About Me

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Currently seeking representation. Stephen Macquignon is an illustrator and was the first-runner-up for the prestigious Tomie dePaola award in 2017. He has had the privilege of working for Michael Sporn Animation Inc. on many different titles including, “The Little Match Girl”, “Ira Sleeps Over”, “Abel’s Island” and many more. An illustrator of children's books including Tea with the Queen, he has a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York and is a proud member of SCBWI. To date, he has never missed a deadline. A fresh energy that is not part of the trends out there.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

What was I thinking?

What was I thinking?
How often do you say this line in your life? I lost count. In the world of emails, blogging, chat rooms and so on there seem to me I’m asking this question more and more. Did you read my last post? I just did, and have no real idea what I was trying to say. I am not a writer nor do not portray one on TV. I am just a guy who loves to draw and would love to make a living at it.
Blogging was not my idea (it was my editors at 4RV that suggested it) I do not enjoy typing away at a keyboard for hours just to relay a few paragraphs to entice you (the public) to buy one of the picture books I illustrated or hire me for your next job. I do enjoy showing off the newest artwork that is always fun. But when it comes to the written language it always was and is a challenge for me.

So I have made up a few rules: Most I have stolen from other people so I can not take credit for others intelligence.

1) I do my best not to respond to an email when it makes me angry. I try to wait 24hrs
(I have a smart phone so it is not always easy to let it go since I can with in seconds tell you what I think with a few clicks of my fingers on a keypad)

2) If I do not have the time I will not post on my Blog. When I am feeling rushed or tries to convey more then one message none of it will make sense.

3) I will not ask a question nor answer a thread in a chat room for the same reason above.
I once asked if anyone else received a certain email that looked like a scam. The answers I got were so off what I thought I wrote that it took me four moths to ask another question.
It was on the same day I wrote the last post I should have stuck to just one topic.

4) I don't have #4 yet but I'll think about it.

With all this said I break the rules often I have gotten better over time BUT! I still do it. So what happened yesterday that did not allow me to correctly convey my thoughts?

Answer: All the above,

If anyone has read any of my past post you will read that my 15 year old dog gets seizures, one happened on Tuesday after an attack it takes him a few day to pull himself back together. That means my girlfriend and I need to keep an eye on him to make sure he can walk a straighter line and he is not having any new episodes.

"Lack of writing skill", in the comment section of a past posts someone "Anonymously” suggested I should use spell check I am assuming they meant it to be helpful I do use it and often blogger spell check does not always tell me if a word is wrong or if I am using the correct sounding word or if I need a comma (,) I am typing this out in Microsoft Word and a great friend of mine told me about “After the Deadline” an online tool that will do the same thing Hi! :D
So even thought I think there intention was good the fact that they wrote it anonymously bothered me.
So hopefully all the “T’s” is crossed and my “i’s” dotted

It is not easy to explain what I do as an artist. I have a formula on how I work but like my rules I break them sometimes it work sometimes it doesn’t. So saying it is fun to work in Photoshop is okay but it will not convey the emotional contact I have with the artwork and my lack of writing skill will always have difficulty expressing them.

For those who work in Photoshop you will know that there is no one way of doing things. It took me six months of playing with it before I showed my first illustration. You will also be aware of the use of layers I’ve been told that some artist have had a hard time using layers at first. The concept of layer was one of the first things I understood right away I think it must be from working in animation were you can work with a multitude of cells (clear plastic sheets of paper) to create one drawing or a whole scene.
(I can use a lot of layers)

So I think in a future post I will attempt to give some kind of breakdown on how I work but I will post it over a few days instead of one just to keep my thinking clearer.

PS buy my books I am a much better illustrator then a blogger

1 comment:

  1. Stephen, you're the best! I have you listed on my blog as one of my favorite sites to visit. It's always a pleasure to check in on your work and I'm looking forward to enjoying more of your future projects.

    ReplyDelete

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