Concept artists are the people who design the look of a film or game. They design environments, characters and props and may be called upon to do other things such as cover design, poster design,and storyboards.

Concept art is a booming field and there are jobs for people who have the skills. The problem is that most people don’t have the skills. An unusually large number of  successful Canadian concept artists were trained in Eastern Europe and brought advanced representational fine art skills with them when they came to Canada. Max the Mutt is fortunate to have many of those people on our faculty.

If you want to be a concept artist you’ll need skills in a variety of areas, and this program provides training in all of them: illustration, a high level of proficiency in traditional, representational  drawing and painting, product design, animation related skills such as storyboarding and film language, and concept specific courses that include  research and idea development, character design, environment design,  prop design, creature design, advanced knowledge of photo shop,and familiarity with 3D computer software.

Our program took a full year to design and we received input from major concept artists in Canada and the USA.

This 4 year course of study requires dedication and lots of hard work. If you attend, you’ll be studying with some of Canada’s top concept artists, many of whom received their art training in Eastern European and are able to share a skill base that is hard to find in North America.

Our curriculum has been carefully planned to give you the skills you need for each new challenge.

For example, Intro to Environment  Design, which is a pencil and paper course, and Digital Background Painting, which teaches painting with photoshop, are first semester year 2 courses that  give you the background you’ll need for the second semester Advanced Environment Design and Painting in Photoshop course. You have the basic skills you need to focus on the content of Advanced Environment design.

It’s the developmental nature of the program that has enabled students to grow as artists and produce a level of work that has really astounded and pleased me.

Below: environment design by Michele Assarasokorn, 2011 graduate. Check out her blog: candycrayon.blogspot.com/

Recent Concept Art by 2011 graduate John Newton is seen in the two images above, and two images below! Check out his blog: http://johncharlesnewton.weebly.com/

Above:  work by John Newton

Recent concept art work by Natalie Lau  (Natalie is now an Assistant Art Director at Corus Entertainment). Check out her blog: http://feralsketch.weebly.com/

Below: work by Jake Griffith, year 4 CA student. Check out his blog: http://jakeg98.blogspot.com/

Goran Bukvic has been a source of information, support and encouragement from the beginning of our 4 year concept art diploma program. Goran himself had the benefit of  Eastern European academic fine art training before his family moved to Toronto. I’ve been trying to talk him into teaching for years, but he hates to be committed , which is why he’s carved out an impressive freelance career for himself. However, he speaks to students  every year about his work and the filed, and has worked with us to devlop our portfolio development course.

Maybe I can talk him into teaching a workshop…..

Check out his work : http://conceptartworld.com/?p=8057, or even better go to his website, www.crazybrush.com.

Max the Mutt has a Facebook page and we post clips we’ve enjoyed, links to articles about animation, comics and graphic novels, and the work of top concept artists. “Like” us ! To get to our page, scroll down and click on the “f.”

We’ve been having many issues with our website, so we are also using face book and You Tube to post recent animation. Please let us know your reactions to our posts, and if there’s anything else you’d like to see, let us know about that too!

We have plans for both our website and our blog, but we’re a small school and are also dealing with our recent expansion, planning the next academic year, and getting ready for our incoming students!  It will take us a little while (people do need some vacation time), but wait and see! We have plans…and feel free to share your  ideas with us.

Max the Mutt has been very fortunate in attracting a wonderful and dedicated group of artists to its faculty. Now another great concept artist is joining our community.  Branislav Perkovic has art directed on animated features (Anne of Green Gables, Pippi Longstocking) as well as video games. He’s been in Vancouver for some time, and is now moving back to Toronto. We are really excited that he’ll be joining us.

Today because of  David Lambo, some one I’ve never met,  who is a “friend” on Facebook, I was introduced  to the work of an outstanding Nigerian painter, Abiodun Olaku. I encourage all of you to visit his website and look especially at the scenic paintings. He’s a master of atmosphere. One or two reminded me of Sargent. This is an artist with a voice and integrity. This work is about much more than technical skill. I haven’ been this excited about a painter in a very long time. As I wrote on my Facebook page, painting is alive and well in Nigeria. Oh, brave new world that can bring us all together. After an exchange of messages, I am honored to have had a friend request from Abiodun Olaku.

Lubomir Arsov attended  Max the Mutt directly after high school and holds diplomas from both the 3 year Classical & Computer Animation Basics Diploma Program, and the  Advanced 3D Computer Animation & Production  Program, which he completed in  2006.  Since then he’s been steadily employed as  a character designer by  CORE Digital, House Of Cool Studios,  and , currently,  Starz Animation. Lubomir also freelances as a character designer. His designs are part of many current animated series!  His newest freelance work is visual development artist for a potential feature project.

