[Joe84]

Just in comparison to when i visited last. Havent been to Sijun for a while, and its so bizarre to see so many Spooge clones in the speed painting thread. It bugs me for some reason, I really admire Craigs artisitic approach. Its still very unique to me. I never really get tired of his work. Nevertheless, the situation and cloners can't be helped. What do you all think of this? Is it just me that notices this?

[gLitterbug]

[balistic]

I don't see anything wrong with trying to figure out somebody's technique. All artists stand on the shoulders of those who came before them.

I do think it's a little tacky when beginning artsists blatantly copy his subject matter, but that's a phase people seem to grow out of.
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brian.prince|light.comp.paint

[Ranath]

I don't think Craig Mullins needs to be afraid if some noobs try to imitate his style.. it's not the style but the skill, you know. Why should we worry about that, then?

Still, I wouldn't recommend for anyone to try and be the Spooge Demon 2.0..

[gLitterbug]

Why Ranath, do you know something about a secret team of assassins that we don�t?

[Drunken Monkey]

Its funny,, but i can name quite a few artists who paint in a fairly similar (if not almost the same) way, and they probably havent even heard of spooge.

Go look at Syd Mead, first time i saw his stuff, a few years back i didn't know the name, i assumed it was spooges traditional work. Only to find out Mead did this stuff in the 40's 50's. Same with Tiemens,, there are so many similarities between these guys. Just the way the paint it applied, the way they approach a painting. How they are not afraid to make a mess and then work from it to the finish. There are more examples. Perhaps its a broader style then you thought?

I mean wtf is this style? Imho its mainly..

Careful modeling of the forms.
Application of paint in multiple semi-transparent layers.
Usage of complimentary colors (magenta vs lime green, red-orange vs cyan etc)
Working from a messy base.
Dramatic perspective.
Economy in strokes.
Atmospheric perspective.

did i miss anything, aside from traditional stuff they teach in painting classes (soft edges, light/dark balance etc.)? Are you automatically a spooge clone if you try to incorporate these tools into your work?
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"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity" - Sigmund Freud

[Impaler]

It's always been my opinion that creative exploits are basically an entire system of "See Also:"'s.

Photographers copy Ansel Adams or Robert Frank or Henri Cartier Bresson. Writers copied Joyce until Hemmingway was en vogue. Musicians are STILL ripping off Robert Johnson or Duke Ellington.

Eventually, the good ones find their own style so that other people can rip THEM off. The bad ones get on MTV or the Oprah Book Club or postcards or become gallery managers or critics.
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QED, sort of.

[Misc]

[Freebooter]

Gheheh at least there's not risk for me to get all Craigy with custom brushes and multiple layers for my AMD Athlon gets almost bogged down when using round flat brush on BG layer on resolutions more than 1000x1000. Lucky me, this courages me to develop my own style

[Mikko K]

Someone told me few years ago that one of my paintings resembled something by this guy called Syd Mead. I was like, oh yeah? Then I had to google him up.. I found out it was the guy behind Blade Runner designs etc.. It's funny now, but I believe that you can have similar tastes without going to the "rip-off" kind of copying.

I therefore guess there's people who can produce something fairly similar as Craig without even knowing him. Maybe the digital people do know, but in traditional at least. It's a larger base of art we are digging things from.

[jfrancis]