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SOUND DESIGN
My next task was to scan the pics, and work them in PhotoShop CS3. I coloured and textured the pics, squashed and squished them. And generally made them realllllly vivid. A few of those sketches didn't make it into the final film. But most of them did.
THE FINISHED PRODUCT
An ArtRage forum member sent me a message asking me how she could get into doing visual facilitation for a living. I figure my answer to her might be worth sharing. And maybe we can have some dialogue about my thoughts that might open it up and make it a bigger topic for us all.1. Are you well-read, well-versed in non-fiction, specifically business stuff, psychology, marketing? You'll need to pump up your knowledge in these fields.Regarding the actual 'How' of your question, I recommend just sitting in on some event or other, and pushing yourself into doing a live visual facilitation without screening your work or standing out from the crowd in any way. Just draw what you hear. Get a feeling for how much work you need to do to be on top of things. Do more of these.
2. Are you able to concentrate fiercely well for long stretches, listening ardently to new information, synthesising patterns from it, picking out fascinating details pertinent to the greater whole?
3. Can you multi-task? REALLY multi-task? When you're doing a visual facilitation, you're doing lots of things at once. I've described it to someone as 'flying a helicopter while holding two simultaneous, in-depth conversations'. I think I might revise that description and add a second helicopter to the mix.
4. How do you prefer to work -- traditional media or digital? This is a far-reaching fundamental choice. Sounds from your skill-set that you're digitally comfortable.
You haven't mentioned whether you use a tablet pc (or Wacom Cintiq), or if you're using a Wacom tablet?
Tablet PC is my preferred route. There are currently three machines in South Africa that I can recommend... Toshiba Portege M700, Asus R1E, Fujitsu T5010.
Portability of your setup is of paramount importance. Heading out to some remote conference centre should not induce muscle strain or back pain.
Working on traditional media limits what you can offer to your client. Most of the visual facilitators around the world use traditional media. I so so so don't recommend it. No edge. No instant distribution. However, if you MUST do it that way, go for it.
5. Are you willing to expose yourself to a roomful of people by making art live, before their very eyes?
I assure you, you are totally naked when your stuff is appearing live, in real time, on a huge screen next to the speaker's screen. They're watching your every move.
If you have ANY fear of public humiliation, you're going to find visual facilitation pretty hardcore.
If you're comfortable to do some really nice work on the odd occasion, with mostly clodhopper ATTEMPTS at brilliance most of the time, with people watching you frown as you hit the eraser button on ArtRage, then you'll thrive. It helps if you're an exhibitionistic showoff with immense amounts of self-confidence.
6. Are you happy to spend a lot of time doing free gigs for high profile audiences in order to establish a name for yourself? Do you have the chutzpah to inveigle yourself into events as 'the visual facilitator', even though you weren't invited, they've never heard of you, and you don't wanna pay the entrance fee? Do you have the ability to earn an income elsewhere to allow you to take a year to build this up into a business? Are you willing to learn and adapt what you're offering based on the gigs you do?
7. Do you have a winning, magnetic, persuasive personality?
8. Do you have the ability to look someone in the eye and say without shame or embarrassment or hesitation, 'I charge R12 500 per day for what I do.'? If you're blushing at the thought, convert that blush into a warm, fuzzy, delicious feeling of anticipated joy and liberation.
9. Are you comfortable with technology as a means of disseminating information about yourself? I use Twitter as my main communication tool in the world. I've been a blogger for about 6 years. I've had a website since the internet came to South Africa. I use Flickr as my primary portfolio tool. And so on.
The entire process took less than five minutes. And the little 30 second vid below is just the tip of the iceberg. There's so much more I can do with the software.
Suffice to say that I'll be finding a way to incorporate this into my visual facilitation practice.
The little speech bubble containing the link to my visual facilitation portfolio online is something new to YouTube -- video annotations. You can place them wherever you want in a video. Also amazing. Very useful. Makes YouTube a very good teaching tool.
Welcome to Roy Blumenthal's visual facilitation pictures made during the NSASA Convention 2008, at the Sibaya Convention Centre near Durban.