It’s been a pleasure to watch Lubomir evolve not only into a first rate character designer, but a first rate, genuine and generous human being.

Lubomir recently published Deviations: Lubomir Arsov- Explorations 2006-2009. Some pages are shown below.

Deviations' cover image

a page from Deviations

a page from Deviations

The book  was inspired by encouraging words from friends and colleagues, and a desire to share his private process with a wider audience.

Max the Mutt Animation School  congratulates Lubomir Arsov on the publication of his book and  wishes him every success in his future endeavors.

Jake Griffith is in the second year of the four year Diploma Program in Concept Art for Animation and Video Games. We’ll try to post work by other students in that program very soon!

Ryan Henson Creighton has  good things to say about Max the Mutt students.

“Hi Carla. I’ve contracted work to a few of your students – Kelly Conley and Andrei Skarine – and I’ve worked with T-K Labus on a few funding proposals.  I would take Andrei as a summer student in a chicken minute.  Check out the phenomenal work he did for our upcoming trivia game:”

Work done by Andrei Skarine – a second year Max the Mutt Concept Art student.

Click Here to view site

Click Here to view site

Link for the work done by Kelly Conley. Click Here to view site

Over the last few years I’ve tried to contribute in a positive way to the conceptart.org website, and I’ve also piloted  a now deleted Max the Mutt thread. I’ve tried my best to follow guidelines for recruiters. In fact, I’ve been thanked  many, many times. I’ve contributed information on painting, color, and was a regular contributor to a Nicolaides thread. I definitely also let people know about the programs at Max the Mutt when the information was relevant and requested and proudly posted work that was being done by our CA students.

I also received information, for which I’m very grateful. I found companies that are now manufacturing and selling, through the internet, artists supplies that I can’t get here! I found out about the anatomy DVDs mentioned in my last post.

All in all, it was a positive experience, and I would encourage Max the Mutt students to feel free to establish a thread and/or post work. However, the time has come for me to bow out.

Jason has been advertising his new on line school, which sounds like a great project that has the potential to help people without the funds to attend school!  I wish him luck with this project and don’t feel he is “spamming” or would be “spamming” if he tried to get the fact known across the internet!  Knowledge is power.  People have the right to know what is available, to investigate options, and then make the choice that seems a good fit for them.

In order to keep tuition as low as possible, we count on the internet and word of mouth to let people know about us, and our programs. It’s the quality of work that has been steadily produced by Max the Mutt students, and their professionalism, that has enabled the school to grow and expand. When a query on conceptart.org asking for an art school that teaches skills and is near Pittsburgh comes up, it’s impossible for me not to suggest that the writer take a look at our website!  If that’s spamming, I’m guilty.

I respect the fact that it’s Jason’s website and he has the right set the boundaries, but I cannot be present anywhere to do with art without Max the Mutt being part of who I am and what concerns me. Therefore,  with regret, I will no longer participate. My thanks to many of the contributors on  conceptart.org for their support and help when we were developing the Diploma Program in Concept Art for Animation & Video Games!  I’m sure I’ll still peruse the site, and I wish you all the best now and in the future.

We were one of the first, if not the first, schools to offer an in-depth program dedicated to Concept Art.  The general level of work produced at the school by Max the Mutt Concept Art students is very high, and very prolific! If you can’t make it to the school to see the year end show,  when the new web galleries are finally live (sometime in the middle of July)  you’ll get to see the work produced by first and second year CA students.  Please let me know if you agree with me about the quality of work produced during the ’08-’09 academic year.

I was also very happy to see the Illustration for Sequential Arts year two work. These second year Max the Mutt Comics and Graphic Novels students are a very dedicated, hard working group and produced impressive work!

I’ll be writing soon about some of the amazing new instructors joining us this year. They are interested in teaching at Max the Mutt because of the quality of work on exhibit.

It was easy to go to my studio today and concentrate on nothing but my own painting! I am feeling so good about the way things are going.

I haven’t mentioned animation, and I should have. Steve Sayer and Steve Barnes really are a dynamic duo!  you can see them on the grduation/ industry evening video. The 3D work is outstanding, and I’m sure the group film, as well as several of the year 3  Toon Boom films, will be contenders for awards.

Max the Mutt is definitely the school for Concept Art, Illustration for Sequential Arts, and, of course, Animation!

Have a good summer everyone!