With much respect to Phillip K. Dick, do prepare your limbic system for the art assault of Andrew Jones—if ya can! 

My stalwart companion, Dwight, attended a ConceptArt Workshop back in 2005 and let's just say, he came back changed. For the better, of course. It was a totally immersive and communal experience for him, and one that really opened him up creatively.

Names like Coro Kaufman, Jon Foster, J.P. Targete and Andrew Jones got brought up a lot afterwards and I gotta admit—I kinda got changed, too.

I was brand new to concept art as a field (like many, I suppose). And even though the term itself wasn't as en vogue then as it is now, there was already a proliferation of young artists rockin' it hard.

Plus, ConceptArt.org sounded like the coolest place on the planet! Twelve million people a year visiting and sharing images with each other, in one on-line community? Who could hate that?

Okay, I'm digressing—back to Mr. Jones.

Andrew (or Android) is one of the co-founders of ConceptArt.org and its entertainment business other side, Massive Black. In the early days of his career, he worked for ILM, Black Isle Studios and Nintendo, before eventually stepping out with Jason and Coro to do their own thing. The art world has never fully recovered, by the way.

As we've mentioned before on this site, this guy does it all and well. And consistently. Concept art, illustration, fashion design, body art, teaching at workshops, live digital performances—everything.

His 1000 Portraits Project from '02 was just a motherf*cker to behold. As you followed the changes in the images, you started to see extreme changes in the artist, too—literally (it was nuts).

On Saturday, November 7th, Andrew's very first gallery show, Liminal Rez, will jump off. Push Studio in San Francisco is the place, 7PM is the time and it'll probably be bedlam. Jonsey is really popular and well, really good.

We're honored to have had this young art warrior come on and hang out with us. We've been big fans for like, five years now, so it was a long time coming.

And the devil's in the details on this one, folks, so don't sheep. Umm, sleep...sorry.

Okay, this time we really tried to color inside the lines, so to speak. We got the opportunity to interview a lauded and respected illustrator, Peter de Sève, and wanted to play it sorta serious.

I mean, this guy has been doing it for over 25 years, right? He paints covers for The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report—you know, the big ones.

He illustrated one of Mark Twain's short stories called A Murder, A Mystery and A Marriage back in 2002—that's serious stuff.

Now granted, he did work on all three of the Ice Age movies, but that was as a character designer. He wasn't writing gags or jokes.

Anyways, about a minute into our conversation with him, Peter had us cracking up big time. So much so, we had to join in (any old excuse will do, I suppose).

All kidding aside, this guy is a major talent and it was a lotta fun speaking with him. We caught up with de Sève at his home studio in Brooklyn, NY and chatted with him about the new Spectrum Exhibit that just opened there, digital prints vs. original paintings, working in animation and his two new projects.

Peter just released his first ever hardcover artbook, a monograph called A Sketchy Past - The Art of Peter de Sève. We blogged about it recently and with good reason. It's filled to the brim with resplendence and chronicles his art and career beautifully.

He also has a children's book out that he illustrated called The Duchess of Whimsy, written by his wife Randall de Sève. Randall's written two other kid's books, but this is the first time she and Peter have worked together.

We had a blast, as always, and outside of his having some fun with us too, Peter is a brilliant artist. A thinking man's artist, we like to say. And we need more of his kind out there doing it—that's for sure.

**Psst! He also has a tutorial DVD coming out through our friends at Massive Black—imagine that, gang!

Peter's Blog (that's right, blog)

“If art is therapy,
if art is to inspire,
if art is a weapon,
if it is medicine used to heal soul wounds,
or if it makes one not feel alone in his or her visions,
or if it serves as transportation to a higher self,
then that is where I aspire to live everyday.”

- Rudy Gutierrez

You can't deny that some people just seem to be destined to do what it is they do. Call it providence, call it serendipity—what have you. Rudy, with all of his training and self-determination, is very much one of those people.

I (Dwight) have been a fan of his work for a long time, having been made aware of his skills as a Illustrator by a mutual friend, Jim Hamilton. Jim and I worked together years ago and he would talk about his days as an Art Director in NYC working with his talented friend, Rudy Gutierrez. So much so, it seems completely fortuitous that I finally got to meet him through this podcast!

Rudy's career and body of work commands much respect. Book covers, album covers, CD art, illustrations for periodicals and children's books. His paintings have appeared in galleries and shows, nationally and abroad. He's done 'performance art' in front of live audiences, Art on a Grand Scale and received awards from The Society of Illustrators. He's spent time as a teacher at schools like Parsons and his own Alma Mater, Pratt.

As a matter of fact, in his own brand of fortuitousness (is that a word?), he was commissioned to paint the cover to Santana's platinum selling Shaman CD, back in 2002. While the disc is only seven years old, the path to Rudy getting the opportunity to collaborate with one of his musical idols, started in his childhood (listen to the interview, you'll love the story).

The Shaman image ended up being featured not only on the CD, but later, several stories high on a billboard in Times Square. It was also displayed on a huge backdrop behind Carlos Santana himself during his performance at the '02 Super Bowl. It's one of Rudy's most noted contributions, as a painter, to the pop culture landscape.

We had the best time chatting with this man about life, love, spirit and art.

