Elements of Drawing with Bruce Morser

Bruce Morsers - Elements of Drawing

Bruce Morser, a freelance illustrator with a unique and highly technical colored pencil technique, teaches the course Elements of Drawing: A Creative Approach at the School of Visual Concepts in Seattle, Washington. (Unfortunately, the spring 2010 class is full.)

Bruce Morser - Cigar Box

Bruce Morser - Cigar Box

“Drawing is a wonderful skill, but it also serves as a key for unlocking personal creativity. Many artists speak of great ideas emerging once their pencil starts moving across the paper. Each of the 10 class sessions will be divided between instruction in the basic skills of drawing, as well as an exploration of the creative process through techniques that enhance your own sense of creativity. Whether you’re refocusing on drawing or have no prior experience, this is your class.”

Bruce Morser - Golf Tips

Bruce Morser - Golf Tips

Morser has created images for a variety of clients including Apple, National Geographic, NASA, Nike, Starbucks, Smithsonian, Boeing, Microsoft and IBM. His subject matter ranges from technical to medical to fashion and portraiture.

TED Talks

Self promotion is one of the most challenging marketing tools as a freelance technical illustrator.  First, you need to have a great idea, then illustrate it well and find time to stop procrastinating and get it done!

I find that inspiration for new illustration ideas can be found through so many different resources.  One of my favorite ways to gain inspiration for working on promotional pieces is through TED.com.

TED Talks

TED Talks

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) brings experts in these three areas together in a yearly conference to spread their ideas and innovations.  The conference allows innovative speakers a limited amount of time to passionately discuss their area of expertise.

The website TED.com has great videos that are an inspiration to the work that I do.  From a technological standpoint, certain speakers make me question many things and how they work in the world today.   I always find inspiration to illustrate new technologies, or new ways to look at design.  I enjoy listening to the speakers as I work on my illustrations.

Categories on TED.com include technology, entertainment, design, business science, culture, arts and global issues.  Some speakers are humorous, some serious.  But all of them have an inspirational message if you are open to it!

What are some websites that you use to find inspiration to motivate you?

Malofiej 18 – Award Winning Infographics

Presente, Diario del Sureste (México)

Presente, Diario del Sureste (México)

Malofiej is the Society for News Design‘s annual infographics competition. At Malofiej 18 last week, a jury of 13 international graphics editors and art directors awarded medals in a myriad of categories including Breaking News, One-Column and Interactive.

More images and links as well as a full list of award winners at Infographic News

The Coolest Things Already Exist – Concept Art Inspiration

Concept art is  a very closely related profession to technical illustration. Concept artists are responsible for designing vehicles, props and environments mainly for the entertainment industry, including film, television and video games. These designs require a high degree of precision, and an amazing grasp of three-dimensionality since their designs will be manufactured either to scale, fullsize or in 3D. The designs often reference actual vehicles, objects or environments to imbue a sense of near-reality. In fact, a rule of thumb is 70% reality, 30% fantasy.

Soviet Ground-Effects Tank

Soviet Ground-Effects Tank

Sometimes, though, that formula can be 100% reality.

Pictured is a Soviet-built cold war era “ground effects” tank. These things were like proto-hovercraft. They would be pushed along by jet turbines and use airfoils to force a pocket of air underneath the craft. This would allow the vehicle to hover above water (and potentially land), move with very little friction — and as an added bonus, be undetectable by radar.

Soviet Ground-Effects Tank

Soviet Ground-Effects Tank

Where do you find inspiration for your concept designs? Let us know in the comments.

Source (via Boing Boing)

Haiti Earthquake Infographic Contest

Aftermath of the Haiti Earthquake by Emily Schwartzman

Web-magazine GOOD, well known for their Transparency infographics, recently held a contest for readers to visually communicate information about the tragic earthquake in the Republic of Haiti. The scope and content was up to the contestant, and the prize was simply recognition.

The winning entry is above. You can see all the entries at higher resolution at GOOD.

What do you think? How can technical illustrators use their talents for good? Is this philanthropic or shameless self-promotion? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Exploded Photography by Adam Voorhes

Adam Voorhes - Exploded phone

Adam Voorhes - Exploded phone

Adam Voorhes has an interesting photo set on his portfolio website. He’s taken some everyday (and a few not-so-everyday) items, disassembled them, and arranged them like exploded drawings.

You can find the rest of the images on his site, here.

Reference This

Creating and maintaining a library of reference images is a very valuable resource for a Technical Illustrator.

