know anyone who would benefit from this opportunity, please forward
this on to them.
There will be food, polite company and fascinating work. And it
should be pretty fun too.
Hope to see you!

--
Best regards,
Kim Graham
425 870 3888
http://www.kimgrahamstudios.com

[Soul Karl]

oh man lets have a meeting this saturday then if johns gonna be here

[Undertow]

Group Feedback Requested NLT Friday January 9th on the information listed below.

Regarding our next meetup I'd like to get some feedback as to how many folks ar interested, as well as potential dates that the majority of us can make.

This group is what we make it. The more feedback and expressed interest the more we can actually make things happen.

I apologize for dropping off the face of the planet over the last month. Now that the holidays are over, I'm back at it.

Just so everyone's in the loop, Sean and I had a chat about the next meeting a few weeks ago and here's what I want to run something by everyone. How does a big meet and greet akin to a gallery opening where there's game industry art to check out, food and beverage (non alcoholic or beer and wine), social interaction, and some games sound for the next event? I want to create a unique networking opportunity for other local artists that might not exist. Who knows, the next big creator owned studio might be formed as a result of a meeting like this? If anything I know that some new friendships will be created and job opportunities will ultimately be available in these kinds of settings.

In order for this to happen we need to do 2 things.
- The first is talk to Martin about is if they like the idea and would be willing to have us there, and what day might work best for doing something like this. If the answer is "No, we can't do this here" we need to find an alternate location.

That being said are there any places in particular that folks think would be a great place to have such an event? Is anyone interested in helping put together this?

- Advertise the heck out of this! The goal is to get as many local studio artists together as possible. To name a few of the studios in the area there's Arena.net, Bungie, Amaze, Flying Lab, Gas Powered, Nintendo, Monolith, Microsoft GS, Nintendo, Pop Cap, Sierra/Activision, Surreal, Sucker Punch, Snow Blind, Square Enix, Sony, Valkyrie, Valve, Wizards of the Coast, and Zombie.

Kim is looking for volunteers to cast a big sculpture


Molding the Big Mermaid, volunteers needed

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: kim graham <kimsculp...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jan 3, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Subject: Molding the Big Mermaid, volunteers needed
To: kimsculp...@gmail.com

We are nearly ready to begin putting the large mermaid into molds. We
are going to start pinning her up on Wednesday. I think it will take
about a week to do her, but my estimations on time have been
optimistic recently. We will start at 10am and go till about 9pm each
day. If you can show up at any time during those hours there will be
plenty of work to do.

The biggest reason we are asking for volunteers is this, it is a
remarkable opportunity to teach people how to put things in molds.
Typically this is a complex, expensive process using weird materials
and obscure knowledge. This week will be a chance to learn the basics
on a monumentally sized sculpture in a professional studio. If you
know anyone who would benefit from this opportunity, please forward
this on to them.
There will be food, polite company and fascinating work. And it
should be pretty fun too.
Hope to see you!

--
Best regards,
Kim Graham
425 870 3888
http://www.kimgrahamstudios.com

Thank you for posting this Peter!

This is an amazing opportunity for those wanting to learn such a valuable skill set, thank you for posting that for the masses! I'd love to go help Kim out but my work day is currently a 7AM - 11PM kind of gig. For everyone else, I would highly encourage taking advantage of this unique chance to work with an amazing sculptor. Kim has done some incredible work over the years. I had the pleasure of working in the same space as her for a day back when WotC had an internal art department. I ended up not getting much work done but learned allot from Kim as she talked about the anatomy of a dragon and how many different types of animals were incorporated into the average Dragon anatomy. So go hang out with her, I guarantee you that you will learn something valuable!

oh man lets have a meeting this saturday then if johns gonna be here

Life Drawing and lunch on Saturday with Jon sound like fun to anyone?

[2100]

I'm coming for portfolio day at Cornish College. I should be done at 3pm, and my bus leaves at 11. So maybe... life drawing and dinner?

[Undertow]

I'm coming for portfolio day at Cornish College. I should be done at 3pm, and my bus leaves at 11. So maybe... life drawing and dinner?

Unfortunately I have plans for 4PM on Saturday that were scheduled back on new years. I wouldn't be able to make it after 3. Let me confirm plans tomorrow and I'll get back to you.