After observing and being on the receiving end of Roy in action during the conference, Joe Sherren, President of the International Federation for Professional Speakers, sent this email to Roy:
Roy sat in the room with his trusty tablet pc attached to a video projector. Each session, he paid serious attention to what was being said, and painted his interpretation of the ideas being delivered.
Something else suggests that his efforts were appreciated. 'I brought about a thousand business cards with me, and I've got fewer than half left.'
When he came off the stage, he was beaming. He went over to Roy and said, 'I'm a convert. I'm really glad you were doing that behind me, Roy. Thank you.'
Kristin, who traditionally doesn't use Powerpoint in her presentations, said afterwards, 'I've never worked with a visual facilitator live. Roy provides a way to seamlessly integrate visuals with a presentation.' She said, 'While I'm describing or explaining something, Roy is reinforcing my message.'
Ben Zander, speaker, co-author of THE ART OF POSSIBILITY, and conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, has used Roy's graphics on his website.
All of the paintings in this group are made live, on the fly, in the room, while the speaker is delivering his or her address. I currently use a Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc, running ArtRage 2.5 painting software.
I am available for international gigs. Please email me on royblumenthal@gmail.com or call me on my mobile: +27 74 104 6386 to book me.
This has been a prank idea for a very long time...
To make a sticker to place surreptitiously on the doors of hairdressers who butcher women's hair.
I mean, seriously... there MUST be a secret guild of hairdressers dedicated to giving women reallllllllllllly bad hair advice and hair treatments and hairdos.
Think of 'older' women with blue rinses. You think they'd do that to themselves without being nudged by their hair salon??? Come on! Nobody wants to look like a poodle!
If you like this little piece of artwork, please feel free to make printouts on your colour laser printer (an inkjet will run in the rain). Cut them out. Place them in NEARLY hidden positions on the front doors of salons who perpetrate atrocities on women's hair.
The badges shouldn't be too big. I'd estimate that they should be no bigger than the palm of your hand.
This serves two purposes.
1. Any bigger, and the badges will be discovered too quickly to do any good.
2. You can easily approach a door IN BROAD DAYLIGHT with one of them concealed in your hand. Rest against the door briefly. Catch your breath. Move on. And the perpetrator is marked!
There's a version in B&W too.
I made this pic in two packages: CorelDraw 10.0 for the typography and design; Photoshop CS2 for the image manipulation and colouring.As source material, I did a Google image search for 'bad hair'. And found some glorious horrors. I've manipulated this one beyond recognition. All, as usual, on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc.stickerprank, sticker, prank, royblumenthal, blumenthal
Imagine a workshop or seminar. Sitting in the corner is an artist with an easel. That artist is visually interpreting the ideas that are flying around the room. That artist is me.
I work on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc, painting primarily in ArtRage 2.5, with a video projector hooked up to my machine so that people can see what I'm painting.
At the end of the session, everyone gets to take home the pictures I've made.
Here's a link to my Flickr set showing some of my work: Visual Facilitation.
I'm happy to work anywhere in the world, with the proviso that I have fair notice to sort out visas where necessary.
I charge R8 500 (roughly US$1300, Euro 850, UK£650) for a half-day session, and R12 500 (roughly US$1 900, Euro 1 250, UK£950) for a full-day session. This excludes travel and accommodation.
Coffee-Shops and Me
I'm a coffee-shop schmuck, and I spend much of my time sketching people in coffee-shops. I'm somewhat of a leftie (probably more of a left libertarian than anything) and a sometime activist.
My Motto
I live my art in prosperity and abundance.
Technical Details
All of the earlier drawings are done directly onto an iPAQ 2210 palmtop computer, running a licensed version of Mobile Atelier drawing software. These pics are NOT suitable for artprints, except small, cos their resolution is only 320 x 240 pixels. I'm VERY happy to print them out as postcards for you. Lemme know, and I'll do it.
The later, more detailed, higher-resolution drawings are done on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc, running ArtRage 2.5, Alias Sketchbook Pro 2.0, Corel Painter 9.5, and Photoshop CS2. Almost every painting I make now is done in ArtRage.
