Figure Drawing Post. Learning how to draw the figure better.

I have, thanks to a good friend, discovered an online school that will help students and professionals dramatically increase their drawing and design skills.  Here is their link.  http://www.cgma2dacademy.com Check these course choices out and see what you think.  Could be awesome for any artist that wants to improve their skills....

The AMAZING WORK OF TOM FLEMING

WWW.FLEMART.COM

Over the years of attending various comic/sci-fi fantasy conventions, I've had the priveledge of getting to know Tom Fleming.   Tom is one of my favorite Fantasy and Fine Art painters.  His figures and knowledge of human anatomy is apparent through his beautifully stunning works.  His figure paintings and sketches of women of comics has captured the attention of the international world of Fantasy Art and he is considered one of the greatest modern fantasy artists alive today.  His inspiration ranges from Frank Frazetta to Gustov Klimt and he somehow manages to marry the inspirations in his paintings with an almost genius method of color, tones and value ranges with stunning anatomical accuracy that in the end simply creates a beautiful painting.  His work has been featured on the cover of Heavy Metal magazine as well as dozens of various publications. Tom has painted covers & trading cards for almost every major publisher in the comic book industry and has illustrated for some of the most popular gaming companies in the world such as: World of Warcraft, Magic the Gathering, and White-Wolf Publishing. He has won numerous awards in the Fantasy genre including FOUR nominations for the prestigious Chelsey Award!

In 2000 Tom landed a job as the official illustrator for the Jody Foster movie “The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys” with animation by Todd McFarlane. Since then, Tom has worked on movies & TV shows such as; “Stateside”, “Stay Alive”, “Surface”, “Major Movie Star”, "Super", "A Cinderella Story 3", "Smile as Big as the Moon"and the hit TV show “One Tree Hill”.  My personal favorites of his works are his elongated paintings of various "romantic styled" fine art paintings of women and men in various states of enlightenment and ecstasy. Check out some of his examples here....

From a post I put on facebook

Flipping through the channels, stopped at Pawn Stars because this guy was selling his life's collection of Star Trek (Signed) un-opened boxes of collectibles. All the pawn "stars" did was belittle him, call him a nerd 8 times (I counted), said he had to "grow up" several times and then totally underbid everything of what it's worth after insulting him and his Prius as if they are so "cool" with their tats and bikes and extreme obesity. They are such assholes I couldn't watch any more. They basically pressured the guy into selling the collection for a lot less than what it was worth which they always do apparently. I really don't like "Hateful" reality shows. I like shows like Oddities, face-off, DDD, etc because the people are nice and polite on the show. Whatever happened to treating people with respect?

• Kathy Wiedenman Hill, R.t. Shepherd, Matthew Crotts and 11 others like this.
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  James Champion I agree with you that they do belittle a lot of people that they show them dealing with. But you have to think from their side also they they are a business and need to make a profit also. I try mostly to pass on the show.

  Saturday at 1:29am via mobile · Unlike · 1
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  James Christopher Hill Of course they need to make a profit, at least a 30-50% markup which would be fair, but it's the way they talk to people and try to underbid them knowing it's worth a lot more. In Oddities, they usually know the value, tell the person the fair price a...See More

  Saturday at 1:41am · Like · 4
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  Sharen Mitchell I have to agree with you James. I watch both shows and Ame. Pickers also. After reading this I'm not watching Pawn anymore. I absolutely love Oddities for the very reasons you explained. They knew cuss well that they hit the jackpot with the Star Trek memorabilia, especially with the cons that run through the southwest. If anything they should've put him on speed dial and treated him like a VIP to get his friend's business. I think you just inspired me to search that episode and write a letter! There's a reason Marvel stock has skyrocketed in the last 5yrs, hipsters buy "nerd" glasses, the gaming & comic industry has seen a growth in interest from 20-40yr olds in the past 6yrs (this years PAX convention 3day passes sold out in 1wk) and sci-fi movies have been the hot button ticket for the past 4. Yea, they knew what they had and belittled that customer to steal it from him.

  Saturday at 7:24am via mobile · Like
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  Janet Millwater Iannantuono Actually I disagree. It is the way the pawn business works. If you want to get what your collection is worth, you don't go to a pawn shop. You sell it yourself on Ebay or get a booth at a Con. There is allot of risk in the Pawn business and that is the way they make their money. Pawn shops are just one step above the title loan companies. People who go there are usually desperate for money and that is where they get you. They are pretty upfront about it on not only this show, but on Hardcore Pawn and some of the other similar shows. The moral to the story is that the seller should do their research before putting their stuff up for sale. Hopefully in that respect the shows serve a purpose--If you want top dollar for your collection, don't go to a pawn shop or sell to a picker!

