Target Market!

Advertising regularly target their audience with enticing deals specifically designed for their market.  With MoneyGram, for instance, international currency can easily be exchanged at popular mega-stores.  This commercial shows the fictitious exchange of Chinese currency in the old world.

Design & Story.

More artwork for the movie production.  I'm into the process of creating a technique to match the project or even the piece itself.  The only problem being inconsistency in illustration style.  I hope that the design & story emphasis is not lost because of this.

Paint Sketches.

I may replace these images because the person is identifiable in the comprehensives.  I'll be doing more colour sketches in the near future.  The same mindset of traditional paintings apply here.  Anyway, here they are!

Pre-production Art.

Artwork that depicts the look and design of the final motion picture are generally considered pre-production art. Nothing much to say here other than it was fun to work in color!

Music Videos.

Music videos are great launching pads for new filmmakers to show off their signature flair.  Guerilla-style directors emerge from the industry to later work on films.  In my opinion, the smart ones plan ahead in order to save money & time by means of hiring storyboard artists. The boards are used as key scenes, then the director embellishes the details, and, in this case, edits the final cut. I must add, this was easy because the director already had talent to begin with.

Abduction!

As part of a teaser pitch, sometimes it takes more than still images, as presented here, in order to reach producers, studios, and distributors alike.  These still images are a segment of a treatment written by an actor/ friend.  Drawn, scanned, and Photoshopped, it was eventually used in an animatic.

Food Products.

Painting food in advertising is a challenge considering the guidelines. The guidelines being; that they look fresh, colorful, & appetizing. I don't know if I captured it but it was sure fun when I painted it back in '92. The acrylic painting was inspired by the quirky illustrations of Barry Jackson.

Salome!

This is my first figure painting from live models since art school. I've done alot of drawing in the last 15 to 20 years but not full blown painting. These professional models look familiar because they've posed for all the big studios, agencies, and schools around southern California for years. The 12 x 12 inch acrylic painting, in progress, depicts the Biblical story of Salome who danced the dance of seven veils for her stepfather King Herod in return for John the Baptist's head.

Lost In Translation.

Any of those folks that went to art school in Detroit between 1985 to 1991 can remember this assignment from Design Theory One (color theory). That's where you pick an image to paint, plot out all the colors in the scheme, and paint 4 more variations (translations) plus a negative (complimentary) version, and draw a 3 dimensional diagram of the color chart for each. And, yes, it was all done by hand in gouache. Sleepless nights & losing myself in the paintings, I'll never forget the process and, more importantly, the formula.

Caricature Studies.

This is a work in progress. These drawings vary in degree of caricature and are in the first stages of development. There may be improvement in design, clean-up, and color may be added to the final art.

Holiday Card!

Sometimes I paint a card or draw pictures for the Holiday Season. And sometimes I get inspired to do a theme for the subject matter, but most of the time, it's just random stuff.

Native American Editorial.

This piece was acrylic and gouache on cold press illustration board and was painted rather large. Working larger on certain compositions are usually a tedious process, especially, if the piece is not particularly exciting. I tend to get bored easily if I'm not into the painting. This was an editorial assignment from the client depicting a cave dwelling of a native American tribe called the Anasazi. It was challenging to not show the people in their everyday activities as to not offend or make assumptions of what they look like. Growing up in Canada, I have a certain respect for the original Americans that lived here before the settlers came.

Something New, Something Old.

Here's another sample that was done in the bullpen at the illustration studio back in the day when I was an apprentice. Again, it was inspired by the old magazine story art of the 50's and 60's. I found it while cleaning out the storage area in my apartment. This was acrylic on cold press board.

Experiment in Traditional Mixed Media.

Taking an image from my sketchbook, I picked a drawing of a couple of trees as my subject. I applied a layer of gesso on cold-pressed illustration board with a broad brush and then drew the image on top of it after it dried. I then laid down a warm wash of color (gouache) for the bark of the trees. The second layer was the green mixed with black for the outline and leaves. The third was the mask for the inset image. And the last layer included a cool blue wash (acrylic) over the rest of the painting. I lifted the mask and exposed the warm inset image. The last step was to touch up the darks and lift the paint with a wet brush & cloth for the highlights on the bark. Looking back, this technique could be translated into Photoshop and Painter which I'm exploring now!

One More Old School Illustration.

Back in my art school days, I did a painting that featured Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers in front of a classic car of the 1920's and 30's era in the Coles Phillips' fade-a-way style. I used gouache & airbrush.