In case all of you are wondering where are my latest paintings, here's what's been happening. There is an old saying "Time to go back to to drawing board". It means if something is not working the way you want, try again, re-invent, learn, make mistakes, keep going back to the drawing board over and over until you get it right. Over the past six months, I've decided to focus my energies on perfecting and honing my skills as an artist to another whole new level of quality and detail. All of my life, especially when I was a kid, I used to draw in extreme details when I was 10, 11, 12, etc. I like accuracy but I got frustrated when I couldn't achieve quality work like I was first seeing by artists like Chris Foss, Joe Johnston, Roger Dean and Ralph McQuarrie. I would try with colored pencils, (fail, pastels, fail, markers, fail). I would use any and all drafting templates architectural, electrical, standard, etc and I had no idea about different grades of lead graphite from 6H to 6B range. I just took a no. 2 pencil and pushed it to the limits I knew. I tried acrylic and oil painting and got frustrated because what I saw in my head was NOT what came out on paper. I would draw over and over, paint over and over until I got something I was proud of. In High School in my junior year, I finally took an art class only to be told that me and another great artist, Edward Reed who sat across from me and became my best friend, "there was nothing they could teach us as we were more talented" than the teacher. It was a bit frustrating and the only thing that kept me sane was my friend Ed to "compete" with in a friendly "throw down the gauntlet style. We used to joke with each other after doing a carefully hand-drawn portrait, "Top that dude!", which of course we strived to do. We did good, especially with portraits but we were bored, we had reached a wall, a limit of what could be achieved. Without the proper teachers and influences to guide us, to push us to the next levels, we got stuck. Luckily Ed found airbrushing and started to learn from some of the world's leading airbrush artists and I discovered H.R. Giger and Syd Mead around the same time. No one told us the path to choose, we had to blaze our own. There were gateways to Hell we were forced to go through due to unforeseen circumstances and we persevered, but like a good Battleship like the Galactica, we took a heavy beating from the world of reality. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong influences. That's why I don't want to hear from the younger crowd today any excuses of why they can't achieve greatness. They have access to amazing teachers online, the web, the Gnomon School training, cool software and drawing boards (Wacom), and amazing programs both free and powerful or established, costly but effective programs that allow a person that has a home computer to do anything now. They have no excuses except they can pull the lazy card. You get what you put into it. You work hard to create great work and you stay humble so you can always learn from others and keep and open mind to listen to what the masters can teach you every day! So, here I am at 49, I've made a good career as a fairly accomplished artist. Guess what, I'm going back to the drawing board everyday to relearn the basics, the proper geometrics and mathematical formulas for not good but great drawing and sketching that will translate better to better, more high quality master works. In other words, I'm re-practicing and re-training my brain and my hands to learn better ways of creating the images I want and have wanted to create since I was a child and finally we have the ability, knowledge, experience and wherewithal to do so; to execute not good, but great pieces of art that will stop even more people in their tracks to say around the world "Have you seen this guy's work!?!!?" It's not an ego thing, it really isn't, it's personal, it's a challenge that was given to me and I accepted it when I was 10. It's now time to start "proving" it like never before. So, like Master Yoda would say, I have to unlearn what I've learned and learn the better ways, the correct ways that are the slightest nuance people see without knowing it in my works. It's what separates the good from the great. I will never be the "best artist in the world" - There is no such thing. There have been the trail-blazers in the past from DaVinci to Frazetta to the modern masters. I want to create work like they do with figures, with animals. I want to paint more like the quality and precision of Syd Mead, Ralph McQuarrie, Daniel Simon and Stephen Martinaire' and the raw passion and vibrancy of John Pitre and John Berkey. Finally if I can add the haunting mystery of Beksinski and H.R. Giger and combine that with the sheer raw talent of Frank Frazetta; I might have something I'm so proud of that I can go to my creator with like a child ready to show their parents - "Mom, Dad, Look what I made for you!". I love my work, the quality, the passion, the beauty but there can be so much more to create that's in my mind's eye. I've learned more in the past two months concerning the mass connection of music, mathematics, art and sacred geometry that I ever had before reading tons of books and while I continue to "re-learn" how to paint a human being like a master, there will be no rest for me. It's time to awaken the Sleeper and Rise from the ashes of Brimstone like a Phoenix and play Daedalus as Icarus flew too high. We can not be like Prometheus. We have to craw before we walk and we have to walk before we can dance. So I'm back to learning new and better techniques that ever before!

Here are some new sketches I created while studying a Gladiator Star Destroyer from a 4" model on November 6th, 2015. 

Soon, I'll start working on the fine art Oil painting.  - www.JamesHillGallery.com

Forget paying huge money for Art College now, you have ALL you need right before you!

