Check it out. Better yet, buy it. You can order it here on Amazon for $13.57. Such a deal!
Friday, November 12, 2010
MOONSHINE: DREAMWORKS ARTISTS...AFTER DARK!
Hey, I have a couple pieces in this book! It's a collection of personal artwork by DreamWorks Animation visual development artists. It was put together by two of our production designers: Christophe Lautrette, and Pierre Olivier Vincent. I always find it fascinating to see what kind of artwork commercial artists do in their off hours.
Check it out. Better yet, buy it. You can order it here on Amazon for $13.57. Such a deal!
Check it out. Better yet, buy it. You can order it here on Amazon for $13.57. Such a deal!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Traditional vs. Digital
This was a fun little exercise: two paintings of the same subject ... one traditional; one digital.
I painted the traditional one last week as a demo for the Art Department at PDI (aka, Pacific Data Images, which is DreamWorks Animation's sister facility in the San Francisco Bay-Area.)
I was asked to demonstrate how I paint traditionally...specifically my matte painting/illustration technique. Something I haven't done in almost 10 years! Needless to say I was a little nervous. Let's face it...it's hard enough to make a good looking painting on a good day. But to do it when you're out of practice...in front of an audience... Nerve wracking.
Originally, they asked me do a plien air (outdoor) painting demo. But as my traditional technique is definitely an indoor studio technique, I opted for a compromise: an indoor plein air painting. So I brought up a landscape image on a big plasma screen, and did a plein air painting from that. I figured, if you can't bring the studio to the mountain...bring the mountain to the studio!
I would be lying if I said it went off without a hitch. As I said, it's been almost 10 years since I've painted this way, and it was an uphill slog the entire way. But I'm a professional, so I stuck it out! I actually think it made for a better demo than if it went smoothly.
Anyway, for what it's worth, the paintings below are the result. The top one is the actual acrylic painting I did for the demo. The one below, was a warm-up painting I did digitally on my Cintiq.
Both are based on a beautiful photo I found on the web (I couldn't find the photographer's name, but it came from a flickr page called "Winky in the UK". Thanks Winky...awesome photo!)
Oh...and a big howdy to the PDI Art Dept gang! Thanks for having me up there. I had a great time, and I hope you all enjoyed watching me sweat this one out! (^-^)
Acrylic
Digital
I painted the traditional one last week as a demo for the Art Department at PDI (aka, Pacific Data Images, which is DreamWorks Animation's sister facility in the San Francisco Bay-Area.)
I was asked to demonstrate how I paint traditionally...specifically my matte painting/illustration technique. Something I haven't done in almost 10 years! Needless to say I was a little nervous. Let's face it...it's hard enough to make a good looking painting on a good day. But to do it when you're out of practice...in front of an audience... Nerve wracking.
Originally, they asked me do a plien air (outdoor) painting demo. But as my traditional technique is definitely an indoor studio technique, I opted for a compromise: an indoor plein air painting. So I brought up a landscape image on a big plasma screen, and did a plein air painting from that. I figured, if you can't bring the studio to the mountain...bring the mountain to the studio!
I would be lying if I said it went off without a hitch. As I said, it's been almost 10 years since I've painted this way, and it was an uphill slog the entire way. But I'm a professional, so I stuck it out! I actually think it made for a better demo than if it went smoothly.
Anyway, for what it's worth, the paintings below are the result. The top one is the actual acrylic painting I did for the demo. The one below, was a warm-up painting I did digitally on my Cintiq.
Both are based on a beautiful photo I found on the web (I couldn't find the photographer's name, but it came from a flickr page called "Winky in the UK". Thanks Winky...awesome photo!)
Oh...and a big howdy to the PDI Art Dept gang! Thanks for having me up there. I had a great time, and I hope you all enjoyed watching me sweat this one out! (^-^)
Acrylic
Digital
Monday, July 5, 2010
New York City
This painting goes back a few years. OK, it goes back over 20 years. Way back, when I was an apprentice Matte Painter, my mentor Mike Lloyd gave me a training assignment to get me ready for all the cityscape paintings we were going to be doing on Dick Tracy. The assignment: find a bunch of photographs of New York and Chicago, and make painting copies...one a day (8 hours max.)...black and white only. Of course, as this was matte painting training, it went without saying that the paintings needed to look like photos.
Up until this point, I'd never really dealt with architectural rendering on this level, and was pretty lost as to how to include so much detail in such a relatively short period of time. As I progressed from painting to painting however, I discovered that the secret wasn't in the detail you included...but in the detail you left out. The trick was to edit and indicate. Keep it loose, but accurate. Big brushes. Big brush strokes. Practice, practice, practice.
This went on for about a month and culminated in the painting below.
Acrylic
Up until this point, I'd never really dealt with architectural rendering on this level, and was pretty lost as to how to include so much detail in such a relatively short period of time. As I progressed from painting to painting however, I discovered that the secret wasn't in the detail you included...but in the detail you left out. The trick was to edit and indicate. Keep it loose, but accurate. Big brushes. Big brush strokes. Practice, practice, practice.
This went on for about a month and culminated in the painting below.
Acrylic
Monday, May 10, 2010
Frank Frazetta 2/9/28 - 5/10/10
Frank Frazetta died today. Never again will the world look so fantastic.
Rest in peace Frank.
Rest in peace Frank.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Death Valley Sketch
I finally found a couple of my paintings from the Prince of Egypt Background Department painting trip to Death Valley. Here's the best one...
We were painting in the middle of a large patch of sand dunes, when the wind started blowing. It whipped up the sand into a mini sandstorm. The sand went everywhere and got into everything...including our paint. If you run your hand across it, the painting feels like sandpaper. It finally got so bad that we all ended up wearing out sweatshirts around our faces to keep the sand out of our eyes. We looked like Bedouins.
We were painting in the middle of a large patch of sand dunes, when the wind started blowing. It whipped up the sand into a mini sandstorm. The sand went everywhere and got into everything...including our paint. If you run your hand across it, the painting feels like sandpaper. It finally got so bad that we all ended up wearing out sweatshirts around our faces to keep the sand out of our eyes. We looked like Bedouins.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Valentina
I painted this portrait of my wife a few years back to be used as a prop in one of my many Halloween setups at our house. I was a projected ghost painting the portrait. Sadly I don't have any pictures of the final effect. But you can see a similar effect I put together of a ghost playing the piano in our front window. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EntsUMlHAzs
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Saturday Morning Sketch #6
I did this one a few weeks back, but never got around to posting it. I was trying out a new Photoshop brush my friend Dominique Louis came up with. Thanks Dominique!
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