Gunship
Revolution:
Explosive Digital Painting Ordnance
A reach-unlimited.com Interview
lllustration,
particularly digital art has exploded over the past 5 years. Kids
today can do as well as any current, old master of the medium--in painting that
is. Part of the attraction among younger artists looking to make a
career from illustration via digital painting and 3D art, as always, is
the impossible stuff you can do with fantasy art using digital
painting.
Monsters become glorious and immortal. Angels become sweetness and light. Comics come alive like they never were penny dreadfuls. Video game experiences, and the development artwork and design have also evolved to become larger than life experiences. And digtal art and painitng has enabled that to happen.
Digital
painters in particular are NEVER seen as fancyful dandies getting lucky
with patrons like someone who dabbles in the physical medium, who
live on a day by day existence waiting for that patron with the
golden heart.
Any digital painter worth his chops can earn a load of quid from just commissions from fanboy and fangirl kids. Look at Deviantart.com's ever growing list of freelance artists making a killing off digital art commissions. A professional digital painter can make a successful career off storyboard work for movies and TV or gaming companies and more.
In Manila, one consortium of friends and believers have put together maybe the best ops for digital painting opportunities for both clients who want sleek and impossible made real, and for all kids who want to dream wild and make crazy seem like
REACH interviews the crew of Gunship Revolution, from their Marketing Guru to the pilots and gunners manning their poweful ride:
GunREV: You have to know HOW TO DRAW. Without the basic foundations you cannot succeed in this endeavor. A lot of young artists think all you need is a good tablet and you’re already a “digital painter” but no – that’s why there’s a lot of uneducated local artists who never get to master the basics of being an artist.
REACH: Have you seen the anime, BAKUMAN? Or the Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Kevin Smith movie trilogy? How is the depiction of the life of a struggling mangaka or comic book creator-artist, or digital artist similar or different from what is portrayed as a romanticized and adventurous ordeal, no matter how skewed the movie's vision of an illustration artist's life is?
GunREV: The life of an artist depends on how good you are at what you’re doing- not just in terms of skill but also in the way you deal with clients and the way you deal with yourself. If your art or your attitude is poor and subpar – then your life and finances will exactly be the same – poor and subpar. If you’re top caliber artist though, you definitely won’t be poor—‘nuff said.
REACH: The question all kids want us to ask you as artists: Whose work, influence or inspire you to claim a career as a digital painter or artist? Is there a particular video game, movie, anime, or fantasy artist painter you enjoy and are devoted to?
GunREV: (Harvey Bunda) There are no particular influences for me. When I learn, I learn anatomy, composition, perspective and I incorporate that to my style. When it comes to other artists, I want the world to see my art and place me among the Old Masters of Painting – Michelangelo, Rembrandt, those fellows. That’s a very high goal but that’s exactly what you need in this industry and this life – YOU NEED VERY HIGH GOALS. And nothing is impossible.
REACH: For kids looking to commit to digital art as a career, What are the tools of the trade to get the most kick out of one\'s computer gear? Can a budget rig do for digital art? Do you need the best wide screen monitor you can get or the fastest video card to render images, 3D art? For mobile equipment, like tablets, what works? Talking about digital tablets like Cintiq, are pressure sensitive digital tablets essential gear for kids? For professionals?
GunREV:
For Kids and beginners: You need to learn to DRAW AND PAINT traditionally. There’s no magic to digital art that isn’t based on traditional techniques!
For Pro – Get yourself a decent rig! A CINTIQ is expensive but it’s an investment! Get a high quality rig! Believe me on this man!
Questions for GunREV Marketing and Brand Development:
REACH: There is a distinct difference between commercial work for advertising and professional work for product or media like comics, game design and anime. Can you describe the nature of the work in each of these fields as a digital painter and creative person?
GunREV: If
there’s any intrinsic distinction between doing work in advertising
and doing outsourced digital art for entertainment media (comics,
games, and that sort of thing), it’s mostly in the product. The
advertising world has its set of demands and so does the world of
digital art.
Even then things overlap all over the place and you
never know when an advertising client might want a set of manga
illustrations produced (like GunREV senior art director Kriss Sison’s
projects with Mazda and Yabu: House of Katsu) or when a client who
asks for card art might ask for packaging and marketing design as
well (which happens to us quite a bit often.)
Long story short, advertising and media companies these days come in all shapes and people are redefining conventional practices on both sides. GunREV came out of that thrust – digital painters and creative professionals developing systems that distinguish us not only from conventional commercial companies but from other media companies as well.
REACH: Given the chance to earn your keep, would Gunship Revolution prefer to do just commercial work, or evolve into a production house for media products like short film games and animation?
GunREV: If by “commercial work” you mean work handed to us by clients as opposed to producing our own short films and games, I don’t think we’d stop doing commercial work. We’ve always wanted to develop our own Intellectual Property of course – many of us got our start doing independently published comics—but we’ve also loved working with our foreign partners thus far, especially when it involves old brands and titles we grew up as kids. We’re all more-or-less geeks here at GunREV so getting to do Stuff for franchises like “Star Wars” or “Transformers” is a kind of extra compensation in themselves.
REACH: It is amazing that Gunship Revolution's artist pool is even willing to share their knowledge of craft by holding teaching sessions at Fully Booked for an affordable price. Just when the cost of a formal education is becoming ridiculous, do you see a technical education, coming off self study, and learning from guys like Gunship Revolution making kids as competitive as their college counterparts who earn a specialized digital arts degree? Can you describe the teaching modules you offer as part of Gunship Revolution's outreach program to schools, from high schools to credited college units?
GunREV: The modules are simple – the students just NEED TO BE excited to learn… They need to want knowing more about the digital craft, and how do you think they can get excited? Just let them join one of our workshops…then you’ll know why kids love digital painting to death.
We
have always been a big supporter of alternative education strategies
at GunREV. Some of us are formally schooled in art, and some of us are
even teachers in some of these art schools, but we also have artists
who took courses like Nursing and Computer Sciences, and some who
never even finished formal schooling, choosing to commit full time to a life in the arts.
Gunship Revolution workshops are designed to answer the questions “How do we learn how to do this amazing painting?” and “What can we still learn and what are the new art techniques trending ( flat design for one, new ways to create effects, 3D tricks of the trade)?” For all those kids and artists who have attended our own workshops, they might have noticed that many of of our own Gunship Revolution artists also attend—we cultivate the same environment for learning amongst ourselves.
While the modules vary greatly from workshop to workshop, each one is centered on a readiness to handle real-world project situations. A college course can probably sharpen a person’s skills well enough but we believe we can supplement that by teaching skills in the context of professional issues like tight deadlines or limited creative control.
REACH: Thank you, Gunship Revolution for the chance to interview your amazing team of digital artists and your marketing honchos. Many kids will be looking forward to your team visiting their schools or going to one of your lectures at Fully Booked!
All images appearing in the article-interview are COPYRIGHT and/or trademark property of Gunship Revolution and the corresponding artist/creator from their studio. All images are used with permission. All images also appear on their website gallery page in high resolution.