Lately in the past two years, a lot of friends and fans ask me about if their child should attend art college. Most of the time, I generally get to meet some very, very talented young kids ages 10-14 on average when their parents stop by my various booths at various comic conventions that really have the desire to be a better artists.

Well, we live in a completely different world than I grew up with in 1970's and 80's. There was not real internet, no online videos or really in-depth training for a good price from various famous and extremely talented fine artists that are in the illustration field, the computer animation field and of course the comic book industry. In the past 40 years of my life as I've seen art unfold each year, I am more and more and more amazed at the skill level these young kids are demonstrating. At the same time, I get stunned when these young kids and young adults say, they need help, bored, they need teachers, etc.

Sorry colleges and art schools, but the wheels have turned as of the past 10 years and the rules are changing. 17 years ago, I graduated from one of the most prestigious art colleges in the world with honors. Various major companies like Disney, ILM and Interplay along with Pixar, etc. were all choosing me and my work to actually interview me. I was interviewed by Disney several times either for being an animator or a background painter. I even made the top 4 choices for Animation Boot Camp where they select the best possible candidates. I decided then and there that character animation really wasn't my "bag" and my good friend Peter Choe was one of the candidates and he had character animation and figure drawing down. He's an amazing artist that blew me away with his, what seems so easy for him, amazing talent, when I met him in college. He deserved to go, not me. He did. I, however, like creating worlds, environments, life, so background painting and matte painting really, really appealed to me along with concept and industrial design. I still do create worlds and only now I'm starting to add in people as I've learned architectural perspective drawing and painting, environmental painting, various starships and gadgets along with mythological elements in my paintings that tell a story. I also love Conceptual Design and Painting! I am only now (in the past few years) adding the final layer of the paintings, people. People that look good in the painting and not "disjointed", average or the same as everyone else. That's really hard for me and a real challenge. The levels of knowledge a true master must have starts from Anatomy, physiology, philosophy, gesture, motion, line(very important), form, value and mathematical theory, sacred geometry and accurate perspective to a final believable and stunning composition with using various numerical calculations focusing on the Fibonacci sequence, golden mean, rules of 3, etc. The hundreds of years of learned knowledge and practice and skill can now be amazingly condensed in just several years apparently, as I marvel at the modern sci-fi/fantasy illustrators that bless Illuxcon. These are the modern masters. My inspirations are Frank Frazetta, Boris and Julie Valejo, Giger, Syd Mead, John Berkey, Jeffery Jones (CJ), Joe Johnston, Ralph McQuarie, Donato Giancola, Patrick Jones, Tom Fleming, Tom Wood and my great friend Tom Durham along with the new modern masters of digital and traditional painting techniques that would blow the masters away combined with numerous other amazing and show stopping artists that I discover every day and am humbled by their stunning work. It's the bar I'm trying hard to achieve.

Here's the problem as I get to the point of my ramble of the greats and what inspired me as a child and inspires me now. The artist Brom wrote a great article a couple of years ago that would probably piss off a lot of art colleges now, but the truth has to be told. When I add up the cost of going to art college after giving up a $50,000 a year (average sum and conservative estimate) job during the early 90's to attend Ringling, after graduating, I had spent an estimated $350,000 from 1994 - 1998 as a conservative cost analysis, i.e. a penny saved is a penny earned. That was 17 years ago. Now a good art college like Ringling cost about $37,000 a year to attend from what I heard from several friends who have attended lately. When you take into account living expenses, food, etc, books, lab fees, tools of the trade you are studying, you will have probably spent about $200,000 just for college alone to become an artist and get a job.

Many years ago, Art College was essential for so many beside the rare exceptions of gifted geniuses, but they still had a master to teach them the skills and hone them to become great artists. A young person now that graduates from Art College faces a very uncertain future as digital technology and serious competition from all angles along with so many artists not following ethical pricing and guidelines and demanding what they are worth and working for pennies on the dollar or gladly giving up their rights to a creation they made in a corporate "logo" contest or doing work for $10 an hour when one used to be paid $90-$100 an hour back in the 80's! Bottom line, the competition is bloody and fierce.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying any young person can't make it successfully, I'm just saying the rules have changed since the 70's and 80's and no one is wanting to pay an artist what they are really worth as they think it's "fun" and easy when it's one of the most challenging and soul-wrenching journeys one could make in their lifetime. We artists are called to be artists, we really don't have a choice. No we can easily get a job as a computer programmer, doctor, lawyer and pay the same amount for college and make great money, but it's not in our programming and our soul.