[Fire Moth]

you are welcome Mike

[oXYnary]

I can offer my front living room as a space. If we all sqeezed in, we could get about 9 people.

Backing up Peter and Mike. Kim rocks and is sculptress god in my book.

Edit, as far as times for this potential thing your thinking about Mike.. After 6:ooPM sats or anytime sundays works. If you like, I can pass your idea to the local IGDA heads.. Maybe it could be combined into a special one-time IGDA meeting specific to an artist focus. (And no, it wouldnt have to be limited to members, especially if was in conjunction with concept art so as to not limit it to just game artists alone).

[Fire Moth]

That's nice can fire artist come?
I just got back from Winter Solstice Fire Festival at the Seattle
Center it was awesome!!!

Fire sculptures and collaborative fire performance. Tomorrow is the last day 4PM to 9PM.

Winter Solstice Fire Festival

Part of Seattle Center’s Winterfest 2008
Saturday, Dec. 20, 4pm – 9pm
Sunday, Dec. 21, 4pm – 9pm
International Fountain and South Fountain Lawn
FREE!

seattlecenter.com/programs/detail.asp


The Winter Solstice Fire Festival, a spectacular Winterfest premiere, radiates flames and fiery drama. Towering steel infernos will illuminate the darkness, along with dynamic movement and music – all to celebrate the Solstice return to light.

The spectacle begins at 4pm with a performance recognizing the Winter Solstice. Orbis and Solaris create a dynamic outdoor performing art installation that weaves together words, movement, music, fire performances and large luminaries to transform the Seattle Center International Fountain into a stunning celestial wonder.
At the conclusion of the performance, around 5pm, the sculptures in the open spaces around the International Fountain will be illuminated; and throughout the evening, fire performances by local artists will entertain as audiences take in the brilliant works.
This collection of fiery sculptures includes some dramatic, organic, inspired forms:

Fire-Pod
Created by Mark “Buphalo” Tomkiewicz.
www.fire-pod.com

Pnuema
An organic kinetic fire sculpture by San Francisco artist Charles A. Gadeken

Water Candle
A 6-foot tall water fountain, created by Chris Piper - based out of Oregon.
www.fireartistry.com

PyroBeat
Also by Chris Piper
www.fireartistry.com


Participating performing artists include:

Open Flame Dance Theater - 5:30pm on the Fisher Pavilion Roof
www.openflamedance.com

Pyrosutra - 6:30pm at the International Fountain
www.pyrosutra.com

Spinergy Arts - 7:30pm on the Fisher Pavilion Roof
www.spinergyarts.com

IGNITION - 8:15pm at the International Fountain

[silvestri99]

Hey Fire Moth..
If you liked "the passage" it will be making it to Burien to be tempoaraily installed for the next year. Any of you who haven't seen it you should...it is awesome!

[Fire Moth]

Ya David, I do like The Passage. I saw your name on the list for NorWesCon art show. I will see you there. For those of you don't know what The Passage is here are the info.
http://www.interim-art-space.com/

[Undertow]

I can offer my front living room as a space. If we all sqeezed in, we could get about 9 people.

Backing up Peter and Mike. Kim rocks and is sculptress god in my book.

Edit, as far as times for this potential thing your thinking about Mike.. After 6:ooPM sats or anytime sundays works. If you like, I can pass your idea to the local IGDA heads.. Maybe it could be combined into a special one-time IGDA meeting specific to an artist focus. (And no, it wouldnt have to be limited to members, especially if was in conjunction with concept art so as to not limit it to just game artists alone).

Good advice, thanks Drew!

[silvestri99]

I'm proud to say I was on the Burien Art Commission when the idea for the art space was hatched some time ago. Even after the art space is gone we hope to keep temporary art coming to Burien through the Black Rock Foundation. Should be a very cool place to check out!

Mike,
When you are looking for a place to have the meeting are we only looking at free locations or would there be a budget for renting somewhere? I can think of a lot of cool venues but I think that we would have to pay some fee.

I also wanted to see if we are going to meet this Saturday or if we are waiting another week.

Hope everyone is coming down off the holiday high!

Edit: Okay so now I assume we are not meeting since I haven't seen any news of it. Will we be doing one later this month or waiting until Feb.?

