Alien Project

It's been a while since I posted any professional work...mostly because I can't post work from films that haven't been released yet.

A few years back I did some early development work for a film I'll call it the "Alien Project". I worked on it for about a year, then I left the studio. Last I heard, they'd shelved the project...so here's some of my work. Sorry, I can't divulge the story...just in case they decide to start back up again.

ALIEN HEADS
These utilize a cool mirror image technique developed by Scott Robertson. Check out his new book Alien Race, published by Design Studio Press. It's awesome!!! There are several examples of alien heads done using the same technique. Thanks Scott!






CREATURES



This one was inspired by a sketch by John Bevelheimer.

ALIEN GEAR ASSEMBLY


CRASH SITE


CITY CONCEPT


TRANSFORMING BUILDING (Don't ask.)


POD ARCHITECTURE
Architecture made out of giant seed pods (WTF???) (^-^)





SALVAGE ARCHITECTURE
Architecture made out of salvaged spaceship parts. (See "Crash Site" above.) Sorry, I can't explain the connection...but it was a story point.
The basic design for this was inspired by the early work of visionary architect, Lebbeus Woods.


SALVAGE CITY

Venice

My family and I spent a few weeks in Italy last summer. There's so much art there - it's impossible not to be inspired. Of course I shot tons of pictures! Here's a painting based on one of them.

Once again, I painted this using Corel Painter. Though I do most of my work in Photoshop, for getting the look of oil paint, Painter still can't be beat.



Here's my lay in...after about an hour of work. One of the nice things about digital painting, is you can keep the early versions of paintings. Often, the under painting is just as interesting as the final product.

Saturday Morning Sketch

Here's a quick sketch I did in Painter yesterday morning while I was waiting for my family to wake up. Painter's insanely overcomplicated, but there's a few things about it that I love - like their "Oil" brushes. Not the new ones from version 10, which are clunky...but the original ones. My favorites are the brushes called "Smeary Round" and "Smeary Flat". What's cool about them is that they can apply color and smear color in the same stroke. No changing tools. Something Photoshop can't do...at least not yet (hint, hint Adobe...).

The Prince of Egypt: 10 Year Anniversary

Today was the tenth anniversary of the release of The Prince of Egypt. In honor of that, here are a few more of my POE paintings.


Layout: Darek Gogol.




Layout: Darek Gogol.


Layout: Darek Gogol.

Drawings!

Yes, I do draw from time to time. Here are a few rare Paul Lasaine layout drawings done for a film at Dreamworks that'll probably never grace the silver screen. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to show them, but hey...it's been more than 5 years for crying out loud. There's gotta be some kind of statute of limitations for this kind of thing.

They're mostly black Sharpie on white paper. I used several pens in various stages of life. Some were very dry. I drew the facade in the first and last drawings separately, then composited it into the final drawings in Photoshop.

The Phantom 2040

In the early '90s, I did a few concept illustrations for an animated series called "The Phantom 2040". The show got great reviews, but didn't last long...33 episodes...none of which I ever saw. Consequently, I have no idea if any of my designs were even used. But I was pretty happy with a few of the paintings, so here they are.

Sorry for the obvious Syd Mead / Blade Runner rip off; it's what they wanted. I had just finished work on Dick Tracy, and the producers specifically wanted their city to look like a cross between Dick Tracy and Blade Runner. Syd Mead was way too expensive, so I got the job.
(They're all painted in acrylic.)

The City


City : Detail


Arch Nemesis' Office


Police Chief's Office

Half Dome

Here's an oldie. I have to say, I miss real paint...


Acrylic

And for those of you who like to see the brush strokes...

Lily Pond Floor Mat

OK, this is one of the stranger projects I've worked on. It's a hand painted floor mat. Yes, a floor mat. The idea came from my mother-in -law (also an artist) who did something similar in her kitchen. My wife wanted one too.

It's acrylic on very thick canvas...varnished heavily. Yes you can walk on it:)

Holiday Card

Surf's Up - post #12

Cody

OK, you all must be sick of Surf's Up by now, so this will be my last Surf's Up post.

I'll end with my painting of the lead character, Cody Maverick. It's based on a drawing by our Character Designer, Sylvain Deboissy. The intent of the painting was to figure out what Cody (and all the penguin characters) would actually look like on screen.

Up until this point, we only had Sylvain's pencil drawings and marker comps, and there where a lot of questions about the penguins' finished textures. The biggest question mark was regarding feathers: should they have them or not? One concept that was gaining a lot of ground, was the idea that the penguins should look like their skin was made out of wetsuit material. Real penguins kind of look like they're wearing wetsuits anyway, and since our characters were supposed to be surfers...

The wet suit concept was intriguing, and the directors were definitely leaning in that direction. Partly because it was a fun idea, but also I think because they were afraid that a fully feathered character would look too busy on screen.

I, on the other hand, felt that when all was said and done, no matter how cool the wetsuit concept was, it would end up looking lame on screen...that anything other than a fully feathered character would just look boring...or at best, too cartoony...so I did this painting to sell the studio on what I thought Cody should look like.

In the end, this painting sold everyone on the feather idea...and the rest is history.

Surf's Up - post #10

Baby Cody

This is my painting of Baby Cody based on Sylvain Deboissy's design. Baby Cody ended up being cut from the film, but his design was used for the character, Arnold...minus Cody's signature yellow plume feathers.

Surf's Up - post #9

Shiverpool Seaquence Color Keys

Surf's Up - post #8

Surfing Styles

I felt that each character should have their own personal surfing style, complete with their own distinctive board-wake...kind of like their signatures left in the water.

Surf's Up - post #7

Last post for a while. I'm going to Hawaii for Thanksgiving to visit my cousin who just moved there. She's been trying to convince me to start an animation studio on the Big Island. I must admit, it sounds attractive. Come on, who's with me?!?!

I'll leave you with this: my painting of Chicken Joe...based on a drawing by Character Designer, Sylvain Deboissy.