  Saturday at 9:06am · Like
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  Christopher Laserbeam LeBeau I have seen the show a bunch of times where the customer was asking for peanuts and they knew the item was worth a mint and paid a lot more. So it goes both ways. Now wether or not they did it just to save face on TV is questionable. I will say however, that the show is fake, and the actual pawn shop is nothing more than a reality show gift shop, feeding off the popularity of the show. Inside the actual shop on any given day, it is mostly cheap merchandise like Chumlee teeshirts and other assorted garbage. They sell most of the stuff they buy online.

  Saturday at 9:38am via mobile · Like
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  Lorna Anne Whetsell Oddities = A+ . . . I don't care for Shows that profit off of others misery. That is precisely what pawn shops do. People go there desperate, or they would never consider selling their prized possessions. (Been there, done that.) It is sad, really. And then, knowing they are desperate . . . the pawn shops take even more advantage of them. SICKENING!

  Saturday at 11:50am · Edited · Like
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  Janet Millwater Iannantuono Well, nobody twists anyone's arm to go into them or to sell their stuff. And is they insult your or degrade you , then you simply collect your stuff and walk out. We don't have a constitutional right not to be offended, we simply have the right to choose who we do business with.

  Saturday at 1:27pm · Like
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  Tomas Tillotson I met the crew from Oddities. Nice folks!

  Saturday at 3:32pm via mobile · Unlike · 2
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  Christopher Laserbeam LeBeau Pawn shops were the original banks, and probably a lot more honest and fair to this day than most banks...lol

  Saturday at 5:27pm via mobile · Like
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  Janet Millwater Iannantuono As a buyer you can get good deals from them!

  Saturday at 8:17pm · Like · 1
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  Christopher Laserbeam LeBeau That's true, and I have sold them a few things and gotten more than I thought they were worth. You just gotta use your own discretion, if you feel like you can get more, then walk away, no harm done. Don't even go in if you don't want to haggle, because that's the name of the game...lol

  Saturday at 11:36pm via mobile · Like
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  James Christopher Hill I love when I start conversations and controversial discussions, but this one is simple, I really wasn't bashing Pawn shops, some are descent, some do take advantage of desperate people and the point I was trying to make and some of you got it was that I don't like watching people being degraded for what makes them happy or put down or humiliated for the sake of "ratings" or just the sake of "fun" on the part of the person doing the insulting. It's not fun, it's not courteous, it's not right, it may be "legal" or "fair"; but in the end, I believe in the golden rule which funny thing, I don't hear too much any more......Do Unto Others as You Would Want Others to Do Unto You! Yes, the person pawing the Star Trek collection sealed his own "fate" by going to a pawn shop, but they could have simply treated him kinder. That's all I was really saying. Like Lorna said, profiting off of others' misery is not the way to live a life on this Earth and that is what most Reality shows promote even if it is "scripted" or "acted" it still promotes that kind of attitude toward your fellow person. This is a planet that is 7,926 miles in Diameter and it's getting smaller every day with more than 7 Billion people on the planet. We need to reignite the Golden Rule across the Globe and we can start with how we simply talk to people even if they do make not be the best choices. We can be helpful to desperate people. They didn't have to resort to insulting him or "belittling Star Trek fans" by calling him a nerd and telling him to "Grow up". The man obviously was being a real man and "Grown up" because he was selling his life's love of Star Trek so he could pay for his wedding for the woman he loved. He told them that, and they could have offered him more money is all I'm saying. They knew he was in a tough spot and they took advantage of that situation during these times of Star Trek mania and they knew that. Whether or not it was "real" - "scripted", whatever reality shows do; it still showed people being mean to someone that was being nice. There is a story I love to tell people about being fair and honest to the point of being "too" honest but the rewards can be STUNNING! ..... The story goes something like this, probably based on some Urban Legend, but I like to tell it..... An old woman was selling everything she could part with to try in desperation to keep her losing her house due to back taxes. One Saturday morning yard sale (she had a sale every week); a man noticed just a couple of "rusting" metal cookie tins with Japanese writing on them and art, etc. He noticed the price on them was $.50 cents each. He quickly bought both and went to pay her. He gave her the money, she smiled at him and he smiled back and told her "Good Luck with the yard sale". Something stopped him when he reached his car; maybe his conscience, God, whatever... He went back to the old woman and confessed to her saying "Ma'am, I can't give you $1.00 for these tins, in all honesty I believe they are worth over $5,000 each! He explained he was an international art dealer and knew antiquities and he believed these tins to be from the 1930's pre-war Japan by a famous artist. "Really?!?!" She said, "I can't believe that!!?! That's really funny, I have an attic FULL of those silly things. My Husband collected them when he lived there before the war ever started and went back after the war and bought more. He was obsessed with them for some reason." The expert made a deal with her on the spot, he would take 25% commission if he could take them to NY to sell at the major art auction houses. They agreed, she made over $1.5 million and saved her house. He made a lot too. All because he was honest. If he had taken advantage of her lack of knowledge or desperation, he would never have been privy to her entire collection and made both her and himself a fortune! A book called the Millionaire Mind (great book) has a philosophy about how to become rich if you are a broker or sales rep. If you strive to make someone else and not yourself rich, you, in turn will make yourself rich as well. Or more simply put, "The more money I make you, the more I make for myself" The story showed desperation turned into kindness, honesty, and wealth of unimagined good fortune. Oddities is a show where they seem to be having fun helping others get weird things and just like the Millionaire Mind shows, you build not only a business but a family with your customers and they have that with repeat business from some of the same people always coming back. I also loved Hollywood Treasures because it seemed Joe Montana had the same philosophy about helping people make money. It was also a nice reality show and fun to watch. BTW, AMAZING what some things are worth nowadays. But nothing is worth more than a kind word or a smile to a stranger.