Auto Show Inspiration

Auto Show Inspiration

Last weekend I had a great opportunity to spend some time photographing and sketching new reference materials for a library of images that I have created. I attended the 2010 Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto, which is still running until February 21st. I also went out to see the Body Worlds Exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre which hosted a sketch night, allowing artists to draw the numerous pieces on display.

Both were extremely different types of shows, however both related to the work that I do as a technical illustrator – specifically from a reference-building standpoint.

At the Auto Show I was able to take 350+ images of all types of vehicles.  However, at Body Worlds all I could create for new reference were drawings that I did there, and it allowed me to view the subject matter closer than I would if I just snapped a photo.  Photos and drawings are great reference resources!

There are many great benefits to creating and maintaining one’s own reference library:

  • It makes you get out and explore new technologies, gathering information and becoming knowledgeable in many fields where you may not already have much knowledge.
  • It provides inspiration for future pieces of work, whether for personal promotional pieces or for client directed illustrations.
  • You set up an easily accessible resource base for yourself that is all your own.
  • Great high-res reference photos of technologies can be more valuable that lo-res reference viewed online or images supplied to you by clients, as you also decide what vantage point the photos are taken at.  This is extremely advantageous when dealing with major detailed pieces.
  • Seeing something up close and personal always helps us understand the components better.

I always believe that the best reference material is the actual thing, but when you can’t get it, controlling your own reference photography is the next best alternative.

Do you keep a reference file? What do you include and how do you organize it? Let us know in the comments!

Troy Doolittle

Top Dog Illustration - Bell Helmet Cutaway

Top Dog Illustration - Bell Helmet Cutaway

Troy Doolittle is an award-winning illustrator by profession & outdoor adventurer at heart, and the artist behind Top Dog Illustration.

What is your background? How did you get into technical illustration?

I grew up in Iowa and for the first 8 years of my career I worked as an illustrator for a fairly large ad agency in Des Moines. I learned a ton there and it gave me a good sense of how to run a business. It also taught me how important the client/agency relationship is and what kind of pressure agencies are under to do good work and deliver on time. Missing a deadline is not an option and that discipline really helps me focus on my day-to-day work.

Top Dog Illustration - WTB Grips

Top Dog Illustration - WTB Grips

Are you a freelancer or in-house illustrator?

While I was employed at the ad agency I started doing a lot of freelance illustration work for companies in the area. Once it got to the point that it was interfering with my day job, I decided to strike out on my own and start TopDog Illustration. Within a couple of years I decided I needed a larger metropolitan area to feed off of so I moved to Mountain View, California. That’s also about the time I started marketing my work nationally in the source books and that really helped diversify my client list. Since then, I moved a few miles south to San Jose and continue to do work for clients on the east coast as well as here in the Bay Area.

What software do you use to create your work?

After I do sketches I render everything in Adobe Illustrator. For my high-end cutaways I’ll then import that work into Photoshop, piece-by-piece. This helps me create the layers I need for rendering shadows, texture and highlights.

What are your favorite types of projects?

Over the last several years the bicycle industry has become a very important part of my business. I’m also an avid cyclist so it’s a great opportunity for me to combine my passions. When I look back at my work and think about which projects turned out the best and why, it’s almost always work for the bike industry. I attribute this to a couple of things; their passion comes through over the phone when they talk about their products and they completely trust that I’ll deliver what they want. Very few clients in other industries exhibit that kind of confidence. When someone believes in your work, you believe it yourself and the end result is a better illustration that in turn helps their company sell more product.

Top Dog Illustration - Helmet Cutaway Process

Top Dog Illustration - Helmet Cutaway Process

Any advice for illustrators just starting out?

There are a lot of headwinds facing content creators these days and it can be tough for artist to see how their individual decisions impact their fellow illustrators. But every decision every artist makes collectively has a tremendous impact on our trade. The only way to have a say in the future of illustration is to retain the copyright to their work. This at least gives you control over your creative content and won’t cheapen the future value of everyone’s work.

Whenever I have to review a contract for a project, I ask myself this: Could this potentially limit me in whom I can do work for or what I can create? If the answer is yes, I don’t sign it. If the answer is no, I sign it. Because if you want to protect the long-term value of your creative work and your business, you can’t let companies dictate who you work for or what type of creative work you hope to do in the future. Retaining the authorship rights (copyright) to your work is the only way to protect that.

Troy’s portfolio can be found at TopDog Illustration, and further information about his process at his blog.

