My blog has moved!!

Thanks for checking my blog! Unfortunately, I no longer update this blog. I have moved to a Wordpress blog integrated into my new Portfolio website. Please update your bookmarks and follow my only blog here:

Jay's Illustration of Life
http://jaymontgomery.com/blog/

RSS feed
http://jaymontgomery.com/?feed=rss

Also check out my BRAND NEW portfolio website at the same URL.

http://jaymontgomery.com


Thanks,
Jay Montgomery

Aqua Teen Hunger Force background!

After working on 6 movie backgrounds for Cartoon Network's "Aqua Teen Hunger Force colon Movie Film for Theaters" (yes, this is the full title exactly). They called on my pixel pushing skills again for the TV show. Just this past Sunday the new episode of the Adult Swim TV show Aqua Teen Hunger Force "Rabbot Redux" aired and it had about 2 min of air time using a background I did! Took about 2-3 weeks to do back in December
2009. A bit about the creation process.

1. This is what the Art Director, Bob Pettitt, sent me as a starting point. This was used as a "holder" for the animation build of the scene. After talking with me about the scenes needs and he sending me a few texture files, food items for the salad bar I got started.

2. I established eye an level horizon line using one point perspective. Then I created most of the base mechanical/architectural shapes in Illustrator CS4 then by copying and pasting into Photoshop CS4 I created several smart object layers.

3. I sent progress to the AD a couple of times. I did not do the Ferrari. They already that done, I just had to make sure the perspective matched the rest and fit in between the bed and fountain. I had to make sure that the layers of objects were set up in such a way that the characters could go behind all the elements. So each object was on it's own layer with transparent backgrounds.

4. After creating in smart objects in Photoshop, I used them as clipping masks to add textures mainly. On some smart object layers I added shadows and highlights as clipping masks. This is the final background low res version. The original is 12000 x 3240 pixels (40in x 10.8in at 300 dpi) with 411 layers! High Def Baby!

Some details - indoor horse stable!


fancy luxury bed! I used the Vanishing Point filter and the Liquify filter to apply the bed spread pattern.

Some screen shots of how they used them in the end. It was about 2 min of airtime. Pretty funny little scene.

If you want to see the whole episode you can go to this direct link on the Adult Swim website, but I must warn you that it's NSFW, but not R rated. It's not the type of crude humor that everyone can appreciate. (If there is such a humor.) It's only a 15 min show, but to skip right to the scene go to the end of the first video clip and the next clip will load and it's toward the beginning of that video file.

Night After Christmas - sketches

I have been working on a new picture book of sorts for marketed towards adults for Winepress Publishing since early March 2009. It's called Night After Christmas - A Holiday Paradigm Revisited. by Jim Chapman. It's a take on the poem The Night Before Christmas by an anonymous author first published in 1823. It deals with a modern families struggle of materialism and lost sight of what Christmas was really all about. I did 10 full page illustrations plus a cover in a stylized realism manner. I had lots of fun coming up with the scenery which is loosely based off my own home and family. I had about 3 months to do 11 full blown, full page illustrations with repeating characters and scenes all while teaching 2 classes, taking 1 MFA class and many other freelance jobs. I thought I was done in June and then the author had lots of little revisions to some of the illustrations starting a few weeks ago. I got final approval on all the illustrations just last week! It's due to be printed and in the stores hopefully in a couple of months just in time for Christmas.

I wanted to give you first a taste of the process of some of the illustrations. I always start with pencil and here are some sketches I sent the publisher. The author had some very specific art direction from a Word doc and the story obviously gave some clues to set the scene. I had already done a fair amount of research and photo reference.




So from these I digitally painted the scenes in Photoshop and Painter. The finals are coming in a later post.

Deviant Art Portfolio website

Just created my Deviant Art Portfolio website in about 20 min. Really easy to use, and somewhat customizable. I don't think I would show it to clients for this free version with a sub domain and Deviant Art Link and the bottom. Good option for a quick portfolio for students with no money/time for their own domain name and do not know any Dreamweaver or HTML.

I have some new work on there that you might not have seen.

Check it now.

