Big shoes to fill

Please join me in thanking John Herreid for taking up the task of quarterly editor for the SmallPax blog. Great job John, thanks.

I'll be trying to fill his shoes for the next quarter.
My name is Lawrence Klimecki and I've been with SmallPax for 4 or 5 years now. I think this is a terrific place to hang out and I encourage everyone to share not only your work but your experiences as well. Like everything else the illustration market has been hit by the economy so now more than ever we need to think "outside the box" and be resources for each other.

And since this is the Catholics Illustrator's Guild feel free to chime in on what that means to you. Speaking for myself that means occasionally turning down work or not pursuing work that feels at odds with my faith (and my vocation as a deacon).

So for now let me pass on some resources that you may find helpful.
Posemaniacs is a site that provides figure poses to sharpen your sketching skills. The figures are built from Poser so they are not extremely well suited to studying anatomy. What the site is excellent for however is quick 30 second sketches to capture gestures and movement. Lots of foreshortened figures and odd angles.

If you want to improve your anatomy and figure drawing skills check out "The Structure of Man." This is a DVD set of 43 hours of instruction on 5 DVD for only $45. It has been mentioned here before but it is worth mentioning again. This is an incredible learning tool at a fantastic price. Whether you are a novice or pro this set will help you to improve.

If you still need a website to showcase your illustration take a look at this article by Thomas James on how to create a free portfolio website using Wordpress blogs. Thomas also maintains an illustration blog called Escape From Illustration Island, it's worth checking out.

There are a ton of websites that illustrators and artists would find useful, some are technical and some just provide inspiration, what's yours?

For some Catholic inspiration try Idle Speculations, Terry Prest's blog on things artistic, historical, and Catholic. He has a great list of links too.

And don't forget to check out what your fellow SmallPaxers are up to on their sites and blogs.

Here are mine:
Lawrence Klimecki Illustration and Design
The Art of Faith
Gryphon Rampant

pax