If you had the chance, which living artists would you like to learn from in person?

[Velocity Kendall]

Which living designers and artists would you love to listen to live?

Im particularly thinking of industrial design and machine concept artists but thats not necessarily a hard and fast rule.

Maybe the guys behind the walking tank in Ghost in the Shell or Sadamoto, designer of the giant Evangelion mech suits and their young human pilots? Or maybe Andrew Probert designer of the TNG Enterprise and the DeLorean Time Machine?
Chris Foss? Syd Mead?

EDIT can totally include people you know from here or elsewhere on the net..

Id be interested in your thoughts..
cheers

[Star Eater]

Holy shit what a question! That's hard, but 4 off the top of my head when I think of my favourite living artists that I would love to work under would be

Iain Mccaig
Jeff Easley
Denis Loubet
and Greg Hildebrandt (RIP Tim)

What a terrible question, I had to limit myself severely. I'd add a couple of guys on the forums too, but I don't want to give them a big head and besides I get to learn from them here which is -almost- (but not quite) as good as in person.

[Randis]

Would like to get to know:
Yoshitaka Amano, Makoto Kobayashi, Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira Totyama.

[Velocity Kendall]

Eeexcellent eeeexcellent..

Otomo.... imagine that..

"I'd add a couple of guys on the forums too, but I don't want to give them a big head"

hehe theyre big boys and girls im sure they can handle it, name some names!

[DaleC]

Chuck Close

[Stormslegacy]

Definitely Gurney.

He was the guest of honor at Anthrocon a couple years ago and I missed his masterclass, I was very sad >_<.

[Slothboy3000]

John Berkey (noticed you said living, but what the hey!)
Ikuto Yamashita (mech designer for Evangelion, though I'm not sure if that means he did the Evas too or whether that was Sadamoto)
Katsuhira Otomo
Syd Mead
The spider tanks are pretty darn iconic.
Yoji Shinkawa

[Velocity Kendall]

more top suggestions!

"Ikuto Yamashita (mech designer for Evangelion, though I'm not sure if that means he did the Evas too or whether that was Sadamoto)"

HOLY CRAP i considered myself an evageek but i thought it was all sadamoto, but im currently having my mind blown by Yamashita-sans work; the mass production evangelions are some of the most disturbing amazing designs ive ever seen..

[Slothboy3000]

Ah yeah, he did design them! Gotta love those clown smiles.

[Star Eater]

Eeexcellent eeeexcellent..

Otomo.... imagine that..

"I'd add a couple of guys on the forums too, but I don't want to give them a big head"

hehe theyre big boys and girls im sure they can handle it, name some names!

Ok, well I don't want to look like a kiss-ass nor do I want to leave anyone out and the thing is, these guys actually pretty much already teach in the forums already.

Venger
Elwell
JeffX99
dpaint
arenhaus

There's actually a couple more, but I feel weird about doing this. Regardless of skill level, I always learn from people critting but in terms of personal achievements and such (and I mean things that appeal to me personally in their bios and portfolios.) these are the guys that have things in their repertoire that I was pleasantly surprised to discover. Being in SA, I really lament the fact that I'll never get to sit in on a lecture with them or check out their studios.

So yeah, I'd spend a day with them...

but would they respect me in the morning?

[tobbA]

I'd probably say all of them... but

Yoshitaka Amano, Greg Manchess, Sam Weber, Michael Whelan, Bobby Chiu, Petar Meseldzija

[littlebones]

James Jean, hands down. I admire a lot of living artists but I think he's inspired me most of all. Not just for his technical skill, but for his simultaneously twisted & beautiful imagination. Though that's not something that can be taught, really.

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

Aaron Beck

Paul Lasaine

Shaddy Safadi

Andrée Wallin

Jesse van Dijk

James Paick

[Farvus]

That's a tough question for me beacause I never had some major inspiration when it comes to industrial design.
I think for tech/machinery maybe Katsuhiro Otomo, Keith Thompson and Stephan Martiniere.

For character design Ian McCaig and Dermot Power. For environments Khang Le and Christian Lorenz Sheurer.

[Qitsune]

Well I have had the chance to attend two IMCs and two Illuxcons already so I have met many of my heroes and I have met amazing artists and lecturers that I truly admire even if I didn't know their work beforehand (Adam Rex comes to mind.)

Add to that that I'm attending the next IMC with Brom and I don't really have much of a wish list left. Of course there are amazing artists that never taught me, but I'm sure I'll get around to meeting many of them over the years and in a way I think I prefer being pleasantly surprised than having fixed dream tutors.

That said, there are artists I know from the internet and I hope I'll get to meet them in real because I admire them as artists and as people.

