Manga Artists :: Part 2: Digital Artist Gez Fry

I love the magazine Digital Creative Arts, and one of the main reasons I love it is to look out for any new articles about Gez Fry. I have two so far, which I will post here for my future reference.

:: DCA Issue #15 from 2004, pgs. 27 & 34-35 ::

"Brief Encounters"

We gave four talented illustrators the same brief, and then sat back and waited to see what they would create. . .

The brief: Winter makes you think of snowflakes, warm fires, icy car windscreens, bags of christmas shopping, long colorful scarves, roast chestnuts and raw red noses. Or does it? What does winter 2004 mean to you? What moods does it evoke, what memories or dreams does it inspire? Create us a piece of digital art for the next cover of DCA that only could have come from you.

Gez Fry
Age: 26
Years as prof artist: 1.5
Web site: www.folioart.co.uk
Illustrative Style: A mix of Japanese influence, painting, games and manga
Credits: Sports Illustrated for Kids and Kingfisher Books
Brief Tacking MO: seeks inspiration
Brief tackling tip: "Make sure there are no doubts in your mind about what the client wants, so that you can feel relaxed and make the kind of image that will appeal both to them and to yourself."

At 26, Gez Fry is still pretty new to the illustration game, but you wouldn't know it to look at his work. Practically and technically speaking, his way or working is still evolving, but there's a purity about his technique for approaching an image that speaks volumes about relying on natural talent. Quite simply, Gez doesn't force the brief into an idea, rather he sits and he waits until the brief speaks to him.

"I made a cup of tea and had a think about it," says Gez of his reaction when the DCA winter brief arrived. "Then I went to Yugahama beach, near where I live in Japan."

Once he does get down to actually creating the image, Gez goes straight for the digital option, escewing the original route: "I started by making a really loose sketch of what I had in mind. I used to use a pencil and paper for sketching, but recently I've been using my Wacom Intuos2 tablet to draw directly into Photoshop. It's taken me a while, but it's now the drawing tool I feel most comfortable with." Because he'd tapped into the brief to begin with, and had come up with an image that he wanted to create, actually producing it was a fairly straightforward affair for Gez.

It's not always that simple, though, and sometimes Gez will kick off with several ideas before deciding which he really wants to take through to completion. But he always tries to follow his gut instinct, "even if [his] brain is saying no." Gez says that creating the cover of DCA was the most enjoyable brief he's ever had, and also "the most open-ended."

Valuable Lesson

If there's one lesson to be learnt from the DCA's Brief Encounters, it's that one size doesn't fit all. Every Illustrator will have their own way of tackling a brief, and every art director their own way of writing one. Make a connection with someone, and then get across what you want done as clearly as possible. And if you think you might be conversing at cross-purposes, get on the phone and hammer it out. You should be able to tell if you're not reading from the same hymn book, and the smart illustrator will adapt to what their client really wants, rather than pushing ahead with the image they burn to ceate. Listen. Question. Persist. If you're responding to a brief then there's little else to be done. You'll know when you've got a solid handle on the idea, so don't rest until you're holding it.

And if it's you that's writing the brief, then learn to relax a little. Don't bind your artist's hands with suggestions that are impractical, or ideas that are uninspired. Be lucid, be factual and be succinct. Pick fantastic artists, and then trust them. Flick back through the previous pages if you don't believe this strategy can work. From a 67-word brief, we got back four images good and exciting enough for the cover. It turns ouot it's called a "brief" for a reason.

Captions on the page: The finished DCA cover feels like winter, as well as depicting something far from the stereotypes you might expect. Gez's studio in Japan (top) is his creative haven. From there, he likes to let a brief breather before diving in.

::

Awesome article, no? Through the interview, article setup, and images (sorry I'm not including those!) you get a sense of how a modern artist works and thinks, which has inspired me in my own processes, and how to successfully tackle an assignment. From the FMA artbook, Inuyasha artbook, and Bisco Hatori asides in her mangas, I get a better sense of the variety of projects an artist must tackle besides just doing the manga itself. (Manga cover, magazine covers, posters, etc.) so the info on tackling a brief is fabulous and incredibly useful.

::

:: I wanted to get this posted, but I'll put up the second article as soon as I find it. Sorry for the delay! ::