| June 2000 - Vol 2 Issue #12 |
| For those who didn't get to the con, here's what was said:- |
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Jamie: M-o-r-n-i-n-g! Audience: Morning! :-) Jamie: Thank you class :-) {laughter} Er.. I'm gonna have to talk fast 'cos she's given me fifteen minutes… and so… quickly, any questions? Good! Audience: {laughter} Myhr!! Jamie: Yes. Audience: [inaudible] Jamie: What? Is my fly open or what? Audience: {laughter} [inaudible] Jamie: No, go ahead. Audience: What year did you first start doing Myhr? Jamie: Myhr? Actually, I started playing around with special effects; I'll talk about this in my panel later, which you have to go to, but… I started playing around with special effects make-up for Halloween, about the time that Beauty & the Beast was on. I tried to do a werewolf but I couldn't figure out how to do the snout, and I wish Lisa Gould was around back then so I could'a talked to her! {applause} But, I couldn't do like a lizard or something like that because of the facial hair so I just kind of fell into this cat thing. And then Beauty & the Beast came along and so I'd watch the show to figure out how to do the make-up, the little finesse around the eyes and things. And we used the character on the TV station where I work to host Star Trek marathons and stuff. And then the fans saw me on TV and invited me to cons; I started doing Star Trek cons because the station I work at airs Star Trek. . And it just kind of snowballed from there but it was still just kind of a fun thing. I would put the face on to have fun at the cons and leave it at that. But the summer of… '92, I did a Star Trek convention where the artist guest of honour was Keith Birdsong, who does all the Star Trek book covers and collector plates. And we hit it off, hung out all weekend (in the bar), and er, |
I was doing a lot of photography and some pencil sketches so he was looking at
my stuff… and said "Have you ever thought about painting?" And I said "No" And so he literally kicked
me in the butt, showed me his technique on how he does the book covers and I thought "Oh, that looks easy"
I went out and bought an airbrush and compressor and started playing with it, learned how to deal with it
and I've been painting ever since. And it was at that same convention, that same summer, that they had
asked me to fill in as emcee, 'cos they came up and said "Hey! You work in television, you do this all the
time!" And I said "Well… can I do it with the cat-face on?" and they said "Gee! What a concept!" And
so it was the summer of '92 where both Myhr and Jamie the artist were born. {applause} And let me tell
you it's been one helluva ride! Yes… Audience: Have you ever got the personalised Myhr licence plates and if not will you at least get the Texas Animal Friendly plates? Jamie: No Audience: We can't hear the questions. Jamie: Well that's good 'cos I'm having a hard time too! She asked if I've ever gotten personalised Myhr plates for the car. No, personalised plates and cell phones are two things I don't do. That drives me nuts, when you're driving down the freeway, and you see people just yakking away, not watching where they're driving. Personal plates… No. Texas Animal Friendly – I've never heard of that! I'll check it out. Audience: I want to know what inspired Myhr… was it an original creation or…? Jamie: Come to my panel later. No, briefly, like I said, I just wanted to do something crazy for Halloween and it would have to be a hairy character because of this {points to beard}and a cat was the easiest thing to do. It just kind of happened! I didn't really think about it. Most of the stuff I do in life I don't really think about. It's too much work, I just go out and do it! Continued … |
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In this issue: page 1 – Orlando q&a ~ transcribed from a recording supplied by NOVTEK INC page 2 –Schedule & Addresses + q&a cont'd page 3 & 4 q&a continued page 5 – Flying Elves page 6 - Book Covers |
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When they were setting up the schedule for
the weekend, they were tossing back and forth; doing a make-up workshop, doing an art 'thing', and I got confused as to
what was doing what. When I got here I saw on the schedule that it's a make-up panel later so I thought that since I
prepared an art thing, I would show you briefly, step by step what I go through to get to a painting. You had a question? Audience: [inaudible] Jamie: Oh no, no, I work full time at a TV station and part time at a video store and then occasionally paint. Um… (Where was I?… It's too early!) Oh yeah… No, I had a photography business for a while because photography is something I loved and it kind of snowballed and took off and suddenly became a business and it took all the fun out of it. So with artwork and special effects make-up and stuff… that's all stuff that I want to do for fun. So… I've got the job at the station, which is different every day, I never get bored with it and it's flexible enough to allow me to do all this other fun stuff. And it gives me the great security of a good pay check and great benefits and understanding people who put up with all my craziness there. And er… I just do all this for |