So what's the solution!?!? Simple, I tell young people and their parents now; if the kids are self-disciplined, willing to learn each day, take constructive criticism ONLY when they ask for it, and want to grow and become better along with a driving fire and passion that God gives us; as we can not ignore any more than a Shaman can ignore their calling. It's in our soul and blood. We HAVE to be an artist for a reason. The real trick of life is finding out why?!? Another trick to bypass expensive schools that leave kids in huge debt and launched into a formidable world of amazing competition from every angle along with luck, fate, destiny, life; is and has been laid right before our eyes now. Opportunities I never knew when I drew and sketched from 5 years on....growing up in an artistic town, but still a rather repressed and remote region isolated from real artistic mastery, Kids now can and do have access to incredible, unbelievable resources from every angle to exponentially accelerate the learning curve that we, during the 70's on never had before.

Here's the bottom line, unless you or your parents are well off, forget art college, as if you want to be a successful artist, take business and time management along with financial management courses instead. Get a degree in that and then go make art, music, etc. Mick Jagger has a Masters Degree in Financial and Business Management. He is one of the reasons the Rolling Stones (all members, David Bowie and other friends are so rich). He taught them financial marketing and planning. They made their music, but they were mindful of the money that it takes to become financially and solid successful millionaires for the rest of their lives.

Artists can do the same. Now kids have access just by clicking you-tube and getting literally thousands, possibly millions of online tutorials, videos and more from generous and very gifted masters willing to share their learned secrets for a penny on the dollar for the knowledge. Here are some of the the greatest resources for learning - The Digital Academy, The Gnomon Workshop $500 a year for full access to all of their thousands of hours of learning from industry professionals directly, Ponko - http://www.proko.com/figure-drawing-fundamentals-course/, Feng Zhu, Linda.com. We never had this resource before! Books, DVD training, Libraries with Dvd's you can check out that teach from the basics to advanced knowledge. When I hear an excuse from a younger person of they don't have any way to learn, etc. I immediately tell them to take heart, save their money and just watch the videos and learn by watching the masters demonstrate live how they do their magic! www.pjartworks.com is another great master named Patrick Jones that can teach you far more. Then there are training (how to) dvd's from Tom Fleming, Donata Giancola, Syd Mead, and many, many more. This is a whole lot cheaper than art college sorry to say, but it's the way to go, but ONLY if you have the drive, passion, fire and calling to be an artist. Only then you will succeed, but now, there is NO reason you can't learn more each day and become a master even at an early age of 10 years old! I see 16 year old that can paint and draw circles around successful artists but be mindful to listen and learn from the older masters for they have the lifetime of knowledge to teach you more. Learn Art History, (Libraries - yes, REAL art books and read, read, read). Always sketch, build your visual vocabulary and rather than play video games, give yourself an hour each day to learn by watching a great online or purchased video. All the information you need is out their for the taking now! Finally, don't be intimidated to ask and show an artist you look up to to critique and give you pointers. True artists love to talk and share their skills and their knowledge with all. It's a true compliment! Now, go forth, change the world!

Figure Drawing Fundamentals - How to Draw People | Proko

This course is approachable enough for beginners and detailed enough for advanced artists. My philosophy is to teach timeless concepts in an…

proko.com

This past weekend at the Arts and Literary Festival held annual in Beaufort County was a great treat for me as the show was full of wonderful people located at the Frampton Plantation in Beaufort, South Carolina.  Artisans and Writers were there to display their latest creations.  Even John Wayne's Grandson and his name is John Wayne as well, he even looks like the "Duke" and was there selling his history books about the South after the civil war.  I also purchased Selling on Main Street - a great book, but I'll talk about those books in my next blog along with Virginia Adams. No, in this entry, I want to tell you about another amazing writer, producer, creator, Joel Eisenberg.

I want to discuss this incredible new book series created and written by Hollywood Producer and Writer Joel Eisenberg.  The book is called The Chronicles of Ara: Creation - and you can find it here for sale at http://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Ara-Creation-Joel-Eisenberg/dp/0986195332/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446113285&sr=8-1&keywords=joel+eisenberg.  

"Joel working at his desk"

