Howdy from Scott Fischer NEW ART 7/06 - 3 pieces

**Jedmo** · February 15th, 2006, 05:23 PM

I recognize the girl from the piece in Spectrum. I stared at it for awhile (along with the what? 5 other pieces you had in there?). I assume the title and everything will be going in that space below the characters? The use of the low opacity swirls and circles is really cool. Thanks for sharing.

**Albino Squid** · February 15th, 2006, 06:30 PM

aouch!! beautyfull stuff!!!

**twoheaded** · February 15th, 2006, 07:19 PM

I really admire the layering of the background, it takes a real artist's taste to put so much stuff together and make it work. Mind sharing the wisdom behind these beautiful collages?

**Fisch** · February 17th, 2006, 11:12 AM

Here is another Y/A middle-reader kinda cover. For those cool Spy Gear toys all the kiddies play with.

Sadly Barnes and Noble decided they wanted product shots w/ splashy p-shop FX for the covers of these books, and the publisher caved. So, if you Amazon 'Spygear adventures' you will see what they went with. My characters make minute appearances in silhouette on the cover, and headshots reprinted in B&W inside.

A lesson well learned of the power of Barnes and Noble. Kinda scary.

But I do believe the toy manufacturer will have my art live on on their website.

Scott

**glikster** · February 17th, 2006, 11:20 AM

whoah.... pure, unadulterated goodness!

**Fisch** · February 17th, 2006, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by twoheaded

I really admire the layering of the background, it takes a real artist's taste to put so much stuff together and make it work. Mind sharing the wisdom behind these beautiful collages?

I wish there were a better explanation of the methodology, but I just keep messing with stuff till it looks right. Squinting, deleting.

As much as you see in the image there were prolly 50% more things I tried and threw away.

I was watching the Iain McCaig dvd last night (1st and 2nd), and I was amazed how much he erased, and erased, and erased, and redrew. If you just see the image at the end, you think he threw it down in one pass, you know? So I guess my process is kinda like that. Murder your darlings!

Also while McCaig kept talking about contrast, contrast, contrast, and I agree. The thing I keep talking about is Gradation. Everything you do should fade as you get from your point. Be it highlight placement, texture usage, color. Everything you lay down should have its own journey in intensity and opacity on a global level. Gotta see that whole forrest!

Man when I started thinking like that everything changed about my work. And I still forget all the time!

Scott

**blog** · February 17th, 2006, 12:26 PM

Oooooh very int3eresting way to explain composition, you'rs rock so I'm very grateful of the explanation. Nice stuff!

**theincredibleandy** · February 17th, 2006, 04:15 PM

I saw the book covers Barnes & Noble ended up using and WOW do they suck! Your art would've been much better than the nonsense they made. Your intense rainbow palettes are great, like every painting is a candy store. Your artsy-fartsy talk is also quite inspiring. Glad you're sticking around!

**JoshuaTheJames** · February 17th, 2006, 05:25 PM

I reallly dig those black and white pieces!!!!!!!!

Right up my alley!

-JtJ

**Gangus** · February 17th, 2006, 05:32 PM

Hey Scott,

As always love the work.

The expressions of the girl in her face and pose are awesome.
Hope things are going well.(based on the quality of how your work
has eveloved in the past few years-I'd assume business is going excellent)

I knew you were destined for greatness the day I fell in love with the Asmodious (that doesn't make me evil does it?) piece you did for Dawn way back when.

Drop me a line if yer bored one day.

Regards,
Glen

**Matt Dixon** · February 17th, 2006, 05:45 PM

Add me to the 'big fan of yours for a while' pile. Great to see you here, Scott!

**aquq001** · February 18th, 2006, 09:49 AM

I love your color and fantastic talent~!

-MIlkway

**Sems** · February 18th, 2006, 07:48 PM

really love those first two

**hurricane** · February 18th, 2006, 09:46 PM

Wonderfull work !!
im a fan

cheers and keep on feeding me !

**treeboy** · February 23rd, 2006, 02:26 PM

nice to see a fellow SCADite, i'm just about 2/3 through my second year for anim/vsfx/game design but seeing your work is a total inspiration. More please

**Bomba** · February 23rd, 2006, 03:31 PM

Must... absord.... magical.... artistic.. powers....

