The talented Gabe from Penny Arcade sometimes records himself drawing one of the comics. Fascinating to watch, and you could learn a few things too! Keep an eye out for line variation and the way he will re-draw lines until they suit. Gotta love CTRL-Z!

Penny Arcade!

The Game Career Guide does it again! They’ve released all the data for their yearly salary survey for the past three years, all in one place.

Average Salaries for Artists and Animators with Three or Fewer Years Experience

Year   Average Salary
2005  $45,675
2006  $42,672
2007  $43,657

Full data available at their site »

New and astonishing artwork is submitted to our instructors every week by our extremely talented students. We thought it was time to update the gallery!

DArTT Student Gallery Updated »

Great video tutorial for Photoshop retouching from Peachpit.

Liquify as a Retouch Tool »

Game Career Guide just sent me this amazing news:

For the first time ever, Game Developer’s annual Game Career Guide, a special edition magazine devoted to helping aspiring video game creators, is being given away for free! This issue includes a salary report for entry-level jobs in video game development, as well as numerous articles with tips on breaking into the industry.

I’ve read this issue and trust me, it is jammed with info. There’s a definition of each discipline within the games industry (including artists), the results of the game-school student survey I mentioned a while back, and an enormous directory of game schools. Visit and download!

Game Career Guide Digital Edition – Now Free! »

Nested styles are an extremely powerful tool that helps you set up a document in such a way that your future edits or additions are effortlessly styled. They used to hurt my brain a little, until I found this great tutorial with an excellent case study that really opens up the possibilities nested styles hold.

Nested Styles in InDesign »

The Nicktoons Network Animation Festival is on the hunt for a selection of original short films created in any style of animation that do not exceed 10 minutes in length. Submitted shorts will be chosen by a pre-selection jury and will be showcased on-air, online and during the network’s exclusive live event in October. Prizes will be allotted for five awards: Grand Jury Award; Student Award; Producer’s Choice, Viewer’s Choice Award; and the festival’s Grand Prize, the Nick Development Award.

The winner of the Nick Development Award will receive $30,000 towards the development of a show bible, pilot script and storyboard along with the guidance of the Nick development team. Additionally, Nicktoons Network has partnered with mtvU, MTV’s college network reaching over 750 campuses nationwide, to tap into their acclaimed Best Film On Campus student filmmaker community. The festival will be featured on Bestfilmoncampus.com throughout the summer, and the winner of the Student Award will also have the opportunity to see their work featured nationally as the “mtvU Film of the Week.”

Nicktoons Animated Shorts Festival »

In the spirit of showing my students some examples of how to make one animal look like another, here are the top two entries in Worth1000’s latest Mamsects and Insmals contest. Above is a leopard insect. If you look closely I think Mandrak (the artist) has used grasshopper and wasp as well as leopard sources.

See how the placement, size, and orientation of the markings lend reality to the piece? Another reason I like this one is the great contrast between the blurry lime green and the bright yellow and black on the ‘mamsect’ – it allows the subject to really stand out. The lighting is really important here as well – all of the source images were either lit from the same light source, or altered to appear so. You can see why it won the contest!

Below is a set of source images posted by HopePhoto to show how he put the final image together. I’ve posted some detail closeups for you to peruse as well. See how the horse’s texture was kept while altering the structure of the legs to match those of a fly? This is almost an artistic skill, to use a reference like this. It’s important to note that the wing’s resolution was very high in order to be placed so large on top of the horse. Little details like the fur under the horse’s chin and around the knee joints are why this one stands out for me!

You can see full-res versions of these entries (and the rest of the contest) here:

Worth1000 Mamsects & Insmals 7 –>

I probably can’t express properly my adoration of the artwork furiae.com. The site navigation needs some work (the confined box is way too small!) but Linda Bergkvist, the genius behind it all, hasn’t posted or updated since January 2007, so I suppose she can be forgiven!

The whole site is gem after gem of brilliant digital painting and artistry, but what I really want to point your attention to is the tutorials. It’s not obvious right off that she has them, but if you choose Gallery, you’ll then get an option for Tutorials. Then you can choose from a nose tutorial, thoughts on skintones, a lip tutorial, painting an eye, textured brushes, painting hair, & smooth blending. Every now and again I go back to these pages as a refresher, and I’m always inspired to paint something new.

Furiae.com –>

CGSociety has announced the winners of their latest challenge, “Strange Behavior”:

‘Strange Behavior’ – “The unexpected can delight or shock. It can be exciting or frightening. It’s often funny. It’s never boring!”

Pages of beautiful entries, including Modeling, Texturing, Lighting, Visual Effects, Art Direction, Cinematography, Matte Painting, Compositing & Editing and Screen Play adaption.

Make extra effort to watch the animated winning entries. I’m having trouble deciding between the black-and-white stripes of Polkarella, and the beautiful purples of Spaced Out as my favourite. Also make sure to click on the Challenger Page for each of the winners, because you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look backwards through the process of creating each scene.

It’s a LOT of eye-candy, folks, don’t overload yourself but make sure you take it all in eventually!

Strange Behavior –>