About the Author

Joel Eisenberg has been interested in the mechanics behind artistic creation, an ongoing theme of the Chronicles of Ara series, since he penned the non-fiction How to Survive a Day Job in 2004. Interviewing 70+ professional creatives, including celebrities from several artistic industries, he credits his “mentor in a box” tome with hastening the realization of his dad’s inspiring words from forty years ago. Writing a novel with similar objectives, much less a series, has been on his bucket list since. Professionally, Joel has worked primarily in the movie and television industries as a writer and producer. The film he is most proud of, April Showers, which he executive produced, was based on the Columbine school shooting tragedy. He is a former Special Education teacher and supports school safety causes. Joel lives with the only woman in the world who could put up with him, his wife, Lorie, and their rescue dog (repeating a not-so-subtle message there), Koko, in Los Angeles, California. Stephen Hillard grew up in Bossier City, Louisiana, and Grand Junction, Colorado. He graduated from Colorado State University, and also earned a degree in Philosophy at Columbia University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Colorado. Before settling into his current career as a private equity entrepreneur, Steve was a teacher at Rikers Island Prison, a welder, a carpenter, and a practicing litigation attorney. He is the founder of Council Tree Investors, a private equity fund involved in the entertainment and telecom industries. Steve has also been an active philanthropist, focusing primarily on higher education, as well as at-risk Latino and indigenous youth, at the Escuela Tlatelolco in Denver, Colorado. In 2011, Steve published Mirkwood: A Novel About JRR Tolkien, which sparked international controversy, became an Amazon Best Seller, received a national prize and was subsequently published world-wide in Spanish by Grupo Planeta. In addition to collaborative efforts with his partner, Joel Eisenberg, on the Chronicles of Ara, Steve is developing other projects. These include an untitled prequel to Mirkwood; Farway Canyon, a retro-horror graphic novel about radiation, blobs, and (of course) Cold War zombies, and KNOLL, a novel about JFK, Carlos Marcello, Elvis, the NSA, and Edward Snowden. He resides with his wife, Sharmaine, in San Antonio, Texas. Joel and Steve can be contacted directly through their author page, www.eisenbergandhillard.com.

Recently as of Saturday on Variety News, this book has been optioned for a new pilot series of 8 hours for prime-time viewing on a major television network.  (I'd read the books first for there are more coming, 2 are already completed along with Perdition).....Both are available through Amazon via limited edition hard cover book, paperback or kindle.  It is an amazing read and I highly recommend this book to anyone of loved Dan Brown's books such as The Davinci Code or Angels and Demons starring Tom Hanks; or even better and more "cerebral" Umberto Eco's - The Name of the Rose (now a major motion picture starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater) or Foucault's Pendulum.

A must buy for anyone who loves mystery, secret codes, thriller adventures.

James

The artist I want to discuss today is simply another amazing artist named Paul Winter - https://www.facebook.com/winterart18?fref=photo that asked me what I thought of his work.  In a word that if you look up the real meaning...."incredible!" His work reminds me a bit of another great monster artist named Basil Gogos - www.BasilGogos.net.

Paul's work is simply stunning and if I could, I'd have everyone of his pieces. He paints subject matter that I love (Classic Horror Film Icons) and beautiful portraits! I'm proud to say that I will be getting a print of Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as they were the three greats of 50's to early 70's film classics.  They cringed, if you pardon the pun, at the idea that the BBC created a rating for all films we now know today as HORROR.  When color movies became more prevalent, suddenly the BBC saw blood as red and were suddenly disgusted as many on the BBC sensor board decided to brand any movie in the genre with an H rating for "Horrible".  The big three were, another pun I know, mortified! They felt by doing beautifully done Edgar Allen Poe films and of course the classics of Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolfman that their films were not horrible but adult "Fairy Tales"; i.e., don't play God, don't make a deal with the devil, don't trust strangers, avoid addictions, etc.  Instead they found their lives' work, as they were all classically trained actors, suddenly degraded by the H rating and to them it was offensive to call their work "Horror" films.  Time has proved, though, that they are the masters and the films are still the best films around of that genre to watch.  Paul clearly captures the energy, excitement and magnificence of the great movies in his paintings.  The reason I compare his work with the modern day master Basil Gogos is the precision of the likeness of his subject matter and the color ranges which few artists dare try and they both pull off the multi-color range perfectly.  Take a look at Paul's Winter's work and you will see how great he is and how you would probably want to hire him for a great book cover instead of some simple "photograph" or graphic to save money.  You get what you pay for and if you pay a little extra, you get a cover that WILL sell your book or your movie.  Paul is a wonderful person and great to work with and obviously very prolific.  Take a look at his work at this link and enjoy his masterpieces.  I do.  https://www.facebook.com/winterart18?fref=photo.  Here are a few samples of his work...

I met an amazingly talented artist this weekend at Megacon.  Here is her link - check out her work which is amazing! She has also begun a series of fantasy novels.   https://www.facebook.com/nenethomas?fref=ts

I wanna turn you guys onto a fantastic artist called Gregbo Watson  - https://www.facebook.com/gregbowatson?fref=ts (Facebook Fan Page) - He's simply an amazing artist and great guy to meet. I love his style of art.  I've always admired comic styled artists that can draw a person in a unique style like the other master comic artists and his work just stands out nicely among thousands of very talented comic artists.  His work is both bold and whimsical and worth taking a look at.  Check out his Facebook Fanpage and see what I mean.   Wonderful work!