For at least 5 years I have been reading manga, and I’m always fascinated by the many artwork styles and the many themes and genre’s they provide. This site called the MangaBlog: http://mangablog.mangabookshelf.com/ covers a variety of diverse manga’s ranges for many young and old to lot’s of popular manga of recent years and old that have been translated into English.

This blog primarily highlights reviews and conversations about various types of manga. Usually each week has a different theme related manga from many of the reviewers who own the blog. Each post consists of links to other websites consisting of many other interesting manga reviews from many people to all sorts of genre’s. Be it romance, comedy, psychological, tragedy, horror, and many more. The site also has links to articles or news that goes over what manga has affected recently to, how it affected someone in what they do, the top spot on this week’s New York Times Manga Best Seller list, or an interesting interview with famous manga creators at conventions, especially at big conventions` like the NYCC (New York Comic Con).

The industry of manga as a whole recently has been more popular than ever and is well known, because it is distributed worldwide. What supports this is on the blog, one of the posts covers about publishers releasing almost 800 new volumes of many manga’s in 2014, up 25% from 2013 and I wouldn’t be surprised! Even “One Piece” by Oda Eiichiro won Guinness World record for, “The most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author” being 320,866,000!

Sometimes I wonder if I myself will ever make a manga of my own. I mean making a story of your own and if it becomes popular enough and become animated sounds so breathtaking.

By Derek Van Devender

For at least 5 years I have been reading manga, and I’m always fascinated by the many artwork styles and the many themes and genre’s they provide. This site called the MangaBlog: http://mangablog.mangabookshelf.com/ covers a variety of diverse manga’s ranges for many young and old to lot’s of popular manga of recent years and old that have been translated into English.

This blog primarily highlights reviews and conversations about various types of manga. Usually each week has a different theme related manga from many of the reviewers who own the blog. Each post consists of links to other websites consisting of many other interesting manga reviews from many people to all sorts of genre’s. Be it romance, comedy, psychological, tragedy, horror, and many more. The site also has links to articles or news that goes over what manga has affected recently to, how it affected someone in what they do, the top spot on this week’s New York Times Manga Best Seller list, or an interesting interview with famous manga creators at conventions, especially at big conventions` like the NYCC (New York Comic Con).

The industry of manga as a whole recently has been more popular than ever and is well known, because it is distributed worldwide. What supports this is on the blog, one of the posts covers about publishers releasing almost 800 new volumes of many manga’s in 2014, up 25% from 2013 and I wouldn’t be surprised! Even “One Piece” by Oda Eiichiro won Guinness World record for, “The most copies published for the same comic book series by a single author” being 320,866,000!

Sometimes I wonder if I myself will ever make a manga of my own. I mean making a story of your own and if it becomes popular enough and become animated sounds so breathtaking.

By Derek Van Devender

Noah’s Art

http://www.noahbradley.com/blog/

If you know me at all, it’s no secret that I love Noah Bradley. No, you don’t understand. I. Love. Noah Bradley. This is one guy who I feel like spouts nothing but gold. Mostly it’s because he only wants to say things that are important, the rest is just fluff that wastes time and distracts from getting work done. He says it how it is, and is a wonderful teacher to anyone who wants to get into the concept/illustration field. Noah’s a gem.

This is reflected in his blog (along with his other sites) setup: simple, and straight to the point. Not to say he isn’t artistic with the site’s aesthetics, because frankly simplicity is always attractive. Noah uses WordPress for his blog and portfolio site. He’s been through quite the journey in his endeavor to become the professional he is today and he has a lot to share with the artistic community. He posts product reviews, resource (books, sites, etc.) recommendations, professional tips, and motivational advice.

His blog is very easy to navigate through, nothing distracting in the interface. His latest post was a tablet monitor review that is a cheaper alternative to the common Cintiq… something I will look into. His post titled ‘I Hate Your Portfolio’ got right into what your portfolio should look like if you want to be hired. His bullet-point list is super easy to follow and he expands briefly on each topic. If you click the link at the top to his portfolio, you can find his free stock images as well as a link to his Gumroad site. There he offers video tutorials, brushpacks, master studies, and best of all, The Art of Freelancing. TAoF is a 5 hour long lecture that gives a pretty complete insight into how Noah broke into the industry. Noah’s blog is a great resource for anyone who wants to become (or already is!) a concept artist.

Noah’s Art

http://www.noahbradley.com/blog/

If you know me at all, it’s no secret that I love Noah Bradley. No, you don’t understand. I. Love. Noah Bradley. This is one guy who I feel like spouts nothing but gold. Mostly it’s because he only wants to say things that are important, the rest is just fluff that wastes time and distracts from getting work done. He says it how it is, and is a wonderful teacher to anyone who wants to get into the concept/illustration field. Noah’s a gem.