[S!R]

Mike's idea definitely sounds like an event I would attend.

As far as considering Vermillion as a venue for Mike's idea I have some concerns. Maybe every one interested in this type of a meeting could brainstorm and investigate potential venues.

Regarding Vermillion they are generally booked for shows a month or two in advance. If we could find a window between their scheduled shows a one nighter might be an option. It would be very cool to see game/concept art gracing the walls of ANY venue even for a night. THAT would be the best art opening event ever. The idea of networking and getting to talk to more then a handful of working professional would be inspiring at the very least.

Secondly although Vermillion has been very accomodating to our group and will continue to be, it has been brought to my attention that for two reasons we might need to make some adjustments. We have talked about moving up the meeting to an earlier time, so we don't have an audio conflict between our group and any patrons. I'm sure Vermillion wouldn't be opposed to selling a couple of drinks (alcoholic or not) or food to some members who attend, our group hasn't really made a showing of appreciation in that regard

The last two meetings we had, we weren't even able to cover our VERY minimal expenses ($30) by donations. Kudos to Mike for covering the difference both times! This fact alone makes me think it might be hard to muster any funds to rent another venue as Dave pointed out might be a possibility.

Folks please don't get me wrong, I am NOT making this post to be a wet blanket at all. I am however being completely honest about the interactions I have had with Martin and the owners of Vermillion.

Has anyone made an effort to contact the Instructor at Art Institute, Kathryn, about potentially have a meeting or two there with their kick azz multi-media capabilities? I remember something being said in the past about this idea...Maybe we can fan the flames of that idea happening.

Beyond Mikes ambitious plan, is there enough interest in having the 3D modeling demo we discussed a while back? If Trevor and Lou are still available and willing I'm sure we could the ball rolling on the next regular meeting.

[silvestri99]

S!R I agree with you whole heartily (and kick me in the ass next time to remind me to throw some funds in) about making sure the Vermilion is really benefiting from us being there. We talked about building a "slush" fund up and maybe we need to kick that off to make sure we could cover the expenses of another event.

I think AIS would be a good place to do the event as well. I know that they are always looking for promotion and getting more companies to come to the portfollio review. Maybe if they had a few moments to address the group or got to have some of their graduating students show off some work to the big wigs they would be receptive to the idea.

If AIS isn't interested then there is Digipen in Redmond and (if we got enough local, talented artist to show) we might be able to get a room from the SAM for one evening). I believe that they have smaller rooms you can use for conferences and events. Heck even some of the software bigs in the area might have rooms we can get access to. Even local community centers may have the space and setup that we could use for this type of event.

It seems in this economy that getting access to a new genre (or at least one that isn't higher publicized) would be something a lot of people would be interested in. I guess no matter which way we go it is a matter of advertising and selling the event on a whole).

I'll keep thinking about it but I'm sure we can come up with something.

[oXYnary]

Last I heard on AIS in this thread, the woman whom was trying to get our group for a meeting (or it was something like that). Turned out AIS would not allow non-students.

I can say Digipen is more open for such if one of their instructors are involved.

I could throw this out on polycount and see if possible someone there can talk to their company to allow it to happen on their premises?

[Fire Moth]

Here, Seattle Saturday House. Last time I was there it was mostly programmers. But they do like to have more artist type.

http://www.saturdayhouse.org/

[Undertow]

Mike's idea definitely sounds like an event I would attend.

As far as considering Vermillion as a venue for Mike's idea I have some concerns. Maybe every one interested in this type of a meeting could brainstorm and investigate potential venues.

Regarding Vermillion they are generally booked for shows a month or two in advance. If we could find a window between their scheduled shows a one nighter might be an option. It would be very cool to see game/concept art gracing the walls of ANY venue even for a night. THAT would be the best art opening event ever. The idea of networking and getting to talk to more then a handful of working professional would be inspiring at the very least.

Secondly although Vermillion has been very accomodating to our group and will continue to be, it has been brought to my attention that for two reasons we might need to make some adjustments. We have talked about moving up the meeting to an earlier time, so we don't have an audio conflict between our group and any patrons. I'm sure Vermillion wouldn't be opposed to selling a couple of drinks (alcoholic or not) or food to some members who attend, our group hasn't really made a showing of appreciation in that regard

I was thinking that if we did something of the magnitude I was talking about that getting together the funds to have it catered with food and drinks available to those in attendance would be good. I'm not thinking about spending more than a couple of hundred of dollars in total and all of that is direct to Vermillion.