**Flatuloso** · February 23rd, 2006, 04:22 PM

Funny that you should mention majoring in painting rather than illustration, I've been having a somewhat similar experience at school. When I tried to push towards realistic figure painting I was surprised to find that someo f my teachers told me that 'it's really hard' and 'you might want to remember that there are a lot of really good painters out there already'.

Well I'm not gonna stop, but it leads to me to think I should look in a few other places for advice on how to paint. From an oil painting standpoint, do you have any recommendations/rules of thumb that you could give? Also - which of the works you posted are traditional media vs. digital?

Really great work, as a (confession time) Magic player in my youth, a lot of your card illustrations are familiar to me - but they look amazing on a larger scale.

**Jushra** · February 23rd, 2006, 04:37 PM

very inspiring work fisch. i'll definately be keeping up with your thread.

**Fisch** · February 23rd, 2006, 05:02 PM

Originally Posted by Flatuloso

someo f my teachers told me that 'it's really hard' and 'you might want to remember that there are a lot of really good painters out there already'.

What school is this where they'd advise you against figurepainting cause there are really good painters out there? Sounds like a jaded teacher who never had what it took to go all the way and is projecting. This is almost as rediculous as when someone says 'there's no money in comic books.' Or 'there's no money in kidsbooks' . What a load of crap, of course there is money there. i know folks who are millonairs from kids books, as well as those who just scrape by. Sure it is rare to hit it big, but if someone else did it, then we can too!

**vigostar** · February 23rd, 2006, 05:22 PM

Just too damb cool... Your style is instantly recognizable. I have such admiration for your artwork. you have any sketches you can share? I like sketches

**Flatuloso** · February 23rd, 2006, 05:23 PM

Hah, I go to University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Overall, the illustration department isn't half-bad, but its professors run the gamut of fantastic to intolerable. A few of them are extremely cynical about the whole field, and make a habit of telling the kids in their classes that only a few of them will be able to turn illustration into a career. I could go through a laundry list of gripes, but it's at least partially my fault for not checking out my professors more thouroughly. I'm pretty sure they want to use said methods as some sort of reverse psychology, but mostly it just ends up being discouraging, and they waste time that could be spent teaching technique on 'giving us the facts of life'.

I wouldn't even say my professor was veering me away from realistic painting, but he certainly made it clear that I had a lot more to learn if I was shooting for a career in it (never mind that I thought I was paying him to teach me those things). But there's enough great painters here to warrant my tuition for one more year, I think.

However, I do feel the need to ask around for advice - would you care to comment on your art education? It's obviously served you well an I love hearing how people actually learned there craft.

**Irene Gallo** · February 23rd, 2006, 05:23 PM

Originally Posted by Flatuloso

Funny that you should mention majoring in painting rather than illustration, I've been having a somewhat similar experience at school. When I tried to push towards realistic figure painting I was surprised to find that someo f my teachers told me that 'it's really hard' and 'you might want to remember that there are a lot of really good painters out there already'..

Apparently Donato Giancola got the same thing from his school. He said that the illo department wouldn't accept him so he ended up in the painting department. Greg Manchess will talk your ear off about not being taught in school...."figurative painting is dead" crap.

Stick to your guns!

**Fisch** · February 23rd, 2006, 05:31 PM

Originally Posted by Flatuloso

From an oil painting standpoint, do you have any recommendations/rules of thumb that you could give? Also - which of the works you posted are traditional media vs. digital?

As to oil painting, the best book I have read on the subject was by Richard Schmid. Just astonishing. Among other things he taught me how to squint, one of the most important things you can do, period! As to learning in school, the funny thing is that as much as I learned in college, I learned twice as much the first year out of school. Cause at that point it is like, shit I gotta make a living, so I studied the masters intensively. Rembrandt, Sargent etc. But applied their technique to fantasy/comic book themes.

But one of the biggest pieces of advise I got as to physical painting was from Jeff Miracola. (Don't know that I've thanked you enough for that Jeff)

In 5 minutes he taught me how to lay a semitransparent glaze, over a head drawing for instance, then to start cutting into that glaze with white. The white mixes with the glaze and you get these great renders. Make the glaze thinner where you know your highlight will be so the paint stays brighter. This works even better over a dry underpainting.

