RIP Ralph McQuarrie

A very, very bright star just went out in our galaxy...


Ralph's work was a huge inspiration for so many, many people, including myself. His amazing eye for design and composition shaped the look of so many films, first and foremost the Star Wars universe. He had such a keen eye for composition and layout, which he paired so well with his industrial design aesthetic. I've posted before about the massive art book that was published a few years ago, which is a text book in itself on the process of creating artwork for motion pictures. Truly, a giant and pioneer in the field.


RIP Ralph:(

More Line It Is Drawn

From CBR's nonsensical online game show, The Line It Is Drawn -- last few weeks:)


Topic: The Hulk covering the classic Mystery In Space cover 82:

I wasn't really happy with this one, but I thought the Hulk looked kinda groovy on white. Props to John Buscema's version of the green goliath -- I looked closely at his for inspiration.

Topic: Two superheroes or villains that have never teamed up -- Wonder Woman and Hela.

Topic: The Goon starring in a period romance piece:

Topic: Watchmen (Tales of the Black Freighter) meets Aliens:

Topic: Hellboy covers Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast album:

Topic: 1970's Superboy wearing the Legion of Super-Heroes Saturn Girl's costume:

Hope you enjoyed!

Paradise is Lost

Just a quick note to say that I was informed by award-winning Production Designer Ow Patterson today that 'Paradise Lost' has been placed into indefinite turnaround. We were all hoping to resume production sometime this year, but alas...its not to be. I spent the last 12 months (give or take time off for trips and such) working on this film, so its pretty gutting to hear all that work is going to be crated off, and stored next to the un-produced Justice League picture and the Ark of the Covenant. Oh well, such is the film industry.

In good news I'm having a great time working as the VFX Art Director of Baz's 'The Great Gatsby' so its onwards and upwards!

More artwork to come...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all and thanks for following my blog during the last year!

This year I wanted my email card to be in the tradition of the classic Haddon Sundblom paintings that he did for the Coca-Cola company in the early 30s. He essentially created the plump, warm and friendly Santa that we all know and love!

The Line it is Drawn

Fun little comp over at comicbookresources -- people twitter in an idea, and then several artists draw it. I did a couple:

Draw the cast of Gilligan's Island as a super team:

Draw a Marvel teamup between Crystar and Rom: Spaceknight. This one's dedicated to all those who were kids in the 80's. Ah, those were the days:-)

And on a sad note, RIP Joe Simon, the co-creator of Captain America passed away today. He was 98:(

Few more portraits

Sky

Charli

Dean

Recent portraits

Few recent portraits for you...all worked up in digital and some finished in oils.

Covered: Blade Runner and Kirby's Darkseid

Couple of 'Afters' for you today -- my version (or should I say homage) to the amazing and talented Al Williamson and his BladeRunner comic adaption cover. Big fan of Al's -- picked up his Flash Gordon and sketchbooks at comic-con. He's da man!

Not a cover, but an (unused) Kirby drawing of Darkseid. I always wanted to see this one in colour, and went for a very small value range to give it alot of atmosphere. Lot's of fun digitally painting those infamous Kirby krackles. Hope you enjoy!

Fanny

Study of a fanny...from a Drawing Jam thread at the Drawing Board.

Comic-Con: Part Deux

A small followup to my Comic-Con experience --

The Postcards: I had a few thousand of these postcards printed by Diego and Sons Printing Inc., before I left Sydney. Diego and Sons are based in San Diego and they did a fantastic job. They were very professional and delivered the boxes to my hotel the day before I arrived, so they were ready to be handed out the first day of the con. They printed them on 8.5 x 5.5 on glossy 300gsm stock and looked great. If you have any printing needs and are in the San Diego area, I would recommend them highly!


Paige (Mandy) with the Red Giant cards...ready to go on her first day. She didn't stop smiling...a real professional! Red Giant is an online graphic novel that will be available for viewing here.




Paige again...with the C&T cards...ready to flog my crap to any unsuspecting passerby. Some exciting news is just around the corner about Cog & Turbine...but at the moment I can't reveal anything more other than its a 3d animated kids show for ages 4 -8.



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The Comic-Con 2011 International Souvenir Book: I had a piece of artwork printed in the comic-con souvenir book...and those keen-eyed Kirby fans might recognise the piece I painted over.

The souvenir cover


The published piece


Kirby's original pencils, which I got from Twomorrows Kirby Collector (forget which issue)


My final painting -- bit rushed, but it'll do


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My Loot: Part of the fun going to Comic-Con was meeting alot of other like minded artists, and I spent half of the first day talking with some of the artists at the small press tables. There was alot of great stuff and I tried to pick up as much as possible. I always try to support small press as much as possible because...hey, they're up against it. Here's a couple shots of some of my loot I came back with (and considering I had to lug it all the way back to Sydney I was only able to buy a small portion of what I would have liked to get).




Frank Robbin's Johnny Hazard: Scored an original piece of Frank Robbin's artwork at the con...really nice piece too!











Hope you dig!

d