In the interview, he talks about his early days growing up in The Bronx, his first experience with art on a sidewalk scale (snicker...sorry) and working on staff in a commercial art studio before going freelance.

He also discusses the backstory behind him getting the Santana gig, his relationship with his agent, Richard Solomon and why he stays true to himself...always.

**For this episode, we played snippets of Santana's Black Magic Woman and Sideways ft. Citizen Cope, plus John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. I know, right? We have excellent taste!

Also, go here and here to buy two children's books recently illustrated by Rudy and click here to see a gallery of his amazing paintings.

OK, how's that for a rallying call?

Bobby Chiu (pronounced "Choo") has been referred to as the new Walt Disney by some and that may not be much of an exaggeration. He's full of...well, imagination, has vision for days and does seem to embody Walt's whole philosophy of moving forward. In just a short few years, he's graduated from the ranks of hired artist, and gone on to CEO and Educator. And he's still a pretty young dude (whoa)!

Dwight was an admirer of Chiu's work from afar, while I had only seen a few things here and there. That is, until we ran into Bobby and artist Kei Acedera at this year's Heroes Con in Charlotte. They had an exhibitor booth set up for Imaginism Studios, their home base, and had mad lines all weekend. A listener and friend of the show named Chuck Harper prompted me to go by and check 'em out, and I was blown away! All their books and prints featured these really cool and interesting looking characters—it was all that!

Later that night, at the hotel bar, Bobby came over to Dwight, myself, Chuck and his buddy Beau, and chatted with us for like two hours—solid! Didn't really know us from Adam, but felt our enthusiasm and joined in with his own. The next day, I went back by their booth to thank him and he and Kei kindly gave me a copy of their sketchbook, Water Worlds.

As people go, Bob is the exact right mix of talent and complete lack of pretension. He's as regular a guy as you'll find, but obviously has an immense gift.

Speaking of gifts! His gift recently put him on a fantastic Hollywood project with a very famous director, and he talks about it early in the interview. We also get into Schoolism, the whole subway sketching phenomenon and some of his philosophies about drawing and life.

So relax, breathe deep, exhale yourself some Chiuism—and be prepared to be converted!

http://www.imaginismstudios.com/

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved." - Helen Keller

These are inspiring words from the great Helen Keller. We thought they rang especially true in the wake of our conversation with artist and art visionary, Jason Manley. His journey has not been without its obstacles, but talent, perseverance and the help and support of his friends has brought him far. And he's gonna go much farther.

We first heard about Jason like everyone else did, through his affiliation with Concept Art.Org and Massive Black. He's not only a co-founder of both companies, but also serves as their President.

Concept Art was started six years ago by Manley and two of his friends, artists Andrew Jones and Coro Kaufman. The three of them met and became buddies in their early twenties and kept in touch via the Internet. Creatively, there was a mutual respect and the interest to work and learn together—that's really how the ball got rolling. Jason got the idea of setting up a site where they could all share their projects and ideas, meet new artists, exchange information and the thing just took off from there. To date, there are 110,000 plus artists signed on as members of the CA community, posting over 1,000,000 images.

As time went on, acclaimed film artists, Chris Hatala and Pete Konig joined the group and they formed their second company, Massive Black Inc.  After spending time learning from each other and sharing previous art school and industry production experiences, they agreed that working together professionally, under their own banner, was their next step. A couple of partners came and went and the team eventually settled in nicely with the addition of Executive Producer, Melissa Lee and 3D Director, Dan Staton. 

Started on a meager $6000 budget, Massive Black is now one of the highest profile art studios in the entertainment industry—doing work for advertising, games, toys, comics, TV and film. It offers a full line of services to its clients: green light pitch development, concept design, storyboards, illustration, rigging, animation, textures, 3D modeling, product co-development and IP creation. Since the company's inception, they've completed over 175 projects for over 125 major companies working in the field—including 18 of the top 20 video game publishers. The MB teams are located in San Francisco, Shanghai and Bangkok.

While Concept Art.Org is a non-profit educational institution serving the international community and local students at the Concept Art Atelier, Massive Black is certainly its professional and practical other side. The two companies are essentially independent, yet supportive brothers when it comes to the world of art.

We caught up with Jason in Austin, TX right in the middle of a big move and talked about all of the above and a lot more. We also get into the terrific workshops they started doing around the world and some future plans for both companies.

Oh yeah, and Jason's over the whole "not doing art" thing, so watch out!

http://www.conceptart.org/

http://massiveblack.com/

There are myths and there are legends…and then, there is Paolo Rivera! Okay, that may be a bit too Stan Lee for anybody's taste, but apropos for a guy retelling Stan's origins. For the last two years, Paolo's been putting it down as the artist on Marvel's Mythos series with Atlanta based writer Paul Jenkins. All the books in the series are gorgeous and fully painted and so far we've seen X-men, Hulk, Ghost Rider and Spiderman. The latest installment with The Fantastic Four just hit the streets a couple of weeks ago. Rivera is an exciting young artist who resides in Brooklyn, NY and is a graduate of the prestigious RISD (Rhode Island School of Design). We recently ran him down and had a chat about being a contract artist for Marvel, meeting Alex Ross as a kid, the ramp up to Mythos Captain America and hitting the convention and lecture circuits.

http://www.paolorivera.com/

http://paolorivera.blogspot.com/