2014 - 11/2014 Meeting

Page Created: 04/14/14. Last Updated: 12/20/14.

RANDY GALLEGOS

Links:

..........Official Site: http://gallegosart.com/

..........Artist Blog: http://blog.gallegosart.com/

..........Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Gallegosart

..........Twitter: https://twitter.com/gallegosart

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: November 8, 2014.

Meeting Site: Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church.

Official Attendance: 19.

Meeting Program: Slide Show / Talk / Q & A with Fantasy Artist.

Notes:

Newsletter Account:

After several recent months of speakers having to cancel, meeting venues changing and other last minute crises, it was a welcome relief to have a simple, pleasant, unfussy General Meeting on Saturday, November 8, 2014. The gathering was held in the normal event space of the Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Our Animation Associates presented episodes of the anime series, GALACTIC PIRATES. The Ice Nine discussion was even better than usual, covering movies (the forthcoming DOCTOR STRANGE film), television (AGENT SHARON CARTER, also upcoming), space news (the Space X explosion), books (Fred Pohl's THE SPACE MERCHANTS), fan STAR TREK web productions and many other topics.

Fantasy artist Randy Gallegos was our speaker. Mr Gallegos presented a slide show of his work, brought originals and reproductions of various paintings and drawings, and kept up a lively patter about his career.

Randy Gallegos' hundreds of science fiction and fantasy illustrations have appeared in books (Doubleday), magazines (LIGHTSPEED), games (Wizards of the Coast), private commissions and other venues. His artwork has appeared in six volumes of SPECTRUM: THE BEST IN CONTEMPORARY ART. Samples of his artwork and his blog can be found on Mr Gallegos' website at http://gallegosart.com/.

Our guest described himself as a child of the 80's; one of his first memories was seeing the first STAR WARS movies as a four-year-old. He grew up playing Atari video games, reading from ROM, THE SPACE KNIGHT comic books, and playing with Transformers action figures. His art career began when he was ten and made himself a cardboard palette with a hole for his finger. White paste and crayons served as his "paints."

Two works would set Mr Gallegos on his career as an artist. The artwork of fantastic creatures captured his imagination and would guide him to an extensive body of work for Wizards of the Coast and other fantasy game companies. The second was a book of the art of Michael Whalen. Not only did it get our speaker thinking about book cover illustration, but it also got him interested in reading fantasy and science fiction, first the books illustrated by Mr Whalen, and later other works. By 8th Grade he knew he wanted to be an artist and would cut school to look for science fiction in used book stores.

Our guest enrolled in the California College of Arts and Crafts as a Drawing Major, but did not complete his degree. He honed his craft by creating his version of book covers for classic works of science fiction. Mr Gallegos also worked part time for Thomas Kinkade's Lighthouse Publications. He was one of a group of artists working in a warehouse who applied finishing touches to Kinkade's work.

Our speaker broke into the fantasy illustration field by doing work for Wizards of the Coast. The company had purchased TSR, which originally produced Dungeons & Dragons. He had noticed their display at the 1993 World Science Fiction Convention, but did not really connect until the following year when a WotC art director (who was also one of their artists) was doing a signing at a local store. Randy Gallegos displayed his portfolio after the event and was given an assignment on the spot.

Being published by Wizards opened the doors for work at other game companies like the Vampire card game. These smaller companies did not pay as well as Wizards, but they provided a steady stream of work. Before 2000, our guest did 9 or 10 illustrations per month. Most of these were quick, simple jobs, but every now and then there was a higher paying assignment which would allow him to devote a greater amount of time and detail.

Randy Gallegos went through a number of changes in the early years of the 21st Century. As an artist, he began to start working in oil. His earlier work had primarily been done in acrylic paint as that was the medium of renowned fantasy artist Michael Whelan. The main mechanical difference between the mediums is that oil does not dry as quickly as acrylic, but there are a number of subtle differences as well.

The business end of the game industry had also changed. Our speaker's earliest work for Wizards of the Coast earned him royalties in addition to the fee for the work, but later art was commissioned on a straight-fee basis. The aftermath of 9/11 devastated the gaming industry. People dramatically curtailed their gaming purchases for a time, driving out many of the smaller players in the field. The entire staff of the Korean game company, Nexon, for example, was let go. It would be several years before the company would again attempt to break into the American market.

Another change was that he and his wife (they had met in art class in junior high) decided to spend some time abroad. Changes in technology had made it easier to work from home anywhere in the world, so they spent three-to-six months in England, Italy and other spots in Europe on a visa before moving to Brooklyn in 2008.

The business of book cover illustration has evolved over the past decade. Although there are still companies like Baen, DAW and Tor Books which use traditional artist renderings, many imprints are employing photographs and simple design formats for their covers.

Randy Gallegos' slide show focused on his career and work. This is one of several slide shows he has prepared. The show normally runs less than an hour, so the original plan was to show one, take a break, and then come back with another, which would focus more on the technique of creating a painting. But there was so much feedback and so many questions that we never got to the second show. There was about 30 minutes between the end of our speaker's presentation and the time we departed the building. People just informally talked with our guest and asked him questions. This was not what we planned, but it was proved delightful.

Our thanks to everyone who assisted with making the evening work so well.