New Art, Sci-fi, and the Jet Ski Dimension!
My Latest News, Hot Tips, and Recommendations
Greetings, friends & followers!
I apologize for slacking on my newsletter, but in the meantime, I have been getting SOOOO many messages like:
“Sterling, what are you working on? Please tell me you are still creating new projects!”
“Sterling, I need help finding only the best art tutorials on Youtube!”
“Sterling, has Bigfoot been sighted recently? Are there any new UFOs?! ARE WE ALONE OR NOT???”
Okay, it’s more like a few messages. Actually, no messages. No one has sent me any desperate messages of concern. BUT! I’m happy to believe many of you are saying those things in your head, right? Right???
So here’s the latest:
If you do not follow my Instagram (@sterfest.art), I am continuing to produce art there you may want to check out including a series of portraits of the three main characters from the popular anime, Spy x Hunter! (Two down, one to go: Loid Forger!)
No new comic projects since my last newsletter, although the two page comic I was drawing for the Panelsmiths anthology has been expanded to six pages. I am a little stressed about that, but I think it will ultimately be three times the fun for you sometime late summer or early fall!
The other two stories I authored, The Airship and the 8-page sci-fi story, The Encounter Before, are still in production. And possibly more to come…???
Finally, as a teaser for next time, I am working on a new Sterling’s Deep Dive for writers. The topic will be figuring out what makes great tragedy writing tick, and I will do it using two of my favorite A’s: Arcane and Aristotle!
As always, thanks for continuing to follow and support my work! I hope it brings you some bit of joy and education in the ever complicated and challenging times we live in. Stay strong and never stop believing that your voice matters—so use it!
Secret Arts & Forbidden Knowledge:
Five Useful Tips for Drawing Anatomy!
This tutorial comes from one of my favorite Youtube artists, Cosmic Spectrum Art. I started following her because I liked her art style, but if you listen to her talk while she shows her process, you will get some great tips and art wisdom along the way.
In this video, she covers five useful tips for doing gesture drawings from photo references. The video may seem long (30 min), but she covers the five points in the first thirteen minutes. I rewatched it last night as a refresher and found the whole thing packed full of useful drawing information.
On her channel, she also shows her process doing both digital and paper drawings from sketching to coloring, and I’ve learned a lot from all the ones I have watched.
Side note: for anyone who may find her videos too long and rambling, I can only suggest that you listen and have patience. It is a practice that will serve you well in art and in life!
Recommended Haunts & Carnies:
What I’m Watching, Reading, and Listening to!
Title: Love, Death, & Robots (2022)
Format: Television Series
Where to watch: Netflix
The latest season of Love, Death, & Robots recently arrived on Netflix, and it continues to raise the bar on what is possible in sci-fi animation. The stories echo elements of work you may be familiar with elsewhere in writing, films, and comics. However each short does a tremendous job making those familiar elements into something truly unique both with the writing and groundbreaking art design.
The stories range from dark, satiric, humorous, horrific, and mind-bending, but the most refreshing attribute of this collection is that Netflix is giving a platform to cutting-edge, adult-themed animation that is not often seen. The writing is excellent in most of the episodes with a few exceptions, but you can rest assured every single episode is a visual and audible feast.
The last episode of the latest season, Jibaro, may be one of the most visually spectacular shorts I have ever seen. Combining a style of modern computer animations, real life settings, and balletic dance, it creates something that appears simultaneously realistic and yet physically impossible. Between knights in full medieval armor leaping and doing pirouettes and a gold-laden water nymph dancing lightly on the surface of water, the piece forces your senses into a set of contradictions that cannot be quickly or easily processed. This sensory confusion mimics the feelings of a main character whose lack of hearing leaves him impervious to the nymph’s siren wail that is driving his comrades into madness.
What I can say here will do little justice to experiencing the whole thing with your own senses, but be prepared for a frightening fifteen-minute emotional roller coaster that left me stunned.
BONUS: I just saw this making of video about Jibaro here that is pretty interesting.
Title: Aristotle’s Poetics for Screenwriters (2002)
Format: Book
Author: Michael Tierno
I just finished this book in preparation for my next deep dive on writing. I read an article in a magazine years ago in college in which the author broke down elements of a great screenplay vs a mediocre one using Aristotle’s Poetics. Unfortunately, I lost the magazine article years ago, but the ideas I learned from it had a lasting affect on my writing.
Having read this book now, I’m not sure it exactly hits all the points I remembered from the original article, but it does offer some good analysis of how Aristotle’s theories apply to modern screenplays. I felt the author was stretching his hand a little thin on some points, but as a way to study Poetics, this book is a good way to break the concepts down into meaningful terms and phrases.
So if you are interested in screenwriting or any other type of story writing, I definitely recommend adding it to your collection of texts. (Along with the original text for Poetics, of course.)
Title: Bigfoot Collector’s Club
Format: Podcast
Podcasters: Michael McMillian, Bryce Johnson, Riley Bray
Where to listen: Apple Podcasts and other podcast platforms
I listen to several podcasts involving paranormal lore, but this one has remained on top of my list for years now. The cast includes Michael McMillian (True Blood, Crazy Ex Girlfriend), Bryce Johnson (Expedition Bigfoot, Pretty Little Liars), and producer/musician Riley Bray.
For nearly five years, they have consistently put together top-notch weekly podcasts that are entertaining, hilarious, and a great source of information about the world of the weird. They will often bring on guests both from the entertainment industry and the paranormal research world to talk about their personal paranormal history before going into a deep dive on a story of high strangeness.
Despite how wild their introspections go sometimes contemplating the “what ifs” of these stories, what I admire most about these gentlemen is that they always keep one foot firmly on the ground with both their humor and their humility. So if you need something fun and entertaining to listen to in the background, this may be the high strangeness podcast for you.
HEADS UP: If you jump into the most recent episodes of the podcast for the first time, you may come across a strange episode that takes place in the “Jet Ski Dimension.” With no context, you will be confused, baffled, and perhaps a little annoyed if you haven’t been listening to the build up to that episode over the past three or so years. If that happens, know that I haven’t mislead you. Just keep listening and they will explain everything. Sort of. Enjoy!
Sterling Martin is an artist and designer living in Chicago, IL. His background includes drawing, writing, theatre, teaching, improv & sketch comedy, and whatever else he can get his hands on to be creative. You can find him on the internet at:
Instagram: @sterfest.art
Website: sterlingmartin.design
Twitter: Maybe someday?
Linkedin: I’m pretty sure I have one of those
Facebook: Ugh, do I have to?