Monday, November 30, 2009

Lessons Learned

I did this for a children's magazine published by the LDS church.  I'm also a member of the church, but that's not why they hired me for the article.  That credit goes to Natalie Malan for sending a letter of recommendation to their art directors on my behalf (Thanks Natalie!).  They hire a lot of very talented artists, so I'm honored to be included.

I learned some useful tidbits doing this, and I pass that knowledge on to you:
  • If nobody complains about your unrealistic, made-up lighting, just run with it
  • Bright pinkish-purple subtleties do not convert well into CMYK.  Experts conclude that you have to paint the colors and values more carefully so they will convert correctly.  I conclude that I'm going to avoid that end of the spectrum entirely next time.
  • If the borders of your painting are boring enough, your art director will never notice that you didn't include bleed for the edge of the page
  • If your wife has a baby due around the time your art is due, it's probably better to finish it early than to take a 3-week hiatus and then sloppily finish at the last second.

31 comments:

  1. I happen to be working on a piece with bright pink/purple rim lighting in CMYK as we speak :\ I'd best find a printers' to check on that and make sure I don't have any surprises... Thanks for the heads-up!

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  2. Chris: If you're painting in CMYK you're probably okay---my problem was painting in RGB and then losing the color in the conversion.

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  3. I'm loving those clouds! Definitely saved to the 'ol inspiration folder.

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  4. Shadows and lights, colour, general draw... wooahh!!
    Your work is incredible.
    Thanks to share your talent, and sorry for my english... I´m from Spain.
    Good luck.
    ;D

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  5. Looks great. I'm working on a piece for them right now. Your colors are far more exciting than anything I could come up with though.

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  6. Bumped into this in the Friend just yesterday, and immediately recognized the talent behind it. Nice work!

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  7. Fantastic job on this . . . I really like the design of the Camel!

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  8. sam, i had been planning on hiring you long before the natalie malan email. the email (which i only got via a forward from the liahona staff) only served to jump-start the process, because i wanted to use you before the other magazines did.

    my color expert in pre-press wasn't able to save the subtle colors in the sky. but, as with most art, if nobody sees the original rgb file, they're none the wiser. your illustration was well-loved by everyone. thanks for your work, let's do it again soon. (p.s. bleed was no problem)

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  9. Funny! I don't have any children yet, but I made sure to subscribe to the friend magazine as I am a student working towards an Illustration degree and saw this picture in it...I didn't recognize your name so I looked you up online and found your blog and afterward you post this?! haha! I love this piece and it really impresses me! Thanks!

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  10. Sam this is so cool! Thanks for sharing your talent.

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  11. Anonymous9:51 AM

    holy crap i love this!

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  12. I recognized the style I've become familiar with on the Avalanche blog while flipping through the Friend with my kids. Great work. Good advice.

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  13. have you tried working in RGB with CMYK proofs turned on? That tends to help a lot. Working strictly in CMYK can actually cause some printing problems for reasons to complicated for me to intelligently repeat.

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  14. love your work! especially the mad scientist-cupcake-brain-thing xD

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  15. I noticed this when going through the issue with my kids-- thought it might have your name attached to it, and sure enough.

    Love the overall design. Inspired stuff!

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  16. You did it again Sam !!.
    .I liike this one , the camel is so cute!!

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  18. The star -- it is watching them :D

    I've been a fan of your stuff for a long while now but only got the courage to post now. Amazing work. I think the attitude of the dromedary is so fitting.

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  19. Beautiful art work! Visit me, and let me know what you think please. :)

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  20. It's even worse if YOU are the woman PREGNANT and the the baby and project are due about the same time. I know from experience. :/

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  21. ha. All good advice. Great artwork.

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  22. Anonymous1:30 PM

    Sam: Ended up on your blog by hearing about it from a friend. Love your work. My niece is married to another Sam who is an artist and is LDS as well. You might enjoy his work. You can find it at www.blog.samricks.com.

    Hope you enjoy.

    Derek

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  23. Thanks everyone for the comments! I've been a bit busy but I should have a new post soon.

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  24. HAPPY HOLIDAYS

    http://www.ilusionario.com.ar/2010.html

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