This is reflected in his blog (along with his other sites) setup: simple, and straight to the point. Not to say he isn’t artistic with the site’s aesthetics, because frankly simplicity is always attractive. Noah uses WordPress for his blog and portfolio site. He’s been through quite the journey in his endeavor to become the professional he is today and he has a lot to share with the artistic community. He posts product reviews, resource (books, sites, etc.) recommendations, professional tips, and motivational advice.

His blog is very easy to navigate through, nothing distracting in the interface. His latest post was a tablet monitor review that is a cheaper alternative to the common Cintiq… something I will look into. His post titled ‘I Hate Your Portfolio’ got right into what your portfolio should look like if you want to be hired. His bullet-point list is super easy to follow and he expands briefly on each topic. If you click the link at the top to his portfolio, you can find his free stock images as well as a link to his Gumroad site. There he offers video tutorials, brushpacks, master studies, and best of all, The Art of Freelancing. TAoF is a 5 hour long lecture that gives a pretty complete insight into how Noah broke into the industry. Noah’s blog is a great resource for anyone who wants to become (or already is!) a concept artist.

The Beat
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/category/industry/

Premium Beat is “a curated royalty free music website that provides exclusive, high-quality tracks and sound effects for use in new and traditional media projects, including videos, films, apps, games, and television programming.” Their blog, The Beat, talks about the latest new in the production industry and also posts tips on video editing, video production, motion graphics, audio editing and more! The blog is very easy to navigate in and has tabs along the top and some that run down the side for quick and easy access.

The Video Production tab was one that I found super interesting. The posts range from “How to Pick the Best Video Production Mic” to  “Professional Video Editing Tips and Techniques” to “How (and When) to Use a Steadicam Shot”. I find all of these topics super helpful and very easy to follow. The Beat does a fantastic job covering a variety of topics that allow people to expand their knowledge and gain new skills.

The Beat also posts articles with tips on how to use different software. They have articles on After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro X, Cinema 4D, Avid Media Composer Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Smoke. You can find some articles under a couple different categories depending on their content, but all are very informative and help people discover new ways to use various software programs.

-Ashley

The Beat
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/category/industry/

Premium Beat is “a curated royalty free music website that provides exclusive, high-quality tracks and sound effects for use in new and traditional media projects, including videos, films, apps, games, and television programming.” Their blog, The Beat, talks about the latest new in the production industry and also posts tips on video editing, video production, motion graphics, audio editing and more! The blog is very easy to navigate in and has tabs along the top and some that run down the side for quick and easy access.

The Video Production tab was one that I found super interesting. The posts range from “How to Pick the Best Video Production Mic” to  “Professional Video Editing Tips and Techniques” to “How (and When) to Use a Steadicam Shot”. I find all of these topics super helpful and very easy to follow. The Beat does a fantastic job covering a variety of topics that allow people to expand their knowledge and gain new skills.

The Beat also posts articles with tips on how to use different software. They have articles on After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro X, Cinema 4D, Avid Media Composer Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Smoke. You can find some articles under a couple different categories depending on their content, but all are very informative and help people discover new ways to use various software programs.

-Ashley

One professional blog I find to be a great resource is reverseshot.org, which is a publication of the Museum of the Moving Image. The museum itself is located in Queens, and is devoted to film, television and digital media. With its many reviews, symposiums and interviews, Reverse Shot is a necessary resource for any aspiring filmmaker. The website is sleek and easy to navigate, and has a very professional feel. It has a number of contributors, all of whom seem quite knowledgable in the realm of film history.

The reviews are very in-depth, and  rarely of blockbusters. In a review of Bridge of Spies, the latest Spielberg film, contributor Jeff Reichert had this to say; “We’re near-always safe with Spielberg; his films are built around an unparalleled clarity of space, and when their imagery functions to disorient our perspective it’s only in order to make the reorientation even more effectively stabilizing. He aims to please.”

The Symposiums are also very informative, and usually focus on a theme or director. In Ring Cycle, an analysis of Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, contributor Michael Koresky praises the film’s emotional brutality and iconic boxing scenes. He also goes on to say that the film’s depiction of non-fictional boxer Jake LaMotta elevated the emotional response of the audience;

“Jake LaMotta is no made-up character—in fictionalizing a real man, Scorsese at once elevates him and brings him down to earth. You could use the term larger than life, but life seems to swallow him up. As expressed in the film’s justly famous credit sequence—in which a distant LaMotta bounces and shadowboxes in elegant slow motion on the left side of the 1.85:1 frame, accompanied by the effusive flourish of Pietro Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana”—he is eternally, like all of us, a small man in the corner.”