Alan and Beau Daniels

Oasis of the Seas - Alan and Beau Daniels

Oasis of the Seas – Alan and Beau Daniels

It’s always good to hear that working technical illustrators are keeping busy, and even though they’ve been neck deep in work, Alan and Beau Daniels were able to submit this questionnaire to me. You can check out their site here at beaudaniels.com.

At what point did you guys become involved with drawing? Both recreational and professional; try to give me the who, when, where, and hows…

I have drawn for as long as I can remember, professionally I started to make a living with the Young Artist agency in London, mostly science fiction illustration. They had tremendous publishing contacts, but no one would give me a break in England until I got the cover of Anarchistic colossus, an American publisher took a chance with me and that helped with the English publishers. There was a lot of work commercially and I was still able to pursue the fine art side. Beau was and is really a science major and business person, the passion for Beau is in chasing the job and managing the process, this works very well for us.

NPCA Poster - Alan and Beau Daniels

NPCA Poster – Alan and Beau Daniels

What would you consider to be your first BIG GIG as an artist? That is to say, what piece or body of work got your foot in the door of Illustration? Who was involved? What happened after that?

Big break, moving to Los Angeles to work on Blade Runner.  There were a large number of illustrators brought over from the Young Artists agency, to work on the film; they had a connection with Ridley Scott from his commercial filming. It was not an easy time working for the Ladd Company and all the other English artists eventually stopped working for them and returned to England. We had already made the commitment to stay, but if we had had the money in the first year we would have returned also. Working for the movie industry you are at the mercy of too many egos, they had the ability to twist you around. But, this was probably the best thing that happened to us work wise. We made lots of contacts, built our credibility and worked out which field of illustration would suite both of our work habits.


Did you guys have a mentor/s? Who were they?

Neither of us have had mentors, but we have been lucky in meeting people who have helped our careers. One collector of my fine art work, on finding out that we were moving to the USA. bought our entire collection of commercial artwork from us, it helped in the expense of moving. He ran Museum Gallery and was  a coin merchant in London, and a bit of a philanthropist. A very good man, who we are still in contact with today.

Atlanta Art Building - Alan and Beau Daniels

Atlanta Art Building – Alan and Beau Daniels

What did school do for you? (I know that sounds naive, but some say school did not give them much, others say a lot, whats your take). Any particular instructors, classes or groups that propelled you into doing Illustration professionally?

School taught me self-discipline and motivation. Again I was lucky at school, the teachers we had were David Hockney, Roland Piche, David Hall, Phillip Glass, Billy Apple, it was a very progressive college that believed in developing skills not only in your chosen field but also survival skills for the work environment.


Any regrets? If you could go back and do anything differently what would you do?

None at all.


How did you and your wife go about ‘selling/marketing yourselves’? How do you continue to do so?

Beau does the marketing, we have advertised in Workbook, Graphic Artist Guild Book, and Medical artists Book for many years. This form of advertising is being phased out as we get most of our work through our web sites. We have about twenty sites The reason for so many web sites was to narrow them down in content so that they are more specific, e.g. Cutaway-illustration.com — Essentially a simple teaser site to get people to go to the beaudaniels.com site, but also a way of covering a lot more ground on the web.

Ghosted Car - Alan and Beau Daniels

Ghosted Car – Alan and Beau Daniels

On a personal note…. what is the philosophy behind your craft and work? Are there any deep reasons for why+what you do? Or is it just to pay the bills? What is your philosophy on the ART world in general?

We always do the best work we can; even if as sometimes happens you have underestimated the complexity of the illustration. Sometimes from your own fault, sometimes just misunderstanding and sometimes the client not quite telling the truth at the onset. The latter reason is easier to rectify in that we will ask for a budget increase if we have not been given correct information up front. Once you have committed to a job, the money no longer matters. Try to get something creative wise out of every job you do, that can be difficult!  Attitude towards the illustration business is changing, we are finding more and more agency contracts to be unacceptable in their demands, Copyright ownership, work for hire etc. we will not work under either of those conditions, and fight strongly for artists’ rights to their work.  I will always draw whether or not I get paid for it, but what I draw, that would be different. Having been on both sides, working commercial illustration and trying to produce fine art. There is now so little difference, fine art through the marketing process has attached itself to the commercial realm. I dislike intensely when the fine art “world” criticizes us for being commercial illustrators. They really don’t like the fact they can’t control you because the commercial work has given us financial freedom.

Inspiration – IL Magazine

IL - Water

IL “Intelligence in Lifestyle” is an Italian culture and style magazine published monthly by newspaper Il Sole 24 ORE. Art director Francesco Franchi works with a variety of illustrators to produce handsome and informative infographics explaining the latest issues, trends and topics.

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