MassiveBlack Workshop @ San Francisco

Happy holidays! Its our first post here and we'll be talking about what we've learn from the MassiveBlack workshop @ San Francisco.

Victor Kalvachev : The veteran art director and creator of the on-going comic BLUE ESTATE (which Robert Valley happens to be one of the artist on board) was at the workshop showing his sculpting process and also giving a 1 hour panel talk on creating comics. We were able to talk to him and got feedback for our  portfolio too. I highly recommend his book and art. He is so prolific and passionate in his work.

He recommends Modeling Clay for sculpting because it never hardens. That way he can manipulate his sculptures as and when he needs to. Its a slightly different approach from traditional sculptors where sculpey  was preferred because it can be baked to a harden finish just like how we did it HERE.

Basic Armature Wire for the Sculpture.

A character from BLUE ESTATE!

Da Man, Victor Kalvachev

Da Man sculpting from the ground for us.

David Kassan : You've probably seen his work on the internet before. His drawings looks so real with just charcoal and pencils. Throughout the workshop he was constantly drawing at the Life Drawing section. The pictures below were taken from his only demo on one of the afternoons. The tips and ideas he gave were radically different from the ones we learn in art school. He constantly pushes the idea of making the drawing look alive, having character and soul. He even goes to the extend of using binoculars. Really patient artist.

An initial 15 minute sketch on 8.5 by 11 sketchbook. He is wicked quick and accurate.

The secret tools!

Final drawing on a 11 by 17 inch grey Canyon Paper. (we think, have to check our notebooks.)

Here's the live footage you've all been waiting for.

(We apologize for the low quality and sound disappearing halfway. Blogger just refuse to render it correctly.)

The Workshop was full of great inspiring artists and there's just too much bad photos that we took due to our lousy camera. However, with the bottom sketches samples, you guys probably can tell how kick ass these people are. Yes, SKETCHES. These people have sketchbooks that look pretty much like finish work. CRAZY CRAZY STUFF.

Owning

Heads and heads and HEADS!

Its been 3 years since the last MassiveBlack Workshop we attended in Wellington, NZ and it is still inspiring as hell. The artists that were giving talks back then has gone further and were sharing more tips and tricks but the overall idea were still the same; you've got to work hard. The cool thing about such events is that we get to see other attendee's work and through their portfolio reviews, we learn so much more, especially the importance of foundation. And with that, we'll be focusing on our strengths and working on our personal stuff this holiday season. AWESOME stuff. (hopefully lolx)