(Sandi asked me if I get paid for mentioning ArtRage and Toshiba. The answer is a resounding no. I get nothing from those companies. No favours. No freebies. No money. No nothing. I just love what their tech does for me.)
I generally draw the line work on the top layer first, and then I colour on the layer below that. Each painting takes between 60 and 240 minutes to make, the colouring taking most of the time.
Creative Commons -- Attribution, Share-Alike
I'm a great believer in the open source movement. That's why I release all of my artworks under a Creative Commons 'attribution, share-alike' license.
(It's also why I buy music from Magnatune.com.)
My license means that you're free to use my work as you see fit, as long as I'm credited, and you distribute your work under the same license.
Swaps of Prints
I love doing swaps with other photographers and artists around the world. If there's a pic of mine you like, and I like one of yours, let's swap. Here's the deal... I give you a signed print, you give me a signed print. That way we both win.
Here's my postal address...
Roy Blumenthal
PO Box 532
Auckland Park
2006
South Africa
schmucknews@gmail.com
Having recently come across the field of 'visual facilitation', I'm striding headlong into this as a way of earning my living.
This is a quick read for people to get a sense of what it is I do. It's little more than a skim overview. But hopefully it arouses some curiosity.
From the top, the interventions I've used are:
o John Tschohl (www.johntschohl.com).
o Benjamin Zander (www.benjaminzander.com). He wrote to me and said...
I've been so busy [...] that i haven't written to acknowledge
your beautiful drawing/painting. It captured the spirit (and quite a
lot of the content) of the event and I will treasure it. In fact, it
is on my website.
Thanks so much for pouring your heart (and hand) into The Art of
Possibility. What a blast we had that day!
Warmest greetings
'till the next time we meet in SA
Ben
I was interviewed by Dave 'The Lifekludger' Wallace and Mike Seyfang via Skype on Thursday for their podcast. Our episode is 'The Extraordinary Lives Show #29', and it's 55'40" long, and weighs in at a mere 19.2mb. (To download it, right-click on the link, and 'save target'. That should do it.)Agreement made this _____________day of _______________ in the year _______, between [NAME OF CLIENT], hereinafter referred to as ‘THE CLIENT’, and Roy Blumenthal, hereinafter referred to as ‘THE ARTIST’.
THE CLIENT is retaining THE ARTIST to produce four (4) cartoons, per month for a six-month period. Remuneration shall be as per clause 3 below. Each cartoon shall be referred to hereinafter as ‘THE ARTWORK’.
The respective duties and obligations of the parties hereto shall commence on the date stipulated in the schedule as per clause 2 below.
2.1 THE CLIENT will provide THE ARTIST with a relevant delivery schedule, with deadlines at least 14 days in advance.
2.2 THE CLIENT will advise THE ARTIST timeously of any changes to the schedule, which will be subject to THE ARTIST’S other contractual obligations.
2.3 The schedule shall be attached as an addendum to this agreement, and forms part of this agreement.
3.1 THE CLIENT shall remunerate THE ARTIST a set fee of R2200 per month, in advance of delivery of work. This figure is made of four (4) ARTWORKs per month at R550 per ARTWORK.
3.2 If additional ARTWORKs are required in a particular month, they will be charged at an ad hoc price of R800 per additional ARTWORK.
3.3 This agreement will remain in force for a period of six (6) months from date of signature.
3.4 In the event of special circumstances, variations to the fee schedule of paragraphs 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3 will be allowed as mutually agreed to in writing by the parties hereto.
3.5 Notification. THE ARTIST will be notified by THE CLIENT in writing of any additional ARTWORKs over and above the contracted four per month. Such notification will include a deadline date not less than seven (7) days in advance. Payment must be made before delivery of THE ARTWORK.
3.6 If any ARTWORKs of the four (4) contracted per month are not used for whatever reason in a particular month, they may be used at THE CLIENT’s discretion at another time, for the same purpose. However, this will not impact the stipulated per month payment. If THE CLIENT elects to use fewer than four of THE ARTWORKs, payment will not be adjusted down accordingly. This agreement represents a retainer.
