Artist Spotlite - Interview With Todd Harris

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Todd Harris is an artist who has spent thousands of hours being classically trained in the Florence Academy method. He works as a concept art director for the Walt Disney Corporation where he teaches and critiques teams of artists. He has had many paintings published in magazines such as Dragon. His mission is to help artists of all levels to achieve their artistic goals. He does this by providing his guide and supplemental information along the way. The archived articles, newsletters, forums, and portfolio reviews from his websites will all work as a whole to better artists anywhere in the world.

"April" by Todd Harris

==========================================
The Interview
==========================================

Q - What medium or mediums do you work with?

A -
I work with charcoal, pencil, and digital mediums. I’m looking to move into the oils soon. I’ve always been a strong believer for figures that you master pencil before going into painting.

Q - How long have you been an artist? How did you get started?

A - I have been an artist for the past 12 years professionally but have been doing art for as long as I can remember. It’s the only thing that makes sense in my life.

I didn’t have as much talent as other artists but I wasn’t good at anything else, lol! My first job as an artist was drawing the pictures for tombstones (kind of a dead-end job). It was actually a really good starting job because you felt like you were bringing comfort to others through art and I really developed some good drawing principles during this time.

Then I did some commercial art and then went over to video game art, which lead me to Disney.

Q - Do you have any formal training or are you self taught?

A - Both…I have a Bachelor’s in Fine Art but that alone wouldn’t have put me in the place I am now. I would find that sometimes the artists taking the classes knew more than the university professors. So, I bought a bunch of books, studied those as often as I could. I also took workshops and independent classes here locally. One thing that I have found that is really cool is that most universities will offer figure drawing classes on the weekends for cheap. You can do a drawing session for about 5 dollars. These have really helped me to grow as an artist.

Q - Do you have any favorite art supplies that you would like to recommend??

A - The digital art medium is starting to become more legitimate and is great for saving time. I use Corel Painter 9 for my digital art.

For traditional products I like toned paper. It gives you a head start getting you half way there because it starts you off with your midtones and you can finish your drawings faster.

Q - Do you work with any specific styles or subject matter?

A - I like to draw people and then the more adventurous side of me likes to do a lot of fantasy as well. Working for Disney has kept me in imaginative worlds, so I like to work in those creative atmospheres a lot.

Q - Can you recommend any books, videos or other resources that will help new artists?

A - I like several different drawing books. I really like Bridgman, he has a bunch of anatomy and figure drawing books. I like Vanderpoel as well. Charles Bargue has some good educational figure drawing books. Stephen Peck has a good starter called Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist. I wrote a book on figure drawing as well, it’s called Master the Human Form.

Q - How do you get ideas to create a piece? What inspires you?

A - I’m inspired by reading and story . I am also inspired by that place in my imagination that I want to visit. (My wife is laughing at that last statement right now) I’m inspired by great writing and other beautiful art.

Q - Are there any artists that have influenced you and why?

A - Howard Pyle, NC Wyeth are two of the old timer’s that I am inspired by. Frank Frazetta and others. I am really inspired and love the old illustrators and visual storytellers. James Gurney and many others as well. I’m influenced by many artists that I have rubbed shoulders with or taken classes from or read their books.

Q - Do you have a website you would like to share?

A - There are many great advantages of the internet. Artists have such great resources now to help them in their artistic endeavors. I have a couple of websites that focus on figure drawing. They are www.learning2draw.com and www.alldrawnout.com. One offers a book and the other offers a site with video instruction and tutorials so you can see figure drawings being done right in front of you. About.com has some good resources for drawing as well, and of course, I love creative spotlite!. The blogging world is becoming big for artists to share their work, we are like a big community of artists. My blog is found at www.hog-heaven.blogspot.com.

Q - Finally, do you have any last words of advice for beginner artists?

A - Yes, just focus on your passion and love of art. Don’t get discouraged. As I mentioned before, I was probably the most untalented artist I know. Just keep practicing! You may hear that a lot but I think you hear it a lot because it’s the golden ticket to great art.

 

“Learn the little-known secrets to Mastering the Human Form Through Figure Drawing techniques never before seen!” If you want to learn EXACTLY how to… Easily learn proportions and be able to draw them correctly even with ZERO drawing experience… Draw incredible realistic looking faces… Master the toughest parts of the human form, like hands, hair, and eyes - almost instantly… Learn how to draw people in 4 easy steps using industry leading drawing tricks… Use never before seen figure drawing techniques…to draw like the masters in minutes… … Plus a TON more step-by-step Figure Drawing strategies THOUSANDS of regular people are already using to Master the Human Form, click here now…

Popularity: 15% [?]

Share This