Yesterday, I attended a Darren Quach + James Paick workshop hosted by Brainstorm school. It was located at James's studio - Scribble Pad studios in Glendale. There were 30 students. And it was a very very small and cozy environment - felt like a Starbucks or coffee shop. The popularity of Brainstorm can be attributed to it's Facebook group - which boasts 15,000+ members, and has recently become popular because of the "Batman" challenge. Brainstorm's first workshop sold out within a couple of days. The Facebook marketing was brilliant - although I don't know if it was done on purpose (if is was... genius!) Facebook marketing is unstable though- groups such as "Daily Spitpaint" or "Viritual Plein Air" seem to be cool for about 1-2 months, but then quickly lose "coolness" as the group loses it's "intimacy" due to too many members. (Or people just get bored)
Signing up for class + Price + Format
Brainstorm School uses the platform Storenvy - which is really easy. You just click and pay online. Very simple. This seems to be the standard nowadays - no more writing checks!
The class was $185 - which is on the higher end of art workshops. CDA has 5 hr workshops for $120. Inland Empire Art Institute offers them fore FREE! However, Brainstorm offered 2 instructors instead of 1 - to justify it's price. Darren did a 3 hour demo. Followed by a 1 hour lunch break. And then James did another 5 hour demo. Followed by a 1 hour Q+A session.
Darren Quach
- Quick sketch. loose- used free transform tool for about 30 minutes fiddling with proportions.
- Line art
- Colored it in. Add photo bash towards the end.
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| Notice how the proportions changed dramatcially |
Space to Detail Ratio
Cluster your detail, instead of having detail all over the place.
Think about your space to detail ratio. 90:10, 80:20, 70: 30?
Generally larger objects (space shuttles), have a lot of space, and have detail clustered together.
Generally smaller objects (children's toy), have a lot of detail uniformly all over, and little empty space. (exception would be high tech devices such as iPhone/ apple products)
In the demo, Darren clustered his detail around the cockpit - which is where he wants the viewer to look. There is a lot of empty space on the "wing" - where he doesn't want the view to look. Don't have detail uniformly all over the object.
This principle also applies to environments. A large space to detail ratio gives a scene that EPIC feeling. Currently, I do a LOT of detail all over for my theme park illustrations, I want to move towards a better detail: space proportion.
Line weight trick
Duplicate the layer. Erase the interior lines - where you want lighter line weight. This gives you a line weight variation without haven't to retrace the image.
James Paick
- break workflow down into different parts. Focus only on one part at a time. Easier for brain. This is similar to the way John Park and Khang Le paints.
- Graphic composition
- 3D space/ topographic layout
- Photobash
- Lighting Pass
- Vehicle/ People elements
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| graphic shapes |
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| create a layout/ path |
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| transform/ distort |
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| Photo Texture |
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| Lighting pass/ Add props/ Vehicles |
What I realize is that James paintings, they don't look that awesome until he does that lighting pass - which is about 75% through his process. When he does the photo bashing, it's really not THAT cool or exciting. But he is patient and methodical, he just works patiently until the painting is ready for the lighting pass and BOOM it's awesome.
This process is almost the reverse of traditional painting. In traditional painting, you kind of do the lighting pass first, and then you work your way into the detail. However, for James' workshop, he does all the detail (photo texture) first, and then does the lighting pass in the finishing stages.
This process kind of drove me crazy, and made me feel very impatient - but it was actually very efficient for James to work this way and he had a great product in the end.
Why are you so fast James Paick?
James said he attributed efficient to his personality trait of breaking things down and categorizing things. He used to do martial arts as a kid, and you have to break down and practice the movements one by one, and then you link them together really fast. I guess how that relates is that James practices the individual components of creating a painting separately, and then links them together in the end so it's fluid.
I can relate this - this is kind of similar to the way I practice popping and dancing. It's just muscle memory. Deconstructing and breaking down steps is also a process really encouraged by Tim Ferris - who is is a master as meta learning.
How to master any skill by deconstructing it
Other Notes
- Another thing worth mentioning is that James has a strong background of games and always like blueprints as a kid. You may notice above in the "layout" phase - he created a topographic map and free transformed it onto his painting - it was like creating a blueprint.
- When deconstructing your workflow - remember to practice all the step. If you have 10 steps, you need to practice and review all of them. Not just the ones you like the most.
Q + A Session
One of the unique attributes of Brainstorm School is it's smaller size. At the end of the workshop - we took all the chairs and formed a circle. Then we had an informal discussion where we could ask questions to Darren, James and John. I haven't seen this format done before at other workshop and it felt very valuable. They also did a raffle in the end with some free sketchbooks, prints and hard drives.
Informal Portfolio Review
After the Q+A session there was an informal portfolio review where students could show the instructors work. I think stuff like Portfolio Reviews could use more formal structure such as lines and time limits and stuff. This part was kind of hectic and unorganized - hence they called it "informal."
On the contrary - One of the most organized portfolio reviews I've ever seen was hosted by Shaddy Safadi at the Massive Black workshop - he allowed each student to choose only ONE work to critique - and he set a timer of 1 minute on his iPhone. Students could get back in line if they wanted more pieces reviewed - but everyone had the same "1 minute" of critique time. I felt something like that is really effective - and I hope more studios/ schools pick up on that.
Overall Experience - "House Party not a Club"
The school advertised that lunch would be provided for all students - but that wasn't really true. I asked if there was a vegetarian lunch option - and even though they told me "yes" TWICE - mind you - lunch was just a platter of turkey wraps from Costco. The staff was pretty helpful and directed me to a Trader Joes which was only about 2 blocks away - and I walked their with a friend who - like me - ALSO had dietary restrictions. Vegetarians are really common nowadays - ESPECIALLY - in the art field. C'mon - keep up with the times Brainstorm.
This was probably an honest mistake - especially for their first workshop. While James and Darren are very experienced instructors, what they lack is a dedicated admin staff like CDA. It's probably not that big of a deal - especially if you like the fact that James is operating his own art school. This is more like "house" party rather than going to "club" in LA.