fun. This is great fun! Audience: Thank you Jamie: No… thank you! Thank you! {applause} So… Okay… have you been into the art show yet? Okay. For a long time I always considered Vincent and Catherine as like the ultimate romantic couple, and I'm always asked if… {applause} I'm always asked if I've ever done book covers or anything; I've done a lot of comic book covers but never book covers! (Well up until recently) And so I thought it'd be fun to do Vincent and Catherine as like the ultimate romance like a romance book cover. A friend of mine, P.N. Elrod, who writes vampire novels, er… we've been friends for years, do a lot of cons together - matter of fact a lot of people write to her fanclub, the letters to the editor thing, asking if we're an item because we show up at cons all the time! But she went to a romance novel convention and they were doing a demo, how they do the romance covers – and they had the famous models there posing and stuff like that – so she grabbed a few photographs. And I thought this would be a fun thing to do (I'll pass this around) it's one of those famous Fabio-type hunks and going through their typical poses. continued… |
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ADDRESSES: To e-mail Jamie: - myhr1@juno.com (now closed) To e-mail Sue - suehaley@zetnet.co.uk Website: - http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/suehaley/myhr.htm Lots of artwork and photos plus soundbytes and much more... |
for submissions for September newsletter will be 17 August 2000 |
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Up coming Cons and Artshows
2000 7-9 July ………… DISTANT SHORE II, Los Angeles, CA 11-13 Aug……… # SciBran 2000, Branson, MO 30 Sept-1 Oct ….. MASQUERADES 2000, Nottingham, ENGLAND # = to be confirmed |
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Continued… So I started with that basic pose and worked on Vincent and Catherine. And then I was approached to do a piece for a Beauty & the Beast fanzine so I thought, okay this'll be perfect. So I did a black and white sketch which is Ann Brown's, up in Minnesota, her fanzine has this as the cover. {gasps} Pass this around. There's Vincent and Catherine in their typical romance novel book cover pose. 
And then people started asking "Well… you gonna do that for the convention?", "Is that gonna be one of the new pieces?"
And I went "Well I don't know if that'd look good in colour", because the way it's set up in black and white it really has it's
good impact. And I was beginning to worry how it would look in colour. So I started working on it. So what I do for a
painting is I work out the sketch on other paper. Especially if you've got two or more figures, what you want to do is do
the figures individually and then you can move them around and position them and stuff and then that way you're not
wasting a lot of time erasing. And when you are dealing with an airbrush, you can't erase on the board because it
changes the texture of the surface and it really shows up with the airbrush paint. So you do all of your drawing on
other stuff and then you transfer it to the board. And it came in handy with this because I had to transfer the same
thing to four different boards.So once you get your sketch done - oh you can't see this in the back 'cos it's so light - but you transfer it to the board and it's basically a line drawing like you see in a colouring book… and that's the way I approach it; I get the line drawing and then I just colour in the lines! Audience: Oh yeah? {laughter} Jamie: Okay – then in airbrushing you have what's called a mat, a frisket mat, where you cover up portions that you don't want painted. And then that way you can just spritz around and cover everything and then peel off and you've got your little sections. Some artists do the backgrounds first and thefigures second, some do the figures first and then the background |
second. Keith taught me that he does the backgrounds first because if you screw up - I mean you could
spend days working on the figures and then if you screw up on the background it's all gone! This way you can fluff the
background and once it's down then you
do the figures. So here's what the background looks like when you paint the background and you leave the figures…
that's what it looks like after you take the mat off and you've got the background kinda done. (I did these out of order!)