The last two meetings we had, we weren't even able to cover our VERY minimal expenses ($30) by donations. Kudos to Mike for covering the difference both times! This fact alone makes me think it might be hard to muster any funds to rent another venue as Dave pointed out might be a possibility.

Folks please don't get me wrong, I am NOT making this post to be a wet blanket at all. I am however being completely honest about the interactions I have had with Martin and the owners of Vermillion.

This was a concern that I had after our first meeting where I covered the difference. I felt really taken advantage of by those in attendance that didn't drop a dime to help cover costs. So ultimately what I've learned here is that we can't do anything that's going to be a donation basis. It's either we charge for an event if there are expenses (projector rental, space, etc), or it's an informal get together that's just us hanging out.

Has anyone made an effort to contact the Instructor at Art Institute, Kathryn, about potentially have a meeting or two there with their kick azz multi-media capabilities? I remember something being said in the past about this idea...Maybe we can fan the flames of that idea happening.

Beyond Mikes ambitious plan, is there enough interest in having the 3D modeling demo we discussed a while back? If Trevor and Lou are still available and willing I'm sure we could the ball rolling on the next regular meeting.

Kathryn resigned from AIS so we effectively no longer have a contact over there But the good news is that she'll be hanging out with us more often now! I also have a couple of friends that have projectors that I could ask to borrow one from. They might not be the greatest resolution but they'll do the trick.

Here, Seattle Saturday House. Last time I was there it was mostly programmers. But they do like to have more artist type.

http://www.saturdayhouse.org/

Good idea Peter, I'll have to look into that.

Last I heard on AIS in this thread, the woman whom was trying to get our group for a meeting (or it was something like that). Turned out AIS would not allow non-students.

I can say Digipen is more open for such if one of their instructors are involved.

I could throw this out on polycount and see if possible someone there can talk to their company to allow it to happen on their premises?

Sounds like a game plan Drew!

[S!R]

FYI- Just talked to Diana at Vermillion, they are booked through summer as far as shows/exhibitions go.

[oXYnary]

Hey all, Polycount is having a meet up Next Wed. (28th) @ http://www.eltoreador.com/ around 7:30pm .

Might give you gus a chance to have some artists from different companies to propose the idea of this event to?

(Undertow, I tried proposing to the IGDA, no response. (

[silvestri99]

Mike- Email me your address and i'll throw some cash into the pot...

Alos BIAS is opening in Burien today with some cool events... check it out!

You are invited!



Burien Interim Art Space Celebration, Sat, January 24, 2009

150th and 6th SW in Downtown Burien



Schedule of Events



3:00p - Meet the Artists-Burien Town Square Office,

(152nd between 4th & 5th)
4:00p - Drum Corp procession from Town Square
Office to B/ IAS
4:20p - Burien’s very own Block Party B-Boys
4:40p - Ceremony - Thanks & Introductions
5:00p - Lighting of The Passage
5:15p - Spinergy Fire Performers
5:30p - DJ Ludington G
6:30p - DJ Randy Engstrom & Firepod
7:30p - Abyssinian Belly Dancers
7:30p - Firepod



More information on B/ IAS at www.interim-art-space.com

I'll be there!



Edit...
Heres what happened at the event. Tonight tit will be on Evening Magazine.
http://www.highlinetimes.com/article...ews/news01.txt

[Fire Moth]

Hey David I would love to be at BIAS but I had to work.
And for Oxynary's PC meeting. I will have to see if i can get off work in time to meet.

[silvestri99]

So when are we up for our next meeting? How about some life drawing this Saturday?

[S!R]

I personally have other commitments that prevent me from doing life drawing this week.

On a completely different note:

Generally I have decided to take a back seat in the Sketch Group for an undetermined amount of time.
Anyone wanna "ride shotgun" with Mike? (Mike this decision is not based on you at all)

I will lurk and watch from afar for now.

[silvestri99]

S!R, what did your "shotgun" duties include (other than reloading...besides are you using shot, or slugs?)?