4.1 Payment to THE ARTIST will be made into THE ARTIST’S BANK ACCOUNT. Details of THE ARTIST’s bank account will be given as an addendum to this agreement.
4.1.1 THE CLIENT will fax and/or email confirmation of payment to THE ARTIST before work will commence.
4.2 CANCELLATION BY THE CLIENT:
THE CLIENT is entitled to cancel the services of THE ARTIST at any time, in writing. Termination is effective immediately, with full payment to be made by THE CLIENT for artworks contracted for up to that date, whether these have been created or not. It is up to THE CLIENT to decide whether or not THE ARTIST must deliver the required artworks. THE CLIENT will inform THE ARTIST of this delivery obligation in the same written termination of service.
4.3 CANCELLATION BY THE ARTIST:
THE ARTIST is entitled to terminate this agreement at any time, in writing. Termination is effective immediately, with full payment to be made by THE CLIENT for artworks contracted for up to that date. THE ARTIST is obligated to deliver the required artworks as per the deadlines stipulated. Should THE ARTIST be unable to deliver those artworks for whatever reason, THE ARTIST will forfeit the full fee per artwork as per 3.1 and 3.2 above. The full fee in 3.1 refers to the pro rata fee of R550 per artwork.
5.1 The property rights on THE ARTWORK shall rest with THE ARTIST.
5.1.1 It is hereby stated that THE ARTIST is granting THE CLIENT rights to use THE ARTWORK as specified in clause 5.2 below, and that ownership remains with THE ARTIST.
5.1.2 THE ARTWORK remains the intellectual property of THE ARTIST, and is automatically copyright under traditional copyright law, with additional rights explicitly granted to the client under clause 5.2 below.
5.2 THE ARTIST grants THE CLIENT the rights to:
5.2.1 Freely reproduce THE ARTWORK for non-commercial use. This includes making copies of THE ARTWORK up to A4 in size for display in areas such as the boardroom, the company bar, employee’s homes and so on.
5.2.2 Use THE ARTWORK on THE CLIENT’s corporate website.
5.2.3 Use THE ARTWORK in THE CLIENT’s marketing newsletter.
5.2.4 Use THE ARTWORK for any internal training, marketing or motivational materials as THE CLIENT sees fit, unless said materials form part of a franchise kit being prepared by THE CLIENT, in which case, clause 5.3 below holds.
5.2.5 Use THE ARTWORK for publicity purposes such as press releases.
5.2.6 Reproduce the artwork as part of an article about THE CLIENT in an outside magazine, as long as THE ARTIST is clearly identified and attributed.
5.2.7 Utilise the artwork under the terms and conditions granted by the Creative Commons License: ‘Attribution—Non-Commercial—Share-Alike’. Please see the following website address for details: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/deed.en.
5.3 Any other use of THE ARTWORK outside of the uses outlined in 5.2 above are subject to a new agreement between THE ARTIST and THE CLIENT. Uses specifically prohibited under this current agreement include, but are not limited to the following:
5.3.1 Use of THE ARTWORK in any advertising, whether it be below-the-line, including pamphlets, vehicles and any targeted communications outside of the regular newsletter as mentioned in 5.2.3 above. or above-the-line, including television, print, billboards, and any other medium.
5.3.2 Use of THE ARTWORK as corporate or other gifts.
5.3.3 Use of THE ARTWORK in any commercial transaction.
5.3.4 Use of THE ARTWORK as part of a logo or insignia.
5.3.5 Enlargements or reproductions of THE ARTWORK as fine-art prints.
6.1 If THE ARTIST breaches any terms in this agreement or THE ARTIST misses any deadlines by reason other than illness or accident without written permission from THE CLIENT, THE CLIENT shall be entitled to terminate this agreement immediately without prejudice to any rights to damages which may result there from, subject to clause 4.2 above.
6.2 If THE CLIENT is in breach of the terms of this contract, the full fee as stipulated in clause 4.3 above shall be immediately payable to THE ARTIST on written notification by THE ARTIST of said breach.