Before this I was a Sargent guy whe would lay down two tones, then mix a half tone between them and lay that down.

Now I use both techniques in the same painting.

Add to that hitting a rendered area softly with a giant brush to kinda drag the paint strokes into each other, and BAM you got it.

One more technique to practice is using a liner brush and learning to write with a thin line of milky oil paint. (Edit- by milky I mean consistency, not color) So you get a nice solid line. You can then use this brush control with any brush for final accent marks. You are almost painting with the paint hanging at the end of the brush rather than the bristles if this make sense?

The first two pieces in this post are the only thing with traditional oil on them, but all on top of a digital underpainting. Any skin tones are 100% oil paint. Beyond that even I am unsure where the digital ends and the oil begins. It is all about bluring the line between the two. Let digi do what it does best, and let oil do what it does best.

I will attach a zoom of those first two paintings.

Fisch

**Fisch** · February 23rd, 2006, 05:52 PM

Originally Posted by vigostar

you have any sketches you can share? I like sketches

Sure here are some drawings!

The first two are rejected cover ideas. The second two are monster drawings.

Scott

**Flatuloso** · February 23rd, 2006, 06:05 PM

Wow - thanks so much for the advice!

**Jane Radstrom** · February 23rd, 2006, 09:51 PM

WOW! This stuff is great! I'm really inspired. Could you clarify what you ment by,

"The thing I keep talking about is Gradation. Everything you do should fade as you get from your point. Be it highlight placement, texture usage, color. Everything you lay down should have its own journey in intensity and opacity on a global level. Gotta see that whole forrest!"

Are you referring to each shape of color/value (the schmidt definition of shape) gradating within itself, or do mean more of a whole-painting gradation happening? I'm quite curious about this concept.

**Ganbat-Bad** · February 23rd, 2006, 10:16 PM

Master klass great works

**Fisch** · February 23rd, 2006, 10:41 PM

Originally Posted by Velo

Are you referring to each shape of color/value (the schmidt definition of shape) gradating within itself, or do mean more of a whole-painting gradation happening? I'm quite curious about this concept.

Thanks! Actually, I am meaning both things. Secular at first then, in relation to the whole painting. Granted some things will fade into oblivion before they ever reach the edge. But you have to squint and check their relativity to the whole piece to be sure they went far enough.

But what if you reach the edge of an element? You may pick up the tonal-travel beyond its border. For instance if you hit the edge of a figure but globally the lighter tone needs to travel further, you just lighten whatever is behind the figure, gradually moving the transition. Can even be a different color. The gradation can even jump over an other, unaffected, element, even a flat black one, and continue. The squint will tell you if it was too big a leap.

Even flat, graphic splashes and texture should be treated this way. Perhaps the graphic splashes get bolder, gradually, as you get away from a figure. Maybe the level of texture has the opposite transition.

But of course, as Schmid says, nothing is right all the time!

The other thing is I am really not totally aware that I am applying this theory while I am doing it. It is only as I look back at a piece and try to figure it out that I see it. But if i hit a point where a piece isn't working in a squint, I try to gradiate something. Maybe a texture was too same-same all over, flatening it? Maybe a graphic stroke should have faded on one side? Or I need to apply gradually smaller graphic strokes as I transition away.

Heck eved brush strokes themselves can gradate. Smaller as you are at your focus, transitioning to bolder bigger strokes as you get away.

This one's a couple years old, but from when i really started to stumble on this thought process.

Sorry to bog y'all down with a big reply!

Scott

EDIT additional info on this piece from post 144:

For instance, some of my boldest strokes happen at the edge of a piece. Usually because I am trying to balance out all the little detail at the focal point of a piece. But the strokes on the outer edge aren't literally 'faded'. But they 'fade' in size as they get to the center focus where there's lots of little strokes.

There is a lot of texture on the girl in the center of the composition, and that texture was originally that intense all over the piece, flattening the piece, so I gradually kept adding bigger and bigger strokes as we transitioned to the edge. Then I actually reached a point of transition where I could keep the texture in the furthest corners.

But these little battles are happening all over the place.

If you cover up the lower scarf in that piece and the lower left dots, the piece becomes unbalanced predominantly to the upper right. Not just on an object level, but on a color temperature as well. The yellow of the scarf, as small an amount as it is, helps balance the warm in the center of the piece.