  2 minutes ago · Like

Just Got Back from a very Successful Show at MEGACON 2012! I'll post more images later.....
Here is my website btw.....www.JAMESHILLGALLERY.com

Here is another piece I created recently using 3D Studio Max and Adobe Photoshop.  I really need way more horsepower to render multiple scenes as this one took 45 minutes per frame.  Hope you like! 

http://james-christopher-hill.artistwebsites.com/featured/tesla-power-generator-james-christopher-hill.html#comment6076177

And here is another page I can sponsor from Fine Art America....

http://fineartamerica.com/art/paintings/landscape/all

Here is a link for Fine Art America to check out....

http://fineartamerica.com/art/paintings/sunset/all

I've just joined a new International art website called ArtVIP.  Here is the slide show that they provide.....http://www.artvipgallery.com/profile/JamesChristopherHill

All right, It's time to talk about a real artist. A talent that exist in this world that can pretty much draw and create any image he wants.  He is a master of many subjects, but in my humble opinion his mastery is in Dragons.  He is the official illustrator for Insane Clown Possie and I can understand why, but his real talent lies in dragons and every concept you need painted.  His name is Tom Wood. www.TomWood.

Here is official website:

http://www.tomwoodfantasyart.com/pages/hellfire_plague_of_dragons
 
And his facebook fanpage.....

https://www.facebook.com/pages/TOM-WOOD-FANTASY-ART/151970422995

The guy is a master painter and I was so happy and humbled to be stationed next to him at Dragoncon this year.  I got to know the real person behind the talent and while I was there to have fun, say hello to my dear friends, and spend money on what I really wanted, all of my money went to him.  I now have two dragon macquets in my living room along with several t-shirts, posters, cups, etc.   Check his work out and you WILL be amazed!  This is the main reason I go to Dragoncon/Comicon to meet the master and I got the honor of having a booth right next to a great master! Tom Wood. .....Check his work out!

I now have work posted on ARTWANTED.COM - This should be a good adventure as they really do have a nice website.  Check it out!.....

http://www.artwanted.com/artist.cfm?artid=64266

Well, I'm very proud to say that a friend of mine's daughter, Astrid McGlone has just been invited to join the Teen Vogue Blog - thanks to her own personal blog she has created along with her talented younger sister Nadja. Together, they seem unstoppable. Just goes to show you that you are never too young to change your world or the world around you! Amazing and Kudos to these terrific young ladies! Here is her blog - spread the word..... http://www.theweeklystyler.com/