I'm looking for a Summer Intern

I have posted on CollegeCentral.com with SCAD an internship position available at Jay Montgomery Illustration. If interested please apply by email to jay@jaymontgomery.com and send your resume and portfolio or link to your website or samples of your work directly to me.

Description:
I'm an award winning freelance Illustrator for over 18 years and currently a professor of Illustration at SCAD Atlanta. I'm looking for an Illustration, Graphic Design or Sequential major or alumni from SCAD that has a passion for illustration of all types and the willingness to learn on the job. This would be for Monday and Wednesday for about 3-4 hours a day depending on the current freelance workload. Must provide your own transportation to NE Marietta, GA. Tasks include researching for reference, thumbnail sketches, scanning and concepts of real world current freelance jobs. Also, general organizing and cleaning up studio. I have big task of digitally organizing, adding keywords and uploading my 500+ stock art collection to an illustrator friendly stock art web site. Learn hands on about the business being a freelance illustrator; negotiating, pricing, client communication, promotion and having fun! To see the variety of work that I do please visit my website at http://www.jaymontgomery.com

Intern skills needed:
Dependable, on time, excellent communication skills, competent on the Mac, drawing skills, Photoshop, internet research skills, Knowledge about Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Bridge, Adobe Flash, Filemaker Pro and Word are a big plus. This internship could be apart of your curriculum at SCAD and is unpaid.

Schedule:
Start ASAP until August 26th, 2009 Most every Monday and Wednesday as needed.

Place:
The home/studio of Jay Montgomery Illustration - 290 Vistawood Dr. Marietta, GA 30066.

Thanks,

Jay

Spiritual Connections

It's been a while since I was an official student of the arts. Since 2000 I have been a teacher of the arts. Well I started the journey of getting my MFA so that I could have the opportunity to teach full-time at a college level. The logical and most practical choice was to get my MFA from the place I teach, SCAD-Atlanta. I could teach and take classes at the same time all in the same place. Well this past quarter I did just that. I taught 2 classes (Getting Published, and Self Promotion for Illustrators) and took my first class with Illustration professor Julie Mueller-Brown. It was grueling financially, physically, and mentally! During the middle of the quarter I found a more flexible and faster way to get my MFA at Hartford Art School, Limited Residency MFA in Illustration. So I won't be continuing with SCAD for my MFA in Illustration. More on that later.

ILLU 714 Drawing for Illustrators was a great course to start off with and therapeutic in many ways. For the first time in a long time I had allotted time to draw for me. Well, I was drawing for my professor but it was much more wide open than any other paying freelance gig I have done in over 16 years. The 7 other students and I did TONS of drawing inside and outside of class. Part of it was to create 5 personal graphite drawings outside of class. Julie wanted us to just start scribbling on nice drawing paper and see what happened. Below is my journey of those drawings. She is going to use my series of drawings as an example of the process for when she gives this assignment again. I went from literal symbols and words to almost abstract expressionism. Very different from what I am used to and a breath of fresh air.

I would love to get any feedback on these good or bad.

Vote for my T-Shirt Design!

I'm on the cover of Oz

My work is featured on the cover of Oz Magazine for the May/June 2009 issue! Oz is a Southeast regional magazine leader in the Creative Communications Industry publications. Also, in the magazine I'm featured in an article titled “Undercutting”. I represent an Illustrator’s point of view on pricing illustration, educating the client and negotiating effectively with all types of clients. The magazine is not online yet, but distributes them at various retail outlets around Atlanta that tend to cater to the communication, marketing and media professional, like Sam Flax, King Plow Art Center, Utrecht, Binders and others.

Infringement or Appropriation?

Recently there has been much discussion with my peers regarding copyright infringement, when is it OK to "reference" another artist work. Where do you draw the line on copying reference too closely? Should you get permission? Should you give credits? Once the work is created (copied) can you sell it, sell reproduction rights to anyone, can you even register the copyright of a slightly changed image? Well that's a lot to discuss and I currently don't have the time to go into detail with all of it but I wanted to make some points and share some links about it here.



Shepard Fairey of Obey Giant and the famous Obama Poster is getting some criticism about infringing on other artist rights.

Learn more about it here from a critique by Mark Vallen.

