man at arms

Illusration of typical 14th century man at arms. Gouache on paper, about 4X6, done in 3 sessions.

Zipping Through Film

Been catching up on film watching, thanks to Zip.ca, the thru-the-mail rental service. Lots of titles, and so far very fast service.
Here are stills from one of my favourite old films. Old films are still the most satisfying.




"A Matter of Life and Death" by Powell and Pressburger, the English directors, for Korda Studios here. Also titled "Stairway To Heaven" for overseas release. (Nothing to do with Led Zeppelin!) Needs no description for film buffs, but the basics are this: WWII pilot david Niven ditches in the sea on way back from mission, is supposed to die but doesn't, there is celestial court case for his life while he is on the operating table. Wonderful effects here of heaven and the fantasy portrayed.
This film has a powerful atmosphere, disturbing, really. Heaven is not comfortable here, yet it is fascinating... not a sentimental vision. Why is it that older films are so successful at this? The cinmatography and scripts, the language used, the actors available, perhaps. Something about the time they were made seems to capture some undercurrent that modern films cannot. Goes on the 100 best list.

look familiar?

Trying to get this to go in the corner with the profile, but the hell with it.

Cribbing

A study of an early age man at arms. Copied from an Angus Mcbride piece, for the practice. Here is the beginning of it.




Second stage. Body colour filled in, rendering of helm, mail, fabric. Gouache. Couple of hours. That left knee looks pretty chunky.
Happy Easter.

Incredibles

Well, may as well cut to the chase. The resaon for these blogs is show your stuff, so herer's some from Incredibles, when I was working as Environment Art Director on it.

The exterior of E's house, after many tries. a ot of work was done on the house because it was thought it figure large in the story. Brad wasn't ever really happy with any of them, so it was shelved for about 9 months. We got back to it when it was required by production. This was run up with a couple of variations during a working lunch just before Art review, and approved...and then all you see of the place is in long shot, as Bob drives up the driveway on his visit to E.


A development piece done to set the look of the neighbourhood and the around. Again, we thought we might be commuting with Bob to work, or gonig with the kids to school, so i treid to show those relationships of the home to the city ,etc.

Both these are included in the Pixar: 20 years of Animation exhibit that bowed at MOMA in 2006 and has since been in London, Japan and this year scotland and Australia. Betwen that and the Disney show in Montreal, they're really hitting the Commonwealth. Sun never sets and all that, wot?