As we start to enter the new year, I want to say something about talent versus costs. It seems for the past 10 years, Charleston has been rather good at trying to get whatever work from whomever for practically nothing in payment due to whatever reason as too many eager kids fresh from our tech or art colleges are willing to work for nothing and rather unethically undercut their fellow colleague in price due to clients "carrot dangling" in promising future work from sooooooo many other people, or saying to the kid "it will be good for your portfolio/business/etc" - Yes, we've heard it all. It's "Unethical" to charge a lower rate" REALLY!?!?!?" YES! It's unethical to charge way less than the going rate. If you want to make any money in the business of art, you have to charge the current and ethical rates. Otherwise, you are only shooting yourself in the foot. There is a book you can buy at Amazon and most professionals in whatever industry refer to it as a bible of ethical pricing. It's called the Book of Ethical Pricing and Guidelines and you can find it at Amazon.com. www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines The reason I bring this up is that I was speaking to a friend of mine who is a professional photographer and we were talking about "guy with camera disease". It is a real disease - It's somebody with a digital camera who has learned to take some descent shots, but doesn't have the raw talent or the tons/years of professional training in photography such as good lighting, composition, arrangement, digital and analog techniques, paper, lenses, equipment let alone their own unique style of what makes the professional photographer's work stand apart from the rest. This "guy with camera" is the one who is willing to do a wedding for $100-$200. I've seen the results and it's not that pretty. At best it looks like an amateur came to your wedding and shot. The lighting is off, there are usually bad backgrounds, photo-bombing both intentional and unintentional; bad looks from the subjects such as an "off smile" from the bride with the groom, etc. Yes, you save a lot of money by hiring an amateur to shoot the wedding, but you get ONE CHANCE only and that's IT! Then, after you get married, your wife will always look at you when she looks at the photos of her best day on earth with you, the one she always looked forward to since she was a child and think ---- "OMG, I wish we hired a professional".... She'll say something reassuring to you like, "It's ok, we have the rest of our lives to take photos, or "they aren't THAT important" but THEY ARE! They might not be that important to you and whoever reads these words will surely and probably say I'm overreacting, but it's true, the one thing over everything else that should take precedence is hiring a good photographer. You'll thank yourself when you sit at your cubicle/office, etc and look at the photo of your wedding day and of your wife and say "I'm glad I paid the few Thousand dollars!" - Yep - they can run from anywhere from a few thousand to $20,000-$30,000 here in Charleston. But they are really worth it. I speak from experience... As an artist that has to keep a visual database of all his paintings and that means hiring a good photographer that can handle shooting offset-printing-ready works. Since day one, I've had the real blessing of being able to use the best in the business in Charleston for helping artists print their works. Everyone is always asking me how do you make prints of your art... Here's how.....Here is the secret... Pick up the phone, get your credit card out....because, yes it cost money and no, your friend "guy with camera" can't shoot your work that help you save money. Once again, shooting your art is a ONE TIME only chance and you might sell the original and kick yourself over and over again that you didn't get a good digital copy with the perfect lighting and color correction that you need to print your works. If you want to know the expert in Charleston that shoots most artists works, wright me and I'll tell you. Otherwise, good luck in finding a good photographer. He also does commercial work of any kind including weddings and he IS one of the best photographers in the southeast! Good photographers, they cost money, but they are worth it. Like the old saying goes, "You get what you pay for". I look at sooo many ads, prints, commercials made locally and yes, business owners, we can tell that you hired your nephew to shoot your commercial and yes it looks like an amateur shot it in his basement or garage. We see through the bad acting from your family, we here it in the "camera mike on" without bluetooth mikes, we see it in your bad composition, story telling with various shots, bad dialogue - should I continue?!? Or are you re-thinking now that maybe I won't go buy a car from you or an ice-cream cone because your commercial looks cheap because it does and we as consumers are more aware than ever about the old saying...."If you are willing to cut corners with your ads, artists you hire or "guy with camera" you hired by bartering or carrot dangling, then you aren't willing to provide the best quality and service to the customer". We see through it in the end. So the lesson tonight is as everyone is feeling the pinches of today's business markets and less and less money being made and more and more cutbacks are being made, you have to ask yourself; "Was it really worth it in the long run to save a few dollars" and end up with crap in the end. You shot yourself in your own foot by saving a few bucks and put a lot of people out of business because guess what, they and many others as a result of almost everyone trying to get a "good deal" can't afford to buy what you are selling.....Sad but True... This Statement was made on Jan 13th of 2013....by me, James Hill a professional artist who charges accordingly, fairly and ethically. I went to a really expensive and world-renowned art college and I may charge more for my art, but .....I'm worth it! :) And all of you that are an artist, albeit painter, photographer, graphic artist, illustrator - etc. You are ALL worth the money because you are selling not only your works but a part of who you are and your personal journey. So when that client looks at you after all the trails, training and late-nights practicing you have subjected yourself to; and ask you to create great works for a fraction of the price. Simply look at them, smile and say "No...It costs this much to hire me because I'm unique and I bring a unique talent to the table that you won't get anywhere else in the world." Look them in the eye, and say "I'm worth it!" Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines www.amazon.com For years, the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing and Ethical Guidelines has been the industry bible for graphic designers and illustrators. This, the 13th edition, continues the tradition with new information, listings and pricing information based on surveys of working designers. It addres... Like · · Promote · Share

Looking up various cool links on Fine Art America of which website that I sell my work through....you need to check it out....

http://james-christopher-hill.artistwebsites.com/

http://fineartamerica.com/art/paintings/sunset/all

Well, I finally decided to join the ETSY group and sell my work on there as well.  I've been selling my work on Fine Art America and now it's time to try another successful site.  It is a fairly easy site to sell work on.  Currently, I'm working very hard on my own complex website www.JamesHillGallery.com until I get a shopping cart set up on the site, I'll be selling my works on these excellent sites.  Check it out.  I have some really nice pieces that are framed and can even set on a shelf instead of being hung on a wall.  Here is the link to my site called Vintage Futurism.....It's focused mainly on Steampunk Artwork. https://www.etsy.com/your/listings?ref=si_your_shop

or https://www.etsy.com/listing/119360895/steampunk-dreams-iii