I can't say that everything that Fairey has done has been fair use. But I believe most of the political stuff is perfectly legit.

From the words of Julie Mueller Brown: "He "appropriates" work from older styles and changes it to fit his agenda, he is anti-capitalistic and makes reference to early socialism posters. Its perfectly legit!

Mike Lowery says "I say he's legit. The whole point is that he work references old propaganda in a way that strips it of its message and content. It's the same as Liechtenstein's comic paintings or Warhol's diagram paintings, no?"

Rick Lovell sees this as a great opportunity to learn about what right and wrong. I whole heartily agree!
"There is clearly a great deal of debate among artists, art historians and attorneys about appropriation and it's implications. This entry on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriation_(art) (not the most scholarly source) is the tip of the iceberg, but it shines a light on an age-old dilemma about what art is, and what is art."

Steven Heller of the Daily Heller comments about this showing other interesting appropriations of art in his 02-11-09 post.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Now here is a case where copying is done on the sly and is wrong.
Comic Book illustrator David Mack has traced his way to fame.

Todd Goldman has many infringements to his name.

There is another infringement issue I would like to mention but it's still too fresh since it happened today and hits home. Ask me about it.

So the next time you use reference think again about if it's appropriate or not.

Here are some resources to consider to learn more.

What is Copyright Protection?

Stanford Copyright and Fair Use

10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained


Jay

I'm featured on Illustrophile!

Charlene Chua of illustrophile.com was kind to feature my site today (12/02/08) on this blog dedicated to showcasing illustrators and commercial artists. I have also been asked to do an interview with them... stay tuned.

Thanks Charlene for the extra publicity!

I also have been meaning to post several new pieces I have done as demos for classes. I hope to get to it soon.

I have been busy with a new illustration for the Hinman Dental Society, a civil rights poster, and a resort map. More updates hopefully soon.

New ad in Oz magazine

Look out for my new ad in Oz Magazine this up and coming Nov/Dec issue.

Current Conservation Magazine Cover

This one I'm quite proud of. I did this illustration when I was at Portfolio Center in 1993. Today I got my copy of the latest issue of Conversation Magazine and it's on the cover! I'm really glad to be apart of such a worthy cause. I'm in good company with past covers art as well. Several very well known illustrators have graced the cover and now me. Thanks to Society for Conservation Biology. Also, this has been on another magazine cover and won a Best Cover award back in 1995. An oldie but goodie. Check out some other past magazine covers here.

More on the Orphan Works Bill

As simple as 1 2 3 4

1. Read about what it is with lots of links here:
http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00185

2. Send an email to your congressman here:
http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/

3. Sign this NEW petition here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/Stop2913/petition.html

4. Then spread the word by forwarding this blog post or copy and pasting this where ever.

Timing is of the essence do it now! do it again and again!

Thanks,
Jay

Orphan Works Legislation is back and bad!

from the SCADATLILLU blog
Our beloved representatives in Washington have in front of them a rancid piece of legislation that could shake the Creative world to the core. All us who create images must educate ourselves to the law as it pertains to our business and our livelihood. Brad Holland and the Illustrators Partnership have struggled mightily over the last few years to safeguard our creative work, but Congress is about to yank the rug out from under us all unless we quickly come together and demand our rights as the rightful owners of our own creations.
This article sums up what's going on, as well as this radio interview with Brad Holland so please take the time to read it and call or write your congressional representatives and let them know how bad this legislation is.

Go here to download sample letters to congress, bullet point letters, and a list of lawmakers to e-mail them to. The more proactive we all are in this, the more likely we are to be heard. Our futures as artists and illustrators depends on it.

If you are a resident of GA here are direct links to the email web forms for Senators:
Saxby Chambliss
and
Johnny Isakson

If you are a resident of another state find your senators contact page here.

Use the sample letters linked from this post to the IPA, add to them to them or write your own.
Do it now while you are here. It will only take 5 min.

