Monday, March 31, 2014

Artist Series - Day 90: Guy Davis



Wow, 3 months of this!  Thanks everyone for reading, sharing and commenting :)  Don't worry, there are plenty more amazing artists to drool over!

Today's artist is another creature "guy" (ok, I couldn't resist the pun.)  I started paying attention to his work on the B.P.R.D. comic book, but if you watch "Pacific Rim", you'll definitely see how his concepts shaped the kaiju a LOT.  I love how fearless he is to stylize and give character to everything.




Sunday, March 30, 2014

Artist Series - Day 89: Kevin Dart



Here's an artist working in entertainment design that is highly influenced by the 60s and 70s illustrators.  Kevin directs, does production design and backgrounds for some of my favorite cartoons.




Saturday, March 29, 2014

Artist Series - Day 88: Bernie Fuchs



Another early post, but if you're in Seattle, come see me at ECCC in artist alley, table H-12!

Today's artist wanted to be a trumpet player in high school, but he lost 3 fingers in an accident and turned to art, completely self-trained, as his alternative...which kinda makes me hate him a bit, because he's SO GOOD.  I'm glad things happened the way they did, because he is pretty damned good as an illustrator.

There are a number of modern-day vis dev artists that owe a lot of their style to Bernie...maybe I'll start posting those artists next...




Friday, March 28, 2014

Artist Series - Day 87: Bernie Wrightson



Posting early today since I'm going to be spending the entire day at a table in Artist Alley at Emerald City Comicon (H-12, come by and say 'hey'!).

Today's artist is a legend in comic books.  Specifically - Horror comic books.  Swamp Thing, Cthulhu mythos stuff and other things that go bump in the night.  He spent 7 years illustrating Frankenstein in a style that looks like Dore engraved it.  So, so good.





Thursday, March 27, 2014

Artist Series - Day 86: Edwin Lord Weeks




In the library at the Concept Design Academy is a book called "The Orientalists"....which I HIGHLY recommend if you can find it - it is out of print and quite expensive.  It was through that book that I was introduced to today's artist.  My art school had a huge problem with the "colonial" attitude of these painters...and while they may have a point, as a student of naturalistic painting, I'm just going to study these with my jaw slack and open.





Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Artist Series - Day 85: Jacob van Ruisdael



I'm having an affinity for landscape painters this week, and today, we're going Dutch.  The 1600s were such an exciting time for painting, and landscape painting in particular.







Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Artist Series - Day 84: Leo von Klenze




Architect and painter, today's artist was one of the most famous in the Greek revival movement.  I really am a sucker for architectural paintings :)



Monday, March 24, 2014

Artist Series - Day 83: Vasili Polenov

I've been looking at a lot of classic painters this last week...we'll get back to modern artists soon, never fear.


Today, another great Russian landscape painter.  There are a TON of these guys, they never really seemed to reach mainstream consciousness in the West, maybe because of the political climate at the time...







Sunday, March 23, 2014

My work - Akira redesign thumbnails

For James Paick's class at CDA, I am re-imagining Akira...here are some rough thumbnail sketches for ideas.  These aren't finished illustrations or even concept designs, but they point to possibilities to explore.





Artist Series - Day 82: Peter Ellenshaw


Been talking/working on a lot of matte painting stuff lately, so I figured I'd feature a classic matte painter.  Lots of work for Disney, plus some straight up painting on his own.   Like most matte painters, if he did his job, you never noticed his work, but if you've watched old Disney movies, you've seen it.





Saturday, March 22, 2014

Artist Series - Day 81: Andreas Achenbach


Today's artist was part of the Dusseldorf school in Germany in the 1800 -  realistic landscape painting.  I love his stuff, and it was influential on the Hudson River school of American painters, among others - so you can trace the basis of modern matte painting to his work!




Friday, March 21, 2014

Artist Series - Day 80: William Russell Flint



Going back to the dead-artists file for today, with Scottish watercolour painter William Russell Flint.  He's known for his paintings of women, but I love his environments!  So loose, so textural... 




Thursday, March 20, 2014

Artist Series - Day 79: Pascal Campion


Ok, another one of those artists I felt weird posting because so many of my friends know of him already.  Pascal is a MASTER of light and emotion.  He focuses on telling stories first, making them beautiful second, and everything has an emotional resonance.  He is also incredibly prolific, and posts these sorts of images basically every day.

...Oh, and he, like so many of the people I talk about, gives a great crit.  Highly recommend talking to him in person if you ever get the chance.




Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Artist Series - Day 78: Ryan Lang


Ryan is a vis-dev artist at Disney, and one of my favorite environment designers.  I love what he does with light.  He painted a lot of the "Hero's Duty" stuff for Wreck-it-Ralph.  He also gave me a "sneak" portfolio review at CTN Expo, and man...So good.






Monday, March 17, 2014

Artist Series - Day 76: Christophe Vacher




So, thanks to the organization of the CTN folks, I had a portfolio review from Christophe yesterday, and I thought I'd feature him today.  He was the art director for the movie "Nine", which I really love, and he's done some pretty cool other stuff too...he also gives a very good crit on colour and structure of environments, should you ever have the chance to talk to him!



Sunday, March 16, 2014

Artist Series - Day 75: Man Arenas


Went to this guy's workshop yesterday at CDA. I love me some European comic book art!



Saturday, March 15, 2014

Artist Series - Day 74: Jaime Jones



Ok, it's time to get real.  Jaime may be the best digital painter working in the entertainment industry.  I really can't say enough good things about him....AND he went to the same high school as my wife (which means nothing, but hey).  He did the concept art for "Man of Steel", which, say what you will about the movie, was beautiful.  He's teaching the "Digital Painting 2" class at CDA this term, and there are working vis-dev artists taking the class.  He's that good.