James Crandall / Crane Valley Studios, Inc.

James Crandall is an illustrator who specializes in the production of comp artwork and storyboards, primarily for the advertising industry. Work is done in our digitally-based studio, and sent via the internet (email, iChat or FTP) to our clients.

 

17 July 2008

It's been a busy spring and summer so far -- lots of work for Honda through RPA, Santa Monica. In the midst of this, I'm preparing a body of work for next spring's show at the Tirage Gallery in Pasadena.

15 March 2008

We've returned from a 5-week stay in Italy over Christmas and New Years' -- mostly vacation and fine-art study, but a little ad work was accomplished in spite of the time difference. As of the first of March, our home and working space is now at a new location, still in Cool, California but on a property which much more space, and with a DSLconnection as well as cable broadband.

1 October 2007

September is normally a less-busy month, but this year was the exception! On the other front, sales of fine art continue at their steady, modest pace: encouraging but not enough to abandon the advertising industry over!

27 August 2007

Nearing the end of a very busy summer: most of my work coming from Rubin Postaer in Santa Monica, CA, doing storyboards for Honda autos.

2 May 2007

Just got back from a road trip to L.A. to attend the opening of our 3-man show at the Tirage Gallery in Pasadena (see link at left under "News"). The Opening was well-attended and I received many positive reactions - many people had different "favorites," which I take as a good sign of my progress. Life should get a little simplier now, with storyboard work and house-hunting on the front burners. Hopefully within a few months we will be shifting to a permanent location and can have the movers bring the rest of our stuff up to nothern California.

2 April 2007

Just returning from driving the truck down to Pasadena with a load of paintings (16) for the May-June show at the Tirage Gallery. About 7 hours of driving, if you don't count stopping for breaks. Advertising work slacked off enough in March to allow for a final flurry of painting; I do seem to work well under time pressure, and I'm pleased with the results, as well.

27 February 2007

I have been working on paintings for the show in April at the Tirage Gallery. Work is going well. We're adjusting to rural life and getting to know some of our new neighbors.

20 January 2007

Things are going smoothly after our re-location. It was an uncommonly busy December for us, and so far in January.

30 October 2006

We have re-located to Cool, California. It is a more rural setting, but we still have a very high-speed connection to the internet. I've been working exclusively over the internet for well over a year now, with no net loss of business, so we decided to opt for a change of scenery and quieter surroundings.

2 October 2006

We have returned from our 6-week trip to Italy; this was our fourth such trip together. We spent a few days in the north, on Lago Maggiore, then a few days in Venice; then we traveled again to Lucca (in Tuscany) to stay near family, renting our usual farm house in the country near Camaiore. Blog at: Messages from Lucca.

24 April 2006

We are still temporarily working from Oregon, while staying in a house belonging to a client of Nancy's. It's worked out great, without any negative ramifications to business; in fact, I've been busier in the first quarter of this year than in any recent year. Despite a rather cold and wet winter, it's been a refreshing change from busy, noisy southern California. We have a blog: Messages from Seal Rock
It's been about 10 months since I stopped driving into Los Angeles to work in-house at ad agencies. I know that there were a couple of art directors who couldn't cope with this change (surprisingly, they were some of the youngest ) but other sources more than made up the difference. I can't help but believe at this point that, for visualization artists, working at home studios is the way of the future. There is virtually no downside for the client,: an appropriately self-disciplined artist is going to be more efficient, more flexible and fit better into the workflow by staying at home and working digitally. I do miss seeing some of my clients in person, but I plan to regularly incorporate lunch dates into my future routine.

13 February 2006

Nancy and I are "camped" at a friend's vacation home on the coast of Oregon. We have all the computers and a high-speed connection, so we keep on working as usual, and in our downtimes we find ourselves in a new and interesting place. We have a blog: Messages from Seal Rock

19 January 2006

I haven't commuted to an agency to work since June of 2005, and have remained busy with work nonetheless. Working from home has proven to be more efficient, and of course I don't miss the stress of driving into Los Angeles, or the associated expenses. This seems to me to be the way of the future. My workspace is entirely digital now, and not very portable - so for the foreseeable future I'll be working remotely.

5 Sept 2005

It's been a busy summer, thanks mostly to the folks at RPA (Santa Monica) working on the Honda Regional account, and those at Team One Advertising (El Segundo, CA) working on Lexus. Ad work eased up just in time for me to finish up a group of oil paintings destined for a show at the Tirage Gallery in Pasadena, CA (see link to Tirage at upper left).Several weeks ago, my friend and sometime co-illustrator Rod Dryden persuaded me to go to SIGGRAPH 2005, held here at the L.A. Convention Center, where I ended up as part of a small focus group held by the people at WACOM, who make the indispensable Cintiq pen-tablets. Fun

5 May 2005

I've finished with the Honda and Acura brochures for this season. I think it went well- I did everything with my Wacom Cintiq tablet this year, no pencils or markers at all. I've also begun to make more use of my 3D program (Carrara) in planning and composing shots; the art directors seem to appreciate seeing the angle and lensing early on in the process if they can. My rendering is getting more "painterly," that is, more tonal than linear. My clients seem to like the look, even in storyboards, but sometimes it's tough to find other artists with compatible styles, if the presentation is more than I can handle alone.

 

10 October 2004

Italy Trip

Photos of my last trip to my grandfather's hometown (Lucca) in northern Tuscany are still posted at http://homepage.mac.com/giacomo57/webitaly2/index.htm