Thanks,
Jay

Donations

Recently I donated a print of mine where the image was picked by a very nice lady in Hawaii, Angel Visoria representing Habilitat, which is a long term residential program built on the "Therapeutic Community" model. This approach is considered by experts to be the most effective method of treatment for substance abuse and chemical addictions. Habilitat was holding a charity luau based in Kaneohe, Hawaii, selling framed artwork to help raise money for this non-profit organization. I donated a giclée print of Imagination. An illustration I did almost 10 years ago. While I was at it there is a 1st Annual SCAD Atlanta Scholarship Gala that was holding a silent auction from student and faculty and I donated a framed print of the same piece.


I also decided to frame and donate a print of Worries From Home. I have very few pieces of art that actually fit into the fine art "match your couch color". This is what I came up with and I hope that the prints raise as much money as possible.

Path Tree for Dentists

New Illustration for the 97th Thomas P. Hinman Dental Meeting 2009. This is the 3rd year in a row I have had the pleasure of working with the Hinman Dental Society on creating the main image used on all their advertising, materials, signs, printed materials.

This upcoming years theme is about continuing education. So my idea was to show a tree representing growth and the branches turning into path ways leading to certain areas or dentistry.

Technique specs:
17” x 21” image with a 1.5” crisp white border all the way around. Total board size is 20” x 24”. It was painted in acrylic on a gessoed board of masonite. Nice a sturdy and archival quality. There is no white type on the paths in the original. That’s part was done in the computer. With the original you really get to see the textures of the surface unlike a digital file or print will ever do. Let me know what you think.

Copyright infringement of my work!

I just found out tonight that my work has been copied/stolen onto a site owned by Clear Channel. The funny thing is I found out from them. They emailed me asking permission to use the illustration. I did not get back to them right away so they went ahead and used it without permission anyway. Read the email that I just sent them here.

----------------------------

Emilee,

So sorry for taking so long getting back to you. I’m an illustrator that makes a living on selling reproduction rights to my work. I just noticed that you went ahead and stole my copyrighted illustration and words from this page:
http://jaymontgomery.blogspot.com/2007/10/illustration-friday-growth.html

and posted it on your commercial site on this page:
http://www.greenteamutah.com/pages/gallery/

I did not give you permission to use that image. Furthermore, I noticed your copyright and trademark info page:
http://www.greenteamutah.com/cc-common/tou.html#copyandtrade

It states that a procedure for making claim of copyright infringement. If the image is not removed in 24 hours from the time this email was sent I will follow that procedure and seek a copyright infringement case against Clear Channel.

If you would have not posted this without permission I was going to ask you if Clear Channel had any budget to support artists who create these works that are related to the GreenTeamUtah.com mission. I support green practices and it’s one of the reason that I painted this piece. Trying to get free content for your commercial site by stealing it or getting people to submit their work is not good business in my book. I would get permission and offer some sort of compensation for the content on this site before stealing it.

Respectfully,
Jay Montgomery

--------------------------------

I post here the result of this.

eMotion Pictures: An Exhibition of Orthopaedics in Art

I entered my artwork from a past job into the AAOS eMotion Pictures.

Almost 1,200 entries were received from 17 countries and 45 states, representing a broad spectrum of orthopaedic conditions. The artists' words were strong and the artwork powerful.

A jury of art professionals had the difficult task of selecting the artwork for the exhibit. The jury included René de Guzman, director of visual arts at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; John R. Killacky, program officer for arts and culture of The San Francisco Foundation; and Paul Pratchenko, professor of art, painting and drawing, San Francisco State University. The show features 200 works of art from 152 artists.

I'm honored that one of my illustrations is on exhibit in San Francisco until March 2oth for. It's a gallery show of all sorts of orthopedic art for doctors, patients, artists and children. Read about my chronic back problems story here and see the other artists work. A book is available with all the artist's work including mine available here.

President BUSH PARDON's HIMSELF against POTENTIAL WARCRIMES

This is an outrage! I bet Saddam Hussein was kicking himself for not having thought of this in time. If anyone reading this has any other info or proof to prove or disprove this please let me know. I only want the truth.

Christmas Departure

Brand new acrylic painting completed 12/08/07. It was created for my Christmas card.


Inside the card it says:

What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace. ~ Agnes M. Pharo

I'm making this available for prints. If you are apart of military family or giving this to a military family, prints are 50% off. All I need is some sort or proof.

Merry Christmas to you!

Jay