There's the basic sketch… With this particular technique, the more you do with the drawing, the less you have to do with
the colour and the finessing. Most of the work is in the layout and the drawing. But basically all I do is – it's y'know like
a little kid and a colouring book; you just got your lines and you colour in the lines - No big deal! {incredulous laughter}
And so you just spritz on the colour with the airbrush and the more experience I get with the airbrush, the better I'm able
to get detail – My first few paintings were primarily coloured pencil and very little airbrush. Now it's primarily airbrush with
a little bit of coloured pencil. But Keith's technique since they put out ten, fifteen Star Trek books a month, he had to
come up with a really quick technique! So with the airbrush you just spritz the colour on and then you detail with the
coloured pencil and you're done. And so I allow… an evening for sketching, an evening for laying down the colour and an
evening for detailing and basically, it's done.If you're familiar with the piece I did of Ron in his different characters called "Masks", here is the original sketch I did for that. Audience: That isn't the original sketch?? Jamie: No… it's a Xerox, a photocopy. Here is the "In Your Dreams Bub!" 'Cos since I had done… Myhr and Vincent – everywhere I go out in public people go "Oh Vincent!", I'm like "No… he looks nothing like me!" So I did that fun piece of Myhr and Vincent together and that was such a hit that the following year I did Myhr and Catherine but I knew I'd get lynched… {laughter} …so I titled it "In Your Dreams Bub!" {more laughter} But there's the rough sketch, there's a photocopy of the painting. {more laughter as the painting is passed round} Okay! While those are floating around, are there any questions? Yes… Audience: I think you do better likenesses than just about anybody working. I was wondering if you ever wanted to do this full time – do you think you could? Jamie: No! No… er… No! continued… |
| Continued… Audience: [inaudible] Jamie: Well, it's tough in that aspect but I just basically don't do well with deadlines. And when you have to eat… {chuckle} it doesn't work. So I've got the job at the station with a regular pay check and I don't have to worry about busting my butt to put food on the table and also, like I found out with photography, that once it becomes a job – nine times out of ten you have to take on stuff that you really don't want to do because you have to eat. This way I've got the best of both worlds, I can just do what I want and when I want and have fun with it. 
As far as the likenesses go – I've been a semi-pro photographer for twenty some years… I think in photographic terms and so for me it was just a natural. I had always done pencil sketches of models that I photographed and this was just an extension of the photography. Most of the paintings I do are of models that I've photographed and then I do fantasy paintings from those. The only time I do media stuff, Highlander, Star Trek and stuff, is if I do a convention with that actor. 'Cos there's a lot of copyright problems involved with doing media. With Beauty & the Beast, I've left a paper trail with the company to prove that I've actually tried to get a licence to do this – so if they start raising a ruckas about it I'll go "Hey! You guys just didn't respond. It's your fault not mine." So… questions… Yes… Audience: What medium do you prefer to work with? Jamie: Airbrush. Well… it's acrylic, it's specially formulated acrylic for airbrush. Because, like I said, I've been sketching since I was a little kid and with the airbrush you can just sketch with colour. And then you detail with coloured pencil, which is more sketching. But it's interesting to look back at stuff I've done in the past; there's stuff where there were happy accidents – I've no idea how I did it and it's frustrating because I can't recreate it and it's a really cool technique. And there are other things where I look and I go yeeeaaah… I don't know, I'd love to go back and finish it but I can't because it's set in stone. That's the thing with people wanting prints is that once a piece is finished and you start turning out prints, you can't change it. Audience: Why not? Jamie: Well it's just not done. It's kinda like Stephen Spielberg doing a special edition Close Encounters or… Lucas doing a special edition Star Wars… y'know… Audience: They did! |
Jamie: Well I know they did! {laughter} Okay… there is one that I do have to – 'cos I promised somebody and
I still haven't done it – but I promised that I would go back and I would rework She Calls because a lot of people say
"He's not hairy enough!" {cheers and applause} But Idon't want to mess with the original! You want me to
