Creativity, Concepts & Collaboration,
a two and a half day visual development workshop with
Mike Yamada and Victoria Ying
Check out what Mike and Victoria are up to here:
http://eca.bigcartel.com/
http://www.victoriaying.net/
http://www.myamada.com/
This workshop is limited to 18 participants and is filled on a first come, first served basis. Please note that it is non-refundable, so please let us know if we can help answer any questions for you, we'd be happy to help!
August 30 - September 1st (Friday Night, Saturday and Sunday)
Labor Day weekend
Open to locals and individuals looking to travel for a motivating and ambitious art retreat.
THE WORKSHOP:
Join us for Light Grey's newest intensive art retreat! Now is your chance to get creative alongside Dreamworks and Disney visual development artists, Mike Yamada and Victoria Ying for an exciting workshop focused on creativity, concepts and collaboration.
Super talented creative-duo, Mike Yamada and Victoria Ying are joining us at Light Grey Art Lab in what will be a memorable and exceptional creative time. Mike and Victoria have a series of amazing workshops, lectures and demonstrations planned! With the IN-PLACE Concept Art Exhibition as your backdrop, and a series of intimate lectures, discussions and hands-on studio workshops on everything from working in the visual development field, to character development, storytelling with imagery, and developing exceptional stylistic techniques for your artwork, participants are challenged to step into Mike and Victoria's world and make their own artistic visions come to life.
OUR SCHEDULE:
FRIDAY AUGUST 30th (Begins at 7pm)
If you are in town Friday Night, please join us for our pre-workshop activities! Mike and Victoria have prepared a really fantastic lecture on their careers as visual development artists including some of their personal and their professional projects and endeavors. They will be discussing their personal journeys as artists, their process and their thoughts on being creative in addition to how they got where they are today. The lecture will be followed by a Q & A session.
Afterward, all participants are welcome and encouraged to join us at Light Grey Art Lab's third ever All Creatives Meet & Greet, where we'll head to a local hang-out to meet other creatives in the Twin Cities area! We will be scheduling our Meet & Greet in an area near the lecture to make it easy to join us! Be sure to bring your business cards as you're sure to meet a ton of other fantastic creative people from diverse backgrounds in product design, animation, illustration, design, publishing and more.
SATURDAY AUGUST 31 (9:30am - 6:30pm)
When we say intensive, we mean it! Get ready for day one of our workshop! We'll jump-start the morning getting to know Mike and Victoria and the Light Grey team over a lively breakfast and coffee as we talk about the workshop ahead of us! Mike and Victoria have a great introduction planned that discusses ambitions, challenges, and experiences of working in the visual development industry, followed by an analytical workshop about collaboration, motivation and idea generating. We will chart our individual courses, theorize new ways to collaborate and plan some exceptionally fun achievable creative goals that are tailored to your own creative pace.
Later that afternoon we will be visited by Mike Linnemann, a fantastic art director who had had the opportunity to work with hundreds of artists and illustrators at Fantasy Flight Games. We will spend an hour conversing about the card game industry, discuss the process of art reviews and assignments, touch on submission etiquette, and have a fun discussion on promoting your artwork. As we head further into the afternoon, Victoria will give a demonstration and lead a discussion on her techniques for developing interesting and innovative characters, followed by time for participants to create their own during a mini in-studio workshop on Character Development!
In the evening we'll head to a fun local night-spot for a bite to eat with the group. After dinner, people can choose to head in for the night, or a couple fun, late-night activities will be suggested for people looking explore or stay out late!
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 1st (9:30 - 6:30pm)
The next day we'll cover best practices over a hot cup of coffee / tea and a light breakfast. Mike and Victoria will lead us in a round-table discussion about successful portfolios, promoting and collaborating, and we'll talk frankly about various other subjects such as using social media purposefully, promoting to the right audience, and generating ideas that are new, exciting and relevant.
In the afternoon Mike has a demonstration planned on his thoughts and techniques for composition and storytelling that will lead into a second in-studio workshop!
We'll finish off the night with a farewell dinner at another great local eatery.
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We have made preparations for everyone involved to be able to spend time during the workshop to meet one-on-one with Mike and Victoria. (Whether that's for a mini portfolio review, a private Q&A session, or just to chat. We are excited that you'll be able to spend some personal quality time with them while you're here in addition to our retreat!
TRAVELING TO MINNEAPOLIS?
We welcome and encourage individuals that would like to travel to Minneapolis to participate!
Individuals interested in traveling to Minneapolis to attend the workshop can choose the Workshop + Hotel Accommodations option below. This option will guarantee you a spot in a double occupancy room for Friday, Saturday and Sunday night with another guest at the workshop. We are happy to provide transportation to and from the hotel to Light Grey Art Lab for anyone in need! Please note that flights are not included in this option and are the responsibility of the participant (so book early to get a good rate!).
All participants will be provided with a fun Light Grey Art Lab supply bag, a sketchbook and a workbook when they arrive. A detailed agenda with times and locations and a list of information and participants will also be provided to everyone upon registration closing and we will be reaching out to you before the event to get to know you! We will let you know what supplies and information we'll need before you come, and we will also be asking about health or dietary restrictions before booking reservations for our outings so we are able to accommodate everyone. Breakfast is supplied on Saturday and Sunday to everyone as well.
We are looking forward to seeing everyone come out! It's a great time to get motivated and we can't wait to see you!
ABOUT MIKE AND VICTORIA:
Mike and Victoria share an extreme passion for creating and it's present in their personal work on their site, (Extracurricular Activities) www. eca.bigcartel.com as well as in their participation on many well-known animated features from Dreamworks and Disney!
The name Extracurricular Activities comes from the fact that Mike and Vicky started this as a sort of “after school sport” except instead of “school” it was more like “full-time industry jobs” and instead of “sport” it was closer to “Independent projects that they really shouldn’t have time for.”
To be fair, the two of them DID go to the same college, (albeit at different times) and they both work visual development in the animation industry (albeit for rival companies). Between the two of them they have a tremendous amount of creative energy and experience having worked on many well-known animated features from Dreamworks and Disney.
They’ve recently finished a children’s book called Curiosities, An Illustrated History of Ancestral Oddity in league with Victoria’s brother Jonathan. The project was funded through the tremendous support of the community through kickstarter, eventually becoming one of the highest grossing projects in it’s category during 2012. Extracurricular Activities is essentially an outlet for Mike and Vicky to experiment and encourage each other to pursue their own cool projects. They live in Pasadena CA with their two cats.
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Questions? Please contact hello@lightgreyartlab and we can help!