7.1 THE ARTIST acknowledges that all information pertaining to the THE CLIENT and THE CLIENT’S client/s is confidential.
This Agreement may be terminated by either party upon giving written notice. Upon the giving of said notice, THE CLIENT shall cause to be paid to THE ARTIST any monies due THE ARTIST as herein provided.
9.1 Any controversy or claim arising out of or relating to the compensation to be paid by THE CLIENT to THE ARTIST for services rendered by him/her pursuant to the terms of this Agreement shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the rules of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration of South Africa (CCMA), and judgement on the award rendered by the arbitrator or arbitrators may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof. Any party to this agreement may submit to arbitration and said controversy or claim.
9.2 Written notice of dispute must be delivered by either party within seven (7) days of payment date.
10.1 This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement about understanding between the parties and supersedes any and all other agreements between the parties.
10.2 No remedy granted to THE CLIENT by virtue of the Agreement shall be exclusive of any other legal or equitable remedy available to THE CLIENT existing by laws of statute.
11.1 The parties agree and intend that all questions concerning this Agreement, including the validity, capacity of parties, effect interpretation and performance shall be governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.
11.2 The rights, privileges, duties and obligations of both THE CLIENT and THE ARTIST to each other shall be limited to those specifically set forth herein.
11.3 This Agreement and the terms, conditions and obligations herein contained shall be binding upon the parties hereto, their assigns, transferees, heirs and legal representatives.
11.4 This Agreement shall not vest in THE ARTIST, his/her heirs, estate, or legal representatives, any right, title, or interest in any assets in THE CLIENT itself, its name, good will or other market business activities other than as set forth in the Agreement and only for so long as the Agreement has not been terminated, and not longer.
11.5 This Agreement constitutes the complete Agreement between THE ARTIST and THE CLIENT. No representation or promise, either oral or written, has been made except as specifically set forth herein. Should any part of this Agreement be declared invalid, such invalidity shall not affect the remainder of this Agreement. It is the intention of the parties that they would have executed the remaining portion of this Agreement without herein including any portion which may hereafter be declared invalid.
11.6 Any changes to the Agreement shall be reduced to writing and agreed to by signature by THE ARTIST and THE CLIENT. Said signatures will not be reasonably withheld.
11.7 The forbearance or neglect by either party to insist upon the performance of the Agreement, or any part thereof, shall not constitute a waiver of any rights or privileges.
Signed:………………………… Signed:………………………
(THE ARTIST) (THE CLIENT)
Name:…………………………. Name:……………………….
Date:…………………………... Designation:…………………….
Date:………………………..
Witness:……………………….. Witness:………………………..
Name:…………………………. Name:………………………….
Date:…………………………… Date:……………………………
At:……………………………… At:……………………………….
This is one of my favourite performance poems. I was at a long and fruitful client presentation this morning. Left my place at around 6:10am.
The meeting went really well. But there was a section of the meeting that had very little to do with me. There was a bit of a tussle between the client and one of the other service providers.
So I decided to bite my tongue. I've contracted to Blue Moon on this one, and we're there to supply content, and I'm doing the creative direction on it, as well as writing it.
This means that it's not appropriate for me to stick my nose in when the bickering starts.
Which left me to play with my tablet pc. I was taking notes in Microsoft OneNote, and I had doodled Geoff, the client, in black lineart. While the tussle was happening, I decided to export the pic from OneNote into ArtRage, via CorelDraw, so that I could do some colour work on it.
This is the result.
When we finally broke for lunch, I popped it onto a memory stick for Geoff, and handed it to him.
'Oh, no!' he said. 'No! I don't like it at all!'
Graham (from Blue Moon) said, 'Better not show that to your wife, Geoff. She'll fall in love with you all over again.'
Shekha also started off as a doodle in the same client presentation. She was also distinctly unflattered by the lineart version.
I enjoyed the process I followed in making the Geoff pic. So I thought I'd give it a shot on this one.
Really had fun with it.
This painting was made on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc. The lineart was doodled in MS OneNote. I copied and pasted it into CorelDraw. Then exported the image as a jpeg. Finally, I pulled it into ArtRage, and started colouring.