[Maidith]

Donato Giancola and James Gurney. Two of my absolute favorite illustration heroes. I had the chance to meet them at two Comic Cons in Lucca, Italy... and missed them both. (wtf) I'm not taking that as a sign

[Raoul Duke]

Marcos Mateu-Mestre
Joe Kubert
Claire Wendling
Dan Milligan
Bill Seinkiewics
Bernie Wrightson
Brian Wood (mad layout skills)

[ArtZealot]

In no particular order:
Khang Le
Sparth
Ryan Church
Kim Hyung Tae
James Paick
Shaddy Safadi
and/or
-Any or all of the guildwars concept artists- Kekai Kotaki, Daniel Dociu, Levi Hopkins, etc.
Not to mention the team at Massive Black.

[edit] oh and of course craig mullens.

[Velocity Kendall]

arron beck is fucking awesome, his battle robots are terrifyingly credible
M Kuciara and Jaime Jones are ace too i think

id like to meet Ridley Scott and Luigi Colani a lot

[Alex Chow]

Ashley Wood, Yoshitaka Amano, Yoji Shinkawa, Craig Mullins, Jaime Jones, David Kassan, Jeremy Lipking

[OmenSpirits]

Joe Kubert
Joe Sinnott
Bill Sienkiewicz
John Romita
Gurney

[Blackthorne]

Schmid, Gurney, Meseldzija, David Finch, Bernie Wrightson, ah fuck there's way too many to list.

[Deadlyhazard]

Ruan Jia, Craig Mullins, Jaime Jones, Kekai Kotaki, Richard Schmid, James Gurney, Justin Sweet, Dan Holdeen, Min Yum, Kazuo Oga, and Maciej Kuciara.

Oh man there's probably a lot more, that's just off the top of my head.....MUST...EXTRACT THINGS FROM THEIR BRAINS!!!!!!!

[Raoul Duke]

Nice lists. You guys know more about what artists I'd like to see more than I do. I had to edit my list.

[manlybrian]

James Gurney
Dan Dos Santos
Tim Sale
Jason Manley
William Whitaker
Android Jones
Andrew Loomis
Doug TenNapel
Norman Rockwell
MC Escher

[Max Challie]

[edit] oops, i wrote out a list of artists i'm inspired by, lol. Time to change it to those i would like to learn from, haha i'm stupid sometimes


M.C. Barrett, Sparth, Barontieri, Rick Berry, Phil Hale, Jon Foster, Cos Koniotis, Jason Manley, Wesley Burt, Min Yum (don't usually like saturated colours but man!! Min is certainly an exception), Nick Constantine, Kekai Kotaki, Ikuto Yamashita, Wayne Barlowe, Yasushi Suzuki, Adrian Smith [edit] - i forgot to mention Viktor Antonov and Trevor Claxton!!

Maybe the guys behind the walking tank in Ghost in the Shell or designer of the giant Evangelion mech suits and their young human pilots?

FUCK YES

Eva Concept Design Works is downloadable here! I can't really say it's any more useful or satisfying to own the actual book though.
More eva stuff, and some serious Ikuto Yamashita funk

[Beeston]

John Howe,
Alan Lee,
James Gurney,
Petar Meseldzija and
Android Jones (The latter of which I WILL get to learn how awesome and flawless and totally better than photoshop Corel Painter 12 is in just about every conceivable way which is no way a marketing stunt designed to associate QANTM COLLEGE TM or COREL PAINTER TM with the digital renaissance man.... after my project management class not next week but the week after.)

[Conniekat8]

wow, so many awesome names. I need to take notes and learn more about all of them.
One that I love for the edgy characters for Gulliermo Del Toro movies is Keith Thompson.

[Cory Hinman]

Jon Howe, Michael William Kaluta, and Carter Goodrich.

[Qitsune]

...
Iain Mccaig
Jeff Easley
...
and Greg Hildebrandt (RIP Tim)

Definitely Gurney.

...
Greg Manchess, Sam Weber, Michael Whelan, Bobby Chiu, Petar Meseldzija...

...
For character design Ian McCaig...

...Donato Giancola and James Gurney. ...

...Sparth...

...Not to mention the team at Massive Black.

...James Gurney
Dan Dos Santos
Jason Manley
William Whitaker
Android Jones...

...
James Gurney,
Petar Meseldzija and
Android Jones ...

You guys are in luck because all of these artists are active teachers or lecturers (others too, I know Armand Cabrera gives workshop, Tristan teaches, and if only he could give his class in intensive format people from other areas could attend pld: ) and many others from your lists I don't know about.

I know it can be expensive to attend Illuxcon or the TLC workshops or Massive black events or IMC or Art Out Loud, but it is really worth it. Make yourself an art fund and put a bit of money aside in it and you can meet your heroes and learn tons from them. Do you realize how lucky we are that the internet allows us to know when our heroes are lecturing somewhere, that we live in a time when technology allows us to travel there quickly and safely and that these people are generous enough to share their skills and knowledge with us?

When you go to an event like that, not only you come back knowing more but your art battery is recharged and you are as motivated as you are ever going to be.