Ring Cycle is just one post in a series called “Martin Scorsese: He is Cinema,” which analyzes every Scorsese film. This type of insight is necessary if one wants to learn from the greats of filmmaking.

One professional blog I find to be a great resource is reverseshot.org, which is a publication of the Museum of the Moving Image. The museum itself is located in Queens, and is devoted to film, television and digital media. With its many reviews, symposiums and interviews, Reverse Shot is a necessary resource for any aspiring filmmaker. The website is sleek and easy to navigate, and has a very professional feel. It has a number of contributors, all of whom seem quite knowledgable in the realm of film history.

The reviews are very in-depth, and  rarely of blockbusters. In a review of Bridge of Spies, the latest Spielberg film, contributor Jeff Reichert had this to say; “We’re near-always safe with Spielberg; his films are built around an unparalleled clarity of space, and when their imagery functions to disorient our perspective it’s only in order to make the reorientation even more effectively stabilizing. He aims to please.”

The Symposiums are also very informative, and usually focus on a theme or director. In Ring Cycle, an analysis of Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, contributor Michael Koresky praises the film’s emotional brutality and iconic boxing scenes. He also goes on to say that the film’s depiction of non-fictional boxer Jake LaMotta elevated the emotional response of the audience;

“Jake LaMotta is no made-up character—in fictionalizing a real man, Scorsese at once elevates him and brings him down to earth. You could use the term larger than life, but life seems to swallow him up. As expressed in the film’s justly famous credit sequence—in which a distant LaMotta bounces and shadowboxes in elegant slow motion on the left side of the 1.85:1 frame, accompanied by the effusive flourish of Pietro Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana”—he is eternally, like all of us, a small man in the corner.”

Ring Cycle is just one post in a series called “Martin Scorsese: He is Cinema,” which analyzes every Scorsese film. This type of insight is necessary if one wants to learn from the greats of filmmaking.

Concept Art World
(http://conceptartworld.com/)

Concept Art World is a professional collection of blogs covering the vast aspects of (you guessed it) Concept Art. The blog has a visually pleasing layout with clear navigation tools(the tabs), the site also does a good job of being on top for new releases. The first thing you see when visiting this website is a slide slow of featured artist’s pieces, followed underneath by thumbnails and links to whats new in the concept world. For example concept art for the Batman v Superman costume art, Halo 5: Guardians, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. At the top of the page tabs, topics of interest for the website our: artists, studios, books, training, inspiration. Under the artist tab you can easily catch your eye on a wide selection of creations, with each featured artist having a small gallery of their own pieces; along with hyperlinks to their personal websites. The studio section allows for one to see some of the companies behind the concept art, such as my favorite being Atomhawk Design; my opinion strongly biased because I am familiar with and do admire their previous work. The book tab offers book tutorials ranging from all skill levels for drawing, there are illustrated books if you would rather enjoy the pieces! The training tab gives first hand knowledge from established veteran concept artist, giving you the option of purchasing a lesson or enrolling in an online class.

The greatest resource that I  found is the “books” and the “training” sections. Concept Art and game art blogs & websites are a dime a dozen, but it is quite rare for these blogs to devote a whole section where the reader(you) can actually be set on the right path to begin picking up this trade.

By Kendrick Taylor

Concept Art World
(http://conceptartworld.com/)

Concept Art World is a professional collection of blogs covering the vast aspects of (you guessed it) Concept Art. The blog has a visually pleasing layout with clear navigation tools(the tabs), the site also does a good job of being on top for new releases. The first thing you see when visiting this website is a slide slow of featured artist’s pieces, followed underneath by thumbnails and links to whats new in the concept world. For example concept art for the Batman v Superman costume art, Halo 5: Guardians, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. At the top of the page tabs, topics of interest for the website our: artists, studios, books, training, inspiration. Under the artist tab you can easily catch your eye on a wide selection of creations, with each featured artist having a small gallery of their own pieces; along with hyperlinks to their personal websites. The studio section allows for one to see some of the companies behind the concept art, such as my favorite being Atomhawk Design; my opinion strongly biased because I am familiar with and do admire their previous work. The book tab offers book tutorials ranging from all skill levels for drawing, there are illustrated books if you would rather enjoy the pieces! The training tab gives first hand knowledge from established veteran concept artist, giving you the option of purchasing a lesson or enrolling in an online class.

The greatest resource that I  found is the “books” and the “training” sections. Concept Art and game art blogs & websites are a dime a dozen, but it is quite rare for these blogs to devote a whole section where the reader(you) can actually be set on the right path to begin picking up this trade.

By Kendrick Taylor