Art Contests: Unethical?

Hey folks. I've recently become aware of a situation regarding online art contests, and their unfortunate popularity. The general procedure "includes a solicitation of original design concepts, characters and content to be produced on a speculative basis by cartoonists, artists, motion designers, and animators."

The specific contest in question is being hosted by Sesame Street. All quotes in this post are taken from, and additional information can be found, here:

LINK

Motionographer and Cartoon Brew are accepting signatures to combat such practices. Please take a moment to review the situation and perhaps add your signature.

I adamantly agree with the thoughts expressed. If you would have asked me a year ago while I was still in school, I may not have been so enthusiastically against this. While you are in the school bubble, and hungry to build up your work, contests like these seem like a great opportunity. I participated in a number of them. Recently even. But once you graduate and are faced with the daunting task of supporting yourself with your art, your viewpoints on such matters begin to change. If you float around the web, you will notice A LOT of similar art contests popping up. I'm not saying the intentions of the contests are always malicious, but the people running these sort of things need to be questioned. Yet again, another situation where an artist's value is being undercut.

I tried to summarize the situation here, but follow the links for a nicely articulated explanation.

take care,

-francis

Some recent drawings. A page of Mignola copies in there. Can't believe March is around the corner...time is flying!

take care,

-francis

Brownstones to Red Dirt

What's up friends! This piece above (4.5 x 5.5 inches, mixed media) was created for the Brownstones to Red Dirt charity auction. The goal is to raise enough funds to build a school for orphans in Sierra Leone and create a library for the youth in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

It's for a great cause, and the line up is stacked! Bidding opens March 6th and closes March 13th. A great chance to snag a piece of original art from terrific artists at a reasonable price. Follow the official blog for more details.

take care,

-francis

This page was done a for a project that never got off the ground, unfortunately. Western imagery is real fun stuff!

When I did it I had a super tight deadline. I planned out the page in a day and a half, and penciled and inked it in an afternoon. I bow down to the comic artists that can crank the pages out. I'm trying to streamline my process with every page.

But I took the text out in respect to the property in case it's ever used again.

best,
-francis

This piece was a blast (pun intended...ayo!). It was done for the esteemed Skottie Young. I've followed his career for a while now, and have always really been into his work. So when I was asked to do a pin-up of his character "Bernard the World-Destroyer" for his new art book, I flipped out!!

Basically Bernard has been sent to Earth to study it before he destroys it. He comes to find out Kanye West is a rogue agent from Viltron Nine sent to take control of earth's people. In my picture we find Bernard busting into the studio as Kanye is recording his newest jam...haha.

Hope you digg it Skottie!

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...and some more warm-up sketches!

I've had a great beginning to 2010! A number of terrific situations have arose. I'll announce them officially soon.

take care,

-francis

ps. I put up some great painting below. Take a look, I think you'll enjoy them!

Really really good pictures

Dmitri Belyukin ^^

Ivan Kulikov ^^

Ilya Repin aka "Nasty McFly" aka "Are You Serious"^^

Dean Cornwell ^^

I had to share these images. Each one burned a hole into my eyes for quite some time. The top image by Dmitri is in my top 5 paintings ever. So good. Also interesting is that those paintings by Dmitri were painted in the 1990's. All the artists are Russian, except of course for Cornwell. Unfortunately the Repin files aren't the best. Anyone have those images in better quality?

I found a few of these images at this Russian blog I recently discovered. Also make sure to check out Elkin Canas' art blog. One of the best I've seen. And if you enjoy paintings of the sort posted, you'll love Mian Situ's work. Lastly, my internet buddy Valentino Radman launched a blog, and he has some incredible photos of paintings he's taken himself, and other top notch content!

stay inspired!

-fv