mess with the original?? Audience: No… Jamie: No! It's better to work another version. Ken Marshall, another friend of mine who does all the Titanic paintings, in Doctor Ballard's books – matter of fact Jim Cameron used Ken's books as reference to set up shots – Ken has done that a lot. He's done a painting of the Titanic and as he finds out more information, more correct information, he'll take a print of one of his paintings and then redo the print and then that way he can constantly change things. Primarily, I kept Vincent… hairless(?) because that way it showed up the water droplets and stuff better but if somebody wants a hairy Vincent, Okay fine! Audience: Can you make a special version and lower the water? {raucous laughter} Jamie: No – I would have to redo the entire painting to lower the water… {more laughter} No, but I already have decided next year for LA, since it's California, I'm gonna just go… push the envelope and go out and out erotic and embarrass people with it! {loud cheers} If the person running the artshow in LA is in here, you're gonna have to do a separate "adults only" section… Er… I'm over my 15 minutes – one last question… [inaudible] Jamie: Well I loved Beauty & The Beast when it originally aired, because I work in television, I've been a film editor as far back as I can remember, I watch movies and television shows for technical reasons. I loved the photography and the editing and the music and the acting – the storyline was Audience: Do you remember when we worked together in Dallas and you were one of the speakers… Jamie: Oh yeah – yeah – that was my very first… She's talking about… 1990 there was a science fiction convention in Dallas and Greenlee was a guest and George R R Martin I think was a guest there too. But there was a panel that she did dealing with television and I was on the panel with Greenlee and I had no idea who he was! But it was really interesting – but that was my very first convention I'd ever been to, and I was there as a representative of the TV station that I worked for. I was just there to work and I got really interested in what was going on and it just kind of snowballed from there. But 1992, summer of '92 was when Jamie the artist was born and Myhr as emcee was born and it's just kinda gone {wsssht!} since then. And I've been lucky enough and blessed enough to meet a lot of beautiful, wonderful people and I've been lucky enough to travel around the world and do this – it's been great and I THANK YOU so much! {sustained applause} |
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FLYING ELVES
Dear Sue: My husband and I recently met Jamie at Aggiecon in Texas. We all got to discussing art and had a good visit and have been emailing each other a little. I drew this picture as a joke for Jamie. The "girl" in the picture is one of the characters I frequently draw... flying elves...(I call them Rotavia Elves... most of which are flirty females, but a male flying elf does show up occasionally in my drawings). Anyways, along the lines of the "Adventures of Myhr"... I drew the attached drawing and emailed it to Jamie, who laughed his head off and told me to forward it to you. Hope it makes you smile, too. Sincerely, Amanda Blessing Sure did make me smile, Amanda! Thank you so much for sharing your talent with us. Sue |
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Jamie : Myhr : Sue Haley : Jackie Hunt : Karen Quattlebaum Chris Haley : |
"an artsy fartsy kinda guy"
One year on Myhr is seven years on Jamie!! Co-ordinator and Editor Executive Producer (& Distribution) Producer (Merchandise) Preafrooder ;-) |
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Authors of the vampire novel KEEPER OF THE KING, Nigel Bennett, P.N. "Pat" Elrod, and
ultra primo artist Jamie Murray all came together as guests at AggieCon XXX in March of 1999
(that's the number 30, not the rating of the con—which is another story!).
Pat went ape over the gorgeous portrait Jamie had done of Nigel, called "Prince of the City," and a lightbulb went off in her scheming, red-headed noggin. As soon as Nigel appeared in the dealer's room (after she'd hugged him hello as it had been awhile) she dragged him immediately into the art room and showed him the work. He was bowled over IMPRESSED. Then Pat got the book packager, Bill Fawcett, into the art room to show HIM the work. (Bill is the guy who put Nigel and Pat into collaboration for their vampire novel series.) Bill was impressed as well. Then Pat and Nigel asked if Baen Books had a cover artist picked out for their next novel, HIS FATHER'S SON. Bill phoned Jim Baen himself right from the art room to ask! 
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 A cover artist had NOT been picked yet and Jamie was invited to submit some rough sketches to give them an idea of what his talent could produce. Pat later asked Jamie how he felt about it, but he a) could not talk too coherently, & b) could not feel his legs. While on the way back from a guest dinner, Nigel and Jamie talked in the car about things to put in the piece, which delighted Jamie to no end, as he welcomed the suggestions. So Jamie works on the art, Pat and Nigel worked on the book and a year later it all came together! Jamie was approved by Baen as the cover artist!! Pat and Nigel are delighted at the outcome and the final approved artwork. Pat's fond wish is that Jamie will be doing more covers for publishers in the future—especially if they are for HER books! The authors have no news on the publication date of HIS FATHER'S SON, but will send an update when information becomes available. We can quote Nigel Bennett's comment on the novel: "It blows our first one out of the water and into the desert." And we think the 1st book was GREAT! Thanks to P N Elrod |
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