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Organization: Santa Clarita Artists' Association
Date: August 17, 2008
Oct. 20 Meeting Features Artist Glenn Vilppu
The Santa Clarita Artists' Association (SCAA) October 20, 2008 meeting at 7 p.m. will feature Glenn Vilppu. His topic is titled "Capturing Your World / Sketching on Location." This will be unique for a demo since he encourages his attendees to bring pen and ink, pencil, pads or small watercolor set and work with him while he demonstrates and explains.
Vilppu teaches figure drawing at the American Animation Institute, the Masters program of the UCLA Animation Dept., Walt Disney Feature Animation and Warner Bros. Feature Animation, and is being sent to teach artists at Disney TV studios in Japan, Canada and the Philippines. Previously, Vilppu has worked in the animation industry for 18 years as a layout, storyboard and presentation artist. His drawing manual and videotapes are being used worldwide as course materials for animation students.
"Figure drawing has been the standard measurement of an artist's skills for hundreds of years, probably from the moment we first started capturing the living world around us. The Renaissance artist was judged by much the same standard as the animation artist is today. The great masters of the past were first storytellers. They had to be able to create figures that the viewers could empathize with so that stories were brought to life with a sense of realism and believability. Animation drawing is, in essence, the closest thing we have to classical Renaissance drawing today," says Vilppu.
Vilppu was guest artists at the Trustees Theater at Savannah College of Art and Design in Spring 2004. Following this, he was Artist in Residence for the Spring terms in Savannah in 2005 and 2006. In Spring of 2007, he was artist in Residence at their campus in Lacoste, Provence, France, where he taught figure drawing, outdoor sketching and painting. The sketching seminar that he will be giving to the Santa Clarita Artists Association, Sketching Your World, will be a brief version of the class taught in France.
His publication, Sketching on Location, is the foundation for this class and is available at vilppustore.com and see examples of Glenn's work as well as other publications at www.vilppustudio.com. He will lead a sketching tour in Italy in June that will focus on the Italian Lakes and Venice.
"The hardest part of the lesson is to overcome the desire to copy the model. Remember, we never copy the model but analyze it," says Vilppu. He first wrote for Animation World Magazine in the June 1997 issue, "Never Underestimate the Power of Life Drawing." And he gives sketching tours in Italy. His work can be viewed on his website: http://www.vilppustudio.com/
These monthly meetings of the Santa Clarita Artists' Association are held at the Westfield Town Center Community Room, between JC Penny and the Food Court; and are informative and inspirational. Non-members are also welcomed and may attend their first meeting for free. For information about attending or joining, please contact the membership chairperson: Dianne Foderaro, email: torched@dslextreme.com; or visit the SCAA webpage at SantaClaritaArtists.org.
